288 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. S, 1895. 



7ff ^portsnian ^ottmt 



THE MEN WITH THE LAMP. 



This fall* at about the time of the coming of the 

 chicken, some men spnt one of their number to me say- 

 ing: "On such a day, at 11:40 A. M., be at the Union 

 Station prepared to start to the land of the Dakotas." 

 Accordingly on the day appointed T approached the ren- 

 dezvous with a carpet-sack filled with some old clothes 

 and a nightgown, a case containing a shotgun, two more 

 cases containing cartridges, and a pointer dog containing 

 the remains of the family breakfast. The men referred 

 to were the Judge, the Colonel and the Doctor, and they 

 had been intrusted for the chicken season with the Lamp 

 of Aladdin. And they were like the seven wise Virgins 

 in that they had it trimmed and burning, although the 

 likeness was not otherwise apparent. For the Judge had 

 left his pocketbook, the Colonel could not find his gun 

 trunk, and the Doctor's dog was announced to be sum- 

 mering at a quiet resort in Minnesota a hundred miles 

 out of our line of flight. They had invoked their lamp 

 early in the day, and at the rear of the train was a car 

 containing a kitchen, dining-room, parlor sleeping rooms 

 and provision chest, to say nothing of Albert, king of 

 cooks, and Jonas, prince of butlers, whose faculty for 

 discovering cooling beverages and misplaced hats and 

 guns was simply occult. Again the lamp and presto! 

 came the Colonel's trunk just before the train moved out. 

 The Judge, whose pocketbook was left behind, by 2 

 o'clock the following morning had mine — or was it that 

 the Doctor got it and the Judge only waited to take it 

 from a man of his own size? or did he find his own in 

 his pocket after all when he changed coats at St, Paul 

 the next morning? Anyhow it was the lamp, as it was 

 all the way through. This was especially the case at the 

 last-named city, where we tarried a day, for on that 

 morning I went up town with the Doctor, and every time 

 one of those low-cut or decollette bicycles passed him by 

 he became rooted to the spot he stood on, losing all 

 power of motion except the ability to turn slowly as if on 

 a revolving pedestal; and in the afternoon when I went 

 forth with the Judge it was the same way, excepting a 

 pronounc' d and broad-minded disregard of the means of 

 locomotion employed by the moving cause of the strange 

 manifestation. Only a car equipped as ours was could 

 have gotten out of St. Paul with those two men, as it did 

 at 8 o'clock, just as we were sitting down to dinner. 



When we awoke next morning we were at the summer- 

 ing place of the Doctor's family, where we took aboard 

 his dog Fritz. The Colonel had telegraphed to have his 

 sailboat gotten out, and some of them went for a sail, 

 while two of us went a-fishing. I won't say who was 

 with me, because he couldn't catch anything, and I don't 

 like to expose him to contumely. He is respectably con- 

 nected. The kind of fish I caught is essentially a pan fish, 

 warranted not to upset in any pan. 



We hung our lamp on the hind end of our car that 

 night and by morning we were in the middle of North 

 Dakota! This is a straight tale, but the editor is requested 

 to give my address and the choice of athletic clubs to any 

 small-sized man who doubts it. Others are treated with 

 scorn. P. S — Just make it scorn all around. In these 

 agnostic times we are tolerant. 



When we arrived in North Dakota the Judge proceeded 

 to wipe my eye. We hired a man with a wagon for $19 50 

 a day or thereabouts to carry us and some iced victuals to 

 the haunts of the chicken anrf pintail. I think the price was 

 a sort of composite one, made up of the various items of 

 the outfit at a fair valuation, with mileage and insurance 

 added. We had killed a few chickens, when up jumped 

 a curlew, which the Judge promptly shot. But tnis was 

 not what happened to my eye; for I didn't shoot that 

 time, and the Judge didn't hit him anyway. He only 

 dropped when he shot because that was all the further he 

 was going that way. He made the rest of his journey on 

 foot up a little stream. But we chased him along until 

 his tongue began to hang out, when he again took wing 

 and made straight at me with a calmness born of what I 

 say was despair, but the Judge says was conviction. 

 Whether it was his tongue hanging out that way that 

 disconcerted me, or because he had his claws up to his 

 ears to protect them from the concussion, I cannot say; 

 but at any rate I missed him with both barrels, after 

 which the Judge killed him at long range by a beautiful 

 quartering shot. His gun must have gone off by itself, 

 for I don't see how it could have been fired at the right 

 time any other way. It was really a credible perform- 

 ance on its part, and if it had been the gun that danced 

 on the grass and jeered at me I should not have minded 

 it a bit. 



At about this juncture a man approached our wagon 

 and ordered the driver to take us off the earth. Now we 

 did not have to unpack the lamp to enable the driver to 

 tell the man what lie thought of him, nor yet to enable 

 the man to enumerate the good qualities of the driver, but 

 getting off the earth was another matter, owing to the 

 scarcity of anything in the way of a platform near there. 

 However, we moved over on to the next section and went 

 to feed our horses and eat our dinner in that man's barn, 

 first asking permission of his innocent and unsuspecting 

 wife and buying milk and coffee from her. When the 

 man came in directly with his men and teams the renewed 

 expressions of esteem that passed between him and the 

 driver were touching. The only people who were not 

 touched were the participants. It is against the law in 

 Dakota to become too personally touching in a matter of 

 this sort. 



Our sympathies were rather with the farmer, although 

 the situation was too comic for anything but universal 

 grins on the part of the spectators. A farm hand would 

 take me outside and point to some tree claim where there 

 were chickens, and we would have a little laugh out there. 

 Then we would go inside and have a quiet smile with all 

 hands until, before we were ready to start off, we were 

 carefully instructed as to the whereabouts of every covey 

 of chickens and, I believe, truthfully so. I know the one 

 we went for gave us such chicken shooting as a man sel- 

 dom gets in tnis vain world of 20ch of Augusts and lsts of 

 Septembers. 



It was along a tree claim where there were just enough 

 puny Cottonwood s to make the birds lie well and to make 

 the shooting difficult. They were spread all through it. 

 and we walked along behind the doge, who were pointing 

 and drawing all the time. Now a bird would rise to the 



top of the trees with a whir, a crack of the Doctor's gun 

 and a cloud of feathers. Then a bird in front of the 

 Judge would meet a like fate; and again, one would get 

 away from our first barrels through the foliage, and the 

 next instant a stooping hunter would get a glimpse of 

 him as he crossed the stubble, and roll him over away out 

 on the 65yd. boundary. The driver followed us along in 

 the wagon, picking up the birds where we dropped a load 

 of them for him, and when we got to the end of the tim- 

 ber he said he had never seen better shooting nor such 

 long shots as some of them were. It was a mixed bunch 

 of chickens and pintails, and if there are any birds in 

 that tree claim next year they will have a chicken for a 

 mother and a pintail for a father, for that is about the 

 only way it can be arranged now. Supper tasted good 

 that night. We had roast beef, green corn, corn bread, 

 pudding, zinfandel, coffee, Rochefort cheese, cigars and a 

 verse of "Shove it up, shove it up." 



It would be tiresome to tell of all the shooting we had. 

 We had enough, although some complained that it was 

 not so good as the preceding year. One day the Judge 

 made a record of not missing a bird. The Doctor like- 

 wise. The Colonel killed his first bird out of the wagon 

 as he was bowling over the prairie. Once he and I got 

 on to a slow rising covey and killed seven without mov- 

 ing. Another time one of us waded into a slough and 

 killed thirteen ducks in like manner, the first six being 

 mallards. For all that we didn't kill them to spoil, and 

 sometimes we did not go out for two days running. For 

 it is not all of hunting to hunt. Part of it is to tell about 

 other days and places. 



And to enjoy the cheerful companionship of dogs. 

 They soon learned to look upon the car as home. If a 

 town dog chased them that is where they sought refuge; 

 and if they chased the town dog that is where they came 

 trotting back to with satisfaction. In the evening they 

 kindly accompanied one of our number to some butcher's 

 shop and ate until they swelled out, after which they re- 

 turned to the car and hung around the kitchen, begging 

 from Albert and Jonas. When I came away I shook 

 hands with them all and they all seemed to understand it 

 and, I thought, were more moved at my departure than 

 two or three of the more unregpnerate persons who stayed 

 for the Minnesota season. They were always making us 

 laugh. Once Fritz, who slept on the Doctor's steamer 

 trunk to economize floor space, fell off backward in his 

 sleep — all except his head, which was held in place by a 

 chair. He was fearful that his fall was not over yet, so 

 he hung there with a stiff neck and a heroic backbone 

 extended ladder-like from the trunk to the carpet, while 

 his face depicted such awful certainty of impending 

 calamity that we fairly howled, whereupon he "let loose" 

 and took a fresh start on the trunk. 



Again a dog called Dakota Jim, subject to some rail- 

 lery because he never hunted less than a mile from the 

 wagon and because he cautiously wore his left ear on the 

 half-cock, after staying on the car all night and half the 

 morning owing to its being on the move to new hunting 

 grounds, began to feel very uncomfortable without, how- 

 ever, making his feelings known. It was not a matter of 

 good breeding or of ethics with him. It was simply a 

 matter of necessity, and good manners had no more to do 

 with it than with the telling of it, for which latter Da- 

 kota Jim is to blame and not me, for I am unable to get 

 the consent of my colleagues to withhold it. The direful 

 three-legged performance began with fear and trepida- 

 tion on his part, in the parlor; but when a cast-iron cuspi- 

 dor was frantically insinuated where it was felt to be 

 most useful, his face took on a wrapt and listening 

 expression and his yellow eyes beamed around upon us 

 all in mild benevolence and amnesty while he put his lei t 

 ear back at the safety notch, as if to indicate returning 

 tranquility. 



Toward the last our Minister came up and joined us. 

 It was during a polemical discussion between him and the 

 Judge that a board was kicked out of the dinner table. I 

 mention it in passing not because of its relevancy, but 

 because it shows what polemics come to in the end. One 

 pinched the other, which brought about the kick aimed, 

 of course at the offending party, but as usual striking in- 

 nocent spectators in their tenderest bpots. 



We were all glad that our Minister came and fain 

 would have him come always. There is no better hunt- 

 ing companion than one who is a good minister, and no 

 better minister than one who is a good hunting compan- 

 ion. The two things minister to each other. We were 

 together in the rushes and two blue-winged, teal eame 

 hurtling through the sky. 



"You take the one on your side and I'll tak the one on 

 mine," 



"All right." 



And even as we spoke and raised our bodies and our 

 guns they crossed in their flight, for some inexplicable 

 reason. No time for trading birds again, so almost cross- 

 ing our guns we fire, and as the two ducks double up dead 

 in the air some one calls out from other rushes: 



"That's the way to knock them!" 



I have reason to believe that the Minister held 10ft. 

 ahead of his duck, and I call that pretty nice shooting for 

 he clergy. 



I cannot stop without mention of our last dinner hour 

 on the prairie. We lay there in the shade of some wil- 

 lows beside a slough eating, talking, sleeping and then 

 talking again until the water bottles were empty and 

 everything had been eaten from corks — it seems to me — 

 to crumbs, and until everything was talked about from 

 germs to Jerusalem. Pan Zagloba had arrived the day 

 before, too, and the true stories that man can tell! At 

 length it was over, though, and I have no fonder remem- 

 brance of the trip than that dinner hour lengthened out 

 into a lazy half day by the legerdemain of the talkers. 



Pan went off at last with his horn to try to charm some 

 sandhill crane from the inaccessible slough, and I went 

 off still further and fell asleep again, that it might never 

 be said that I ever went hunting without getting lost. 

 For they could not find me nor awaken me until they had 

 driven the whole circuit of the slough and almost given 

 me up for lost; for they well knew that a step too far in 

 that fathomless mud not only meant death, but burial. 

 The family doctor confessed that he wondered about my 

 life insurance, and at this I turned to him, in strange sin- 

 cerity for me, and thanked him for having the best 

 thought he could have for the occasion. He further said 

 he supposed the duty would have fallen on him of telling 

 Elizabeth, and the Minister said he feared that duty also; 

 and all hands agreed, myself included, that that would 

 have been a harder thing to do than to have done what I 



was supposed to have done— said good-by to her and the 

 children out there in the rushes, the mud and water get- 

 ting into my throat and choking the unheard farewells. 



When I at last awoke at sound of the firing and they 

 saw me from a wagon on the prairie, and I began to walk 

 toward them in answer to their shout, I was conscious of 

 feeling strangely tired and weak, as though the strain of 

 their apprehension had been imparted to me in sleep in 1 

 some way. I felt very humble and glad to be alive, and 

 when the Minister's back was turned fed them all a little 

 whisky and water to take the taste of the mud out of their 

 dear old mouths. George Kennedy. 



St. Loots. 



AN ADVENTURE ON THE NIAGARA. 



Between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario there flows one 

 of the most remarkable and wonderful streams in Amer- 

 ica. It is remarkable from its formation and course, and , 

 from the manner it performs its work in discharging the 

 water of the Great Chain of Lakes into old Ontario. Its 

 entire length from lake to lake is but thirty-six miles. 

 No other stream in the world, no matter what its length 

 may be, possesses so many attractive features to the lover 

 and stuc^nt of strange formations and th ,» beauties of 

 nature. Connecting, as does the Niagara River, for that 

 is the stream referred to, with Lake Erie near Buffalo, it 

 forms the international boundary line between Canada 

 and the United States from Buffalo to Fort Niagara. As 

 the waters of Lake Erie flow into the river's channel their 

 motion is slow; then it becomes more hurried and soon 

 comparatively sluggish again, as the waters surround and 

 kiss the shores of beautiful Grand Island. On all sides of 

 the delightful isle the broad river presents a placid, lake- 

 like appearance, and there is no intimation of the wild 

 beauty seven miles below, where one is impressed with 

 the idea that the waters from the different sources of sup- 

 ply of Lake Erie have again become separated and vie 

 with each other in the race to leap the falls. What a race 

 it is! Over the rocks between the pretty isles above the 

 falls dash the waves, and finally all leap over the preci- 

 pice into the glorious gorge below. It is more particu- 

 larly with the portion of the Niagara River which flows 

 between the massive rocky banks of the gorge that this I 

 story has to deal. 



After the waters of the upper Niagara break on the | 

 brink of the American and Horseshoe Falls and are 1 

 dashed and churned to a milky whiteness below, they 

 flow for a great part of the distance to Lake Ontario 

 between thickly wooded banks fully 200ft. high. The 

 river is quite broad at the foot of the falls, but narrows- 

 midway between the Whirlpool Rapids and the falls. 

 The rapids are a little over a mile and a half down the 

 gorge, and many are familiar with their wild beauty. ] 

 They also know of their death-dealing qualities. 



In the eddies between the falls and the rapids the eel 

 fishing is very good during the summer season, and it is 

 exceedingly so in the eddies on the Canadian side, where 

 the foam gathers. One of the best of these eddies is 

 where the little steamer Maid of the Mist makes her land- 

 ing on the Canadian shore. There are not many evenings 

 during the summer that this eddy is not filled with the j 

 dark, yellow-colored foam, and at night, when all is | 



WHEN WE STARTED. 



quiet, the eels gather under it and feed on what they find 

 tnere. 



It was in September, 1885, that my two cousins, Sumner 

 and John Hume, of Kansas, came to visit me for a fort- 

 night oh their initial trip to Niagara. During a visit with 

 them the year previous I made the promise that if ever 

 they came to the falls I would take them eel fishing in 

 the gorge at night. The greater part of their visit had 

 been passed in sight-seeing, but one day they called on 

 me to keep my promise to take them fishing. Naturally, 

 I at once took steps to grant their request and keep my 

 promise, and borrowed a punt from a friend who kept it 

 at a point known as the Old Maid of the Mist landing, a 

 short distance above the rapids, but over a mile by water 

 below the falls. On the evening after they had reminded 

 me of my promise we started out from my home for the 

 riyer and it was not long before we were afloat on the 

 stream and pulling up the gorge. The evening was not 

 an over pleasant one, for it was evident a storm was not 

 far off, but we had no fears that it would break before 

 our return. The pull up the river was not difficult except- 

 ing at one place, which, from the remarkat le rapidity of 

 the current, has been appropriately named Swift Drift. 

 This point is midway between the falls and the rapids and 

 is just where the stream narrows. Fully thirty miles an 

 hour the water runs at this point and it is one of the most 

 dangerous on the river, which here is on < mass of deep, 

 dangerous whirls and "boilers." In fact some think that 

 an undercurrent from the falls here first breaks its way to 

 the surface. The pull around the drift iea hard one, but 

 we accomplished it safely and it was not long before we 



