FOREST AND STREAM. 
B6B 
of the lake for some distance here, so Lide started out 
on the ice with me. We had nearly come up with the 
second point from camp when a doe jumped up, almost on 
the extreme end of the point, and was otf like a tiash. i 
aimed quickly at the place where the deer disappeared and 
fired. We hurried over and found where my bullet had 
struck a tree trunk that was hidden by intervening boughs 
when I fired. Then Lide stepped further out on the 
ice and saw the animal hustling through the woods. We 
went on a way further together, then Lide struck out for 
the Burnt Land. 
1 now went along the shore very cautiously, for I ex- 
pected to see a deer jump every second. If any deer were 
there, however, my shot must have frightened them away, 
for I walkd over two miles without seeing hide or hoof, 
h'inally I caine to one of those gem-like islands and 
thor.giit T would work my way across it. After spending 
fully iwenty minutes to gain a hundred feet, T discovered 
1 had made a gigantic mistake, and I hereby warn any one 
who might contemplate a trip to Maine to shun all such 
inlands as he would a pestilence. 
Fair to look upon are these islands, indeed, but look and 
be content. Entice yourself not to stroll on one, for they 
are a delusion and a snare. The heavily foliaged timber 
hides a chaotic mass of uprooted trees, distorted roots 
and tangled vines. Then, when the lake gets its dander 
up it just slings everything adrift right up into this 
mixttire, and the resultant tanglification can give a Florida 
hammock cards and spades and beat it out of sight for 
demoniacal disorder. Your headway is up and dowru Six 
or eight feet in the air you climb, down j^ou jump, three 
feet ahead you go, then up again. Hanging from the 
edge of an eight-story buildfng by your hands in a night- 
mare is real, ecstatic enjoyment compared to a jaunt like 
this. To help matters out, cute little cakes of frozen 
snow shower from the boughs and dance and wriggle 
down_ your spine and across your solar plexus, and gradu- 
ally fill your trousers from the knees up to the waist- 
hand. Righteous, indeed, is he who can make a trip like 
this and not break the Third Commandment. 
For awhile the return to camp was made just as 
cautiously as the trip out. Then the love of nature over- 
came the ambition of the sportsman. A keen wind swept 
out of the north — right down from Katahdin. Puffy 
clouds chased across the heavens and glided along the 
sides of the giant, but not as high as his lofty crest by 
lialf, and their dark shadows incessantly drifted over the 
unbroken sea of forest beneath. Far away over the ice 
to tho northea.st, just beyond the emerald point of a jewel - 
like island, away down where the ice glittered like an 
ocean of diamonds, a dark object moved along. Was it 
a deer? Who can tell? 
Dinner was ready when I reached camp. I was ready, 
too, and so was Lide. We had followed the track of tlie 
wounded deer and found where it had lain over night. 
Then as the morning track showed no signs of blood, after 
following it a couple of miles he gave up tried the Burnt 
t^and without success, then returned to camp. 
That afternoon Lide and I climbed the mountain near 
camp. We kept a sharp lookout, but found nothing. It 
was near .sundown when we reached camp, and a dozen 
lumbermen were there. Just before dinner in walked 
a sportsman named Snow and his guide, Guy Haynes. 
A very interesting evening was passed around the big 
wood-burner. Mr. Snow and his guide had hunted all 
the wa}^ from Norcross that day without seeing a deer, 
although signs were plentiful. They had spent several 
days trying to get a shot, but withotit success; this was 
owing to the noise made on the ciaist. Mr. Snow lives 
near Bangor, and is a farmer. He is also an old and 
ardent deer hunter, and has met considerable experi- 
ence. His yarns were very interesting. When he dis- 
covered that Lide was a farmer, the hunting ciuestion was 
dead so far as they were concerned. All hands were then 
regaled with an, animated dissertation on the propaga- 
tion of pumpkins, squashes, tuniips, cabbages, beets, 
onions and celerj', etc. Then ensilage, brewery grains, 
garbage, compost heaps, manures and different brands of 
fertilizers came in for discussion. The discourse was 
continued even after we were in bed. The last I heard of 
the conversation ran like this: "Some raise the dwarf 
celt-ry for market, and others raise the giant variety; but 
for ray part I say give us " 
The next morning Mr. Snow and his guide departed for 
Norcross. Then the lumbermen collected their belongings 
together, strapped them to their backs and left for their 
winter homes to the north. George White, a teamster, 
stayed at the camp. He had a pair of strong, heavy 
horses, a tote sleigh and a heavy wagon, and was left 
behind to tote for the luinber camps from Millinockett 
to the Spencer camp. Then from here to a point ten or 
twelve miles north another teamster would tote the loads 
left by White. Then another would take the loads at 
his end of the route and keep them moving. In this way 
necessaries were kept pouring into the lumber camp con- 
tinuously. 
When all "had gone, Lide and I struck out for the Burnt 
Land, and we hunted as cautiously as ever, but saw no 
deer. Plenty of them were there, though, for there was 
an abundance of sign ; but the deer kept out of sight. 
After a while we came to Lide's doe, and as the carcass 
was frozen stiff we decided to tote it out. This was an 
easier job than I expected, and in less than an hour we 
h'ld it down b.v the side of the road. Here we found the 
sled (left b}' Jewett the afternoon be dressed the deer) 
and so shifted our load to runners. It was hard work 
gettira; the sled through the drift stuff to the ice, but 
after this was accomplished the rest of the trip to camp 
was easy. 
Fred had returned from ■Millinockett, but without Wil- 
bert. Lide stayed in camp the rest of the day. but the 
weather was so fine and the air so bracing that I couldn't 
resist a trip to a little bog where the dnj before we had 
found the entrails and hoofs of a deer which one of the 
oi'csts of the cainp had killed some days previouslJ^ This 
liog was perhaps two acres in extent, and was coverad 
with tall, withered grass, and the snow was one network 
of tracks. Heavy timber surrounded the place, and as I 
brushed the snow from the trunk of a fallen tree and sat 
df vvn. I felt confident of getting a shot. I sat there fully 
an hour, and saw nothing but woodpeckers and snow 
bird '5. Then, suddenly, off to my right and not over 20 
var ls away, an animal loped through a bar of golden sun- 
light. Tr was in and out of sight in a second and there 
W.I- no time even to raise my rifle. In that brief time. 
however, I recognized the animal as a lynx, or, as it is 
called in that section, a "lucive." I found it had been 
feeding off the entrails of the deer out of sight of me 
while sitting, but not over 50 yards away. Had I not 
crossed the bog, in all probabifity I would have got a 
shot. 
From the bog I made a wide detotlr on the south side 
of the mountam, and enjoyed some beautiful views, then 
descended on the north side, struck the road and went out 
on the ice of the lake near camp. 
Never could eye behold a scene more grandly, softly 
beautiful than I looked upon that evening. Back of the 
emerald forest's crest, like a wondrous globe of gold 
floating in a boundless, purple sea, the sun was slowly 
sinking to his rest. And his soft-shinning, mellow shafts 
fell far out athwart a world of frozen forest, lake and 
stream, and touched its furt;hest limits with delicate 
fingers of scintillating light. Then his lower rim rested 
an instant on the western forest's crest; lower, lower he 
sank, and seemed gradually to melt away, and far to 
the east, miles away, beyond the lake's wood-bound 
shores, slowly, stealthily, surely the shadows of night ad- 
vanced. Now the dusky legions reach the eastern shores 
and the frosted, snow-fringed woods and purple islands 
softly blush under a last, clinging good-night kiss. 
On, on to the west the shadows creep. The sun slowly 
melts from view. But look on Katahdin — the giant king 
of these realms. From cloud line to his pure while 
crest he is a blaze of soft, reflecting glory. Yet up his 
prottd, lofty sides the shadows quietly creep, and obliterate 
the rainbow tints in their advance. Already have they 
overwhelmed the lofty ranges to the northeast and north- 
west, but the king's crown still burns with the soft, deli- 
cate radiance of creamy pink, which gradually fades and 
dies ; then for a single instant a narrow ribbon of 
gold gilds his crown, and, like extinguishing the flame 
of a candle, or the departure of a soul, in a breath it has 
gone. As if all nature were under a spell, no sound 
breaks the death-like stillness, and, as the dusky shadows 
have o'erwhelmed the land, ,so does a forlorn loneliness 
steal over and oppress the soul, for one realizes his 
smallness, meanness and helplessness in the vast solitude 
of these wilds. 
Presently the holy silence was intruded on by a harsh, 
discordant sound. The rude jangle of bells came from 
the south. Faint at first, the sound grew louder. What 
could it mean? The mystery was soon solved. The noise 
came from the Nesowadnehunk road, and the bells were 
of the horses that were drawing the tote sleigh on the 
return from Millinockett. 
It was dark when I entered camp, but the lamps were 
not yet lighted. I hung my cartridge belt and rifle on a 
convenient peg and started for the kitchen. The form of 
a man leaned carelessly against the kitchen door casing. 
I supposed it was Lide, and was about to pass. "How be 
you?" said a familiar voice. It was Wilbert The old 
sinner couldn't stay away, so had come through with 
George White and the tote sleigh. 
We were a happy, reunited family of sportsmen, and 
we sat late around the stove and "swapped lies." George 
White contributed some interesting anecdotes, and he 
appeared such an honest chap that we took quite a 
shine to him. He was a stranger to Jewett and Fred, as 
well as to Its. In his inelegant way, Lide rightly sized 
Mr. White up, to our satisfaction, at least, when he 
said: "No man can be bad that takes as good care 
of another man's horses as that man does." 
Among the yarns told that night was one by Jewett. 
Conversation had drifted to the subject of getting lost 
in tire woods, and several stories had been told, when 
Jewett said: "Once I was cook in a barkers' camp, and 
one dark night, about 9 o'clock, we heard a rifle shot away 
off in the woods. One of ottr crowd was for answering 
right off, but I told him to wait, and not to answer unless 
there was another shot. That fellow was green, though, 
and Avould have his way, so he tired. Soon there was an 
answer, and he fired again. This brought another answer. 
Then shots began to sound in a number of directions, and 
that fool of ours kept banging away. In about an hour 
we saw lights flickering in the woods in all directions, and 
in fifteen minutes our camp was filled with the maddest 
lot of men I ever saw. I tell yoti what, they were ugly ! 
There were more of them than there were of us, and they 
came from another barkers' caiup that had located about 
two miles away the day before. They had gtms, axes 
and clubs,, and we had to talk mighty nice to avoid a 
pitched battle then and there. Finally they went away, 
but not before they had chopped ever}' stitch of clothing 
that was hanging on our clothes line to pieces. One of 
their party had fired the first shot from a rifle that had a 
cartridge stuck in the chamber, and they thought some 
one was lost when that fool of ours answered. Never 
answer the first shot you hear in the woods, unless one of 
your own party is missing. It riles men who have worked 
hard all day to go stumbling about in the woods for two 
hours at night on a fool's errand." Wm. H. Avis. 
Her First Outing. 
We had been married just a trifle over two years be- 
fore I found time to take a genuine, good, old-fashioned 
camp. .\ friend and I had been making arrangements 
all summer for a fall trip, and one autumn evening as 1 
was packing the grub chest, I heard a voice say: "I 
wish I were going with you." All -I could say was. "I 
wish so, too," adding, "You shall go next year." The 
next day John gave up the trip, owing to some pressing 
commercial transaction, and as I told my wife at dinner 
hour that she was to accompany me this ytar. her joy 
knew no bounds. 
Our luggage was transported to the river by rail and 
■wagon, we following by train when the final day came, 
llie next morning when we awoke, black, wet clouds were 
seen scurrying from the northwest; a chill wind blew, and 
it looked like rain any minute. But to the query whether 
5he wished to start on such day, you wauld have thought 
the sun was beaming brightly and everything auspicious 
for a pleasant trip, as she replied, "Of course. I expected 
this kind of weather camping out." So we started loiter- 
ing down the old slotigh, coming out upon the Father of 
Waters, everything new and novel to her 'nature-loving 
ej-es. How she loved the water, the wild woods, the 
green fields and running streams, uttering exclamations 
of delight and surprise at each turn of the creek as new 
beauties were brought to view. 
The camping place reached and all the luggage packed 
to the Old cabin, we prepared dinner and had just seated 
ourselves around the frugal meal, when it began to 
blow and rain, while we congratulated ourselves on our 
good luck in getting settled before the storm broke. 
Then followed a week of pleasant, idle days, during 
which we hunted, fished and boated, her chief delight 
being to sit in the stern of the boat and float idly with 
the current as the warm sun tempered the autumn air 
with a delicious, languorous sensation hard to describe, but 
most delightful to enjoy and appreciate. 
We did not get a great amount of game, for we had 
come out to rest, not to work; but we had just enough 
to keep the kettle full in case of company, and there were 
growing appetites that kept the surplus down if the com- 
pany failed to appear. 
We took long walks through the aged timber, watched 
the turning of the leaves. We watched the autumn fogs 
and mists settle over the river at eventide, and saw them 
rise and evaporate under the sun's influence at dawn. 
We saw the wild fowl in the evenings as they hurried 
south on swift beating wings, and heard their gabble as 
they fed in the neighboring rice lakes, and we saw 
great flocks of blue herons on their annual pilgrimage, and 
heard their discordant squawks as they flew laboriously 
along the watercourses. We saw where the muskrat and 
coon had been feeding the night before, and heard the 
screech and hoot of the owl in the big timber. We saw 
the snipe and plover come in on snappy, frosty evenings, 
and had glorious sport with them next day on marsh and 
upland. We heard and saw immense flocks of blackbirds 
as they settled down among the rice beds in the evening, 
and listened to their melodious chucklings as they fed 
next morning. In short, we seemed to see and hear, enjoy 
and appreciate every atom of the wild, wild woods life 
around us, and were happy and contented, with no cares 
or worries, and when it was all over, my wife vowed 
that her first trip would not be the last. 
E. K. Stedman. 
The English Sparrow in Texas. 
San Angelo, Tex., Oct. 26. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
While I am not a friend of the English sparrow, it has 
occurred to me from my knowledge and observation of 
him that perhaps to some extent he has been unjustly 
assailed in the United States generally. My personal 
acquaintance with him, however, is of only about five 
years' standing, and that in this city alone. 
He made his advent here about five years since, and for 
the last three years has been in full force. 
Having been a reader of Foest and Stream for the 
last twenty years, and having of course imbibed from 
the columns thereof that there was no good in him, and 
that no native bird could withstand his combative "crim- 
inal aggressions," and being a lover of all bird life, wild 
natives especially, I was certainly sorely grieved for the 
sad fate in store for my little friends ' when I learned 
for the first time that their enemy of extermination had 
arrived; and you may be sure that I have kept a close 
watch upon him ever since, and now desire to record the 
result of my observations. 
This city comprises 5,000 inhabitants or more. The 
surroundings are principally prairie, with timber inter- 
spersed, enough for ample supply of bird life. In the 
city we have; one nice park of about five acres, well set 
to a variety of shade and ornamental trees, among which 
are quite a number of Russian mulberries, which bear 
fruit annually in the greatest profusion. The mulberries 
also adorn many of the streets and private residences, as 
also do many other varieties and shrubs, aff'ording an at- 
tractive habitation for all of our native birds. "The birds 
have availed themselves most liberally. A partial list 
includes red and white crested song sparrows, chipping 
sparrows, orioles, wrens, redbirds, finches, mockingbirds, 
scissor-tails, tomtits, grackles, blackbiruo, ^owt)irds- 
American cuckoos, Mexican canaries, and many others. 
These birds were in bountiful supply, and on friendly 
terms with all, and cheering us throughout the year with 
their merry songs, at the time of the advent of this 
much detested "vermin of tlie air." I have kept a close 
watch upon him ever since. 
Of course he has pre-empted every available nesting 
place in and about the eaves and gutters of the buildings, 
barns and otithouses; and his eternal chirrup, chirrup can 
be heard at all times of the day; but I have never yet 
seen him in combat with, any of the native birds, nor 
have the natives seemed in any way to have abandoned 
the premises, but are still in full force and as exuberant 
of song and good cheer as ever. 
Just back of my office, on the rear of an adjoining lot, 
is a small grove of cottonwood trees now in full leaf, 
making a dense foliage, and the English sparrows have 
selected it as a roosting place, and every evening about 
6 o'clock they swarm into this grove for their night's 
rest by the thousands. On yesterday evening I was 
watching them from my window coming into this roost- 
ing place, when I discovered quite a number of grackles 
and blackbirds among them. On closer observation, and 
watching them until the grove was fairly alive with bird 
life, and staying until they had settled down to their 
night's repose, I was satisfied that at least one-third of 
the number were grackles, and that all roosted together 
that night in that grove on the most intimate and 
friendly terms. 
That he is combative and will contend for his rights 
there is no question, for I haVe seen them fight each other 
to the death. 
I remember reading several years since a communica- 
tion from Goodrich Jones to one of our local papers, in 
which he stated that he saw in the city of Waco, in this 
State, a combat between English sparrows and a butcher 
bird, in which the butcher came out victorious, killing 
five of his adversaries in the battle and coming out hini^ 
self unscathed. But Mr. Jones did not state which side 
brr'tght on the engagement. 
