B06 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Deo. 35, 1897. 
a look, but cracked off pieces here and there where the 
stain of mineral showed (as it did in almost every piece), 
and fragments of stone went into tbe packsacks, and when 
we tested these later we found gold, silver and copper in 
them, and with each there was iron and arsenic; so we 
shall go back to the valley of the witch head that is in the 
country of the silence some day when the sun shines 
and we shall follow the float up to the walls where it 
broke from the ledge and there perhaps driye a stake or 
two. 
All things must end, so in time we climbed down out of 
the valley and stood among the giant firs that met it half 
way up the mountain, and here the fog hung to every 
bush and dripped from the treetops like rain. So we 
stopped and stripped, putting our underclothes into the 
We reached our journey's end, put old Bess in her stall, 
unloaded our arms and ammunition, and then concluded 
we'd go to the creek and sample the oysters, which were 
extra fine. We shoved an old canoe off the shore out in the 
cre'-k, when Tom, getting a lurch, went overboard, and 
between the mud and water there was but trifling con- 
sistency, it was all so soft at least as to look very much as 
a short route to China. Of course, uncle and aunty made 
no ado over this Irifling affair. 
The nfxt mornicg we took a walk down to a clump of 
cedar, taking along our large gun, No. 8. and long as a bean- 
pole, Ju=!t on the edge of a gully which separated Mr. B.'s 
bam from uncle's, we spied an immense flock of ducks 
swimming along shore, the tide being up. So we crept 
down and turned our old No, 8 loose on the bunch. A 
we found a trail, and directly the dogs treed a "coon sure," 
declared Jake, a colored boy who was to do the climbing 
and knock the coon out. So Jake started up the tall, slick- 
bark oak. About 30ft. had been climbed when here comes 
Jake end over end, landing on a root, breaking his arm. 
Here was trouble again. We felt sure of being got Under 
way when the fact of Jake's misfortune became known to 
uncle and aunty; stiU, it passed off as being no fault of ours. 
We were now further restricted in our fl'^ld of sport, and 
were placed under orders to engage in nothing but quail 
shooting, and to carry but one gun, while none of the col- 
ored boys were to go as a convoy. This looked a little 
rough, still it was the best we could do in the way of 
a compromise; so the nest morning we started out with 
one gun and the old pointer bitch which had but one eye. 
Firing a shot or two at some larks, we drew a neigh- 
bor's pointer to us. It was a very valuable dog 
and we had now decided expectation of getting a good bag 
of birds. John could see a quail on the ground as a hawk 
would. Of course we made no calculation for birds on the 
wiag. It was but a little while and tbe neighbor's dog was 
pointing a bevy stiff as a liner's shaft. John took the 
chance as his turn to shoot, and slowly walked up, peeping 
throui;h the bean, when suddenly up went the bevy. John, 
fumbling in an awkward way with his gun, tired prema- 
turely and killed the strange dog stone dead. "Here. John," 
said I, '"No use to stand call court any longer. We'd bet- 
ter go. So let's go back and hook up old Bess and go for 
home before this thing is known, or we'll get a, thundering 
flogging." 
So we got off, leaving behind ns a trail of evils. This 
ended our Christmas hunt. T. G. Elliott. 
CAMP IN THE MOOSE COUNTRY. 
packsacks, that we could have dry clothes to put on when 
we reached the cabin by the river far below. 
The air was cold with only our outside clothes on, so 
we started down through the wet timber at a pace that 
reeled distance oft' very fast, and when a slide came into 
view we jumped into it, hit or miss, and standing up with 
the gun stock thrown back to steady us, shot down those 
raceways of loose stones and dirt like three toboggans. 
At 4 o'clock we slid down into the little canon from the 
east slide, wet, tired, covered with the dirt of the moun- 
tain, the heavy nails torn from our shoes in our mad 
flight in the many slides, but out of the fog and back to 
the valley where' the river roared down to the sea, back 
to the cabin that stood on the bank, back to the camp we 
had left to climb up to the crater, back to the world that 
is far below the country of the silence, which we knew 
was somewhere away up there in the gray sky that came 
down to the treetops in the river valley. 
Three men, if they be hungry and wet, can do things 
quickly, especially if they be three men who know how. 
That is how it came about that we sat down to a hot sup- 
per before the darkness came, and we had dry clothes 
and a good, warm cabin too, which we all concluded was 
better than standing watch and watch away up there in 
the silent country where the glaciers are born. 
El Comancho. 
CHRISTMAS WEEK SCRAPES. 
This was in the early fifties. Our uncle had recently pur- 
chased a plantation on one of the tributaries of tUe Chesa- 
peake, rich in ducks, while ihe fields had quail in lavish 
abundance, and the swamps were full of coots and f qurrrels. 
Nothing could be more inviting to John and Tom, two 
young larks just, we will say, blooming into gunhood. Our 
nncle would" almost weekly ride up— only about twelve 
miles — on a visit to the old folks, bringing with him on each 
visit the increased abundance of ducks, etc. The fall now 
set in, and, winter drawina: nearer at hand, the lavish tales 
were more and more whetting the appetite of John and Tom 
for a Ctiristnoas hunt in these rich fields of sport; but (heir 
mischievous tendencies were so well known to the old people 
that the best of strategy must be resorted to in order to ob- 
tain consent A good boy, as a rule, is a dull fellow; "bad 
boys make smart men" is an old saying, and not without 
truth. 'The work of getting the desired permission was not 
long in doubt; we had it in time, in fact, to give a couple of 
months to prepare and set everything in readiness. 
The old carbines were to be brought to a polish, locks 
tinkered on, a good supply of flints "procured, while the 
wherewithal for the purchase of ammunition was a deep 
financial problem. Money did not grow on trees in those 
days. However, the difficulties were fairly met, and uncle 
was informed that we might be expi cted on Christmas Dij. 
We were answered with "an assurance that ducka were as 
thick in the creeks as grasshoppers, and of all colors, black 
and pied, and some so near like tame ducks that one could 
scarcely tell the difference; while raccoons and possums, 
with squirrels and hares, were to be had for the asking. 
The iong-looked-for day arrived, and we were granted the 
use of old Bess, a mare with one eye, and a tumbler cart as 
a means of transportation. Oar vehicle was well stowed 
when we made the early morning start: five gnns, two coon 
dogs, two squirrel dogs, a pointer bitch wiih one eye, half a 
doziii powaer horn?, 51bs. of tow for wadding, a trunk of 
clo)^^'^^ li> tfimt in, two pairs of boots, etc. 
general squawking and fluttering ensued, but not a duck got 
on the wing. "Look here, John, if those ain't tame ducks. 
Well, they sed they were all colors, and those are that way." 
Trouble loomed up. Still we concluded to face the music, 
thev might not be tame ducks. But the truth soon de- 
veloped." Here came Mr. B. with blood in his eye, to know 
who had shot into his ducks. The fact was at once plain. 
Uncle explained as to the mistake and would pay all 
Brass Wire and Hollow Bullets. 
Editor Forest and Htream: 
A gentleman who has hunted for some years in soxitheast 
Africa, and lately returned, has related to me a fact in his 
txperience which may be useful to those of your readers 
who shoot large ganne with hollow pointed bullets. 
My friend's rifl?, a double .50-138-340, did not always give 
sutlicient penetration for the larger and tougher antelopes, 
so he tried the plan of filling the hollow in the bullet with a 
piece of brass wire thick enough to fit tightly, lie considers 
the hartbeest (of which he has killed more than 300) to pos- 
sess more vitality than any other thin-skinned game, and 
states that the bullets so treated invariably passed through 
both shoulders, stopping at the skin on the further side, and 
at the same time expanded so as to give a large striking sur- 
face. 
When hitting the front of the breast the bullets acted in an 
equally satisfactory manner, penetrating well into the vital 
organs. 
Shots at the hindquarters of hartbeests galloping straight 
away were carefully avoided. J. J. Meteick. 
South Devon, England^ 
A Shower of Dncks. 
A KECEKT Leesburg, Va , special to the Richmond Dis- 
patch says: A shower of ducks fell here la'-t night. It was 
a rainy night, and toward morning, attracted and bewildered 
by the electric lights of the town, large quantities of wild 
ducks were perceived swooping around. Twenty-seven were 
picked up in the streets and suburbs. They seem to be 
worn out with flying, and some of them rest quietly in the 
window of a store in which they have been placed and where 
they attract much attention. 'The ducks are of two kinds. 
One is said to be called southerly, from Ihe sound they seem 
to make in flying They are small, very pretty plumage 
THE VfRITEE OF "AKGLING NOTES" IN CAMP. 
damages. Aunty read the "riot act" to ns." So for the 
present we were allowed to spend our Christmas, to which 
we had looked forward with so great pleasure, not in the 
use of firearms, but in coon hunting, which.we thought 
would be equally amusing. 
Night having come, we started off tor the swamps "with 
tbe coon dogs. Plunging through 'mud and water, presently 
—black and white— white heads, with occasional long, 
green tail feathers. The other kind are small, with long, 
bird-like bill, and seemingly unable to rise from the ground 
in flight, the legs being at the extremity of the body and 
with little flexibility. They ai'e said to be called water 
witch, and to; make a poor show at flying even from the 
water. 
