344 
FOftESt AND StflEAM. 
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Just About a Boy.— XX. 
Inyan Kara seemed just as near as it had been when 
the boy watched the sun gleam first on its top early in 
the morning, away down by the spring where we camped 
at the foot of the pine ridge. 
The only difference was that the deep blue seemed to 
have faded out of the side of the old mountain and left 
it a lighter, smoky, indistinct bulk that was a little lower 
down on the horizon. 
"Seems 'sough that hill don't git much furder off no 
matter how much we travel," said the youngster. "Here 
we bin goin' a day 'n' a haff, 'n' there's th' ole moun- 
tain juss liken't wus when we started, on'y yeh can't see 
none o' th' hollers on th' side of ut like yeh kin when 
yer clost up — 'n' nen it don't set s' high 's ut did. Reckon 
that's cos we're gittin' kind o' over th' bend p' th' world 
like, 'n' yeh can't see 'round th' curve." 
"You guessed the reason exactly," I answered. "By 
and by you will only see the top of it and that will look 
like a bit of cloud right on the horizon, and then when 
the sun sets you will see all the colors of the rainbow 
reflected from those old rocks where we ate our lunch the 
other day." 
"Th' Bearlodge Range ain't th' same color 's Kara is. 
What's 'er reason o' that?" asked the boy. 
"They are timbered clear to the tops, and are not as 
high as Kara. Timber always looks more or less blue in 
the distance — sometimes even indigo blue when the light 
is right. There is no reflected light, just the blue al- 
ways, sometimes one shade, sometimes another, but al- 
ways blue. Remember that in this part of the world, too, 
for it may be valuable when the cold northwest winds 
come down over this country and you need wood for a 
camp." 
"Aw right; I won't furgit." 
We were driving across the desolate country between 
the Black Hills and the Big Horn Range— a country that 
is baked and dry at all seasons except just while the win- 
ter snows are melting, and even then there is no water 
except a pool here and there in the dry beds of a long- 
ago creek. 
Just now the weather was very warm for early surti- 
mer, and the gray ground reflected the heat until the air 
was aquiver with it. A few stray flowers still struggled 
to bloom against the drouth, but they were stunted and 
undersized, and their colors lacked the brilliant hues of 
their kind that had come and gone with the meager mois- 
ture of the melted snow banks. Here and there the 
purple lake petals of the pincushion cactus made a spot 
of color in this gray desert— a few gaudy prickly pear 
flowers perched with half-closed leaves on the upper rim 
of one of the green pads, in close company with a tiny 
striped lizard, perhaps, for these little creatures basked in 
the sunlight or flitted across the barren, hot ground as the 
mood seized them. Mostly it was gray desert covei;ed 
with grayer sage brush in the valleys and low places, and 
with rocks of a hundred hues to crest the hills or pile in 
picturesque abandon downward into the valleys. 
"What's that? Looks like a town er spmpin' way of£ 
there?" said the boy. 
"Bad Lands. What you see there is the south edge of 
them, and it is a wrecked country from there clear up to 
the Missouri River, a good many miles to the north. That 
country is worse than this, for it is loaded with alkali, and 
has not even sage brush or grass to cover its nakedness. 
It is the bottom of an ancient lake, cut and gashed by 
erosion until it is now nothing but a country of a thousand 
hills, each hill with a flat top and built up of many- 
colored strata. There are no good springs there— all are 
thick with alkali. There is fire clay, coal, ashes, clay, 
sandstone, fossil monsters and petrified things up there till 
you want no more. It is a country of ruin, silence and 
death, my boy, and have a care that you do not stray far 
among those flat-topped buttes, for each one looks like 
each other one until you are puzzled and lose your way, 
then — well, there are many bones in there, and yours 
would not be noticed by a passer-by." 
"Gee! That must be a' nawfuU sort o' a place 'f Lhats 
th' case, but I'd like to get up clost 'n' have a look at 'em 
anyway," said the youngster. 
"We will cross a spur of that country soon, and you 
will get all you want of it then." 
"Whoa! Wait a minit— they's a whopper of a rattle- 
snake right back b'hind that rock, all curled up 'n th' 
sun. I want his skin." The boy had tumbled out of the 
seat and was running back on the trail as he spoke. 
In a moment more he had picked up a fragment of a 
rock and battered the life out of a 6ft. "diamond back" 
rattlesnake. Then he pulled out his pocketknife, put his 
foot on the snake's neck and after cutting the skm clear 
around the reptile's neck he skinned the squirmmg body 
despite the muscular contortions and the singing rattles. 
•- "Ain't it a daisy?" he asked, as he came complacently 
back with the yellow-marked pelt dangling across his 
arm. "Goin' t' make a hat band o' that feller's jacket- 
one, two, five, nine, eighteen rattles— good string, am't it? 
Well, ole feller, you won't never bite anybudy else thats 
one sure thing, an' yer hide'll do me juss 's much good 
er more 'n' it would you, anyhow, cos you'd a shedded it 
anyway, 'n' 'sides, a feller 'd ought to kill a rattlesnake 
ever'time he sees one, juss same's he would er kiote er 
any other varmint uts dang'rus 'n' no good." 
He certainly had the Western idea about rattlesnakes, 
for no man who has dwelled in the grassland or ridden 
the range will pass by one of these dangerous snakes- 
cow men especially will always stop and kill them on 
sight, using the "hondu" or the swivel end of their picket 
line for the purpose, or even just a loop of rope. 
All through the hot afternoon we drove on across the 
t^ray desert, passing by the horned toads, the lizards and 
the cactus, until we were near the Belle Fourche River, m 
time for the night's camp. . 
"What's that white stuff over there; tain t alkili, is itt 
Seems too kind o' yellow," said the .boy. _ 
"Soap, natural soap," I answered, "That is something 
of a curiosity even in this country of strange things. It 
is actual soap, too, all right, and it is really a spring of 
soft soap coming out of the ground. You see the whole 
country here is loaded with alkali— to the west there is 
coal Bed rock slopes toward the Black Hills, and in 
the lower country here along Wild Horse Creek and 
the Willow there are some oil sprmgs, where crude 
petroleum comes up out of the ground, In some in- 
stances the alkali and oil meet in about the right propor- 
tion, and you have one of these "soap beds,' as the cattle 
men call them. They are dry on top, but soft under the 
crust, and cattle that try to cross them break through 
and sink into the mass of soap underneath and never 
get out. That is the reason the cattlemen have begun to 
fence these treacherous places. You see they look like 
dried up springs, and the cattle come to them in the 
hot weather looking for water, and down they go. No- 
body knows how deep they are, but you can push a good 
many 10ft. poles down, one on top of the other, and 
when you are tired out some other fellow can push just as 
many more down on top of them." 
"Gee, I don't want much to do with that kind o' a 
mess. Do they all look sort o' white 'n' cnimbly on top 
like this one?" 
"Mostly; some are more so, some are less, but the 
character is the same. Keep away from the edge of them 
even if you expect to be safe." 
"Wont ketch me foolin' 'round no «ich a trap 's that 
is, you bet," said the boy. 
"Hoi' on, gimme th' gun — saw a kiote juss sneak over 
that point down there— 'm goin' after him." Away he 
raced up to the top of the next ridge like an Indian, and 
stood among the rocks waiting. The coyote with charac- 
teristic cunning had vanished, and the lad could not get a 
shot. 
Coming back, he stopped every few feet and picked up 
something from the ground, so that when he arrived at 
the wagon once more he was loaded down with a hatful 
of rocks. 
"Got some pet-ree-fide wood, 'n' things, anyhow," he 
remarked, as he climbed back on the seat. 
In his collection there were fossil shells, petrified eels, 
wood, bone and other substances, turned to stone, and 
there were also some fine moss agates and carnelians, all 
gathered within a few yards of space, and there were tons 
of them left littering the ground for a long distance. 
These things kept hina interested while I drove down 
the long slope of hillside to the valley of the Belle Fouche 
and brought the outfit to a stop on the banks, where a 
bit of open glade stretched along among the switch wil- 
low breaks, and a few cotton wood trees offered dead 
wood for our camp-fire. 
There was a pool there in the river 1 knew, and it was 
all the water we could get, though it was red with alkali, 
and the rim of the pond-like place was white with a 
frost-work of crystals all around it. Yet it was this or 
nothing. Ere the sun vanished our camp was made, the 
horses picketed and our fire going merrily. The coffee 
pot bubbled and hissed as the alkali water foamed inside, 
but we made good coffee just the same, because we put a 
fevy crystals of acetic acid in with the coffee to kill the 
alkali. El Comancho. 
Notes of the Dumb Creation. 
Havre de Grace, Md— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Knowing that Forest and Stream has always been a 
great friend to the dumb creation, as well as mj'self, I 
think that it might be a little interesting to its many 
readers to tell them a few very remarkable things that 
have come to my notice that should be credited to the 
dumb creation. . . 
There is no room to doubt that the dumb creation is 
possessed of a large amount of benevolence; but I have 
only recently come to the belief that some of the birds 
that inhabit the eartli do possess the power of reason. I 
think that I have sufficient grounds to establish my be- 
lief, of which I could give you many, but it is not worth 
while to take in the whole programme. I will tell you 
one instance. r 1 - u 
A friend of mine gave a dinner to some of his old ac- 
quaintances, and this friend had a parrot that could talk 
the English language to perfection. Polly had a great 
curiosity to know what was going on about the house, 
and whenever she saw any strangers coming toward the 
house she would go out to meet them, and if the dogs 
would commence to bark she would say to the dogs, 
"Come out! Come out!" and then she would tell the 
visitors to walk in, and that the dogs would not hurt 
them. When a party was invited into dinner Polly also 
came in the dining room; and once, after they all got 
seated, one of the party told a very marA'clous yarn. Polly 
was a very attentive listener and kept very quiet until the 
end of the yarn, and then she rose up full length and 
said "Oh, what a lie," and then laughed, and so did all 
the gentlemen, and the one that told the yarn got very 
angry and said that he would give $10 to be allowed to 
kill the parrot. I call that a clear case of reason. _ 
I will now give you a case of benevolence. A friend 
of mine living near our city was bothered very niuch 
with crows in his cornfield and built a blind m his field 
where he could hide to shoot the crows. All who are 
acquainted with the crow family know that they have 
the reputation of being noted rogues. This gentleman 
tells me that while concealed in his blind there came two 
crows and lit down very close to him, and one of them 
had his upper bill shot off, so that he could not pick up 
a grain of corn; and the other crow would pick a grain 
of corn off the ear and put it in the mouth of the wound- 
ed crow. He shot both crows and found corn in the 
craw of the crow that had no bill to pick it up; and was 
very sorry about it. I call that first-class benevolence. 
A farmer living in Hartford county has for many j^cars 
very often invited the preachers of a Sunday to take din- 
ner with him; and of course, as all preachers are very 
fond of fowls, his wife would have some killed and pre- 
pared for dinner. And strange to say, but nevertheless true 
all his old gobblers and roosters by some means could tell 
a preacher by his looks; and just as soon as a preacher 
drove up to the house the old gobblers and roosters 
would call all their families to hide under the big barn and 
stay there until the preachers left. But upon one occa- 
sion two preachers drove up and no turkeys nor chickens 
could be found anywhere. But after dinner one of the 
preachers left and the old rooster came out and flopped 
his wings and told his family that the preachers were all 
gone- but the old gobbler was not satisfied and poked 
his head out and r.aid : "Doubtful, doubtful, doubtful 
That was the first time that I ever knew that any ot the 
dumb creation could count, as the old gobbler was cer- 
tain that two preachers had driven to the house. 
Another very remarkable instance. My son some time 
ago found a very large blacksnake that had caught a very 
large garter snake, and tried to swallow it. He had the 
garter snake about half swallowed. They both measured 
nearly the same size around the middle, but the black- 
snake was i5in. longer than the garter snake. It was 
wedged in the blacksnake so tight that he could not pull 
them apart, and was sorry that he killed them. 
Speaking about natural instinct, a friend of mine had 
a breed of small pigs and sold two of them to a farmer 
about twelve miles distant. The purchaser put them in a 
box and carried them home in a small wagon and let 
them out the next day. That night he missed his pigs 
and they found their way back to their home and mother. 
Then again, a friend of mine living in Baltimore gave 
me a Chesapeake water dog and I shipped the dog to 
Havre de Grace in a vessel and had him only one day, 
when he found his way back to Baltimore by land oti 
the third day; it is thirty-six miles. 
The most intelligent family of wild fowl that visit dm 
waters is the wild goose family. They do all their feeding 
at night. They are very noisy all day when thej' are sit- 
ting out in the middle of the bay oT river, but at night, 
when they A'isit any of our warm rivers and creeks to 
feed, they never say a word, not even whisper. Day or 
night they are never without a watchman, and when he 
gives the signal of warning they are up and gone, and 
then they can be heard for mil,es. E. B. Gallup. 
Moose on Railroad Tracks. 
Drummondtille, Que., April 24. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Since writing jon a few days ago from Sut- 
ton, Que., regarding deer in the Eastern townships, I 
have had occasion to visit this section of the Province, 
and have heard some interesting sporting notes that 
shall be chronicled for Forest and Stream. The first 
incident occurred only a few weeks ago, between here 
and Wickham. Mr. Jim Timmons, track foreman, and 
one helper from Wickham were running a bumper car on 
the Canadian Pacific Ry. some three miles north of that 
place, when they were stopped by a huge moose that 
confronted them upon the railroad track; they were 
obliged to stop their car and back up out of his lord- 
ship's way, as he held full possession and refused to budge 
an inch, merely shaking his head and looking our 
friends over very closely. Mr. Timmons backed up his 
car a mile or more and tried to borrow rifle, but could 
find none, and the moose, after holding his ground 
for the best part of an hour, easily stepped over an ordin- 
ary Page wire fence that inclosed the railroad property 
at this point and very leisurely made his way off into 
the woods. Mr. Timmons says the animal's horns must 
have stood loft. or more from the ground, as he stood 
with head erect, a perfect picture of strength and beauty. 
Another incident occurred about two )'^ears ago on the 
Drunimond County Railway, the headquarters of which 
are situated here. A freight train was making for this 
point, and when about ten or fifteen miles from here, a 
huge moose suddenly appeared upon the track ahead o£ 
the train and made a stand to stand off the locomotive. 
The train was running at a fast speed when it struck 
the animal and knocked him down the dump. The train- 
men stopped the train, backed up to the animal, bled 
him, and loaded him on to a flat car and brought the 
prize into this station. The incident is vouched for 
by Mr, Wm. Houston, former superintendent of the D, 
C. Ry., who resides in this village. 
The writer has seen during the past week plenty of 
deer tracks and runways between this place and Wick- 
ham; the distance between the two points is about nine 
miles. This section of country used to be alive with 
work and business, but it is now rather dead, most 
of the mills in the woods hereabouts having closed for 
want of material to work on, and the result is stagnation. 
But deer thrive, and the old logging roads are ideal 
places to still hunt this noble game. Very few hunters 
find their way into this section, and as a result the deer 
and moose thrive comparatively unmolested. Mr. Ed- 
ward Carpenter, the veteran section foreman on the 
Northern Section of the Canadian Pacific Ry. south of 
here, informed me to-day that one day the past week 
three deer ran out of an old barn that stands near the 
track some three miles from this village, scared out by 
the noise of his handcar when passing. He says that 
he sees deer nearly every day when passing over his 
section. Mr. Wm. Houston, at present roadmaster 
on the Drummond County Ry., informed me to-night 
that no less than three deer have been killed by their 
trains within a few miles of here, within the past few 
months, and two moose met their end in the same 
manner during the past two or three years. I have 
promised myself (D. V.) a week's outing in this vicinity 
during the coming autumn, and if success crowns my 
efforts will chronicle the same for Forest and Stream. 
I would like to ask some of your correspondents a 
question regarding the difference in size of Adirondack 
and Lake Megantic (Quebec) deer. In the autumn of 
1898 I spent six weeks in the Adirondacks around 
Saranac Lake, Lake Flower— Lake Placid— down 
through the Wilmington Notch, and as far as Jay, New 
York and saw many small deer brought out of the 
woods. In November and December of t8q7 I was in 
and around Lake Megantic, Ditchfield and Spring Hill, 
and I saw dozens of deer brought out of the woods, and 
they seemed as a rule to be larger and finer animals 
than the Adirondack product. How is this accounted 
for? Or am I wrong in my observations? Of course 
the Adirondack open season began on Aug. 15, while the 
Megantic season only opens on Oct, i, one and a halt 
months later. This may account in part for the better 
look of the game. I" think Megantic turns out four 
deer to the Adirondack's one, i. e., for the section visited 
by myself. ^ ^ W'!l, 
r Something is wrong about the first of these moose 
or the date at which he was seen. Moose do not carry 
horns "a few weeks" before April 24.] 
A second edition of the April number of the Game Laws in 
Brief and Woodcraft Magazine is now printing and will be ready 
immediately. 
