S82 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[TSor 13 189t. 
thought that this was a medicine beaver who had changed 
himself into a man, to keep the Cheyennes from killing 
him. 
Eagle Catchlns. 
wrist, drove them into the ground in the stream bed and 
fastened them together by strips of rawhide. The saplings 
were set as close together as possible in a circle, an open- 
ing or gate being left on the upstream side. The corral 
was ready for the reception of the fish in the evening. 
Pieces of meat were laid in the water at the back of the 
corral to serve as a bait. 
A special man was appointed to watch this trap. While 
it was building he took willow twigs and from them wove 
a sort of basket about 18in. in diameter, oval in form, and 
with a hole about 6in. in diameter in one end. To the 
end were fastened two short willow sticks, which served 
as handles for the basket. 
In the morning, after daylight, the man appointed to 
watch this trap went down to it to see if any fish were in 
it. He looked about its walls to find a place where he 
could work his hand and arm in between the willow sap- 
lings', 80 as to feel whether there are any fish inside. If 
lie Celt that fish were there, he called the people to come, 
telling them that there were plenty of .fish. Then taking 
the basket, he Went to the lower part of the corral, 
sq'ieezied the saplings apart, so as to leave an open space, 
ai-ain-st which he puts the opening of the basket. The 
fisli began to come out through the opening in the walls 
and to pass into the basket. From that the man took 
them ill his hands and threw them out on the bank to the 
people. As long as he could get fish he kept throwing 
them out on the bank. Sometimes he might be at it all 
day long. 
Sometime^) the fish that were in the trap got frightened 
and swam out at the up-stream opming, but this did not 
often take place. This trap has been used certainly within 
the past forty or fifty years to capture suckers and white- 
fish in the Laramie River. Geo. Bird Gbinnell. 
THE CHESTNUT RIDGE. 
And Along Its Foot.-VMl. 
The canal extending through the valley of the Cone- 
maugh, to which I have more than once alluded in the 
course of these sketches, was a link in the great chain of 
pubUc improvements made by the State of Pennsylvania in 
the early 'SO's. It extended from Pittsburg eastward alon j; 
the banks of the Allegheny, Kiskiminetas, and Conemaugh 
rivers to the foot of the mountains at .Johnstown Here the 
once famous Allegheny Portaga railroad continued the chain 
across the mountains to HoUidaysburg, whence the canal 
again stretched on eastward. 
The Portage railroad was one of the earliest and most 
mpor'ant railroads in this country. It was regarded for 
many ytara as a miracle of engineering skill. Its length 
■was about twenty-six miles, and it consisted of alternating 
levels and inclined planes. Along the levels the cars were 
drawn by horses or by locomotives. These levels, as they 
were called, were by no means horizontally level, having 
generally a prade of 10 or 15ft. to the mile, while the first 
one west of Hollidayshurg had a grade of S3ft. to the mile. 
The inclined planes were ten in numher, five on each side of 
the summit, the longest one being 8,117ft. in length, with a 
rise of about 307ft. and the shortest 1,480ft. long with a rise 
of 130ft. The cars were raised and lowered by means of 
stationary engines at the head of each plane, which operated 
endless ropes to which the trains were attached. Four care, 
each carrying a burden of 7,0001h3 , could be raised and an 
equal number lowered at the same time: These facts I ob- 
tain from Trego's "Geography of Pennsylvania," 1843. 
There were two classes of boats on the canal: what were 
called ' big boats" and "section boats." The latter were 
built in sections, with separate bulkheads, which could he 
detached from each other. These sections at Johnstown 
and HoUidaysburg could be floated individually upon 
trucks constructed for the purpose, which were run down a 
submerged track. In this way the boat was formed into a 
railway train and carried across the mountains, where it 
was again launched upon the canal. The packets for trans- 
porting passengers belonged to the class of big boats, and 
could not pro eed farther than to the foot of the mountains. 
The passengers were transferred by rail from one side of the 
mountains to the other. 
In the year 1842, Charles Dickens, the great English 
novelist, visited the United States, and in the course of his 
peregrinations he passed from Harrisburg to Pittsburg over 
the canal and the Portage railroad. As all English tourists 
in those days did, he published a volume of travels on his 
return to England, and in conformity with the spirit of 
most of his countrymen, he made out to form, or at least to 
express a disparaging or contemptuous opinion of America. 
He was greatly lionized by our people, and in return he 
condemned them with "faint praise," or none. No book of 
travels could be more unsatisfactory or disappointing than 
Dickens' "American Notes." He was received by our most 
eminent people with the greatest respect and kindness, and 
I believe he has not condescended to do so much as name 
one of them. He visited the United States Senate chamber, 
where sat such men as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and 
John C. Calhoun, but he does not mention them. The most 
salient remark he makes apropos to this visit is this: ' I will 
only observe, that I strongly recommend all strangers not to 
look at the floor; and if they drop anything, though it be 
their purse, not to pick it up wiih an ungloved hand on any 
account." He was presented by "an official gentleman" to 
the President, but he does not think it worth while to name 
THE NATIVE AMERICAN HUNTER. 
v.— VARIOUS TRAPPING METHODS. 
Noosing Elk. 
The primitive Cheyennes had few methods of catching 
herbivorous animals other than those which have already 
been described. It is said that in ancient times the people 
used to catch elk in traps, but only those without horns. 
When they found a place in the tinfber where an elk trail 
passed under a tree they tied a rawhide rope to a branch, 
arranging the rope so that the noose would hang down 
over the trail at about the height of an elk's head. If an 
elk passing along ran its head into this noose and became 
frightened, it would make a quick jump, draw the noose 
tight, and so choke to death. Of course, this method could 
only be used for elk without horns. 
Trapping Foxes. 
The Cheyennes of those times had little use for fara 
except for purposes of ornamentation. For clothing, shel- 
ter and bedding, they, of course, used the skins of large 
animals. 
They used to trap foxes, however, in dead-falls of the 
ordinary tj'pe, building a little house with a fence on 
either side, and placing the bait in a split stick, which was 
the trigger. After such a trap has been set the person 
who has made it goes oflF to one side a little distance and 
sings, calling the foxes. Sometimes, when one of these 
traps was first made, the women and children would 
gather around the singer and dance to the time of the song. 
The words of this song ran somewhat as follows: 
Come, fox, I have meat for you, 
Oome, fox, I have food for you. 
Come, fox, I have food for you. 
The trap was usually built so that the fox was caught by 
the neck, or had its back broken. 
How Wolves were Caught. 
Sometimes larger traps were made of this same type, in 
which coyotes were caught, and sometimes, but not often, 
big wolves got into these traps and were caught. However, 
such dead-falls were not set for these large animals, and 
usuallj' they were too strong for them. 
Big woWes were caught in pit-falls, made so deep that 
tiiey could not jump out from them, the sides being dug 
away toward the bottom, so that the hole at the top was 
somewhat smaller than at the bottom, which was about 
Oft. across. On opposite side of this hole two pairs of 
stakes were driven in the ground, _2in. or more apart, and 
between these stakes on either side and reaching across 
the hole was laid a pole to which the bait was tied. This 
bait consisted of small pieces of meat. The horizontal 
pole was tied at either end to the two stakes between 
which it lay, and thus it could not be moved. 
Large weed stalks were split and laid close together 
from the pole to the ground on either side, and over this 
grass and earth were scattered, so as to make the covering 
of the pit look a.^ nearly as possible like the surrounding 
prairie. Tiie wolf, attracted by the bait, ventured out on 
the split weeds, which broke with his weight and let him 
fall into the pit, either as he was reaching for the bait or 
leaving it. 
Beaver Killing. 
Until their intercourse with the white men had taught 
tliem the value of beaver, they did not attempt to trap 
these animals. At the same time they killed some, and 
had dogs trained to hunt them. When a beaver dam 
and house were found, it was the practice to break away 
the dam so as to let out the water, and then to find the 
hole where the beaver usually went in. The dogs which 
were small enough to enter this hole, and yet were pretty 
good-sized animals, went into the hole, found the beaver, 
and worried it until it became so angry that it followed the 
dog out. As the dog gradually backed away, barking at 
the beaver, it made short rushes at him, and finally the 
dog backed clear out of the hole, and the beaver jumped 
out after the dog. Then the man standing there with a 
club knocked the beaver on the head. They also shot 
beaver with arrows, watching for them to swim out; and 
occasionally they shot otters in the same way. As with 
other plains tribes, the fur of the otter was valued for bow 
cases and quiver covering. 
A Mysterious Beaver. 
In connection with this method of catching the beaver 
a mysterious story is told, which runs as follows: A long 
time ago, a young man found a beaver dam and broke it 
down. This was quite close to a large camp of Cheyennes, 
and many people came out to watch what was being done. 
They found the hole in the lodge where the beavers went 
in, and it was a very large hole. One young man said to 
the others, "I will crawl in there and see if I tan find the 
beaver myself." He did so, and went quite a long way 
into the house, feeling as he went. Pretty soon he took 
hold of something that was alive. He thought it was a 
beaver's hiudleg, and_ he called out, "I have got him by 
the hind! eg." By this time many people, men, women 
and children, stood about on the bank watching. 
A woman in the crowd said: "Hold on to him. I will 
run and get a rope and you can tie it to the leg and we 
will pull him out." The woman ran to the camp and got 
a rope made of buffalo hair and it was passed into the 
hole to the young man, who tied it to the leg and himself 
came out of the hole. Several men and boys took hold of 
the rope and began to pull on the beaver, but it seemed 
heavy. They could hardly pull it out. They kept pulling 
and pulling and presently there appeared at the hole a 
man's foot. Soon the whole of a person appeared sitting 
up and hitching himself along as he was pulled. It was an 
old man with long, white hair — an Indian. 
Just as he came in sight the rope slipped off his foot and 
the people, who were frightened at what they saw, all ran 
away. Only the young man remained. He stood there 
doing up the rope, and when he had coiled it up he hung 
it on the limb of a tree, and then he ran away too. No 
one ever went back there again. They were afraid of the 
place. They often used to talk of this and the people 
With the Cheyennes, as with other plains tribes, the 
feathers from the tail of the eagle are highly valued, and 
many men devoted themselves to catching the birds at 
the proper season of the year. This, however, cannot be 
done by every one, for the eagle catchers are regarded as 
rather powerful medicine men, and they alone can make 
the eagle medicine. A common man cannot do it. 
One who is about to go out and catch eagles makes his 
medicine alone in his lodge. When he is about to do this 
the lodge is cleared out and the floor is covered— not very 
thickly — with white sage, the stems pointing away from 
the fire. While the eagle catcher is making his medicine, 
the fire is burning brightly and he sings all one night alone 
in the lodge. 
After he has made the medicine, he goes away from the 
camp, telling no one where he is going. In a suitable 
place on a hill he digs a pit large enough for a man to sit 
in with outstretched legs, but not long enough for him to 
lie down in. He carries the dirt from this pit far away 
and scatters it. This hole, which is not wide, he covers by 
laying across it a pole, to which he tiee long grass, which 
hangs over on each side and conceals the hole. Spaces 
through which he can look are left in this grass. 
The bait is a fresh wolfskin, to which a piece of the 
meat is attached. This is laid loosely across the pole, flesh 
side up. 
When all is ready, in the night he goes to this place and 
goes into the hole. With him he takes a small rope made 
of buffalo hair. This is used to put over the eagle's head 
to choke it with. The man sits in this hole and waits for 
the eagles to come. Perhaps a bird that flies over sees the 
skin and keeps circling about it, getting lower and lower, 
flying over and looking at it, and at length it alights on it. 
When it alights the man hears its feet strike, and while 
the eagle is picking at the bait, the man reaches out very 
slowly through the grass and seizes the bird by the feet. 
He pulls it into the pit, slips the noose of the rope over its 
head and chokes it until it is dead. Men have been 
known to catch as many as twenty eagles in one of these 
pits. Some days they have been known to catch two in 
one day. 
Every night the man takes his eagles home to his camp. 
Here he has two forked poles set up in the ground, close 
to his lodge. In the forks of these poles lie two slender 
poles, like lodge poles. At one end these are tied together, 
and at the other they are loose. When the man brings 
home an eagle he slips its foot between these two poles 
at their loose ends, and then brings the ends together and 
slides the foot along until it' is firmly held. There he 
leaves it hanging. 
A man would catch birds until he had as many as he 
wanted and then he would stop. After this, he would be- 
gin to pluck the feathers from the birds, takins those from 
the tails and from the wings. He puts the feathers away, 
takes the bodies and carries them off a long way from 
camp and places them on the ground side by side in a row 
and leaves them there. The feathers he gives to the 
people. He gives them, and the people who receive them 
give him something back, perhaps it may be a horse for 
twenty or thirty feathers. The man may go out of the pit 
at any time, but he cannot enter it except at night, when 
it is dark. Four kinds of eagles are known, the eagle that 
has a white head and the gray one that is its young, and 
the war eagle and its young. 
Fish Catching. 
The Cheyennes used sometimes to catch fish, and in 
this they were quite unlike some of their neighbors on the 
plains. It may be conjectured that their fondness for fish, 
and the methods used in taking them, were brought by 
the people from their earlier eastern h'^me. There is a 
tradition describing the earliest fish catching practice 
which may be given. It treats of a period long, long ago 
but after the p3ople had obtained bows and arrows. This 
is the way the story runs: 
A long time ago a man and his wife were traveling out 
away from the main camp all alone, and they had nothing 
to eat. The woman dug roots and picked berries when 
she could find any, and the man hunted hard and tried to 
kill food, either game or little birds, but they were aJnaost 
starved, for nothing to eat could be found. Theylwere 
camped by a little stream, and one day as the main was 
walking along the bank he saw something dart through 
the water. He looked again and there he saw fish, many 
little ones, and some were big, half as long as his arm. He 
went back to his camp and spoke to his wife about this, 
telling her and the children that he had seen fish in the 
stream. He said, "If we could catch some of these fish 
then we would have something to eat." 
He thought a great deal about this, and at last he made 
up his mind what he would do. _ He went a little way 
from the camp to where many willow bushes grew, and 
cut a great many small, slender shoots, and brought them 
back to the camp. Then he and his wife tied these sticks 
close together, to make something like a back rest, long 
enough to reach across the stream, which was only two or 
three steps wide, and about half a step wide. Then he 
said to his wife, "Come, now, take one end of this and we 
will go to the stream." When they had got there he said 
to her, "Now, let us put the edge of this into the water so 
that it reaches the bottom, and then we will drag it slowly 
up. the creek. The water is shallow, and if any fish come 
against it we will try to catch them." 
As they went along they watched for fish, and if one got 
against the willows near the woman, she would reach over 
very slowly and grasp it and throw it out on the bank. If 
one got against the willows on the man's sidehe would do 
the same. In this way they caught many fish — all they 
wanted. They pulled this net out of the water and the 
man said "Ahl in this way we can live. We can catch 
fish. We will save this and keep it." They picked up 
their fish and went to camp. 
In more modern times they caught fish in a pomador 
corral made of willow saplings. Such a corral was built 
by the direction and under the charge of a medicine man, 
who during the night, when the fish were expected to 
enter it, stayed all night in his lodge without going out. 
His face was painted red and he had his robe drawn up 
over his head so that he was covered tight. All night he 
sat alone in his lodge not singing, silent. The people who 
built the corral took willow saplings as thick as a man's 
