222 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



fOcT. U, 1886. 



SAM LOVEL'S CAMPS.-VIII. 



AFT'ER the cold snap came a week of soft-breafhed 

 days and dark, still, frostless nigMs, wherein the 

 traps waylaid many a nightly wandering muskrat, and 

 the trappers' harvest was rich. 



Some of the earliest comers of birds were beginning 

 nest building, the wood ducks had chosen theh homes, 

 and dtisky ducks in pairs sought the remotest coves, 

 while great flocks of then- companions went on their way 

 northward. The crows scorned now the once prized heap 

 of muskrat carcasses, for they had entered mto full pos- 

 session of theh ancient rights, and swaggered about the 

 fields with an air of absolute ownership, and were evi- 

 dently somewhat impatient that their tenants, the farmers, 

 were zo slow in beginning corn planting. 



More birds came from the south; remforcements of the 

 dusky army of blackbirds with flashing troops of red- 

 wings; the main body of the robins joined the advance 

 guard and the thickets were more populous with slate- 

 colored snowbii-ds, and noisy with then- sharp metalhc 

 chirping; and there were many arrivals of later comers. 

 The highhole cackled and hammered again on his lofty 

 perch, the white-throated sparrow called all day long for 

 the ever absent Mr. Peabody, and the wailing cry of the 

 grass plover arose from meadows and upland pastures. 

 Out of nooks of the marshes the booming of the bittern 

 resounded over the watery level, a sound so strange to Pela- 

 tiali's ears that he asked, "Who be them fellers a drivin' 

 stakes in the ma'sh, an' what be they a-duin' on it forV" 

 and was greatly astonished when told that it was only 

 the voice of a bird, and entertained an uncomfortabre 

 suspicion that Sam was fooling him till one day when he 

 stealthily stalked the sound and saw a "gob gudgeon" 

 standing on a mass of marsh drift diligently pumping out 

 his dolorous love song. "By gol!" Pelatiah remarked, as, 

 when he disclosed himself the startled fowl sprang upon 

 his awkward flight with a contemptuous parting salute, 

 "liis ol' pump needs primm' if that's all he's got for so 

 much fuss!" By day and by night stranger outcries came 

 from the marshes, weird laiighter and wild yells, the 

 voices of unknown waterfoT\ l that were never seen. 



The recurved hues of the water maple's branches be- 

 gan to glow with dots and clusters of scarlet, and the 

 wfllows shone with catkins of silver and gold, caskets 

 which held a treasure that all the bees of the region came 

 to steal. The grass was greening in the swales and on 

 the warmest slopes, and the farmers Avere plowing in a 

 dozen fields within sight and as many more? within hear- 

 ing, aU shouting to theu- slow teams of oxen so vocifer- 

 ously that Pelatiah said, as he lounged on the banlc in 

 front of the shanty: "It's eq'l tu a lawgin' bee t' hum!" 

 and as his thoughts ran homeward led by these familiar 

 sounds, "Darn it aU! I s'pose I'd ort tu be t' hum a-helpin' 

 aour folks, but I snum, I'd di-uther stay here!" and his 

 gaze wandered across lots to the white house. 



"Wal, we'll all go torights, Peltier," said Sam, "the 

 trappin's 'baout done up — ^hain't got scasely nuthin' these 

 tew three nights — 'n' I expec' the'll be a team arter us 

 'fore the end o' the week, *n' theu we'll puU up an' clear 

 aout." 



"Bah gosh!" cried Antoine, "we'll ant go 'fore the bull 

 pawt was bit an' we'll ketch lot of it! Bah gosh, no! De 

 eyelin was be gittin' warm, an' Ah'll know he was bit 

 pooty soon, prob'ly to-naght, prob'ly to-morreh naght. Ah 

 dun-no. Ah'U gat some hook an' lahne w'en All was go 

 store. Where Ah'll put dat? Ahfi-eegit, Ah'U be so seek 

 dat tarn?" and he began a hurried and excited search 

 among his disorderly effects for the missing tackle. 

 "Hoorah, here he was! Naow, Sam, give me some bul- 

 let for mak sinkit an' Ah'll f eex up for try to-naght, 'f Ah 

 can fin' som' wum. Ah'll gat some pole-feesh more as 

 week 'go. Oh, Ah can ketch it if any bod-dy can ketch," 

 he bragged as he half -hitched a hook on to the coarse 

 line, "Ah was preffick feeshymans." Then he split one 

 of the Ore Bed's big balls half in two and closed it on the 

 line, which he then rigged upon a pole that had had more 

 labor bestowed upon it in trimming and peeling than its 

 original worth seemed to have wan-anted, for it was top- 

 heavy and as crooked as an eel. Perhaps its owner con- 

 sidered this a vii-tue rather than a fault, and hoped that 

 the reflection of the contorted "hard hack" might entice 

 some lonely eel to its companionship, and the eel was to 

 him what the trout and salmon are to the scientific angler. 

 Having his outfit arranged to his satisfaction he cx'ossed 

 the Slang in the dugout to the ctdtivated fields beyond in 

 quest of earth worms, and Pelatiah accomj)anied Mm on 

 his way to return the borrowed bag, while the camp was 

 left to the keepmg of Sam and his hound. 



Sam busied himself with bundling up the dried peltry, 

 and Drive was as busy with inefl'ectual digging in the 

 nearest muskrat burrow, which long after the beleaguered 

 rat had plowed his way to safety toward the channel of 

 the Slang with a sluggish, heavy, under-water wake 

 faintly marking his fmTOw, he abandoned; and shaking 

 and wiping some of the dht from his long ears and soz-- 

 rowful face, sought more congenial jjastime in chasing 

 and being clxased by a vixen who had begun housekeep- 

 ing and "the rearing of a family not far away. Once, 

 rating this ancient enemy of her race with angry, gasping 

 barks, she followed him so close to camp that Sam got a 

 full view of her in her sorry and tattered faded-yellow 

 garb of vulpine maternity, not twenty yards behind the 

 slinking, shame-faced hound. "Good arternoon, marm!" 

 he said, "if 't was in the fall o' the year, naow, yer tail 

 'ould be a pintin' tow-wards that 'ere sueakin' ol' bundle 

 o' kag hoops, an' the'd be a diff'ent style o' music in 

 fashion! Good-bye, raarm," as the vixen vanished be- 

 hind the veil of hazy undergrowth, "I wish ye good luck 

 a raisin' yer fam'ly, an' 'ould like to make the hull of yer 

 'quaintances come November, an' ye git yer good close 

 on. Oh, Drive! haint you a spunky dawg, askulkin' hum 

 with yer tail atween yer laigs afore a nasty little bitch 

 fox not quarter's big as you be!" as the hound came up 

 to him and endeavored to explain the peculiarities of the 

 situation with whimpers and more deeply coiTUgated 

 brow, and quick, low-swung tail beats that shook all Ms 

 lean anatomy. "A spunky ol' haoun' dawg you be! But 

 yer juUuk me, an' I guess the most o' tew-legged he hu- 

 merus. Lord! I'd druther wrastle with a mad painter 'an 

 to face a jawin' womern, I be dum'd if I hedn't! If they 

 won't take the sptmk aouten a feller, he's tougher 'n a 

 bUed aowl!" 



The sun was down, and the reflected gold of the west- 



ern sky lay unbroken on the quiet water save where a 

 skimmmg bank swallow touched it with the fight dip of 

 his wing, or a fish lazily rose to an insect that dimpled it 

 as it fell exliausted in its too adventurous flight, before the 

 returning dugout vexed the Slang into a thousand distor- 

 tions of mirrored sky and shores. 



Antoine's bait hunting had been successful and he had 

 an old teapot half full of angle worms, an encouraging 

 sign of future luck, he thought, and supper was no sooner 

 over over than he betook himself to the bank >\dth pole 

 and teapot. He charged his hook with a bait that might 

 entice the fullest fed and most indifferent bullhead in all 

 the Slang, and spitting on it for luck, sent it with a wMsht- 

 ling overhead cast straight out from shore, where it and 

 the heavy sinker plunged with a kerchug! that again 

 awoke the waves. While he sat waiting -s^dth statutesque 

 patience for a bite his companions watched him with an 

 interest at first quite intense, but which ^xe^v languid as 

 Antome's form became an undefined dark blur in the 

 dusk and yet gave no sign that his patient waiting had 

 been rewarded with even a Mbble, 



Then they saw the flicker of a feeble light just kindled 

 away down stream on the further shore. Presently it 

 grew from the volume of a candle flame to a brilliant 

 blaze, and then began to slowly skirt the shore, attended 

 by its glittering red dancing reflection, and revealing one 

 figure, one side red with fii-e fight, the other black with 

 shadow standing close behind it, and dimly suggesting 

 another crouching a little further away with a paddle 

 that gleamed for an instant at regular intervals as it was 

 raised for a sti-oke, then faded into the gloom. Then the 

 fight turned toward them, and yawmg along its course 

 came more swiftly down its own shortening glade, grow- 

 ing larger and sending down frequent showers of sparks 

 on either side, each spark and its double meeting at the 

 waters' surface and vanisMng there together. The square 

 prow of a scow became visible, and a man standing 

 therein, wielding a spear that he made a show of wefi-in- 

 tended but fiieffectual paddfing with. 



"Hillo, Dan vis!" hailed the actual propelling power in 

 the stern. 



Hello, Lakefield," Sam answered, recognizing the sten- 

 torian voice of his whilom enemy, and giving him in re- 

 turn the name of his township. 



"Wanter take a leetle turn up the Slang a-spearin'?" 



"Wal, I do' know," said Sam, rising and going toward 

 them as the scow surged through the floating sedges and 

 butted against the shore, "I can't spear a fish; never done 

 sech a tMng in my life." 



"Oh, you needn't du no spearin'. Jimmy '11 'tend t' 

 that; he's a ripjoer t' spear. You c'n help me paddle 'f 

 you're a minter, an' Jimmy '11 prod 'em. He's wus 'n a 

 kingfisher; haint that so, Jimmy?" 



Jimmy, who seemed not much given to speech, an- 

 swered only with a grunt, and drew from his pocket a 

 plug of tobacco, which, after slowly and thoughfuUy 

 turning in the light of the jack in search of the most vul- 

 nerable corner, he gnawed a quid from, and then extended 

 toward Sam. The friendly offering was declined with 

 thanks and the explanation that Sam "didn't never 

 chaw." 



"Come on," urged the other occupant of the scow, "an' 

 ha' some fun an' git some fish f ' yer breakfus. He c'n go 

 tu, if he wants to see the fun. The's room 'nough," nod- 

 ding toward Pelatiah. 



"Feesh for breakfis!" cried Antoine, as he jerked a bull- 

 head out and landed it with a heavy thud on the bank the 

 pole's and line's length behind him, where it protested 

 against the sudden change of elements with vigorous 

 flapping of its tail and grinding of its jaws, "Bah gosh, 

 here he'U was, dumn sight gre' deal better as peckrils 

 was! Ant you'll hear it grape hees toofs? Dat 'cause he'll 

 know haow good he'll was wen he'll be fry, an' he'U mad 

 'cause he can't heat some of it heesef. Oh, he'll good 

 wan!" as, with the hancUness of one who knows the trick, 

 he grasped the fish between the thorny pectorals and dor- 

 sal and disengaged the hook; "he'll humpy fellar. Dey's 

 more of it comin'. AU hees ree-lashin' comin' breakfis. 

 You go spearin' you wan' to, Ali'U stay here an' tol' it 

 good evelin wen he'U come." 



Sam and Pelatiah took their allotted places in the boat, 

 wMch resumed its slow and silent way over the submerged 

 marshes. The glaring light of the jack, fed at times from 

 a store of "fat" pine, out of the darkness conjured ghostly 

 forms of trees that seemed to stalk out from the shore to 

 meet them, then receded and vanished in the gloom behind 

 them. A muskrat in bootless quest of departed friends, 

 halted on his course and lay for a moment \^ith as little 

 motion as a drifting stick, regarding the unwonted floating 

 illumination of his haunts, then dived with a startling 

 sudden splash. An ov^l flitted with noiseless flight like a 

 gigantic moth, close to the glaring torch, and disappearing, 

 hooted out a cry of wonder or a hoarse laugh of derision 

 fi'om the more congenial depths of night. And wood- 

 ducks sat on their roosts of prone trees with charmed gaze 

 till the falling sparks hissed close beside them before they 

 sprang fluttering away into the gloom, uttering wild 

 squeaks of fright. As the scow headed across a broad 

 shallow, the intent spearsman raised Ms spear, and as the 

 craft was checked in obedience to the motion, he made a 

 quick thrust and brought in a great pickerel, whose strug- 

 gles were quickly ended by a stamp of his captor's boot- 

 heel. 



"That's the sort, Jimmy," %aid Ms comrade in loud 

 approval. Jimmy only gnmted, and a moment later 

 hurled his spear twice its length. As the boat came up to 

 the wriggling and waving shaft, he stooped, and picking 

 it up, boated a large fish. "Swago," he lacomcally cata- 

 logued it and stamped it into everlasting rest. 



"That's the way Jimmy jerks 'em in," cried Ms friend 

 and patron. "When he mns his eye aout at 'em, they're 

 goners, you better b'lieve! I argy he does it by charuun' 

 on 'em with his good looks. You've noticed 'at he's on- 

 common harnsome," 



"Onph!" Jhomy grunted, and after some slow rumina- 

 tion of his cud, speaking more at length than was his 

 wont, "Guess you haint no gret to brag on that way, Joe, 

 no more 'n me. Folks calls him Time," addressing Sam 

 and indicating Ms comrade by a backward movement of 

 his head, "'cause he favors the pictur o' Time in the 

 primmer. " 



" 'Tend right tu yer spearin', Jimmy, an' don't tire yer- 

 self a-talkui'," said Joe. And Jimmy raised his spear, 

 then arresting it in a half delivered stroke, said with su- 

 preme contempt, "Cussed bowfini" and the boat moved 

 on. Presently he poised Ms spear and announced, "Mud 

 turkle. or buster. SheUI?" 



"Let liim hev!" shouted the commander of the expedi- 

 tion, and the spear went imerringly to its mark, Jimmy 

 gnmted profusely as he Hf ted the sprawhng monster in- 

 board partly by the spear and partly by a "tafi holt," He 

 was a patriarch of the oozy depths with the moss of many ^ 

 years cfinging to his broad sheU, and was vicious in ap- 

 pearance and behavior. 



"Cut off Ms cussed ol' head," said Joe, passing Ms open 

 jack-knife forward, "an' let him c'mence his nine days o' 

 dyin' right off. Mebby you're the man 'at ketched my 

 goslin's, you humbly ol' cuss! Haow d' ye like that kind 

 of sass yerself?" as Jimmy sawed away at the turtle's 

 tough neck just below where the spear transfixed it, 

 wMle the reptile clawed at the knife and hissed angrily. 

 When he was decapitated and laid upon his back the boat 

 moved on to new conquests, Jimmy taking many fine 

 fish of various kinds before they reached the head of navi- 

 gation, where a rude, low log bridge baned their further 

 way. As they skirted the left bank on their homeward 

 cruise, Jimmy stUl alert for more victims, Joe said: 

 "Jimmy 's a cuss to spear, wus 'n a kingfisher or a blue 

 herrin, but he won't paddle er pole. Some says it's 'cause 

 he's lazy, but I 'low it's on'y 'cause he don't like tu work!" 



"Onph! Lazy! The' wa' n't nobody 't ever wasted the' 

 breath a-tellin' haow 't you was lazy," was Jimmy's only 

 reply to the imputation. 



When they reached the landing at the camp aU went 

 ashore and stretched their cramped legs, and found the 

 warmth of the fii'e very comf ortuig, for the dampness and 

 cMU of the spring mght had crept into their bones. 



CRANE ISLAND. 

 Governor De Montmagny's Came Preserve. 



BY J. M. MOINE. 

 Autlior of "Quebec Past and Present," "Maple Leaves," "Chroni- 

 cles ot the St. Lawrence," etc. 



THAT quaint old repository of historical lore, the 

 "Relations dea Jesuites,"' makes mention, among 

 others, of two picturesque islands in the St. Lawrence, 

 tMrty-six miles lower than Quebec. P^re Le Jeune 

 alludes to them at an early date as the inviolate sanctum 

 and breeding ground of milhons of ducks and teal, whose 

 loud voices made the whole place vocal in the summer 

 season. We are told, however, that in that ann€e terrible, 

 1663, as memorable as the present is likely to be for 

 Charleston, South Carolina, owing to frightful and con- 

 tinuous earthquakes, the soU rolled and quaked, some 

 added, "to that degree that church steeples would bend 

 and kiss the earth and then rise again." This last feat, from 

 its novelty, would doubtless have been particularly 

 attractive to witness from a balloon, for instance, or from 

 the deck of a ship; from anywhere, in fact, except from 

 old mother earth. Such are'some of the notices our early 

 annals furmsh. Governor de Montmagny seems to have 

 set Ms mind at procuring these islands as a game preserve 

 for himself and friends. In May, 1646, Louis XTV., the 

 Grand Monarque, made a grant of these islands to Ms 

 trusty heutenant holding court at the Chateau Saint 

 Louis, at Quebec. A famous Nimrod, one would fain 

 believe, was this Knight Grand Cross of Jerusalem and 

 Governor of Quebec, Charles Huault de Montmagny. He 

 left his name to the flourisMng county of Montmagny, 

 which includes Ms cherished shooting box. Of the bags 

 of game he annuaUy made up on the verdant and swampy 

 beaches of Ms isles, of the roasted black duck, teal and 

 snipe he had served up to Ms merry Uttle court within the 

 sacred precincts of Castle of St. Louis, we have no 

 record save the faint tracmgs of tradition. 



Natm-e itself seemed to have predestined this group of 

 green, sofitary isles as the home of the aquatic tribe. It 

 afforded it more than a pleasant haunt durmg the spring 

 and fall, a breeding j)lace in summer, it contained an 

 hospital for the infirm and wounded bhds of the neigh- 

 borhood. Mere Juchereau, of the Hotel Dieu Hospital, at 

 Quebec, in her Diary, under date of July 8, 1714, when 

 with eight of the saintly sisterhood and the Almoner, 

 Rev. Messire Thibault (with the sanction of the Bishop, 

 she adds), was Aasiting by water conveyance Big Goose 

 Island, then recently pm-chased by the monastery and 

 held by it to this day, wiU describe con aviore this singu- 

 lar rock, stiU known as rocher de VHopital: "We re- 

 tm-ned," says she, "from om excursion, which had lasted 

 eight days, perfectly defighted with the beauty and fer- 

 tility of the spot. Among the most striking objects," 

 she adds, "there is a large rock, which from time imme- 

 morial goes by the name of the Hospital, because any 

 Canada goose (outarde) or other sea fowl wounded by 

 fowlers, hun-ies to this rock, like unto an asylum, where 

 rehef is at hand. The feathered tribe have here delicate 

 appliances, in wMch art would seem to play a greater 

 part than nature. A number of holes of various size are 

 scooped out of the solid rock. The tide flows into them, 

 the sun warms the tidal water remaining therein. The 

 mvalid birds bathe and luxuriate in these tepid reservou's. 

 When shaUow water is required, they resort to one of the 

 smaUer cavities, or else plunge into a larger one, as they 

 may fancy. "They repose on the heated stone or else fie 

 imbedded in the moss to cool themselves. In hospital 

 we noticed sick or wounded outardes (Canada geese). 

 Tliey apparently recognized us as Hospitalieres nuns. We 

 were careful not to scare them, and ascended to the sum- 

 mit of the Hospital rock, from which the eye took in a 

 wide expanse of water — a sea," Such is the bright pic- 

 ture drawn by good Mother Juchereau de St, Ignace, the 

 annalist of the monastery. 



Whence the name of Crane Island? That erratic wan- 

 derer, sung by Hora, Ch'uem advenam, the wary crane 

 having also sought the island as a trysting place during 

 the spruig and fall migrations from Floiida to the far 

 coimtries and Hudson Bay, the place was caUed after 

 it, Crane Island. Under French rule the law lent its pro- 

 tection to the game it contained. Special ordonnances 

 de ehasse were passed io that effect and some legislation 

 to protect the ducks, etc., at the period of incubation also 

 took place under the early English Governors; at one time 

 several varieties of aquatic fowl resorted for food or incu- 

 bation to its vast meadows, clothed in luxmiant, coarse 



frass called la rouche—a substantial fodder for cattle, 

 'ot-hunters having undertaken to hunt with dogs the 

 fledglmgs, in July, before they could fly, the parent birds 

 resented such unsportsmanfike practices and sought other 

 breeding places in the more secluded isles, on thb Labra- 

 dor coast or in the neighborhood of Lake St, John. They 

 still return in the faU. 



Among the early proprietors of these islands figure the 

 names of some of the officers of the dasMng Carignan- 



