Apkil 24, 1897. J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
828 
PODGERS'S COMMENTARIES. 
California's Bad LeRlslatlon- 
Sa?; Fraj^oisco, April 5.— Some one has wisely remarked 
that if. was unwise as well as unreliable ttrindulge in statis- 
tics of the chicken business before the chickens have left 
their shells. T am a victim to misplaced confldpnce. In 
some former remarks a few weeks ago I indulged in compli- 
mentary reference to the body legislative with which we are 
ic flicted every two years, and the encouragement that body 
gave of refraining from tinkering with our game laws. 
Alas ! I might have known better than to imagine any Legis- 
luture could ever pass through one session without passing 
some mischievous act in relation to game, and ours has not 
been aa exception. As a concession" to the pot hunters and 
market-shooters it has added three months to the open sea- 
fon, which means annihilation to every feather within two 
years, and the Governor, who professes to be a sportsman, 
has signed the bill; in keeping with his present playing to 
the galleries, with a view to a renominatiori for a second 
term. Never was a greater mistake made in political tactics, 
for there is not a true sportsman in the State who will not turn 
down the man that signed such a pernicious bill. Our motto 
will be, "Vote early and often." We had some confidence in 
Ihe man because he aspired to be a f portsman. His gunning 
is for votes, and I prophecy that the bag at the nest election 
will be small, very small. 
Those Dogs for Alaska. 
T see you copy from a Portland (Ore.) paper a paragraph 
stilting that a man was buying up all the big dogs m the city 
to take to Alaska for packing and sledge purposes. He be- 
trays his ignorance of the uselegsness of the big, long-haired 
animal for such use; for their weight is against them and 
they scon tire out, and as sledge dogs more particularly they 
are useless, for no dog has ever bren found except the 
E?quimo that has the endurance. There is one use, how- 
ev( r, that these big dogs will probably be put to, and that is 
of food. I prophecy that that will be their destiny, and in- 
stead of their being used to pack provisions the party will 
pack the dogs — inside. I wish that the dog market of Port- 
land naay be exhausted, and that buyers may extend the de- 
mand in this direction and contract for four or five big dogs 
in our neighborhood, which make night hideous with their 
barking from sunset till daylight, banishing all sleep, with 
prayers that the pound man or sausage maker may come to 
cur relief. I would not kill a dog myself. 1 did so once 
undrr great provocation, and that dog's ghost haunted me 
for five years. He was revenged. 
Some Dog Stories. 
Spfaking of dogs, I see there is a discussion in Foeest 
AND Stream on the subject of intercommunication of ani- 
mals 1 believe in the theory as regards dogs, which 
'•reminds me" of an instance within my own experience. I 
have always been partial to Gordon setters, and accord to 
them the most intelligent and gentlemanly characteristics of 
all the dogs I have ever owned. Most of the old readers of 
Forest and Stream must remember that old-time sports- 
man Horace Smith, who carried a gun up to his ninetieth 
yesir, and laid it down only a few years ago. Horace im- 
ported for me several brace of Gordons direct from the Duke 
of Gordon's kennels, and of course they were good ones, and 
I distributed their progeny far and wide among my army 
friends on the coast. From the last litter I reserved three. 
Gen. Crook begged one, which died a year after; and Mrs. 
Urook declared that the General put on mourning for the 
regulation thirty days The two I saved. Sport and Juno, 
were dogs whose acquaintance any man would have been 
proud to make. On one occasion when going East, as Spoit 
was getting on in years, I conuladcd to take him along and 
give him a home for the remainder of his days on the old 
hom^tead. It was against the rules of the steamship company 
to take dogs as passengers, but I smuggled Sport on board, 
and having a stateroom on the main deck, stowed him under 
the berth, and only brought him out for exercise on the 
upper deck after all the passengers were below asleep. One 
nigbt Sport and I were havi^'g^a run, when, as luck would 
have it, just as we were passing Com. Watkins's stateroom 
on the upper deck, the old man stepped out to take a look 
at the weather, and Sport ran between bis legs, upsetting 
him. The Commodor e was stout and heavy, and came down 
hard. Getting on his feet, he ripped out some nautical 
oaths, cxclaiming:^ '"Whose dog is that? Who has dared to 
bring a dog aboard ray ship?" Fortunately I was on excel- 
lent terms with the Commodore, and confessed that I was 
the culprit, and explained my desire to get a favorite old dog 
home. He was very good about it, saying: "Well, keep 
him out of sight." Thereupon Sport had made a bee line for 
the stateroom and hid himself in the fartherest corner under 
the berth, and when I went down he poked bis head out and 
Faid as plainly as any dog could: "What did the old man 
say?" I said: "It wfts a pretty close thave. Sport, and you 
must keep very shady hereafter." He understood me per 
fecily, but there was a twmkle in his eye which plainly in- 
dicated that he enjoyed the joke 
When after crossing the Isthmus and drawing on the 
northern coast it was bitter cold, and all the bedding we had 
was half a blanket; and my room was on deck I verily 
believe I should have frozen except for the old dog. He lay 
at my back in the berth with me, with his head on the pil- 
low, and stretched out at full length. The only objection was 
that he would snore sometimes. Once at home the coming 
summer we essayed some hunting, but birds were scarce, and 
•one day after a fruitless search I~sat down at the foot of a 
tree with my gun between ray knees, when Soort came and 
sat down before me, and said, "This is not California, is it?" 
"No, Sport, it is not." But I am indulgmg in a long prelude 
to my story. 
Our house was some distance from the post office, and 
Sport was our carrier. He took the letters down, and when 
he heard the whistle of the train would start off for the mad. 
On the way down to the post otfice he had to pass a house 
where a big dog would rush out and roll him in the dirt. 
Sport would not let go the mail to fight, and of course got 
the worst of it. One day, as we sat on the steps, he suddenly 
rushed off to a farmhouse just up the road, and soon came 
back with a big bull dog belonging to the farmer, and in- 
atthd of stopping continued down the road until coming to a 
stone wall parallel with the street. Here the two stopped and 
held a consultation, resulting in the big dog jumping over 
the wall, while Sport continued on down. The dog that had 
always fought him rushed out as usual, whereat the bull, 
who had been concealed by the wall, jumped over and joined 
the scrimmage. It is unnecessary lo'tay that such a drub- 
bing as that other dog got he probably never forgot. Ai^ any 
ifite^ he uuv(.r ventured outside the yard whenever Sport 
passed by; from that day he contented himself with poking 
his nose through the pickets of the fence and growling. 
The whole scheme was evidently planned : firstly. Sport's 
going after the bull dog, then the plan of having him get over 
the atone wall and following down out of sight until opposite 
the belligerent dog, and jumping over at the right time and 
taking part. 
I call it a case of intercommunication if there ever was 
one. 
One more dog story and I am done, only I am not as ready 
to swear to this one. I quote from the Woodland Demoorat, 
a neighboring county paper. It says; 
_ "There is a young man in this city who boasts the posses- 
sion of a wonderful dog. Last week he killed a quail, which 
the dog retrieved. In returning with the bird he tripped 
over a log, fell and rolled over on his back. While in that 
position he pointed another quail, and remained with all four 
feet pointing in the air until his master flushed, the bird and 
killed the second quail." 
This story admits of criticism. Firstly, because does don't 
trip and fall over logs like men. Secondly, the difficulty 
with which the dog was able to "point" calls for explan- 
ation. Thirdly, what business had that young man to be 
shooting quail in April, a month after the game law for- 
bids it? 
Cocus Island Treasure. 
I see that the periodical expedition in search of Cocus 
Island buried treasure is again fitting out, and sails in a few 
days. This time a woman is at the head of the expedilion, 
the widow of an old ship captain, who on his deathbed con- 
fided to his wife the secret of the location of the treasure, 
with mans and charts which had come into his po.«se88ion, 
and he claimed to have visited the spot and obtained a por- 
tion of the treasure, all of which he lost by the wrecking of 
his schooner. 
The subject of this buried treasure seems to be a prolific 
one for deathbed confessions. There is hardly a sailors' 
hospital in any part of the world that has not supplied its 
dying sailor with this same dying confession, and always the 
last man of the piratical crew. It must have been a numer- 
ous crew to furnish so many "last men." 
The woman in this case is in command of the expedition, 
and now we will see what luck she may have; but I expect 
to_ announce in about three months the return of the vessel 
without that famous chestof diamonds, pearls and doubloons 
left by the gentlemen pirates for credulous people to seek. 
It would be no more than decent for some one of their ghosts 
to hover around and point out the exact location of the 
treasure, as a salve to his conscience and a possible relief 
from puraratory or a warmer place. Cocus Island bids fair 
to rival Robinson Crusoe Island in reputation, as in case of 
this expedition some other of the piratical crew will conve- 
niently die and leave a confession to start another expedi- 
tion, about the sixth that I can remember, Podgers. 
TALES TOLD BY THE CAMP-FIRE.— V. 
BY AMATEUR. 
^Continued from page SOU-') 
The next evening another of our number spoke and said : 
I have listened with interest to the early history related by 
those who have spoken, and much of it was new to me. I 
can't tell you much about those early gunsmiths, but can tell 
you something about the early powder makers in the region 
that has been spoken of already. 
Isaiah Jones I. came into what ia now Greene county. Pa., 
a few years after Elias Blank. He was a powder maker,' 
and after "prospecting for awhile," as we would say now, 
set up a manufactory and made powder which went all over 
the region, and some of it even down into "Kentucky's dark 
and bloody ground." This powder, "Jones powder," was 
well known, and had a great reputation; was said to be the 
"quickest burning powder" that could be t'ot, and was sup- 
posed to be less susceptible to dampness than others. He 
made his own charcoal, and was very careful not to let any 
of his methods pass out of his possession. JSTobody knew 
where he procured his saltpeter, and many persons believed 
and still believe that he knew of natural deposits of that ma- 
terial somewhere in the neighborhood of his factory. Old 
people still say that the .Joneses were never known to buy 
saltpeter, though they did buy large quantities of brimstone 
and sulphur. 
Some time after the Revolutionary War Isaiah Jones I. 
died, and his son, Isaiah Jones II , continued the business, 
and was said to make even better powder than his father. 
Most of their powder was called "rag powder," and was un- 
glazed, but very clean and hard, and of quick ignition. 
They did make, however, a glazed powder of very fine grain. 
The test of the rag powder was to pour some of it on a sheet 
of white paper, and if no black stain was left it was consid- 
ered good. Another test was to ignite the little heap on the 
paper, and the smallness of the amount of stain left was 
thought to indicate the goodness of the powder. I may men- 
tion that a favorite test for whisky was to pour about a rifle 
load of rag powder into a saucer or other convenient vessel, 
then pour a spoonful, more or less, of the hquor into the sau- 
cer, and set the whisky on fire. If the liquor burned without 
setting off the powder, it was deemed far below proof — too 
fur to dfick — and the quickness with which the powder 
flashed was also deemed an indication of the strength of the 
liquor. 
Isaiah Jones mai-ried Bathsheba, the daughter of Ehas 
Blank, sister of Aaron or "Een" Blank, of whom we have 
heard. He thus became the son-in-law of a very rich man 
in that day and connected with influential people, and a 
brother-in-law of Ezra Engle IV. Isaiah Jones II. was a 
very tall man, at least 6ft. 6in. high He was a Baptist and 
a very religious man, though he would drink whisky and 
occasionally become intoxicated, though the habit did not 
seem to grow on him with his increasing years. 
During the war of 1812 he made and furnished to the 
United States Government large quantities of powder of ciif- 
ferent kinds. Much of his powder was used in the navy 
during that war and vast amounts of it by the army, and 
for many, many tons of it he was never paid by the Govern- 
ment. He ai d his wife had one son and oaly child born to 
them late in life, at least long after their marriage and long 
after the death of old Elias Blank. This son was named 
isaiah also and went to the Mexican War, and was either 
killed or died in Mexico. 
Isaiah Jones 11. died between the yeai-s 1850 and 1860, 
probably in 1854, and was buiied at his own request on top 
of a high, barren hill, on a farm belonging to his brother 
James, near the mountains in Fayette county, Pa. A plain 
inarble slab marks his grave. His wife survived him a few 
years only, but at her ret|uest she was n&t buried by the side 
of her husband, but was interred in the family burial 
ground of old Elias Blank, by the side of her parents, her 
brothers and her sisters. 
The Joneses were of Welsh paientage, and were very im- 
portant men to their community in their day. There is no 
record that Isaiah Jones I. ever had an explosion in his pow- 
der factory, but Isaiah II. was not so fortunate, though 
I am unable to give either the time or the cause of the acci- 
dent, but it must have been after his marriage a considerable 
length of time. He never would discuss the subject at all, 
always saying when approached on the matter; "1 have only 
this to say, that I am a monument of Divine mercy, though 
I am sure that the time set for me to die had not arrived, else 
1 should have been dead." He was really and at heart as 
true a fatalist as any follower of Mohammed, and he lived 
according to his belief. 
As to the explosion, all that is known about the matter is 
that one day a dull, rumbling sound was heard from Isaiah's 
factory, and a heavy cloud of smoke was seen arising there- 
from. People hurried to the spot, and found Jones sitting 
on the bank of the river, dripping wet, and very much 
"dazed"— no stick of the factory remained. They took him 
to his home and sent for his relatives. All the explanation 
he ever gave was to his wife Bathsheba and to her brother 
Een Blank; it was, "The mill bu'sted up in fire and smoke, 
and blowed me into the river; I was at least 50ft. up in the 
air, don't think I was more, for I thought of all the mean 
things I ever did in my life before 1 stxuok the river, an' 
there wasn't many of them. When I hit the water I felt as 
if I was smashed as flat as a pancake, but after I'd floated 
round a bit 1 found that I was swimmin' toward the other 
shore of the river, an' I turned an' swam back, an' came out 
and sat down under the tree, and pulled oft' my shoes and 
socks and wrung the water out of 'em; and then my head 
and face and eyes began to smart like Bet Izebub, and I'd 
just got mv shoes and socks on again when the people came 
up and took me home " 
All the hair was burned off his head and face; his eye- 
brows and eyelashes were completely destroyed, and his 
head was Irft as smooth as a billiard ball. Strange to say, 
there wasn't a single powder mark on his head, face or 
hands, though his body was full of powder. The physicians 
of the country told him his hair would never grow again, 
but old Nosey, the Indian, told him that if he would wear a 
cap made of the bladder of an ox on his head all the time, 
and grease his head, his eyes and his face with an ointment 
made from thf^ juice or sap of a blue grapevine which had 
never borne fruit, a quart, and bear's oil a pint, each heated 
as hot as possible, poured together into a rlosed vessel made 
of fresh peeled birch bark and shaken until cold, and then 
used at night, his hair would grow again. Jones tried it 
and he had a remarkably heavy head of hair; his beard and 
eyebrows also were very heavy, and his eyelashes were long 
and silky. 
Jones was not a hunter, and did not shoot; he made his 
living by trading his powder to hunters. 
All these men of the days that were, who made it possible 
for us to own this country, have passed away, and their 
"^ery names are forgotten except when recalled on occasions 
like the present. 
[to be cokcxodbd next week.] 
INCIDENTS OF ADIRONDACK HISTORY. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
One of your correspondents in an article relating to the 
old Adirondack guide, Alvah Dunning, appears to be slightly 
in error in a few matters of Adhondack history. 
We are told that Alvah's father was a noted Indian fighter 
under Sir William Johnson before and during the Revolu- 
tionary War. 
Sir William didn't fight Indians before, neither did he 
fight them during that war, in fact didn't take a hand in the 
Revolutionary War. Prior to the war he Uved on most 
amicable terms with his red brothers, and at the beginning of 
the war he died very suddenly by his own hand, as many be- 
lieve, as he could not determine exactly where he was at. 
In fact he could not make up his mmd to wage war against 
his old friends and neighbors, neither would he take up arms 
against his king, from whom he had received so many of the 
good things of this world, and so he died to get out of the 
ditficulty. 
The story of the elder Dunning having killed an Indian 
with a bundle of traps, and being tried for his life and ac- 
quitted, would seem to have been the outcome of these sev- 
eral episodes in Adirondack history. Simms, in his "Trap- 
pers of New York," relates that a trapper — Dunning, if I 
remember right— having killed a moose, sunk the hide in a 
stream to remove the hair, and near that place set a trap for 
beaver. 
Both the trap and a portion of the moose hide were 
stolen. Shortly afterward Dunning — I guess it was he — 
found his trap with several others, tied together with strips 
of moose hide, in the possession of an Indian. Dunning was 
taking his trap from the bundle when the Indian objected, 
whereupon he knocked the redskin down with the bundle 
of traps, but did not damage him to any ereat extent. We 
are told that the trapper brought off his trap triumphantly, 
but the historian does not say a thing about any murder 
trial. 
So much for story number one, now for number two. 
Several years after the Revolutionary War, Nick Stoner, a 
soldier of that war and a noted hunter and trapper, was 
with a party of friends at a tavern in the village of Johns- 
town, N. Y., then on the outskirts of the Adhondack woods. 
Several Indians were present imbibing fire-water, when one 
of the Indians exhibited a knife with several notches in the 
handle and boasted that each notch indicated a scalp taken, 
"and there," said the genial cutthroat, pointing to a notch 
deeper than the rest, "is the scalp of old Stoner," Nick's 
father. 
Stung to the quick by this cruel boast, Stoner seized an 
andiron from the blazing hearth and struck the Indian a 
fearful blow on the back of his neck, knocking him sense^ 
less and at the same time burning his own hand severely. A 
general melee followed between the other Indians and Stoner 
and his friends, in which the Indians got the worst of it and 
soon took to the woods, carrying their wounded comrade 
with them. 
Stoner was arrested and lodged in the old jail at Johns- 
town, but was released a few hours after under the threats 
of a mob of his friends to tear down the jail if he was not 
released. Whether or not the Indian diea from the effects 
of Stoner's blow history does not record, but in any event 
Stoner was not tried for murder. 
Story No. 3.— E-nrlyiu thepreseat century Nat Foster, s, 
