Juke 'Z, Jt900.| 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
4Ba 
found in the unexplained presence of several large blocks 
of coral rag. 
The climb to the Falepouma'a was like all travel in the 
Samoan bush, hard going, drenching rains and tlie green 
forest obscurity, where nothing can be seen lOO yards 
in any direction. When we arrived at our destination 
. Talolo took charge of the duties of making camp. Laulu 
did all the work, but the lad bossed the job. and the 
combination of dignity and impudence was well worth 
the seeing. The spot chosen was a thick clump of bush 
cocoanuts, the niu vao, which are not cocoanuts at all, but 
palms, with somewhat similar leaves. The fruit grows 
from the upper stem in a large cluster, like a loose 
bunch of grapes. _ This fruit was red and ripe, and 
this was a good sign for the shooting, for the berries 
are the chief food of the pigeons, which follow the ripen- 
ing from the sea level to the mountain summits. This 
clump was composed of young trees not more than 2 
mches in diameter. These trees and an adjacent thicket 
of bamboo down by the river pool, and a few shrubs of 
fau, or native hibiscus, were all the materials needed for 
the construction of a camp that woul serve for weeks. 
The only tool required was the long and heavy head- 
chopping knife, without which no Samoan will enter the 
bush. 
Supremely indifferent to the constant chatter of Ta- 
lolo's general directions, l.aulu first selected four trees 
which stood at the corners of an oblong 6 feet one way 
and 8 the other, and lopped them off 2 feet above the 
ground. Outside of these he selected four others at the 
corners of an inclosing oblong 8 by 10 feet; the two at 
one of the shorter sides of the oblong -were cut off at 
a height of 6 feet; the other two were left 4 feet high. 
As soon as these points had been fixed Talolo cut out 
all the other trees within this lirnit even with the ground 
and dragged them out, while J^aulu busied himself in 
getting out a large number of bamboo canes and fau 
bushes. A number of the bamboos — and those the stout- 
est ones — were saved intact; the others were slit into rib- 
bons an inch wide. The fau bushes were peeled of their 
bark, which alone was saved. By the time these prepara- 
tions had been completed Talolo had finished clearing the 
ground plan. 
Laulu now lashed bamboo canes to the four lower 
stumps, and thus outlined the lesser oblong. In the 
outer oblong bamboos were lashed on the shorter ends 
at front and rear. It was in these lashings that the fau 
bark served most satisfactorily to replace twine. When 
the work had reached this stage Laulu and Talolo re- 
peated the operation a few feet away and opposite the 
front of the camp. 
Tonga then set at work on the first camp. Taking 
the bamboo ribbons she drew them from end to end of 
the inner oblong and back again, and lashed the ends 
so that they were in no danger of coming loose. The 
: same operation was repeated from side to side, except 
that the ribbons were passed over and under the length- 
I wise ribbons, thus forming a strong and springy frame of 
basket-work. It did not take her deft hands long to do it, 
and when it was finished there was a comfortable couch 
raised above the damp ground and as elastic as the best 
1, spring bed. This was an agreeable change from the 
ordinary sleeping arrangements, which amount to no 
more than a thin mat laid on a smooth surface of peb- 
bles, and can never be considered comfortable by those 
' who have known anything better. Other bamboos were 
cut to the same length and laid from front to rear of the 
cuter oblong, sheaves of coarse grass were disposed 
over these rafters, palm leaves were laid over all, the 
whole was tied in place, and the roof was completed. 
Screens of bamboo ribbons were hung on all four sides, 
and I found myself in possession of a shelter in which 
I had complete privacy and absolute protection from the 
weather. The crowning touch was given when Laulu 
brought me a sturdy bamboo joint fitted with wooden feet 
at each end, the only pillow that the Samoans ever use. 
These bush houses the islanders call fale apitanga, but 
my party were very ceremonious and dubbed it my maota 
or palace. Be that as it may, it was attractive after the 
arduous climb, and I rapidly proved that it could be slept 
in by taking a nap at once. 
When Tonga called me the other camp for the three 
; Samoans was finished, the tea kettle boiling merrily over 
the fire, tins of beef and salmon and biscuit had been 
opened with - that valuable head-chof)ping knife, and 
200 crayfish had been caught in the river and induced 
to change from dark green to bright red on hot cobbles. 
I The tea which I had brought along was a great treat, 
and all the more agreeable to them because there was 
^ enough sugar to allow them to make the tea-and-sugar 
soup which they like. 
After dinner, and Tonga had thrown away the green 
leaves which had served as plates — a great simplification 
of housekeeping — the fire was replenished, and Tonga 
and Laulu told about the aitu in these mountains, and 
their satisfaction that they no longer believed in them. 
But it was plain to see that they clung to the light of 
\ the fire, and their disbelief showed itself merely so many 
words and bravado. In the high altitudes there is a sharp 
chill after nightfall, and with an early hunt before us 
we were abed not long after the birds. 
When Tonga crept in under my screens to wake me 
it was yet dark and cold, but there could be no doubt as 
to the pigeons; the sound of their thrilling note could be 
heard on every side. I had scarcely come out from my 
''palace" of green boughs and was in the act of slipping 
a shell into my gun, when I saw some dark body flying 
heavily under the branches overhead. It was an easy 
shot, and I brought down my first lupe in the dark. It 
seemed almost a pitj' to kill so beautiful a bird_, but at 
any rate I could console myself with the reflection that 
it was not bonnet slaughter. But when I had once seen 
the game it seemed a waste of time to wait for the cup of 
ea that my good Tonga had made ready for me. 
From that time on until broad daylight our guns were 
busy — three of them, for Tonga devoted herself to re- 
trieving our fallen game until she had collected sorne six 
or eight, after which we saw no more of her until the 
fihooting was over. 
Before sunrise I did the most execution. The birds 
I then were swooping down through the upper foliage in 
■ earch of the lower growing palm berries. This was al- 
5;ether wing shooting and Laulu and Talolo were no- 
where at that. In fact, they soon gave up and devoted 
their time to calling the birds to me. It is a surprisingly 
easy note to imitate, and the pigeons are very quick to 
be attracted by it. These mountain covers are so seldom 
shot over that the report of a gun does not scare the 
birds appreciably in a morning's shooting. 
After the sun was up the character of the shooting 
changed. The birds seemed much shyer and no longer 
ventured down to the underwoods. This was what the 
two Samoans had been waiting for, and they had their 
turn at bringing birds down. It was interesting to see 
them mark a bird in flight above the upper foliage, watch 
It to its resting place and bring into play all their wood- 
craft to get within range without flushing the bird. 
That was all the shooting they knew, and I don't know 
that they are much to be blamed. Powder is too l\ard for 
them to get at to admit of their taking any risk on a shot. 
I did not feel quite right about it, but I must confess 
that I tried one such shot. I marked my bird down to a 
certain branch of a certain tree, and I never let my eyes 
off of him. It was butchery to take such a shot as that, 
but I took it. It was a thing that could not be missed, 
and I hit fair. But somehow when my pigeon came 
tumbling to the ground it turned into a dirty piece of 
bird's nest fern. After that experience it did not seem 
right at all, and I resolved never again to venture on the 
enormity of perch shooting. I gave up in disgust, and 
went back to camp to see what Tonga was doing. 
Tonga, I wish to remark, was a very sensible woman. 
Accordingly. I found Tonga doing what a very sensible 
woman might be expected to do. She had retrieved 
enough of my birds at the start to answer her needs, and 
when I got back I found that she had cleaned and drawn 
them' ready to put on the coals when we hunters re- 
turned. Furthermore, she had made a fresh take of 
crayfish in the river, and at that moment they were 
baking on the hot stones. Having done all these wise 
things. Tonga had put into our one tin cup what she 
considered a really satisfactory amount of sugar; she 
had then poured on it just enough hot tea to dissolve 
it._ With this slab mixture, which she called "ki," and 
with a pungent cigarette, I found her sitting cross- 
legged on a jock, perfectly content with her surround- 
ings and waiting for hungry hunters to come trailing 
mto camp. Llewella Pierce Chtochill. 
Through the Parsonage Windows. 
vm. 
The storm still continues, and out from the window 
still stretches a bleak plain of snow. The sky is leaden 
and snoAvflakes are whirling and eddying outside before 
a northwest gale. It seems a drear prospect out of 
which to get an inspiration, and I am about to turn 
away, when hold! See that dim form flit through the 
misty whiteness! It has a rifle tucked under one arm, 
hands drawn up in the sleeves of coat as if to shield 
them from cold, great fur collar of coat turned up against 
face on one side and held there with end of sleeve, no 
hand appearing. It seems following a line of imprints m 
the snow. Sonle of the imprints are nearly obliterated 
by other snow that is fast drifting them full. But let 
us go back a couple of hours and seek an explanation of 
this wraith of the storm. 
We had been playing euchre all morning, looking out 
at the whirling storm now and then to reconcile ourselves 
to being housed up all day. It was during my third 
expedition against the great West, and at last I had suc- 
ceeded in getting into the very heart of it. 
The camp was in the rugged hills south of the middle 
Loup in what is now Custer county, Neb. The upper 
springs of a small creek furnished us water and the red 
cedar from the canon furnished us logs with which to 
build our carnp, and firewood. The men whom I was play- 
ing euchre with were not my pardners of the hunt, but 
were visitors from neighboring camps and from the 
settlement 200 hundred miles below. My pardners were 
all away at that particular time. Though all of them 
were lovers of nature in her milder moods, they put in 
most of the time at the settlements, going to dances, 
literaries, revival meetings, and such other diversions as 
the frontier afforded. There was with me at the time 
Joel and Ike George from the settlements, and Adam 
Shiek and Ace Hutton from neighboring camps. 
Among the gun equipments of our camp was a .46cal. 
Ballard rifle. The Kentucky Ballard was the name the 
manufacturers gave it, and it was the equal of any gun 
I ever saw for fine shooting. The ammunition for this 
gun had run low, there being only one cartridge left. 
Adam Shiek, one of the visitors, also had a Kentucky 
Ballard .46cal., and like unto us, he was nearly out of 
cartridges, having only three. 
V/e had played euchre until the others had tired of the 
game and quit, and Adam and I were playing listlessly 
along single-handed, when he suggested that one of 
us ought to own all four of those Ballard rifle cartridges, , 
and proposed that we place one apiece on each game 
until one of us had them all. I only had one stake, so that 
if I lost, the game was ended, but the Parson was not so 
slow at cards when it came to playing for rifle cartridges, 
and I won. After that we played seesaw for a while, but 
the cartridges finally all came my way. IVIeantime Hut- 
ton had gone up creek to look after his pony, which was 
picketed near by, and when he came back he reported 
the tracks of two bull elk as crossing the creek within 
ten rods of camp. This announcement came just as I 
played my right bower on Adam's left, securing the third 
trick in the last game, which made the cartridges all 
mine. 
The Ballards were the only guns in camp suitable for 
elk hunting, and I had all the ammunition. Aside from 
these, there were one muzzleloading squirrel rifle and a 
couple of Spencers that hung or missed fire nine times 
out of ten. The needle guns and Sharps carbine were 
all out of the game, as there was not a cartridge of that 
caliber left on the upper Loup. 
The tracks could not be more than twenty minutes 
old, as in that time they would all have been obliterated 
by the drifting snow. There was no talk to settle owner- 
ship of those tracks; the game of euchre had settled 
that before the tracks were discovered. 
I was not long in getting inside «uch togs as I needed 
and out into the storm with my Ballard under one arm. 
one of those four cartridges in its chamber and the other 
three in my panta pocket Hence that apparition flit 
tmg through the storm. 
The tracks were still visible, and I took up the trail, 
following It over hill and hollow, through the whirling 
snow. I soon came to a place where they had loitered 
in a little draw, and lost some time by overcaution be- 
fore I discovered that the trail led across a flat nearly a 
mile wide. Over this I went at a dog trot lest all trace 
be lost in the fast drifting snow ere I reached the other 
side. 
As I came close to the breaks on the far side I left the 
trail and made a wide circuit, as the elk were traveling 
with the wind, and following them of course gave them 
the advantage of it. I felt sure I should find them resting 
m some of the cafions just ahead, and knowing every 
inch of the ground I felt very hopeful. When I had 
gained a cross-wind to the point I expected to find them 
I worked cautiously down to the edge of the table, but 
before I had reached the break I saw the elk climbing 
the bank on the opposite side of the draw. 
They had fooled me as to the course they would take 
and came out directly to windward of me. This brought 
them out at much closer range than I expected them, 
and down I went into the snow, brushing the snow from 
my rifle sights and resting across my knee to steady my 
aim. The bulls were nearly as white as the snow, and 
looked mystic enough against the purer white beyond, 
yet there was enough of outline to show me where to 
shoot. 
Bull elk do not travel in matched teams, as usually 
where two are found in company one is much larger 
than the other. It was so in this case, and I took the 
larger for the first shot. How the white steam did flash 
from his nostrils as the bullet struck him in the ribs! 
How helpless, too, that great fellow looked as he made 
a few spasmodic jumps and staggered feebly into the 
next caiion, his white side crimsoning as he went. 
The little bull stopped to look before going over the 
bank, and gave me a chance for a second shot. He was 
much darker in color than the old fellow, and made a 
Clearer target, but the distance looked long through the 
falling snow, and I overestimated it and shot too high. 
The elk made a spring or two forward, and then stopped 
and bucked five or six times like a broncho that is trying 
to unseat its rider. When it went into the draw I ran 
up a hundred yards or more before it came out on the 
next rise, and it stopped to look, as elk invariably do 
when taken by surprise. I have had them stop at least 
a dozen tunes in going half a mile when shooting at them 
from a concealed position. My second shot went as 
rnuch too low as the first did too high, breaking the fore- 
shoulder at the very bottom of the brisket, and the elk 
went off on three legs, the fourth swinging about like 
the loose end of a flail. 
I followed on across the first canon, which was little 
more than a draw with abrupt banks. I saw the big bull 
lying dead in the bottom of it as I passed. I thought 
from the course the Uttle bull was taking that I might 
cut off a couple of hundred yards on him, and I sprinted 
across the next flat at my best pace, sitting down at the 
top break to wait for him to come out on the 
i "^yond. He soon did this, and desirous of seeing 
what had caused all his trouble stopped to look again. 
It was now necessary for me to make my shot count 
as it was my last. It counted, for when the bullet struck 
ne dropped on the spot and' never made an effort to get 
up. I found on examination that I had made a nice 
average .with the three shots, the first striking the top 
of the ■mthers, the second the bottom of the brisket, and 
the last the center of the shoulders— just equivalent to 
three center shots. 
I dressed the small elk and then went back to the 
large one. Meantime the wind lulled and the sun came 
out bright and warm. As I was working at the big bull 
I "s^rd the rumble of a wagon, and going to the top of 
the bank saw a team coming my way. It proved to be 
Phelix Henry, a settler from down the river, who had 
been camping in the hills a couple of miles away, hunt- 
ing elk, but had failed to get anything. 
He was on his way to pack up his outfit in the hills, 
intending to drive down as far as our camp that even- 
ing and start for home next morning. He said he would 
take out my elk when he came back. I promised to 
wait for him until he got there, which would likely be 
m a couple of hours. He looked ruehjlly at my prizes 
and wondered why he could not have had the luck to get 
them. I had my ideas as to why luck failed to bring the 
spoils of the chase his way, but concluded to send him 
home with one of the elk anyhow. 
I had the elk skinned and dressed long before I ex- 
pected Henry back, and after walking about for a time 
I stretched the elk skin flesh side down on the prairie 
and lay down upon it, but lying down in winter in the open 
air, without covering, one soon gets chilled, even if the 
sun be shining. I finally lay close to one edge of the 
skin, and holding to the edge of it rolled to the other, 
ihis wrapped the skin about me two-fold, with the hair 
mside, and I was fixed for a nap, and soon dropped off. 
After a time I was awakened by the roar of the wind, 
and knew that the storm was on again. I knew also 
that it must have turned intensely cold, for I was already 
inuch chilled. But when I tried to get up I found myself 
unable to move. The elk skin was solidly frozen, and I 
might as well have been wrapped in a sheet of steel, so 
tar as flexibility was concerned. I exerted all ray 
strength, but I might as well have crawled into a brass 
cannon and tried to burst it by taking a full breath as to 
try and break my way out of that double fold of frozen 
elk skm. I then decided that the only thing to do was to 
wait for the return of Henry. But it soon dawned on 
me that Henry would not be likely to venture out of the 
shelter of the caiion, where he had been camping, in 
such a storm as appeared to be raging outside. At this 
thought I resolved to have one more trv. My arms were 
stretched at my side; if I could get one of them above 
my head I could reach out through the hole at the end 
of the roll and get at the edge of the outside lap and per- 
haps force it off. As to moving my body an inch up or 
down I might as well have been inside a plaster cast so 
closely had the raw elk skin fitted to my shape ' 
The left hand, with which I had held the edge of the 
^ f across my chest and 
had held the skin from fitting so closely at that place 
