THE 



AMERICAN 



SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



Term.., W , i- O .liars a V* 

 T <ii Cb it* n Ho >y. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1877. 



Volume 9.— No. 3. 

 o. Ill Ful.on St., N. T. 



THE WOODLAND. 



-\Ton woodland, like the human mind, 

 1 Hath many a phase of dark and light ; 

 fluff aim with shadows wandering blind, 



Now radiant with fair shapes of light ; 

 They softly dome, they softly go, 



Capricious a^ the vagrant wind,— 



B thoughts in gloom or glow, 



That leave no airiest trace behind. 

 No trace, no trace ; yet wherefore thus 



Do shade and beam our spirits stir ? 

 \h ! Nature may be cold to us, 



But we are strangely moved by her ! 

 The wild bird's strain, the breezy spray, 



Baoh hour with sure earth-changes rife, 

 Hint more than all the sages say, 



Or poets sing, of death, and life ! 

 For. truths half drawn from Nature's breast, 



Through subtlest types of form and tone, 

 Ojtweigh what man at most hath guessed. 



While heeding his own heart alone. 

 And midwav betwixt keavenand us 



Stands Nature, in her fadeless grace, 

 Still pointing to our Father's house, 



His glory on her mystic face 



loose 



Plot H. HaTNE. 



tmiaxh. 



/"vVERTAKEN by tae snowstorm, Nimrod and I were 

 O tramping our "weary way homeward. We had spent 

 five whole of the day wandering over the hills in search 

 r sign, but had not struck the trail of any animal 

 ton a fox, and at last had given up hunting, the very 

 oat-taking of oar disgust, and keeping so unpleasantly 

 i o heel as to tread upon our snowshoes and add to our 

 flise >,nfort by giving us an occasion d header in a snow-drift. 

 Gladly we welcomed the shelter of Niinrod's house, and re- 

 tired to his " den," where, under a cloud of smoke of our own 



•isinE w6 sat before a roaring fire lamenting our ill success. 



In its way, Niinrod's den was well worthy the attention of 

 an antiquary. Almost every quarter of the globe had con- 

 tributed to its adornment. Heads and antlers of the hart- 

 .eest wild beast, springbok, blesbok, et id gams omne, as- 

 sagais shields, boomerangs, etc., presented by a sporting 

 i in South Africa, formed one of the principal attractions. 

 These were ably supported by antlers of the moose, caribou 

 and deer, the product of his own prowess. Conspicuously 

 over the ' fire-place a huge moose with antediluvian horns, 

 bushed his head through the wall and surveyed the inmates of 

 the room with sinister eye, so perfectly had the taxidermist 

 performed his work. But the gem of the room was undoubt- 

 edly a pair of caribou antlers, placed immediately over the 

 door, perfect in form and measuring nearly, if not quite, six 

 feet from tip to tip. 



Festooned upon the walls, and variously distributed about 

 the room were fowling-pieces, rifles, pistols, swords and 

 weapons of the chase innumerable. Of pistols alone there 

 we're eleven different kinds, ranging from the old blunderbuss 

 and saw-handle down to the modern seven-shooter To com- 

 plete the picture, and make one feel perfectly at ease, there 

 stood in one corner of the room a keg of 0. & P., partly used 

 and entirely unprotected from a spark from pipes or fire! 

 Under the effects of the soothing pipe and a moderate qumu 

 turn of the genial mountain dew, we were gradually thawing 

 out and getting over our disappointment, when>e saw the 

 tall form of our Indian friend Sebatis stalking across the floor. 

 "' Tor an instant he surveyed us and our surroundings with a 

 comprehensive glance that seemed to comprehend the situa- 

 tion then appropriating a comfortable seat at the' fireside, 

 *oolly pulled out his tobacco pouch, and began to fill his pipe, 

 and then to light it and smoke in the most provoking manner, 

 as if he had been spending a social evening with us, and every 

 topic of conversation had been exhausted. As the readers of 

 Fobest and Stream have already made the acquaintance of 

 gebatis (Vol. 7, p. 34) no further introduction 'i necessary, 

 but while he is enjoying his pipe I shall avail myself of the 

 -opportunity to relate one or two anecdotes concerning him, 

 which even he, with all his Indian stoicism, would Jenjoy as 

 well as any one. Like all of his tribe he has a way of putting 

 the cart before the horse, which renders some of his sayings 



irresistibly comical. For instance: once when he and his 

 father were out late one fall, trapping sable mink, shooting 

 musquash (muskrats), etc., he happened upon a river driver's 

 camp, where after he was made welcome one of the party 

 sail 



" Well, Sebatis my boy, what's the news? " 



"Twenty-four musquash kill'm my father last night," re- 

 plied the imperturbable Sebatis. 



During my long acquaintance with him I can on'y recall 

 one occasion upon which he at once and completely lost his 

 stoical self-possession ; but I must add that he would have 

 been more than mortal had he retained it under the tryiug 

 circumstances in which If was placed. It happened thus -. 

 E— , an English friend of mine, took a great fancy to Sebatis 

 and wished to give him some token thereof at parting. 

 Of the manifold possessions of E— , two articles were 

 especially coveted by Sebatis. One was a common red clay 

 Virginia pipe with a reed stem, worth altogether about ten 

 cents; the other, an Eiglish-made pea-jacket of very stout 

 serviceable cloth, very little the worse for wear, and worth 

 some twenty dollars. Although I have said that each of these 

 articles was coveted by Sebatis, it must be understood at the 

 same time, that had he been called upon to make a choice, he 

 would have selected the pea-jacket without a moment's hesi- 

 tation, and it was the bare possibility of being presented with 

 the pipe instead of the co.it, which caused him in the most 

 shameful manner to lose his habitual presence of mind. 

 E— being about to return to England, Sebatis called one 

 day to say good-bye to him. As we entered the room where 

 Sebati? sat waiting for us, E— said : 



"Oh, about giving Sebatis something, which do you think 

 I had better give him, that pipe or the pea-jacket, you know 

 he admired both of them immensely?" 



"Perhaps it would be as well to leave the choice to him," I 

 answered. 



"How excessively stupid of me, of course it would. I say, 

 Sebatis," he exclaimed, " which would you rather have as a 

 present, that pipe or the p»a- jacket ? You know you thought 

 both of themawful jolly." 



The expression which passed over Sebatis' face was ludi- 

 crous beyond description ; the idea that any one in their senses 

 could for a moment hesitate as to which he would rather have, 

 the coat or the pipe, was utterly incomprehensible to him, 

 and in Ms struggle to gain 1 utterance-he incoherently muttered 

 in reply. 



"Pipe, coat, pipe!" 



" Oh, so you would rather have the pipe would you ?" said 

 E— . " Well, it's a very jolly pipe, Sebatis ; I'll go and get it 

 for you." 



For a moment poor Sebatis seemed paralyzed with horror 

 and disappointment. Then with a powerful effort, mastering 

 his emotion sufficiently to regain the power of speech, he 

 frantically gesticulated toward the doorway through which 

 E— had just made his exit, and cried to me in the most be- 

 seeching manner : 



"Tell'im coat, tell'im coat, quick !" 



I " told him coat," much to the amusement of E— , and 

 Sebatis departed the happy possessor of both pipe and coat. 



To resume : Fortunately for our patience, even the taci- 

 turnity of an Indian has its limits, and just as we were on the 

 borders of despair, the oracle spoke. 



" I come all way Big Lake to-day myself, everywhere find- 

 'em plenty sign moose ; one yard, three moose; then little ways 

 iind'em sign old bull moose. S'pose we go hunt'em to-mor- 

 row, I come daylight." 



At the conclusion of the sentence he took his departure 

 without more ado. Evidently he did not seem to have any 

 doubts about our eagerness for the fray, as he did not wait 

 for any reply, and a sly twinkle in his eye as he departed con- 

 vinced us that he was not unacquainted with our bad luck in 

 deer hunting. 



An Indian's power of gaining information without asking 

 questions is truly marvelous. A couple of rifles standing in 

 a corner of the room, and our snow-shoes bearing the traces of 

 recent use, furnished evidence of our having been out; and the 

 snow-white coats of the hounds without any blood stains would 

 indicate that we had not been successful. In a few moments 

 we were completely roused from our lethargy, cleaning 

 rifles, drying moccasins and attending to various matters im- 

 portant for the comfort of a well appointed hunt. Eleven 



o' .'lock found everything packed and strapped in readiness for 

 an early start, Nimrod was esrly astir, and roused me at day- 

 light. 



At breakfast we were honored with the company of Sebatis, 

 who made his appearance accoutred for the hunt. He was 

 accompanied by his brother Swarsia and his nephew little 

 Joe, a noble looking Indian of gigantic stature. Breakfast 

 over, we found the pony at the door, stowed with our packs 

 and commissariat, and surrounded by the usual crowd of 

 admirers. 



The hounds, our old friends "Mitchiess," "Matagins," 

 "Meyahlip" and " Obleekmo," with the addition of "Vic," 

 a recent purchase of Nimrod's, were in high spirits. They 

 had kept up an incessant baying since daylight, and instinct- 

 ively seemed to " scent the battle from afar." 



At Murdoch s camp, near McDoagal Lake, we were delayed 

 for several hours by the temporary loss of two hounds, they 

 having strayed off into the woods. Little Joe set off in pur- 

 suit, but did not succeed in recovering the truants until mid- 

 day; when, all being in order again, we strapped on our snow- 

 shoes, and after a five-mile tramp reached our hunting-grounds. 

 As the day was on the wane, Sebatis advised the postpone- 

 ment of any search for the moose until the next morning. His 

 opinion being law in cases of this kind, we devoted the after- 

 noon to building a camp and cutting firewood. Among 

 our provisions was a quantity of sausages, and upon their 

 being produced in order to have some cooked for din- 

 ner they were the source of much amusement. The In- 

 dians had never seen anything of the kind, and surveyed them 

 with curious glances, then surrounded the pile and began quite 

 an animated discussion as to what they were, fish, flesh or 

 fowl. 



"What you call'em?" said Sebatis, taking hold of some 

 links, and gradually raising them from the pile until he had a 

 string a couple of feet long pendant from his hand ; "little Joe 



he say g s, Injuns he don't eat'em." 



It required some address to disabuse little Joe of his idea. 

 We desired Sebatis to cook some of them, and as the savory odor 

 saluted their olfactories they began to change their opinion, 

 and, after tasting them, were enthusiastic in their praise, and 

 ever after as long as a sausage remained in the locker, Sebatis, 

 acting as cook, inquired: 



"Well, what cook now, s'pose sausages?" 

 At day break we were off in gay spirits to beat up the quar 

 ters of the moose. 



The snow-shoeing was as bad as , t- c °uld be— a light fall of 

 snow on a very slippery crust, in most places strong enough 

 to bear one's weight. It would not have been easy to decide 

 which was the most difficult, going up hill or com'.ng down; 

 but the latter, I think, was entitled to the palm. 



We were standing upon the crest of a high hill, and it was 

 necessary that we should descend to the valley with little 

 noise, or without any if possible, as we^feared to alarm the 

 moose before we were ready for them. The approved 

 plan for going down hill upon an icy crust is to squat 

 down upou one's snow-shoes, place the rifle (butt end 

 foremost) under the left arm, leaving, the right free to fend off — 

 and away you go. If there were no"obstaclt, the way, it 

 would be comparatively easy ; but to steer, past tree trunks 

 and other minor objects at the rate of ten miles an hour, 

 without knocking one's brains out, is a feat, ( 'equiring much 

 skill. 



Nimrod led the way gallantly. followed, and by some 

 means passed him. All went merrily until half way down, I 

 collided with a tree and fell over backward. Nimrod ran 

 into me, pitched over on his face, and rose^'with the blood 

 streaming from his nose. A noise like distant thunder an- 

 nounced the approach of little Joe. In vain we shook our 

 fists. at him — to stop was impossible; so wa, made frantic ef- 

 forts and scrambled out of his way, and he passed like an ava- 

 lanche. Nimrod and I tried it again, and arrived at the foot 

 of the hill without any further mishap. ^.Sebatis had got down 

 quietly, and was justly indignant at our want of skill. 



' ' You mak'em too much noise I " he saidtee vercly. ' 'Scar'em 

 moose ; no use try hunt'em now." 



We managed to pacify him, promised better fashions and 

 resumed our march. 



Just as we were beginning the ascent of another hill, we 

 struck the well defined trail of some large animal. 



"Moose he mak'em," whispered Sebatis; "by'em-by we 

 find'em yard." 



