274 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Ajpbil 25, 1688. 



CAMPS ON THE MENOMINEE AND BRULE 



BY JOHN DEAN CATON. 

 [Concluded from Page 254]. 



AFTER spending three days in this cam]) we stal led 

 up the river for the Briile and reached the falls 

 where it empties into the Menominee a little after noon. 

 Here we landed, and after dinner started on foot to go 

 around the falls and rapids ahove to The Farm, a large 

 logging camp, four miles away, leaving the Indians to 

 bring up the. canoes and baggage. Soon after we started 

 a drizzling rain set in, which made the trail slippery and 

 very hard walking. 



I stopped behind with Jake, while he killed a mesa of 

 ruffed grouse, while Jones and Norman went ahead. 



At length we came to the banks of the river, where 

 there was a ford, but no house in sight. "We had not ex- 

 pected this, and not wishing to wade the river, which ap- 

 peared to be two or three feet deep, we set Hp a lusty 

 hallooing, which after some time brought a man with a 

 canoe down the river who set us over, when a tramp of 

 less than half a mile brought us to the Farm. The cook 

 in charge was very civil, offered us seats, and very kindly 

 invited us to occupy bunks in the cabin, which at first I 

 was rather inclined to do, but iu the course of conversa- 

 tion I learned that the bunks were infested with bed- 

 bugs, which led to a discussion on the subject of ento- 

 mology, during which I advised him to get a few pounds 

 of sulphur, set fire to a pan of it under each bunk, close 

 up every crack possible, let the bugs have the benefit of it 

 for ten hours, when I thought they would be less trouble- 

 some than they had been. He promised to suggest the 

 remedy to the boss when he should come in. 



In the meantime the canoes had passed up the river. 

 We started on and in half a mile further came to where 

 they were making camp, and here we spent the night 

 comfortably. 



It was six miles to the dam, in the neighborhood of 

 which we intended to go into camp, and the water was 

 understood to be strong all the way, so the boys shoul- 

 dered their guns, and started on the trail leading to the 

 dam, while I took my seat in one of the canoes, and with 

 the four Indians commenced poling up the river, which 

 was slow work. At noon we stopped and cooked dinner; 

 and by the middle of the afternoon reached the dam, 

 where we found the boys, who had arrived some time 

 before us, and were engaged in fishing for trout in a deep 

 pool just below the dam, and with fair success. 



This ride up the Brule had been a charming one, al- 

 though we had been about nine hours in making six 

 miles. All of the rivers in Northern Wisconsin are of 

 colored water, except two. One of these is the Brule, 

 the waters of which are cold and as clear as crystal, so 

 that one can see the bottom at a great depth. It is the 

 natural home of the trout. So soon as we landed at the 

 bridge, I got out my fishing tackle and joined in the 

 sport, while the Indians took the canoes, and went on up 

 the river to make camp nearly opposite Boot Lake, and 

 then came down and took us up. 



Here we spent a week, abundantly supplied with both 

 fish and venison. If I could not go on the hunt I could 

 fish as well as ever, and so my occupation was not limited 

 to keeping camp. I did my share to supply its larder 

 with speckled trout. We opened the gates at the dam, 

 Avhen we wished to fish in the pool below it, and then 

 closed them when done, and in ten or twelve hours it 

 would so fill up that the water would rise Oft. at our 

 camp, and once it rose up so high as to come pretty close 

 to us. 



One day Norman chose to remain in camp, while I took 

 an excursion down the river, and the other two were in 

 the woods with their guides. I returned with a fine 

 string of fish, and when I rather triumphantly showed it 

 to Norman, he stepped down to the edge of the water and 

 pulled out a string of fish still kicking, which were so 

 much larger than mine in number and size that I gave up 

 at once. The pond was full, when merely for occupation 

 he got out his fishing tackle, and baiting his hook with 

 fresh venison threw it out into the water, where when 

 the pond was down the land was dry, aud immediately 

 landed a half-pound trout, and repeated this many times. 

 The string which he exhibited was by far the finest lot 

 of trout seen during that excursion. He afterward 

 claimed the pond as his preserve, but he graciously 

 allowed me to fish in it, of which permission I sometimes 

 availed myself. 



One day all the boys and all the guides went over with 

 the canoes to Boot Lake to explore that body of water. 

 The lake is about a mile south of the Brule, with rather 

 marshy ground intervening between. Jake and Norman 

 took one of the canoes and two of the Indians, and started 

 out on the lake to explore a distant bay. When nearly 

 a mile away they observed a speck upon the water which 

 seemed to be moving slowly about, following the shore, 

 and no great distance from it. As they proceeded they 

 soon discovered it to be the head of a large buck, with 

 very large antlers, swimmhig leisurely in the same 

 direction they were going. The Indians silently but 

 vigorously applied their paddles, and rapidly gained 

 upon the deer, and when they had got pretty close to him 

 he had crossed the bay and quietly walked up the bank, 

 not having seen them, and there he stood about 70yds. 

 away gazing into the forest beyond, as if for a mate. Of 

 course, all had become greatly excited during the silent 

 chase. They had taken but one Winchester with them, 

 which Jake was holding. The Indian at the stern, near 

 whom he 6at, whispered, "Shoot," which he did three 

 times in rapid succession, as fast as he could pump up 

 the cartridges; but there the deer stood gazing right 

 away from them into the forest. Then he relinquished 

 the gun to Norman, who fired three shots with like suc- 

 cess, when he handed the gun to the younger guide, who 

 fired one shot at the deer, who still stood looking the 

 other way, whence the echoes of the reports caused him 

 to look for the danger point. He then quietly walked 

 away into the bush, which was close by, without seeing 

 his enemies or suspecting they were in the waters behind 

 him. This was one of the most striking (or rather miss- 

 ing) instances of buck fever I ever remember to have 

 heard of. It seemed to have utterly paralyzed the whole 

 crew, without regard to their previous experience in deer 

 hunting, and when they got back to camp at evening 

 they still appeared to be affected with the snakes. No =' 



doubt the long and silent chase and gradual approach, 

 and the fear every moment that they would be discovered 

 by the quarry, was calculated to unstring their nerves, 

 and so I endeavored to quiet them as best I could. The 

 hurrah and laugh in the Indians' tent was abundant 

 proof that they, too, were enjoying themselves at the 

 expense of their companion who had become so shaken 

 up that he probably shot over the tops of the trees, 

 although he was a good hunter, and had lived in a deer 

 country from boyhood. As for the boys I think they were 

 excusable if they looked one way and shot another, which 

 was no doubt the case. 



That day's observation convinced the party that Boot 

 Lake was full of black bass, so one afternoon they went 

 over to try it, and returned with as many bass as they 

 could bring. I saw at once that there were more than 

 we could consume, and as many of them were still kick- 

 ing on the string I directed the cook to put all in the 

 river, except what we needed for supper and breakfast. 

 This he did. Some went off at once and nearly all revived 

 after a short time, and went into the stream. However, 

 justly thinking that the liveliest would be the best for 

 the table he made his own selection, and went to work to 

 scale them in the edge of the water, and like the boy at 

 a barrel of apples, he selected the best first. Just as he 

 had got it well scaled, holding it by the tail, it slipped 

 out of his fingers, and swam out into the stream at a 

 lively rate. Now I did not see this myself, but it was 

 immediately reported at our camp-fire, when all rushed 

 to the place, but only scales were there to verify the 

 report, but we had no reason to doubt its truth. 



l could prolong this article indefinitely by giving a de- 

 tailed account of each day's incidents, but that would be 

 unprofitable, so I confine myself principally to special 

 occurrences a little out of the way of the ordinary course 

 of camp lif e. 



Al ter spending a week in this camp we started on our 

 return. Soon after we left the dam our canoe began to 

 leak, and as the pitch was in the other canoe, which had 

 started ahead of us, and was already out of sight, we 

 commenced hallooing, and the way those Indians made 

 the woods resound was truly edifying. At the same time 

 the Indians put on a spurt with their paddles, but the 

 leak increased so rapidly that we had to run ashore and 

 unload the canoe as quickly as possible. Our friends in 

 the first canoe heard our calls, but thinking it was only a 

 fit of hilarity upon the part of our Indians, they kept on 

 in jolly mood, but so soon as they found that our noise 

 seemed to recede they thought there was trouble and 

 turned and laboriously pulled back to where we were. 

 Our canoe had been hauled out, turned over and dried 

 and a fire made, before which the pitch and the rent in 

 the canoe were soon heated and the leak repaired, when 

 we all embarked and shot down the cm-rent with great 

 speed. When the rapids were reached above the month 

 of the Brule we shot them safely till within a quarter of 

 a mile of the vertical fall at the mouth of the river, where 

 we landed and made the portage around the falls and 

 got dinner. We then re-embarked, and in an hour's time 

 were in our old camp at Bad Water Crossing. The hay 

 which had constituted our beds formerly, by repeated 

 shakings and turnings was well dried, and all was nice 

 and comfortable again. 



This time we spent two days at that camp with an 

 abundance of healthy exercise, and all the succe'ss in 

 hunting which we needed. On the afternoon of the 

 second day we again packed up and sped down the river 

 to the old camp of the Mayor's party at the mouth of the 

 Pine, w T bich they had left on their return home a few 

 days before. Their large party of nineteen had occupied 

 that camp for more than two weeks, and the relics of its 

 former occupancy were scattered about in great profusion, 

 but the lively and animated scenes which reigned there 

 when we left them two weeks before were wanting, and 

 a solitude which was almost oppressive now pervaded 

 their old camp ground. All the bluejays of the country 

 had appeared to be collected there to hunt for gleanings, 

 and the nimble red squirrel in great abundance was found 

 chasing around on every tree. The bottles (I mean cat- 

 sup bottles and the like) lay about in numbers, and the 

 boys amused themselves with pistol practice, using those 

 bottles as targets, and made many successful shots at 

 long range, much better than they could have made before 

 their nerves had been quieted and their muscles strength- 

 ened by the free air and exercise of this excursion. 



We found this camp and its surroundings so pleasant 

 that the young gentlemen desired to spend another day 

 there, though game in the vicinity was rather scarce, 

 owing, no doubt, to the long stay and industrious habits 

 of the Mayor's party at that place. 



On the second morning after our arrival in that camp 

 we took to our canoes, and leisurely passed down to the 

 head of the great falls of the Menominee, where we 

 landed and took dinner, and then commenced the four- 

 mile portage around the falls. 



All the guides started with their heavy loads of lug- 

 gage on the trail and we followed in a very leisurely walk, 

 which occupied, two hours before we readied the foot of 

 the falls. Long before we got there we met the guides 

 returning for the canoes arid what baggage had been 

 left. 



Two hours after our arrival one of the guides returned 

 with a canoe on his head and shoulders, which he had 

 brought over without once stopping on the way, and an 

 hour later the other three guides arrived with the other 

 canoe, which they had brought down by water nomi- 

 nally, for they had made many portages around falls 

 which they could not descend in the canoe. 



In the meantime I had been engaged in cutting some 

 cedar boughs for our beds, while some of the boys had 

 been scouting about in the hope of finding a deer, but 

 thep came in empty-handed. Our tents were now 

 pitched for the last time on a little peninsula which 

 jutted out into the waters just below the falls, whose roar 

 was rather soothing than disturbing. 



The next morning we packed up our baggage for the 

 last time, went down the river for a few miles, where we 

 landed, and bade farewell to the Menominee, and took the 

 trail which led up to the village of Quinnesec, where we 

 arrived in time for dinner. 



During the afternoon we took the train for Chicago, 

 which place we reached next morning early, and thus 

 ended my last excursion in the woods and my Last experi- 

 ence of camp life. Its incidents constitute a pleasing 

 memory, a retrospect of which affords me only less ' 

 pleasure than did the actual experience. The young gen- 1 

 tlemen who went with me, and who had never before ' 



slept under a tent, and had never seen large game in the 

 forest, or thrown a fly for Salmo fontinalis, had learned 

 much of woodcraft and camp life, and almost considered 

 themselves veterans. They had enjoyed the excursion to 

 the full, and would have been glad to stay a couple of 

 weeks longer, but that could not be, so we had reluctantly 

 turned our faces homeward, they hoping again to repeat 

 their experience many times, whde I appreciated that 

 my failing vision must make it my last. 



THE INSECTIVORA.-II. 



BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M.D., C.M.Z.S. 

 [Concluded from Page £35.1 



WE have in this country some half a dozen species of 

 moles or mole-like animals, distributed among four 

 genera; of these, perhaps, the best known are the common 

 mole (S. a. aquations) and the star-nosed mole (C. cris- 

 tata). It is hardly necessary to say here that our common 

 mole is not the same species as the mole of Europe, which 

 belongs to the genus Talpa; in then- habits, however, they 

 are much alike, as they are in general appearance. At 

 different times I have kept in confinement specimens of 

 both our common species and the star-nosed mole, and 

 there are few people, probably, of the country districts of 

 the Atlantic slope, but are familiar with the first-men- 

 tioned animal, while many have seen specimens of the 

 latter in the regions where it is found. Then, too, in 

 these days of profusely illustrated school books, and the 

 far wider attention that is being given to such matters in 

 our schemes of education, nearly every school boy has 

 seen a good figure of the habitation of a mole, with its 

 small upper circtdar tunnel connecting with a similar and 

 larger lower one by means of five or six slanting cylin- 

 drical passages, the central citadel having a number of 

 tunnels leading from it in a variety of directions to open 

 at various points on the surface of the ground, sometimes 

 at four or five yards distant from the aforesaid habitation. 

 So, too, are well known its dense and flossy coat of fur 

 of silky softness, its minute eyes, its broad forefeet, and 

 its smaller hinder pair, and indeed, any one who has ever 

 paid the slightest attention to its form and structure 

 must appreciate in a moment that its entire organization 

 has come to be most perfectly adapted to its fossorial 

 habits and peculiar mode of life. 



These "shrew-moles" of ours well deserve their generic 

 name, Scalqps, from the Latin sculpo, I scrape, but for 

 the aquaticus, the name is not so well earned, as they 

 are by no means aquatic in habit, although it is said that 

 our moles are fine swimmers when occasion demands it. 

 In nature their principal food is composed of earthworms, 

 which they obtain by digging, making frequent branches 

 to their tunnels to secure them. They are among the 

 most voracious of animals, and in confinement will 

 ravenously devour flesh of almost any kind, but will 

 starve rather than eat a toad. Pugnacious to the last 

 degree, they fight in a state of nature for their favorite 

 females, and will kill, yes, eat, each other in confine- 

 ment. Twenty-four hours time is sufficient to kill one 

 by starvation unless he be amply furnished with fresh 

 earth worms, or meat of some kind, and they drink no 

 little amount of water. In their personal habits they are 

 cleanly, and take one when w T e may, his coat is always 

 well kept and the earth rarely adheres to their pretty 

 flesh-colored little feet. When a female mole is ready to 

 bring forth her five or six young, she makes a soft nest 

 of grass and other similar material in the main gallery. 

 Young moles, although comparatively helpless when first 

 born, soon attain then- full size and are able to shift for 

 themselves. The period of gestation is said to be about 

 six weeks. Our moles are probably more beneficial 

 than injurious to the farmer, and as they never consume 

 any kind of vegetable matter, they never can do any 

 very serious damage to plants; they may, to be sure, up- 

 root a few when their tunnels run under them, but they 

 should be pardoned for this. When out upon the ground 

 one of our moles can run with very great agility, and 

 no doubt during the night time such exercise is often in- 

 dulged in; indeed, I have even during the daytime seen 

 a mole take a scamper over the grass from one burrow 

 to another 



With respect to the hibernating habits of the common 

 and star-nosed moles in winter, Dr. C. C. Abbott's obser- 

 vations have led him to record the following facts: He 

 says that the common mole " burrows deeply into dry 

 soils, keeping just beyond the frost line; and there it re- 

 mains, without a nest of any kind, until the warmth of 

 the spring sunshine melts the frost, loosens the soil, and 

 sets the subterranean prisoner free. If, as sometimes 

 happens, the cold is unusually intense and sudden, the 

 ground freezes below the resting places of the hibernating 

 moles, and then they are frozen to death. This, I judge, 

 does not often occur; but the approaching frost rouses 

 them sufficiently to place them on their guard, and forth- 

 with they burrow a little deeper. It is very different 

 with the meadow-haunting, star-nosed mole (Condyhira 

 cristata). This mammal has more complicated burrows 

 •than those of the preceding, and often one or more open- 

 ings to them are beneath the surface of the water. At 

 some point in these tangled tunnelings these moles form 

 commodious nests,placing a good deal of fine grass in them. 

 Here, indifferent to freshets, they remain all winter, 

 and, as they can lay up no food, sleep, I suppose, through 

 the entire season. The fact that these moles are un- 

 affected by being submerged during the spring freshets 

 is interesting. So far as I have examined their nests 

 there was nothing to show that they were water-tight; 

 and I think that the animals must have been thoroughly 

 soaked for from forty-eight to seventy-two hours, the 

 ordinary duration of the high water. If through any 

 cause the period of submergence was prolonged, it is 

 probable that it would prove fatal to the moles." Com- 

 mon moles while burrowing often throw out the surplus 

 earth from their burrows. These constitute the well- 

 known "mole hills," but they are not the central, circular 

 galleries of their subterranean habitations as many are 

 led to suppose, although this latter may be constructed in 

 a hillock. 



In a former paragraph I alluded to the "golden moles" 

 of South Africa (Chrysochloridce), animals almost as emi- 

 nently fossorial as is Scalops or Talpa, and yet, as has 

 been clearly shown by Dobson, to meet this kind of lifej 



