162 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Mabch 22, 1888. 



THE ROOK CLIMBERS, 



XIII.— HUNTING A GLACIER. 



" A WEEK'S grub, the bedding and the camera will 

 be all that we need for this trip, and two animals 

 can carry that very easily." Thus spake Yo as the party 

 rose from their breakfast the morning after their arrival 

 at the foot of the lower lake. 



"And suppose we kill some meat," said Appekunny, 

 "what then?" 



"What then?" answered Jack, "why put the meat on 

 one of the nrules and pack the blankets on one of the 

 loose horses with the stirrup hitch. Give us a hard one." 



"All right." said Appekunny, "go ahead; I'm no packer. 

 You two fellows will have to run the train." 



The morning was devoted to laying out the packs and 

 loading the remainder of their possessions into the boat. 

 Then Jack and Appekunny rowed off to a point on the 

 lake where the shore was steep and rocky, and the timber 

 so thick that no prowling Piegan would be likely to 

 venture near the spot, and made a cache. This took 

 them some time, and before they returned it was high 

 noon. While they were absent Yo had driven in and 

 caught the riding and pack animals and put the saddles 

 on them and had partly made up the packs. Just after 

 the men had returned and the boat had been hauled out 

 and hidden among the willows, Lieutenant B. was seen 

 approaching over the flat,and before long the work of pack- 

 ing the animals was under way. While this was going on 

 a string of riders made their appearance over the bluffs, 

 where Swift Current comes down from the mountains, 

 and it needed but a glanc e to show that they were In- 

 dians. Then a sadness fell upon the four white men, for 

 if a lot of Indians had been hunting on the head of Swift 

 Current it would not be easy for them to get any game 

 there. Still, as Appekunny suggested, they were prob- 

 ably Piegans, for it was too late in the season for the 

 Kootenays to be about the lakes, and the Piegans are 

 notoriously poor mountain hunters and do not penetrate 

 far into the frowning rocky cafions, nor climb high on 

 the jagged icebound peaks. There were fifteen horses, 

 of which nine were ridden and six packed. They rode 

 toward the river, but three of the men galloped over to 

 the camp, dismounted and soon were exchanging salu- 

 tations with Appekunny. At first they amused them- 

 selves by lying and swore that they had not been up on 

 Swift Current at all, but gradually as they became more 

 confidential, they acknowledged that they had gone to 

 the camp at the head of the trail, but said that there was 

 no game to be seen and that they had slept there only 

 one night. They took an especial interest in the field 

 glasses carried by the white men, and one of them offered 

 Yo a horse for his long spyglass, Which greatly aston- 

 ished him by its power. After more or less chat Avith 

 these men, who proved to be North Piegans on their way 

 to visit then- relations at the Agency, the packing was 

 completed and the white men rode away, leaving the 

 Indians still sitting on the ground. 



The trail up Swift Current mounts the bluffs ascending 

 to the river's flood plain, where it Avinds along through 

 groves of aspen and pretty open parks for a couple of 

 miles until it reaches the valley of the South Swift Cur- 

 rent, where it crosses that stream and soon after the 

 main river, passing over to the north side and following 

 it up between the mountains on the one hand and the 

 stream on the other. Some of the features of this ride 

 were detailed in a series of letters written by Yo to 

 Forest and Stream during the winter of 1885-6. 



The sun was low in the west when they reached the 

 first of the Swift Current lakes, in the lower end of 

 which great numbers of Canada geese were resting and 

 feeding. These as the train came in sight began to call 

 to each other in tones of alarm, and at length took flight, 

 passing up from one lake to another until they reached 

 one bordered by a wide expanse of beaver marsh, in 

 which they sat uneasily until the travelers had disap- 

 peared beyond them, 



Before a satisfactory camping ground could be found 

 it was quite dark, but it took only a few moments to 

 unpack, get a fire started and supper cooking. The camp 

 was a couple of miles below the ordinarily used ground 

 near the fifth Swift Current lake, and at this season of 

 the year, after the Indians had been occupying the old 

 ground through the whole summer, and feeding their 

 stock there, it was likely that grass would be scarce any- 

 where further up the stream. 



The next morning the camp was astir before daylight, 

 and preparations were made to start off on an exploring 

 trip to see if a way might be found which would lead the 

 traveler near to the ice which lies at the head of the great 

 gorge whose waters flow through a considerable lake 

 into the fifth Swift Current lake from the southwest. 

 The saddle animals had been brought in and tied up and 

 breakfast was being cooked, the men were rolling up 

 their blankets and pushing them under the shelter of the 

 low pine trees which grew on three sides of the little 

 opening where the fire was burning. There was no sound 

 heard but the crackling of the fire, the footsteps of the 

 men and now and then the clear tones of the geese which 

 floated faintly on the still air from the lakes below. 

 Then a cracking of sticks sounded at a little distance, 



and presently Jack marched up to the fire with an armful 

 of wood. As he threw it down he said: 



"Yo reminds me of Gwenwynwyn the Bold." 



"How so?" granted Appekunny, who was kneading 

 the bread for breakfast in the spare frying-pan. 



"Why, don't yon know?" said Jack, "the Welsh hero 

 'sought night and day the philosophers' stone,' and Yo is 

 just as bad about glaciers. He lias been talking about 

 them more or less ever since we've been out, and durned 

 if I don't believe he dreams about 'em nights." Jack 

 had been reading a copy of "Crotchet Castle," which 

 happened to be in camp, 



"Well," said Appekunny, "he'll find one up above, if 

 we can only get to it. We could see it plain when we 

 were up here two years ago, but we weren't fixed so as to 

 go to it. This year may be we will get there." 



"Get there," said Yo, who had been listening with a 

 smile on his face while he filled his pipe, "of course we 

 will. If we can't make the trip with the stock, I believe 

 we can afoot; but it will be a'long, hard march if we 

 have to leave the animals and pack our grab and blankets 

 on our backs. I would have tried that when we were 

 here two years ago if we'd had anything to eat." 



"Well," said Appekunny, "we'll soon know anyhow; 

 and new, Jack, if you'll just watch those two frying- 

 pans of bread while I go down to the water, we'll have 

 breakfast before you know it." 



Breakfast eaten, the four men started, following the 

 trail which led up through the much used camp ground, 

 under the frowning face of Appekunny's Mountain, and 

 by the shores of Fifth Lake, until they had passed above 

 its head; then turning off to the left, they plunged into 

 the forest to try to find a trail toward the ice. It 

 was not easy riding. Sometimes the branches of the 

 pines were so low that they threatened to sweep 

 the riders out of their saddles, or the slender trees 

 stood so close together that there was barely room 

 for a naked horse to pass between them, and the 

 men's knees were savagely ground between the trunks 

 and the saddles; sometimes a close thicket of impenetra- 

 ble willows barred the way, or worse, an open spot of 

 soft boggy niire necessitated a long detour. Sometimes 

 one man would be in the lead and the others following 

 his tracks, and again two would start out on independent 

 lines to break their several ways through the wall of 

 timber that opposed them. It was slow and annoying- 

 work, but it must be done, for only in this way, so far as 

 they knew, could the hoped for valley be reached. At 

 length the timber became a little more open and the 

 willows disappeared; then an old Indian trail, evidently 

 not used in recent years and much obscured by under- 

 growth and down timber, was met, and followed for a 

 while. It led in the light direction up a slight incline, 

 and then down on another drainage, and presently 

 through the trees gleamed the sparkling waters of the 

 lake, and through openings in the timber one could look 

 up a narrow valley toward the ice. A little later the 

 trail passed into a natural avenue, perhaps thirty feet 

 wide, and bordered on either side by graceful tapering 

 spruces, and this avenue led the travelers directly toward 

 the vertical face of the stupendous , mountain which 

 stands between these two branches of Swift Current. 

 This high narrow peak rises straight up for thousands of 

 feet into a slender pinnacle or spire, and, seen through 

 this avenue of evergreens, which shut out every other 

 point of the landscape, is most imposing. 



Passing close under this vast mass and through some 

 pines, they presently emerged on a hillside, steeply slop- 

 ing and bare of timber, along which the only way was a 

 little-used game trail. The going was so bad that all 

 hands were willing to walk, leading their horses, and 

 now and then their laborious advance was made more 

 slow by the necessity of bursting their way through the 

 gnarled and twisted branches of the low wind-swept 

 evergreens, which in several places grew along the trail. 

 Here and there, in some spot where there was a little soil, 

 would be seen a fresh goat track, or in the loose sliding 

 shale a long scratch where the fragments of stone had 

 been freshly upturned by the hoofs of an animal scram- 

 bling up the slope. No game was seen, though one of 

 the dogs, which had followed them from camp, evidently 

 scented some animal which had recently passed over the 

 trail. 



At length they reached the h ead of the lake, and de- 

 scended to the creek by a rough series of steps, down 

 which it sometimes seemed as if the horses must fall 

 headlong on those who were leading them. From the 

 gravel bars where the stream entered the lake a fine view 

 of the glacier was had, and it looked as if in a straight 

 line it was not more than four or five miles distant. 

 What difficulties there were to be overcome before reach- 

 ing it could only be determined by making the effort to 

 reach the ice. Evidently among these must be counted 

 several thousand feet of almost vertical climbing, for 

 it could be seen that just below the glacier the mountain 

 fell off in a sheer precipice of great height. 



After taking one or two photographs from the head of 

 the lake, they mounted their horses again and rode up 

 the stream bed toward the ice. They were soon forced 

 to take to the bank:, however, for the creek was blocked 

 with masses of drift timjber over which the horses could 



not pass. Half a mile brought them to the edge of a 

 "snow slide," the path of an enormous avalanche which 

 years ago had rushed down the mountain side, cutting- 

 through the timber a swathe several hundred yards in 

 width. Here broken and splintered logs had been tossed 

 about and piled up in confused masses, sometimes as high 

 as a man's head, at others lying one by one, so that it 

 was possible for one to step across them. From this point 

 was had a view of the ice far better than anything that 

 had yet been seen, and it was determined that on the fol- 

 lowing day a heroic effort should be made to reach it. 

 Then the photographers began to set up then- instruments. 

 While they were busy at this. Jack and Appekunny had 

 taken the field glasses and begun to sweep the mountains 

 for goats, and presently a cry of triumph from one of 

 them gave notice that he had seen one. By the time the 

 pictures had been taken they had discovered half a dozen, 

 and before lunch was eaten no less than eleven of these 

 animals had tjeen made out. It was far too late in the 

 day and the goats were too high up for them to seriously 

 consider the idea of trying to kill one, and so presently 

 they packed up their cameras, and mounting, started for 

 camp. One or two of the hunters, however, gave regret- 

 ful sighs as they looked back at a monstrous male goat, 

 which, lying on a point of rock far above the valley, re- 

 sembled nothing so much as a huge white buffalo. 



At the head of the lake the party divided, Jack and 

 Appekunny following down the southern shore, which 

 seemed to promise the shortest if not the easiest 

 way to camp, while Lieutenant B. and Yo went back 

 as they had come, stopping by the way to take one 

 or two pictures. Jack and his partner found a used 

 Kootenay trail which took them home very easily and 

 quickly, but the others were longer on the way and did 

 not reach camp until dusk. 



Early next morning the necessary provisions for a four 

 or five days' trip were put on the two little mules and a 

 fresh start was made for the glacier. Lieutenant B., 

 who was unable to climb owing to an old hurt, and who 

 felt obliged to return to his camp at the lakes, said good 

 bye, and the three men plunged into the forest on the 

 trail by wmich Jack and Appekunny had reached camp 

 the night before. The way was not everything that 

 could be desired. It was exceedingly narrow, sometimes 

 scarcely wide enough for a man to ride along, and, as 

 the mules were not very experienced pack animals, they 

 had a good deal of trouble in getting through. In order 

 to better distribute the load the blankets had been packed 

 separately, instead of being rolled as usual in protecting 

 canvas, and before they had gone very far Yo, who 

 brought up the rear of the procession, began to notice 

 fragments of bedding dangling from the branches and 

 tree trunks which he passed. He recognized the rags as 

 belonging to the quilt in which he was accustomed to 

 wrap himself each night, and shed a silent tear to its 

 memory. The trail, in fact, was so narrow that it tore 

 the packs to pieces, and progress was so very slow that 

 it was the middle of the afternoon before they reached 

 the head of the lake. Above this there was not known 

 to be any feed for the horses, and it was therefore thought 

 best to camp here. The animals were unpacked, led 

 across the head of the lake, and turned loose on the 

 grassy mountainside. The men spent the rest of the day 

 looking over the mountains with their glasses. Yo, 



APPRECIATION OF "UNCLE LISHA'S SHOP." 



" FTNCLE LISHA'S SHOP" is the title of one of the quaintest, 

 U queerest hooks that has appeared for a lone while. At the 

 same time, as a picture of life and manners and thoughts and 

 feeling prevailing among the rural population of New England 

 more than half a century age, it possesses a historical value 

 which every intelligent reader must at once perceive. The scene 

 is laid in a remote corner of Vermont, among the outspurs of the 

 Green Mountains and within the shadow of the loftier portions of 

 that romantic range so famous in history and song. The book is 

 xiot a novel although a thread of connection runs through the 

 different sketches, and the same characters appear throughout 

 the various scenes. After a couple of preliminary trials of his 

 powers the writer hits upon the main feature of the book. 

 Uncle Lisha is a shrewd, honest, jolly old Yankee who runs 

 a stony little farm in the summer season and during the winter 

 has a small shop in which he mends boots and shoes and 

 manufactures rough "foot wear" for his neighbors. This shop 

 is the only public resort in the community, and hither on winter 

 nights come his friends and acquaintances, who, seated on rude 

 benches, rolls of leather and the floor, discourse in their provincial 

 dialect of fishing and hunting adventures, exchange simple and 

 primitive views of life and events and beasts and men, and tell 

 each other stories of their experience which are alternately full 

 of sense, nonsense, pathos and laughtsr. These gatherings, inter- 

 spersed with a "school deestrick meetin'," a turkey shooting 

 match, a pathetic hunt for a lost child, and the incidents of a 

 rural courtsliip, continue through the whole of one winter and 

 only cease with the early spring, when Uncle Lisha and his 

 "Jerushy" abandon the scenes of their childhood, the grave of 

 their little girl and the home where they have spent so many 

 years, and leave to join their only son George in "Westconstant." 

 The different characters that act and talk in this rude drama of 

 a By-gone time, are maintained with singular fidelity throughout. 

 With a single exception, that of Antoine, or "Ann Twine," as his 

 neighbors call him, a refugee French-Canadian, the actors are all 

 genuine Vermonters, but each is distinct as a photograph, and 

 th,e marked individuality of Uncle Lisha himself, of Sam Lovel, 

 the famous hunter; of Solon Briggs,the wonderful manipulator of 

 "booktionary" words; of Hanmer, the greedy tavern-keeper; of 

 "Jozef" Hill, the hero of the owl shooting; of "Granther Hill," the 

 old Revolutionary soldier; of Pelatiah, the long, lank and guile- 

 less Yankee youth, and of the inimitable "Ann Twine," forcibly 

 impresses the reader. The writer in his preface says that all is 

 changed in this old-time community now. Danvis. the name he 

 gives to the neighborhood, has laid aside its simplicity, together 

 with much of the honest kindliness and mutual helpfulness that 

 formerly prevailed among its inhabitants. The daily mail visits 

 them and the telegraph is at their doors. An aristocracy has 

 sprung up in a community where formerly there were none either 

 specially rich or poor. "In fact, the Danvis folk are no better 

 now than their lowland neighbors, who therefore no longer des- 

 pise them."— Ohio State Journal, Jan. 23. 



