Sept. 28, ISStJ.J 



FORESl' AND STREAM. 



163 



hand with me, and on more than one occasion m-ged me 

 to cast away my pencils, destroy my drawings, abandon 

 my jomnals, change my ideas, and return to the world. 

 At other times the red Indian, erect and bold, tortm-ed 

 my ears with horriljle yells, and threatened to put an end 

 to my existence; or white-skirmcd murderers aimed then- 

 rifles" at me. Snakes, loathsome and venomous, entwined 

 my limb.s, while ^a^lt^u•es, lean and ravenous, looked on 

 with impatience. Once, too, I dreamed when asleep on 

 a sand bax on one of the Florida keys, that a huge shark 

 had me in his jaws and was dragging me into the deep." 



"But my thoughts were not always of this nature, for 

 at other times my dreams presented pleasing imageries. 

 The sky was serene, the air was perfumed, and thousands 

 of melodious notes from birds, -all iinknown to me, mged 

 me to rise and go in pra-suit of the beautiful and happy 

 creatm*es. Then I would find myself fm*nished with wings, 

 and clea ving the aii' like an eagle, I would fly and over- 

 take the objects of my desire. At other times I was glad- 

 dened by the sight of my beloved family seated by their 

 cheerful fire and anticipating tlieir delight on my retm-n. 

 The glorious sun would rise and I would cheer myself 

 with the pleasing prospect of the happy termination ot'my 

 laliors, ami hear in fancy the praises which kind friends 

 would freely accord. And now my taskis accomplished.'" 



Of all tlie liuntiug exi^editions made by Mr. Audubon, 

 perhaps there was not one which exceeded in romantic 

 interest or better exemplified his characteristics than a 

 certain voyage made by him in the Northern Atlantic 

 about the time that his work was published in England, 

 and the folloAvmg particulars come to me from a friend 

 and neighbor named William R. Fowler, who was con- 

 nected with the expedition as a sailor. It was in 1833 

 when Mr. Audubon, accompanied by his son John and 

 fom- yoimg students, made lii> appearance at Eastport, 

 Me., bound on a trip to the Noitheast. He had chartered 

 a schooner in Boston, called the Ripley, for a summer 

 cruise through the Gulf of St. Lawi'ence to the coast of 

 Labrador. He arranged to pay the captain and owner of 

 the vessel the sum of i|300 per month; and as he left the 

 Bay of Fimdy in June and did not return until November, 

 the voyage cost liim about $1,500. He considered himself 

 on a regular hunt for the spoils of ornithology ou land and 

 sea: and while tlie captain of the Rix)ley was forever look- 

 hig om for breakers and giving the coast a. wide berth, 

 the naturalist was constantly sighing to "hug the shore" 

 and secure interviews %vith the birds ill their lonely liomes. 

 The vessel was made to anchor in every prominent bay 

 and inlet, so as to allow Mr. Audubon to visit the shores. 

 On one occasion he cluaiced to discover, from the mast- 

 head, a sheet of water not far inland, which he thought 

 would be to him au Eldorado. He thought it would be a 

 good place to study the habits of what the sailors called 

 the war loon. Nor was he disappointed, for he more than 

 accomplished liis purpose. In doing so, hoAvever. be had 

 to use a small boat suited to the pm'pose, wliich was taken 

 from the vessel . dragged over the intervening hills and 

 laxmched upon the lake, whose shores were wild and deso- 

 late in the extj-eme. There did he si^end two or three 

 days in camp, and returned to his vessel freighted with 

 specimens of many interesting birds, as well as other den- 

 izens of the wilderness. 



At another time, when Mi-. Fowler had killed a certain 

 female bird, and had exhibited it to Mr. Audubon, the 

 latter said that be would give the sailor ten dollars for a 

 male specimen of the species, and that die had better try 

 his luck again ou the neighboiing shore. 



One day, on bis return to tlie Ripley from an excursion," 

 Mr. Audubon found the captain and men busily engaged 

 in reiaairing their fishing tackle. -'What's the meaning 

 of all this jn-eparation?" he inquired. The captain re- 

 plied: "When we reach the codfisli grounds 1 intend to 

 pack away a big lot of the fellows in barrels which T 

 brought for the pm-pose."' "No, sir, that must not be," 

 said Mr. Audubon. "I did not come into this region to 

 catch fish, but bii-ds, and no fish are to be taken except- 

 ing- for our food."' He considered himself the financial 

 admu-al of that expedition, and he did not relish the idea 

 of ha\'ing the freedom of his movements interfered with 

 by the salting down of codfish. With the crew of the 

 Ripley he was a great favorite, and as he was always 

 ready to side with the sailors in any dis^iutes with the 

 captain, they fully agreed with liim in his decision about 

 the business of codlishing. 



W^hile speaking of ]Mi*. Audubon's ha-bits on board his 

 vessel, Mr. Fowler told me that he was always at work 

 and seemed never to manifest any fatigue. With the 

 dawning of the day he was always on the alert to dis- 

 cover and study tlie habits of the sea birds, which hap- 

 pened to cross his horizon, When not taking notes or 

 writing be was occupied Avith his pencil, and in his cabin 

 he had an easel so ai-rauged that he could fasten his spe- 

 cimens in the most favorable position, to be drawn or 

 painted wdth the greatest cai'e. The keenness of his eye- 

 sight for everything connected with nature was a striking 

 feature of his character, but Mr. Fowler mentioned one 

 incident to me which proved that he might fall into an 

 error. He had noticed that the top of a rocky cliff pre- 

 sented an appearance resembling snow, and havuig ex- 

 pressed siu-prise at its continuance into the month of 

 June, he was overwhelmed with astonishment to learn 

 that what he liad taken for snow, was au incredible 

 number of gulls resting in their nests. Tins was a new 

 revelation, even to tlie man of science, and resulted in a 

 very complete examination of the northern gulls. In prose- 

 cuting that labor of love, he came in contact with the 

 e^gers of Labrador, whom he greatly disliked on account 

 of their cruelty to the feathered tribes as well as their 

 cupidity, and he was (luite vrilling to believe a story that 

 was told him to the effect that four men collected in two 

 months not less than frair hundred thousand eggs and 

 sold them in Halif a x at an extravagant price per dozen. 



Diu-ing his sojourn in Labrador, he not only studied the 

 habits of bh'ds and the formation of the coast, but took a 

 gxeat interest in the people, whom he pitied while com- 

 mending them for many good cjualiiies. .After leaving 

 Labrador, where lie met and enjoyed the comjianionship 

 of Admiral Henry Woolsey Bav'iield, then ou a surveying- 

 expedition in die (xuliiare, lie saUed along the Avestern 

 coast of Ne-n foundland, visited Pictou and the bays of 

 Nova Scotia, anil returned in safety to Eastpoi-t. ' Not 

 long afterward, and ]»erhaps with a'^dew of getting his 

 blood warm again, he went to Florida, where he obtained 

 the materials for his cli.arming episodes on the "Live Oak- 

 ers," on "Deer Hunting," "The Wreckers and Turtlers 

 and Pu-ates of Florida." He next turned his attention to 

 the then unknown region of the Yellowstone where, with 



pleasant companions, he spent the greater part of a year. 

 hut without doing any work, and finally reWned to his 

 home on the Hudson. 



Diu-tng this t\\-ilight period of his life he rose early, 

 visited his caged birds, painted and -wrote in his library, 

 walked in the v.-oodlands for exercise, and retired to bed 

 at an early hour. 



He greatly enjoyed the manifold comforts of his home 

 and the companionship, in tranquil happiness, of liis wite 

 and sons, daughter.s-in-law and grandchildren (winch 

 wa.s the time when I had the privilege of kno\\dng him in 

 person), until his sight began to fail and a cloud fell upon 

 his nuud, when he had to be cared for like a child, and 

 linally died in perfect peace and contentment. 



It may be mentioned, in concluding this paper, that a 

 very interesting 'Biography of the 'Great Naturalist, 

 edited by his widow, was jjublished m New York in 1869, 

 and deserves a j)lace in' every library. 



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INDIAN ARROW MAKING. 



''INHERE are in California two lakes named Clear Lake. 

 JL One is in the Modoc country, the other in Lake 

 county. The neighborhood of the latter lake was inhab- 

 ited by a race of Digger Indians. Of the tln-ee islands in 

 the lake, viz.. Alem , Oc-koy-em and Kam-deit. the first 

 named, situated at tlie extremity of the east arm of the 

 lake was the most important. Its dwellers, called Alem- 

 vo or men of Alem, held the ground to be a chief place or 

 capital camp of the tribe, and on this island was built the 

 sacred dance house, a massive structure uot unlike the 

 joint-tenement house of the Mandans and Arickarees in 

 plan, but dug out deeper and built more underground. 



In the year lS7o, or at least within a year or two of that 

 date, for information on this point is not exact, there was 

 a gathering of aU the scattering bands of the tribe to the 

 headquai-ters at Clear Lake. Prophets had been busy 

 foretelhng a great flood which was to drown the whitens 

 to a man. It does not api)ear that these prophets had a 

 clear notion of the futiu-e fate of the Indians, but from 

 motives of religion or to seek safety more than five hun- 

 dred Indians came together at their chief camp. The 

 wMte settlers finally combined and made the Indians, 

 whose nuudiers ami ]iower were alarming, scatter back 

 to the As'oods, but during their stay at the lake a chance 

 was had of studying Indian life. 

 It was here that my friend saw the manufacture of 

 arrow-heads carried on as a 

 liveliliood. Boxes full of 

 spear and arrow points m all 

 stages of rudeness and finish 

 are in his collection. It aji- 

 pears that at the base of Mount 

 Uncle Sam, on the west of 

 Clear Lake, tliere is a ti:act 

 two or tlu-ee miles in extent 

 covered with fragments of 

 obsidian. Even brush cannot 

 grow m some places on ac- 

 count of the abundance of 

 black broken slag, and to walk 

 over the bed cuts one's boots 

 to pieces quickly. 



With material so plenty, the 

 Indians are careful to choose 

 tinly those pieces best shaped 

 by nature for their purpose, 

 but at places distant from the 

 source of the supply, the ob- 

 sidian, which is often brought 

 in large blocks, is c]iip]ied off 

 in flakes from around a cen- 

 tral core by blows of a rock. 



The expert who showed my 

 friend the secret of the art 

 was an old man who had 

 practiced this trade all his life. 

 For division of labor is carried 

 a good way among Indian 

 tribes, and even at the date I 

 write of it was hard to find a 

 man who could make a bow, 

 so much had that "mystery"" 

 declined since the mtroduc- 

 tion of firearms. 



The old expert put on his 

 left hand a piece of buckskin 

 with a hole cut in it to let the 

 thumb pass through, something like the "palm" used by 

 sailmakers. This was, of coiu-se. to jirotect his hand 

 while at Avork. In his right liand he took a tool of bone 

 ground down to a blunt point. These tools, made often 

 from the leg-bone of -a deer, are assorted in size, large ones 

 being used for coarse work and small ones for fine Avork, 

 A piece of obsidian of the right size was held in the left 

 hand, then the right thumb was pressed on the top of the 

 stone while the point of the bone was strongly pressed 

 against the imder edge of the proposed arrow head and a 

 little splinter of obsidian worked off. The operation was 

 similar to the opening of a can with one of the old-fash- 

 ioned can oiieners that work without leverage. Often 

 times material is spoiled in the sharpening. Around 

 deserted camps piles of rejected fragments are sometimes 

 found, either broken in putting on the edge or not being 

 near enough tlie desu-ed ehape to ]3ay for working up. 



I took a tracing from a, long slender spear head of mod- 

 erately good finish, but tliis reproduction does no justice 

 to the" article. 



A good deal of the sharpener's work, too, consisted in 

 freshening u]i the edges of points blunted by use. 



One arrow-head, weather-worn by exjiosure, was shown 

 me with a boi-der of fresh fractures extending from Jfin. 

 ^in. in from the edge where the sharpener's tool had been. 



There results from this process a serrated edge which in 

 the best specimens is beautifully fine and regular, but in 

 rougher tools is often coarse. The old workman was care- 

 ful ot his stock in trade and roUed up the fruit of liis in- 

 dustry in a bit of ragged blanket to prevent its being in- 

 jured while in ti-ansit from place to place. 



Sta. Babbaea, Cal. H. G. DULOG. 



I 



A Black Lynx.— Calais, Me., Sept. 4:.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream: W^ien in Minneapolis, Minn., a short time 

 since, I saw in Mr. Tappan"s^ taxidermist shop the skin of 

 a black lynx (Lynx rufiis). It vv-as killed in South Florida 

 the winter of ' 1885. l" have scpu very dark and nearly 

 black wolf skins in Florida, liut never 'before saw or heard 

 of a black lynx. It is to be sent to the isational Museum, 

 Washing-ton, — Geo, A. Boardman. 



_L L. AKBEN. 



In, -1.1 an an- 

 il (Bt)H- 



KUCKNT AHIUVAI^S .ATTMi; T'UIL.\1)J:;LI'!I I 



— i-urcliased— ] red ouiUcari (iir«c7ii/«r(/« 

 celope i (Aiihhi/Jt' crnmiirrt) and 2 uplio- 



Cifl maiielKonru). PrcsentiMl.- 1 bLae]: i:- <imencantif). 

 1 oiJossum and 10 voutiu- (r7i(7.'?p/(. ■ ■ tux il ifO'i's 



fiuviis), bittern (Boiuin-iiH mrnm-- ■ : i, . -AiBuljovi.- 



gunanii) and o allia-atnrs i Alliqatn}- :•: , ..lu, j- . jiorn— 1 \ ir- 

 .^inia deei- (Ct?TMs vinpinninm), 1 coaimou luacaque {Macacuscyim- 

 iiutUiuH), 1 zebu ; i ?>'o-: o;./)! k.s) and 1 naked-oarod deer 5 (Cerinis cam- 

 pe.sirm. 



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HUNTING IN THE HIMALAYAS. 



Lights and Shades of an Indian Forester's Life. 



/"-^AMP GANGES, Lower Gm-hwal,. SewaHks, East 

 V-'' India. — While for aught I know to the contrary, 

 the tiger and the boar may have been renewing the 

 deadly combat in the spirit land, we crossed the low 

 ridge and entered the valley, the scene of the man-eater's 

 last exploit. At the point we struck it the grass cover 

 was low, and tlie valley not much more than a liunch'ed 

 yards wide, and 'v\-e knew from the description that the 

 beast had made his fatal spring from the high cover lower 

 down. EsclieAving the path, we went through the grass, 

 starting several po'rcnpines by the way. A quarter of a 

 mile brought us to heavy cover. The valley ^\-as now 

 \%-ider. at least two liundred yards (m either side of the 

 road, and tlvr cover being vevy dense and high, was not 

 easily beaten with three elephants. 3Ioreover, there was 

 no chance for a shot unless the tiger took the hillside. G. 

 took his elephant within thirty yards of the hill, the bagj- 

 gage elephant took a line ten yards from^the road, and i 

 kept on about midway between them. W'eliad gone half 

 a mile in this order when my elephant stopped and gave 

 sign, and with rifle poised I tried, but in vain, to get a 

 sight of the foe. If I had been alone I would have risked 

 a shot. While I was meditating the grass began to wave, 

 the elephant was pushed on, and the tiger went away 

 with a rusli, not crossing G. but making- .straight 

 ahead as I feared he might if •! fired. G. now 

 motione<l to me to liold back the two elephants while he 

 pushed on down the foot of tlieri.se; this I did until he 

 had got about 150yds. start, when we once more started 

 beating. Another' 200yds. and G.'s elephant stopped, and 

 following the dnection of his rifle, I saw the tiger bound- 

 ing up the hiU about 150yds. in front of him and nearly 

 double that distance from me. G. fired both barrels, but 

 the tiger kept on his course, and I lost sight of him im- 

 mediately. G. Avas seriously put out, bur he had marked 

 the S]x>t and decided to go up and look for traces of blood, 

 so takin,:;- our elephants a bit ahead, vi'e left them at the 

 foot of the rise, and arming, our two followers went up 

 the liill. The mountaineers found wiiere one bullet had 

 struck on a boulder and deciphered a tiger's track close 

 below it, and after a long hunt the fragments of thi' other 

 ball were dug out of the coarse pebbly gravel. G. displayed 

 a deep undercun-eut of repressed excitement and I en- 

 deavored to calm him by suggesting that the valley would 

 surely be the constant haunt of one or more tigers and 

 that there was nothing to indicate that it was tlie man- 

 eater we had put up. " "Saiiibi sahib!" cried one of the 

 mountaineeis excitedly, and wheeling sharply roimd, we 

 saw a tiger ascending the opposite bank about 300yds. off. 

 "You can fu-e if you like," said G., seeing me sit down 

 prepare to draw a bead, elbow on knee for a rest, "but 

 it's useless.'' And I realizing the odds against a success- 

 full shot forebore to pull trigger. There might be yet 

 another tiger in the cover and tu-ing would only tend to 

 drive him out. 



Retiirning to our elephants, G. agreed that if we had 

 started in the order we tool: up later, the tiger would 

 proliably have l a-oken cover near- him; and he proposed 

 to me to take the advance^ I waived all claim, and 

 while G. was forging ahead 1 got the other elephants in 

 jjosition and recommenced beating. Another two miles 

 took us to the end of the cover, which we reached with- 

 out seeing sign, and as it w-as now past 7 o'clock, we dis- 

 mounted and had breakfast. 



Wlule engaged in filling our pipes I saw a tiger step 

 out of the cover we had lately come through, ascend the 

 hill a few jjaces, and turn and look at us, Dropijing 

 knife and tobacco, I snatched up my rifle. G. followed 

 my example, but the instant eyes met the beast sprang 

 back into cover. We were soon in our howdahs, beating- 

 back the same ground, G. stealing ahead under the hill as 

 before. We had gone perhaps five or six hundred yards, 

 when I s:iw a movement in the grass between G. and me, 

 and whistling him as a signal, I wheeled round, got back- 

 ward and nearer the hill, and signaled to the baggage 

 mahout to wheel round toward tlie tiger, while G. came 

 sti-aight do-wn uiion him. G. and I were not more than 

 a hxmdred yards apart, and he lessening the distance, and 

 if the tiger broke cover here one or both of us must get a 

 good shot. My own elephant was stationary, and I was 

 watching the spot at which I had last seen the grass 

 move. G. was closmg in rapidly, and I motioned the 

 baggage mahout to move forward, when raising my eye 

 for a moment I saw the beast put uji bis head on the hill- 

 side. Before either of us cordd the he had tiu-ned and 

 was coming with a rush right between us at the baggage 

 elephant, w-hich turned tail and let him pass. G, and I 

 pushed rapidly across the patliway after him, but all was 

 still again, and i made the pivot while the other elephants 

 wheeled round to keep the tiger do%vn valley, G. making 

 a big- sweep to get near the hill again. Letting him get a 

 good lead, I put the other elephants in motion, and we 

 once more beat back to the end of the cover "without 

 result, and after a short consultation turned and beat up 

 the valley. 



Another half hour took us nearly two miles up the val- 



