380 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



ptoT. 4, 1898. 



THE SAGINAW CROWD. 



Pilgrimage of 1 892.-1V. 



^Continued from page S590 



We did not make a very early start next morning. It 

 was Sunday and we felt more like exploring. There was 

 lots oi meat in camp and we knew it was not necessary to 

 get game to prevent our going himgry; so about half of 

 the party stayed in camp. We concluded to go into bend 

 No. {5 on an exploring expedition. Bigelow and the Doc- 

 tor took turns in riding the horse, and as we had but one 

 pair of saddle bags the lunch for the party was carried in 

 them, and the plan w^as to meet at the upper end of bend 

 No. '6 for lunch between 1 and 2 o'clock. Separating, Pad- 

 dock, Bnggs and Seib were to hunt through the river side 

 (for tue bend was a large one), and I went with the Doctor 

 and Bigelow from the other direction. 



The thicket was almost impenetrable for some distance, 

 and bear tracks and trads abounded. After getting in,to 

 the thicket we kept track of each other by frequent calls. 

 Once, when 1 was in a place so thick I could scarcely 

 stand upright, I was suddenly startled by hearing a ter- 

 rihc crashing some distance in front of me, and listening, 

 heard that it was coming in my direction. Some large 

 animal, that I could only conjecture to be a bear, was 

 tearing along at a great rate bef oi-e me. The cover was 

 so thicK that 1 could not possibly see to shoot until the 

 animal, whatever it was, came directly on me, and my 

 feelings were none of the pieasantest, I can assure you. 

 I looked for the best opening I coidd ^lind and made aU 

 ready, and it seemed as if the next bound would bring 

 the creature right on to me. It had veered a little to my 

 right, and, not 20ft. from me, passed, at as great a speed 

 as it could make through the tangled thicket — a full grown 

 steer that had wandered away from some herd, and had 

 been feeding in the open glades beyond, and, frightened 

 by the Doctor and Bigelow, had bolted in my direction. I 

 breathed easier when 1 saw what it was, and was soon out 

 in the mure open part of the woods. One or two deer 

 sprang out ahead of me, but it was so thick I did not get 

 a shot. Tlie same thing happened to the Doctor. 



On coming mto the thicket the Doctor had tied his 

 horse near the bluff, leaving the limch and his vest 

 fastened to the saddle, it was but a few steps across* 

 from the iJoint where we intended to take lunch by fol- 

 lowing the open. After thoroughly beating the cover 

 without success we came out on the river bank and threw 

 ourselves down under the sj)reading boughs of an im- 

 mense Cottonwood to await the arrival of the rest of the 

 party. Paddock could be seen, not a great way ahead, 

 coming up on the river bottom; and the Doctor concluded 

 that he would go back for the lunch. We smoked and 

 took it easy for nearly an hour, and the Doctor did not 

 appear, neither did Briggs nor Seib, We began to be 

 . anxious, for he surely should not have been away more 

 than half that time. Thinking tnat something must Be 

 wrong, I fired my revolver four or five times and waited.' 

 Another half hour passed, and yet no Doctor nor lunch, 

 and nothing was seen of Briggs or Seib, Then we began 

 a general fusilade with tne rifles and revolvers, and 

 another wait of half an hour. Pretty soon, far down the 

 bank, we could see Briggs and Seib hurrying along. The- 

 sun was high in the heavens, and the day was f rightfully 

 hot, and they seemed to be hm-rying as if they had busi- 

 ness. When at last they reached hailing distance Briggs 

 wanted to know what the trouble was, and when, warm, 

 tired and cross, he had cUmbed up the bank, and we ex- 

 plained the situation, he wjis about as mad a man as one 

 ever saw. He tiiought surely we were in trouble, had 

 struck a nest of bear or something equally dangerous and 

 ferocious, and were signaling for help. He had missed 

 his bearings in coming out and had struck the river about 

 a mile from where he mtended to, and, as it was so warm, 

 had given up the idea of having lunch with us. Seib saiu 

 he ijad come across tlie Doctor's horse: and, pointing in 

 the diitciioii, we judged it must have been a good way 

 from where tlie Doctor had fastened him. He said the 

 horse was loose, and he had fastened him to a tree on the 

 river bank, and had also left his vest with the Doctor's on 

 the horse. \Ve now knew that if we had anything to eat 

 we would have to get it in camp, but we were a little 

 alarmed at tlie non-appearance oi the Doctor. It seemed, 

 however, that our nring had had some tflfect, for he 

 tliuught we had found tlie horse; and soon he appeared, 

 putting and svveatmg, out ol the thick cUapparal. 



Tnere was pleniy of water and plenty ol tubacco; so we 

 spent another nuur smoking and orinkmg tlie pure water, 

 and telling stories. It was too warm to hunt, and we 

 concluded we would wait till the sun sank a little lower 

 beiore starting back to camp. Paddock said that some 

 years before he had been nearly down to that point on 

 the river where we were ti.en lounging. He said that he 

 and two others were out after some lost hordes, and it was 

 at a tune when the Indians were a little troublesome. 

 One or two men had been killed in that country, and sev- 

 eral horses siolen. He had helped bury one of the men 

 who had been shot on O'Fallon Creek a few weeks be- 

 fore, in each case they counted the tracks of seven In- 

 dians; and as they were looking for their horses they also 

 kept an eye out lor suspicious characters. They were care- 

 ful to camp at night m some secluded draw; and after 

 they had cooked their evening meal they would move a 

 mile or two down the river and go into camp for fear that 

 some lurkmg, horse-stealmg Indian had seen their camp- 

 fire. 



At one point where they stopped one of the party went 

 up on the high bluffs to see what could be seen, and came 

 back wiih the information that a white pony was feeding 

 on a little patch of prairie some distance beyond, and he 

 was gomg to catch it. Paddock cautioned him and said 

 be knew no stray horse was there and that it was a ruse 

 of the Indians, who undoubtedly had been watching 

 them, to draw them into ambush if they should go after 

 the horse. The j'oung fellow, though, was new at the 

 business and woiUd nut believe what Paddock told him, 

 but was bound to go lor the horse; but Paddock convinced 

 him by going up to the top of the bluff with him, and 

 caref uUy looking over the gi-ound with the field glass, 

 they soon discovered that the horse was picketed and 

 that there was no doubt but that the Indians were near 

 by. 



They moved camp that night after dark, and took a 



good long stretch of it. The next morning they went up 

 to the crest of the butte again, to look rotmd to see what 

 was going on; and they came right into the Indian camp. 

 There they were, seven of them; and they were just 

 saddling their horses. Paddock said they concluded to 

 give the Indians a scare, and aU three of them were to 

 fire at once, "over their heads," as he put it, "just to see 

 what they would do." My impression is that they were 

 not intending to fire very far over the Indians' heads; but 

 the old man never admitted that he had killed an Indian 

 in his life, and may be he never did. He said that the 

 report of the three rifles caused about as lively a scamper- 

 ing on the part of the horse-thieves as one could imagine; 

 they did not stop for anything, but there was a streak of 

 dust, Indians and horses' feet going out of sight. He re- 

 marked that they had no more horse-stealing to contend 

 with from these fellows after that; and it was the end of 

 finding a dead ranchman minus a scalp. I often wondered 

 whether Paddock and his two companions had shot into 

 the air, and if so, why the horse-stealing should so sud- 

 denly cease. 



A little patch of woods near by suggested that there 

 might be deer in it; and as it covered but a few acres, we 

 concluded we could breast it, and see what we could find. 

 Briers and chapparal were thicker and thornier than ever, 

 but only about waist high. A deer broke cover and made 

 for the bluffs. It was the first blacktaU we had seen. It 

 got away safely, for it somehow or other seemed to keep 

 some of the trees and thickets between it and us, though 

 two or three of us fired at long range as it scurried away. 

 Seib knew right where he had hitched the horse, and we 

 reached the place in the course of the next half or three- 

 quarters of an hour. There was nothing left but the 

 bridle; the horse had gone, and the Doctor and Seib were 

 bemoaning the loss of a vest apiece. When we reached 

 camp at dusk, we learned that the pony had come in some 

 time before minus bridle, saddle-bags, saddle and every- 

 thing; and it seemed almost like hunting for a needle in 

 a haystack to look for the missing articles. Next morning, 

 however, the Kid started out; and as luck would have it, 

 fotmd everything on a sandbar, where the horse had 

 evidently stopped to drink. 



The camp that night was a repetition of the previous- 

 one; a steaming hot supper on our arrival, a rousing 



SUNDAY MORNINQ IK CAMP. .—^ „ 



camp-fire that was reflecting its ruddy hues on the baked- 

 clay sides of the neighboring buttes, the shower of sparks 

 that eddied and whirled high among the leaves and 

 branches of the overspreading cotton woods, the lonesome 

 howl of the timber wolf and the echoing answer from his 

 neighbor on the next hillside, the hooting now and then 

 of an owl, and the fluttering of a bat as it passed through 

 the firehght, all made an ideal camp scene; and stretclied 

 around the fire, in nearly every imaginable position con- 

 ducive to individual comfort, was each smoking his pipe 

 in fidl contentment and happiness, as you all have prob- 

 ably done many times. 



Jack's knee had limbered up a good deal and we planned 

 to himt near by the following day, which was to be our 

 last on the bottoms. The very bend in which our camp 

 was situated Paddock said was full of deer. We had 

 seen tracks in the morning where they had been in tlie 

 night not ten rods from our tents. In the soft dust of 

 the road, as we followed it away from camp, we always 

 came upon tracks where two or three deer had trotted 

 along the night before. So this morning, sending the 

 heavy men to guard the river in front of us, we spread 

 out, tan-shaped, directly from camp to drive the thickets. 

 At the furthest point, where Briggs was guarding, the 

 distance was not over half a mile Irom our tents; next 

 Jack was stationed, then Ferd, then Bigelow and the 

 Doctor, and the rest of us were to do the driving. Pad- 

 dock was near the bluffs on the left and I was next to 

 him, and the others were strung out toward the river. 

 We started seven or eight deer that morning in going 

 through that little piece, and I will guai-antee there were 

 five times that number in there that we did not see or 

 hear, A shot on my left as we neared the edge denoted 

 that Paddock had seen game, and we were pretty certain 

 he had bagged it. Later on we learned he had. This 

 was the second shot he had made since he had been with 

 us and in each case had killed his deer. Pretty soon a 

 rapid fusilading on my right denoted that Jack had had 

 another streak of luck, and as we came out on the river 

 bank we found him and Humphrey skinning the deer 

 that he had killed. Two deer had come along and Jack 

 had killed the first one, which blatted so that he had not 

 shot at the second one. He says now he has not the 

 heart to shoot at another deer, for as he went up to bleed 

 it it blatted and looked up at liim vnth those melting eyes 

 that he sweai-s he can see to-day. We were but a httle 

 way from camp, so the game was soon taken in and 

 himg up. 



We concluded to make one more attempt in the oppo- 

 site direction; that is, we were to beat the thicket on the 

 other side, but equally near. Some of the boys hurried 

 along the river bank, where they could watch for any- 

 thing that came out; the rest of us went through the 

 thickets. Crackl and Paddock's gun speaks; and an 

 instant later, another report; and as we come up to him, 

 we find him with the deer, had missed with the 



second shot; but, strange to say, his first had gone com- 

 pletely through the deer's heart, but it ran as much as 

 50yds. through the thicket before falling. As it disap- 

 peared after the first shot, he took a second snap at it, 

 which we afterward found a little bit high, where it had 

 Bphntered some of the twigs. Continuing on, some more 

 deer were started, but none of us had shots, owing to the 

 unfavorable ground. Going in this direction, we came 

 upon bear tracks; and, a httle later, two wolves slunk 

 away ahead of us. 



About noon the others returned to the camp for dinner, 

 but I was desirous of climbing the high buttes on the 

 south side of the river. I knew there must be blacktail 

 up on the motmtain side; and the day before one of the 

 party had seen a mountain sheep in that direction. Seib 

 decided to accompany me, and we started out for a long 

 and hard climb. The buttes and bluffs were rugged and 

 steep, but we enjoyed it immensely. Everywhere we 

 came upon paths where the deer had gone up and down 

 the mountain. We expected every thicket we came to to 

 start blacktad. Once a stone rofied down the hill ahead 

 of us; and on reaching the summit fresh tracks were 

 found, where the deer had evidently scurried away 

 unseen. 



At last the crest was reached; and far down in the bot- 

 tom we could see the tents and the men moving around 

 them like specks no larger than flies. The view to the 

 northward was grand in the extreme, butte after butte, 

 cliff after cliff', as far as the eye could see, and as varied 

 in color as the hues of the rainbow. Shapes most fantas- 

 tic had been seamed and woven through the hard clay by 

 the storms of time. Looking in another dhection a great 

 stretch of level prauie extended as far as the eye could 

 reach. A flock of sharptail grouse started from the juni- 

 per bushes in a little crevice near by, but scattered at our 

 approach, and now we could see them ahead of us, first 

 one and then another popping up its head and looking at 

 us with curious eyes, with seemingly no fear of danger. 



So far no game, but we had been repaid by the glorious 

 view and the exhilarating au-, and know that we will have 

 appetites for dinner when we reach camp. We take 

 another route to descend that will bring us a little nearer 

 camp. Down we go, from ridge to ridge, and across one 

 craig to another. Suddenly, from the thicket far below 

 us, a blacktail deer bounds down the hillside, appearing 

 and disappearing as it turns hither and thither among the 

 cedars. It is several hundred yards away when it starts, 

 and the distance rapidly increases, yet both of us shove up 

 om- sights and take snap shots, and really two or three of 

 them are very good ones, for the dust is thrown seemingly 

 against the fleeting game, but it gets away unharmed and 

 we continue the descent. It has grown cold as we near 

 the bottom, and some heavy clouds are coming up in the 

 west. When we reach camp about 4 o'clock all is bustle 

 and confusion. The tents are down and nearly everything 

 packed. We are met with the information that Paddock 

 had decided it was going to storm, and that if it should 

 rain or storm before we reached the plateau top, we would 

 have hard work getting om- teams out of there all winter. 



Certainly this was not a pleasant prospect; we have 

 families at home and do not care to stay in this place 

 during a long, cold Dakota winter, you can rest assured. 



The hillside, as I said before, is very steep and cov- 

 ered with this line clay, which, when once wet with a 

 hard rain, or still worse, by snow, would be so slippery 

 that it would be impossible to drag the wagon to the top. 

 It is just as well to start to-night anyhow, for if we reach 

 the top in safety it wdl make a much better drive home 

 to start from there at daybreak on the following morning. 



Harrison has left a good, square meal out for us, the 

 rest is all packed in boxes. Seib and I enjoy our repast, 

 and by the time we have finished, the cavalcade is ready 

 to start. It is alter dark when we reach the top; it has 

 been a tedious, hard pull, and we have had to double up 

 on the teams, sending one back to help another. The 

 buckboard is gotten up quite easily compared with the 

 others, and we have been ahead and picked out a camp- 

 iug'spot about half a mile from the hilltop at the edge of 

 a little bunch ol cedars; but as the grass is high, it will 

 have to be cleared away for some distance before it is safe 

 to Ught a fire. The wind has risen and the clouds thick- 

 ened, and it is akeady dark as midnight and growing 

 cold. The tents are gotten up after we have lighted a 

 tire, which has been no easy task. Standing around with 

 our coats, forming a circle, we have beaten out the fires 

 that ran back in the grass, and at last have burned a spot 

 sulficiently large to render it safe. From the mess chest 

 supper is brought, beds are made and we turn in. 



Whether we are nervous from Paddock's stories, or are. 

 made anxious by the oncoming storm and the rushing- 

 wind, I cannot say, but suddenly there rings out on the 

 night air three reports in quick succession, like the boom- 

 ing of a heavy cannon. We are all out of the tents in an 

 instant, but nothing more is heard. The Judge swears 

 that it is artillery we have heard; even Paddock wonders 

 what it can be; the rest of us are guessing as well, but 

 finally conclude that some of the bluffs must have fallen 

 into the river bed below and made the noise. It certainly 

 was very much like heavy guns, and not a great way 

 from us, either. What occasioned it we probably will 

 never know. It was not long, however, before we were 

 all snoring, and aside from the pattering of the rain and 

 the flapping of the tents nothing disturbed us tiU Harri- 

 son's call for breakfast aroused us the next morning, 



W. B. Mershon. 



Some Thoughts. 



LocKPORT, N. Y., Oct. 23. — I was much interested in 

 Mr. Hough's notes in yom- last week's number on the 

 editorials of newspapers, 1 have often had "some 

 thoughts" on this subject, but could not put them in 

 writing so happily as Mr, Hough has done. I always read 

 the editorials of Forest and Stream entire before looking 

 the paper through. I recall to mind a Christmas editorial 

 published some eight or ten years ago, that was an honor 

 to the best sportsman's paper published, and would have 

 been to any rehgious i)aper. Forest and Stream with- 

 out its editorial page would be to me like forests and 

 streams without birds and fishes, J. L, Davison. 



**Danvis Folks." 



Exeter, Neb.— Am glad to be associated again witti our old "Dan- 

 vifi''' friends, as my yrite and I liave been witli them from "Uncle 

 Iiisha'8 Shiop" and "Sam Lovell's Camps" down to the last DanWs 

 chapter, and are still waiting for more. W. B. F. 



