406 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 20, 1897. 
clouds obscured the sky, and I had nothing to guide 
myself by, I concluded to signal my friends at camp. I 
tried it at first with my revolver, but the distance was too 
great. I then let go with my Winchester, and brought an 
answer from Hendrick's old .45-70. Thus at intervals 1 
got the location of the camp, and after clambering up one 
side of hills and sliding down the other side, sometimes 
trying to walk over logs breast-high, and again slipping 
backward off the roots of a tree, I iinally came out to the 
railroad and went down over an 8ffc. bank; and right there 
and then was the only place that I did anything in a 
hurry while getting out of the woods. Now, I did not 
have to go to camp in that rough-and-tumble fashion; I 
could have camped in the woods or made a torch and 
lighted my way out, but I concluded to go in the way I 
did, and that's the way I went. G. W. Cunningham. 
UP THE ELK TRAIL. 
"A-a-'hkah, Snug willi-mie, it has been said. No man 
^hall follow the path of Moos-moos, the bull elk, up the 
mountains where the Ducewellips River sings all day. Ka- 
kehete, the type of all the Skallalatoots, has his lodge there, 
where this river is horn. A long time ago some Indians 
went there. Kakehete shook the hills and made much snow 
and many rocks slide down, so that all these Indians were 
killed. Stay here, my friend T'solo. Stay here and burn 
powder for Mo witch, and let the bull elk go. It has been 
said " 
"You say well, T'qua witch Tyee. But 1, T'solo. the one 
who wanders, cannot well stay here and camp like an old 
lllootchman who picks berries. I have made many journeys 
and have seen many things. My gun is good and my eye 
clear. I am not afraid of Kakehete, the chief of demons, 
and I am going to look for Chicamun, the gold that lives in 
the rocks up there where the bull elk feeds by the snow. If 
you will not go, because y.ur heart is the heart of a woman 
and much afraid, then I will go and see Kakehete alone. It 
has been said, and vou know that I do not turn back, 
T'quawitch Tyee. Will you go?" 
"No, tillacum, I will stay down here by the sea, where 
Kakehete does not come. Only evil can happen to him who 
goes there among the snowcaps. You are a wise man, 
T'solo, yet you are foolish in this travel, and will not come 
back if "you go up the trail of Moos-moos. I am done." 
f "Then klook-wah, T'quawitch, and good living while I 
am gone." 
Then I picked up my 651b. pack-sack and went into the 
woods, where the tlk trail woui d away up toward the neak 
of Mt. Constance, gliitermg tht re in the < arly sunlight like a 
great jewel, the pride of all the Olymp'cs. The old Indian 
stood wtching me until I disappeared in the shadow of the 
silent blue pines wno people the hills and shelter many wild 
things that sleep by day and roam by nigtit. Slowly, stea- 
dily I went, plodding along up the trail made by the hoofs 
of countless elk in days gone by. Up, up, always up, wind- 
ing, twisting in and out, now through an open space redo- 
lent with the breath of spring and gleaming with yellow 
floods of sunshine, warming to life the buzzing underfoot 
world that peopled the nooks and crannies and robbed the 
blossoms of their sweets, then through the dim aisles of 
shadow where no sunlight came, and where the huge seamed 
trunks of the waiting tirs shot upward until their tops were 
lost in a tangle of limbs somewhere in the blue above. In 
such places the mosses dwell, and the ferns too, single stems 
of dainty maidenhair, great banks of the feathery kinds, 
a;nd here and there the raspy stiffness of the sword fern 
shone in lighter green. Tiny s'prings of crystal water burst 
iorth, fed from the melting snows of the higher ranges, to 
ti-ickle through the moss carptt, over the rocks and down 
jtbe hill, where their big brother the brook hurries on to 
join the roaring Ducewallips, that foams and frets at the 
rocks down there in the valley. 
Tnen further still, until the great carlon opens dim and 
wild right into the heart of the hills. No wide and steep- 
Tvalled valley this, but a crevice made by giant hands, a 
erack riven through the range some time in the long ago, 
^nd now the river makes of the crack a path to travel in, a 
toad to the sea. Tnere a man may not go, for the river tills 
all the space from one straight wall to the other, and even 
that is all too narrow, so the water roars and booms, 
thrashes and foams, wells up against thote smooth, worn 
walls, and comes back in a flurry of spumy foam that whirls 
.away in the next sweep of the current. 
D.)wn in this cafion the sun never shines; it is always 
Wilight or darkness, and the shadows are a cold blue-green 
In the swirl of the current. An icy breath sweeps down the 
river, and the roar of the water makes one's voice very 
small. 
- The bull elk who made the first trail up this valley stood 
here at the end of the cafion, and looked on the blue sha- 
dows uniil it came into his mind that he could not travel 
Jhere. Then he turned and climbed the hilJ, straight up, 
■a thousand feet or more above the roar of the river, then 
"traveled on, clinging to the steep sides, always stopping 
when a looee rock went booming down among the trees to 
leap over the cafion rim and into the boisterous swirl below. 
rhis I read in the sign of the trail as 1 climbed along 
'wearily up the old elk p'ath, and fought with my pack-sack 
%at would slip around and put the weight on one side, be- 
cause of the reaching work of climbing. Ou all this steep 
that pitches down to the cafiin rim there are loose rocks 
3eft by the snows that sweep down, roaring avalanches from 
^he bald and pinnacled cliffs far up the mountain. They 
'hang in all sorts of positions, these loose boulders, poised, 
balanced for a plunge on down to the river, if you are so 
unwise or uulearned in mountain lore that you put your 
weight on them. 
Slowly, carefullj'', I traveled on, testing each rock first, 
ssilre of my new foothold before I left my last; always aloog 
the path that Moos-moos, the great elk, first made. Then, 
at last, the hill sweeps back and away from the jagged rim 
of the cafi.on, and the trail sags down among the big trees 
iagain. 
Just here a little creek bawls along, rushing over the 
rocks, fretting against the big hill there in the shadow of 
the great giant pines. Stopping to drink of its cold and 
J crystal fl.ood, the thought came to me that perhaps the little 
aslream might bring word from the lodge of Chicamun, the 
grellow gold that hides among the rockn of the mountains. 
~ - Now the w.iy to talk to a brook about Chicamun is to 
take some of its sand, put it into a gold pan and wash it. 
Slowly, carefully wash it, until only a little stays in the 
.Sjnttom of the pan, and that little must be clean and black. 
i^hen you look with keen eyes and sift the black sand about 
fin the pan. This I did and saw many tiny rubies, little 
-.gSinets, worn fragments of quartz and agate, ^nd smalV 
black crystals of iron; but the golden scales were not there, 
so I knew Chicamun did not hide in the heart of the great 
peaks and cliffs up where the snow was, and that I must 
journey on ag«iin. 
I sat down to rest a moment before going ahead, and then 
Lf'Pool, the wild blue grou=e, came down on rumbling 
wings from the tree tops. L"Pool is good meat for hungry 
men, so when he came down mv Ions rifle looked at him 
and sang the memaloose song, and LpPooI died there in the 
mountain glen, because one man was hungry for his meat. 
When the sun came down near the top of the western 
wall of mountain peaks it made a thin blue haze to hide 
the trees and soften the ragged outlines of the stained 
boulders, and then it came to my mind that night was com- 
ing to llie mountains and that I must find a place to camp 
or else camp standing, for no man may follow the trail of 
the elk when darkness is on the hillside, no one save Moos- 
moos, who has eyes for darkness and a nose to smell danger 
before he comes to it. 
Down the great hillside I went with careful step, and 
among the shadows I found many cedar trees and a good 
spring of water— it is a new hold on life to drink of it — 
water that is as new, red blood to a tired man. There was 
a little space amnne the boulders where one could spread 
his b ankets, and thpre was moss, plenty of thick dry moss, 
and enough of the filmy s^raya of the brown-trunked hem- 
lock — these to furnish a bed for I'estmg on among the wild 
hills. The cedars, too, were smooth and tall, and gave their 
hark to build with, and the axe soin had enough poles down 
for a frame. A few cedar limbs cut off in short lengths and 
sharpened on one end were all the nails needed. 
Before the sun painted the peaks with pink the house was 
finished and was a goodly place to dwell, for one was snug 
from howling blasts and dribbling raindrops, too. Then a 
small fire snapped and crackled anrl gave a cheery heat, hut 
no smoke to spoil the flavor of LePool, the wild grouse, that 
simmered, with a flake of bacon, in the pan, while the coffee 
fretted against the hot side of the pot, fretted and com- 
plained, and welled up in fierce bubbles all at once — done. 
The pack-sack gave other things edible, and soon I sat on a 
boulder and feasted as no man feasts in the grim city — 
feasted on good things with hunger for the sauce. 
The river roared — no, it sung just here, a wild chant. As 
the sun went down I reclined on the mossy bunk, my pack- 
sack for a pillow and my old pipe for company, and 
watched the setting of the new scene, saw the sunlight in 
glowing shafts hunt out the peaks and snowbanks far above 
and across the valley, saw the white change to pink, to 
crimson, a wealth of colors all run riot there, and transform 
the gr'm old mountains into fairy cistles. 
Then, when the chill came down the canon — the cbill of 
night, when the cold air comes down in the low places, I 
saw the snow change to white, so cold, so beautiful, only to 
fade again— smoky -blue first, then indigo, then an indefin- 
able color, an indistinctness which softened everything and 
blended rock and pine, peak and snowbank, until all became 
only a great bulk looming across the lighter blue-black sky, 
where the stars snapped and flickered — as they do only 
among God's own hills. 
The fire was a ruby glow by the side of the boulder, the 
river sung in the darkness, and there came a soft voice from 
the air-tuned pines, and the song of the night was sung — the 
sweetest music that ever was listened to — music that is rest- 
compelling, and as I heard it, it came to me that this was 
peace on earth and good-will to men. In such a country 
Kikehete, the chief of demons, had no place, and T'qua- 
witch Tyee, in the valley by the salt water, had for once 
read all signs wrong. But then, T'quawitch has thoughts, 
and there are some things even he does not know. 
Eli COMAKCHO. 
NOTES FROM NEW BRUNSWICK. 
The oflicials of the Crown Land Department estimate that 
the receipts from huntiog licenses issued this season will 
reach a total of abriut $i,000. This has been the banner 
year for New Brunswick so far as the incoming of big game 
hunters is concerned; yet, as these figures indicate, less than 
one hundred American sportsmen have availed themselves of 
the magnificent moose and caribou hunting to be had here 
in the autumn months While other hunting grounds are 
thronged with campers, insomuch that every hill and valley 
resounds with the crack of the rifle. New Brunswick is prac- 
tically unhunted still; and in the virgin forests of the To- 
bique. the Miramichi, the Dungarvon and the Renous, 
the bull moose is dying of old age and general debility, 
brought on bv over feeding and want of exercise. Just think 
of itl S nee Mr. Carl Pickhardt and his party came from 
the Gueggas Lakes in September with three moose, six cari- 
bou, a bear, an otter and a fox, not a single bunting party 
has visitfd that locality 1 Think of the sport enjoyed by Mr. 
Elmer Dixon, of Chicago, who secured two mnose, two cari- 
bou, a deer and two bears on the Waptki (a branch of the 
Tob'que), and reports that, so far as he could learn, he was 
the first sportsman who had ever seen the headwaters of that 
streami Think, also, of the wealthy English "hog" over on 
the R-^stigouche, who, after he had secured his legal allow- 
ance of two bull mouse, kept on shooting and paying the fine 
for each additional moose. He said he was perfectly willing 
to pay the fine for ?porl like that! 
That the unrivakd sporting advantages of New Bruns- 
wick are only now beginning to be embraced by American 
sportsn^en, is due to several g.iod and sufiiaient causes. The 
chief one is, that iis hunting grounds have not been adver- 
t sed as those of other lands have been. Another is, that 
professional guides have been few in number, and hence 
camps, canoes and otoer facilities dear to the heart of the 
tenderfoot, were in mo«t cases not available. Many sports- 
men can only make a lim ted stay in the woods. They want 
to press the button and have the guide do the rest. Many of 
them object to "roughing it," or camping out in September 
and October under a shed tent. 
But now the time has arrived when another chapter will 
have to he written. The demand is about to produce the 
supply. The professional guide is hanging out his shingle. 
The Province is full of hunters, trappers and woodsmen, 
who need very little education to make the best of guides. 
The wonderful success achieved this fall in New Brunswick 
by the pioneers of that army of American amateur nunters 
who are ever on the alert to find some new field of sport, 
has attracted the notice of their fellows, and the Klondike 
rush will soon set in The local guides are puttin.? up 
new camps on many of the principal lakes and streams. 
Some of the Maine guides are locating the best hunting 
f rounds, and will bring iheh patrons here next season, 
lany wealthy American sportsmen are negotiating with 
the Provincial Government, as well as private corporatione 
ownirg forest lands, with a view to purchasing camping 
and hunting sites in the choicest game looalities Tt is 
not certain yet whit policy 'he Government will adopt in 
referenre to th"Se applications. At present the indications 
are that it will not accede to the proposition to transfer the 
bunting privileges of the Province to a few affluent indi- 
vidual?, but will leave them open to the general public. 
The big game items this season have been almost monoto- 
nous in the uniform success of the hunters who have re- 
turned from the chase. Nearly everybody brmgs out his 
moose, with usually a carioou or two or a bear thrown in by 
way of chromo. Mr. Dixon, the Chicago man, certainly 
cannot complain of his luck. His two moose were 56 and 
54;in. across the horns, respectively, and one of them had 
twenty-nine points. Mr. D cataur's 66in. spread is still 
"high line" this season, and is likely to remain so. 
A good many moose have been shot in the Canaan region, 
but the onlv "kill" of which exact account has reached me 
was that which fell to the lot of Mr. John Vanwart, who had 
as guide the Indian, Jim Paul. Jim states that he destroyed 
seven mnose snares that he found set at one of the lakes in 
the vicinity 
Roger Lawlor and a friend, of Newcastle, had excellent 
luck on their brief trip to the Birtibogue Barrens. They 
bagged a caribou and a very large bear. The Birtibogue 
section is one of the surest caribou chances in the Province. 
John Connell, of that place, is an experienced and skillful 
guide. 
Mr. Charles Phair, of Presque Isle, brought out his moose 
from Little River yesterday. The head measured 40in. and 
was of singular appearance, one of the antlers having three 
times as many points as th" other. Charles is a youth after 
mine own heart and very supple with the shotgun. While 
hunting partridges with the writer for five days at Cain's 
River last week, he bagged the bigeest end of sixty-four birds. 
Albert Smith, of St. Stephen, is also a meritorious young 
man. He lost bis way in the woods, came upon some 
strange animal which he could not distinctly see, fired his 
rifle and then hastily retired from the scene. When he re- 
turned with reinforcements next morning he found the mor- 
tal remains of a bear that weighed 375lbs. 
Mr. C. C. Hills, one of Cleveland's most popular sports- 
men, left for the headwaters of the Tobique yesterday for a 
five weeks' hunt. Adam Moore, of Scotch Lake, is officiat- 
ing a«i guide. 
A few days ago Mr. William Rice, his son William, and 
Mr. Barney Breen, the Mayor of Carlow, captured a large 
bear at Burpee 31111 Stream. Bruin had selected Lis camp- 
ing place for the winter when the gentlemen referred to 
came across him and rudely interrupted his repose. It took 
four men to load the carcass upon a team. 
Geese and brant are reported more numerous than for 
several years past at Miscou and Tabusintac. The accom- 
plished and genial Frank Todd, of St. Stephen, has persuaded 
a goodly number of the "honkers" to lay aside formality, 
fuss and feathers. 
The first good tracking snow of the season is falling to-day. 
Yes, Harry, I think we had better drop out at the four mile 
stump and cross the west branch of the brook and toiler up 
that second growth ridge back of Gallops. I think we'll 
attend the funeral of that big buck with the hat rack on to- 
morrow morning sure. Frank H. Ristben. 
Fredericton, N. B., Nov. 12. 
NITTANY ROD AND GUN CLUB. 
The Nittany Rod and Gun Club had their opening at the 
new club house, located at Hecla Park. Centre county, Pa., 
on Thursday, Nov. 4. The opening was a highly successful 
one in every particular, and the mtmbtrs in attendance very 
much pleased with the club house and all appointments. 
Dinner was served at 5 o'clock, and Senator J Henry 
Cochran, of Williamsport, the president of the club, to , 
whose hospitality the members were indebted for the dinner, 
acted as host. After dinner speeches were made by Judge 
Lave, J. Gephart, S. T. McCormick, F. C. Smink and, 
others. 
A very gratifying test of the club preserves was made that 
day, when Clarence Sprout and Fred Payne bagged twenty 
quail in two hours, and vrere not half a mile away from the! 
club house. "The trout stream belonging to the preserve is 
one of the finest natural streams in the State, and to that 
sixty-four little dams and riffles have been made and a foot- 
walk placed alongside the full length of the stream, which 
is nearly eight miles in length. The stream is fed by springs,' 
and there is not a farm or clearing along its entire length, so 
that it will not become polluted, and the trout can grow tc 
great length and live and thrive winter and summer 
The quail preserve embraces an area of about 20 000 acres 
of beautiful valley lard, and is well watered by several 
streams and has already been largely stocked for this fall| 
shooting, and more will be planted in the epring for breeding 
purposes. Pheasants and wild turkeys abound in the moun-i 
tain land of the pT*'serve and along the trout stream, which 
is reached by a 200yd. walk from the club house. 
The club house has a fine orchard adjoining it on the one 
side and several acies of land on the oiher side, making an 
ideal spot for trap shooting It is delightfully located at the^ 
base of the mountain and near the old Hecla Farnare, aban- 
doned long 8go, at the rear of it, and in front is a command- 
ing view of sughtlv rolling country where thousands of the 
beauiiful Nittany Valley's broad acres streich miles before 
the view. A few milts away are the celebrated Penn caves* 
Within a quarter of a mile of the house is a pretty park with 
a couple ot pretty lakes for boating 
The club house itself is of colonial style about 50ft wide by 
80ft. deep, a porch, 16 t in width, ex'ends around the three 
sides of the house both on the fi'St and second stories, giving 
an outside floor space of 8 500 q. ft. A never failing 
spring from the mountain supplits the hous" with fine wattr, 
which is piped all through it. The sitting room, dining 
room and reception room are large, and provided with open 
fireplaces all through. The halls are 10ft. in width and the 
ceilings high, giving the house a fine appearance inside* 
There are two bath rooms on the second floor furnished willi 
hot and cold water, and the sleeping rooms are large, beauti- 
fully furnished, and well lighted and well ventilated, as areaisc 
the rooms reserved for the superintendent and his family, 
The superintendent will live in the house all the time and 
supply the cui>ine, thus making it an acceptable place for ar 
out-lng at any time in the year. The house committee espec 
to light the place by either gas or electric light and heat by 
steam by next year. The favor with whicfi this enterprist 
has met in the short time since the club was organized ii 
April last is most gratifying to its promoters, the hardes' 
working and most indefatigable of whom were Mr. Franl 
Warfield and Mr. Andyed Brockerhoff, of Belief onte. ..^-^-i 
