102 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 1, 1888. 



THE ROCK CLIMBERS. 



X.~ STOKM BOUND. 



T^EEP over mountain and valley lay the snow about 

 X - / St. Mary's Lakes. Bitter the cold that bound in 

 icy fetters all the lesser pools and streams, and spread out 

 over half the lower lake a polished covering, against 

 which the cruel wind beat in vain, while the open water 

 was a turmoil of white foam. High up over Singleshot 

 and Flat Top hovered changing clouds of snow, not fall- 

 ing 'from the clear, brilliant sky, but lifted from the 

 mountaintops, and in dense masses whirled about hither 

 and thither in writhing, twisting shapes, to be at length 

 carried over the edge of the highest precipices and to add 

 fresh drifts to those in the valleys below. The wind blew 

 constantly, and with a constantly increasing fury, and as 

 it blew and beat the lake into foam, and as the intense 

 cold closed all the open waters, except these great bodies, 

 the fowl hurrying southward and caught by the gale, 

 flocked into these lakes in great numbers. 



Sometimes the water looked like a stretch of Currituck 

 Sound, black with fowl and resonant with the hoarse 

 clamor and whistling wings of the migrating myriads. 

 The cove opposite the camp was a great resort of geese 

 and of trumpeter swans, and hundreds of these great 

 birds were seen there day after day, feeding and resting 

 after their long journey. Gradually, as the ice stretched 

 out further and further from the shore, the birds were 

 forced off the shallows, and leaving their safe and pleas- 

 ant loitering place, scattered themselves in the wide bays, 

 where, if they did not find good feeding grounds, they 

 had at least a shelter from the wind. The ducks were 

 here in enormous numbers; canvasbacks and redheads, 

 mallards and gadwalls, pintails and widgeons, broadbills 

 and ruddy ducks, with a great multitude of teals and 

 whistlers and buffleheads and sheldrakes, loons, grebes, 

 gulls and terns, made up a feathered company so numer- 

 ous and so varied as to be almost bewildering. 



Now and then, emerging from some point where he had 

 been perched watching his opportunity, a great white- 

 headed eagle would swing slowly out over the lake, car- 

 rying terror to the hearts of the timorous wildfowl. At 

 his first appearance the geese would call out to each 

 other in tones of alarm, and as he drew nearer they 

 with the swans would rise by hurried, yet laborious, 

 wing beats until all were in the air and on the way to 

 some place of safety. The ducks manifested less anxiety 

 and would let the great bird approach quite close to tliem 

 before moving, but if he attempted to get above them 

 they too would hurry away with a great splashing of 

 water and whistling of wings, but after going a short 

 distance drop down again and quietly sit on the 

 water, rising and falling on the dancing surges. The 

 little terns, when the weather would permit it, fished 

 in the shallows at the head of the lake, and when the 

 wind blew, sat out on the sandbars in rows with their 

 breasts to the sun. 



The snowy mountains were brilliant in the bright sun- 

 light. Even the naked eye could detect on their steep 

 sides fresh trails made in the snow by bands of sheep 

 wandering hither and thither in search of food. Evi- 

 dently the storm did not drive these hardy creatures down 

 into the valleys for shelter. The snow was too deep and 

 the cold too intense to permit lain ting, and for the present 

 the sheep were safe from molestation. 



The men hugged the fire pretty closely during these 

 bitter cold days. A walk of two or three miles up or 

 down or across the lake was all they ventured on, and 

 no signs of game were seen. Now and then the track of 

 a fox or a coyote or a bay lynx would be seen, where these 

 prowlers had passed along near the lake shore, hoping 

 to surprise a wounded duck upon the beach, but of true 

 game animals there were none about. There was no 

 especial reason why the men should climb the mount- 

 ains in such weather. They had plenty of w r ood and the 

 greater part of three fat goats hung upon a tree within 

 3ft. of the tent door. 



One night this meat caused a little excitement in camp. 

 It was perhaps two o'clock on a bright moonlight night, 

 when Yo, who from some cause or other was half awake, 

 heard a noise as of something falling, followed immedi- 

 ately by the sound of galloping quite near the tent. The 

 first idea that flashed through his brain was that one of 

 the horses had come up to the tent, knocked something 

 over, and being frightened had galloped away. The 

 dogs, however, at once set up a tremendous barking, and 

 the sound of the retreating footsteps stopped so quickly 

 that it was evident that no horse had made it. Thor- 

 oughly awakened, he raised himself on his elbow, just in 

 time to see Jack getting up, and in a moment more the 

 latter had stepped out of the tent and called out, "Some- 

 thing has carried off a ham of meat," then an instant 

 later, "Why, I see the darned thing there in the brush!" 

 Yo rose and went to the door, and from the blanketed 

 forms in the tent came the question, "What is it?" and 

 the recommendation, "Shoot the darned cuss!" Jack 

 reached into the tent for his gun, and both men cheered 

 on the dogs who could be plainly seen against the white 

 snow in the bushes dancing around a dark object sitting- 

 there. That the dark object was not at all disturbed 

 either by their dancing or their furious barking was 

 made sufficiently plain by its quiescent attitude, and the 



further fact that it was crunching the bones of the cap- 

 tured meat and was evidently making a hearty meal of 

 it. At length, encouraged by cries of "Sick him, Keno," 

 "Go for him, Babbette," the dogs mustered up pluck 

 enough to rush in upon the creature, but they did not 

 stay there long. The animal suddenly assumed enor- 

 mous proportions, flew up in the air as if propelled by a 

 mighty spring, and came down again on the back of the 

 largest dog. The later gave one wail of anguish, and 

 stood not upon the order of his going, but fled at once 

 out on to the prairie 50yds. behind the tent, where he 

 positively rent the air with his howls and yelps, while 

 Babbette, who accompanied him, continued to bark in a 

 half-hearted way, as if saying "Come out here into the 

 open, if you dare." Meantime the creature had once 

 more turned his attention to the meat. 



"Well," said Jack, "I guess he calculates he'll drive us 

 out of camp, but we'll see first if we can't get that meat 

 back." He then fired four shots at the animal, which 

 calmly went on with its meal until the fourth shot had 

 been fired, when it again sprang into the air and bounded 

 off into the deeper shadows of the brush. Jack stepped 

 out to where the animal had been, picked up the ham, 

 brought it back and hung it up in the tree, and then they 

 went into the tent and crept into their blankets again. 

 A good deal of speculation was indulged in as to what 

 the animal was. That it was a cat of some kind was 

 evident, and it had scarcely seemed large enough for a 

 mountain lion. It was probably a wildcat or a Canada 

 lynx, but all hands agreed that it had courage enough for 

 a lion of the largest size. 



The next morning before breakfast Jack went out to 

 where the meat had been brought from and returned 

 with a little tuft of hair, gray mixed with rufous, which 

 had been knocked off by the ball and evidently belonged 

 to a lynx or a wildcat. The depression in the snow where 

 the animal had sat showed by its small size that it had 

 not been made by a mountain lion. After breakfast Jack 

 and Yo took their rifles and started out on the animal's 

 track to see where it led to. It was readily followed, as 

 it wound about through the thick willows, and about 

 thirty steps from where it had left the meat was a bed 

 where it had lain for some time, and in this bed was a 

 drop or two of blood. Evidently it had not been much 

 frightened by the row, and it was quite possible that they 

 might come upon it anywhere. They followed the 

 tracks very carefully, proceeding as noiselessly as possi- 

 ble, and stopping every few steps to look. When they 

 had gone nearly a hundred yards, the tracks swerved 

 suddenly to the right, and just as they had turned to fol- 

 low them, Jack, who was ahead, made a motion with his 

 hand and stopped, and Yo, stooping and looking under 

 his arm, saw the animal not twenty yards away. It was 

 lying in the sun at the foot of, and beyond, a great spruce 

 tree, and only its hips were visible from behind the tree. 

 Jack motioned to his companion to shoot, but before he 

 could do so he was obliged to creep several yards to the right 

 under the low spreading branches of a willow. This ex- 

 posed nearly half the animal's side and the shot was fired 

 as close to the tree as possible. At the report the animal 

 gave a spring and stretched itself out on the snow in the 

 death agony. It proved to be a Canada lynx of the 

 largest size, and as it lay there, its thick legs terminating 

 in huge paws armed with long claws, gave it a much 

 more ferocious appearance than it was really entitled to. 



An examination showed that Jack's shot of the night 

 before had grazed one of the forelegs, not penetrating 

 the flesh, but just knocking loose a little flap of skin, 

 from which scratch a few drops of blood had flowed. 

 This would, of course, entitle Jack to the skin, for by 

 old-time hunters' law, established and sanctified by long 

 custom, the first shot that draws blood is entitled to the 

 hide and half the meat. They carried the carcass back 

 to camp and skinned it. 



Day after day the bitter cold continued. In the morn- 

 ing when it was still, the lake would smoke with the cold 

 like a boiling kettle, and it was impossible to see across 

 it. This mist from the lake froze upon the grass and on 

 the branches of trees and bushes in beautiful shapes, and 

 when the bright sun shone on these frosted twigs the 

 scene was brilliant. The grass on the beach was often 

 covered with a soft feathery frost until it bent double 

 beneath the weight of its load. This frost lay only on 

 one side of the stalks, and was half an inch high, with 

 straight sides like a wall. It seemed to be made up of a 

 series of straight cylindrical rods at right angles to the 

 stalk, and about these rods clustered little spherical par- 

 ticles of ice which united the rods. As soon as the wind 

 rose, which it did each day at about 9 o'clock, all this 

 frost work was blown away, and the lake was cleared of 

 its mist. 



Each day it snowed more or less, and the wind blew 

 more fiercely. This is the home of the blizzard. Start- 

 ing from these mountain gorges the winds rush out over 

 the plains, bearing, in winter, death and destruction on 

 their snow-clad pinions. Until Manitoba and Dakota are 

 reached there are but few settlements, and but little is 

 heard of the storm, but there it begins to do its deadly 

 work, and then the people in the East hear that a cold 



I wave is coming, and shiver as they contemplate it. 



< During these days the blasts of wind would sometimes . 



lift a mass of water up from the surface of the lake and 

 carry it along as a white cloud of spray eight or ten feet 

 high, far down the valley. Several times, instead of 

 rolling along like a white cloud, this water was carried 

 up in a solid column, looking like a waterspout, until it 

 was one or two hundred feet high, and then was sud- 

 denly dissipated by another blast and vanished. Near 

 the tent the small boat was drawn upon the beach, only 

 two or three feet of its stern being in the water, which 

 was here, owing to the shelter of the brush, scarcely 

 ruffled by the gale. From this place one day the wind 

 lifted the boat up into the air, turned it over and 

 deposited it right side up in the same relative position 

 eight or ten feet further down the shore. In its passage 

 one of the rowlocks was broken and the boat partially 

 filled with water. 



Sometimes one of the men would go down the lake or 

 across it to the bay where Appekunny and Yo had 

 camped two years before, and try to get a shot at the 

 swans that were resting there, but these walks never 

 resulted in anything more than a hearty appetite for the 

 following meal, and the few shots fired produced no 

 results. In the Inlet just above camp, where the water 

 flowing swiftly over the shallows was free from ice, there 

 were generally from thirty to fifty ducks feeding, and 

 now and then, when they desired broiled duck, one of 

 the men would go up there and shoot half a dozen with, 

 his rifle. Sometimes two of them would take a long 

 round through the snow in the hope of stumbling on a 

 lynx or mountain lion or wolverene, and would come in 

 after two or three hours' brisk tramping all aglow with 

 exercise and eager for dinner. 



Once or twice attempts were made to climb the mount- 

 ains, but the snow was too deep and the walking was 

 very laborious. There were plenty of wild creatures 

 abroad in the timber. Tracks of mountain lions and 

 bears and bobcats and lynxes could be seen. Wolverenes, 

 fishers and martens had been traveling about over the 

 snow looking for the snowshoe rabbits, squirrels and : 

 mice, on which they feed. The clear-cut tracks of the^ 

 dusky, the Franklin's and the ruffed grouse were often 

 seen, and other winter birds, such as pine grosbeaks, 

 crossbills and jays were hard at work in the branches of 

 the trees; but of hoofed animals there was no sign on the' 

 lower levels. 



At length there came a day when the cold broke. Bya 

 this time most of the waterfowl had departed, and only 

 geese, whistlers, and buffleheads remained on the lake. 

 One morning it was observed that the wind had changed, 

 from cold to warm, and presently the snow began to melt, 

 One after another little brown patches appeared on the-' 

 flat behind the tent, as the snow became less deep, and 1 

 tufts of grass began to show their heads above it. For 

 two days the chinook continued — a soft AvaiMi wind which] 

 played havoc with the work that winter had done. The 

 ice disappeared from the lake and the south hillsides be- 

 came bare. 



And now came a mourn I ul event — a parting. The Bhyru - 

 er's time was up, and one afternoon he and Jack packed 

 a mule, and after hearty hand-clasps rode away, the' 

 Rhymer to return over the Canadian Pacific Railway ta 

 his Western home, while Jack, after escorting him to the 

 settlements, was to return to the camp. Yo. 



SAM LOVEL'S CAMPS.-V1I. 



THE camp was astir early next morning, so early thafcj 

 Antoine was prancing about the fire with a frying- 

 pan of fish before the morning breeze had swept the cob- 

 webs of mist off the marshes, and so early that, when 

 breakfast was announced, Joseph Hill remarked: 



"I never did set no gret on gittin' up in the night t' eat 1 

 a niealo' victuals, that is 'f I've hed supper in kinder decent 

 season. Not to say but what I kin gin'ally eat hearty — 

 that is, tol'able hearty — but mornin' naps, when you 

 wake up jist 'nough tu sense 't you haint got tu git up, is 

 tumble comf'table, an' I hate bein' cheated aout on 'em. 

 But I'll try tu rise tu the 'casion," and he crawled into 

 place by the stone table. 



"Some skeety talkin' was mek me gat up hairly dis 

 mornin'," Antoine said in explanation of his early rising. 



"Skeeters talkin'!" said Joseph. "Gosh! I never heard 

 'em du nothin' but sing, an' durn'd poor singin' at that; 

 I d' know but it's good 'nough singin', but I don't like 

 the tune." 



"Wal, sek, boy, Ah'll hear it talk dat tarn, an' Ah hear 

 all what he'll said. Fust wen dat leetly mowse woked 

 me up, Ah'll ant know what he was mek it. Den Ah'll 

 fan aout he was four skeety standlin on top of it me an' 

 Sam an' Solein an' Zhozeff. Dat one standlin on Sam 

 say, 'Dis man hide so tough Ah can' steek ma beel in it.' 

 De one standlin on Zhozeff say, 'Ah can' push ma beel 

 in dis one, but Ah can' tol' what Ah'll get, bloods or 

 water or sometings, an' guess he ant know hesef what 

 he got hees inside of it.' De one bore Solem say, 'Ah'll 

 bore hole in dis mans an' de win' blowed aout of it 

 he'll mos' knock ma head off.' Den de one seet on me 

 say, 'Ah'll bore in dis one very easy, an' he gat mo 

 bloods as dey was water in de lake, an' it tase more better 

 as wines. Come here, boy, dey 'nough for all of it. 1 Den 

 dey '11 come on me an' Ah'll gat to joUmp ap pooty quick!" 



"It's lucky they waked you," said Sam, "seem' 'atT 

 got tu gwup betimes arter Peltier. An' come tu thin 

 on't, I forgot tu tell ye, Antwine, 'at I see a feller up 

 the Slang 'at come f 'm the same place 't you did, I gu 

 . Like 'nough you know him." 



