July G, 1883.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



446 



"CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS." 



EC SEVKUAT, PAKTS— PAHT T. 



HPHE next morning wc talked it all over again while Frank 

 -L got breakfast ready. The fishing was good in the next 



three lakes above, but if we went up we wanted to go to the 

 head of Six Mile, where Frank said the fishing was the best, 

 but pulling up stream through the narrow, crooked rivers 

 With loaded boats was not a. job we hankered after. 



The fishing in the lake on which we were camped amounted 

 to about nothing. No doubt there are plenty of fish in 

 neighbor Sisaon'slake, hut while we slaved they were entirely 

 oil' their feed; theyhad become shy perhaps by the water 

 being fished and thrashed over for three weeks by a party who 

 bierc i" -i before us. 



Remembering the splendid Sport the Scribe, .Tim and the 

 writer had the 3 ear before at the foot of Central, and as we 

 would have the river currents in our favor, it. was agreed that 

 we go below and camp at the mouth of the, little stream 

 where nigh about a yeaVbefore I had eaten my solitary lunch 

 under a leaning tree on a Certain rainy Monday. 



Besides, it was rather remarkable thai among all the many 

 bass we had taken in these upper waters there was riot a 

 single small-mouthed bass to be credited to any of our reds, 

 and we wanted some small-mouths, as we had a fancy they 

 were gamer than thei : cousins of th larg -mouthed tribe. I 

 have no doubt but there are thousands©] Bmall mou hi i th 

 upper lakes, but we did not happen 10 take a s ilitary speci- 

 men. The large-mouths of these lakes are chock-fall of 

 fight, but I am certain (and 1 am sustained iii the opinion by 

 Old Knots, who is a careful observer), that they don't pi 

 the vigor and staying qualities of tie: others — the MicropttTM 

 -and they are certainly not so handsome a fish. 



And then, our mouths, both large and small, were watering 

 for a mess 0' trout, and Ceuar River (cold streaks chase each 

 other up and down Jim's back even now at the bare mention 

 of it) would be in easy reach of the lower camp. We got 

 ready to go below. Aleck came down to say good morning, 

 and 'after holding a brief conference with Prank and the 

 Scribe, at the end of the table, he and 1 took a boat and 

 cro ted the lake to get the frogs, settle up with n, igbbor 

 Sisson, and "borrow a big, broad-bottomed skiff in which to 

 move the paeTdng boxes — a nuisance, by the way, on account 

 of their size. 



Wo put the, frogs in a shoe-box, over which a piece of 

 mosquito bar had been previously tacked to prevent them 

 from jumping out, and by the time we had reerossed the 

 lake, the other boys had tents down and everything ready 

 to load. We hired Aleck to take a load in his boat, and 

 when all was read)', we pulled away from the pleasant camp 

 With genuine regrets, Frank in the "lead 111 one of the small 

 boats, Jim following in another, Aleck, with Brother R. 

 perched oh top of a trunk -in his boat a good third, while 

 the writer, in the big boat, and Dan and the Scribe in the 

 oilier small one brought up the tail end of the line. 



In moving below I was sorry to disappoint the "little 

 maid Of 8t, Clair's," for had we camped up there, as I had 



fomised her we w r ou)d, 1 have no doubt but she and old 

 ingfisber would have had many wise talks and famous 

 romps together. The disappointment, I am sure, was two- 

 sided. Half-way down the river, leading out; of Sisson's, 

 Aleck went back into l.he.brush a quarter of a mile and got 

 a neighbor— a Mr. Carey— to come and pull the big boat the 

 rest of tile way. as Jim and the Scribe had gauged themselves 

 to give, out at "Central Lake, which would leave Aleck, Frank 

 and the writer to take care of the five boats, Brother B. hav- 

 ing never learned the "knack of oarin'." 



Jim gave out promptly on time at Central, and would 

 have accomplished it sooner had there been anyone in 

 I lie boai with him. He got fast in the river once coming 

 down, the current getting i\m best of him and jamming his 

 boat crosswise of the 1 stream, the b,ow sticking fast on one 

 bank, and the stern on the other. 



He told us afterward that, having no o ic there to help him 

 get the boat off, he just sat still and "cussed" it off, after 

 which it, kepi the stream as any well-behaved boat should. 

 At. Central he was taken in tow — boat and all— by Galey 

 for an additional fee, and for the rest of the way down he 

 i mined .with nature and sucked comfort from his briar- 

 root. 



This was one of Jim's best "holts," and he did not lose his 

 grip on it until the boat grated on the sand at the, mouth of 

 the stream where we were lo make camp. 



I worked my passage down in Commodore Sloan's boat, 

 Knots and I. by "spelling'' each other occasionally, making 

 easy work of the live mites pull. 



A short distance below deep water point we came on 

 Frank at a "landing," holding converse wilh a, neatly attired 

 little, lady, who at sight, of us vanished in the woods, while 

 Frank pulled out lustily for the shining strip of sandy beach 

 a hundred rods or so' below at the mouth of the stream 

 where we were to make camp. 



A day or two after, she, wilh a companion, paid us a 

 visit at 'camp, and wc soon after learned, through some 

 i v neighbors, that she' was a young school ma'am teach- 

 ing half a-scoreof fledgling Michl ganders of the neighbor- 

 hood, and that, she boarded at the farm house back from the 

 landing where wc had first seen her, and that Frank had 

 quite" a hankerin' after her, and that he had the bulge on ail 

 the. other beaux of the settlement, and they wouldn't wonder 

 if they made a match of it, and so on, ele. 



From all this, the reason seemed plain to us why the 

 young seam p had been so extremely willing to move camp 

 clown the lakes instead of up, and his frequent abseno t'tf tn 

 camp after supper was the more readily accounted for. He 

 usually took the milk bucket with him — for a blind — and 

 somehow the cows got into the habit of coming up so late 

 thai he rarely got back before ten or eleven o'clock at night. 

 Cows will do. this sometimes just to accommodate young 

 people wdio have a hankerin' after each other. But Frank 

 is a splendid roungfellow and bears an excellent reputation 

 among his neighbors, and the bright-eyed little school teacher 

 may be assured of the good wishes of "the Kingfishers," 

 if on our return next year we find Frank lias persuaded her 

 to teach him to work in double harness. 



A. little after one o'olock in the afternoon we had every- 

 thing ashore, ami by five the tents were pitched, table 

 stove up, fly stretched and the camp in working order. This 

 was the best and handiest camp we had found, and I don't 

 think there is a better one on the lakes. Following the 

 sweep of tie- sh.ee around the little bay for a matter of a 

 hundred and ia a strip of clean sand beach, ten 



lo fifteen yards wide, fringed in front with a forest of 

 nodding bulrushes thai grow ou take a hundred 



feet or more. At the. mouth of the stream is a good landing 

 lor the boats, and a I, vel spol right in the edge of the woods, 

 carpeted with a sparse growth of grass, afforded just room for 



our three tents, and it appeared was shaped up for our 

 especial comfort, 



Staading under one corner of the kitchen fly w^e could 

 reach down and rill a dipper wdth the purest and coldest 

 water from the whimpering lit Ho stream, that sang for us a rip- 

 pling melody the live-long day and lulled us to sleep with 

 soothing murmurs at night, In this, nature's refrigerator, we 

 kept our mill; bucket and butter crock— the milk sweet and 

 the butter so hard that "smearing" it was out of 

 the question. 



Among the submerged roots of a cedar a few yards 

 above, the Scribe found a cooling refuge for a half dozen 

 vials of medicine labeled, "Dry Mum," or "Roarin' Modoc," 

 or it may have beet: opodeldoc— I don't happen to call it to 

 mind just now, but if "Roarin' Modoc" produces hilarity 

 and "feller feel in," with a soporific tendency, then it must 

 have been Roarin' Modoc. Anyhow, the Scribe kept mum as 

 to the whereabouts of his medicine chest. 



With plenty of shade and dry cedar enough within twenty 

 yards of the tents to keep us in firewood for a year and good 

 neighbors in half a mile, it was a camp, as Dan said, "Just 

 to our pleasement," and -we took comfort to ourselves that 

 we had cast our lines in such pleasant places. 



A couple of our neighbors who had dropped around to see 

 the new campers were engaged by Frank to bring some hay 

 or straw for the beds ami milk 'for supper and breakfast, 

 and while the others added a few 1 ouches to the camp and 

 put tilings to rights for the night, I shoved a boat just out- 

 side the rushes in front of the "tents to try for a bass or two 

 lor the evening and morning meal. 



Just here, and a few rods further up the bay, I had taken 

 my best bass the previous year and I was eager to And out, if 

 some of the same kind yet lingered in their old haunts. 



At the very first east, when the frog was barely a foot 

 under water, 'the line was jerked through the guides at a rate 

 that made the reel handle whistle, and in a minute 1 was in 

 as beautiful a fight with as game a bass as ever broke water 

 and made an angler's heart stand sf.il'. 



"Look at Hickory!— lie's got 'ten— fish for supper— stay 

 with him. old mackerel— bet you lose him— nothin' but a 

 pickerel," and other encouraging remarks came from the 

 shore, but they fell oil heedless eats, as I was profoundly 

 busy with a wary and powerful fish, full of tricks and shift's 

 lo circumvent his enemy and escape from the fix he found 

 himself in by his over fondness for speckled frog. At the 

 end of perhaps ten minutes 1 lifted from the water by his 

 lower jja.W and held up to the view of the boys on shore, a 

 small-mouthed black bass that weighed. When 1 went ashore, 

 just five pounds and twelve ounces, and I hen a shout went 

 up from that camp that w r ould have lifted the roof, had 

 there been one over their heads. 



A little further along the rushes 1 took another of four 

 pounds eight ounces, and another that weighed a trifle over 

 five pounds, three glorious bass and all small-mouths. 



Fishing a couple of hundred yards around the bay and 

 back without another strike, and having enough for present 

 needs, I went ashore and not long after we were sorting the 

 bones from as delicious a mess o' bass as ever came browned 

 from frying pan. 



Tied: night the swish of a gentle surf on the beach, the 

 sighing of the wind through the cedars and the tinkle of the 

 little stream back of the camp, brought us sweet and restful 

 sleep, and our beds were, as soft down from the breast of 

 mother earth, We were up early next, morning, and while 

 Frank got breakfast, tackle was looked over, frogs sorted and 

 everything made ready for our first foray from "lower 

 e amp." ' Kingfisher . 



[to be continued.] 



Inhtintl Mffionh 



BYRNE'S SEARCH FOR THE HOOP 

 SNAKE. 



BYRNE has been for many years in search of the "hoop 

 snake," so well known to many of our early Western 

 settlers. He has interviewed a very great number of these 

 old settlers, who have often seen and destroyed this fearful 

 reptile, but could never quite get around in time to see the 

 dreadful thing itself. He recollects walking three or four 

 miles and back, one very hot morning in Iowa, twenty-five 

 years or more ago, to view the remains of a very large one 

 "that a voting man declared he had killed the evening before. 

 That young man said: 



"I was awalkin' forisky like 'long a narrer path in the 

 woods, with a good chunk of a hickory cane in my hand 

 (I allers Dairies a good club when in the woods in summer 

 time for fear of tin critters), when I luked ahead, and thai- 

 stretched out on er old log was the biggest hoop snake I even- 

 saw in my life. He war all kivered with bright red, silver, 

 . all 1 and black spots in kind of diamonds like, He war 

 long and very slender — 1 shud think twelve to fourteen feet 

 long. The hoop snake saw me about, the same time T did 

 liim. threw up his head and fail backwards loike, catched 

 his tail in his mouf, ail' come rolling rite toward me so fast 

 that he fairly sissed through the air. I seed it war no use. to 

 rim, so stud reddy for him, and when he cum in reach, I 

 struck at him with my club with all my might, then whurled 

 and run. I run quite a piece and then turned around reddy 

 fur another bout. But 1 seed the hoop. snake right where 1 

 hail struck at him, whirlin' an' twistin' about, making the 

 fares!) and leaves fly in a fearful way. As he growed more 

 quieter 1 wenl up cluster ami found that he were about dead. 

 When he quit squirmiu' and tarin' about, I weut rite up to 

 him and found dial I had struck him in the small of the 

 neck ju-i below the head, and knocked his head clean off. 

 When his head Hew off, the spike in the cm I of 1 

 tail struck inter the hard path so deep as to hold him fast, 

 and I couldn't pull it out to save my life." 



Byrne was younger then than now, and a little more iin- 

 Dcbad heard his father of ten ridicule and call 

 simpletons the believers in hoop snakes, lie had great faith 

 in tiie good sound sense of his only father, but this young 

 man was so ingenious and looked so innocent, told 

 straight circumstantial story, that he thought the "old man" 

 was mistaken, and liable lo "pass over the range" with a 

 false impression in his mind about one of {he wonders of 

 thi< earth. So he determined to possess, if possible, the 

 mortal remains of "that ar hoop snake," and carry them 

 hack to Illinois, and show the old gentleman he had beep 

 mistaken. 



611 left the hoop snake there with bis tail driven into 

 th p An, did you.'" said 1 



1 couldn't pull it out." 



'Y r ou could find the place where you killed it, in the morn- 

 ing, can you not':" 



"Oh, yaas, no trouble 'bout that," 



"Did you find the snake's head?" said I. 



"Oh, yaas, I found hit about fifty yards away." 



"What did you do with it?" 



"Why, I left it there with the rest of him." 



"Will you go out with me in the morning and show me 

 where that dead hoop snake is?" 



"I dasseut leve me work. Dad wouldn't stand it." 



"I will pay your father for your day's work, and give you 

 a dollar also' if you will go out with me and get it, " 



Now, if I had been as well experienced in Lazy, lying 

 youn* men's ways, then as now, I would have noticed the 

 bright cunning twinkle in thai, young hoosier's eye, or if I 

 had livetl or traveled in Ar-kan-s'aw, where long-range lying 

 is generally practised as a fine art pastime, T would not have 

 been taken in so easily. My "cub" answered: "Wal, I 

 guess I'll go, if yer kin fix it with dad." 1 fixed things all 

 right with "dad," and we started out to bring in the remains 

 destined to give Science a shocking sensation." On our way 

 out I asked the young man if the remains b|ed profusely in 

 its dying struggles. "Oh, yes," said he, "hit bled all over 

 the leaves and bresh, thick." And many more questions, 

 the answers to all convincing me the more firmly that he 

 was exactly truthful. 



"Aiethey plenty in this timber?" said I. 



"Is what plenty? Hoop siiak-s. Wal, yes, powerful 

 plenty, but nOtsich big una as the one I killed last nighti 

 but, small uns and purty big tins are very plenty." 



"Are the smaller ones dangerous?" sa'id I. 



"Wal, yaas, I should say they war; one six foot long will 

 drive his spike, cleer thru a man,, an' kill him as quick as if 

 struck by lib uin.' " 



I confess I was a little shaky on this inarch through tho 

 woods. 1 bail cut, ma a good* hickory staff when starting, 

 and was careful to keep the corpus of my guide in front of 

 me. ami my eye keenly in search of any bright, flashing 

 hoop that might start swiftly toward us" The. unconcern 

 and bravery of my guide astonished me, but then, I thought, 

 he is used to it. When w r e had traveled about a couple of 

 miles, my truthful young friend W'ouid stop every little bit, 

 as if to take his bearings, then go on again. At last he stopped, 

 and pointing to a large log beside the path, about" fifty 

 yards away, exclaimed, "There's where he laid, on that log, 

 and there, near that sapling (about half-way), is where I 

 killed him." We advanced carefully to the stqning, but 

 found no remains; no dead hoop snake, no "bresh" beaten 

 down and torn up, no blood "all over the leaves and-'bresh.' " 

 Everything was in its natural order and condition; no sign 

 of any struggle whatever. "This is the place, is it?" said I. 



"Yaas, sartin." 



"Well, where is the hoop snake?" said I. 



"That's what's botherin' me," said my young friend. 



"You said it drove its tail into the ground "so hard that 

 you could not pull it out. Where's the hole?" said I. 



He dropped on his knees in tho middle of the path, and 

 seemed to look carefully for the hole, but without success. 

 "Waal this beats all nater," said he. "I knows I killed tho , 

 biggest hoop snaik I ever saw, right heah, but what's become 

 of it beats me." He seemed to stop and study a moment, 

 then jumped up, exclaiming: "Let's go a fishing. "What a 

 blamed fool I have bin. I might have have knowed the 

 dead snaik would not have been here." 



"Why?" said I. 



"Why; if yer kill one of these yer hoop snaiks its mate 

 allers comes and gits its boddy and kerries it off ter ther hole, 

 and tries to heal its wemnds and bring hit back to life." 



"But the blood," said I, ' 'the blood that you said flew all 

 over the brush, what, lias become of that?" 



"Oh, she licked that all up clean." 



"But the hole in the path where the snake drove its tail in, 

 where's that?" said I. 



"Why. I suppose she pulled that away with the snaik." 



"But," said 1, "you said that its tail was driven into the 

 hard ground so far that you could not; pull it out; how do you 

 suppose its mate pulled it out?" 



"How the d — 1 do you suppose I know;" you don't sup- 

 pose a feller's hound to know everything, do you? Come let's 

 go fishing; I knows the quickerestplace to ketch bullheads in 

 the world." 



And poor Byrne ha.s been studying and wondering, until 

 his head has grown gray, how that hoop snake pulled its 

 mate's tail out of that bard path. 



And then again, in the spring of '57, Byrne was in Nebraska. 

 In the limestone bluffs along the Big Muddy, just below tho 

 mouth of the Platte, the crevices in the rocks' were a great 

 winter resort for hibernating animals of all kinds, especially 

 snakes. Of these the great yellow or mountain rattle snake. 

 (Crotahis confluent us) was very numerous, Byrne's young 

 mind at once become intensely interested in the fascinating 

 science of herpetology. He was seized with a desire to 

 gather in a few pairs of the largest of these rattlers for seed, 

 lo sow in the rich and beautiful land of the lllini, his home, 

 where the sweet creatures were already growing quite scarce. 



He succeeded admirably, and day by day his snake men- 

 agerie, in a glass-fronted' box, on a flat rock jutting out of 

 the bluff near the steamer lauding, grew more attractive in 

 quantity and quality. There he exhibited to the gaping 

 crowds three brace of rattlers, culled from hundreds, yea, 

 thousands, for their great size and beauty. While snake 

 hunting, he discovered a very curious fact, namely, that 

 there was another snake there of exactly the shape, size, 

 color and motions of the yellow rattlesnake, and occupying 

 the same territory and places, that one could not tell from 

 the rattler withou'l seeing the tip of its tail, and then only by 

 the absence of the rattles. This snake quivered its tail ver- 

 tically or upj and down, and when on dry leaves or gra.ss 

 made" a noise or rattle fully as loud as and indistinguishable 

 from I fiat of the rattle snake. This snake had no fangs, 

 and therefore was not venomous. Another instance, I his, of 

 mockery or mimicry of a deadly thing being the protection 

 of aninnocent, defenseless thing. Butto my story: 



I boarded with old Uncle Abe, with a lot of bucks, mostly 

 quiet ' telligcnt, laboring meiL My "foolin"' around among 

 the snakes was the cause of a great many lies, great and 

 small, being swapped in the way of snake stories. I was a 

 seeker after facts, even at that curly period of my life, and 

 therefore did not, relish the lies. At last, one evening it be- 

 came the turn of a thoughtful, honest-looking old "bull- 

 whackei" called "Hank," who was "breaking prairie." I was 

 anxious lo hear fiom Hank. I knew that I would gi 

 good, solid facts in. herpetology if we I aim wound 



.,, snake business 1 uohed on 



lightly a few times, but 1 had no! given the I 



:iakes incidentally came up 

 again, and I bowled them over rather roughly. Old Hank 



