6 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 2, 1882, 



man. "and as for the practice, Wisconsin. Minnesota aDd 

 other States will, under proper game laws, afford an endless 

 quantity for many years to come. 



I have wandered somewhat from the history of our wet 

 Wisconsin, mv mend Corvalli having in a measure 

 taken the wind out of 'my sails. Our bag was a fair one (con- 

 lie weather and other difficulties already described 

 . "1 something over three 

 hundred birds, of which two-thirds were ducks, the balance 

 nipe. with an occasional quail and prair hi k a. 

 On the whole, I think Minnesota about as good 

 the sportsman can visit, and I shall never regret my sojourn 

 in Marquette County, winch must always lie one of the 

 pleasantcst tuemoriesof my life. ElDEATJ. ■ 



Ottawa, Canada. 



INGLE-SIDE STORIES. 



IN your issue of the 22d of December last, you did me the 

 favor to publish "A Tale of Lake Waccamaw," which was 

 not a figment of the brain, but as near an actual occurrence 

 as I could possibly describe it from the relation of one of the 

 parties. The signature which I used, on reflection I have 

 concluded to change, and shall therefore adopt another, 

 which, if not more appropriate, is at least more agreeable to 

 mv fancy. Myre ! i t bear with me for the seeming 



variableness of disposition. Having published the article to 

 which I refer. I trust I shall not seriously offend 

 nature if I occasionally write to you cither a serious or 

 humorous communication upon such subject as may sug- 

 gest itself to my mind. With perfect confidence that you 

 will be charitable in your judgment, 1 now send you a story 

 which I may have told you when I met you when in the 

 city of New York. 1 do not vouch for its "truth— but "tell 

 the- tale as it was told to me." 



In the pleasant month of October, 1877, a party of ns, all 

 fond of rural sports, and especially of •■listening to the cry 

 that thickened as the chase drew" nigh," in the ardent hope 

 that some ' ' autlered monarch of the waste " would pass our 

 " stand " within easy range of our guns, met by agreement 

 at the " Mineral Spring," twelve miles distant from rny home, 

 fully prepared with guns, dogs, and three days' rations, for a 

 hunt after deer in the pine lands of that section of country. 

 Instead of a tent, we occupied a summer house, which was 

 supplied with bedding and all needful furniture. We sat in 

 chairs, around the "ingle, blinkin' bonnily," and perfected our 

 arrangements for the morrow's sport. Each had spun a yarn 

 of successful hunting— sometimes greatly colored, as is not 

 unusual with sportsmen! Each had told his tale of bringing 

 down a buck at marvellously long range, describing With 

 great minuteness the superb hunting and tracking of old 

 Beave, and Spot, and Trim, and Loud, their " deep-mouthed 

 bay sounding up the rocky way," From their own exploits 

 the company turned into' the narrative of incidents which 

 befel others "in " the long ago;" and thus passed the hours un- 

 til your correspondent gave sundry yawns indicative of a 

 disposition to try "tired nature's sweet restorer," and sug- 

 gestive that to him, at least, the pleasures of the couch were 

 far more attractive than the conversation. 



Just about this time one of the party treated his audience to 

 a story of how " Old Cap. Joe," who once lived in the ad- 

 joining county of Anson, had invited his neighbor and friend, 

 the grandfather of the writer, to join him In a " fire-hunt " 

 in bis fields on the banks of the Pee Dee. These fields were 

 infested with deer, which were eating his peas and other- 

 wise damaging "his grass and herbage." The story-teller 

 related how the old musket was loaded with a heavy charge, 

 the flint duly picked, the frying pan filled with pieces of "fat 

 lightwood,"'the fields cautiously entered, and the huntsmen 

 " glowering round with prudent cares," to see if the burning 

 brands would discern the glitterring eyes of a browsing buck. 

 After moving about with great caution. "Cap. Joe," who 

 held the pan" and gun, whispered to Ms friend that the glo- 

 rious sparkle was seen. Noiselessly lie approached the glow- 

 ing eyeballs, and when the proper" distance was reached, old 

 Befeey sent forth her lightning and thunder, the distant hills 

 across the river took up the sound, 



" And echo sprang up from her home in the rock, 

 And seizing the perishing strain. 

 Sent the gay challenge with shadowy mock 

 From mountain to mountain again. " 



A heavy leap in the darkness, a stumble, a struggle, and 

 Stillness showed that the aim was exact and the weapon had 

 done her work. In great joy, the successf i d sportsman went to 

 the spot where he expected to be greeted with a sight most 

 dear to hunters. 



" But mortal pleasure, what art thou in truth ? 

 Tin. torrent's smoothness, ere it dash below." 



Instead of the prostrate form of a deer, he beheld in mortal 

 agony a youmr colt, whose eyes had deceived him into a fatal 

 mistake, and made him the unwilling destroyer of what 

 miaht have become the "gallant grey" of some James Fitz 

 James of the river country. " To lade his shame from mor- 

 tal eye," the unfortunate night-hunter suggested !o his com- 

 panion that the colt be dragged to the river and thrown info 

 ling waters. So the old gun was laid down, the light 

 was extinguished, and the two entered upon the laborious 

 close of a 'too successful adventure. Just as they had reached 

 the bank of the river, bathed in sweat from the unusual ex- 

 ercise, and had rested a few minutes, preparatory to the 



discovered that the victim was his own property. 



At this point in the narrative, another and deeper yawn 

 from your correspondent was answered by one of his com- 

 panions, who said that the story reminded him of another 

 case of mistaken identity, which occurred during the preced- 



uot fifty miles from where lie was then si' 

 the animal was very unlike a deer, but much like an animal 

 which serve? a valuable purpose in agriculture, though his 

 name is suggestive of a great lack of wisdom. E 

 that he might b<- allowed to narrate it. Your corn 

 upon the promise being given that this should be the last 

 for the night, gave his reluctant consent, and George R. pro- 

 ceeded with great humor to tell the following, which he 

 averred to be a fact— " he'd he blamed if h 



During the year 1S76, there lived in the adjoining county 

 a young fellow named Caml,y and pub- 



lished one of tie «• weakly) luminaries -w 



resplendent all over the land, called the Swim 

 On a certain dav he .started out on a collecting tour, in the 

 town where he "resided, endeavoring to procure ■•■ few more 

 subscribers to bis ' ' valuable paper" and BC-me advertisements, 

 with the profit Sllhis depleted treasury, 



Bvdint of great perseverance he succeeded " beyond his 



most sanguine expectations," and having an unusual supply 

 of money very philosophically concluded that such good for- 

 tune entitled him to all the joys of a liberal treat of repeated 

 nipperkins of whisky and water, for which he had an un- 

 fortunate and somewhat ungovernable appetite. Whenever 

 he had the wherewithal, or some friend remembered him 

 when he was about to " quench his raging thirst," Camby- 

 scs rarely failed to dizzy his brain and unsteady his steps. 

 He now not only treated himself once, but so often that 

 his bodv became" too heavy a load for his legs to carry, and 

 they refused to perform that intended duty. He dropped 

 down in an alley and lay unconscious of the affairs of states 

 and nations for hours, until the stupor had sufficiently worn 

 off to enable him to resume a somewhat tottering loco- 

 motion. 



The sun had nearly robed himself ready for.the rosy couch 

 of the earth, when Cambyses rose and started off staggering, 

 to get his last drink for the day. Confused ideas of newspa- 

 pers, and subscribers, and advertisements " roamed through 

 his noddle," and as he was passing the northeastern corner of 

 the temple of Justice, commonly called the Court House, he 

 espied in the gloaming what he took to be a man, and forth- 

 with directed his energies towards the accomplishment of his 

 darling but confused ideas of extending his business. Ap- 

 proaching within a few feet of his fellow being, with a hic- 

 cup which plainly indicated Ms intellectual and physical con- 

 dition, the knight of the quill thus proceeded to work: 

 " Devenin', sir! Wan' do dake bes' baber ever bublished? 

 Full of inf ' mation an' 'telligence. Won't y'u 'scribe? Dollar 

 a year. Ladest news from all barts of wort'. Wat's j'our 

 business? Adv'tise an you'll git rich. Lawyer? Ady'tisein 

 Bag-us and you'll git cases. Doctor? Adv'tise and heeple 

 wiil send for "you Shoemaker ? Adv'tise and you'll git work. 

 You don't say nothing. That's the way with you blamed fools — 

 you don't know nothing— don't read papers. You ain't heerd 



of the scandal, and the Fort Still business, and you don't 



know this is Stennial year, and they've got a big show at 

 Philadelphy. Well, if * you won't '"scribe, I'll give you a 

 paper, you blamed fool." So, pulling a copy of the last edi- 

 tion from his capacious pocket, he formally presented it with 

 a vigorous gesture to his illiterate friend, remarking: "Take 

 it, read it, and you'll know everything." Cambyses had 

 staggered into undue proximity "to his friend, who had 

 retreated as far as the talker would allow, and being unable 

 to get further, answered the friendly offer by a loud but de- 

 spairing Yaw-hoo-yaw-hoo-yaw-hoo. "The appreciative listener 

 was nothing but a little mule, which a darkey had ridden to 

 the town in the morning and hitched by a rope to a small 

 ailanthus bush, which grew from the corner of the Court 

 House. The answer brought for the first time to the befud- 

 dled mind of Cambyses that his auditor, though exactly fit- 

 ted to be his companion at that time, was not exactly ready 

 either to " 'scribe" or "adv'tise" his business in the Gag-m. 

 Whereupon he turned on his heel as well as he could and 

 ended the colloquy (?) by saying, " I thought you were a 

 blamed long-eared fool." 



And then, teller and listener all hastily disrobed, lay 

 quietly down upon couches which were luxurious, and before 

 raany"minutes had elapsed, your correspondent was serenad- 

 ing his companions with snorous music, which "made 

 night hideous," and which they were uncharitable enough 

 to'say were not quite equal to the harmonious notes of the 

 Chinese gong when it announces that dmner is ready for a 

 hungry guest. Wells. 



Pke Woods, N. C, January, 1882. 



RANDOM SHOTS FROM MEXICO. 



o 4 Q PEAKING of cannon, " as the man said who stamped his 



lO foot on the floor at a public dinner, with the remark that 

 a uoise like that suggested a story about guns, reminds me of a 

 little shooting experience I might have had in Mexico. The 

 first room I had in the City of Mexico was on top of a roof, 

 and was loopholed like a fortress. To my great joy, I found 

 if was considered the unsafest position in the city, and that 

 it -was a week to be remembered when that room hadn't been 

 robbed. It was a source of satisfaction to me that I was in 

 a measure prepared for robbers. Before going to Mexico I 

 had perfected myself to that degree in pistol-shooting that 

 when I pulled the trigger I generally hit something. Acting 

 upon the advice of a friend, I went out into the country, and 

 sticking a card— one of the circular variety— up against a 

 snow-bank, commenced to perforate it full of holes. Some- 

 how, it didn't perforate, worth a cent, though I finally suc- 

 ceeded in making several holes in the snow-bank. By draw- 

 ing lines about the card, and gradually restricting their diam- 

 eter, I hoped eventually to get down to the center and knock 

 the spots out of that card every time. But after going into 

 the country many times and spending much money for car 

 tickets and cartridges, I had only succeeded in getting within 

 ten feet of the card. 



There must be something wrong with the revolver, and I 

 took ii to a friend, a noted pistol-shot, for him to examine. 

 He took me down to his private shooting gallery, requested 

 his secretary to hold up his segar between his fingers, and at 

 ten puces shot the ashes from that segar, which the secretary 

 coolly placed in his mouth and went on smoking. Then he 

 stuck a "nickel" in the cork of a demijohn and knocked it 

 off time after time. Handing the revolver to me, he re- 

 i oarkei I : " This is as good a pistol as any I have in my col- 

 lection ; now you try it." I wanted his secretary to hold up 

 the segar and let me shoot off the ashes, but he said he ' ' wasn't 

 holding up segars any more that morning," and so 1 con- 

 tented myself with the nickel and demijohn. And here oc- 

 curred one of the most inexplicable things within the range 

 of natural philosophy ; I made a discovery in gravitation 

 second only to that "of Newton.' I fired at the nickel and 

 , . ■■ ; , a liijohn! 



The value of the discovery lies in this: That the force of 

 gravity had exerted a downward attraction so great a-: to di- 

 vert a pistol ball one foot from its course in traversing 30 feet 

 of space. It was very gratifying, not only to have made 

 such a discovery, but to be able to hit something ! 



Again, if i could, by firing at a nickel on the cork of a 

 demijohn, hit the latter, the converse must also be true, and, 

 by filing at a demijohn on a nickel, I should hit the coin. 

 Allowing, then, the 'nickel to represent the head of a man, 

 ■ ernijohu his body, by firiug at the former I should 

 be sure to plug him somewhere iu a vital part; and (to be on 

 the safe side of the above-expounded law of gravity), if I 

 wished to shoot a man in the brain, I would only have to 

 stand him on his head and tire at his lungs. 



This was the state of things when I learned of the danger- 

 ous reputation of my abode ; serenely confident in my skill as 

 a marksman, I surrouneled myself with my weapons, and re- 

 posed unmolested. 



They said I couldn't reach the summit of Popocatapetl, 



but I did. Men high in authority here warned me 

 not to attempt the ascent alone, and assured me that 

 only my skill as a pistol shot wotdd save me from 

 extermination. Very fortunately I was not called upon 

 for an exhibition of that skill, and have not added, nor have 

 I been the means of adding, another of those black crosses to 

 the large number that line the waysides all over the 

 country. 



There is abundant cause for alarm, or there has been, as 

 the crosses above mentioned testify, but the danger to travel 

 here is grossly exaggerated. In my trip to the volcano I did 

 not see the slightest indication of danger, though I went un- 

 attended by any English-speaking companion, was gone three 

 days and two nights, and travelled through the pine belt be- 

 low the snow-line after nightfall. 



I am free to confess, however, that I then thought a revol- 

 ver on the hip better than two at home. 



At first glance there may not appear to be any connection 

 between a volcano 18,000 feet high and a reception iu honor 

 of Gen. Grant, but I established such a connection after 

 leaving the crater of Popocatapetl. Reaching Mexico at 7 in 

 the evening, at 10 I found myself surrounded by others of 

 my species in white kids and '"swallow-tails," while others 

 of the same species, but of different sex, floated before my 

 astonished eyes in fluffy clouds of lace and muslin, and in 

 silken robes, that made up by the length of one end for what 

 they had lost at the other. In the language of the reporter of 

 the evening: "The company was one of the most dis- 

 tinguished and elegant." Gen. Grant, as the guest of the 

 evening, had a place assigned him, with his wife and niece 

 on either side of him, but he soon got restless, and moved 

 about chatting with the .guests. What particularly delighted 

 me was to find that he had been up Popocatapetl ; here, at 

 least, we met on common ground. "It was," said he, 

 " nearly 34 years ago, in 1847, that a party of us rode up the 

 mountain to the snow line, and. after passing a miserable 

 night in a roofless shed, climbed up the cone." That was at 

 a period before your correspondent had begun to think of 

 climbing mountains, but we compared notes, and found that 

 the old "hill that smokes "had not changed much in the 

 generation of time that had intervened between our respective 

 trips. 



Perhaps it is not every man who can bring within the com- 

 pass of a single week the ascent of a volcano, a ministerial 

 reception, a bull fight and a banquet. Yet that is what I 

 have done, and still survive- Perhaps, again, if I had re- 

 versed the order of this arrangement, commenced with the 

 banquet and bull fight, and ended with the volcano, I should 

 not have escaped the crater, and should not have been spared 

 to sit, as I was, quietly in rny own room on the housetop and 

 chronicle these facts. The climb into space may have 

 sharpened my appetite, and the rarefied air may have created 

 a vacuum, by internal pressure outward, but, whatever the 

 cause, I enjoyed everything but the bull-fight. The banquet, 

 especiclly, was a thing to be remembered, and the dainty 

 gilt-bordered -menu (which I enclose), a thing to be worn over 

 one's heart or stomach — as the choicest kind of a liver 

 pad — as a cure for all digestive troubles, as a model of 

 menus. 



We sat down to the fight at one o'clock, and for four 

 hours the battle waxed and waned; one by one the outworks 

 of the enemy were carried, one by one they fell before a " 

 til we had waded right through "that luscious bill of fare. 

 Nor lack was there of speech to edify, and music to eucour- 

 age us. One by one the musicians straggled in — the horn, 

 the harp and the big bull fiddle— until the air above was re- 

 sonant with harmony that drowned the gnashing of teeth 

 below. The band was in the gallery. 



The "Tivoli San Cosme" is one'of the loveliest of these 

 gardens for feasting and pleasure that adorn the suburbs of 

 Mexico; great eucalyptus and other trees rise above gardens 

 of flowers, little kiosks and rustic retreats. The air was 

 fragrant with the odor of flowers and alive with the music of 

 birds; the clay was one of the perfect ones that Mexico gives 

 so often, in requital for her many other defects, and the 

 bright sun and cool breeze acted conjointly in producing an 

 atmosphere electric and bracing. In the great hall, hung 

 with garlands and displaying that profusion of flowers for 

 whieliMexico is famous, the tables were spread. 



Ranged down the tables, right and left, were the ninety 

 carce a man among them without a title. There 

 were ministers, congressmen, counts, generals and colonels, 

 but there was nobody of less degree than a captain. Titles 

 were the order of the day, and, -when some one, easting 

 about for a handle to my name, called me professor, I did 

 not resent it as I ought. 



All this is now but a reminiscence; but the memory of 

 that banquet still remains, to cheer me when the larder is 

 low and the wolf howling around the door. Ober. 



SOUTHWESTERN TEXAS. 



THE International Railroad of Texas, by way of Austin 

 and San Antonio, has recently been completed lo La- 

 redo, on the Rio Grande, and is now being built onward to 

 the city of Mexico, this road and the Texas and Mexican 

 Railway from Corpus Christi to Laredo also being extended 

 to various points in Mexico; also the Sunset road from San 

 Antonio northwestward to El Paso, with a branch to Eagle 

 Pass on the Rio Grande. This last road, i! is said, will be 

 finished to Eagle Pass the present winter. These railroads, 

 mostlv built iu 1881, have rendered easy of access a fine re- 

 gion of prairie and woodland, river and stream in South- 

 western Texas. Here deer and wild turkeys abound, also 

 three or four species of quail or partridges ; also, in the win- 

 ter, wild geese and ducks. I know this, leaving spent a large 

 portion of tin; summer' and fall in Southwestern Texas, bota- 

 nizing and also in getting wood specimens of the trees pecu- 

 liar to that region For the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory in Central Park, New York, and also for the Depart- 

 ment of Forestry of the United States Census Bureau. I 

 will tell more about the trees in a future article, for many of 

 them are little known even to botanists. 



Southwestern Texas is a much more fertile and attractive 

 region than is generally Supposed its dry climate and prai- 

 ries covered With nutritious native grasses have made stock 

 raising the principal business of the inhabitants, who have 

 flocks of sheep, herein of cattle and horses numbered by the 

 thousand, and lands fenced of many thousand acres. Tins 

 business has been and is very profitable-, large fortunes have 

 been made and arc being made by it. 



The country is level "or gently undulating, with hill and 

 valley, all gradually rising from the Gulf of Mexb-o north- 

 ward, San Antonio and Austin being about S00 feet above the 

 sea, and the hills of the cretaceous rocks in the vicinity and 

 north of these places are 1,000 or more feet higher. Austin 

 westward, via San Antonio and Fort Clark to Eagle Pass, 



