444 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
OuNE 5, 1897. 
dians. Especially is this the case when the whites are 
supposed to be Englishmen. 
The low tone of three guitars (solemnly played for the 
monotonous dance that was in progress) seemed to be 
played by hidden musicians; for, as the men, women and 
children were all smoking cigarillos, the room was so 
filled with smoke that we could not see the players. The 
conditions were such, in fact, as to make breathing really 
difficult. 
In one place, dimly showing through the thick haze of 
smoke, would be gathered a group of dried, wrinkled, old 
women, while in another part of the room would be a lot 
of old men. In still another place gathered young people, 
some of whom — especialljr the girls— were exceedingly 
handsome. Scattered promiscuously among these different 
groups, could be seen the picturesque dress of the Gaucho; 
the wide, flowing lumbachas (breeches), the high-heeled 
boots, the broad-brimmed hats, the white phirts, short, 
black coats and silver-trimmed belts; the fierce, black 
moustachios and gleaming white teeth of these rovers of 
the pampas; the slow, easy movements of the mirthless 
dancers; the firefly-like glow of countless cigarillos show- 
ing dimly through" the thick haze of tobacco smoke; the 
dead baby lying so still and white; all these combined 
formed a picture so strange that once looked upon it could 
never be forgotten. We staid until after 2 o'clock, when 
the dance ended for the night. 
The dancers had nearly all dispersed, and Jim and I 
were about to mount our horses, when, suddenly six re- 
volver shots rang out in quick succession from down the 
road. The shots were followed by some shouting and 
screaming, and as it appeared something important had 
happened, we quickly swung ourselves into saddles, and 
with hands on revolvers galloped in the direction of the 
trouble. We found a small crowd gathered around a car- 
riage, in wliich a woman was seated. She was supporting 
in her arms the body of a man. She was the wife of the 
Juez de Paz (Justice of Peace),' and the body she supported 
was that of her husband. He had been shot six times by 
one of his own vigilantes, and was stone dead. 
The man who had done the shooting escaped into the 
Gran Chaco. He was the murdered man's sergeant and 
had killed him on account of some family trouble. He 
was subsequently captured and is now confined in the 
State prison at La Plata. 
Next morning Jim's horse, Zino, was missing, as also 
was the rope by which he had been tethered. This was 
his favorite horse an,d he felt very badly over its disap- 
pearance. We hunted in all directions the whole' of that 
day, but could find no signs of the horse; he had evidently 
been stolen. It seemed strange that my horse had not 
been molested, as he was tethered right near Jim's. 
A FUR TRADER'S JOURNAL. 
The value of Dr. Coues's historical work on the early 
Western explorers is so well known as to need no comment. 
It appeals alike to the historian, the geographer, the natu- 
ralist, and the ethnologist, for the work of these early ex- 
plorers in virgin fields covered a very wide range From 
the necessities of the case, however, this work was general, 
and much of it requires interpretation at the hands of a 
specialist, and comment in the fight of events and informa- 
tion that are more recent. No one is better fitted to do this 
work than is Dr. Coues; himself a traveler, a naturalist, 
and a writer whose abilities are sufficiently familiar to every 
one. 
His latest contribution to the early history of the West 
has just appeared from the press of Francis P Harper. It 
consists of the journals of Alesanrier Henry,. fur trader of 
the Northwest Company, and of David Thompson, official 
geoarapher and explorer of the same company, and covers a 
nenod extending from 1799-1814. The story told by these 
journals is one of exploration, trading and adventure among 
the Indians on the Red, Saskatchewan, Missouri and Co- 
lumbia rivers, and from the dates given it is evident that 
this wide extent of country was then almost untouched by 
white men; no visible impression had been made on the 
numbers of the wild animals by the coming of the traders, 
and but little on the manners and customs of the natives. 
Alexander Henry was the younger of two men of the same 
name — uncle and nephew — both of whom were fur traders 
leading "similar lives in like scenes under identical occupa- 
tions." The Travels and Adventures in Canada and the In- 
dian Territ-jries, between the Years 1760 and 1776, written 
by the elder Henry, was published in New York in 1809; the 
journal of the younger man is preserved in the Library of 
Parliament at Ottawa, and is the basis of the present work. 
Apart from the actual editorial work, the condensing 
smoothing, polishing and the elision of unimportant matters 
needed for this journal, is the critical comment by the editor, 
a most useful and most interesting part of the present work. 
This covers the naming and locating of all, or nearly all,- the 
individuals mentioned in Henry's journal. To do this it 
was necessary to become familiar with the history of the 
Northwest Fur Company, and others with which it had 
close relations, with the lists of its employees, with its routes 
of travel, and with a host of other details, many of them 
apparently of trifling importance, but all having a bearing 
on this journal. Besides this, the geographical notes repre- 
sent a vast amount of work in the identification of places 
whose old names have long been forgotten, comparison of 
places named by Henry with the same places to-day, and the 
tracing of the writer's sometimes obscure routes. 
David Thompson, whose name appears on the title page of 
the present work as its co-author with Henry, was celebrated 
as an astronomer, geographer, explorer and discoverer, whose 
service with the Hudson Bay Compan y, the Northwest Com- 
pany and the International Boundary Commission covered 
many years. His contributions to the work, which are 
chiefly geographical, are, like Dr. Coues's, in the ibim of 
notes, the main text being solely Henry's. ' 
Henry was a fur trader — a business man, looking for his 
profit from trade, and willing to go to any reasonable 
lengths to secure his end— which was a good trade. He never 
forgot that he was in the country for furs. And yet he was 
a simple-hearted man, whose kindly qualities cannot fail" 
often to attract us, while on the other hand the stern moral-^ 
ist may stand aghast at some of his relations, As the editor 
remarks, this is not a work pmris mrginibusque, but ifr is re- 
plete with interest for adults. 
For readers of Fokest and Stream this interest hats to do 
largely with the enormous abundance of wild game in those 
eai'ly days, and with the ways of the Indians. Of these mat- 
ters the volumes are full. Thus, in the Red River Valley, 
wiiere the brigade camped Aug. 26, 1800, Henry says j "The 
Indians had found the ground on which we tented covered 
with buffaloes and shot several, the carcasses of which lay 
near us, only lacking the choice bits. The ravages of the 
buffalo at this place are astonishing to a person unaccus- 
tomed to these meadows. The beach, once a soft, black 
mud into which a man would sink knee-deep, is now naade 
hard as pavement by the numerous herds coming to drink. 
The willows are entirely trampled and torn to pieces; even 
the bark of the smaller trees is rubbed off in m^ny places. 
The grass on the first bank of the river is entirely worn 
away. Numerous paths, some of which are a foot deep in 
the hard turf, come from the plains to the brink of the river, 
and the vast quantity of dung gives this place the appearance 
of a cattle yard " 
Again, in the same valley and only a day or two later, 
while buildine; the fort at Panbian (Peni bina), he saj s : 
"We saw five bears. D smaraia and myself crossed over 
and pursued them. We had a long chase and repeatedly 
s'ghted them, bui. they escaped us ia the brush. On our 
i-pturn we found a larpe one lying dead, which we supposed 
must have been wounded by the Indians some time ago 
He was swelled \ip and ready to burst. Bears make prodi- 
gious ravages in the brush and willows; the plum trees are 
torn to pieces, and every tree that bears fruit has shared the 
same fate; the tops of the oaks are also very roughly handled 
—broken and torn down to get the acorns. The havoc they 
commit is astonishing; their dung lies about in the woods as 
plentiful as that of the buffalo in the meadow." 
This comment on the abundance of the animals is not,- it 
must be remembered, that of a novice, but of an old hunter, 
to whom such things had been long familiar. Remarks sim- 
ilar to these are made about the red deer (elk, Cervus canaden- 
sis) on this river. 
An interesting comment on the keenness of the scent of the 
bufl'alo and an observation which has no doubt been par- 
alleled by more than one of our readers, ia given in this 
citation : 
"We saw a great herd of (buffalo) cows going at full speed 
southward, but on coming to our track, which goes to the 
Salt Lake, they began to smell the ground, and, as suddenly 
as if they had bepn fired at, turned toward the mountains. 
It is surprising how sagacious those animals are When iu 
the least alarmed they will smell the track of even a single 
pei son in the grass, and run away in a contrary direction. I 
have seen large herds walking very slowly to pasture, and 
feeding as they went, come to a place where some persons 
had passed on foot, when they would instantly stop, smell 
the ground, draw back a few paces, bellow, and tear up the 
earth with their horns. Sometimes the whole herd would 
range along the route, keeping up a terrible noise until one 
of them was hardy enough to jump over, when they would 
all follow and run some distance." 
As bearing on a subject recently discussed in Forest 
AND Stream, the following is of interest : 
"The Crees inform me they have seen a calf as white as 
snow in a herd of buffalo. White buffalo are very scarce. 
They are of inestimable value among the nations of the 
Missouri, but of none to the Crees and Assinaboines, except 
to trade to the other nations. There are also some of a dirty 
gra}'^, but these are very rare." 
Henry mentions frequently and at length the vast num. 
bers of dead buffalo flouting down the river in spring— "one 
continuous line in the current for two days and nights" — 
animals drowned either by breaking through the ice or by 
being mired in attempting to cross the river, and Dr. Coues 
quotes from Massoa, John McDonnell journal of May 18, 
1795, when he was descending the Qa'Appelie River, as 
saying: 
"Observing a good many carcasses of buffalo in the river 
and along its banks, I was taken up the whole day with 
counting them, and to my surprise found I had numbered 
when we put up at night 7,360 drowned and mired along the 
river and in it. It is true, in one or two places, i went on 
shore and walked from one carcass to another, where they 
lay from three to five files deep," 
We learn that wolf puppies are born on Red River about 
April 1, and that May 1 ihe stench of the decaying buffalo 
along the stream was "intolerable," and "that their number 
lying along tlie beach and on the banks above passes all im- 
agination " 
Very interesting is Henry's frequent use of terms now ob- 
solete in the Northwest, and which we have heard employed 
only by the oldest voyageurs. Such are: to tent, now to 
c&va<();fortbois, or strong wood for heavy timber; en decou- 
verte, or on discovery, for on a scout. 
In July, 1806, Henry naade a trip to the villages of the 
Mandanes and Big Bellies,' tribes now living at FortBerthold, 
in North Dakota, and while with them accompanied them to 
the Northern Cheyenne camp, where a peace was to be made, 
an attempt which seems not to have been crowned with 
marked success. His return to the Pembina post and the 
season of 1807 and 1808, closes the first volume of 446 pages. 
Part II. of Henry's journal deals with the Saskatchewan. 
We follow him from the Red River, through Lake Winnipeg 
and up the Saskatchewan to its headwaters. During the 
yeari 1808-1811 he built and occupied various posts on the 
North Saskatchewan, and on this stream he traded with the 
Assinaboines, Crees, the three tribes of the Blackfeet, the 
Sircees and the Atsena, which are now . called the Prairie 
Gro3 Ventres. Everywhere through the journal are interest- 
ing references to gaiue and fish, and to Indians and their 
habits. Some of his accounts of the Indians are wonder- 
fully good, and full of spirit and flavor. With the Indians 
he had much trouble, and he complained bitterly of this, not 
seeming to realize that the difficulty was due in large measure 
to the fact that he was trading liquor to them. Mingled 
with all this are references to the number of eggs that he 
puts under his setting hens, the announcement of the fact 
that one of his hens hatched a chicken, the fact that his 
potatoes did not come to anything, and that his turnips have 
run to leaves. , , ' 
On page 558 is mention of Mr. Bird, a Hudson's Bay Co. 
employee, of whose first name Dr Coues knowis nothing. 
This was probably Thomas Bird. His son, a hilf breed, also 
named Thomas, died only two or three years ago in the 
Piegan country in northern Montana at a" great ^ age. His 
grandson, also Thomas, was living recently. ' 
Horse thieves, usually Crees and Assinaboines, were very 
troublesome at Port Vermillion in February, -ISlO; Here is 
one example of their boldness. Henry says: '-My people 
had a narrow escape this morning from being murdered by 
a party of sixteen thieves, who met them at Piahtes River. 
They said the thieves had been watching forscveral days near 
the fort, and had been up as far as Moose Creek, but couM 
find no horses; also that they had watched two days near the 
fort to shoot ine, as they really wanted my, scalp; but that 
having been disappointed ^bputbQthmjsc^lp my horses, 
they must absolutely have Clement's scalp. The thieves had 
also said that they knew Cardinal and Martelle, and would 
do them no harm, further than taking some trifling ariicl'S 
from tbem, such as their tobacco, belts, knives, and two new 
guns which belonged to me. Our people gave them to 
understand that they had come from some Indian's tents 
en derouine (on a trading journey), having their sleds loaded 
with skins and furs which Cardinal eot from the freemen on 
the road; at which the thieves said they would take the furs, 
were these not too heavy to carry on their backs. If our 
men had been loaded with dry goods we should have lost 
everything, but fortunately the thieves did not see the bag 
of balls which lay under a bundle of skins. Cardinal, who 
is a most loquacious person, was exercised to the utmost of 
his ability, and by his fluency saved the life of Clement from 
these scoundrels. They were so bent on mischief that after 
they had let our men go and Cardinal had proceeded a few 
paces, they came up to him and offered to return the guns 
and other articles they had taken if he would drive ahead 
and leave Clement behind, for they absolutely must have his 
scalp. Here Cardinal was put to his wit's end; however, he 
pulled out a pistol he had concealed, and gave it to one of 
the Crees, who seemed to be the most decent one of the lot, 
beerging this fellow to give him charity, and allow his com- 
rade to live also. This had the desired effect; the Cree in- 
stantly placed himself between our people and the Indiana, 
telling Cardinal to drive on and fear nothing." 
. On Oct. 8, 1810, Henry tells us of another white buffalo, • 
saying: "These Piegans had the fresh hide of a bull they had 
killed at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. This was really 
a curiosity. The hair on the back was dirty white, the long 
hair under the throat and fore legs iron gray, and the sides 
and belly were yellow. I wished to purchase, but the owner 
would not part with it on any consideration." 
In November he speaks of the abundance of grizzly bears, 
saying that one of his men bad killed five buffalo, but the 
giizzly bears were so numerous that they devoured three be- 
fore the hunter could cut them up and carry them to camp. 
On the same day he speaks of the strong wood buffalo 
(mountain bison) as being numerous, but as wild as moose. 
Crossing the mountains toward the Pacific slope Henry saw 
his first mountain sheep and white goat, which greatly im- 
pressed him. After reaching the headwaters of a stream 
flowing into the Columbia, he turned back again toward the 
east. 
Chapter XXIL is devoted in large part to accounts of the 
Indians living on both sides of the mountain, but more space 
is given to the Piegans and their habits than to any others, 
and it is evident that the author thinks more highly of that 
tribe than of any of those which he met with east of the 
mountains. 
Between the close of Part 11. and Part HI. there is a break 
of more than two years. Henry is then found at Astoria at 
the mouth of the Columbia, and the journal is continued 
with unbroken daily entries to within a few hours of Henry's 
death, by drowning, May 32, 1814. This part, devoted to 
the Columbia, is not less interesting than those which have 
gone before, but no references can be given here. 
With the work are given three large folding section maps 
traced in facsimile from David Thompson's original great 
chart, no portion of which has ever appeared before. The 
work is in three volumes, the first two containing about 475 
pages each, and the third devoted entirely to a very full in- 
dex covering 100 pages. An admirable portrait of Dr, Couea 
is given as a frontispiece for the work. 
JACK, EVERY INCH A BEAR 
The natural history contributed to Forest and Strkam 
is certainly neither the least entertaining nor instructive of 
its many topics. In recent numbers I have read many 
accounts of animal intefiigence that have recalled to my 
memory a great many instances coming under my observa- 
tion. 
Almost any anecdote of the shrewdness or intelligence of 
domestic animals wifl remind the most of us of numberless 
exhibitions of a kindred nature that we have witnessed. It 
is not the fortune of every reader, however, to observe the 
characteristics of wild animals. Perhaps it is owing to this 
fact that the intellectual endowments of the latter are so 
rarely appreciated. 
When the intellect of humanity is educated up to the ad- 
mission of other animals— dumb animals— into the realm of 
reason, 1 hope bears will not be extinct, and that bruin will 
be placed weU toward the top notch with intelligent quadru- 
pids. Having been once seized and possessed of (as well as 
by, at times) a certain brown bear, I speak from a knowledge 
of the subject that approximates wisdom. 
Von W.'s account of the cat and the door-latch particu- 
larly reminds me of Jack, a bear of the cinnamon family, 
that I had no end of trouble and fun with. Jack was very 
much too intelligent for a dumb brute, but he was a liitletoo 
rude and unconventional for higher society. I gave an Indian 
boy a $10 gold piece for Jack, which was paying about ,$5 a 
pound, at the time, for a bundle of red hair full of teeth and 
claws. In a few weeks, however, I knew I had at least $10 
worth of bear. In three or four months I was confident inat 
I had got more iov my money than I had expected, and there- 
after I was constantly impressed that an investment of a like 
sum never secured a more comprehensive, variegated and 
diversified lot of amusement and trouble. 
Let me digress here to observe that if any reader would 
like to impress his wife or his son, as the case may be, with 
the purchasing power of money, let her or him buy a bear. 
Indeed, in these times money is cash, but invested in a bear 
it is almost everything you can imagine. 
Jack's intefiigence developed together with his material 
structure, and almost kept pace with his appetite. He had 
free range over forty acres of ground, including a barn, 
orchard, and the house when he felt like it. Two large- 
sized dogs wooled him around for a while, but after he had 
devoted himself to growing for three months or eo he was a 
revelation to dogs. 
When a new town dog came along, he usually capered up 
to Jack with a confident air of supsriority. Jack would 
arise from all-fours to his diplomatic position on two feet, 
and the new dog would look surprised and hesitate. Then 
he would conclude to bluff .Jack, and make two or three 
jumps toward him. About the third jump the new dog 
would coUide with a cuff that would make his mouth wa'er 
and his brains rattle. Sometimes the first cuff would offeni 
^ dog, t)at the second qr third would coiwince him that i 
