Jan. 13, 1894.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



28 



Brook back to Mud Lake. Alas! that foresight is so much 

 rarer than hindsight. Moore with one dog took the left, 

 and I with the other the right bank of the stream. For a 

 time everything went welL Moore bagged a bird. We 

 ate our luncheon on a driving dam at the edge of a large 

 wild meadow, covered with a rank growtn of "blue joint," 

 which, by the sign, had furnished many a dainty meal for 

 the deer. We found a line of mink traps, and at the bead 

 of the meadow a temporary camp of the trapper, evidently 

 an Indian. 



It being early in the day, we were tempted to follow the 

 left branch of the stream up to Lily Lake, but very fortu- 

 nately, as it proved, concluded that it would be a good 

 trip for the morrow. Proceeding, one on either side of 

 stream, we struck a swamp covered with young tamaracks 

 a dozen feet high, as large as a man's thumb, and as plen- 

 tiful as hair on the back of a dog. Next came a vast 

 region of shin-hopple of a size transcending anything I 

 ever saw in my travels. This innocent-looking shrub creeps 

 along the ground for about two-thirds its length, and then 

 curves abruptly upward. It is as difficult a. customer to 

 get along with as a man two-thirds humility and one-third 

 arrogance. Its scientific name I know not unless it be 

 Upsettus overenclious. In this instance, the curved por- 

 tion was about five feet high, and really, I wish we could 

 get one single useful crop to grow as thickly. To make 

 any progress you have to walk on the humble portion of 

 the stem, and force your way through the thicket formed 

 by the standing part. Then perchance a creeper, with a 

 little less humility than its neighbors, will catch you on 



was yet plenty in the hope that there would be enough 

 on the morrow to give us both a taste of this fascinating 

 sport. His self-denial is thoroughly appreciated, and I 

 may say here that he is not the only member of the 

 party who has allowed me to share in chances which he 

 could easily have monopolized. 



David thought he had fun enough for one day and did 

 not care to join us in the flight shooting that night. W, 

 H. and Judson didn't get back till dark and so Moore 

 and I had it all to ourselves. The former took the rose- 

 mary blind while I shot from the boat near where Will 

 did his good shooting a few nights before. The flight 

 was not so good that night as it had been. The incessant 

 pounding at the birds was beginning to have its effect. 

 The principal event was a long shot made by Moore. He 

 missed a " cotton-tear er" with his right and doubled him 

 up like a wet rag with the left at 70yds. with No. 5 shot. 



Saturday dawned bright and clear. W. H. was unwell 

 and stayed in the tent. Moore and the girls went beech - 

 nutting. David, Judson and I started out for a season of 

 unalloyed bliss in the snipe pocket. We had a little seance 

 with a grouse down at the outlet. He offered Judson a 

 straightaway sbot, which he failed to accept. Then he 

 curved back toward me and I handed him one which the 

 bird failed to accept. He went right over the head of 

 David who unfortunately was at that moment a few feet 

 from his gun. 



The snipe pocket was a piece of marsh of moderate 

 firmness to all appearances. Yet the water oozed out 

 around the foot at every step. And if one stood still for 



tree, and she brought him down at the first essay, with a 

 strictly off-hand shot. She intended to have the skin set 

 up. but it was spoiled by the bull°t. 



In the afternoon Judson and David went to the settle- 

 ment for some apples, and got not only them but the 

 week's newspapers, which were sent us by the man Will 

 presented with the Jacoby canvasbacks. They returned 

 too late for the evening shooting. W. H. went out on the 

 lake for a paddle. Moore and I strolled away on the beech 

 ridge that extends northwa,rd from the camp. 



I have frequently lamented my inability to take my 

 reader with me, and make him see the things a=i I saw 

 them. If I could do this now he would have no difficulty 

 in understanding why, that afternoon, when we got 

 nothing save a big gray owl for Will's collection, was the 

 pleasantest I spent in the whole week. 



The ridge was a ''horseback," perhaps 100yds. wide and 

 the same number of feet above the level of the lake. It 

 was mostly covered with a growth of beech. The trees 

 were so wide apart that a horse could be ridden at a can- 

 ter the whole length of the ridge without the rider being 

 inconvenienced by them; still their foliage was dense 

 enough to exclude the ' undiluted" rays of the sun. Here 

 and there was a bunch of rock maple, birch or hornbeam, 

 or three or four giant hemlocks, 4ft. in diameter and 75ft. 

 high. The surface of the horseback was remarkahly level 

 and free from "cradle knolls." but every hundred yards 

 or so there was a bowl-shaped depression. These varied 

 in size from 20ft. in diameter and 8 or 10ft. d^ep to 50yds. 

 in diameter and 60ft. deep. They were very symmetrical 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK GRAND CANON OP THE YELLOWSTONE. 



the shin, and lucky you are if you do not go down. After 

 I had got over about eighty rods, I pushed through to the 

 bank of the stream in the hope of finding better traveling; 

 but it was the same on both sides clear to the edge of the 

 water, and the stream was too deep for wading. There 

 was Moore, his head only visible, and his jaw set, tramp- 

 ing doggedly forward, with a tumultuous accompaniment 

 of swaying shrubbery. 



All things earthly have an end, and so, at length, I 

 came out on a wide, open barren. It would appear now 

 as if my troubles were over, but not so. At every step 

 I sank half way to my knees, and my bootmaker will tell 

 you that is no mean distance. The barren had been once 

 covered with a sparse growth of scrubby spruce. This 

 had died and the trunks were disposed on the ground 

 after the criss-cross manner of jackstraws. These had to 

 be avoided, or stepped over. Worse than all, the stream 

 had taken an abrupt bend and I had "overrun the trail" 

 a half mile. The sun appeared to have f ocussed his rays 

 on that plain. My blood seemed to be at fever heat. 

 What I could see of my face was of the color of a boiled 

 lobster. Dash was trailing along at heel and he seemed 

 to wish that nature had favored him with a few inches 

 more of tongue that his panting might do the occasion 

 the better justice. Moore had been in as bad a fix as I. 

 The water of the stream was dead, and so deep he could 

 not wade it, and so he was also carried a half mile out of 

 his way. We at length got together and found a deer 

 path that led us out to the head of Mud Lake. Blessed 

 be the deer'. 



We would have been overjoyed to see David out on the 

 lake in the boat, but he was not. And although the two 

 miles to camp were over ground rough, bouldery and 

 Tam-pike strewn, it was as a beaten track compared to 

 that we had just passed over. 



We read of a certain scriptural character "choosing 

 the good part," That is what David did, all unconsciously, 

 when he elected to stay around camp. A phenomenal 

 piece of luck was this, and it fell on a deserving head. 

 About 10 o'clock in the forenoon he went over to the 

 lake. While prospecting around he struck a snipe pocket 

 and with sixteen shells killed fifteen birds. But he hap- 

 pened to remember that snipe shooting was my particu- 

 lar "weakness." So he withheld hie hand while game 



any time the ground would gradually sink till the water 

 poured in over the boot tops. The cranberry bogs were 

 the nearest approach to solid land. • 



We were scracely ashore, when a pair arose to David, 

 and he missed both. I soon made a Dutch double on an- 

 other pair, and to perfect the sequence Judson followed 

 on a single. Then we spr< ad out, and the fun began. 

 The snipe rose in singles, pairs and little wisps. In circl- 

 ing, those started by one would often come within range 

 of some of the others. Then there would be a puff of 

 smoke and very probably a small gray body falling 

 through the air. Once I marked down a pair about 

 50yds. apart. I walked up to the nearer, which flew to 

 the right and fell dead to my first barrel. I made a men- 

 tal note of the place he fell, but feared to pick him up 

 lest I .lose my line on the other, which I went on and 

 killed. It should have occurred to any one with common 

 sense that a living snipe would be easier found than a 

 dead one, but it did not so strike me. I failed to find the 

 first, but during the search I started the largest Wilson's 

 snipe I ever saw and killed him at a good strong 40vds. 

 with No. 10s. J 



The best snipe we started I missed with both barrels. 

 We marked him down, and not to hurt my feelings 

 David went over and missed him some more in the same 

 way. Again we marked him a quarter of a mile away, 

 and all three of us closed in on him. I was given the 

 first chance, and I went in and beat the ground through 

 and couldn't start him. Then we sent in the dog with a 

 like result. David, who had exhausted his supply of fine 

 shot loads, asked me to lend him my gun that he might 

 go in and try his luck. He at length kicked him out of 

 a tuft of grass, within two feet of which I had passed 

 several times. A half suppressed "you son of a gun," 

 mingled with the spiteful crack of the little hammerless 

 and the bird was added to our bag, bringing the total up 

 to thirty-four. 



We found a bog covered with a small kind of bog-cran- 

 berry known as the "greyhound," and after eating all we 

 wanted, picked enough for a ste*', 



During the morning around camp there was another 

 rifle shoot in which the writer tried in vain to equal 

 Bertie's record on the birch bark Cata wampus target. 

 W. H. challenged her to try a red squii re! high up in a fir 



in jjshape, the rims being always perfectly circular, and 

 the slope of the sides very uniform. They looked as if 

 they had been marked out by compasses, and excavated 

 by machinery. Their sides and bottom were covered with 

 a thin dwarf growth of hardwood, similar to that on the 

 rest of the ridge. For want of a better name we called 

 them "pot holes." 



The afternoon was cloudless and there was not a stir in 

 the air. The foliage of the trees was of a bright yellow 

 color, and enough leaves had fallen to cover the ground. 

 With a golden canopy over our heads and a golden carpet 

 under our feet, who can blame us for imagining that we 

 were treading the aisles of one of nature's palaces? It 

 must have been under the spell of an afternoon like this 

 and amid similar scenery, that one of the greatest of our 

 American poets wrote: 



"Ah! it were a lot too blest 

 Forever 'mid thy leafy shades to stray, 

 Amid the kisses of the soft southwest, 

 To rove and dream for aye, 

 And leave the vain, low strife 



That makes men mad— the rush for wealth and power; 

 The passions and the cares that wither life, 

 And waste its little hour." 



We wandered away for a couple of miles and then 

 loafed along back. We did some talking, but it was 

 mainly in the line of calling each other's attention to 

 something to admire. First it would be a lot of thrifty, 

 smooth beech trunks; then a grove of giant hemlocks? 

 then a particularly symmetrical "pot-hole;" and again, a 

 view from the edge of the horseback over miles of ever- 

 green forest. 



Our attention was rudely distracted from the landscape 

 when we neared camp by Dash running into a porcupine. 

 While we were extracting the quills, the other dog, who 

 is one of the few that can worry a quill pig without sus- 

 taining punishment, treed the animal, and Moore went on 

 to camp to get Bertie to come and shoot it with the rifle. 

 I was left on guard. After waiting long enough tor him 

 to go to camp and return several times over, I shot the 

 brute. Two minutes later they arrived. Not finding the 

 women in camp, Moore had fpilowcd them out to' the 



