i 31, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



seeins; the noble craft sink down again to repeat the same 

 process. The simplest way off of a sand bar was to find 

 the nearest point to a deep channel and swing the raft end 

 for end np stream, even against, the most rapid current, 

 until the channel was reached, or in the most aggravated 

 cases the load would have to be taken off and placed on 

 shore, and when the "boat" was free she was "snubbed" 

 into the first favorable place on the bank with respect to 

 loading. 



Looking back, it seems almost miraculous that a raft could 

 make a voyage of over 1,300 miles along a river, starting at 

 the very head, where it was really narrow enough to stop 

 the raft if it should swing out of a straight course end on 

 (us it did in the Payer Rapids), and covering nearly two 

 months of daily sticking on bars and shooting through rapids, 

 and yet get through almost unscathed. When I started I 

 had anticipated building two or three of those primitive craft 

 before I could exchange to good and sufficient native or civ- 

 ilized transportation. Mud bars were not near so bad, unless 

 the material was of a clayey consistency, when there would 

 be added a little bit of adhesiveness* to the other impedi- 

 ments. In general, it was possible to pry right through them 

 with muscle and patience; The best of all were the gravel 

 bars, and the larger and coarser the gravel the better, and 

 when they were cemented into a firm bed by a binding of 

 clay almost as solid as rock, and as little yielding tendency, 

 we" could ask for nothing better, and always went to work 

 with, cheerful prospects of a speedy release. The prominent 

 benefit from a gravel bar in assisting one over is not wholly 

 due to the material, but in the tact of the swift curreut, 

 which is a great assistance. By simply lifting the raft this 

 great power throws it forward, and by turning it broadside 

 to the current and "biting" alternately at each end of the 

 long "boat," we passed over gravel bars on which I do not 

 think the water was over eleven or twelve inches deep, 

 although the raft drew nearly double that. 

 [to be continued.] 



LIFE AMONG THE BLACKFEET. 



BY J. WILLABD SCHIXTZ. 



Tenth Paper— Folk-Lore. 



TITE OLD MAN AND THE ROOK. 



Once the Old Man was crossing a large prairie, and becom- 

 ing tired, he sat down on a rock to rest. After a time he 

 arose to resume his journey, but before going he threw his 

 robe over the rock saying, "Here, I give you my robe because 

 you have let me rest on you. Always keep it." And he 

 went away. 



Now he' had not traveled on very far when it began to rain, 

 and meeting a coyote, he said to it: "Little brother, little 

 brother, run back to that rock and get my robe, and we will 

 get under it and keep dry." So the coyote ran to the rock, 

 but returned without the robe. "Where is it?" the Old Man 

 asked. "Si-yali!" replied the coyote, "the rock said you 

 gave him the robe and that he was going to keep it." 



Then the Old Man was very angry, and he went back and 

 jerked the robe off the rock saying, "I only wanted to bor- 

 row the robe until this storm is over, but now that you have 

 acted so mean about it I will keep it, you don't need a robe 

 anyhow, you have been out in the rain and snow all j^our 

 life, and it will not hurt you to always live so." Saying 

 which he and coyote went up in a coulee and got under the 

 robe. 



Ere long they heard a noise, and the Old Man said: 

 "Little brother, run up on the hill and see what is making 

 that noise." Soon the coyote came running back aud said: 

 "Run! run! the big rock is coming," and they both ran 

 away as fast as they could. The rock gained on them and 

 the coyote, running into a badger hole, was run over and 

 killed. The Old Man was very scared, and as he ran he 

 threw off all his clothes, but. the rock kept gaining on him 

 all the time. Not far off he saw a band of buffalo bulls, 

 and he cried out to them, saying: "Oh, my brothers, help 

 me, help me; stop that rock." And the bulls all ran at it 

 and tried to stop it, but it crushed in all their heads. Deer 

 aud antelope also tried to stop the rock, but they shared the, 

 same fate as the buffalo, and a number of "rattlesnakes 

 formed themselves into a lariat and tried to noose the rock, 

 but those that formed the noose were ground to pieces. The 

 rock was now very close to the Old Man, so close that now 

 and then it would strike his heels, As he was about to give 

 tip he saw a flock of bull-bats circling over his head, an« he 

 said to them: "Oh! my little brothers, help me; I am 

 almost gone." Then the bull-bats flew down against the 

 rock and made their peculiar cry, and every time they struck 

 it they chipped a piece off, and at last the chief bull-bat 

 broke the rock in two. Then the Old Man, to pay them for 

 saving his life, made very wide mouths on them and named 

 them ' 'Pls-to'-iks"— fighters. 



Moral : When you make a present never take it back. 



THE OLD MAN AND THE ELK. 



Oae evening the Old Man was walking along a ridge and 

 he was very hungry. Not far off he saw a large band of elk, 

 and he said to himself, ' T will kill every one of those elk, 

 and then I won't be hungry." So he went up to the elk and 

 said, "Oh, ray brothers! I am lonesome because I have no 

 one to follow me." The elk said, "Go on, Old Man. We will 

 follow you." 



Then the Old Man led them close to a high cut bank, and 

 he ran up a little and got down and came under the bank 



the Old Man built a fire, but still the elk were afraid to jump. 

 "Don't be afraid," the Old Man said, "jump right down; it's 

 nice; you will laugh." 



Then the elk jumped and were killed, all except one doe 

 elk, which stood on the bank yet. "I don't hear any one 

 laugh," she said, and she was frightened and ran away. 



Then the Old Man skinned all the elk and cut the meat up 

 to dry and hung the tongues up on a pole. When it was 

 daylight he went off, aud at night came back very hungry. 

 All the meat was gone; the wolves had eaten it all up. "lie 

 took down the tongues one by one, but they were all hollow-, 

 the mice had eaten all the meat out of them. So th» Old 

 Man had nothing to eat that night. 



Moral: Never kill more meat then you need. 



THE OLD MAN MAKES SOME BAD WEAPONS. 



Once the Old Man was fording a river when the current 

 carried him down stream aud lie lost his weapons. He was 

 very hungry, so he took the first wood he could find and 

 made some arrows, a bow, knife and spear. When he 

 had finished them, he started up a mountain. Pretty soon 

 lie saw a bear digging roots, and he thought he would have 

 some fun, so he hid behind a log and called out "No-tail ani- 



mal, what are you doing?" The bear looked up, but seeing 

 no one kept on digging. 



Then the Old "Man called out .again, "Short-tail ground- 

 eater, what are you doing?" Then the bear rose up on his 

 hind feet, and seeing the Old Man ran after him. The Old 

 Man commenced shooting arrows at him, but the points only 

 stuck in a little way, for the shafts were rotten and the bear 

 pulled the points out as fast as they struck him. When the 

 arrows were all gone he threw his spear, but that too, was 

 rotten, and broke off. Then the Old Man grasped the bear 

 by the hair and tried to stab him, but the knife handle also 

 broke, for it was rotten. All his weapons were broken, so 

 the Old Man turned and ran, and the bear pursued him. As 

 he ran, the Old Man looked about for some weapon, but he 

 could find none. Neither could he see any animal to help 

 him. At last he saw a buffalo bull's horn lying in the path. 

 Picking it up, he placed it on his head and turning round, 

 shook his head at the bear, and bellowed so loudly "that the 

 bear was scared and ran away. 



Moral: Always make your weapons of good wood. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



THE COURT OF ARCTOMYS MONAX. 



A LEGEND OP THE HOCKHOCK1NO. 



IN my boyhood days I listened to labored and exhaustive 

 exhortations upon the ground hog and how he influenced 

 the weather for six weeks following the 2.1 day of Febru- 

 ary; but it was not for many seasons afterward that the 

 sage and learned theories came back, like a flock of summer 

 birds, bearing with them memory of the warmth still existing 

 beyond the long, long portage of thirty years. 



Last winter I read your request for some one to write of 

 the ground hog. I felt impelled to write you then, but re- 

 alizing the responsibility resting upon the historian, and 

 knowing how necessary it is that he should be unbiassed 

 when called upon to decide which version of many and con- 

 futing stories touching past events shall be handed down to 

 doming generations and preserved through time, my fears 

 and diffidence overcame me and 1 refrained. 



it is true that in what 1 send you now I may digress occa- 

 sionally from the language of the narrator, but if 1 do it 

 will be like a bright feather stuck in the ebon plumage of 

 the crow, distinctly a child of adoption that does not affect 

 the identity of the parent. 



The ground hog is known to science as Arctomys mouax, 

 and passing the generic, possesses the following specific 

 character: "Length to base of tail 14. 50 inches, varying from 

 13.00 inches to 15.50 inches; of tail vertebra; about 4.50 

 inches ; of tail to end of hairs about 6. 75 inches. Color above, 

 generally mixed fulvous, brownish-black and gray: below! 

 yellowish-rufous, varying to brownish-rufous. Top of head, 

 upper surface of all the feet aud the tail, usually black 

 or brownish- black, varied slightly with pure gray or rusty 

 gray, and even to nearly uniform intense black. The ears 

 are large, rounded, thinly-haired, generally gray. Tail full, 

 rounded and bushy." 



The ground hog is strictly a herbivorous animal. It is 

 especially fond of peas, clover, grain, leaves and buds. It 

 burrows principally in banks and bluffs, along some stream, 

 though often found in the open fields. It usually produces 

 from four to six young in the early part of the summer. It 

 is not gregarious and hibernates through the winter, with 

 an occasional exception, that I may hereafter mention. 



The habitat of A. monax extends from the Carolinas north- 

 ward to Hudson's Bay and from the Atlantic to Iowa and 

 Minnesota, and is generally known as the woodchuck. 



Almanacs in general have neglected to give due praise to 

 the sage, but what they lack is more than made up in the 

 loyalty of the oldest inhabitant. 



The ground hog, as known to the "Moss-backs" of the 

 Hockhocking, agrees in the main with the description of tb» 

 naturalist, and while some may feel sore at ?ny making 

 public one of the oldest traditions of the valley, I here assert 

 that I am not actuated by any motive of ill will in present- 

 ing to the world these facts, for I am a descendant of the 

 oldest settler, and do not feel that it is my mission to bring 

 discredit upon the sayings of a hundred years ago. Nor do 

 I wish for any one to seek for personalities in the notes 

 presented, for the garden has been weeded, and nothing will 

 be entertained but the question touching their authenticitv 

 Once, possibly before the cliffs along the river had quit 

 growing, a young man came into the valley, and by his 

 decorous and gentlemanly bearing soon won the confidence 

 of the people, and was quickly assigned a place in society. 

 His accomplishments were many and varied. His expe- 

 rience, as given before the deacons and elders, was lucid, and 

 clearly defined the influence of a great moral director in the 

 formation of his character. He was a power among the 

 young people. He acknowledged one day that he was a 

 true sportsman. When afterward chided for shooting quail 

 on the ground, deer out of season, and catching fingerlings 

 for eount, he defended his position by explaining that such 

 divergences were allowable among sportsmen, "when they 

 were desirous of realising just how many pangs and stings 

 were apportioned the "pot-hunter." Such a show of phil- 

 osophy, it is needless to say, silenced idle tongues, though 

 it is thought to this day that the humanity of the most ex- 

 pert and discreet hands lends to them a weakness that drops 

 into the experience of all sportsmen a something they would 

 like to blot out. 



Among the less orthodox portion of the community this 

 young man was a wonder. He loved a good stoiy, and had 

 a penchant for "moonshine whisky" that inspired them 

 with confidence and left his character unblemished. He 

 was a "jam up fiddler," and through this accomplishment 

 was able to win and marry Cindy Stone, the best looking 

 girl in the valley. Smith— that was his name— lived to raise 

 fourteen children and then expired. Peace to his ashes. 



One time, at a barbecue on the 2d of February, Smith 

 remarked that they would have six weeks more of rough 

 stormy weather. "Ground hog seed his shadder?" asked 

 the boy from whom I have descended rather indirectly. 



"No, responded Smith, "Arctomys moruixhas decreed it in 

 open court. The king's will is law." 



After the tempest of question had subsided, he explained 

 that A. monax was the ground hog's other name, and that 

 his palace was accessible to men once in a hundred years, 

 and that the next receptiou would be the following season! 

 This news of course set things on end, and as many as 

 four hundred meetings were held before it was decided who 

 should go as an ambassador from the tribe of "Moss-backs." 

 The choice fell on my father's father's father, he being a boy 

 ten years old, and the son of the "boss chief." It was 

 thought that his position in society better qualified him for 

 the honor, such staudmg in society then, as now, rather giv- 

 ing a man the best show, though I have since been humiliated 



and mortified by learning that my ancestor did not even make 

 a good cobbler, when in after years he renounced barbarism 

 and became civilized. However, I am glad to be numbered 

 among the children of that barbaric sire, who has handed 

 down to his progeny honors that inspired with pride even 

 the fourth generation. 



Smith coached the young ambassador, and each day saw 

 him better fitted to meet his "highness," A. monax. The 

 tribal knowledge of royalty in those days was limited, but 

 allowing this weakness, it was not an unplatouic gang, and 

 the lad was armed with an address that was expected to take 

 the cake, being couched in words of elegant diction and re- 

 plete with beautiful conception. He was also instructed to 

 bear clover and red and black haws as offerings. Every- 

 thing being in readiness, the ambassador went into his 

 father's teut for his blessing, and then started due east, ex- 

 pecting to "pull up" somewhere about what is now known 

 as New York State. His instructions were not clear on that 

 point; the ways of transmitting news in those days were de- 

 tective, and doubtless degenerated into what is now known 

 as the "Associated Press." 



Many mishaps befell the boy during his travels, but he 

 never faltered once, which fact has been accounted for in 

 the family circle by the parting injunction of his father i 

 "Get there, Eli!" 



It matters not what destiny ruled him, for we know that 

 on the 1st of February the footsore pilgrim knocked at the 

 door of a .humble cot 'among the mountains and struck the 

 old hermit for a bed. After doing the weather and kindred 

 subjects, the old lad drew a jug from some hidden recess 

 aud pronounced it crab-apple cider. Ti is was tine on the 

 old man's part, for the revenue officers were as strict then 

 as they are now, and the production of tine old liquor in 

 such an out of the way place might at tome time have been 

 the signal for a gentleman to rise to a point of order. The 

 old 'man napped off for a moment, and fiunlly came up 

 standing: "Pleasure is transitory when you do not include 

 mankind. Don't lie, even in telling a fish story. Don't steal 

 even a watermelon. Meet all men as gentlemen and treat 

 them as they deserve, even if you make a mistake. A kind 

 word costs less than a bitter one; the first will warm, 

 the latter chill a sorrow-laden heart. Don't preach charity, 

 but practice it. At daybreak arise anti travel to the east. 

 Do not be surprised at what you may see, but learn all you 

 can. Your coming will awake a king and his subjects from 

 their winter sleep." 



The next morning the pilgrim took up his grip-sack and 

 tramped. He passed up a dark hollow and was soon lost 

 among the shadows. It was a ghostly place to explore. 

 His footsteps woke up old hoary-headed echoes that had 

 slumbered tor a huudred years. It sounded as though an 

 army was marching up the defile. Fortunately, the diplo- 

 matic corps was "sandy," and marched on like a little man. 

 By and by he came to a place where the rocks rose in a 

 sheer precipice hundreds of feet high. For the first time 

 he weakened, but soon rallied, when he noticed an (scutch- 

 eon carved in the cliff and below it a huge knocker, which 

 he at once sounded. The effect was magical. The time 

 ball went flown at six, the signal station displayed a storm 

 flag, and down deep in the bowels of the earth he heard the 

 hoarse baying of the dogs of war. Then, for the first time, 

 he loosened his hunting knife and unslung his tomahawk, 

 resolving to die as it best becomes the brave. 



Just then two vast doors swung open, and sweeping up 

 from measureless caverns, came soft winds laden with the 

 perfumes of a summer clime. A few minutes later a daz- 

 zling light illumed a transparency and he saw this legend 

 in characters of fire: 



WELCOME, MOSS-BACK ' 



Proceeding cautiously, he soon found himself in a large 

 and spacious room, we'll filled with the satellites of Winter 

 and Spring. The stern old King in armor of white and with 

 a mace of ice, glowered on him as he passed, while the gra- 

 cious Queeu and her train made him their captive and 

 bound him with garlands of flowers. While contemplating 

 the wonders around him, an unseen hand drew back the 

 great curtain of mist that hung like a bank of snow to the 

 north, and he marched with his fair captors into a grand 

 audience hall, possibly a third larger than trie Coliseum at 

 Rome. To the right, to the left, and in fact, all around him, 

 was a vast multitude of ground hogs. It was as if there had 

 been a great storm, where it rained nothing but ground 

 hogs. High up among the shadows of the vaulted loof, he 

 heard the birds of passage singing snatches of songs. The 

 brooks were freed from their chains of ice and the music of 

 their babblement welled up out of the distance. 



On a throne of gold, patterned after a bunch of clover 

 leaves, slumbered the King. Back of him, on canvas, was a 

 trout stream wandering through a clover field. The stream 

 was full of speckled beauties*' and bees foraged along the 

 blossoming banks. It was a work of art, by an old master. 

 The silver-haired King of Storms was called to the chair, but 

 his wand failed to awaken the congregation, so Spring 

 touched the sleepers and the great walk trembled at the 

 tumultuous yawn. 



Music, soft and sweet, floated down from hidden galleries. 

 Deeper and stronger grew the measures, and when the fluted 

 columns lent their thunders to the mighty symphony the 

 ambassador beheld a kingdom*of ground hogs tripping the 

 light fantastic toe. 



When his Excellency had finished a very difficult Irish 

 jig, it was then that the offerings of the "Moss back" were 

 presented. Tears welled up into the eyes of the King as he 

 looked upon the divine fruit. He called the young man to 

 a seat on the throne, aud after accepting his credentials as 

 an ambassador, explained to him that the ceremonies yet to 

 follow originated when Time was a yearling. 



All sounds of the festivities had died away. On the right 

 was the Queen and on the left the King. On the throue the 

 "moss-back" and his Majesty. At a signal, a giant carried 

 in a sun dial, about as large as the turntables now used 

 about railroad shops. This he placed in the center of the 

 hall and taking a hundred-pound cannon ball from his hip 

 pocket stood facing the south. "At 13 o'clock," said the 

 King, "he will throw that ball through the wall, and if the 

 sunlight marks the hour, storms will rule for six weeks. If 

 not, spriug will take charge.'' 



The bruised air shrieked along the track of the ball as it 

 pierced the south wall and was lost in the blue deep beyond. 

 Four minutes and a quarter went by, and lo, an arrow of 

 sunlight dropped lightly upon the sun dial at high twelve. 



My countrymen, what an hour was that. 



In the twinkle of an eye every ground hog disappeared. 

 Spring fled weeping from the hall, and Winter's buglers 



