S46 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



L^lAT 21, 1891. 



mkn{m ^antist 



CAMPING AND DE-CAMPING. 



YACATION fever is a dangerous disorder. All authori- 

 ties agree that there is but one remedy— a vacation. 

 My friend George ElHs had infected me by mail. His 

 glovring accounts of experience in Muskoka, Can., and 

 finally an invitation to join him there made the case so 

 desperate that gun and rod in old school doses became 

 my only hope. 



in the midst of preparation, as visions of pine woods, 

 lakes and mountains flitted through my brain, I thought 

 of the henefit these things vs^ould do a malarious, sickly 

 nephew. "Just the thing for Harvey Graham and not a 

 bad lad to carry a string of trout,'" I reflected. 



The New York Central to Lewiston, on the lower 

 Niagara, the steamer to Toronto and the Canadian 

 Northern toward the great lumber region of the upper 

 Ottawa was onr route. Into the wilderness we sped and 

 late in the afternoon found ourselves at Gravenhurst, 

 the terminus of the road and of civilization in that direc- 

 tion. Muskoka, a region twice as large as the Adiron- 

 dacks, stretching from the French River and L^ke Nipis- 

 sing on the northeast to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron and 

 the Severn River on the west and south, sprinkled with 

 rivers and lakes in almost infinite profusion, a section 

 many parts of which are yet unsurveyed, the waters 

 teeming with fish and the woods ahve with large game, 

 lay before us, inviting exploration. 



Our destination was Baysville, on Trading Lake, six- 

 teen miles through the forest in a northeasterly direction. 

 Out progress thither was by stage. Road apparently 

 there was none, its substitute being what resembled the 

 dry bed of a mountain torrent. Over rocks, across gul- 

 lies and down washouts the vehicle swayed and lurched, 

 keeping us in momentary expectation of a capsize or the 

 loss of a wheel. 



We passed through miles of burned land, where hardly 

 a trace of green could be discerned. Charred, blackened 

 stumps and trunks, sable monuments of former vegeta- 

 ble life and beauty, littered the ground or pointed mutely 

 to the sky, that now smiled upon them unavailingly. 



Baysville, when at last reached, did not add to the 

 sightliness of the landscape. A hamlet consisting of an 

 equal number of log and frame buddings, it forlornly 

 squatted in the middle of a tract from which every tree 

 and shrub had been carefully removed. Evidently these 

 people proposed to secure their homes against forest 

 fires. 



"We immediately inquired for Ellis, only to be informed 

 that he had been called home a few days previous by 

 news of dangerous illness in his family. Though in quest 

 of adventure, here at the very outset was more than we 

 desired. Ellis had spent months, at various times, in 

 this section, and was the veteran on whom we relied. To 

 add to my anxiety Harvey became sick. 



To get out of the stuffy attic room into which we had 

 been thrust and to leave Baysville to its heat and dust 

 were our only desires. A guide with a canoe large 

 enough to contain three was secured only after extreme 

 difficulty. 



Salmon was our man's name. In physical make up a 

 magnificent, broad-shouldered specimen, he had a fur- 

 tive, uneasy expression, at first so markedly avoiding a 

 direct glance as to lead one to suppose that he was either 

 laboring under painful embaiTassment or that he had 

 some dark chapters in his life. Never were we more de- 

 ceived. Once under way, he thawed out completely, sur- 

 prising us not only by his fluency and elegance of speech, 

 but freely telling us his history. 



Born in India, the son of a colonel in the British army, 

 he had been carefully educated in England, gradmting 

 at Christ College, Oxford. Natm-ally of a roving dispo- 

 sition, he took passage in a vessel of a relative and cir- 

 cumnavigatpd the globe. What led him finally to locate 

 in the wilds of the Georgian Bay region can best be told 

 in his own language; 



'■My father had "many friends among business men in 

 London, and through his influence I might readily have 

 obtained a situation in a mercantile house. But I could 

 not be weaned from the adventurous life I had been lead- 

 ing. When I saw white-faced, puny clerks, robbed of 

 sunlight and air, painfully bending in cramped positions 

 over big ledgers, I contrasted such a fate with an active, 

 manly existence under the blue sky, and chose the latter. 

 Thirteen years ago I buried myself , as most people would 

 call it, in these woods. I have never for a day regretted 

 the step. With the slight income that I receive from 

 home, together with what I make in winter as superin- 

 tendent of a lumber camp, and in the summer as guide, 

 I am accounted rich in this frugal section. I do not lack 

 good society. Many of our Scotch and English settlers 

 are well educated. I married a girl of this class about a 

 year ago, and am not less haj)py than if my lot were cast 

 among brick walls." 



While conversing we had been moving out on to the 

 broad lake, and the scenery now burst upon us in all its 

 wild beauty. Headlands and islands, hills near and re- 

 mote, were all alike hidden in untorn draperies of leafy 

 green. The shores were not mountainous; and the close- 

 crowded giant trees, untouched by the axe, concealed the 

 rocky soil, presenting to the eye soft folds of rustling 

 foliage that apparently ended never. 



Each bay and landmark elicited its story from our 

 guide. Here we were told a deer had been overtaken in 

 the water, while at this or that point a bear had been 

 shot. Later in the afternoon, the water becoming rough, 

 we ran in behind a long promontory, making a portage 

 at its base, to get into a more protected arm of the lake. 

 It was here we learned that much of Muskoka game could 

 be killed by a slap of the hand — that is when it fit on the 

 accessible parts of one's anatomy. 



On accotmt of the mosquitoes a spot exposed to the 

 wind was selected for our camp. Salmon's practiced 

 hands soon had our bed made up in backwoods fashion. 

 This was done by lavishly pilling balsam boughs on the 

 floor of the tent, forming a soft, health- exhaling couch 

 which no true sportsman would exchange for hair mat- 

 tresses and artificial appointments. 



Though the canvas walls shook in the chill night breeze, 

 the guide dropped ofl' with the most business-like preci- 

 sion, and, as Harvey seemed to be cosily composing him- 

 self for his first night in the woods, I, too, was soon slum- 

 bering. A rough hand shook my shoulder, and I awoke 

 ynth a start. A bright light Bhofte through the open flap 



and;illumina.ted the tent. Sleep-befogged I'groped'my 

 way out toward the camp-fire. There shivering before it, 

 while Salmon stirred the embers and piled on more wood, 

 was our young comrade. With chattering teeth and bent, 

 muffled form, he was enjoying a regular "Jersey shake" 

 2,000ft. above sea level. 



The remainder of the night was spent around the fire 

 attending to the invalid. Salmon attempted consolation 

 with some personal incidents of outdoor life. "Early 

 last May," he said, "a Boston gentleman came up here 

 for trout fishing. We traveled way back into the woods; 

 and it rained so that while one of us paddled the other 

 had to bail constantly. The thickest rubber coats were of 

 no account; and night after night, with all our clothes 

 comnletely soaked and no chance of building a fire, we 

 lay down just as we were. The weather was cold then, 

 too," he added. 



"Well," responded the plucky lad, "I'm not making 

 this excitement for fun. If I wasn't chock full of 

 malaria, you would not hear from me this way." 



As we talked, toasting ourselves before the blazing logs, 

 the faint, gray suspicion of early dawn ripened into the 

 rosy certainty of approaching morning, till finally the 

 sun, thus announced, bespoke the presence of another 

 day. Breakfast eaten, we held a council. The sense of 

 the meeting was that we must risk no more with our 

 hospital annex. The Ox Tongue River entered the lake 

 near by. It was decided that we should ascend this a 

 number of miles, and thence take a short portage to a 

 vacant lumber camp known to the guide, from which, as 

 headquarters, we could make excursions with rifle and 

 rod. 



To stem the swift current in our heavily laden craft 

 cost vigorous effort. The careful selpction of each eddy, 

 a quick upward swing when we pushed out past the pro- 

 jecting point, the rapid, united dip of our paddles as we 

 breasted the down-pouring flood, or the steady shove as 

 we prodded the bottom of the stream in availing our- 

 selves of favoring shallows, this arduous programme, oft 

 repeated, made our arrival at the carry welcome. But 

 here our work was no easier, though of a dift'erent nature. 

 We stood at the bottom of a steep bank, thickly timbered 

 and without a visible path. Strapping together two meal 

 sacks containing g-oods weighing not less than a hundred 

 pounds, Salmon placed one over either shoulder with the 

 band across his chest. Not satisfied with this, he picked 

 tip the eighty pound canoe, and, balancing it on his neck, 

 scrambled lightly upward through the underbrush. We. 

 almost empty-handed, laboriously followed, guided by 

 occasional gleams of the wet surfact^ of the upturned canoe 

 a« it rapidly disappeared among the impeding branches. 

 Our party pantingly emerged into the small clearing that 

 surrounded the long, low, shed-like lumberman's cabin, 

 The mof^quitoes, blackflies and other sanguinary inspcts 

 too numerous to classify had all this time not been idle. 

 Now, realizing that they had plenty of room in which to 

 operate, they burst upon us from the encircling woods 

 with a wild shriek and claimed us for their own. We 

 hastily beat a retreat to the baronial hall before us. The 

 interior walls supported a double row of bunks extending 

 around the entire shanty. These were stuffed full of rub 

 bish. A horse left in the woods to die had appropriated 

 the place for a stable, and the stove, upon examination, 

 proved to be the fragrant sepulcher of a col">ny of rats 

 The guide had seen such places before, and dfispite the 

 hovering insects, proceeded to arrange our effects as if 

 for a permanent location. Our united protests finally led 

 him to consent to an exodus. 



He pertinently inquired : "Where are you going now?" 

 Being unable to decide he informed us that he lived on 

 Trading Lake, only ten mOes from where we then were. 

 "It's a little better house than this," he said, "and has 

 the advantage of being clean. If you have a mind to 

 camp out in my shanty we will go there now." 



We at once took up our march. To shorten the carry 

 we put in at the head of the rapid, at the foot of which 

 we had landed. We were too much weighted down to 

 steer easily. Our guide had not made the run since high 

 water of the previous spring. Plunging down the in- 

 cline, rising from one foam-crested wave to dive into an- 

 other, narrowly missing numerous rocks that jutted 

 above the surface, as we turned a sharp bend, there 

 directly in the channel lay a huge tree which the freshets 

 had toppled across the stream. No e.=Gape presented 

 — to paddle back up the river was out of the que«tion 

 Slowing our progress as much as possible we luckily, just 

 in the nick of time, discovered a small partially concealed 

 opening between the limbs of the prostrate tree and the 

 further bank. After this was passed we had no more 

 trouble. 



In our descent we were constantly on the alert for 

 game. We dropped down stream silently. The tall 

 palm -like pines, the density of the forest, the dancing on 

 flowing river and the consciousness of our utter isolation, 

 a feehng which dominated all others, made the journey 

 impressive. But this was not all which made the after- 

 noon memorable. As Ave were about to emerge into the 

 lake I caught sight of some furry animal on the bank. 

 Without ado I "pidled loose" with my revolver. The 

 terrible creature at once acknowledged the attention 

 with a manifestation much more to be dreaded than my 

 bullets. A shot from Salmon's rifle put an end to the 

 animal, which was not a bear, but for several days our 

 nostrils reminded us of the success of our hunt. Stron 

 very strong reasons prevented taking our game home. 



At sundown, as the boat danced out on to a landlocked 

 bay of the lake, Salmon's house and well-cultivated gar- 

 den, surrounded by a compact wall of virgin forest, was 

 suddenly revealed. A comely, pleasant-faced, intelligent 

 young woman, whom the guide introduced as his wife, 

 stood on the shore to bid us welcome. The situation was 

 explained to her; and we were ushered up to the curious 

 nondescript, two-story frame dwelling and made com- 

 fortable. 



Salmon had prepared this place for his bride, the 

 daughter of his nearest neighbor, living some five miles 

 distant. He felled the trees for the clearing, and labori- 

 ously, after many successive journeys, towed from Bays- 

 ville, over twelve miles away, all the sawf d timber that 

 entered into his house. The only help he bad received 

 was in erecting the framework. The product was essen- 

 tially a home-made home. The second story was reached 

 by a ladder from without, and was entered through a hole 

 in the side of the house, an opening which was neither 

 door nor window. Up this ladder, frequently in pouring 

 rains, Harvey and I climbed to the narrow single bed 

 which had to dp foy ub both. But how we did sleep! 



Twelve hours at night, and a long nap in the afternoon 

 in the woods or on some island, was not uncommon. 



Our week's stay here was all too short. The canoe was 

 put at our disposal, and we could paddle off across the 

 water or wander through the forest at our own sweet 

 will. Many were the efforts on the part of our enter- 

 tainers to contiibute to our enjoyment. Salmon led us 

 to the best trout streams, showing us where and how to 

 ipear fish by the jacklight, and ran the dogs after deer 

 for our benefit. But the time came for our return. We 

 bid farewell to our hostess one morningr, and a few hours 

 afterward were landed by Salmon at Baysville from his 

 canoe. 



Reaching Toronto we learned that the regular daily 

 boat for the Thousand Islands, our objective jjoint, was 

 laid up for repairs. However, an excursion steamer for 

 the Hanlan-Ross race at Ogdensburg was just ready to 

 start. Our baggage was a gun and two pairs of heavy 

 blankets done up in a meal sack. As we hurried on to 

 the wharf with these the gang plank was being drawn 

 aboard. The mob afloat immediately set up a wild howl 

 for the "gun and the bag." Amid their acclamations we 

 half jumped and were half pulled to where they stood 

 enjoying the situation. 



We now looked around to see where and with whom 

 we were. The large steamer was filled with a company 

 of "shooting gentlemen." A more precious collection of 

 "toughs" I never encountered before nor since. All 

 lower Canada seemed to have assembled the worst repre- 

 sentatives of its worst element here where they would be 

 under no restraint. Truly, for us, it was a pleasant 

 prospect. But we wpre not molested. No sooner had 

 the boat left the harbor than assorted fluids absorbed and 

 were absorbed to the exclusion of less important matters. 

 In addition to the inevitable bottle of "tonic" every other 

 man had some arrangement, either cards, wheel of fortune, 

 dice or what not, to facilitate the exchange of commod- 

 ities. When at about 6 o'clock in the evening we stopped 

 at Port Hope, several professionals, who fully cor- 

 responded to the ante-bellum Mississippi River steamboat 

 sharper so often described, got aboard. One in particu- 

 lar, evidently well known to the fraternity already afloat, 

 was conspicuous by his clerical garb and his clean cut, 

 impassive features. 



The fun soon became intensely interesting, not only to 

 the participants alone but to us as spectators. Both decks 

 were crowded with tables stocked with gener< u-^ piles of 

 coin and bills. Hard, cold faces, void of emotion; flushed, 

 eager ones, inflamed with excitement; the gambler of 

 years and the rapid youth transferred then- rolls of green- 

 b^cks to each other with business-like celerity. Not the 

 slightest notice was taken of its as we wandered 

 about. All was preoccupation. If toward midnight a 

 storm had not arisen fev/ would have slept that night. 

 A-t first no one paid attention to the roaring of the wind. 

 Soon the seas increased; the vessel rose and fell heavily; 

 and occasionally, as the play progressed, a gamester here 

 and there would grow white, lose his intere-it, and at last 

 fall out overcome by sickness. The strong breeze now 

 became a gale; the decks assumed abrupt angles; and the 

 timbers of the boat, which was really a sorry enough old 

 craft, creaked ominously. Those of the cro^v d that were 

 neither intoxicated nor equally hdpless from nausea 

 began to realize, after a few heavy seas had washed clear 

 across the lower dfck, that the situation was serious. 



One by one the men lay down < n the floor of the cabin, 

 hoping for the storm to abate or trying to sleep. We 

 brought out our now useful blankets and made ourselves 

 comfortable in a corner as far removed as possible from 

 the drunken revelers who were still celebrating. Mingled 

 with the blasts of the tempest were blasts of profanity. 

 Amid such surroundings we uneasily awaited the morning. 



The wind continued to blow in gusts, but as we had 

 run to windward of Prince Edward's I-land all danger of 

 foundering was now past. At daybreak we entered the 

 St. Lawrence. We rose to view "the fairvland of the 

 beautiful cottage-adorned Thou'-and Islands. Contrast- 

 ing with this attractive panorama were the besotted 

 creatures that littered the bfnchfs and chairs and strewed 

 the decks in every imaginable attitude of drunken stupor. 



Ogdensburg reached and the custom hou^e p issed we 

 repaired to the nearest restaurant. Here I discovered 

 that my pocketbook had passed into the pobsession of 

 some one whose fingers were as light as his conscience. I 

 was unlucky enough to furnish myself with this bit of 

 news before breakfast. As I carried the funds for the 

 party, we walked to the telegraph office on the recollec- 

 tion of our yesterday's dinner. After six hours of rigid 

 application of the mind cure for hunger, the Western 

 Union and a good credit came to our relief, just as I was 

 calculating the probable cash value of my watch. The 

 next morning was inaugurated arelegrajih strik ewhich 

 extended all over the country and lasted for w^eks, thus 

 scoring us another narrow escape. Harvey often refers 

 to oiu" trip. He is of the opinion, that if our camping was 

 not a success our de-camping had all the elements of 

 victory. Ralph K. Wing. 



TEN DAYS AT RUSHMORE. 



AS George was in the country all summer, I agreed to 

 take my wife and the rest of the family up fco the 

 camp for a vacation. Said rest consisted of Mabel, aged 

 ten; Belle, eight; Sam, two and a half; and Jr., eight 

 month's old. The Mrs. had her doubts about taking the 

 baby, and our family doctor was in the same state of 

 mind ; but I agreed to assume the responsibility, knowing 

 we could always keep warm and dry in the little house, 

 and thinking that the pure resinous air and woodsy smell 

 would benefit him. And I think it did ! It was quite a 

 tiip to make with the youngsters, but by stopping off over 

 night on our way up we eased it some and arrived at a 

 nice hour, 11 A. M. 



They were all pleased to find such a comfortable house, 

 for Rushmore, with only its one /oom, has nice bunks and 

 mattresses, folding chairs, extension table, glassware and 

 crockery, a good cook stove, and a liberal supply of 

 granite-ware cooking utensils. 



Sam, however, took us all down by saying, "Well, this 

 is a nice little bam, where'a the house?" Then he pro- 

 ceeded to investigate the stove, and succeeded in blacking 

 himself up in great style; but what fim he had there 

 digging in the gravel or trying to throw all the loose rock 

 on Long Point into the lake. I have him started right, 

 and expect in a few years he will be a genuine sportsman. 

 At the age of one year he would hug a gun and smile 

 with delight whenever it ca.me o^it of the case; at two he- 



