Feb. 2, 1895. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
83 
was still larger. He stopped a moment at a hundred and 
fifty yards, and I dropped him. Anastasio grunted satis- 
faction. I swung to the left, where the rest of the band 
was journeying sighted at the shoulder of a young ram 
and fired. The ball passed through my intended, victim, 
dropping him, and entered the eye of a yearling ram who 
stood behind, thus killing two rams at one shot— a most 
unusual accident. 
The rest of the band were now quite distant, and though 
I fired several shots, at Anastasio's desire— he said he 
wanted a fat ewe— none took effect. 
I cleaned the sheep and skinned out the big head. An- 
astasio took one small ram entire on his back, supporting 
it by a rope passed over the top of his head^ and I with 
the big horns Started down. It Avas one o'clock. The 
head might have weighed thirty-five pounds fresh. It 
grew to weigh fifteen hundred pounds before dark. 
Stumbling down through the slide rock with legs full cf • 
venomous prickers, I passed below camp without noticing 
it, and was well on the other side, when I thought I had 
gone about far enough, and shouted. J. B.'s voice an- 
swered across a small hill, and I found that he had never 
found camp at all, but had found a water spot, and Wisely 
decided not to leave it without good reason. 
I scouted a bit to the west, but found unfamiliar coun- 
try, and as the sun had set we were seemingly about to 
stay by that water all night, when I tinned around and 
sa w a pale column of smoke rising above the crest of the 
ridge against the evening sky. 
At once we marched around the ridge, and as we rose 
over the divide we saAv the whole hillside flaming with 
signal fires. Our dear old Anastasio had become alarmed, 
and set fire to fifteen or twenty dead mescals in different 
places to guide us home. God bless a good Indian ! 
The next day I spent the morning in washing, resting 
and cutting spikes out of my legs. Anastasio packed in 
the second small ram, and ate ribs and slept. Then, in 
the afternoon, we got the rest of the big fellow down. 
Anastasio, to make his load lighter, smashed off the 
shanks with a stone, although he carried a knife in his 
bell — a striking trick of heredity. 
And then we talked. "The Trinidad Valley is not my 
country," said Anastasio; "this is my country. Yonder, 
under that red rock on the mountain-side, about five 
miles away, there is a spring in the gulch on the edge of 
the desert. I was born there and lived there twenty years 
with my father's family. Here where your camp is" — 
about twenty feet square of slide rock level enough to 
stand on— "we sowed crops. We scraped a hole between 
the stones with, our hands, put in squash seeds, watered 
them by carrying water from the spring in our hands, and 
raised several hills." 
So he went on, not in so connected a way, but showing, 
bit by bit, his manner of life. His tribe, which he called 
the Kil-ee-ou, must have been very restricted in numbers 
at {best. His .territory was a few leagues of desert, or 
almost desert, mountains, every yard of which he knew 
by heart, while just over the ridge dwelt the Cocopahs, his 
mortal enemies. Sometimes a score of men armed with 
bows would start a tribal hunt for deer, though the sheep 
were beyond then: m< ans of attack. Sometimes they 
journeyed a few leagues to the Gulf to eat mussels. We 
could see the great blue sheet and the leagues of white 
salt incrusted on the hither side, and at one spot on the 
horizon the blue peak of some Sonora mountain rose out 
of the seeming ocean. 
But a few deer and mussels and a half dozen hills of 
squashes could not fill the abyss of the Indian appetite. 
The stand-by was roasted mescal. These plants grow in 
great numbers, and at every season there are some just 
right for roasting. The Indians selected these and cooked 
them for two or three days in a hole in the ground by a 
process called fcatema, similar in principle to a clam-bake. 
This roasting converts the starchy leaves and heart into 
a sugary mass, so that the resulting food is something 
like a. sweet fibrous beet. The Indian's life really lay in 
gathering and roasting mescal. And when a storm pre- 
vented the necessary fires, the tribe passed days, often 
many days, without food. 
So much for Anastasio's early life. A year ago, he told 
us, he went hunting with two Americans. One of them 
came from under the earth, where there were six months 
of night, and had passed two seas and been a month on 
the train. We supposed, from this, that Anastasio 
had served as guide to an Englishman whose home he 
described at the Antipodes. The six months of night 
were, perhaps, represented by the London fogs and if he 
massed a month on the train he must have come by the 
southern Pacific. The Englishman had presented An- 
astasio with the very undesirable gaberdine I have before 
described. Anastasio said that the Engbshman shot 
quail in the head every time with his rifle, but on meeting 
a band of eleven sheep he fired nine shots without hit- 
ting. Anastasio said he trembled, but I incline to think 
that the Indian had run him out of breath. Finally the 
Englishman seemed two ewes and a lamb, after three 
weeks of hunting. 
Look at my fortune! A single day on the mountain, 
and three rams to show for it; one with horns that are 
an abiding splendor— seventeen inches around the base 
and forty-two inches on the outer sweep." 
I thought at first that the horns made more than one 
complete spiral, but on levelbng them carefully I saw 
that the entire curve would not be complete Without the 
points, which were smashed off. In this connection it is 
only fair to consider that I carried my lucky bear's head 
belt, and invariably sacrificed to the sun, as several rag- 
ged garments hung on spikes and branches may still 
testify. 
The weather threatened storm. J. B. 's leg would not 
permit him to hunt. Anastasio was full of meat, eating 
roasted ribs night and day, besides his regular meals, and 
we decided to retreat. 
I noticed that the sheep hides had little "of the under 
wool that the northern sheep have in December, nor were 
the animals fat, though the flesh was sweet and tender, 
and the livers had their desired medicinal effect. 
Anastasio said it was customary to hunt in summer, 
when the sheep were fat, and were' compelled to resort to 
the water holes. Aside from the meanness of taking ad- 
vantage of the animals' necessities, the summer isbad, 
both because the flesh is rank and spoils quickly, and the 
heat and insects are intolerable. 
We packed in a gentle rain, and Anastasio made a great 
bundle of rejected meat for his own. use. To get rope, he 
slightly roasted the leaves of the Spanish dagger, tore the 
hot spikes in shreds with his tough fingers, and knotted 
the fragments into a strong, pliable cord. 
In two days we were again in the Trinidad Valley, and 
in two days more we had reached our old friend, Don 
Manuel Murillo, at El Rayo. Here we lay over a day to 
rest the animals, and Don Manuel again played the part of 
a good angel in letting us have some hay. 
I tried a shot at a duck on a little pond. The shot was 
a costly success. The. duck died, but I had to wade for 
his remains through many yards of frozen mud and dirty 
water. The duck, though lean, was tender. My last 
hunt was for deer at El Rayo, Avith a boy of Don Manuel's 
for guide. ToAvard noon I saw two deer and shot them. 
I do "not at present know just how to class them. The tail 
is that of the ordinary mule-deer, or black tail of Colorado 
and Montana, but there is no white patch on the rump. 
I Shall. haA r e to send a skin to the editor for identification. 
Our . journey home was accomplished in the Avorst 
Aveather. Snow, cold ram, gales of surprising violence, 
made life a struggle; but we jumped at every chance for 
progress, and finally crossed the line twenty-five days 
after Ave had left it, tired, ragged, dirty, but with our 
mules ahve and our hearts contented. 
Our experience of the peninsula indicated that there 
Avere few inhabitants of any land, brute or human. We 
hardly saw a dozen rabbits on the trip. There Avere some 
quail, and many ducks, but the latter were visitors only. 
Deer were very scarce, and there were but a few half- 
wild cattle visible. 
As for human beings, there was not an inhabited house 
on our road from Alvarez Place in the Trinidad Valley to 
El Rayo, a distance of fifty -fiA'e miles; nor from El Rayo 
to Juarez, twenty-five miles more. Indeed, except for 
the feAv hovels at Tecate, the houses for the rest of the 
Avay Avere hardly more numerous. And yet AA r e had a 
strong impression that the country had nearly all the pop- 
ulation it could support. GiA r en a moderately dry year, 
and the part of Lower California which Ave Adsited can be 
thought fit only for bogus land companies and goose-egg 
mines, or, yes, it might be an ideal spot for a health 
resort or a penal colony. 
And for intending visitors I will echo the Avords Don 
Manuel used to me: "For Heaven's sake, take a guide, or 
you may die of thirst!" as good men are doing every year. 
Also, if you go in winter, leave straw hats and cotton 
socks at home. H. G. DULOG. 
THE RANGELEYS IN WINTER. 
BY MOLECHUXKAMUXK. 
I have revisited the Rangeley lakes again in winter. 
Since the closed months haA^e been established by the laAvs 
of Maine, prohibiting trout fishing from October 1 to 
May 1 (and a A T ery good and essential laAA- it is), there are 
but few, if any, sportsmen that Ansit the Rangeleys after 
the game shooting season, which ends Dec. 1. 
It is difficult to get at the principal lakes, excepting 
Rangeley Lake proper, which adjoins the smnall tOAvn of 
Rangeley, and there are no settlements nor towns ad- 
joining the big lake or the smaller lakes or the Richard- 
sons, excepting the town of Andover \vhichis twelve miles 
from the head of the lower Richardson, and which is 
connected by a road so little used in the Winter that I us- 
ually have to get it broken out for my party, and have 
sometimes had to go to the expense of $40 or $50 to do so. 
In one instance, a number of years ago, five feet of 
snow 'fell while I Avas at the lake, and drifted so badly 
that I had to snoAV-shoe my A\*ay out with- a companion 
over the mountains, 22 miles, (we being up the lake 
twelve miles), which required our almost consecutive ex- 
ertions for seArenteen hours, leaving at 6 A. M. and ar- 
riving out at Andover at 11 P. M. In one instance Ave 
were two days in getting over the road from AndoA-er, 
t welve miles to the arm of the lake, although ~wb had two 
stout teams, but had to sho\ T el and tramp through heavy 
drifts of snow, and Avere compelled to camp OA^er night 
on the road. Several other times I have been compelled 
to camp at the arm of the lake by having the ice break 
up after it had frozen, and in one instance I had to wait a 
wefek at the arm for the ice to form sufficiently strong to 
get OA^er. In fact I have had quite a number of adA r ent- 
ures in getting up to camp on the Upper Richardson 
Lake, OA^er the ice in the winter, and especially since the 
comparatively late law on deer shooting, which ends the 
season on Dec. 81.. 
To get the late December shooting about the lakes is 
difficult, as one must get up the lakes by boats, or on the 
ice. 
From the middle of November the ice generally makes 
'about the shores, making it difficult to get boats in or 
out, and very seldom does the ice hold after its first freez- 
ing oA^er, although it may get an inch or tAvo thick, and 
sometimes it breaks up when it is three inches thick from 
the sea made by a high Avind on open places. The open 
places will giwv larger, and sometimes break up the entire 
lake, at other times it will open in three or four or more 
parts, Avhile the parts left closed will accumulate ice to 
the thickness of seven or eight inches, and at such times 
one must haul a boat over the frozen portions and row 
through the open ones. 
The lake generally freezes up from the 10th to the loth 
of December, wholly, or sufficiently so as to pass teams 
over. Parts of the lake in Ancinity of springs or cur- 
rents will continue weak at all times in the winter, and it 
is not A r ery uncommon to break in with horses, though 
they are generaly hauled out safely, owing to tire firm ice 
Avhich adjoins the soft parts. The Aveak parts are pretty 
well known hoAA r ever, and avoided. 
While the cold in the winter as indicated ty the ther- 
mometer, would seem extreme, it is not particulary severe 
to those who come well prepared, and have a comfortable 
camp, for the dryness of the atmosphere militates against 
the effect of the cold in a most fayorable manner. That 
chilliness and bone penetrating cold which one experi- 
ences, eA^en in moderate weather on om eastern or west- 
ern seaboard, is little felt at the lakes in winter, and 
familiar as 1 am with many climes, I Avill say that I have 
suffered more from cold, which my memory vividly re- 
minds me of, south of Washington and amid the orange 
ripening localities of California, than I have in all my 
experiences in winter at the Rangeley lakes. 
Yet during my last excursion here in the Avinter of 1890 
average of 8 degrees beloAv zero, the coldest, lowest mark- 
ing being 26 degrees below, and the warmest morning be- 
ing 12 above. That was an extremely cold spell, as noted 
by the usually reliable oldest resident in the country, who 
had no remembrance of so cold a period in forty years. 
But the cold of this Avinter has not been far behind it; yet 
no day at the lake has been too cold for the children of 
our party to be out snow-shoeing, skating,[and tobog- 
ganing. ^ 
Our trip Avas not made for shooting or fishing, as we 
arrived on the last day of the open shooting, Dec. 31, and 
Ave are strict observers of the game laAvs.0 We came to 
enjoy the cold bracing weather, to enjoy the sports of 
Avinter, and to AueAv the beautiful, ice bound lakes and the 
forest and mountains clad in their whits vestments; to 
Avitness the dark and purple hues of the fringing woods, 
and of the distant ravines; to obseiwe the countless minor 
features incidental to the season at the lakes, of Avhich a 
recounting Avould be tiresome perhaps to ourjreaders, but 
of constant note and attention to all lovers of the Avoods 
and waters. 
We have a fine toboggan slide in daily use, and have 
created several skating courses on the lake by aid of 
horses and scrapers. We haA^e snow shoe tramps through 
the forests and over the lake, and takejoccasional lunches 
hy great fires on the lake shores, where some gigantic 
cedar or pine has spraAAded out its dry roots for an inviting 
match. 
At some risk of being tiresome, but to show how little 
the cold has interfered Avith our enjoyments, I Avill grve 
some reference to the mercurial indications in front of 
our abode, distant as it is, twenty miles from a post office 
and forty miles from the railroad station of Rumford 
Mills. 
Om 1 party of nine, four being children, andjtwo ladies, 
exclusive of guides and assistants, came in "safely from 
Andover, Maine, on Dec. 31. We Avere held up two days 
at that tOAvn by the general blizzard, Avhich coming from 
the west gave the New England coast a cold^blocking 
storm. The Aveather during the tAvo days at 'Andover 
was simply howling, the mercury holding obstinately 
beloAv zero, and the air most of the time filled with 
cyclonic whirls of snow. But Ave Avere comfortable at 
French's Hotel. On the morning of the 31 it AA T as still and 
clear, Avith the thermometer 18 degrees below zero, and 
it held beloAv zero all day, closing at suncloAvn 10 below, 
and opening the following morning at camp 2.2 below. 
The trip of t venty-two miles through the Avoods, and 
nine miles up the Richardson lakes Avas entirely comfort- 
able and free from touches of King Frost. It was slow 
going, hoAvever, from the necessity of breaking out the 
road and testing the ice, consuming four horns, includ- 
ing the stop of an hour and a half midway for "lunch, 
and AA-arming up at the foot of the lake. 
During our stay of tAvo Aveeks, now terminating, Ave 
have had but feAv mornings when the lOAvest markings of 
the thermometer Avas aboA^e zero. On Jan. 5, three of our 
party left to meet friends at Montreal. The marking of 
the thermometer was 14 degrees beloAv zero at time of 
leaAdng, ten o'clock, for Andover, and closing at night 8 
degrees below, but the trip Avas made Avithout any dis- 
comfiture whatever. The night of January 4 was the 
coldest of any, there being a perfect gale of Avind from 
the nortliAvest all through the night, with the thermom- 
eter 18 degrees below zero, but the morning opened still 
and clear, and comfortable enough. 
A gale of Avind Avith the thermometer nearly .20 degrees 
below zero, constitutes unmistakably a blizzard, which 
would be fatal to human life unless somewhat protected 
from its fury. In our case, although the camp Avas op- 
enly exposed upon the lake shore to the full blast, we ex- 
perienced no inconvenience. With double Avindows, and 
large fireplaces in every room, filled to repletion with 
consuming birch and maple, we were hardly conscious of 
the extreme cold outside, and passed the evening in Avit- 
nessins; the theatrical entertainment given by the child- 
ren. To be sure, the cold gale was searching, and despite 
the fires continued through the night, it found out the 
Water pitchers in remote corners, and glazed them over 
With its imprint. 
The night was a comfortable one, for a slight freezing 
in one part of a room Avith a gloA\ r ing fire in another, can- 
not be otheinvise than comfortable in a dry ah - , to a Avell 
clad and a well nourished mortal. Still the contrast was 
striking, between the blizzard of the night, and the still 
air of 18 degrees beloAv in the morning. It seemed hardly 
necessary to Avrap up for snoAv-shoeing. 
I Avould account a still clear cold of 60 or 70 de- 
grees below zero, to be far more comfortable than a gale 
of wind having a velocity of tAA^enty miles an horn- AAdth 
the mercury at 15 or 20 degrees below zero. The first 
could be endured very comfortably in an ordinarily well 
protected apartment before a gloA\dng fire, but the latter 
has a searching power, which insinuates itself through 
the slightest crevices of the doors, windoAvs, and floors, 
and of penetrating, when one is exposed to it, all the 
clothing one can put on. A moderate head Avind at zero 
is far more biting than still cold at 30 degrees below. In 
fact no one but an Esquhnau or the exceptional man, can 
endure the facing- of a 
gale 
at 20 degrees beloAv zero, 
Avith any part of his face exposed, for more than a few 
minutes, for the white frosting will form on the skin al- 
most immediately, and with double A 7 eiling, the eye lids 
will soon glue together, and a glazing of ice will form OA'er 
the mouth and nostrils. The face Avould freeze so quickly 
that one Avould harldy be aAvare of it, as it would be com- 
paratively painless. 
I was snow-shoeing in the afternoon before the blizzard. 
The morning had opened 22 degrees below, but not 
seemingly very cold, and during the forenoon the mer- 
cury crept up AAdthin a few degrees of zero, but began to 
di-op steadily after ten o'clock. I had crossed the lake with 
one of my boys, to enjoy our lunch by a fire built upon 
the opposite shore, perhaps two miles from camp. I ob- 
served that the sun had a peculiar cold aspect and that 
the air Avas filled with countless particles of snow, which 
although as minute as diamond dust flashed and scintil- 
lated in the sunlight, a sure indication of intense frost. 
The tiny flashing crystals came from the moisture in the 
an-, for the sky was cloudless, although tinted Avith an 
ominous hue which indicated some change from the quiet 
of the previous few days. I deemed it prudent to retrace 
our steps to camp, for the winter's short day was drawing 
and 1891, the self -registering thermometer in front of & close. When half way across the lake we observed 
camp, indicated for thirteen consecutive mornings an \ from the upper end, approaching eddies of .whirling snoWj 
