Nov. 17, 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



323 



"Salmon!" repeated Cookey, "troth if the strarne wus 

 full the'd ate it dhry — the haythens." 



It was no nee attempting to reason him into seeing that 

 one giant feed was all an Indian wanted for the whole 

 day; lie shook Ms head dolefully, believing them to he 

 "born desavers." 



About two o'clock in the afternoon the three canoes 

 were again in motion. The river became rougher, the 

 boulders larger aud rapids stronger, and our men had to 

 labor hard. Poling became more difficult. The further 

 we ascended the rougher became the bottom, until it was 

 nothing but large, angular or fiat stones, on which the 

 poles frequently slipped. The Indians do not use iron or 

 Bteel picks on their poles here, as I've seen them doing on 

 other rivers. The stones are too hard and flinty for that, 

 instead, however, they scorch the ends of the poles to 

 harden the wood, and this they claim prevents much 

 dipping. 



Toward four o'clock we approached an angry long 

 rapid, and a very noisy fellow, too, for we had heard his 

 growling some distance below. A few rounded granite 

 boulders stood here and there on the decline, encircled 

 with white water, warning the voyageur of what he was 

 tp expect up there. 



"What you callum rapid, Louis?" I cpieried of the man 

 in the stern. 



"Push an' be Damn," replied he. 



"Push and be what?" I asked with a look of surprise. 



''An' be damn," repeated the Indian with a broad leer, 

 as he noticed my puzzled look. 



"Who callum that, Louis?" I continued. 



"White man, long 'go. Me telluni you byme bye. Too 

 hard work talkumhere.' 



"Come, boys, you must rest awhile before you tackle 

 this rough water. Push into that rock there, and San 

 Catch hold of that projecting corner. All right. Now, 

 feoys, sit down and take it easy for a few minutes." After 

 the kettle containing cold tea had been passed from one 

 to the other and the pipes lighted I turned to Louis. 

 '♦.Come, now, the story about 'Push and be Damned' 

 Rapids." 



" I /ong 'go," began Louis, "ole white manthinkum good 

 .is Injun, sartin he canoe can polumup here. Gottum one 

 ■big pappoose, white un, he all same Sak [meaning that 

 the boy poled from the bow, as Sak was doing]. Canoe 

 I walkuni berry slow, ole un gettuni berry mad. Callum 

 [ to pappoose, push, push, all time. * Pappoose get- 

 turn cross all same. Well, canoe walkum up to 

 that big rock, creepum 'long little more high. Water 

 too big, canoe no walkum more. Ole un cross one 

 bull moose, callum one, two, three times push, push. 

 Pappoose jumpum out canoe, tellum ole un 'Push an 

 be damn.' Rollum over big water two three times like 

 dog half drown. Pappoose gettum shore byme bye. Ole 

 un sittum down canoe, and canoe swingum round, run- 

 num fast down river. Byme bye hittum rock, makum 

 two canoes. Ole un catchum rock an' creepum on top. 

 Pappoose walkum ah way back wigwam. Ole un fraid 

 come off, stayum on rock one, two days. Skeeters an' 

 bitum-no-seeums eatum all time, Byme bye white man 

 takum ole un off an' callum big water here 'Push an' be 

 Damn.' " 



"Push and be Damn' " rapids was certainly the worst yet 

 encountered, and the men seriously discussed whether or 

 not it might be safer to thread the shore, pulling the canoe 

 up, as they sometimes do, with a towline; but as the In- 

 dian is proud of his reputation for pluck and endurance, 

 this notion was soon given up. Just here the stream is 

 almost choked with boulders — great round granite ones, 

 which might have been tossed from the overhanging cliff s 

 by the giant boys of olden times. Among the red men 

 there are traditions to tliis effect. 



My men selected the right bank, the others the left. We 

 were obliged to ascend a steep incline, and then pass be- 

 tween two rocks only 8 or 10ft. apart, where the current 

 was very strong. Inch by inch the way was fought. And 

 now the bow is almost touching one of the boulders. The 

 wild waters rush past, moaning and hissing, threatening 

 to sweep us to destruction, but we are as yet in the friendly 

 eddy of the rock. I look at my man, but save a more rapid 

 glance of the eyes, there was no change in the stolid face. 

 Now r begins the lateral movement. The canoe must be 

 moved out sideways, the greatest care being taken not to 

 allow the water to "grip" the bow, until beyond the line of 

 the obstruction ahead, and in the course of the cm-rent. 



At last the desired point is reached, when up go the two 

 poles and as quickly descend; with teeth clenched, the 

 men throw their whole weight upon them and the canoe 

 seems to rise out of the water and shoot ahead. Again 

 and again the poles rise, and the craft leaps into the tor- 

 Tent, Now we are between the boulders and the scene is 

 truly grand. The wild waters dash upon the rocks, the 

 waves roll outward and meet beneath our frail bark, 

 forcing her up on a "horseback" of seething elements. 

 The Indians pause. The stream is deep here and their 

 poles are shaking violently by the current. I almost for- 

 get my determination to keep cool. I glance again at 

 that dark visage in the stern. Surely I shall see signs of 

 excitement, if not fear; but no, cool, self-possessed, as 

 usual; the teeth are clenched and the eye more firmly 

 riveted on the bow, that is all. They are feeling their 

 way, waiting for the moment of least lateral resistance, 

 when the final spurt will be made. At length it comes. 

 As if moved by one spirit, the two spring to the work; a 

 tremendous push drives the canoe half way up the lip, 

 another and another follow quickly, until at last it is shot 

 over the verge into the safer waters beyond. I raise a 

 shout for Louis and Sak, and refresh them with a "smile" 

 of booktawichk. The other canoes were more fortunate, 

 having found easier passes through the labyrinth of 

 boulders on the other side. 



About 3 o'clock we come to the mouth of Devil's Brook, 

 a wild mountain torrent, which threads its noisy course 

 down through forests of dark spruce and tumbles into the 

 Little South West by a succession of leaps and plunges. 

 Its wafers, bounding for miles and miles through cool 

 fahiides, and fed by many springy rivulets, are deliciously 

 cool; but never did they taste better or seem more ref resil- 

 ing than on that afternoon. Great swarms of spotted 

 trout, with an occasional sea trout among them, lay here 

 and there in this icy water as it mingled with the river. 

 The temptation was too great for Walter; so putting his 

 ten-ounce rod together, he was soon reeling in the 

 "speckled beauties." About twenty were taken, averag- 

 ing all the way from ^lb. to 21bs. Davey was delighted at 

 tins fresh accession to our larder. The evil day seemed 

 further off. 



After leaving Devil's Brook the river was smoother and 

 the current weaker, so that three or four miles were made 

 in about two hours. We passed a beautiful mountain 

 scene during that time. The south side of the river is 

 formed by a great semi-circular range, rising several 

 hundred feet, its sloping sides were covered with ever- 

 greens, firs and spruce, while from the summit great 

 pines lifted themselves into the air, standing out like 

 giant sentinels of the valley below. 



We experienced much difficulty, however, in finding a 

 suitable place for camping, as the banks were steep and 

 the shores rough and rocky; but when we reached Blake's 

 SluiceAvay — a narrow, deep and swift part of the river, 

 where a lumberman of this name was drowned some years 

 ago— we hit upon a fair site and pitched tent for the 

 night. Our Indian friends were very quiet; even Salt's 

 glib tongue was silent lor a long time. They were very 

 tired. There was, however, some "tall" eating. Panful 

 after panful of fried trout vanished in quick order, until 

 Coqfcey became somewhat alarmed, fearing that two 

 square meals were henceforth to be in order every day. 



The last mouthful is no sooner down than the Indian 

 grows uneasy, and the pipe is soon in his hand. The 

 "ponehnaughnn" is opened, and a mixture of cut tobacco 

 and red willow bark is produced. They prefer this to pure 

 tobacco; why I did not learn. Probably the cost has 

 something to do with it. 



The tumakums were smoked in ominous silence for a 

 long time, scarcely a word passing from one to the other, 

 until we joined them at their fire; and even then they 

 were not disposed to talk. Yes, they were very tired, and 

 no wonder. Any one acquainted with the difficulties to 

 be met in ascending this river can well understand their 

 feelings. However, in the course of half an hour Sak 

 found his tongue, and even good-natured Stephe made 

 some remarks; but after the booktawichk had been passed 

 round there was a great change in then spirits. 



Sak, as usual, did the most of the. talking. He has 

 rather a keen sense of humor, is quick to perceive a point, 

 and frequently turns the tables on us in a pleasant way. 

 This was especially the case that evening m reciting a 

 legend of the creation of man. James had inquired if 

 Sak thought the white men and Indians were the same at 

 first, or whether the first were white or red men. 



"O, sartin," rejoined Sak, "all same, only white man 

 white. Nickskam makum all Injun at first, no white 

 man 'tall, an' settum hunt mooin (bears). Mooin seeum 

 Injun, thinkum all same, an' fightum. One, two, some 

 Injun brave, raisum war-whoop, an' kilium mooin with 

 tomahawks. More Injun 'fraid, turnum pale, runnum 

 'way, no fightum, that's white man. Nickskam seeum 

 run turnum white, sayum no brave. White Injun 'fraid 

 of mooin, no livum in woods. Maktun wigwam in field. 

 No go in woods only Injun long too, sames you now," 

 and the other Indians laughed heartily at Sak's humorous 

 thrust at the white man. 



The more we see of Sak, the more inclined are we to be- 

 lieve that his imagination has much to do with the crea- 

 tion of the stories and traditions told about the camp- 

 fire. 



Presently the moon climbed high over the southern 

 hill-wall, and shot her beams across the dark valley to the 

 rough crags beyond, fighting up the wild mountain scen- 

 ery, but leaving night still linking in the hollows, rifts, 

 and gulches, which appeared like ugly blotches on the 

 fair picture. And before she rose high enough to chase 

 the gloom from the low, narrow river valley and flood it 

 with her silvery mantle, we all retired; we, to our tents 

 and comfortable beds, but the red men only moved the 

 closer to the fire, curled themselves up and were soon 

 asleep. Chiktbk. 



Newcastle, New Brunswick. 



HUNTING IN FLORIDA.-I. 



THOUGH a native of Massachusetts, it was my f ortune, 

 a,t the age of thirteen, to enjoy squirrel, oppossum 

 and fox hunting in interior Virginia; at nineteen, deer, 

 coon and bear chasing in southwestern Georgia; at twenty- 

 five, plover, duck and hawk shooting in southeastern New 

 England; at forty, a sight of wild chamois in the high 

 Alps, and at fifty-five, a camp life of fifty consecutive 

 days in the miasmatic swamps and everglades around 

 Lake Okechobee in southern Florida. The object of this 

 narrative is to give a detailed account of this latter expe- 

 rience in the most forbidding of all wild regions; but to 

 the naturalist a perfect elygium. 



The mention of Florida suggests the invalid, but it 

 should not in the case of myself or my three companions, 

 the one an experienced collector of forty, inured to all the 

 hardships of camp life, and recognized by naturalists as 

 Doctor P., and the other two, youths of eighteen, in- 

 experienced, but enthusiastic, whom we will call Erwin 

 and Fred. 



For hunting-dress outfit, I was provided with a suit of 

 sail cloth, colored yellowish brown or butternut, to re- 

 semble dead leaves, the sack coat prepared with ten 

 pockets, besides one, full size of the skirt, for large speci- 

 mens, the pants with six pockets, two blue flannel shirts, 

 with inside pockets for watch, money and photographs, 

 all wrapped in oil silk bags (carefully keeping paper 

 money from contact with the oil silk surface, by first en- 

 closing it in an envelope), military boots and brogans, and 

 four pair of thick woolen socks. Any sort of vest is an 

 incumberance on hunting excursions. A huswife well 

 provided with sewing materials, extra buttons, pieces of 

 cloth in variety for mending garments and dressing 

 wounds, was not omitted. 



For obtaining game, and for camp constructing, I had 

 a double-barreled breechloader; in the waist-belt on the 

 left side, a large size revolver, and on the right side a 

 claw-hatchet with wrist string in the handle; sundry 

 small traps, bunches of cord, insect nets, etc. At least 

 one breechloading rifle should be in every hunting party. 



For preserving and transporting specimens, I found a 

 tin knapsack, constructed with various apartments for 

 alcoholic vials, lunches, medicine-box and eggs, very con- 

 venient. At least ten gallons of alcohol and twenty 

 pounds of arsenic were provided, besides some hundreds 

 of muslin bags of different sizes, for keeping specimens 

 distinct when thrown into one large jar. Convenient 

 instruments, in duplicate, for skinning birds and animals 

 and for blowing eggs, completed the general outfit. 



Two o'clock P. M., Jan. 29, 1874, found myself and 

 party steaming out of the harbor of P., in southern New 

 England bound direct to Savannah. A sudden fit of indi- 

 gestion admonished Fred to seek cascading quarters, 



before we were fairly out of sight of land, whither I fol- 

 lowed him in a short time. The Doctor and Erwin proved 

 invulnerable, and greatly enjoyed our distress. How 

 singular that of all the "ills that flesh is heir to," the most 

 distressing never awakens a particle of sympathy from 

 the unsuffering, but rather mirth and cruel hectoring. 

 Happily for Fred and myself, we were booked for the 

 same stateroom, to which having retreated, through the 

 five-long night and succeeding day, we were as sympa- 

 thizing as the Siamese twins. On the third day, my sea- 

 sickness fled more suddenly than it came, on hearing the 

 cry on deck, "Porpoises! porpoises! all round." Hasten- 

 ing up, I found we were in a school of that species of 

 Cetacea called Delphi-nun delphis and quite unlike the 

 common porpoise. This latter is often seen entering bays 

 and even ascending large rivers for miles, while Del- 

 phinus rarely approaches soundings. Looking from the 

 deck of the steamer, I had an excellent opportunity for 

 observing their swift motions, and the upward and down- 

 ward movement of the tail, in contrast with its horizon- 

 tal movement in fishes. At regular intervals they would 

 rise to the surface to breathe through their single 'spiracle 

 on the summit of the head; but exhaling and inhaling 

 in an incredibly brief period of time. The hot air 

 from the lungs, surcharged with moisture, is instantly 

 condensed to vapor, giving to the careless observer the 

 appearance of spouting water, which none of the Cetacea 

 ever do. Celebrated for their swiftness, they play around 

 the vessel, changing their position from side to side, by 

 sometimes passing under the bow and sometimes under 

 the stern, but never disconcerted by the speed of the 

 steamer, though plowing the waves at the rate of ten 

 knots per hour. Both jaws are armed with numerous 

 conical teeth, enabling them to feed upon the gregarious 

 tribes of fishes. Robert L. Pell says: "It commits great 

 ravages among the enormous shoals of flying fish (JUxo- 

 emtys volitans), inhabiting the temperate latitudes, and 

 it is a very remarkable fact that he necessarily seizes it 

 as it endeavors to escape him, behind; and were it not for 

 provident nature, he could not swallow it on account of 

 its wings. The moment, however, it enters his mouth, 

 some internal management reverses the fish, and it passes 

 down his throat head first. This cetaceous animal much 

 resembles the porpoise, but has a longer snout and more 

 slender body." In this quotation from the address of Mi-. 

 Pell, before the American Institute, May 17, 1858, we 

 suspect either he or the reporter rather mixed accounts, 

 by confounding the cetaceans Delphimis with the scale- 

 fish Coryphcene, species of both genera being popularly 

 called dolphins, though the former is a mammal and 

 the latter a true fish. According to Captain Basil 

 Hall, it is the Coryphcene that "commits great ravages 

 among the flying-fish," and an old whaler by my side 

 fully confirms his account, but as confidently denies Mr. 

 Pell's. Can any of my readers testify to ever having 

 seen any species of porpoise pursue and feast upon flying- 

 fish? 



DelpMnus delphis is regarded as the true dolphin of the 

 ancients, to which the Greeks paid divine honors, placing 

 its image in their temples and impressing it on their coins, 

 though never actually imitating nature in their represen- 

 tations of it, but rather idealizing it as embodying physical 

 and moral perfections beyond those of the human race. 



At noon we passed Cape Hatteras with a perfectly calm 

 sea, very unlike some of my former passings of it in a 

 sailing vessel in my youthful days. At 9 P. M. Sunday, 

 we anchored in Tybee Sound, and at dawn proceeded up 

 the Savannah River to the city. We conveyed our lug- 

 gage across the city in a drenching rain, and started at 5 

 P. M. in the cars for a night ride of 250 miles to Jackson- 

 ville. The contrast between the station and car accom- 

 modations of soutbem New England and southern Georgia 

 was painfully striking. Toward dawn our train passed 

 over the hard-fought battle-ground of Olustee, where the 

 Union troops were disastrously defeated in the late civil 

 war. Anticipating our arrival at the place, I had sought 

 information among the passengers, and fortunately found 

 one who was in the fight on the Southern side. To my 

 eager inquiries, he pointed out the graves of the Union 

 soldiers who fell in the battle and in the hasty retreat of 

 their comrades were left on the field, and I knew that 

 there lay two of my former pupils, whose lives had been 

 laid upon the altar of then country. Another, who com- 

 manded a company of cavalry in the fight, was taken 

 captive on the retreat and thrown into prison, escaping 

 only to die in a few weeks of the disease contracted dur- 

 ing his prison life. 



At 10 A, M. arrived at Jacksonville— four and one-half 

 days from snow and ice, to orange groves laden with 

 fruit. 



Making inquiries for best route to Lake Okechobee, I 

 found it was a "terra incognita" to even Floridians. The 

 publisher of a recent map of the State pointed to it with 

 the remark, "It is sa'd to be there, but I have never met 

 one who has seen it. Should you find it and return, 

 having escaped its miasma and reptiles, do not fail to 

 give me a call, and verify or correct my map for the next 

 edition." The papers were teeming with sensational 

 stories about the wonders of the lake; beautiful islands, 

 on which are castle ruins, grassy plains and nondescript 

 animals, among which latter "were spiders of 41bs. 

 weight!" I was also informed of a party, just a day or 

 two in advance of me, bound for the lake by a western 

 approach to it. This information at once decided me in 

 favor of an approach from the east, and with only two 

 days' delay in Jacksonville, I found myself and party on 

 the little steamer Lollie Boy headed'for Salt Lake, ex- 

 pecting to arrive there by 12 M. Saturday. 



To quote from the "Floridian Peninsula": "Such en- 

 tire ignorance of a body of water with a superficies of 

 1,200 square miles, in the" midst of a State settled nearly 

 half a century before any other in our Union, which had 

 been governed for years by Spanish, by English, and by 

 Americans, well illustrates the impassable character of 

 those vast swamps and dense cypresses known as the ever- 

 glades; an impenetrability so complete as almost to justify 

 the assertion of the State Engineer, so late as 1855: 'These 

 lands are now, and will continue to be, as much unknown 

 as the interior of Africa, or the sources of the Amazon!' " 

 The sequel to my narative will show how completely two 

 months more sufficed, through the perseverance of two 

 of my party, united to two others that subsequently 

 joined them, together with my on independent efforts, to 

 dispel the vagueness and even romance attending a knowl- 

 edge of its existence. 



Though the area of the State of Florida compares with 

 that of New England in the ratio of 59 to 62, three-fourths 



