May 4, 1832,] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



265 



First twelve days after Christmas by some— by others, first 

 twelve days of January in their weather, forecast the weather 

 tor the year. Opacity of the gOCU3-bor;3 as sure m index to 

 the winter as ground-hog day to tin: weather of ijie follow- 

 ing six weeks. However, (here's an annoying diversity of 

 hfthel as to ground-hog day proper, many contending for 

 1st, many for 2d, and others for 14th of February. 



Today I was favored with a solemn forecast of Ibis win- 

 ter, hypothecated on the condition of a beef's melt. An axe 

 or hoe carried through a room so surely brings some calamity 

 Unit the average matron sternly commands stranger, visitor, 

 or member of the family to retrace Ids steps quickly, as the 

 only way to avert a tragedy, A clash of hoes is a sure sign 

 that handlers will work together next year. A hen that 

 endeavors to set up as chanticleer is promptly beheaded the 

 moment that her ambition is betrayed, else 'disaster to the 

 family follows. A howling dog scents the old gent who 

 bestrides a pale horse. 



Breaking a mirror entails seven years troubles. Overturn- 

 ing a. chair guarantees celibacy the remainder of that year. 



Shirt of a drowned man thrown on water at the point 

 where lie sank, will unerringly float to and sink at the point 

 where the body lies. 



_ The foregoing are a few of the more prominent supersti- 

 tions fervently embraced and advocated by the majority. 

 With little effort I could collect clivers others, but enough 

 for the nonce. 



Dreams are almost universally prophetic, but of such 

 multifarious significance that reference is made to any 

 standard dream book. 



Now I wdll give you a couple of coincidences of which I 

 know One morning at breakfast-table a gentleman, de- 

 void ot superstition, stated that the night before he had 



dreamed of B aud added, that he expected to next hear 



ot his death. We had all heard that B — — \s dissipation was 

 rapidly hurrying him "across the river.'' That morning's 

 mail brought a business letter from an agent, who was a 

 mutual relative, which concluded with the expected news. 



As a black bass figures in the following, it is more apropos. 

 It is frequently quoted by devout church-members, of my 

 acquaintance, as an instance of direct answer to prayer An 

 exemplary old gentleman was being ferried across the 

 Cumberland River, in a canoe, when he exclaimed, "I do 

 wish I had a nice fish for my breakfast." Scarcely had he 

 completed utterance of the wish when a large black bass 

 flounced into the canoe, and was served at breakfast. 1 

 could never learn the condition of the water at that time for 

 had it been muddy, nothing less astonishing to a riverman 

 than that a paddle should have startled a bass, that in "tak- 

 ing a leap in the dark" was likely to land in the canoe as back 

 into the water— no paradoxical pun purposed— a gratifying 

 coincidence at any rate. Kentuckian 



THE GLORIOUS GROUSE. 



BY PAlllj PASTNOR. 



PRINCE, indeed, of gamebirds is the glorious grouse ! 

 Mark how he demeans himself in his native wilds- 

 regal in form and motion, proud in carriage, noble even in 

 flight— launching with defiant whirr ! from Ids covert every 

 feather bristling like a plume, his jaunty crest all ruffled with 

 indignation, and fairly a. gleam of scorn glancing askance 

 from his eye, as he dodges through the leaden hail and bids 

 our disappointed sportsman good-day ! Strong of wine 

 subtle, and quick of sense, clad in feathery proof, tenacious 

 of life, evasive even in death— is he not a splendid quarry 

 brother sportsman? 



Come with me, if you will, this bright October mornin"- 

 and we will jaunt into the territory of our woodland prince'; 

 we will follow him through all the windings of his leafy 

 fastness, till he, consent to do our pleasure, and travel home- 

 ward with us, dyeing our plebeian pockets with his most 

 princely hlood. Ah, we are off— and what a morning it is 

 my friends! It is a boon to be alive on a crisp autumn day 

 but it is mdeed a blessing without price to be afield, with 

 healthy vigor in one's veins, on such a day. There is just a 

 film of frost on the brown stubble, and just a tinge of winter 

 in the air, and just a suggestion of decay and death in the 

 landscape. But overhead how clear the sky is 1 how pellucid 

 the depths ot sunny air! Yonder mountains stand out like 

 cameo-work against the horizon, their higher summits em- 

 phasized by the most immaculate of inaccessible snows 

 Every feature of the landscape is brought out with crystal- 

 line boldness by the purity of the atmosphere. Our very 

 selves feel— if we may so express it— wxeMvatM, brought 

 out, vivified, intensified by this same frost-purged air This 

 is a morning (who can doubt it?) intended for the out-of-door 

 enjoyment of God's creatures. The sportsman especially 

 feels its spell. He has a call to be abroad to-day, aud he 

 cannot resist it. Hark! did you not hear a report from yon- 

 der wood ? 1 hough we are early on the march, there is some 

 devout votary of gun and dog ahead of us. We will five 

 him the slip, however, and punish him by commencing our 

 operations further along upon his beat. 



Here is a likely cover, though small Gentlemen, if your 

 trusty guns are charged as effectively as your spirits, we shall 

 nave sport within the minute. See you not how Bella quivers 

 and crouches along through the undergrowth, with nose and 

 stern upon a line? 'Tis a sure sign she has winded birds 

 And look at the puppy— is he not magnificent for a young- 

 ster! All that playful awkwardness which you were pleased 

 to make sport of a moment ago is gone, and lie stands like a 

 young prince surveying a kingdom. Ha! there he goes 

 Steady, Bob, steady! Beautifully done— he backs his mother 

 like the dutiful youngster and chip of the old block that he 

 is. Hie on, Bella!— charge, Rob! 



Which way did the old cock go? All right— let him rut- 

 he his crest and strut a few minutes on probation, while we 

 bag the. hens and reload. Steady, dogs! How they tremble 

 — they are all on lire with excitement. Now we are ready 

 Lp over the knoll and down into the gully on the other side 

 Ao one knows which way the old cock swerved, so we will 

 piyide forces, You, gentlemen, may take the puppy— he 

 will follow you; Bella will go with us. at all events" As 

 Boon us the bird is bagged both parties return to He pla 



Now, for a taste o! the true joy of the sportsman His 

 peryes are tingling with expectation; he has smelt powder- 

 and to i„, trigger-linger is glued a feather by a drop of blood' 

 f he hunger ot desire lias been maddened by the bait of par- 

 tial satisfaction, and it springs forward on, its quest like a 

 bound upon a damp, & eah scent. We know that that grand 

 e lying in ambush somewhere in the "gully' 

 ind if thaw be any virtue m «ett:rc noses and spcrtsm- n i 

 nerves, he will soon be so snugly ensconced in someone'9 

 : that he will never take wing again. Stealthily we 

 creep along, guns cocked and balanced in hand, senses "alert 

 Jor the first intimation of a flush, Bella quarters silently 



from bank to bank, absorbed and noiseless as a ghost. Save 

 a slight quivering of her stern, she betrays no excitement. 

 She is a steady old lady, and she knows that her reputation 

 is at stake. \v hat if she should maki a flush'? V du can see 

 that grim possibility expressed in her anxious eye and 

 wrinkled jowl, as she glides noiselessly across us. But hark! 

 someone has tired. Bella charges on the instant, looking up 

 at me with a glance which says as plainly as words could— 

 "Checkmated; master, but not beaten." No, indeed, my 

 faithful companion. You have done your duty nobly, and 

 it isn t your fault if Rob retrieves that bird. Aha! he never 

 will, though. There is a hurtling sound an long the branches 

 the lofty passage, as of a streak of gray light, a sudden meet- 

 ing of heel-plate and shoulder, stock and cheek, finger and 

 trigger, lead and feathers, grouse and ground, blood ami 

 brook! Hurrah! beat the sportsman's rmmlle, poor, struggling 

 victim. You are ours, by all the laws and rights of wood- 

 craft; brought down fairly in mid-career,' with all the 

 chances of the chase in your favor; still you arc ours ! Your 

 death is, like your life, vigorous and wild— a glorious struggle 

 even with the King of Terrors. But Bella knows the art "of 

 putting an end to your agony without the ruffling of a feather 

 How her eyes shine, as she brings iu the dangbSg bird 1 In 

 this mere act she realizes the end and aim of her whole beiu"" 

 Born with one insatiable longing, concentrated in one mar- 

 vellously developed Beuse, the course of her entire existence 

 has been to its gratification. Training, practice, pursuit arc 

 all pleasurable to her, only because they finally culminate in 

 capture. Capture is the crown and reward of all her effort 

 lo pass through the exquisite gradation from quest to cap- 

 ture, realizes her conception of the value of life. In her esti- 

 mation, the whole universe was made for the sake of afford- 

 ing her the ecstasy of retrieving a grouse ! And yet I would 

 not have thee, Bella, one whit broader in thy views of life. 

 There are cosmopolitan intellects enough in the world already; 

 it is refreshing to find one creature — if it be but a do*— 

 whose whole soul is given to "this one thing." Would that 

 we all were as devoted to our specialties as Bella is. 



But to return, both in narrative and person, to our brother 

 knights of the trigger: "What craven bungler missed thi; 

 bud? we, the triumphant party, ask, as we hold aloft oui 

 glorious trophy. Shame sits upon one countenance, and wt 

 forbear making further inquiries. 



And now away to the great level covert at the foot of the 

 mountain slope. The sun rides high, and pours down upoi 

 the fields with almost genial warmth. All nature rejoices in 

 the perfection of a perfect day. We stop to queiich om 

 thu-st at the little brook that skirts the forest. It is cold a^ 

 ice and pure as the virgin rock it springs from. Refreshed 

 we enter the woods. How still everything is! But for tin 

 rustling of our feet in the leaves, not a sound disturbs th; 

 pensive repose of nature. Sunbeams slants down through 

 the painted foliage of the taller beeches and maples am. 

 golden birches, aud light up the gamy evergreen thickets 

 as though anxious to reveal to us the secrets which they hold 

 On and on we wander, entranced with the beauty of the 

 scene, intoxicated with the graciousness of our sensations. 

 fn and out, where those winding vistas traverse the wood 

 land like fairy avenues, we wend in silence. The bnghi 

 colored leaves come floating down around us like a desultory 

 sun-shower, and now and then a nut or a twig patters on thi 

 rainbow carpet, and startles us as though we heard the foot 

 steps of an eh. The spirit of the sportsman melts into the 

 spirit of the man; and not one of us is prepared to answei 

 the throbbing challenge of the grouse, as he springs quick 

 and strong from before the dogs— his little gray gauntlet 

 floating down the sunshine— and pierces the opposite coven 

 with headlong speed. We glance across the dusty bay oi 

 air which his wings have set vibrating, and, just too late 

 every gun springs into line, and we stand there, a bronzed' 

 statuesque battery, waiting for the substance to follow thai 

 courier shadow that flashed just now athwart the leaves 

 But gradually we realize that It was no shadow, but Prince 

 Grouse in very person, and here he has left his gage of de- 

 fiance, daring us to follow him. We wake from our errant 

 trance and set out in hot pursuit. The dogs now seem to re- 

 alize that our wandering attention is fixed upon them and so 

 proceed with more intelligent caution than before. 



Suddenly Bob slacks speed, hesitates a moment, and then 

 freezes into an image of magnificent conviction. Again 

 Prince Grouse, launches in his pride and strength upon the 

 air. But this time we are ready, and bang! bang' ban"-' go 

 half a dozen trusty guns, all with deadly aim. The noble 

 bird, though he were as invulnerable as the fabled Achilles 

 must needs succumb to such a fusilade. And down he tum- 

 bles m mid-course, suddenly, as though struck by h^Mning 

 His lordly plumage is all beruffled, and his bright, brave eye' 

 curtained with the film of death. So strong, so free, so con- 

 fident a moment ago, and now he is brought so low ! It k 

 like the downfall of a proud and vigorous man— to-day ex- 

 ulting in the glory of strength, to-morrow prone with his 

 face in the dust. Ah, nature is so full of trenchant lessons 

 to those who have heart aud soul open to receive them'i 

 Even the flagging of a grouse may excite thoughts and emo- 

 tions whose issue lies in eternity, 



Mid-day comes, and by the crystal brook we cat our lunch 

 sauced with appetite and good spirits— not of the alcoholic- 

 vintage, however. Then up and away again, enjoying the 

 mellow ripeness of an October afternoon. Other gloriom 

 grouse take up their quarters in our game bags, exchanging 

 the. kingdoms of the wood and sky for a prison with bars of 

 netted- twine. We have separated now, and each man wan- 

 ders at his own sweet will, careful only to whistle now and 

 then, lest our beats should approach each other too closely 

 and a biped without feathers receive the leaden greeting in- 

 tended solely for his majesty, the glorious grouse; 



Evening approaches; the shadows grow denser and longer- 

 there is a chill wind sighing among the trees. Tired but 

 happy, we all meet on the eelge of tlie woodland, and display 

 our several trophies. No large bags have been made, but 

 they are all fair and honorable ones. Not a single grouse 

 has been shot "settlin"' or "treed." They are ah properly 

 accounted for— each having died as nobly as he lived Ami 

 somewhat of the peace of conscience attending a good deed 

 visits the blood-stained sportsman, as h.- wends, his way 

 homeward through the shadows, reflecting that, thom-h he 

 has committed wholesale regicide, it has UOt been in the 

 sneaking manner of the assassin, but openly, by the skill of 

 arms; aud he concocts a savory epitaph between stomach 

 and brain, somewhat in this wise : 

 Hio Jacet 

 THE OLORIOQS GROUSE. 

 Bom in the Woods, 



Ami 

 Broiled In the House. 

 May he sleep in rieaee, 

 And digost with ease, 



A FAREWELL TO FLORIDA. 



'iT AM sailing down the river"— not in "my little canoe," 

 J- however, but iu the staunch old tub "fiosa " which 

 as one of the I)c Bary line, plies between Sanford and Jack- 

 sonville. The last thing I did before shakiug the sand of 

 Sanford from my clothes, was to get my Forest akd 

 SmaEAM from the post office, and new. lying in my berth, 

 with the breeze blowing in at the open 'window. I take solid 

 comfort reading how "Nessmuk'-s" Nipper came out. and 

 viewing the ever changing panorama along the river as the 

 steamer swings around the bends of this erookedesfc of crooked 

 streams. I see many familiar spots where 1 have keenly en- 

 joyed myself w r ith gun and rod in company with friend's. 



Yonder is a stretch of prairie more than a mile wide and 

 long, level as a floor, the fiuest snipe ground imaginable; and 

 there in December and January, kicking up my own birds in 

 any desirable number, I have had such shooting as would 

 satisfy the most fastidious and eager sportsman . "There, too, 

 on that same prairie when the water was up. many a wood- 

 duck, teal, widgeon, and others have fallen to mv gun, and 

 such times as I have had retrieving some of them", would be 

 laughable it told. When the water was high enough to 

 cover the wTiole prairie, and even encroached a little on the 

 nammock which the live oaks with their crops of acorns 

 iringed, the wooelducks sought such spots and gorged them- 

 selves with fattening morsels, the while notifying the hunter 

 by much squealing and quarreling. 



In that hammock which rises like a solid wall of greeu 

 afar across the level reach, I have grassed the strutting gob- 

 bler as he paraded himself before his harem in the grass just 

 outside the forest, where grasshoppers did abound, adding 

 <o rapidly to the avoirdupois of turkeydom. I remember 

 one morning when, having camped in the hammock over 

 aight, I rose early and began my search for a drove that I 

 smew "used" in .that neighborhood. I had not gone a hun- 

 dred yards when such a down-pour of rain descended upon 

 ate as I believe I never experienced. I sought at once the 

 protection of the most umbrella-like young cabbage palm I 

 jould find, and- putting the lock of my gun under mv arm 

 junched myself as small as possible and took it. How it did 

 aim! A dense mist filled the woods. Streams ran from the 

 palm-fans, and compress myself as best I could, I got a good 

 waking. While I stood there hugging my gun, my eyes be- 

 came unconsciously fixed on an object some hundred and 

 atty yards distant, and in the only direction in which 1 could 

 nave seen so far. Through the mist the object looked like 

 something animate, and after waking up to the fact that pos- 

 iibly it might be game, I concluded it was more turkey- 

 shaped than anything else, and then I made out another 

 and soon after another, all motionless. 



How often, brother sportsman, have you seen game in 

 dense forest or brush, where alone it could possibly have been 

 seen— m every other direction your vision was shut out, and 

 yet through that little nook or between those two frees your 

 juick eye caught a motion which led to your game pocket 

 jeing heavier soon after, and you wondered how you hap- 

 pened to see the game. The whisk of the tip of a squirrels 

 sail or the movement of a turkey's head, or the motion of a 

 fuck seen through a space hardly large enough to see throu«h 

 it all, has led to your ducking, squirming and crawling until 

 die pressure of finger upon the trigger brought the finale. 

 01 course we go out with sharp eyes, but the fact of seeing 

 game sometimes under very adverse circumstances seems 

 .vonderful all the same. 



Whether the turkeys had seen me, or whether the rain 

 was too much for immediate locomotion, I know not but they 

 itood there until my patience almost oozed away When 

 chey moved I coimted seventeen, and hamediately/Wan the 

 uost scientific stalking I was capable of, but they reached 

 a, myrtle thicket bordering the prairie hefore I could, and 

 1 got but two, a half hour afterward, a hen and gobbler 

 which were feeding together. 



As we swing around this bend, I see where one day 

 with rod and phantom minnow I struck a school of bass- 

 and in less than half an hour, I think, I had twenty on shore' 

 which I was satisfied would have weighed over fifty pounds' 

 There, on that bluff lined with oaks, palms, and wild pe- 

 cans, a companion and I had camped, with a fly over us On 

 the adjacent prairie we shot ducks, snipe, and an occasional 

 vvhoopmg-crane or rail, or perhaps a water-turkey or hawk 

 as they sailed in circles, "just to keep our hand iu." Now 

 and then a "cotton-mouth" moccasin came to grief as we 

 waded among the grass tufts, while, great blue herons, white 

 cranes, and curlew were so numerous that no trigger was 

 pulled on them. What pleasure we took in stretehhV our- 

 selves on our blankets after an exhaustive tramp. The palm 

 leaves waved and murmured above us, the soft air cooled 

 and refreshed us; the river flowed smoothly and noiselessly 

 beside us, its dark surface broken only by the leap of the 

 mullet in midstream or the swish of the bass as he pursued 

 his prey close in shore. Once in a while a steamer to or 

 from Jacksonville passed, saluting us with a snort from her 

 whistle. And such meals as we enjoyed! 



Let me here tell any sportsman who shoots or fishes where 

 Spanish moss is to be found how to cook game or fish Dig 

 a suitable hole in the ground, build a fire therein and keen 

 it going until the hole is filled with coals- wrap your bird or 

 fish, unpicked and undrawn, thickly in moss' dampened; 

 take out half the coals, put in the meat, cover with coals 

 and straw, overall dirt enough to keep in the heat, and in 

 half or three-quarters of an hour you leave a dish the sweet- 

 ness ot which no other cookery approaches. An extra half- 

 hour s cooking is better than fifteen minutes short, as it can- 

 not be burned or dried. 



In yonder hammock, the palmetto glades beyond, and on 

 the pine hills further on I have, shot deer, both 'in still hunt- 

 ing and with my Ferguson lamp by night 



But it is all over. As the steamer sweeps around each 

 -iK ce-yivc bend of this very crooked river, I bid goodbye to 

 scenes oi great pleasure. After eight years' residence in this 

 much boomed and over-lauded State, I am leaving it. 



Goodbye orange groves, which fill the whole air with 

 almost overpowering sweetness, or bend under myriads of 

 gOlden globes. Goodbye scale insect, rust on fruit, dropping 

 and splitting thereof; potash and whale-oil, soap-mixtures 

 and poverty-stricken soil. Goodbye loveliest of lovely win- 

 ter weather and nine months of summer. Goodbye gnats 

 several kinds of exasperating horse flies and man 11 as ami 

 musical mosquitoes. Farewell tantalizing licks and „,,. 

 crcumveutable redbugs. Goodbye omnipresent/ and ini- 

 tiate real estate agents. Farewell cool nights, refcefiiiiftr 

 nuns in hot weather and drouths in spring, when V ou want 

 to make garden. Goodbye gales in spring and hurtling W- 

 ncans in autumn. Goodbye canned fruits, canned ve*e 

 tables, canned meats, and canned milk. Florida is nawel 

 ynth tin cans, Farewell fine fishing and hunting Goodbye, 



