42 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 20, 1901. 
♦ 
Companions on Outings. 
Go It Alone with Yoor Guide Unless You Know Your 
Companion from the Ground Up, 
On the Avhole I am inclined to agree with Mr. Avis 
(in the issue of July 6) in knowing your guide and ma- 
king him your Fidus Achates on fishing or hunting trip. 
How many trips have been abandoned before comple- 
tion or made jaunts of misery because of the uncon- 
genialty oi the members of the party? You may think 
3'ou know your friend, but a week in a boat or under 
canvas will thoroughly disabuse you. There are those 
who have tramped and paddled together and have been 
inseparable companions in the woods and upon _ the 
waters for years, until one or the other travels the wide 
river and crosses alone to rest in the shade of the trees, 
leaving his friend of A^ears to either give up his yearly 
trips or in future take them alone in company with the 
guide. 
There are .such cases, but they are shining exceptions 
to the rule. 
I can imagine no more inharmoniously disastrous pro- 
cedure than five young fellows starting off on a fishing 
or shooting trip with a view of keeping in one party. 
All the chances point to divisions and rows before the 
party has been in camp twenty-four hours. With a single 
companion I- have had my patience tried. The route 
being mapped and planned, before two daj'S had elapsed, 
umst that be changed — -or a row precipitated. 
There are many kinds of companions. The man who 
has forgotten more about the woods and waters than 
the guide ever knew makes trouble. While the guide is 
carefully but surely making his way through the faintly 
blazed woods will our companion tell him a dozen times 
that he is off the trail and is going north when he 
should be going west. Yet the guide smiles and keeps 
on. From the making of the lean-to and the arranging 
of the beds of hemlock tips to the frying of the fish 
and. making of the coffee will the guide learn that he is 
doing it "all wrong." 
In fact, nothing that the guide does is really right, 
and our compam'on tells him so frequently, and yet the 
guide smiles and deviates not from the way he has here- 
tofore done and pleased. 
The guide who knows every sunken, rock, submerged 
log and deep .spring-hole in the lake, will be told where 
they all are or .should be. Our companion will never be 
in attune with the goings on, invariably wanting to do 
other than the guide recommends. If the guide sug- 
gests and urges fishing up the lake because of most 
favorabJe conditions, our friend Avill surely want to try 
the stream instead, and vice versa. 
Contrariness seems to be his beaten path^ and he keeps 
right in it. 
He will sometimes let selfishness crop out, and if there 
is anvthing from the best seat in the boat, the dryest 
side of the lean-to, or the lightest load, he is on the 
alert for all. 
He is sometimes given to profanity, not on rare occa- 
sions, such as the losing of a big trout after a long fight 
through some unforeseen cause, when a sudden explosion 
might be overlooked and pardoned, but he incessantly 
keeps it up. I remember shooting on a small slough 
r'sleo") with a chance companion; he in his boat but 
a hundred feet away from mine, but hidden among the 
tall wild rice. Well, that poor retriever of his never will 
reach the dog's heaven if that man's invectives have any 
weight with the deity who looks after the future of 
canines. T had one solid afternoon of blood-curdling, 
crystallized, frozen profanity, and I resolved never to 
swear again myself. It certainly was a terrible example. 
It, in this case, happened to be just an afternoon's shoot- 
ing; a week's companionship with my newly found pro- 
fane friend would have been insupportable. - 
Of course in such a ca,se you quickly find out the cali- 
ber of your companion and make no further trips with 
him. , J , 
A week in the woods will bring out the weak and the 
strong points in a companion — cementing -or loosening 
the bonds of friendship already formed, ' ' ' ' '. 
Mr. Avis' picture of the man and guide is a true one. 
Tt is simply a case of to wish and to have. No con- 
sultation, no arguments, no disagreements; in kct, 
•'chewing of the rag" is simply an unknown condition. 
The guide is a reflection of the will of the employer. 
Quick, respectful, willing, apt and intelligent, he is ever 
on the alert to do all those things best suited to the occa- 
sion and incidentally the comfort and pleasure of the 
hunter or fisherman. There are many who so thor- 
oughly appreciate the comfort and enjoyment of owning 
one's guide that nothing will tempt such to go into the 
woods with a companion. , 
While along these lines T might relate a day s expe- 
rience in a boat with a companion. A jolly, good- 
natured German had many times importuned me to go 
fishing with him, but I had always managed to excuse 
myself from the ordeal, knowing him to be a steel-rod- 
three-hooked-catch-everything-in-sight sort of a fellow. 
Yet he was, as people go, a good fellow. Pourth oj 
Julv approached and again he turned up. He showed 
me'a telegram from Lake Osakis, on the Great Northern 
Railroad, that read of hungry and mighty bass being 
freely taken, I invented many excuses against going, 
all of which were met until the situation finally resolved 
itself into one where I must refuse point blank to go 
fishing with him and offend him, which I -was disinclined 
*°Ami I went. And such a day! Mein Gott! He fished 
with two steel rods at one and the same time. He used 
a spoon with the accompanying three grappling hooks. 
He used bait in addition, grabbing a handful of minnows 
from the pail, losing the bulk of them and finally hook- 
ing two minnows to each prong of the grappling iron. 
Seated in the stern of the boat he set his two lines adrift 
at the same time, tucking a steel rod under each thigh, 
sitting on the rods practically. . . 
Discounting the situation, I was indifl'creiil ■j.s to the 
fishing an4 was slow m putting my rdi together; when 
the man in the stern gave a yell and jumped on his feet, 
just saving his rod from being pulled into the water 
by the bass that had struck. The second rod accom- 
modatingly tumbled intb the bottom of the boat as he 
arose, instead of falling overboard and sinking, as it 
should have done ordinarily. 
He held his rod in two hands and jerked that bass 
for all he was worth, and in doing so the reel fell loose 
from the rod, dropped into the minnow bucket at his 
feet, the bass taking out line, the reel meanwhile spin- 
ning around in the bottom of the pail. Consternation 
seized my companion, and in his helplessness he reached 
out the rod to me. I succeeded in saving the bass for 
him. 
I then read, him a lecture on fishing with two rods at 
one and, the same time, but to no avail; and the hook- 
baiting process having been gone through again both 
lines were once more in the water trailing fifty feet 
behind the boat. 
Again a strike — on the second rod — and as he grabbed 
at the. rod and jumped I b}^ the merest good luck saved 
the other ' od from falling into the lake. He had been hasty 
in affixing his recks, for again the reel fell free from the 
rod. Instead of a,gain handing me his rod to land his 
fish he this time reached along his rod, bending the tip 
double, and seizing the line pulled the bass in hand over 
hand. The line was strong, the three hooks werfe well 
down the bass' gullet and there wa.s nothing to do but 
come along. ' ' ' _ '• ' . 
It was an exciting day in a boat, especially during the 
process of casting, when it became a matter of expediency 
for me to keep well under cover froin the swishing 
hooks. ■- 
This was tsiniply; an experience, but I had more- to 
blame for it because I went with my eyes wide open. 
Some one has said that no boat was ever made large 
enough to permit more than one man to cast a fly or 
bait at the one and the same time. I surely agreed with 
the author of that saying, as I dodged those doubly 
baited, triple pronged hooks. 
To conclude, unless you knew your companion back 
Several generations, go it alone and stick to your guide — 
and risk being looked upon as selfish and exclusive. 
Ch.\rles Cristadoro. 
The Great Dismal Swamp. 
The Great Dismal Swamp is a region strange and in- 
teresting, weird and solitary. It occupies a billowy plain 
some forty miles in length by twenty-five miles in breadth 
along the "Atlantic seaboard, extending from Suffolk. Va., 
in a southerly direction, well into the bounds of Nofth 
Carolina. Its eastern boundary is outlined by certain 
dune-like elevations in Princess Anne county, Va,, stretch- 
ing from Norfolk, Va., to Elizabeth City. N. C, while its 
western boundary is determined by a well-defined escarp- 
ment known as the Nansemond Shore Line, beginning at 
Suffolk and continuing to Albemarle Sound, N. C._ Its 
deep shadesj great stretches of brake and its very solitude 
make it a region of interest. To the naturalist and sportb- 
man it has much to offer. In its silent fastnesses, the 
black bear finds a home admirably adapted to his protec- 
tion and in every way favorable to his increase. Here, 
amid the dense growth of underbrush and timber, he 
may live in comparative safety. And there is perhaps no 
locality in the whole Eastern United States, of like ex- 
tent, which can offer a larger bear population than this 
great morass. The white-tailed deer is also an abundant 
denizen of the swamp, frequenting die elevated parts. In 
addition to the deer and bears, ther« is a big-game feature 
of a rather unusual nature. The swamp abounds in wild 
cows. These anirnals, of a brown color and somewhat 
smaller than the ordinary cow, having for many years been 
under the peculiar conditions of the swamp, until they 
are almost completely specialized, are extremely wild. 
They are feralized from the herds of the farms adjacent 
to the swamp and are the descendants of cattle which 
many years back wandered into the fastnesses and were 
lost to their owners, finally becoming wild. Being no 
longer recognized as property, the sportsman may call 
game all that he may have the prowess to shoot. 
. Lake Drummond,'some ten miles from Suffolk, Va., is 
the only great body of water in the swamp. It is a beau- 
tiful sheet of water, of an oval contour, and fringed^ with 
a heavy growth of timber, mostly cypress {T ax odium) , 
white cedar and black gum. Its water is of a dark color, 
owing to the decaying vegetation of the surrounding 
country, but is suitable to drink, and possesses the quality 
of remaining pure longer .than most other water. For this 
reason it is often carried to Sea by sailors on long 
voyages. 
The characteristic mammalian fauna is of a semi-trop- 
ical nature as regards the smaller" forms, while there are 
many tropical plants. Of birds there are not many kinds, 
prothonotary. hooded and Swainsoii's warblers and the 
Maryland yellowthroat being the principal smaller forms. 
The trees." some of which are primeval, are large and 
beautiful, while there is a luxuriant growth of ferns and 
aquatic plants, Cane grows in profusion. 
The whole region is one of romantic aspect, and it is a 
beautiful sight to see Lake Drummond by moonlight. The 
giant cypresses, with their gnarled, outstret<:hing limbs, 
stand out in sharp silhouette, and the silvery light on 
the lake contrasts strikingly with the surrounding coun- 
trv, 'darkened by the dense growth of timber and tangled 
vegetation. The shore line appears a black, encircling 
rim. with here and there the sharp point of a peninsula, in- 
terrupting the even aspect and adding ruggedness. From 
the ,lDog comes the deep croaking of frogs, and sometimes 
in the canebrakes the noise of some animal crashing its 
way along. Save for these sounds of nature._ the region 
seems wrapped in an awesome stillness. Myriads of fire- 
flies send out their glowing lights. And as the watcher 
looks out upon the lake, he may recall with a thrill 
Thomas Moore's great poem. "The Lake of the Dismal 
Swamp." The scene is beautiful, and after a view of it 
we can well understand how came the impression that 
inspired "The Lake of the Dismal Swamp." 
As a whole, the region is full of natural beauty, replete 
with scenery of a very unusual nature, and pervaded with 
an atmosphere weird and romantic. 
Joii V W. Dan a EL, Jk. 
LVKCHBVRG, Va. 
PecuHarities!"of [Indian : Ponies. 
In the. summer ot 1885, while conducting a survey in 
the Northwest Territory, for the Canadian Government, I 
had some interesting experiences in connection with In- 
dian horses, some of which are related here. 
There were at that time still a few of these remaining 
that had been trained by the Indians as buffalo runners. 
As a general thing the movement of these buffalo runners 
with a rider in the saddle was that of an easy lope. So 
easy, indeed, was their movement that a rider was 
scarcely iarred at all. These intelligent animals were 
trained to follow the buffalo of their own accord, and in 
many cases they would do this entirely without the use of 
the bridle. 
It was my good fortune on the expedition referred to 
to secure one of these well-trained Indian horses. As a 
saddle horse it was hard to find his equal. But for several 
weeks he appeared to balk whenever attached to a cart or 
wagon. It was naturally concluded that the horse had 
not been used to this kind of labor, and he was seldom 
called upon to perform it. Occasionally, however, when 
ascending steep hills and the wagon load proved too great 
for a single team, one or more of our saddle horses was 
hitched on ahead of the other team as a temporary assist- 
.ant. One afternoon anotiier was tried in turn, but in 
every case big Pinto, our faithful saddle horse and old 
buffalo runner, refused to pull. He was attached in the 
usual way by means of collar and traces to the end of the 
\y agon pole and would simply walk ahead without even 
tightening his traces, Various means were tried to teach 
Pinto to work in this way. On one occasion where our 
entire wagon with its contents was in danger of rolling 
backward into the river, a whip was applied vigorously to 
Puito'.^ hide, but without effect. The loss of wagon and 
provisions in a wild country where it would be impossible 
to secure new supply would endanger the very existence 
of our party, so that measures v.'ere taken rather more 
severe than usual to save tlie load from going backward 
down the hill. As whipping was of no use a fire brand 
was made and applied to the horse's bellv and also applied 
to his haunches, but still the brute would' not pull a pound. 
.Another of the men mounted his back and a number of 
times discharged the heaviest rifle, thinking to scare the 
beast into action. These and other means all failed. Just 
then a party of Indians came along and informed us that 
Pinto had been trained to pull only when fastened by the 
tad. It seemed an inhuman thing, and vet in our desperate 
condition the plan was tried. No sooner did Pinto find 
himself properly harnessed than away he went up the hill 
with his load, and ever after when the services of an ex- 
tra horse were required Pinto was attached in this way 
ropes being tightly wound about his tail and fastened 
to the wagon pole. H. G. Tyrreli., C. E. 
The . Heretic and the Caiman. 
On the afternoon of Feb. 27, 1899, I was sitting in a 
stciimer chair under a magnificent mango tree on the 
bank of the Nechi River "Where in the world is the 
Nechi Rn-er?" In Colombia. South America. It runs 
into the Cauca, Avhich is the largest branch of the Mag- 
dalena, and bears the same relation to the latter that 
the Missouri does to the Mississippi. -How did you 
come across a steamer chair in that out of the way 
region? I bought it for 75 cents, in Kingston, Jamaica 
on my way down; brought it several hundred miles up 
stream from Barranquilla on a steamboat, and then up 
the Nechi in a canoe. If you want to hear about what 
i did that afternoon, listen, but do not interrupt me 
^"u'^^,^^''"^^^ °^ ^^^"9 ^ ^ »"ack of la grippe 
and by the end of January was in poor condition. The 
doctor said: "What you must do is to go away; to get 
an entire change of air and everything else." 
"Go where?" I asked. 
"Anywhere; I don't care where you go so you get 
away from here. You must get out of Washington." 
"Does It make any difference which wav I go?" 
"Not a bit, only so you go somewhere; and you want 
to go as soon as you can." 
"How would South America do? I could go look at 
our place down there and see what it is like." 
"Why, yes; that's all right. That is the very idea" 
"But, remember, doctor, it will be only six or seven 
degrees from the equator; all sorts of things to eat and 
water to drink, lots of mosquitoes, canoe travel on the 
rivers and malaria to suck in." , 
"It don't make any difference: you will be out of doors 
niost all the time with plenty of exercise. You will be 
in the woods a good deal, won't you? You're always 
right ^vhen you are there. As for malaria, I will put 
you up a lot of capsules, two grains of quinine in each 
with some pepsin and stuff so they will not upset your 
stomach, and you can take one every night when" you 
go to bed. That's a capital idea. Good-by; I'll see you 
again before you go." 
I took the doctor at his word. With Col. Dunstan 
as a companion I left New York on the Atlas line 
steamer of Feb. 10, 1899 and had the satisfaction of en- 
joying—or perhaps I shoidd say enduring— the great 
blizzard of that time off the coast, at sea, in 
stead of on shore among the snowdrifts. We reached 
Barranquilla near noon on the 20th; left there the next 
morning at 7 o'clock by steamboat and early in the 
morning of the 24th got off 'at Boca del Nechi, the 
steamer going on up the Cauca. During the day we 
hunted up some canoemen and engaged them to take 
us eighteen leagues up the Nechi. " Next morning we 
started at 8:15 o'clock in a large dugout some thirty 
or more feet long, Dunstan and I with out two trunks, 
amidship: the captain of the craft in the stern with a 
paddle and a light pole for emergencies. The crew, con- \ 
sisting of one man. who did the poling, was for- 
ward. The river has a rapid current and the 
water was too high for good traveling, as we 
had to hug one bank or the other all the while, 
cro-ssing from side to side now and then to avoid swift 
water or to get good bottom for poling. At 10 o'clock 
we stopped for a few minutes in the shade of an over- 
hanging tree while the crew ate a bite of fish and cassava 
bread. At a quarter befrtre twelve we tied up for bi'eak- 
l'aR4-, which was over in half an hour, and wc were on 
our way again. At 7 in the evening we landed at a 
