Feu. 19, 1885.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



63 



lasted 14 minutes, when the water suddenly receded to ahout 

 6 inches below the top of the partition. Another spring, a 

 quiet, deep, green pool, also on the margin of the lake, and 

 indeed, projecting out into it, gives off a little steam at 9 A. 

 M . and has a temperature of 158°. This is the one next 

 west of the "Fish Pot." "West of that is another still green 

 pool, giving 159°. The temperature of the lake water is 

 quite uniformly 57° to 58°, except in the immediate vicinity 

 of outlets from the various springs, where, of course, it is 

 higher, sometimes being 70° to 71°. 



Back from the lake shore are the larger spriugs, both quiet 

 and pulsating. They are of lovely colors, usually of the 

 purest palest blue, but sometimes green and jellow, and with 

 their borders beautifully beaded and scalloped with delicate 

 margins of geyserite, and their outlets red and brown with 

 the curious viandite. The highest temperature of any of 

 them was found to be 199 D at a moderately large geyser-like 

 spring, to the right of the trail, with a raised crater ten 

 inches high and eighteen in thickness. In this the water 

 boils with great violence at its western side at frequent inter- 

 vals. Its closely adjacent pool is agitated sympathetically 

 on its eastern side. . A number of the springs back from the 

 lake shore were examined and gave temperatures from 178° 

 to 392'. There are others in which it is by no means so 

 high; these being apparently dying. 



An attractive group of mud puffs or paint pots lie a short 

 distance back from the lake, and just east of a number of 

 large hot spriugs on the upper or southwest side of the deposit 

 of geyserite. The basin in which these mud puffs are situated 

 is about fifty feet in diameter, and coutains, perhaps, forty 

 mud springs, most of which have built up for themselves 

 considerable cones. Besides this there are about the border 

 of the basin several small steam vents from which the color- 

 less super-heated steam is constantly discharged with a 

 sharp, hissing souud. 



The mud of these "paint pots" is exceedingly smooth, 

 finely divided and free from grit. It has two principal 

 colors and varies from a dark slate gray to the palest possible 

 lilac, and from a deep pink — almost an orange — to a pale 

 salmon color, and so on to white. In the largest pot of all 

 the clay is extremely stiff, almost like putty, and the puffing 

 of the steam through it is therefore very slow and labored. 

 There are many cones two or three feet in height, which 

 now contain in the hard dry crater a single tiny orifice, in 

 which the mud is still soft and boiling, and others in which 

 even this action has ceased. In some of the smaller pots 

 the mud is shot up at frequent intervals four or five feet into 

 the air, and sometimes much higher. 



To the west of the camp there is a considerable area which 

 has in the past been the scene of vigorous hot spring action. 

 Almost all of these springs are now extinct. The pine 

 forest has grown up over the deposit of geyserite, the craters 

 of the springs are dry, moss-covered, and often partially 

 filled with the debris from the forest, over which grow 

 delicate pale green ferns and grasses. The extent and thick- 

 ness of this deposit is very great. 



At the border of the lake and overlaid by eight or ten feet 

 of the laminated geyserite we found a curiosity which is well 

 •worthy of mention. This is a round hole six or eight inches 

 in diameter, leading back from the lake into the bluff, fur- 

 ther than we could reach with a nine-foot pole. It resem- 

 bled the orifice of a drain pipe more than anything else, and 

 for a few moments its origin and reason were very puzzling. 

 A little examination, however, showed that it was the per- 

 fect cast of a tree trunk. The grain of the Darkless stem 

 could be seen and felt on the walls of the hole, and in one 

 place there was a small side tunnel leading off from the 

 main one, where a branch of the tree had put off. Long, long 

 ago. when the top of the bluff was scarcely higher than the 

 present lake level, a pine tree had fallen on the surface of 

 the deposit, and, before it had decayed, had been covered 

 up by the accumulation of geyserite. In time the wood 

 had rotted away, and the waters of the lake, which in 

 every storm are hurled against this shore with great vio- 

 lence, had washed away every particle of organic matter, 

 leaving in the hard rock the perfect cast of the ancient forest 

 tree. 



At the head of the West Arm the fishing is much better 

 than nearer the outlet, and enormous quantities of trout can 

 be caught without difficulty either with fly or bait. Several 

 of the men were very fond of fishing, and as they used stout 

 spruce poles with strong lines and grasshopper bait, they 

 readily caught all the fish that could be used. It was im- 

 possible, even if it had been desirable, with a nine-ounce 

 rod to drag from the water these fine large fish, which aver- 

 aged a pound or two in weight, and my catches never com- 

 pared in numbers with those of the men, though I presume 

 I derived as much satisfaction from the capture of my six or 

 seven fish as they did from their fifteen or tweuty. The 

 water here was quite deep close to the shore, and it was 

 therefore a very convenient place for casting. 



The fish too were larger and seemed much healthier, 

 stronger and more vigorous than those near our first camp 

 on the lake. They took the fly with a rush, and made a fine 

 struggle for their freedom. With one of them I had a curi- 

 ous experience. I had put on a new dropper, and as the 

 gut was dry, and I feared somewhat brittle, I did not at 

 once draw up the loop close to the leader, but left it some- 

 what loose, thinking that after it had become a little soft- 

 ened by the water, I would draw it tight. I had only made 

 one or two casts when a pound trout took the dropper. He 



was a vigorous fish, and made an unusually strong resist- 

 ance. When at length, nearly exhausted, he came to the 

 surface of the water, his tail was the first part that showed. 

 This was repeated several times, and I supposed that I had 

 in some way fouled him. Ou lauding him I found the 

 dropper firmly fixed in his jaw, while the tail fly was fast 

 in the skin of the back just behind the soft adipose dorsal 

 fin. The dropper had slipped down to the end of the leader 

 during the struggles of the fish, and then in some way the 

 tail fly had become fixed in his back. 



The evening before our departure from the lake an acci- 

 dent happened to Mr. Hague which came very near haviug 

 a fatal termination. With a companion he was returning 

 to the camp, and to avoid the fallen timber of the forest rode 

 down to the lake shore, coming out on the beach two or 

 three miles east of camp. The beach was in most places 

 hard, and there was a trail along it, over which a dozen or 

 fifteen horses had passed within a day or two. The two 

 rode along very quietly until they came to a narrow bar, 

 which separated the lake from a quiet lagoon just under the 

 bank. Dandy, Mr. Hague's horse, was young and nervous, 

 and becoming alarmed by the white waves that rippled up 

 on the bar, insisted upon edging over to its shoreward side, 

 and, getting too far in that direction, sank suddenly into a 

 soft quicksand nearly tip to his back. The rider at once 

 relieved the animal of his weight by sprinsring off him, and 

 in a few seconds the horse had floundered off into the deep 

 water, and was swimming across the lagoon toward the 

 shore. Mr. Hague now found himself imprisoned in the 

 clinging sands, which held him so firmly that all his efforts 

 to free himself were fruitless. The horrible quicksands had 

 closed about his legs with an unyielding grip and held them 

 as in a vise, and he could move only the upper part of his 

 body. All the time he was gradually sinking deeper and 

 deeper into the sand. The water at first reaching only to 

 his waist, crept slowly to his breast and then toward his 

 shoulders. He called to his comrade to throw him a rope, 

 by means of which he might free himself; but he, after 

 having had a great deal of trouble with his mule, had finally 

 lost her, and she was running for the shore as fast as she 

 could go, so that the peril of the imprisoned man was not 

 at once noticed nor understood. Meanwhile the water was 

 rising, and now he could only keep his face above it by 

 bending back his neck so that the back of his head was in 

 the water. Little need be said of what passed through his 

 mind. It is given to but few to know how a brave man 

 feels when he looks his certain death squarely in the face 

 and never flinches. 



The man who finds himself in such a desperate strait as 

 this is sometimes gifted with a strength far beyond that 

 which he ordinarily possesses. The exigency of the occasion 

 calls forth all the latent power within him; he becomes for 

 the moment a giant, capable of efforts which under other 

 circumstances would be impossible. So it was now. The 

 energy born of the comprehension that this was his last oppor- 

 tunity gave him an unnatural strength, and a final desperate 

 struggle freed one leg. The other yielded more readily, and 

 a moment later Mr. Hague found himself swimming toward 

 the bar, on which he soon found a secure resting place. It 

 had been a narrow escape. 



Returning to the shore as they had come, the two walked 

 toward camp, finding the mule on the way. The horse had 

 disappeared in the timber. The next day, except for a gen- 

 eral lameness where he had wrenched himself in his efforts 

 to get free, Mr. Hague found himself none the worse for his 

 terrible experience. 



The Military Target. — The change decided upon in 

 the subdivisions of the target to be used by the soldiers of 

 the regular army may be a good one if it is followed up by 

 vigorous practice on the part of the men, with competent 

 supervision b} r properly educated officers. It is a factor of 

 no moment whatever in making good shots. A properly 

 trained marksman does not need this or that form of target 

 to make him such. The idea that men may be trained into 

 good "line" shots while they may be neglectful of points 

 of elevation is a very curious one. If the scheme is to 

 give the soldiers something after the form of a man to shoot 

 at, why not carry it out to its logical end and have the 

 diagram of a human form, with a gradation of value in shots 

 from heart to toe hits. A soldier must be taught to know 

 his weapon thoroughly, and no legerdemain nor jugglery of 

 scoring or target marking can make him a marksman when he 

 is not such. There is a plausible explanation of this recent 

 change in the suggestion which comes from some quarters that 

 it is intended to make such a difference between the records 

 of the army and outside scoring, that those unfortunate com- 

 parisons will not be cropping up every now and then in the 

 papers, to the annoyance and humiliation of those who hide 

 a great deal of ignorance behind a great deal of gold lace. 



With Profound Regret we observe that the grave 

 apprehensions so long entertained by a "Western editor's 

 friends are at length shown to have been well founded. 

 The spectacle of an intellect broken loose from its moor- 

 ings and drifting, we know not whither, is always most 

 melancholy, and in the present instance it is doubly dis- 

 tressing because of its exposure to public gaze. Until those 

 whose duty it is shall have provided for the unfortunate 

 man's seclusion, we bespeak for him and for the wildest 

 freaks of his unbalanced mind the most unstinted charity. 



CAMP FLOTSAM. 



XIV. — "Tine WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT." 



THE few days which were left to Truthful James were 

 busy ones indeed, and there was little leisure after his 

 fishing. From early morning until nightfall the white mask 

 haunted the lonely shores and dodged in and out of the coves 

 bent on wringing all that could be had of sport out of the 

 fast flitting August days. Once with his guide he made his 

 way over into Fishing Lake, a considerable body of water a 

 mile to the northward, to and from which the boat was 

 dragged on a lumberman's sled, Tn this El Dorado he took 

 seven or eight, fair-sized bass, and shot a porcupine which he 

 discovered in a tree on the shore. The rest of his time was 

 devoted to the home waters. The bay, which had been the 

 scene of the editor's triumphs, was fished daily and yielded 

 good returns. Here we sat through the forenoons", enter- 

 taining each other between bites, and careless, meanwhile, of 

 the ways and means of landing our fish, by which each once 

 put his prized Mitchell rod in jeopardy. The warning to be 

 more careful first came to us. We were fishing in quite a 

 depth of water, and had reeled up a large fishing bass to 

 within three or four feet of the tip. when suddenly it made 

 a dash and went under the boat. So little attentive were we 

 to the state of affairs that, before we thought of a counter 

 movement or giving line, we felt and heard the upper part 

 of the rod strike against the keel of the boat. The rod was 

 literally wrapped about it, but stood the strain like a piece 

 of whalebone. Before the day was over, Truthful James 

 had the same experience. Another day at Cady's Bay with 

 i'rand success and then one among the islands followed, and 

 Truthful James had made the last cast of his vacation. 

 Many were the projects for next summer bruited and dis- 

 cussed during these latter days. On one of them we encoun- 

 tered a resident from Rice Lake, fifty miles to the west, and 

 were captivated with his tales of muscalonge and black bass. 

 Other lakes within a radius of twenty miles were discussed, 

 and it was finally determined that the tents should be stored 

 and left in the Dominion in readiness for another campaign 

 on Canadian waters. 



Without a sigh or a word of regret the embodiment of 

 abstract truth turned his back upon the camp, set his face 

 borderward and we w ere alone. With the exception of Sabattis 

 no keel save our own ploughed the lake or cruised amoug 

 the islands and over the long stretch of waters. However 

 indispensable good fellowship may be to a camp, there is a 

 certain charm in the assurance that all the melody of nature 

 in some far off nook, the gleam of sunlit waters, the leap of 

 the fish, and the mellow haze upon the hills are for your 

 eyes and ears alone. That the golden track of the moon- 

 beams and the dark shadows of the darker pines across the 

 water, the dusky radiance of island channels and the ghostly 

 forms in the darkened coves fall only upon your "vision, 

 breed in your brain the fantasy that you are but a light or a 

 shadow among all the rest. Vanitd>8 vanilalum; no wonder 

 that En Gaddi, Carrnel and the desert had their hermits, nor 

 would it be difficult to breed one here. 



Our first day alone in camp began with a drizzle and rain. 

 We awoke with its beating on the roof, but were content to 

 lie and drowse half the forenoon away. At last we arose, 

 put the camp stove in place and prepared breakfast in the 

 tent. We had a day of loafing before us, but fortunately by 

 the time the meal was over the Indian boys were on hand 

 for a visit. They had long since parted with their taci- 

 turnity and a genuine attachment had sprung up between 

 us. The elder, a young man, amused us with tales of his 

 forest life in the Adirondack country, where he was born, 

 aud in Canada, and parted freely with his wood lore. ■ He 

 was honest and trustworthy and we could leave the camp 

 without fear of having a single article disturbed during our 

 absence. Among the regrets over our coming departure, the 

 separation from our Indian friends was far from the least. 

 On this occasion they brought xis a chicken and a supply of 

 green com and we gave David a pocket lantern, a lot of bass 

 flics and some leaders. 



Shortly after noon the sun broke through the clouds, and 

 David, taking his gun, went back into the woods on the 

 island. During his absence an event occurred which was 

 new in our experience. A great splashing was heard in the 

 water below the tents, and on going out to learn the cause, 

 we found Sabattis's dog standing up to his body in the wateri 

 and thrusting his head now and then beneath the surface 

 and holding it there for two or three seconds. The younger 

 of the Indians, who had remained in camp, at once said that 

 the dog had been attacking a porcupine, and called him in. 

 When the poor beast came to us he dropped at our feet and 

 roiled on the ground in agony. His throat and muzzle up 

 to his eyes were studded with quills as close together as the 

 hair on his back, and we found that tbe inside of his mouth 

 and his tongue were in the same condition. The boy said 

 that he would have to be killed, but we insisted that David 

 should first be called. This was done, and as soon as he 

 arrived he caught and examined the dog. We had a pair of 

 small pliers in our kit, and with these, while David held the 

 dog upon the ground, with one of his jaws firmly grasped in 

 each hand and his mouth forced wide open, the long and 

 tedious operation of extracting the quills was begun. At 

 the end of two hours it was dark and the work was not half 

 through. The poor animal seemed to understand what was 

 being done for him, and endured it with a steady moaning, 

 varied occasionally by jf sharp cry of pain and a fierce 

 struggle as a quill more deeply fixed than the rest in his 

 tongue was drawn out. As it grew dark the dog was brought 

 up to the tents, and under the light from the lanterns the 

 work was resumed. At last it was finished, and the patient, 

 relieved from his affliction, stretched himself out exhausted! 

 Strange as it may seem, this was his third encounter with a 

 porcupine; usually the first experience of a dog with one of 

 these animals is his last, and he avoids them ever after, but 

 David assured us that his dog would attack another on sight. 



The liability of a favorite dog to meet with such a misad- 

 venture made us anxious to learn a remedy less barbarous 

 and bloody than the one applied. The Indians knew of none, 

 but some days after the incident above mentioned, we ob- 

 tained the following crude receipt from a backwoods hunter 

 who assured us of its efficacy. To extract the quills by 

 force, in his opinion rendered the dog worthless from that time 

 forward. This was the remedy : As soon after the encounter 

 as may be, while one holds the jaws of the dog wide apart, 

 let another throw into his open mouth two double handsful 

 of dry, cold wood ashes fresh from the fire. Then let about 

 a pint of water be poured upon the ashes, and the animal 

 allowed to go at large. The effect of the application will be 

 to cause the quills to shrink and drop out instead of work- 



