Oct. 8. 1885,1 



FOREST AMU STREAM. 



^03 



room, with white-sanded floor, and sit down by the square 

 table in straiglit.-backed chairs. Our host is delighted when 

 he hears that'l am a Yankee, and he wishes to bring out the 

 household penatcs in bottles, but we thank him and beg him 

 to be quiet. Turning to little Maren, who stands bashfully 

 covering up two-thirds of her grha (smile) with a fold of her 

 •mother's dress, I say in mv most enticing Danish, '_'Kom hin 

 lille piare, og sit i)aa"mit knee. Jeg si? al ikke gjoere dig ondt. "t 

 But my pronunciation gives her a terrible fright, and, dis- 

 appearing from sight iu the dress like a young kangaroo in 

 its mamma's waist basket, she begins to sob. A looking 

 glass hangs on the wall, together with two or three highly- 

 colored lithographs representing "The Girl of the Period," 

 "The Old Oaken Bucket" and "The Pleasures of the 

 Country," etc. Several mottoes worked on perforated paper 

 with bright-colored worsted are stuck up here and there, 

 but one can't read the words any better than he can read the 

 .same in worsted English. 1 guess likely they say "God 

 bless our home" and "Blessed are the pure in heart," and 

 things like that. A large Jerome clock stands on top of the 

 unpainted cupboard in one corner of the room, and from 

 poles overhead are hung dried herbs. A wooden bracket by 

 the looking glass holds the usual comb, which needs false 

 teeth, and the loose-liacked hair brush, which reposes on 

 all such brackets. 



It is time to go. As I step to the stone threshold the lord 

 of the manor extends a hand like the hand of Providence, 

 .and engulfing my own in a maelstrom of fingers he works 

 ■my arm up and down in the same manner as he does an 

 • eight-foot pump-handle out iu the com-t. I escape in fairly 

 :good condition, however, and amid profuse good-byes we go 

 ■ out through the big gate and into the field of tali, curly- 

 leaved green cabbage to join the straggling hunters who are 

 preparing a line for one more trip across the fields. 



All is ready, and together we advance in imposing array, 

 'each man anxious to add just a little more game to his list. 

 Every few minutes a big hare makes a sudden spurt and tries 

 to kick the world around faster on its axis, but he is stopped 

 in time to save the time of day. A floCk of partridges make 

 the trembling dry grass wave "in little swu-ls, as the birds, 

 with a mighty spring, launch out into the air right near us. 

 Glass-ball shooters would have instinctively yelled out 

 "broke" if they had seen the feathers start when lour or five 

 lof the birds suddenly became limp and noiseless in midair. 



It is almost dark when we reach the road and take a short 

 •cut for the old inn of Valdby Kro. A fox runs out into the 

 field in the distance, and I make the whole crowd laugh by 

 my pronunciation of his Danish name "raev." They say that 

 ithe word which I use sounds like the Danish name for a boot 

 'target. Two or three of us try to scramble over the rickety 

 fence at the back of the inn, but a sample dog — a Great 

 Dane — is waiting for us on the other side, and as my friend 

 :says that it hurts to have a leg pulled off hy a dog of this 

 :size we decide to disappoint the dog and let him wait for 

 somebody else. I don't care how prosperous a hotel may be, 

 it is bad policy for the landlord to keep a dog which destroys 

 customers before they have paid any bills. Inside the hotel 

 guns are stacked and hung up in the reception room, and 

 hats and heavy coats follow suit. Over in one corner is a 

 great heap of hares, boys, birds and dogs. Everyone is happy, 

 and securely seated withh is glass of lager— of cool, cream- 

 foamed lager which trickles over the edge of the mug and 

 mingles with the misty condensed moisture on the outside — 

 is telling his neighbor' confidentially just how it was that he 

 had the good luck to kill one- fifth of' all of the game bagged 

 during the day. 



A smile born of light hearts and lighter stomachs seems to 

 flash across the room when the dining-room bell gives the 

 signal for the shufllmg of heavy boots to commence. The 

 tables are groaning with solid sections of brown, juicy, steam- 

 ing roasts, and piles of mealy potatoes enveloped in hot fog, 

 and long white platters of whole salmon through whose tender 

 torn skin the pink flakes and streaks of white fat look all 

 ready for the limpid golden butter sauce which stands in the 

 brimming full dishes near by. Dark bottles with white 

 laliels, and red bottles with dark labels ai"e stuck in 

 between the dishes for the purpose of keeping the edges 

 'Of the crockery from chipping. Tall, handsome Danish 

 ;girls are running hither and thither with chicken soup 

 for this man and hare soup for that man, and extricating 

 lorder from the chaos on the table with a marvelous 

 degree of skill. Good nature is rampant, and the fast 

 delivered hearty speeches are followed by rousing echoing 

 ■cheers. Cries of "skol! skol!" follow every toast in which 

 the Yankee h mentioned, with a vigor which shows how 

 (deep and real their feelings of hospitality are, and men come 

 from the distant tables to express friendly sentiments toward 

 America and Americans in general. 



An hour passes by. and tbe tide of speech gradually sub- 

 sides. The stage of quiet enjoyment is ushered in with the 

 bine-flam iug plum pudding; and coft'ee with cream melts all 

 dispositions mto one eas.Y flowing current of serene content- 

 ment. Snatches of Danish song wbich have been idly travel- 

 ing about the table for several minutes begin to join forces 

 as we light fragrant cigars and pipes, and lean back lazily 

 and stretchfifl in our chairs. 



"While others sing I pull from my hunting coat pocket the 

 old battered meerschaum, and fill it with yellow, fragile 

 grained "Lone Jack." That dear old meerschaum that I 

 have smoked by my camp-fire in the Adirondack forest, 

 while the birch fog sizzled and snapped and fitful gleams of 

 red flame lighted up the form of the strong antlered buck 

 which lay dead on the moss hy my side. 



The same fond pipe that I have smoked in the evening 

 light while I sat with Sam on the threshold of a Pennsylvania 

 farmhouse, and the October breeze whirled the rustling 

 leaves about our day's load of ruffed grouse, woodcock and 

 quail, and toyed with the wavy locks of our tired and sleepy 

 setters. 



The same beloved meerscham that I have smoked on a 

 Connecticut June noontime in a sunny, ferny corner of the 

 rail fence among the white birches, where the fresh sprout- 

 ing grass on the bank stirred sunshine and shadow into the 

 clear waters of Poohtatook Brook with every zephyr, and 

 the dashing half-pound trout waited in the foam-flecked 

 roaring torrent among the mossy bouldei's until I was through 

 with my smoke, and the brown thrush in the wiflow-top 

 asked the buttercup-dancing, air-prancing, soul-entrancing 

 bobolink to caU me away from my reverie. 



The same quieting pipe that I have smoked in the mid- 

 winter icy blast in Great South Bay, while the staunch sloop 

 plunged and strained at her anchor among the rushing, 

 voice-smothering, white-capped waves, while the wind 

 whistled and hissed through the rigging, the boom creaked 

 and swung with every lurch, and the heap of ducks ex- 



$Ooiiie here little girl and sit on my knee. 1 shall not hnrt you. 



changed places with the bushel of oysters on the cabin floor; 

 while, the thundering breakers on the outer beach, furioUs 

 in the easterly gale, bellowed and groaned in hoarse monotone 

 between the reverberations from the thousands of tons of 

 black and whitening billows rolling in mighty front high 

 upon the sand bulwarks, and dark night clouds aU ragged 

 and torn drifted low and swiftly overhead. 



Every whiff of smoke from the pipe is richly flavored with 

 the essence of old associations, but I am precipitated back 

 into Denmark as one of the party, a gigantic sturdy, good- 

 natured hunter, mounts a platform at one end of the diuing- 

 I'oom and prepares to auction oft" our game for the beneflt of 

 the poor people of the village. This is a customary proceed- 

 ing after such a hunt as we have had and the bidding is 

 spirited, some of the hares bringing four or five times their 

 market price. 



The auctioneer gets one krone (twenty-seven cents) for one 

 of his assistants whom he holds up before the audience, and 

 a smaller man who is held out at half arm's length by the 

 big one is knocked down to a bidder at ti oere (two and a 

 half cents). 



Our day is finished. Make West. 



HUNTING IN THE HIMALAYAS. 



Lights and Shadows of an Indian Forester's Life. 



XJJ. 



RAM BlJKSn is a hero! By the time he had been a fort- 

 night in camp, he had heard probaljly all the thrilling 

 tiger stories known to every native in camp, and as some of 

 my chuprassees had been for years past in the service of 

 forest oflicers in the Sewaliks, these stories were not a few ; 

 but Ram Buksh never heard one without being able to cap it 

 with something more thrilling still, from his own personal 

 experience, until at length he created so decided an impres- 

 sion as to his skill on the long bow, that there was consider- 

 able doubt as to the authenticity of any of his stories. In 

 his presence the public voice was loud in its condemnation 

 of my importation of the Ghoorka party as a quite un- 

 necessary measure, while Ram Buksh was iu camp, a view 

 in which Ram Buksh entirely coincided, declaring that if he 

 did not feel tied to the Chota Sahib by a sense of duty and 

 honor, he would certainly throw up his service and devote 

 himself entirely to the man-eater until he should be able to 

 claim the reward. As to the Ghoorkas they were aU very 

 wefl, he said, in their way, nobody disputed their bravery, 

 the cunning and stealth of the tiger had to be overmatched 

 with superior stealth and cunning, and this was to be looked 

 for only in a shikaree and not in a fsoldier. 



Well, a party of eight Ghoorkas had been granted a 

 month's special leave of absence from their regiment, and 

 had reported themselves for duty more than a week before. 

 I had stationed them in two parties at twenty miles apart, 

 and they had not been twenty-four hours at their post before 

 the man-eater carried ofl: a bamboo cutter almost under the 

 nose of one party — about two miles from their camp. w^as 

 evening when the news of the kill reached them, and of 

 course" nothing could be done that night, but they were off 

 at daylight, got on the trafl, and followed it up until they 

 came on what remained of the body; they then mounted 

 trees and held watch all day and the following night. Be- 

 tween dark and moonrise there was 'an interval of four or 

 five hours of darkness, during which a distinct grunting or 

 growhngwas heard close to the corpse, and first one and 

 then the others fired into the darkness, scaring the beast, 

 whose tracks, examined by the morning light, proved that 

 the visitor had been an astonished boar A few days later 

 there was a tiger skin stretched out in camp, and no one 

 chaft"ed Ram Buksh any more, for he slew the beast on foot 

 and single-handed, and the slaying thereof was in this wise: 

 After a cursory inspection of the block of sal forest on the 

 left bank of the river froniBocksar to fifteen miles up stream, 

 I took my map, divided the forest into strips as nearly a mile 

 wide as local conditions rendered convenient, and placed 

 Charley C. with a party of two hundred coohes to clear an 

 eighty-feet roadway through, due south from the first desig- 

 nated' point. Frotiting the forest is a terrace of about three 

 hundreds yards wide, covered with grass about three feet 

 high, then a fall of about one hundred and fifty feet to a 

 second terrace or valley which slopes gently down to the 

 river; this lower terrace carries gTeat clumps of gras.ses from 

 twelve to sixteen feet high on the wet spots, while the general 

 sm'face is covered with short grass not more than eighteen 

 inches to two feet high, and a man standing on th'e high 

 bank has a capital view of the hog deer and other game passing 

 from clump to clump. One morning Ram Buksh. tired of sit- 

 ting still and watching the wood cutters, and having received 

 positive instructions from me not to wander far from tlie 

 party, but to be on the watch in case the man-eater should 

 turn up unexpectedly, asked permission from Charley C. to 

 go down and see if there was anything moving about "below. 

 Arrived at the edge of the upper terrace he saw a herd of 

 spotted deer right abreast of him, but about a hundred and 

 fifty yards from where he stood. There w^as a fine old stag 

 among them, and not caring to risk so long a shot, he 

 determined to steal down the slope, which is covered with a 

 low, dense jungle. Scarcely had he taken a step downward 

 before an angry growl directed him to a tiger, barely ten 

 feet from him, crouched and apparently^ ready for a chai'ge. 

 To raise his Enfield, fire and spring back and crouch in 

 the grass above was the work of an instant. Chariey 

 heard the shot, and looking around saw the shikaree sink 

 down in the grass, and after watching a few minutes for his 

 reappearance in vain, took his rifle and went down to inves- 

 tigate. Reaching the spot and glancing over and seeing 

 nothing below, he turned and raw Ram Buksh peering 

 cautiously up and beckoning to him. "Tiger, Sahib, tiger," 

 said he, excitedly, and then gathering confidence from the 

 reinforcement, stood up and reloaded. Charley knew but 

 little Hindoostani, and Ram Buksh as little English, but that 

 Ram Buksh had fired at a tiger close at hand was as clear as 

 words could make it. Advancing cautiously. Ram Buksh 

 again sighted stripes in his old position, and as he raised his 

 rifle Charley, too. got a sight of him, and both fired. Ram 

 Buksh sprang back as before; Charley, having a second bar- 

 rel, stood his ground for a shot on the wing, but the beast 

 made no sign, and Charley, satisfied that" he was dead, 

 shouted to Ram Buksh, who reloaded and joined him. Go- 

 ing close, Charley, keeping his finger on the trigger, touched 

 the beast on the face and then saw the blood oozing from 

 the center of the forehead. Ram Buksh's first shot had en- 

 tered the brain ; of the second volley, one shot had struck 

 the fore paw, the second had entered the flank. And now 

 Ram Buksh is a hero and his tall figure has really a very- 

 commanding air as he struts about the camp. Of course it 

 was claimed that this was, or at least might be, the man- 

 eater; and being prepared for this, I sent up my elephant and 



had the carcass brought into camp and the inside opened up 

 for inspection. This afforded very decided evidence; there 

 was a good supply of deer's hair in the undigested refuse, 

 but no trace of human hair. None the less Ram Buksh talks 

 hopefully of bagging the man-eater, while he admits that 

 superior skill may of course be baflled by better luck. 



Meanwhile eveiy day brought for us its regular round of 

 duties. Mounting my elephant shortly after daylight I 

 dropped Charley at his flreline and then passed on to the in- 

 spection of a block of four or five square miles of forest, noting 

 down soil, aspect, age of timber, proportion of stock to full 

 crop, condition of the forest floor, natural features, water 

 courses, etc., and on my return to camp, I traced out my 

 day's inspection on the map, numbered the block and then 

 filled in a detailed description of it in a book kept for the 

 purpose. In these morning rambles I put up lots of spotted 

 deer, sometimes roaming in herds through the forest, some- 

 times crouched in the "fairy rings" (spots of a quarter to a 

 half acre in area, in which coarse grass had got the upper 

 hand, and prevented seedling trees from springing); i had no 

 difficulty in keeping the camp supplied with venison. Ram 

 Buksh, too, had many opportunities of stalking a deer and 

 brought one in occasionally. I generally got home to break- 

 fast about noon, opened office at 3 o'clock, wrote rough 

 drafts of my English correspondence and sent them to my 

 English oflice, received timber merchants and heard their 

 personal applications for sal beams and other building timber, 

 and then summoned the sheristidar, had the vernacular reports 

 and correspondence read to me, the sheristidar or his scribe 

 jotting down the substance of my replies, which he drafted 

 fully in time to read to me the next day for my signature. 



My morning inspections were always spoken of as "Sahib 

 shikar kogya" (the Sahib is gone hunting), and I knew very 

 well that the superintendent received a daily account of my 

 doings from the sheristidar, and of my demeanor during 

 office hours, and that these accounts all tended to inspire per- 

 fect confidence that I never troubled my head about their 

 doings. Every day brought au application from some mer- 

 chant for permission to remove a windfall sal tree or a dry- 

 standing tree from some designated locality, find my uniform 

 order "subject to the superintendent's inspection and ap- 

 proval" was soon considered a matter of course. I jotted 

 down the names of all the applicants and localities, and only 

 bided my time for a wholesale seizure. It was not of much 

 moment if a score of timber trees should shp through before 

 I was ready. I wanted to create confidence, make a whole- 

 sale seizure, and inspire terror. One afternoon I heard alter- 

 cation and scuffling outside, and asked the sheristidar what 

 it meant. He went to the door and began to abuse some 

 would-be intruder, and ordered the chuprassees to drive him 

 away, and then came back and reported that it was a bad 

 character, who had been caught stealing timber and been 

 ordered out of the Division. I made him point out the fel- 

 low, and after office I took my rod and went down to the 

 river alone, where, as I anticipated, I was in time joined by 

 the accused. I listened patiently to his petition, and then, 

 without replying directly, I asked him "How much do my 

 people make the merchants pay for green sal timber?" He 

 hesitated, but on my assurance that I would conceal his 

 name and hold him harmless, he gave me the names of half 

 a dozen merchants who were felling and removing green sal 

 trees at prices ranging from eighteen to twenty -four cents a 

 cubic foot. Our rules are that no sal trees shall be felled 

 except by the department, whose operations for the year are 

 confined to a particular block, the timber converted by our 

 own sawyers is principally exported as small scantlings and 

 sells at from eighteen to twenty-four cents, but we take 

 orders from local merchants for beams, for which the,y pay 

 us from thirty to thirty-six cents and remove them them- 

 selves. As it would not pay us to hunt up and convert 

 windfall over so large an area, there is a standing rule that 

 it may be sold where it lies at twelve cents a foot in the rough. 



There was now a large trade being done in creating wind- 

 falls. 'The merchants selected first-class trees worth thirty- 

 sis cents a foot, for which they paid the superintendent or 

 the local forester eighteen to twenty-four cents, and these 

 credited the department with twelve cents. The difference 

 goes into a common fund, and at the close of the season is 

 is divided among all my official employees, from the highest 

 to the lowest, every one getting a share proportioned to the 

 responsibflity of his post. As regards the bamboos, the 

 merchants take about twenty -five per cent, more than they 

 are charged for, and share the price with the department (so 

 says my informant). I found a perfect system of checks iu 

 vogue. The forester counts and gives a check for the mem- 

 bers; eight miles down the road toward the settled districts 

 is a line of patrols, whose duty it is to count and countersign 

 the checks, and send them certified to my office. Of course 

 the natives smile benignly at the idea of the Sahibs' trusting 

 to so simple a system. Wait a little. I have them all in my 

 net, and await only definite instructions from headquarters 

 before taking action. Peculation is a recognized feature of 

 administration by native agency, andafeUow who forgets 

 old Talleyrand's maxim "Surtout, pas de Jijfe," is liable to 

 come to grief, as I know from past experience. 



After the first week I found the blocks getting too far for 

 my inspection from headquarters, and sent my camp ten 

 miles up sti'eam, and as the river was now getting near its 

 lowest I determined to march up the low bank, estimate the 

 obstacles in the way of rafting, and beat up some of the long 

 grass clumps; flowing through a heavy diluvial drift, I saw 

 that I had only to pick up the boulders from the center of 

 the stream, and arrange them iu line on either side, to get a 

 thirty feet wide channel, with from eighteen inches to two 

 feet of water, with a little extra labor for rapids, and an 

 occasional big boulder requiring blasting. I put up several 

 hog deer on the way, and by the time we were seven milea 

 from camp w^e had 'got a stag and a hind lashed behind the 

 howdah. At this p'bint we were beating a clump of long 

 grass, and put up something heaviex than a hog deer; we 

 could see nothing, the grass was fifteen feet high, but we 

 heard the rush of a heavy body and pushed through. It was 

 a gerao (a large Sewalik stag about thirteen hands high, 

 cairrying very large horns), which disappeared behind a 

 clump of grass before I had time to draw on him. Turning 

 the elephant up stream I laid down my rifle and as 1 did so 

 I saw a tiger looking at us not fifteen yards off. I saw only 

 his head above the grass, and that disappeared the moment 

 our eyes met. Calling a halt and seizing my rifle I watched 

 for a chance, but a light ripple in the grass, which may have 

 been made with his head or his tail, was the only visible sign 

 and did not extend a tigers length. Whispering to the mahout 

 to beat up the clump, we entered close after the beast, but 

 there was no movement, and although we spent a full hour 

 beating up the grass, we failed to find any trace of him. 

 These beasts dodge a single elephant with perfect ease in 

 long grass. 



