May 5, ipoo.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
84a 
My partner carried out his design of watching the 
aii and started out early in the morning, while i turned 
the river again. The main channel o£ the river was 
r over on the south side, and 1 made my way there. 
was not more tlian loo yards wide and the water 
is several feet deep and current very swifi. As I wan- 
:red here and there along this. J noticed a large drift in 
about half-way across, and it occurred to me that we 
ight make a raft out of these logs, place our dunnage 
ion it. and float back down the river to the Missouri. 
No sooner did the thought occur to me than I stripped 
;d swam out to it. It was a great mass of trees and 
gs that had floated there on some tide and become 
dged. The first thing I touched on climbing out on it 
IS the gunwale of an old wooden boat half-buried in 
e drift. I lifted on it, but found it so solidly wedged in 
at I could not move it, and it took an hour's hard 
3rk to remove the drift and get the boat into the 
Iter. I was overjoyed when 1 found it floated buoyantly 
d had no leaks. It was a clumsy affair, though solidly 
ide, pointed at one end and 3 feet wide at the other, with 
t bottom, and capable of carrymg a thousand pounds, 
f the time 1 had it. hauled safely up on the sand on our 
le of the channel 1 had the details of a great trip all 
mned. 
When my partner came back at night he was more dis- 
uraged than ever: said he had sal by the trail all day, 
t had sighted nothing. Furthermore, he said the trail 
)ked as if it had not been traveled that year. I 
rmised that he had been watching an abandoned trail 
d that another would have been found a little further 
, but held my own council. It was near night, but I 
ged him to cross the bar with me and see my prize. At 
[lit of the boat the idea flashed upon him just as it had 
on me. and the conversation around the camp-fire that 
fht, after a hearty. supper, was very animated; and we 
luld have been easy prey to any prowling Indians that 
Eht have corne along, though it is probable there was not 
ostile within 300 miles of us. 
\t the first gray streak of dawn we were carrying our 
nnage across the sandbar, and by 10 o'clock we had our 
ift trimmed and loaded ready for the start. Our boat 
i the tholepins, but as we had no oars we had to 
jend on poles for propelling and guiding it. For several 
ies the channel followed close inshore under a steep 
ak with no obstductions, and we sped onward at a 
rry pace. 
'\fter that we noticed shallow channels cutting their 
y across the bar toward the north shore. We passed 
freat many of these channels, none of which afforded 
ter of sufficient depth to float our boat and cargo, the 
ter meantime shoaling beneath us. At last we found 
rselves poling along in dead water, and finally came to 
I abrupt ending of the channel we were following. In- 
stigation showed that our only recourse was to carry our 
•go across three-quarters of a mile of sand to the chan- 
again, which was now following close along the north 
Dre, and then hitch our boat over a foot at a time, as 
A-as too heavy for us to do more. This took us at least 
■ee hours, and it was near night when we were afloat 
ce more. Then came several miles of deep, swift 
ter again. 
When we noticed the water crossing the bar again, in 
■>se shallow, ribbon-like channels, we went into camp, as 
had all the exercise we felt that we needed for the day. 
the morning we made a careful investigation of all 
? channels, and choosing the one that seemed to carry 
; most water, entered it. When the boat grounded we 
,ded in front of it and pulled it along. In this way 
worked back and forth with the fickle waters much 
jier, though we often grounded and had to carry our 
:d long distances. This made our progress rather slow, 
t we took things easy and often stayed in camp at 
/orable points for several days. At other times, when 
r boat grounded, we would sit and shoot at objects on 
i water with rifle and revolver for hours before mov- 
f on. 
One of our favorite diversions when we had an easy 
mnel along some steep bank was watching for buffalo 
h. At such places they would be working in the mud 
ise inshore with their back fin and often a couple of 
•hcs of their backs sticking out of the water. One of us 
mid sit in front, revolver in hand, and as we passed 
tuld shoot them in the back. We got a number of large 
es and scared a good many more. 
We wondered at first at the absence of big game, but 
ally got so that we did not expect it, though once we 
-jught we saw a deer cross the bar far in advance of 
and enter the wood. At another place we ran close 
to a beaver that was 20 feet out upon the bank gnawing 
a Cottonwood tree. As it came sliding down the bank 
e a great turtle, I made a hasty grab at one of the 
les, but was too late, for the instant it touched the 
ter it disappeared. , 
We took a daily bath in some of the bayous where the 
rrent was slack, and water had cleared, with bottom 
looth and sand3^ Sometimes on warm days we would 
ce a plunge in the river without taking the trouble to 
iiove our clothes, which consisted of duck pants and 
:kory shirt. For weeks we never had shoes or stockings 
our feet. 
The bars made us a great deal of trouble, but we made 
as easy as possible by drawing largely on the fountain 
time, and gradually came to look on the Platte River, 
th its bars and drifts, as about all there was of the 
)rld anj'how. 
We sighted houses now and then, but not a human 
ing crossed the range of our vision until after we had 
iched the Missouri River. One evening we were sur- 
ised at the sight of a large fine house on the top of a hill 
St south of the river. We camped for the night just 
posite it, and in the morning were still more surprised 
see a steamboat crossing the river half a mile below 
th several freight cars on board. 
We figured it out that a channel had been dug across 
e stVeam to accommodate some railroad ferry. After 
e passed the ferry the river turned sharpljr to the 
uth. and there was a large town on the west bank. All 
,y we kept on without striking a bar. The water was 
'ep and ea=y on either side, and in the middle, yet it 
i^^ near night before it occurred to us that the town we 
id passed was Platsmouth. Neb., and that 'we had been 
aveling all day on the Missouri River. The railroad 
rry we had imagined to be crossing the Platte had been 
fact crossing the Missouri at the mouth of the Platte. 
We had picked up an oar that we found lodged in a 
drift, and now increased our speed by pulhng on one oar 
and steermg the Doat with a paddle we had formed from a 
floating plank. Our objective pomi was St. Louis, from 
which place we could take the train for home, twelve 
hours' ride distant. 
Once on the Missouri our course was easy. There was 
no grounding and long tugs across sandbars was now a 
thing of the p.tst, and our speed was much greater. There 
was an ever changing panorama unfolding before us all 
the time; bui. our solitude was gone. We passed towns, 
small and lurge, every day, and steamboats and femes 
were numerous. All along there were clearings with 
log ciibins und stick chimneys. Great patches of dead 
timber grei tvd us at every turn where the trees had been 
girdled in the initiatory step toward a clearing. 
One afiernoon we drew our boat up at the mouth of 
Nemaha River, and went into camp. It was mid-after- 
noon, but that made no difference to us; we were not mak- 
ing the frip against time, and the spot was an interesting 
one. V\> had been there but a short time when we 
sighted another craft coming our way. As ours was the 
acme of clumsiness, .so was this tlie acme of grace and 
elegance, or it appeared that way to us at least. Built 
on fine iuies and painted by an artist, it came dancing over 
the waves like a feather and drew up beside our old 
tub. 
Its single occupant introduced himself as Paul Howe; 
said he was fishing, and if we had no objection he would 
camp wtih us that night and set his line off the point be- 
tween Mie two streams just where the two currents met. 
This jtist suited us. an<l the arrangement was made. 
Ho\sr' had some flour and a kettle, and mixing up 
some Hough rolled it into balls about the size of walnuts 
and l;i- iled them until they were tough. These he used 
to bail liis hooks with. He had a long line with a hundred 
hooks, ( I! it which he baited and coiled in the stern of 
his hohi. FastCTDiig one end of the line to a stake on the 
bank, t then rowed out into the stream while he payed out 
the line and kept it from sn.nrling. At the end he had a 
heavy piece of iron attached for a sinker, which he 
dropped into the water. 
We caught a few small catfish in time for supper, but 
the general result was rather disappointing, until some 
time in the night. When it came time for going to bed, or 
lying down, which was about all there was to it, Howe 
stretched himself beside the fire on the river bank with 
his line between his toes and went to sleep, after having 
warned me to be ready for action at any time. 
Some time in the night I was awakened by a yell from 
Howe, who had bounded to his feet and was piling dry 
branches on the fire. "'I've hooked a whale," said he. 
"Come on and help land it." I manipulated the paddle as 
Howe lifted the line out of the water. There was not the 
slight tremor on the line until we got near the end and 
then there came a surge that nearly upset the boat. That 
one surge was about all there was to the struggle, and 
drawing the line slowly up, a head appeared above the 
water that was as large as an ordinary pumpkin. 
My partner had continued to pile dry branches on the 
fire until objects on the further bank of the river were 
plainly visible, so that we had plenty of light to work by, 
Howe tipped the boat gently until the gunwale almost 
touched the water, and then taking the fish by the gills 
draw it over the side. It was a catfish, nearly white in 
color, and was pronounced by Howe "a channel cat." I 
have also heard the blue and yellow catfish called a channel 
cat. Since reading some of Gen. McNulty's articles I 
have thought perhaps that they all three might be the 
same fish, the change in color being due to environment. 
Next day Howe rowed to the nearest town with his 
prize, and reported it as weighing 60 pounds when he 
returned. We stayed in camp at the mouth of Nemaha 
some days, and explored it several miles. As we were 
exploring up that stream we saw wood ducks sitting 
together on a log. We had no faith in our large caliber 
muzzleloading rifles for feathered game and loaded one 
with shot and killed both ducks with one load. This was 
the only game we killed on the entire trip. 
One day as we were rowing along down stream, in the 
middle of the Missouri, we saw a snag ahead of us that 
was thrashing about at a great rate in the swift current. 
It was evidently the top end of a long, slender log whose 
root was fixed in the bottom of the river. The current 
would bear it down until it was nearly under water and 
then it would spring back until it raised several feet above. 
This motion was very rapid, and it made a great noise 
thrashing the water. 
I was steering at the time, and in trying to evade the 
snag mistook the current and steered across it just above. 
We were going at a great clip, and seeing my error I 
undertook to turn the other way. This was a fatal 
error, for before we_ could regain any of the lost ground 
we were upon the snag and the boat partly overturned. 
My rifle was lying along the side of the boat and was 
thrown overboard, The hand satchel which contained all 
our money was following fast, when I made a quick 
grab and got it by the handle, and with the other hand 
siezed the log and pushed the boat off. 
The next instant I found mj'^self sitting astride the 
snag and bobbing up and down like a child in a jumper, 
with the satchel in one hand and the boat floating rapidly 
away with my companion in it looking blank and help- 
less. He soon recovered his sang froid, however, and 
shouted back at me: "If you want to stay there and 
fool around you can, but I'm going on." I answered this 
by shaking the hand satchel at him and saying: "Go if 
you want to, I've got all the long green." This fetched 
him. and he pulled for the shore, where he unshipped his 
load of water, spread our belongings out to dry in the 
sun and drew the boat along shore to a point half a mile 
above me. * •* ' 
We had now acquired a second oar, so that it was easy 
for him to handle the boat alone, but his fear of tlie snag 
overbalanced his judgment and he passed me by just 4 
feet out of reach, and had to make the whole round a 
second time, as it was impossible for him to pull the- boat 
against the strong current. When the boat passed by I 
was tempted to drop off the snag and swim after it. but 
my fears for the safety of the funds of the expedition 
deterred me. At the second round I got him into the boat 
all right, and by night we were dried and as comfortable 
as if nothing unusual had happened. We never went back 
to try and recover my rifle, as our firearms were least im- 
portant of all our belongings. 
Not long after this and after we were well down -111 
central Missouri, we came to a place where the current of 
the river was engaged in eating up a farm. There was a 
large log house, one end of which was hanging several 
feet out over the stream. There had been an orchard 
riear the house, but most of it had fallen into the river. 
A single tree was left standing on the \ety brink of the 
crumbling bank, which was loaded with fine large apples. 
Many of these apples overhung the water, and we con- 
cluded to have some of them. The bank was some 15 or 
20 feet high and unscalable, but by standing below we 
could knock them off with clods, sticks and stones arid 
they would fall into the water, where we could get them'. 
Only a scant footing offered beneath the tree, where a 
section of the farm had caved into the water and had not 
all been washed away as yet. On this we stood for half 
an hour, and bombarded that tree with hard pieces of 
earth broken from the wall, and such stones and sticks as 
we could get hold of. 
By that time we concluded we had apples enough, and 
got into our boat and pushed off. We were little more 
than clear of the bank and not 50 feet away when 
house, tree and a .section of earth 100 feet long by 10 
feet thick and 20 high tilted outward and came plunging 
at us. We were clear of the falling bank by at least 10 
yards, and the next instant our boat was raised 5 feet 
on the crest of the wave thrown up by the falling earth, 
while just beside us the bottom of the river was laid 
almost bare, just as the bottom of a shallow puddle is 
laid bare for an instant by throwing a stone into it. Then 
we settled gently back and floated on as smoothly as 
before. 
In a few minutes we heard the great wave rush agamst 
the opposite shore half a mile away. Our apple tree never 
came to the surface, while the log house went to pieces 
and the debris floated off down the river. Neither of us 
said a word for ten minutes, and then my companion 
remarked that "we had a close call there," and relapsed 
into silence and we took the balance out in thinking. 
We saw several towns that still showed the marks of 
the Civil War, and saw one stone block that was wrecked 
in such manner as to suggest connon shot, but we never 
learned if that were really the cause. 
Our objective point had been St, Louis, but when we 
came out into the Mississippi and saw the town of Alton, 
111., only a couple of miles above, we beached our boat 
and putting on our best suits, which we had held in -re- 
serve, walked up to it, leaving our boat and most of our 
outfit standing on the sand bar, and that evening took the 
train for home. It was more than a year before we got 
over being homesick for the freedom of the bars and 
drifts of the river. The Parson. 
Feeding the ''Razor-Backs/' 
DuEiNG a trip in the South I happened to stroll out one 
evening shortly before sundown. It was a delightful 
evening and full of rural peace and quiet— hardly a sound 
being heard save the chirp of the cigalia. As I continued 
my walk, however, I became conscious of a more dis- 
cordant note, which was, in fact, nothing less than the 
squealing of pigs. It became so loud and persistent that 
I determined to find out the occasion of it. 
Presently on turning a point of the woods I espied a pen 
full of "razor-backs." When they saw me they redoubled 
their vocal efforts and appeared to be making frantic 
attempts to climb over the pen. I wonder, I thought, if 
they are trying to get at me? In truth, they looked so 
fierce, with their long snouts and their gaunt, shaggy 
bodies, that I believe I hesitated and drew back a step or 
two. But on reflecting a little it occurred to me that it 
was feeding time and that they had mistaken me for their 
host. So desiring to see the ceremony I hung by for a 
while. Eventually an old negro appeared through a path 
in the woods, carrying a basketful of ears of corn. No 
sooner had the "razor-backs" caught sight of the familiar 
figure than all previous efforts of theirs in the vocal line 
were eclipsed, and it was certainly a wonder they didn't 
knock down the pen, such were the mad dashes they made 
against it. The old negro touched his hat when he saw 
me, but looked a little scared and suspicious, as if he 
irnagined I had designs on his "razor-backs." I reassured 
him, however, by promptly announcing the object of my 
lingering there. At this he smiled humorously and ob- 
served: "Hogs am a hoggish lot, sah, shooh 'nufY." Then 
approaching the pen he cried affectionately : "So, ho, my 
honies! Thought I was gwine to forgit ye— hey? No 
fear !_ Bar's yo' suppah, now— nice sweet cohn." 
Suiting the action to the word, he emptied the contents 
or the basket into the pen. Immediately there was a wild 
scramble of the "razor-backs" for the corn, the result 
being that they all fell over one another, forming a 
struggling heap of pork. It should be noted that there 
^^^^-^ ^'""^^^ ^° ^o""" small. 
With shrieks of rage the big ones arose from the heap, 
scattering the others as they did so, and then pounced 
upon the corn. Only one ear at a time could, of course, 
be taken in the mouth, to the great disgust, as it seemed, 
of the feeders, but how that ear was crunched — with what 
dispatch of remorseless opening and shutting of jaws! 
The while the big ones were feeding the others were only 
permitted to hover around them, seizing an ear whenever 
they could. Even these chance seizures were resented by 
a look of malevolence, and I could readilv imagine that 
while the feeders were enjoying themselves phvsically, 
mentally they were suffering excruciating pangs because 
they could not keep all for themselves. The tiniest "razor- 
back" of the lot— evidently a weakling and truly a pathetic 
figure — came in for the roughest, most savage treatment. 
Never was it permitted to seize an ear, but had to content 
itself with picking up the stray grains that fell from the 
mouths of thp feeders. It reminded me of Dives and the 
rich man's table. <■ 
When the three big fellows had satisfied themselves they 
retired to their corners and were soon snoring luxuriously, 
like any well-fed specimen of the gemis homo. Then the 
three next in rank ranged themselves at table, so to speak, 
and defended it as jealously as the others, until they 
were satisfied. Finally the little ones had all to them- 
selves, but though there was enough left, thev wrangled 
and snapned at one another in the most spiteful fashion. 
Indeed, if anything, their manners were worse than those 
of their larger congeners. There was one thing, however, 
