ATO. 1, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
88 
and took an occasional sip of whisky; then at daybreak 
we ate a bite, harnessed the dogs and ourselves to the 
caribou and hauled them with great difficulty to the tent, 
which we reached two hours after sunset. 
As the weather continued fine and we were in good 
trim, we decided to remain. I am never so happy as 
when in the solitude of the forest, and then I had no 
home attractions. We accordingly buried our caribou 
under the snow and set out in different directions to look 
for tracks of other herds, as the one we had fired at must 
have fled to a great distance, I walked all morning with- 
out being able to find anything besides hare and partridge 
tracks, when I came to the edge of a small lake. There 
was nothing on its surface except a small track, which I 
• took to be that of a lynx; so I went on to the stream 
which fed the lake, looking for open water to wash down 
my homely meal of bread and frozen pork. In a few 
minutes I reached the foot of a small cascade, where I 
got some water and began my lunch. While I was so 
engaged I heard a noise, caused by the fall of a large 
lump of snow, which started from the top of the falls 
and rolled down near my feet. One of the edges of the 
lump showed the marks of a caribou's foot, while the ex- 
citement displayed by my dog Brandy indicated the pres- 
ence of something, I checked him, got my rifle ready 
and carefully crawled up the slope. When I reached the 
top I saw a large buck with magnificent antlers browsing 
and unconscious of danger. Brandy gave a growl, the 
caribou turned suddenly, giving me a splendid opportu- 
nity, and I got in a shot behind the shoulder which laid 
him low. Of course, my taking the body to the tent 
alone was out of the question, so I gralloched him, to the 
great delight of Brandy, who feasted to his heart's con- 
tent. Then I covered up the carcass with snow and made 
my way back to the camp, as this caribou seemed to be a 
bachelor and without any following. 
It was almost dark when I reached the camp and Paul 
had not returned, so I lit the stove and set my kettle to 
boil, while in a tin plate I put some slices of caribou 
tongue on a layer of onions and butter, making a delicious 
dish, and lay down awaiting the arrival of my compan- 
ion. I waited patiently for several hours, and had fallen 
into a deep sleep when I awoke on hearing him coming 
with his dog. I jumped up and asked him what made 
him so late. "Don't ask me," he replied, "I think I have 
walked a hundred miles. I have seen plenty of caribou 
tracks, but they are far away and not very fresh; the 
animals seem to expect a heavy storm and are moving 
away. There are plenty of hares and partridges. I have 
a dozen at the door. For goodness sake, give me a cup 
of tea and something to eat." 
While he was eating I told him of my luck, and we 
decided to return to the same spot on the morrow to get 
the buck I had killed and try our luck again. We did so, 
following my snowshoe tracks, which showed clearly; I 
had also taken the precaution to blaze my path through 
the woods. 
We looked around carefully, but could find no fresh 
tracks, so we set to work to bring our quarry home. We 
harnessed the dogs in tandem fashion to the antlers and 
then fastened our own pack straps to them, and in this 
way we made good~time over the crust. 
Two days afterward we struck our tent and moved a 
day's march from the spot. When we had settled down 
we started off, found a ravage, and in a short time came 
upon two caribou standing on a slight eminence which 
sloped down to the river. I climbed up the slope to stalk 
them in that direction, while Paul went toward the river, 
which was covered with an accumulation of snow and ice 
10ft, deep. When we got within range the caribou were 
facing in my direction, while exposing their flanks to 
Paul. I made a sign to him to fire and saw him raise his 
gun to his shoulder and press the trigger. The report 
was so loud that it made me jump on my snowshoes. I 
ran in, found one animal dead and the other badly 
wounded, I put an end to its sufferings and then looked 
toward the river. Paul had disappeared; I could only see 
his dog Coffee stretching his head over a considerable ex- 
cavation and howling piteously. I ran to the river, and 
lying down near the dog I saw at the bottom of a deep 
hole, in which the water of the torrent rushed past, my 
man hanging on to his long gun, which, luckily for him, 
had fallen across the excavation and was retained.in posi- 
tion by two pieces of ice jutting out from the sides. His 
head and shoulders alone were above water, while his 
legs and body were carried under the ice by the current. 
There was not a moment to lose. Calling out to him to 
hold on, I tied our pack straps together, and descending 
very carefully into the hole I tied the straps under his 
arms. Then I climbed up and hauled with all my mighb, 
but in vain, 
"Help yourself 1" I yelled. "You are heavier than two 
caribou." 
"I can't, sir; my clothes are frozen and stuck under- 
neath the ice. You will have hard work to get me out of 
here." 
"Don't be afraid," I replied, "I have a good hold of you. 
Here is my axe. Cut away the ice and free yourself." 
While doing so I harnessed the dogs to the rope, and 
when he was free we hauled away and pulled him out of 
the hole. 
He did not look like a man, but like an icicle. His 
clothes were frozen sohd and we had to drag him to the 
bank to thaw him out by means of a huge fire, which I 
started at once. 
After he had taken a good drink of whisky and had 
thawed a little he began swearing at the ice, but I told 
him it was due to his own stupidity. 
"You heard the reports of the trees cracking last night 
with the frost, and you might have known that ice does 
the same and cracks from one bank to the other. You 
might also have known that the heavy detonation of your 
gun would break the ice under you, and you should have 
waited till you were ashore. If I had not been with you 
it would have been all up with you. You would have 
turned into an icicle, and in the spring you would have 
gone over the falls. 
"Ah, sir, one gets so excited at the sight of game that 
one does not always stop to reflect," 
This was the last of our adventures worth relating on 
this trip. We hunted for some time longer with varying 
success, and I returned to the settlements well pleased 
with my outing. H. de Puyjalon. 
The FoRKST AND Strsam ia put to press each week on Ttteedav 
Oorrespondene^ intended for p%iblioation Owuld reach im at th= 
ettby Msrtiay andasmu'ch torJin ai f racticable, 
THE FROGS OF WINDHAM. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The following recountal of the great historical battle of 
the bullfrogs is taken from the histories of Windham, 
Windham county, Conn. Miss Larned's history does not 
agree as to the destruction being the result of the great 
fight, as there were no marks of violence on the frogs, 
but this is not necessarily a proof of the absence of vio- 
lence, as death could have resulted from strangulation. 
If it had been a plague among the frogs, it is strange that 
there never was one before nor since,' and it is steanger 
still that all the mortality took place in one night. This 
is the story as told in Larned's "History of Windham 
County, Conn." 
This memorable incident occurred in June, 1754. 
Though war was not formally declared, hostflities had 
begun. A Virginia regiment, led by Col, Greorge Wash- 
ington, was already in the field laboring to rppel the 
French from possessions claimed by the Ohio Company. 
Delegates from many of the Colonies were in session at 
Albany, endeavoring to concert a scheme of common de- 
fense. 
The public mind was disturbed and apprehensive. 
Windham's prominence in the recently formed Susque- 
hanna Company gave her especial cause for anxiety. 
This attempt to rescue from the Indians a large tract of 
land bordering on the diffputed territory might have 
aroused suspicion and hostility, and exposed them to the 
vengeance of the enemy. The feverish enthusiasm with 
which they had hailed that attractive scheme gave place 
to doubts and misgivings, and premonitory croakings 
were heard on every side. Thus troubled and perturbed, 
the residents of Windham Green were aroused from their 
slumbers one sultry summer night by sounds wholly un- 
like anything ever before heard or reported— even by the 
oldest inhabitant. Mr. White's negro man, returning 
from some nocturnal rendezvous, was the first to hear 
these sounds and give the alarm to his master and the 
neighbors. Rushing out from their beds, they listened 
with horror and amazement, A din, a roar, an indescrib- 
able hubbub and tumult seemed to fill the heavens and 
shake the earth beneath their feet. 
The night was still, cloudy and intensely dark. Sky, 
village and surrounding country were shrouded in thick- 
est blackness, and thus the terrified listeners were thrown 
wholly upon conjecture and imagination. Some feared 
that the day of judgment was at hand and that these un- 
earthly sounds were but the prelude to the Trump of 
Doom. Others seized upon the more natural, butscarcely 
less appalling, explanation that an army of French and 
Indians were marching upon the devoted village. Dis- 
tinct articulations, detected amid the general Babel, 
made this conjecture more probable, and ere long the 
name of Windham's most honored citizen, most prom- 
inently connected with the Susquehanna Purchase, was 
clearly eliminated. "We'll have Colonel Dyer! we'll have 
Colonel Dyer!" was vociferated in deep guttural tones. 
"Elderkin too! Elderkin too !" responded a shrill tenor. 
Yes, both these noble young men were demanded by 
the insatiate savages. The words "tete, tete," next de- 
tected, inspired some hope. It was possible that even 
then a treaty might be effected. Thus in fear, terror and 
conjecture passed the night, the astounding clamor con- 
tinuing till the breaking of day. That any terrified 
Windhite was so demented as to sally out with gun and 
pitchfork to meet an army of famished frogs en route for 
the Willimantic is extremely doubtful. 
The morning brought a solution of the mystery from 
the families near the mill pond. Windham's own am- 
phibious population had broken her peace and made all 
the disturbance. The family of Mr. Follet. who owned 
the mill privilege and lived adjacent, were awakened by 
a most extraordinary clamor among the^ frogs. They 
filled the air with cries of distress, described by the 
hearers as continuous and thunderlike, making their beds 
shake under them. 
Those who went to the pond found the frogs in great 
apparent agitation and commotion, but from the extreme 
darkness of the night could see nothing of what was pass- 
ing. In the morning many dead frogs were found about 
the pond, yet without any visible wounds or marks of 
violence. There was no evidence that they had been en- 
gaged in battle. 
Some mysterious malarial malady, some deadly epi- 
zootic, had probably broken out among them and caused 
the outcries and havoc. The report of their attempted 
migration in search of water is positively denied by trust- 
worthy witnesses. There had been no drought, and the 
pond was abundantly supplied with water, being fed by a 
never-failing stream. The mortification of the Windham 
people upon this unexpected and humiliating revelation is 
quite beyond the power of description — 
"Some were pleased and some were mad. 
Some turned it ofiC with laughter. 
And some would never hear a word 
About the thing thereafter; 
Some vowed that if the devil himself 
Should come, they would not flee him, 
And if a frog they ever met, 
Pretended not to see him." 
Even without the aid of newspapers and pictorial illus- 
trations, the account of it was borne to every part of the 
land. It was sung in song and ballad; it was related in 
histories; it served as a standing joke in all circles and 
seasons. Few incidents occurring in America have been 
so widely cu'culated. Let a son of Windham penetrate 
to the uttermost parts of the earth, he would find that the 
story of the frog fright had preceded him. 
The Windham bullfrogs have achieved a world-wide 
reputation, and with Eome's goose, Putnam's wolf and 
a few other favored animals, will ever hold a place in 
popular memory and favor. 
"The direst fray in all that war, 
To shake King George's crown, 
Was when the bullfrogs marched at night 
Against old Windham town." 
A few years since, while traveling in the Northwest, I 
met a party of English tourists at the falls of St, Anthony. 
Among them was our honored historian, George Ban- 
croft. After a pleasant introduction h e exclai med, ' 'From 
Windham, Connecticut! A bullfrog!" "Yes," I said, "I 
acknowledge the frog! Here is one perched on one of our 
bank notes. It is the Windham coat-of-arms;" and the 
note was handed around with much merriment. 
The simplest and probably most truthful account is this: 
A mile away to the east of the town was a marshy pond, 
the home of thousands of batrachians: large greenbackers 
and mottled little peepers, such aa often make night hid- 
eous. A drought had reduced their pond to a narrow 
rill, and for this the poor thirsty creatures had fought 
and died like Greeks at the pass of Thermopylas. Tradi- 
tion says thousands of the dead frogs were found the 
next morning on the sides of the rill, and terror-stricken 
Windhamites turned their prayers to praises for so gra' 
cious a deliverance. 
Of all the exaggerated accounts of the above, the most 
marvelous and untruthful is that of the Rev. Samuel 
Peters in his "General History of Connecticut." He 
stated: "One night in July the frogs of an artificial pond 
three miles square and five miles from Windham, finding 
the water dried uj), left in a body and marched or hopped 
for the Willimantic River. Taking: the road through the 
town, which they entered at midnight, bullfrogs leading, 
pipers following without number, they filled a road 40yd8. 
wide for four miles in length, and were several hours in 
passing through the place." 
I think he could tell a fish story nearly as well as Mr. 
Hough. ^ ^ p. 
THE LAURENTIDES NATIONAL PARK. 
Quebec, Canada, July 20.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
I send you description of our Canadian public reservation, 
the Laurentides National Park. As an old sportsman I 
should think that many of your readers would be glad to 
know that they can get fishing and shooting here at such 
reasonable rates (and without imposition, it being under 
Government supervision), without having to belong to a 
club. Several gentlemen from the United States are 
members of the club to which I belong, Les Laurentides, 
and of various others; but it may not suit every one to be- 
long to a club, especially if he gets an outing only at long 
intervals, and does not care to incur the expense'of mem- 
bership in a club. Crawford Lindsay. 
The description sent by Mr, Lindsay is embodied in the 
act of establishment: "Whereas, it is in the public inter- 
est that a forest reservation and national park be estab- 
lished in this Province so as to preserve its forests, fish 
and game, to maintain an even water supply, and to en- 
courage the study and culture of forest treee; therefore. 
Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Legislature of Quebec, enacts as follows: 
"The territory lying near and inclosing the headwaters 
of the rivers Montmorenci, Jacques Cartier, Ste, Anne de 
la Perade, Batiscan, Metabetchouan, Upikauba, Upica, 
Chicoutimi, Boisvert, A. Mars, Ha! Ha!, Murray and Ste. 
Anne's, described as follows: All that part of the vacant 
Crown Lands of the Province of Quebec situate in the 
counties of Montmorenci, Quebec and Charlevoix," 
"Doubtless a large number of the sportsmen from 
abroad who annually visit Quebec, as well as Canadians, 
will avail themselves of the privilege of fishing and shoot- 
ing in the park, which the reader will observe is permitted 
on the unleased portions, the basin of the River Jacques 
Cartier being especially reserved for this purpose together 
with the northeastern part of the park. As regards river 
fishing, there is no finer brook trout stream than the 
Jacques Cartier, the fish running up to 51bs, in weight on 
the main river and tributaries, such as the Sautoriski. 
Respecting lake fishing, we may say that Lake Jacques 
Cartier is fully equal, if not superior, to any other sheet 
of water in the Province, brook trout considerably over 
5 lbs, in weight taking the fly readily. As regards deer 
hunting (caribou), the famous hunting ground known as 
Les Jardins is altogether within the park boundaries, 
and here the deer stalker can pursue his favorite pastime 
with certainty of success. For those who prefer smaller 
game, the southern part of the park offers exceptional 
facilities for first-class ruffed grouse (partridge) shooting 
in the hardwood groves of Tewkesbury township. 
"It being out of the question to enter into details as re- 
gards the many and various rivers, lakes, etc., and gen- 
eral sport obtainable in the park, the most salient features 
are merely touched upon. Intending tourists, sportsmen 
and fishermen can obtain particulars on application to 
the Department of Crown I^ands at any time.'' 
We quote from Mr. G, M. Fairchild, Jr. 's, "Rod and 
Canoe, Rifle and Snowshoe in Quebec's Adirondacks," 
this spirited description of the park and its attractions: 
"And through its midst there ran a crystal flood 
With many a murmuring song and elfln shout, 
In whose clear pools the crimson spotted trout 
Would turn his tawny side to sun and sky. 
Or sparkling upward catch the summer fly." 
The Laurentides National Park in the Province of 
Quebec is the largest forest and game preserve in the 
world. By the act of the Provincial Legislature creating 
it, some 2,500 square miles of the public domain was set 
aside for this purpose, and proper laws for its government 
were adopted, A committee of the executive council 
recommended that the general management of the park 
should be vested in the Hon. Commissioner of Crown 
Lands and the Superintendent and such other officers as 
the Hon. Commisiiaoner may appoint to carry out the in- 
tention of the legislative act. 
The park is the result of the direct and unceasing efforts 
of the present Minister of Crown Lands, the Hon, E. J. 
Flynn, His name is now forever linked with one of the 
wisest and most beneficent measures ever passed by a 
legislative body. It means the preservation of the great 
forests on the water sheds of some of the most important 
rivers in the Province. The bearing of this upon the 
future water supply to these rivers, and upon the rainfall, 
is now too well understood to require further explanation. 
The protection to fish and game, which is incidental to 
the main object, is of sufficient importance, however, to 
receive the careful attention that it deserves, and to 
futurity is conserved a vast breeding ground for the fish 
that now swarm its waters, the game that haunts its 
forests. 
The southerly boundary of the park reaches down to 
within twenty-five miles of the city of Quebec at some 
points; that to the north is the Chicoutimi Grande Ligne; 
to the west the River Batiscan and the Lake St. John R, 
