42 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[JVVY 18, 189fl. 
A CABIN IN THE OLYMPICS. 
Away up over the hills, miles away, by a trail through 
dense fir and cedar forests, or here and there skirting a 
lovely little lake, away toward the foothills above which 
the towering, jagged, snow-covered peaks of the Olympics 
look down on the blue waters of beautiful Puget Sound, 
in a little clearing just in the edge of a big patch of cedar 
timber, where the ground is rich, black and deep, and 
where the giant trunks stand so thickly as to shut out the 
sun, is a little cabin. It is built of cedar logs halved, flat 
side in, with roof of "shakes" of the same material 
(which splits almost as straight as it could be sawed), and 
floor of solid cedar planks, smooth and tight, split, of 
course. The whole building is neat and comfortable be- 
yond the imaginings of urban dwellers, and evinces 
patient, skillful labor with axe and cross-cut saw. This 
is the home of the owner, James, not James something or 
anything, but just Thomas James, who for five years has 
been holding down a homestead claim here away back in 
the wilderness, and who, unaided, put up this log cabin 
20ft. square, with its heavy logs and long, heavy, peeled 
saplings for rafters, running from gable to gable. Here 
during the winters he hunts and traps alone, while in 
summer he usually gets a job in some of the numerous 
logging camps alongshore, which are rapidly sending, in 
huge rafts, this magnificent timber to mUl. Every few 
days during the winter he comes down to the waterside 
for a mess of ducks and to look after his traps along the 
creek, and here I made his acquaintance, and we having 
a love of the woods and pursuit of . the denizens thereof 
in common, he invited me up to his cabin, and I, wishing 
to see his claim and also to gain a better knowledge of the 
country, gladly accepted, starting one fine afternoon last 
winter when the heavens had ceased weeping awhile, and 
reaching his cabin along toward evening, finding him 
whUing away the long hours with his vioKn. 
The traU for considerable of the way was new to me, 
and there being no wet snosv on the ground I enjoyed the 
trip immensely as with Marlin on shoulder I kept my eyes 
busy in search of game, but nothing larger than grouse 
caught their attention. Here and there openings in the 
forest afforded delightful glimpses of crowned peaks that 
looked BO near and yet so far, and once I came out of the 
gloom upon a little gem of a lake that mirrored its wall 
of motionless firs, and upon whose quiet bosom three or 
four butterballs were preening their feathers. Upon the 
shore of this lake some would-be homesteader had built 
his log cabin with more or less enthusiasm and visions of 
profit, but after a sojourn suflSciently extended to allow the 
magnitude and hopelessness of the labor of making an 
impression on that heart-breaking forest to trickle through 
his mentality, he had folded his blankets like an Indian 
and silently stole away. He had sense. But there was 
the cabin, doorless and floorless; and empty painkiller 
and couKh balsam bottles telling of coughs, colds and 
rheumatism ; and other empty bottles from which the pro 
tempore hermit had essayed to draw spiritual consolation 
when he wrestled with the powers of darkness during the 
long, lonesome winter evenings. In the center of the 
floor was a pile of ashes and overhead was a hood to cor- 
ral the smoke, from whence it shot through a shoot into 
the open air, among the trees, heavenward, anywhere 
from that gloomy place. There was a wrecked bunk in 
one corner with browse scattered around; scraps of paper 
lay rotting, and all was, as Mantalini would say, "demni- 
tion moist and unpleasant." And so looking and musing 
on man's mistakes, I put one foot before the other along 
the trail, and after a while sat in James's comfortable and 
cheerful cabin and rested, and felt pretty good and hun- 
gry watching him prepare his back supper of coffee, spuds, 
venison and good bread and butter, after due considera- 
tion and appreciation of which I felt better still. 
And then we didn't fill pipes with the fragrant weed 
and watch the curling smoke go sailing skyward, because 
neither of us smoke, but we swapped hunting experiences 
until bedtime, and then, while the fire murmured drowsily 
in the little old cookstove, we retired to sleep the sleep of 
the innocent on what? Browse? Home-made slats? Bless 
your soul, nol Bat a nice yielding woven wire mattress 
that was just taut enough and not too taut, making a soft 
place for every bone and muscle and fixing the tired body 
up in great shape for the morrow's tramp. And when 
the morrow came, it being about the time for running one 
line of traps, we started out, skirting a cedar swamp for 
a way, then past an abandoned homestead where delusion 
was again apparent, on through the dark forest, crossing a 
noisy stream high up on a 100ft. log that spanned the 
stream and bed, and that swayed with us suggestively, up 
a hill, across a plateau, around the base of a young moun- 
tain, and then descending into a deep gorge kept alongside 
a beautiful stream where hide the lovely trout and where 
were hidden traps for the wary mink and otter; but none 
rewarded our search this day. The line ended at the 
upper end of a pretty lake, and when we reached the lake 
I left James to finish the line while I looked for some 
grouse along the hillside. I saw but one, and before 
James returned I had decapitated that and was ready to 
accompany him homeward by another route, for trail 
there was none. 
On the way he pointed to a big hemlock tree and said: 
"I was over here one day a year ago, and when I got 
along here my attention was accidentally drawn to some- 
thing dark colored in that tree that didn't look exactly as 
though t belonged there. I was quite a way back yonder 
when I spied it, and cautiously reoonnoitering I found it 
was a black bear quietly snoozing up yonder on some con- 
venient limbs. 1 couldn't get the shot I wanted from 
where I was and moved round a way. to a better position, 
losing sight for a few minutes of the bear, and when I got 
to where I thought I could see him all right, lo and be- 
hold he wasn't there at all. He had seen or winded me 
and slipped down, and though I caught a glimpse of his 
movement in the thick bushes I never saw him again." 
"That was aggravating," said I, "to have a bear up a 
tree in nice position to be shot and have him get away 
like that." 
"Yes," he replied, "but there's many a slip 'twixt the 
gun and the bear. They are mighty smart, and though 
there are many in the country it's only once in a while 
you get a shot, and even then they are apt to get away, 
though badly hit, for there are no bear dogs around." 
I asked him how many he had killed the year previous 
and I think he said eight or ten, little and big, half of 
them cubs. As we walked along he said: "I was out 
deer hunting one day two or three miles from the cabin 
on a light snow that had fallen the night previous, but I 
had found no deer during the forenoon and I had given 
up and was pointing for home, when I beard a singular 
noise off a little distance in the woods and stopped to 
listen. It sounded somewhat like a leaning tree rubbing 
against another, a sort of complaining, whining sound 
trees will make sometimes, you know; but there was no 
wind at all. Directly I heard the sound again, and loca- 
ting it as well as I could I went as noiselessly as possible 
toward it, and after going some distance was brought to 
a standstill very suddenly; for there, not more than 30ft. 
away, at the foot of a cedar whose branches almost swept 
the ground, stood a fuU-grown cougar facing me, with 
her body almost concealed by the limbs and her tail 
waving slowly back and forth. I was considerably sur- 
prised for a minute, but I knew that I'd got to shoot 
pretty quick and mighty straight too; so I took a long 
breath, drew the sights down fine between her eyes and 
pulled. The old .45 was true to her instincts and the cat 
dropped like a log, and when she'd about done kicking I 
walked up to her and found a hole as square between the 
eyes as you ever saw. 
" 'That's pretty neatly done,' I said to myself, and not a 
particle of buck fever about it. So I pulled the beast out 
a little, stood my gun up against a fir tree about 15ft. 
away, took off my coat — which was pretty heavy — and 
hung it over the gun, for it was snowing a little though 
the morning was warmish, and proceeded to skin the cat. 
I'd got well along with the job when I straightened up a 
bit to rest my back — I was on my knees — and found my- 
self looking square into the face of another cougar that 
stood just the other side of a smallish log some eight or 
ten steps away, and almost in a line with my gun. Here 
was a nice fix. A good healthy cougar staring at you, 
and your gun half way to the beast. I wanted that gun 
the worst way, but there was only one way to get it. 
Wishing wouldn't get it. I had to crawl for it. So I 
started, on my hands and knees, with my eyes on the cat, 
and my heart, well, I don't exactly know where it was. 
What I should have done had the animal leaped I don't 
know. I just trusted to luck and kept crawling toward 
the cat and that gun, that seemed so far away and the 
cat so near. But luck was with me. The beast never 
moved. It had probably never seen such a performance 
before and was just paralyzed. I reached the gun, took 
the coat off, and in less time than it takes to tell it I had 
a fine bead just where I wanted it, and the cat fell just as 
the other did, with a hole in the same place. I was dis- 
turbed no more and took home two very pretty hides, the 
second smaller than the first and evidently a yearling or 
maybe a two-year-old." 
"Now that's something like," said I. "That's the way 
I want to shoot my cougars. Well, not just that way. I 
don't care about bearding a cougar in his face just like 
that, but I want to hit him just where you did, because if 
you don't hit him fine you're liable to get mussed up 
some, eh?" 
"Right you are,'* quoth James. "The head's the only 
sure place to hit 'em." 
"I'm with you every time," said I, "whether it's with a 
rifle or a handspike, aim for the head," and so we plodded 
along homeward, admiring the beauties of nature while 
we took an occasional header into the brush or slipped on 
a concealed stick on a side hill and plowed the earth for 
a space. 
Along in the afternoon we raised the latch of the James 
villa, and after a hospitable lunch I bade my host and 
entertaiuer good-bye and somewhere in the gloaming I 
pulled up at the other terminus pretty much tired, after 
having wounded a grouse badly and lost him in the thick 
brush. 
Some time in March James was down in the valley one 
day and told me he had killed a bear and cub not long 
before, having found them under a big rock in their win- 
ter nest not many minutes' walk from his cabin, and that 
if I would come up pretty soon we would get a mess of 
trout and he would stiow me how he got the bear. That 
was enough to tempt me, of course, so among the first 
days in April I went up again early one morning, catch- 
ing him at rather a late breakfast; but, as he had only 
himself to wait on and nothing else to do, that wasn't so 
very reprehensible. 
First we went out to the scene of the bear killing, a 
half mile perhaps from the cabin, Here, in the thick 
forest, on comparatively level ground which extended for 
probably a mile or two in every direction, lay a huge rock 
with not a stone visible anywhere else, and the conclusion 
was natural that it had ridden there on a glacier some 
days previous. I say rock, but it was now two, though 
originally having been one, for when the glacier let go of 
it it split into two almost equal parts which fell apart at 
the top to a distance of 10ft., but at the bottom only from 
1 to 2£t., having a cleft through which one could almost 
see from one side or end of the rock to the other, the 
break not being perfectly straight, and being through the 
longest diameter of the big stone. The size of it was 
40X!iOft. by about 20ft, high, as near as I could estimate 
the height, and it was covered with moss, with here and 
there a low brush. When it split and f eU apart, naturally 
the bottom raised from the earth at the center, leaving 
a space or cavity some 2 or 3ft. high at the crack, lessen- 
ing thence each way to point of contact of sides of rock 
with the earth. In this cavity the bear had made her 
nest, being able to enter it from only one end, and now, 
standing at this end, we will let Mr. James tell the story: 
"I had known of the existence of this rock, of course, 
for several years and had seen what a nice place it would 
be for a bear to den up in, and had come by this way one 
or two years, but had found no bear. Along in the latter 
part of February I was up one day at the lake looking at 
some traps I had there, and it being convenient to come 
by this way home, I thought I'd look in here and see if 
any bear had found this nice spot this season. As soon as 
I came near I saw bear sign sure enough. D'ye see where 
she had clawed off moss from the rock? And see where 
she had broken off sal-lal bushes around here to make a 
nest with? And there is a bunch of stuif she had raked 
together that she forgot to take in; had enough before she 
got to that, I s'pose. I said to myself, 'There's business 
here now, certain, and it may turn out mighty interestin' 
before we get through; for I'm going to stir up the 
ariiTnala before I leave.' So I lay down here and tried to 
make out where the brute was, but couldn't see anything, 
for if was dark in there off to one side the split; so I got 
up and went round to the other side the rift, where I 
could walk in, which I couldn't from here, for you see the 
spUt is nearly closed here. After I had tiptoed along in 
to nearly the center of the rock I heard a cub squeal, and 
then I didn't wait any longer there, but backed out in a 
hurry, for it would be a ticklish place to get caught in a 
crack in a wall by a mad bear. You see, the cavity un- 
derneath don't extend clear through, and when I heard 
the cub I hadn't quite reached the cavity, so the bear 
hadn't seen my legs, or, fortunately, heard me. Well, 
when I got back here again, finding everything quiet, I 
determined to crawl in and see how the land lay. You 
see those rocks just inside the opening here, bedded in the 
ground and projecting from it nearly 1ft,? Well, I had 
to crawl over them, of course, and there isn't any too 
much room between them and the rock above, and if a 
bear made a charge on me and I had to crawfish over 
them rocks it would be mighty awkward work, and might 
get me into a heap of trouble; but I couldn't get in any 
other way, so I concluded to chance it far enough to see 
what there was in there, anyway," [And right there I 
thought of the story of Israel Putnam and the wolf den 
in ante-Revolution times. Remember? But James hadn't 
any comrades to fasten a rope to his heels and pull him 
out after he had shot.] "So I straightened out on my 
belly and, pushing my gun ahead, slowly and quietly 
pulled myself along until I was a full length inside the 
rocks you see there. Then I waited until my eyes could 
penetrate the dim light, and littie by little a black mass 
showed up curled up and motionless in a nest of sticks, 
bushes and moss to the right of the rift and where the 
cavity was deeper than elsewhere. There was my game, 
but where to shoot I didn't know, for I couldn't make out 
head or tail. I was only about 15ft, from the bear, and if 
I could have told where to shoot one shot would probably 
have done the business. I was in a cramped position and 
couldn't get my gun to my shoulder with any ease, but I 
managed to get it pointed at what I judged was the vitals of 
the brute and so that I could work the lever for a second 
shot, and then I put two shots into that mass without any 
waste of time, I tell you, and the way I put full speed 
astern on James was a sight, I believe. It's a wonder I 
didn't leave part of my clothes in there. But I got out 
all right, pumped another shell into the gun and faced 
the music for further revelations, expecting as like as 
not that the bear would charge out unless mortally hurt. 
But she didn't come and made no movement that I could 
hear, 
"Waiting a few minutes for the smoke to clear away, I 
carefully crawled in again little by little, looking care- 
fully every foot until I was able to see the bear sitting up 
licking her wounded legs, for there's where I had hit her, 
curiously enough, and paying no attention to me what- 
ever, I suppose that being awakened so suddenly and 
painfully from sound sleep she was dazed and so careless 
of anything save her hurte. I got a bead on her head this 
time, and pulling quickly crawfished as before, but there 
was no movement inside, and waiting a spell I cut a long 
pole, and crawling in once more prodded the carcass a 
few times, and finding it dead I came out, and going 
around to the other side walked in through the cleft until 
opposite the nest, when I stooped down and luckily found 
the bear within reach. So I pulled her to the cleft, 
which was here a little wider than elsewhere, and after 
much labor got her out and pulled her backward clear of 
the rock and then went back and found the cub, which 
could have been but a few days old, as it was only about 
15in. long, with eyes not yet open, but curiously enough 
having its skull broken, whether by accident or design of 
the dam is a puzzle. The bear was small-sized and was 
hit in three legs by the first two bullets, which I found 
flattened against the bones. The last shot struck just back 
of the eye, passing through the head. The hide was in 
fine condition, black and glossy. Now, if you like, you 
might crawl in there. You'll get a better idea of how it 
happened," 
And I did. And as I lay there on my stomach in that 
contracted passage, going through the performance "in my 
minds'a eye, Horatio," I found myself questioning whether 
if I had found that bear I'd have tackled it alone or 
rather had gone off and got somebody to be present at 
the obsequies, in case there had been obsequies — my ob- 
sequies, you understand. And I became of the opinion 
while I lay there that James had in his make-up quite a 
stock of what is called "sand." Some folks might call it 
by another name; it don't matter. 
Then I crawled out of the hole, went round to the other 
side of the crack, walked in there, stooped down and 
looked in, took a general survey of rock and surroundings; 
then we went back to the cabin, from whence we went to 
the creek, a mUe or two away, and brought back a boun- 
tiful catch of lovely trout running from 10 to ISin., and 
in the pleasant aiternoon I followed the devious trail 
homeward, while the sun dropped below the hoary peaks 
of the Olympics and shadows deepened in the east. 
O. O. S. 
State of Washington, June, '96. 
MAN, PANTHER AND PINE KNOT. 
Central Lake, Mich., July 2.— Some twenty years ago 
a woodsman named Almon Young was living on his farm 
near Barker's Creek, a station about twenty miles south of 
this village, on the 0. & W. M. Ry. 
Like most of our settlers, he devoted a portion of his 
time during the early spring months to the manufacture 
of that delicious product known as maple sugar, and at 
the time of which I write his "sugar bush" had, as they 
say in New Hampshire, been "tapped out," the sap spiles 
driven, the troughs set (they had not in those days arrived 
at the dignity of tin buckete), and everything was in the 
full tide of successful operation. 
Sugar at that time was more costly than now, and as a 
farmer's work is less pressing during the early spring than 
at any other season, a good deal of it was made and for 
the most part traded off at the nearest country store for 
such supplies as the family most required. 
Nowadays comparatively little sugar is made, the man- 
ufacture of syrup being found more remunerative. 
Well, as 1 was saying, Mr. Young went down one morn- 
ing early to his sugar camp, and before he reached it 
became aware that all was not precisely as it should have 
been. As he expressed it during a subsequent conversa- 
tion, "things looked kinder upsot." A further complica- 
tion was manifest in the presence of a large wolf. 
Now the sugar makers, among other primitive methods 
