Fm 4, 1886] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



ing dried meat, and her hands and arms and clothing were 

 covered with blood and grease. The next day the chief 

 woman came to the coulee, and there she found many men. 

 In the midst of them was Old Man, splendidly dressed, with 

 weasel-skin leggings. As soon as she saw him, the chief 

 woman recognized Old Man, so she let them all go and went 

 hack to the women. To them she said, 'You can take any 

 of these men except the finely dressed man who stands in 

 the middle. Do not take him, for be is mine.' Then she 

 put on her best apparel and went to the coulee. The women 

 went to look for husbands. Old Man [who wished to be 

 chosen by the chief woman] stayed far behind [so that be 

 should not be taken by any of the others]. All the women 

 chose husbands and took all the men to their lodges. One 

 man was still left unchosen. It was Old Man. The chief 

 woman said, 'Old Man thought I was a fool. Now we will 

 make a buffalo piskan, and I will change him into a pine 

 log and we will use him for a part of the fence. So Old 

 Man is the fool, and not the woman/ In old times before 

 men had wives they made moccasins out of buffalo shanks, 

 but when they got wives then men bad them make good 

 wearing apparel for them. That's all." 



"Old Man had pretty bad luck," said %. 



"Yes," replied the Indian, "plenty trouble he had. Some 

 time I tell you more about him." 



As he spoke, he rose and put some more wood on the fire, 

 and then, taking off his coat and moccasins, prepared to 

 turn in. The others had by this time settled themselves in 

 their blankets, and I prepared to follow their example. I 

 filled and lighted a final pipe, and, with my covering partly 

 drawn over me, smoked and stared at the fire. The wind 

 still roared over the lake, and whistled through the willows, 

 and shook the smoke shield. Gradually the fire burned 

 down. Objects lost their distinctness. From the shadowy 

 piles of blankets about the walls came deep, regular breath- 

 ings, showing that my companions slept. Under the ashes 

 of the fire lingered a dull glow, and a slender white thread 

 still rose above them. Through the smoke hole a bright star 

 looked down into the lodge. Now and then from some 

 smouldering stick a jet of flame shot up for a moment and 

 illumined the scene. Then the gloom settled down again. 



Dreamily my thoughts went back over the years to other 

 nights, spent in other lodges, with other companions, and 

 memories of brave, tried friends of former days crowded 

 thick upon me. I remembered lodges pitched on the plains 

 — camps by the Republican, the Platte, the Loup, the 

 Running Water, the Missouri — where with those friends, red 

 and white, I had hunted and feasted, and fought the Dakotas 

 and their allies; 1 thought of lodges in the mountains, on the 

 fragrant sage plains, or high up beneath the snows, where, 

 by* the hurrying streams which pour into the Green and the 

 Grand, with one companion I had trapped the beaver for a 

 season; of months spent in the lodges of my brothers the 

 Pauls, and with the kindly Utes, and of camps scattered far 

 and wide over the West. 



Then I see pass before me, as in a vision, the forms and faces 

 of grave, silent, gentle men, whom once I had called my 

 friends. 



They have fired their last shot, they have kindled their 

 last camp-fire, they have gone over the Range—crossed the 

 Great Divide. "There were giants in those days," and of 

 that heroic race how few are left alive! Lingering illness, 

 the storms of winter, the pistol ball of the white man, the 

 rifle shot of the savage, have sadly thinned their ranks. And 

 none have risen, nor can arise, to fill the places left vacant. 

 The conditions which made these men what they were no 

 longer exist. 



Musing or dreaming, I know not which, I live over 

 again scenes of the past, until, roused by the chill air, I 

 draw my blankets over my head and fall asleep. Yo. 



"That reminds me." 

 179, 



IN my youthful days I spent many a night upon the 

 water witli jack and spear. Of course it was contrary 

 to law, but as the elders ot the community paid no attention 

 to the law, it could not be expected that the youngsters would 

 do so. I therefore became a pretty skillful' handler of both 

 spear and paddle early in youth. While still green at the 

 business I used to court the acquaintance of old Jake, the 

 town drunkard, as, whenever he could be caught sober at 

 night (which was but seldom) he was the best spearman in 

 that region. 



One night in June, away back in the fifties, I had collected 

 a prime lot of fat spruce or pitch wood, and hunting up Jake 

 we repaired to the lake for what I then thought to be a 

 night's sport. Jake would always spear better when well 

 ballasted with a cargo of whisky, but on this particular 

 night he proved to be over-weighted, and was liable to 

 founder and go down by the head. The night was a very 

 favorable one, the fish were plentiful and lay steady in the 

 light, but Jake made strike after strike at them without 

 effect. The whisky in his eyes added to the refraction of 

 his lines of vision in the water, and he miscalculated every 

 stroke. Disgusted and angry I at length steered the boat for 

 home. When a few yards from the lauding, where the 

 water was about five feet deep, a poor little sucker, some ten 

 inches long, came out from shore, steering for deeper water. 

 Jake saw him, made a desperate lunge with his spear, over- 

 balanced, and went headlong into the water. Alter regain- 

 ing his feet and blowing the water from his nose and mouLh. 

 he waved his spear in triumph, on which was impaled 

 the worthless sucker— sole trophy of his night's efforts— 

 and exclaimed, "Condemn you! I'll lam you that nary a 

 fish in this ere lake can run by me." Akefar. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream. Publish- 

 ing Co. 



CAMP FLOTSAM. 



XXn. — A BIG TALK DAY. 



THE expedition of the last two days proved conducive to a 

 second sleep in the morning, and it was ten o'clock before 

 the camp succeeded in getting on its feet and taking a look 

 outside. It was a typical Sunday; there was scarcely a 

 ripple on the water or the stirring of a leaf on the trees; all 

 nature seemed hushed in adoration before the invisible altars 

 of the living God. We lingered long at the breakfast table, 

 which George had spread under the trees and from which 

 we could look upon the lake and along the hills on the 

 opposite shore. 



Every camp has a lounging place ; last year the favorite 

 spot was under a pine, hard by the tents; but this summer 

 a log, a little off from camp, close to the water's edge and 

 overhung with foliage, was our retreat. Here we would sit 

 and smoke navy plug, and more than once, on a moist 

 morning, we were treated to the sight of a flock of ducks, 

 which, coming over the treetops behind us. settled in the 

 water not ten rods in front. And hither on this Sunday 

 morning, provided with pipe and field glasses, we settled 

 ourselves. Soon a mink made its appearance from under a 

 log a few rods away, came half the distance toward us, 

 stopped, and then, as if scenting danger in the air, skulked 

 in among the rocks. On the opposite shore, where with the 

 naked eye one could not distinguish a man from the sur- 

 rounding objects, with the aid of the glasses we could see 

 the water lashed into foam by the sport of a loon, broken by 

 the leap of a bass— our prey, yet seeking its own, like one of 

 us— until Sabbatis in his canoe glided along close in shore, 

 when the loon and bass disappeared together. We held the 

 log for an hour and until a boat put off from the island 

 opposite and headed for the camp. Then, knowing that 

 visitors were on hand, we returned to the camp to slick up. 

 The Colonel and Captain were soon at the landing and were 

 duly escorted up the hill to the tents and received with all 

 the honors. By the time we were through with a short 

 experience meeting, which covered the last two days, there 

 was another arrival— an old deer-hunting acquaintance of 

 the Colonel's, on the. Brule and Fortune lakes— and a new 

 school of experience was thereupon opened. The way those 

 two veterans killed deer while sitting on the bunks in our 

 tent was a sin. In less than an hour no less than six bucks 

 were hung up and half as many more lost. In the mean 

 time, with the help of the Captain, we landed several five- 

 pound bass. Our sport was interrupted by another comer — 

 our student friend — who, like the others, had dropped in for 

 a call. Then the hunting and fishing went on again, but 

 now spiced with an occasional dash of Schwegler, Hamilton 

 and Kant. Venison, fish and metaphysics made a strange 

 conglomeration, but the feast was heartily enjoyed; and we 

 were well into the afternoon before the table was cleared and 

 we were alone. It had been a day of much talk, but the end 

 was not yet. Hardly were the boats of our friends out of 

 sight before one of the Indian boys emerged from the bushes 

 behind the tents, his brother a little below, a canoe and a 

 skiff came round the point, and the host of j Sabattis was 

 upon us — horse, foot and dragoon, girls, squaw and all. 

 Squatted in a half-circle about the tent door, they jabbered 

 the afternoon through, Dame Sabattis pulling steadily on her 

 clay pipe and explaining to the Madame between puffs the 

 mystery of binding a pappoose upon a board and the less 

 difficult accomplishment of pappoose raising; while the 

 junior branches of the family discussed the pictures in a 

 London illustrated paper which the Colonel had left us. 

 They held their posts until nightfall and until the first 

 squadron of mosquitoes charged up the hill and began to 

 make things lively. There were no signs of their giving 

 way until the smudge was started, to windward, when 

 there were sundry expressions of disgust and a glaring 

 about with watery eyes. "Ugh! much smoke," came from 

 Dame Sabattis, as in a fit of suffocation she shifted her seat 

 further from the door. The line followed her example, but 

 the smudge was doing its best and the cohorts continued to 

 fall back until they took refuge in the boats and drifted 

 around the point, out of sight. The last visitor had gone 

 and the day of the big talk was over. Coldly and silently 

 the moon raised herself above the hills, illuminating the 

 treetops with a glory that no mortal pencil could transfer, 

 casting the long black shadows of rocks and islets upon the 

 water and the deeper shadow of the forest upon the tents, 

 and with all the splendor of the night about us we sought 

 our blankets and sleep. 



When we opened our eyes it was broad daylight, the tattoo 

 was ringing across the water from the opposite camp and we 

 hurried out to sound the response on the cook's frying-pan. 

 There we found George, who had just returned from his 

 morning trip to the outlet after water, bringing with him a 

 pair of well-grown chickens, which he had purchased as 

 "examples" of a lot which had been offered to him. They 

 were liberated and were soon chasing bugs and scratching 

 about for breakfast, and our poultry farm was started. 



The day was a quiet one, with scarcely a ripple on the 

 water, and two hours of casting brought us but three small 

 bass. At noon a couple of anglers from Kingston, who had 

 found our fishing place, put in to greet the American camp. 

 To one of them, Mr. J. E. Hutcheson, we became indebted 

 for camp luxuries in the shape of melons, coffee and old 

 Times, which he afterward kindly sent us, and another fink 

 was forged in the chain of friendships which binds us to our 

 cousins over the border. The night after their departure was 

 made memorable by a combined attack of rain and mos- 

 quitoes, and at 3 A. M. we were turned out and compelled to 

 start the smudge. The "killer" did its work effectually, but 

 the Madame abhorred the grease and preferred the suffo- 

 cating incense of the punk. 



The forenoon brought a fine breeze, and we ran three or 

 four miles up the lake under sail in search of a new bass 

 ground. Some one had told us that on the north shore there 

 was a bay which, years ago, had been a favorite ground for 

 bass, but when any one had lately tried it was unknown; so 

 we set out on a voyage of discovery. When the north shore 

 was reached we lowered sail, and, turning down the lake, 

 followed the rocky shore which rose above us, crowned with 

 a heavy growth of timber and varied with an occasional 

 clearing, in search of something which resembled a bay. 

 We soon found that it would require a somewhat lively 

 imagination to locate anything of that description among the 

 rocks, so we began to feel our way along the shore by cast- 

 ing. Soon a small stream which tumbled over a rock sug- 

 gested a spring close at hand; a landing was made, and we 



set out to find the fountain head. A quarter of a mile back 

 we found it, an oozy, miry spot, the first sight of which put 

 all thoughts of quenching our thirts at rest. A few yards 

 below the stream gathered itself in a stone basin, but the 

 water was warm, and we returned to the boat, preferring to 

 take our chances on lake water. A thick growth of water- 

 weeds hemmed in the outlet of the little stream, and on the 

 outside edge of these we took a good-sized bass on a Lord 

 Baltimore, while the Madame landed a much larger one on 

 the more plebeian cast of a piece of perch. A little further 

 along the shore we took another on the same fly, and the 

 Madame again rivaled our catch with her strip of perch. 

 With alternate strikes on the fly and bait we cast a mile 

 down the lake, and, failing to find the bay of which we were 

 in search, we took advantage of the breeze to hoist the sail 

 and make our way homeward. 



After we had gone a mile the wind failed us and with the 

 oars we pulled to the foot of the island, where we met our 

 neighbors, who were just starting out for their afternoon 

 fishing. It was intensely hot on the water, and having no 

 confidence in the condition of the weather, we turned into 

 camp. On our way across the lake we noticed a peculiar 

 appearance in the water as though the bottom had been 

 stirred about, leaving it full of a whitish sediment which 

 hung suspended near the surface. The symptoms were that 

 the lake was about to undergo the periodical performance, 

 which the Greewood Lake fishermen style "working." 

 Within the next two days the case was well developed; be- 

 fore a week we found the brook in front of the tents lined 

 every morning with a substance which resembled sulphur in 

 appearance and of a most unpleasant odor. This state of 

 things continued for nearly a month, save when it was inter- 

 rupted by a storm, in which case for a day or two the water 

 would appear less turbid, only to come back to its old con- 

 dition. From the commencement the fly-fishing was vir- 

 tually at an end and consequently our sport. It was seldom, 

 except on a rainy day or the one succeeding, that we could 

 get a rise, and for the rest of our outing our main success 

 was with trolling or with bait. We had built a fish-box a 

 few days before and anchored it in front of the camp, in 

 which we had stored our surplus fish. We had over twenty fine 

 bass in good condition, and with this reserve we felt secure 

 during a dearth of fishing. Toward night we went to the 

 marsh at the outlet and secured a lot of fine speckled frogs 

 for the morrow's work. After breakfast we set out on a 

 long troll up the lake, trailing a frog and a gang of flies 

 astern. At the foot of Griffin Island we landed a small bass 

 and midway of the lake we took another. At the head of 

 the island we had a couple of strikes, at the same instant, on 

 the Lord Baltimore and a frog, both of which were taken in. 

 This comprised our entire catch for the morning, and al- 

 though we trolled along the shores of the islands and the 

 mainland for three or four miles, not another bass did we 

 encounter. Just before sunset we started down to the out- 

 let for the mail. When we entered the creek we rigged a 

 cast of white flies to try the somewhat novel experiment of 

 dropping them in the open patches of water among the lily 

 pads. With the first cast came a strike from a pound and a 

 half j big-mouth, then several "goggle- eyes" followed, then 

 another big-mouth, and by the time we were at the landing 

 we had taken six big-mouths of over a pound each and were 

 fully persuaded that we had been having some sport. 



The next few days went by with daily trials with the fly, 

 which brought no returns, and we determined to forego all 

 further attempts at fishing until the "blow" should leave the 

 water. This, the Colonel assured us, would take place with 

 the first heavy rain, so we sat down to mope in the camp 

 and to philosophize over the unstability of fish affairs while 

 waiting for a change of weather. During the lull we received - 

 some very important additions to the camp. One morning 

 George brought the Madame a cat which he had found on 

 the shore, and a day or two afterward some genius at the 

 outlet conceived the bright idea of bringing over a calf to 

 pasture on a strip of grass at the end of the island. When 

 the latter feat had been accomplished we felt that we needed 

 but a porker to give the camp a home-like air. We soon 

 found, however, that the only pleasure from our five stock 

 was that furnished by the "lii-dog," a vagrant mongrel of 

 uncertain age, which had followed us from shore and taken up 

 quarters under our bunk in the tent. For the cat took at 

 once to the woods, while the calf became disgustingly famil- 

 iar by hanging around the camp, getting tangled in the tent 

 ropes, upsetting tables, knocking down rods and disturbing 

 us by its bawls at, unseasonable hours. But a sharp course 

 of discipline, adminstered with a hoop pole with the aid of 

 the ki-dog, soon made the life ot that calf a burden to itself, 

 nevertheless we invariably cursed the hour in which the 

 thought was born that impelled the owner of the brute to 

 turn it out near our camp. About 2 o'clock in the morning 

 of the second day after the arrival of the cat, the camp 

 was hailed with a sad toned meow at the door. Pussy was 

 sitiing there in a state of semi starvation, her wildness gone, 

 and she was coaxing for a meal. A piece of bread, half a 

 dozen sardines and a cup of milk from the can of condensed, 

 thinned with water, made her breakfast, after the partaking 

 of which she again struck off into the woods and was not 

 seen for another day. At her next appearance, satisfied that 

 she would never make a camper,we captured her, fed her and 

 put her into the potato bag, in which she was taken ashore 

 where we dumped her at the landing. How we got rid of 

 the calf, which turned out to be too much of a camper, will 

 appear hereafter. 



During these days of loungings in camp, while waiting for 

 the water to clear, the woods were well explored. In one 

 place we found a profusion of blackberries near the camp 

 and thenceforward many were the dainty desserts which they 

 afterward furnished for the table. Much prospecting was 

 also done to find a spring nearer than the outlet, but in this 

 land of granite, water, save as found in the lakes, was a rare 

 article, and our search was not successful. There was a tra- 

 dition of good springs on the island below the camp, less 

 than half a mile a'way, but vigilant reconnoissances failed to 

 bring it to light, and Lost Spring Island thus received its 

 name. Across the lake we came upon a deep bowl in the 

 hillside, into which the water ran in a tardy sort of way 

 from a fissure in the rocks, which proved a fairly good 

 spring. On the afternoon of the finding we had been cruis- 

 ing along the shore when George's quick eye fell upon the 

 green spot about the spring, and landing, he' handed down a 

 cup of the Water for our judgment. Then returning, he 

 emptied can after can of the fluid down his throat, while we 

 sat and looked on in amazement. Had it not been for his 

 color one could well have believed that the heroic Kingfisher 

 stood before us plying his summer vacation, and, with a 

 dearth of spring water about us, we thought with a shudder 

 of the possibilities were the great Templar added to the camp, 



Wawayanda. 



