2^6 



FOKEST ANiD STHEAM. 



iAn.TL 0, 1881, 



HOW COMES THE SPRINC? 



XST^HO can t«ll how sruing comes, 

 ' * Wlitn the brandies of brown turn red; 

 When the blnebird and robin fly north wai'd; 



When the brook burets its icy bed; 

 Whf n the earlh. after elpf ping all winter, 



Is brealhi7ig the perfume of life. 

 And the beart-throbs of Nature quicken, 



Liae rh« pulses of heroes in strift? 



Who cju tell how spring comes, 



When the winds forget to moan 

 And steal gently through the valley, 



With an idle mono' one? 

 When snows melt in lears for winter; 



Wh-en soft grows the blue of the skies-. 

 And, over ( he marshy meadows. 



The mists of evening ai ist? 



Wl-o can tell how spring conws-. 



Like the olive- bearing ^ovo, 

 With its melody of gladness: 



With its harmony of lovt? 

 Who can tell? Ask not the question. 



But, iC yesterday were drear, 

 Be tiianMul for a blessing 



•And say, *-Tlie spring is here." ISftOSHONE. 



PETE'S GHOST. 



'LThis is a continuation of "Shoshone's" trip to "Dixie." See 

 "Southward Bouncl," in issue of March 26.] 



STORM-BOtTNDJ The fact that I am writing on browti 

 wrapping paper iudicates either that I am in a terri- 

 bly impecmiious condition or that I am out of reach of 

 the luxuries and necpssities of an effete civilization. The 

 mountain peaks that loom up on three sides of us are 

 veiled in clouds, and down the valley there is a white 

 wall— dense, impenetrable. E^en the pines are covered, 

 and stand like snow giants bidding defiance to the 

 elements. For two days and three nights the storm 

 jaa'5 raged, nor is there sign of intermission. 



To get out of this , call it what you please, words 



■of mine are inadequate to do justice to my feeiings, we 

 must ere one of three dividts. On none of them is 

 there less than three feet of snow. To the e'ist we can 

 tross the mountain, go down into Grass Valley and 

 thence to the Colorado. Southward a lone trail of seventy 

 miles leads to Dixie; while the i-oad that goes west will 

 take us to Cedar Cty. 



O temporal O mores! Was it for this we left home and 

 fire, the daily paper and three square meals? Seventy- 

 five miles from a railroad, twenty-five from daily mail, 

 and heaven only knows how far from a good cigar. 

 ^'Listen to my tale of woe." The principal building of the 

 settlement is store, saloon, post oiiice and hotel. About 

 the fire, that sympathizes with despondent nature to such 

 an extent that it positively refuses to blaze, sheepmen, 

 hunters, tie choppers and prospectors gatlier and swap 

 lies, I divide mv lime between a back number of the 

 Salt Lake Herald, a well-worn copy of "Faust," that is 

 always wiih me, and "The Book of Mormon," in Danish. 

 Now and then, once or twice a day. a customer will come 

 in, buy two bits' worth of this or that, pay for it in script 

 and retire. Script is a wonderful thing. So far as I can 

 make out, it is a tsind of wampum, isf-ued by storekeepirr-> 

 for grain and produce, and redeemed by the same store- 

 Sseepers in meichandise at their own figures. If I had a 

 bushel of the sluiT that wet log would do something be- 

 side smoke. 



There is one happy man in the settlement, and but one. 

 He has come from the lower country and is engaged io 

 the occupation commonly known as'"sparkin'." He goes 

 out direc'ly after breakf i&t and comes in when the last 

 man is snoring, so we are not cheered by the light of his 

 countenance. 



We talk about one thing or another. I learn most 

 when I say nothing. Politics, religion, crops and hunt- 

 ing are discussed whenever thecrowd tires of diagnosing 

 and prognosing the weather. A majority of the assembly 

 are saints, Paddy is not one of the elecc and never hesi- 

 tates to revile them. Last night one of the boys asked 

 him what his reliaion was. ^'Begorra, I've got no 

 religion. I'm a catholic," was the angry reply. 



They say that these mountains are full of deer and 

 mountain lions. Oae man says that a few years ago it 

 was unusual to fiad more than eight or ten deer in a 

 bunch, whil*^ now bands of thirty are not infrequently 

 met with. This seems incredible, and yet I know it to 

 be a fact. The Pah-vant range, west of the Upper Sevier 

 Biver, is exceedingly rugged. The roads acro.<s the sum- 

 mit nf the divide are forty miles apart and the mountain 

 is seldom vii^ited f xcept for timber, and this is obtained 

 near the settlements. The climate of these west moun- 

 tains is mild. The warm valley is on one side, the 

 warmer desert region on the other. A continuous chain 

 of settlements along the Rio Virgin has driven game from 

 its old winter quarters, and it takes this portion of XJcah 

 as the best camping ground that is left. 



Ducks are abundant on the river, findinff the waters 

 more open and the feed better along the Upper Sevier 

 than near its mouth. I was lucky enough to get a pair 

 of teal on the way up, and they were a great relief after 

 the bacon upon which we had been subsisting. We have 

 seen plenty of deer, but as the law is supposed to be in 

 force, we will not kill any until we get away from the 

 settlements and actually need the meat. 



Forty miles to the south, away up among the snows, is 

 Panguich Lake. We intended to reach it before the 

 storm and make a week's camp, but the fates interfered. 

 Panguich Lake is frozen over, but it is a bonanza to 

 men of the settlpments who want cash. Last week 

 l,9C01bs, of trout were caught through the ice. These 

 the fishermen sold at ten cents per pound, and the mid- 

 dlemen delivered the goods in Salt Lake city for eightt en 

 cents a pound. At this rate the supply will soon be ex- 

 hausted. I believe, in spite of all assertions to the con- 

 trary, that giant powder is used in this profitable busi- 

 ness, and if I can ever prove it the ©ffender wiU have a 

 chance to pay a fine. 



What? Amid the clouds of tobacco smoke there is a 

 light. The old log is actually beginning to burn. The 

 roices are hushed, and a veteran pioneer, who invariably 



takes the lead in story-te^ing. a man who has spent forty 

 years in the wildernes', begins a tale of adventures 



"About twenty-five years ago, before the sheep got so 

 thick nver in the Eist country that they drove out all the 

 deer, I had a few cattle ranging in Grass Valley. At that 

 time there was no settlptneht within fifty milep, and when 

 we went in we had to pack grub enough to last for the 

 season. For all the cattle I had I might haVe gone by 

 myself, but a feller gets dogOned lonesome when hie don't 

 see a human in three months, and there's bo teilin' what 

 might happen. So 1 took Pete Lirsen for 'company, jpete 

 was a gotKl bay in them days, before drink got away with 

 him. He took to prospt ttin'. and. the last I heard of him, 

 be wetit West from Silver Ijeef out on to the desert, and 

 took two quarts of whiskey, a pick and a shovel, and I 

 always aliowed he dug his own grave. That's neither 

 here nor thar; Pete was ez good ez four of a kind on that 

 trifv. 



' We went slow and lived high. There was plenty of 

 trout in them day?. The deer run in big bands, and it 

 was no trick at all to get all the iiioUntain sheep we 

 wanted. The lojiins Vrere etayin' bli the reservation and 

 we had eVer^thmg ottr oVvn way. Pishin' and huntin' 

 took up our time ft>i- a month, and when we got down to 

 Otter Creek We iiiade up our minds to go over to Fish L tke 

 and njake a steady camp. Fish Lake is one of the puniest 

 ponds you ever seen, and now it's a great plaice for 

 campers. But then there was nothin' but the shiny watef- 

 and the mountains comin' right down to it and the finest 

 timber in the land. 



'•Game? well, I should saV so— all kinds that a decent 

 man would want to eat, and enough lions, bears, beavers 

 and otters to make a trapper rich for life. We ptit the 

 tent in a (^uakin' asp grove and built a bowery in front of 

 itj where we ate and smoked and lived. The tent was 

 our sleepia' room and pantry. The day after we struck 

 the lake I was ridin' up a little side canon and right 

 across froni me was a bunch of deer. They seen me, but 

 was in no hurry to git out of range, so 1 pulled down on 

 to what T tuk to be a barren doe — the bc-st eatin' in the 

 world, I hit her hard and druv her ahead of me almost 

 to the camp. She had been hit low and quarterin*, and 

 every jump she made the insides kept comin' out of her 

 and draggin' on the ground, I expected to see her drop 

 every minute, but when she gotwitbia a hundred yards 

 of the tent she bolted for Cove Caflon and ran a full half- 

 mile ez tight ez if she'd never been touched. Then she 

 fell dead in her tracks, and when I got to her sue Was 

 purty nigh ez well dressed ez if I'd done the j-ib myself. 



"One afternoon Pete and I wire out with our etins. 

 For a wonder, we were on foot and neVer a thing did we 

 see till we were almost back to the tent. Then 1 saw a 

 couple of kittens in the tfail. They were ab >ut a week 

 old, as large a=i a two- months-old Newfoundland dog and 

 the sassiest little devils you ever seen. Pete warn't no 

 whar in sight.-, neither war the old lion, so I thought I'd 

 catch one of 'em and p'ick it to camp. The 1 tile cusses 

 Coii'dn't run very fast, but howthey did fcratch. Finally 

 I got one of 'em under my arm, with its feet in chancery, 

 and started along. I don't know how I happened to oe 

 clean off my guard, but I hearn a growl and a spat behind 

 me, and as I turned — well, I never got turned. 1 jest 

 spun aroun' and went down in a heap. Look thar, gen- 

 tlemen," 



He took off his coat, rolled up his shirt sleeve and 

 showed three red streak •>, looking as thoilgh the arni had 

 been burned with a hot iron, thdt extended froni shoiilder 

 to elbow, 



' That's plenty nloire mat-ks like that on my back and 

 sides, I clean lost my head and didn't feel a bit of piin ; 

 jest had sense enough left to gi^e myself up for a goner. 

 Then I hearn a Couple of shots. They sounded a long 

 way f If and the nest thing I knowed was Pete draggin' 

 me out from Under the biggest she lion that I ever laid 

 my eyes on. He had been the other eide of the brush 

 patch and seen the brute spring, but he c 'uldn't shoot for 

 fear of puttin' daylight through me. Pete helped me 

 back to camp, and mighty weak and sore I was for a 

 month. 



"The queerest part of the whole business was the way 

 Pete <uk on. H-^ said there was sometbin' in that lion's 

 eyes that reminded him of a human. He always was a 

 superstitious cuss — that Pete, He said that ef it hadn't 

 been to save my life he'd never have shot her. I didn'c 

 take much stock in his feelings, but that night, after we'd 

 turned in, we hearn the darndest moaning and cryin' up 

 in the pines. I told Pete to get up and see what wan the 

 matter. He did want ter and he trembled like a leaf 

 when he crawled out. It didn'c take more'n a minute 

 for him to be back, 



" -What is it?' says I. 



" 'Bob,' says he, 'there's a light way up on the mountain 

 and there's somethink white a movin' about ii". Th's 

 dumed camp is ha'nted and I'll be blowed ef I sleeps 

 here another night.' 



" 'Yet' daft,' says I, 'that's nothin' but an owl, hootin* 

 and hootin' and hootin'.' 



*■ 'O wl yer eye! Bob, didn*t you ever hear tell that the 

 speerits of humans is sometimes found in dumb critters 

 an' when you kill a critter that's that way it's jest as bad 

 as murder. The critter dies bu', the sp?erit stays with you 

 and loller^ you from land to land, and if that lion didn'c 

 have a human speerit in it I'm a liar.' 



"After a whUe the howlin' stopped. I went to sleep, 

 but Pete said that he didn'c close bis eyes. The next day 

 I couldn't get out. Pt te wouldn't leave me. He wouldn't 

 leave camp either. He just hung round, acted solemn 

 and downcast like, and got the water without sayin' a 

 w rd. That night the cryin' and the Fcreechin' was as 

 bad as ever. Pete wouldn't go even to the tent door. He 

 was purty nigh crazy, and looked mighty tough when 

 daylight came. The third day I could get around the 

 camp, and I told Pete that'just as soon as I cou'd 

 travel we'd quit the kentry and go back to Octer Creek. 

 By night I felt so much better that I made up my mind 

 to go up into the pines the next day and find out for my- 

 self what all the racket was. 



"The third night cameand we turned in. 4-f ter a while 

 the same vvailio' began again. I was purty weak, but I 

 didn't take no stock in Peter's gho=t. I went outside with 

 my rifle and fired as dose as I could for the sound. You'd 

 cughter have heard the yell that follered. Then I shot 

 again, and everything was still, except the echerij that 

 kept ringtn' back and forth through the can m, . 



" 'Thar, Pete, I've tjuieted yer speerit for you.'- 



" *God help you, Bjb, thar'd no tellin' what you V©4oae,* 

 says he, and we both w^afc to sleep. 



"T hadn't strength enough to Climb the hill the nfxt 

 day, and the next night we heard no noise. On the second 

 day after we went up into the pines, and after huntin* 

 around foimd an old f qtiaw stiff and cold. . Sbe had been 

 turned out by Santaqnin's band to die; abd whilfe. t 

 didn't hit her, Ireckoli tny Shootin' gcaied her to death. 

 Pete didn't say no more abnut speerits, and we campisd 

 by Fish Lake till snow flew." 



Indian John arose with the quiet dignity characteristic 

 of the Caon Creek U es, wrapped his blanket about him 

 and muttering, "Ugh! heap bad man," strode out into 

 the tempest. 



Somebody says that it is cold enough to freeze the 

 flames as they come out of the chimney. A disconsolate 

 drummer propo-es a game of "high five" and gets no en- 

 couragement. He has already been set down as a tender^ 

 foot 1 beg a little pinch of villainous .tobabco, wrap it 

 itp in a piece of brown paper, take a putt or two, light a 

 Candle and ath gone. 



Aboiit the i-oof the storrn shriekq and rages. Through 

 the chinks the snow has blown and sifted, and there are 

 little drifts on the floor. Bah! this is an execrable coun- 

 try. What if the "speerits'" of the slaughtered innoc-nts 

 that have fallen by my hand should surround mv bunk? 

 Wouldn't I have a sweet time? Seoshone, 



MjLaYsvAtE, Utah, Jhu. lOs 



tHE BIRDS Of* KANSAS* 



ORNITHOLOGISTS have long known Col N. S. GtiSd 

 as an enthusiastic worker in this science, and it has 

 been also that he has been engaged for many yeais in 

 collpcling material for a work on the birds of the Slate 

 of Kansas. The work has recently been issued from the 

 pccf s, and a c ipy of it was received at this uffice the day 

 l?efore the deatu of its lamented author. 



The title of this work, "HisLtjry of the Birds of 

 Kansas," expliins just what the book is. It treats of 

 343 species and subspecies, and is illustrated by photo- 

 gravure engravings, made from the mounted blros of ihs 

 "G.8S Ornithological Collecti in.'* The work is not bur- 

 d ned whh sylionymatic I s's, the name of the bud, as it 

 appeal's in the A. U. U., Cutfek List; alme being used. 

 The ordinal; family antl,. generic characters aire 4'it)te<i 

 from Baird; Brewer land Ridgway, with such changes as 

 are ihade necessary by more modern classiticati'in, since 

 Col. Goss did not have access to cillectu ns sufficiently 

 large to enable him t) prepare original descriptions:. 



It is in the notes which follow the descriptions of the 

 species, and which give the author's own obseivati ms, 

 that we find the best and most entertainingly original 

 work in the book. These notes, to accumulate which Cal. 

 Gass traveled over much of the North American conti- 

 nent, give us a great deal of information, which is no less 

 interesting to the general reader than it lo the student 

 of bird life. They show in almost every line the careful 

 accurate ob'.erver and at the same tittle the aident lovef 

 of naiUi'e. In his acCoUnt of tbe dovvny wordpt &ker we 

 find the foil )^ihg defeiiae of that iiselul little bird in 

 which a populat prejudice is combatted. He saye; 



"Of all oui: woodpeckers none rid the apple trees of po 

 many vermin as this, digging off the muss which the 

 negligence of tbe proprietor has suffered to accumuUie, 

 and probing every crevice. In tact the orchard is his 

 tdvorite resort in all seasons, and his industry is unequalled 

 and almost incessant, which is more than can be said o£ 

 any other species we have. In the fall he is particularly 

 f jnd of boring the apple trees for insects, digging a cir- 

 cultrhole through ti.e bark ju t sufficient to admit his 

 b.l'; after that a second, thiid, etc., in pretty regular 

 hoiizontal circles around the body of the tree. Tnei-e 

 parallel circles of holes are often not more than an inch 

 or an inch and a half apart, and sometimes so close to- 

 gether that I have covered eight or ten of them at once 

 with a dollar. From nearly the surface of the ground up 

 to the fiTftt fork, and sometimes far beyond it. the whole 

 bark of many apple trees is perforated in this manner, 

 so as to appear as if made by successive difcharges of 

 buckshot, and our little woodpecker, the subj ct of the 

 present account, is the principal perpetrator of this sup- 

 posed mischief — t say supposed j for so far from these 

 j perforations of the bark being ruinou«, they are not only 

 , harmless, but, I have good reasjn ti belieVe, really bene- 

 ' ficial to the health and ferdlity of the tree, I i-ave it to 

 (the phdostpHical bjtantist to acO:)unc f.ir thi"; but thei 

 j fict I am confident of. In inore than fifty orchards Which 

 1 1 myself have carefully extmined, tnose trees which 

 were marked by the woodpecker (f^r sorhe trees they 

 never touch, perhaps because not penetrated by insicth) 

 were uniformly the most thrivingi and seemingly the 

 most productive, Miay of these were upward of sixty- 

 years old, their trunks completely covered with holesj 

 while their b-anches were broad, luxuriant and loaded 

 with fruit. Of decayed trees, m ire than three- foutihs 

 were untouched by the woodpecker. Several intelligent 

 farmers with whom I have conversed candidly acknowl- 

 edged the truth of these observations, and with jus- 

 tice look upon these birds as beneficial; but the most 

 common opinion is that they bore the trees to 

 suck the sap, and so destroy its vegetation, though 

 pine and other resinous trees, on the juice of which it is 

 not pretended that they feed, are often found equally 

 perforated. Were the sap of the trfe their o j ct, the 

 saccharine juice of the birch, the sugar maple and several 

 others would be much more inviting, bscause more sweet 

 and nourishing than that of either pear or apple tree; but 

 I have not observed one mark on the former for ten 

 thousand that may be seen on the latter; besi-les, the 

 early part of the spring is the season when the sap flows 

 most abundantlv, whtriasit is only during the months 

 of September, October and November that woodpeckers 

 are seen so indefatigably engaged in orchards, probing 

 every crack and crev ca. boring through the bark, and, 

 what is worth remarking, chiefl}^ on the south and south- 

 west sides of trees, for the eggs and larvee deposited there 

 by the countless swarms of summer insects. These, if 

 stiffered to remain, wi^uld prey upon the v-ry vitals (if I 

 may so express it) of the tree, and in the succeeding 

 eummer give birth to myriads more of their race, equally 

 destructive." 



* History i of the tT?l?a8 of K^n^as I | Bv N. S. On=8 I 



I Illustrating 529 B-rds 1 — I Topfeia, JKtuiaaa I Geo. W. Oraue & 

 Co., Printers and Binders | isai. 



