802 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec 28, zgoi. 
Tor;;€brl$tma$ Reading, 
Selling the Bear's Hide. 
There is said to be a somewhat improvident aspect 
attributable to the vending of an ursine pelt while its 
putative owner still slouches through the underbrush, and 
ambles contentedly along the runways of his native plan- 
tations wearing it on his back. With this wise, ancien't 
and but little known saying I have been led to agree by 
reason of certain occurrences some years since. 
To put it succinctly, I sold for five dollars a live bear's 
hide really worth — as near as we could judge at forty 
yards — about twelve , dollars and a half (less, of course, 
whatever one might estimate to be the value of the ex- 
pense and trouble of taking it of! the body and legs it 
was attached to). 
I had gone into the woods with a couple of friends 
and some Indians. Gradually, as is usual in such cases, 
we had separated ourselves from one comfort of exist- 
ence after another until we had attained to the first half 
of that desideratum known as plain living and high 
thinking. 
. We had reached a region which seemed to promise 
fairly, and had gone into more or less permanent camp 
on the border of a sizeable lake. Two or three days 
failed to result in anything more than ordinary sport, 
and I determined to take one of the Indians and return 
a short distance on our trail to a locality which had at- 
tracted my attention on our way m. It was not more 
than a three or four hours' journey, and by starting at 
or about midnight opportunity would be afYorded for the 
thorough exploitation of a theory which I entertained 
concerning it. 
The natural conditions of the place had seemed proiijis- 
ing. At about the middle of one of the four or five arms, 
each several miles long, of a star-shaped lake the shores 
approached each other, and the waterway was the more 
Contracted by the presence of two little islands, rocky 
but well wooded which lay in a line, the one perliaps 
twenty yards beyond the other. The space between" the 
islands and the shore on the northerly side had gradually 
filled in until a continuous meadow and marsh connected 
them with the forest which clothed the mountain sides 
and descended abruptly at that point. The waters of 
the lake still persisted, however, between the islands, in- 
denting the front of the marsh with a little bay, and of 
course extended between them and the southerly shore, 
though a number of rocks stood high above the water, 
and tlae depth in one or two places was but a few inches. 
It had seemed to me, from our being compelled to 
get out and lighten the heavy laden canoes for a few 
feet over the shallow, when coming past this place, that 
any reasonable and reasoning animal would prefer to 
cross here, almost dryshod, rather than to go round four 
or five miles or else to swim the lake, as he would other- 
wise be compelled to, and I felt fairly confident of finding 
one or more well-defined runways leading across the lit- 
tle islands. 
We started shortly after midnight, making our way 
through the woods back to this lake by lantern light, 
and_ taking with us very little, a canoe, a twist of tea, 
a minute kettle, a couple of hard biscuit, a cake of choco- 
late, an ax, a rifle and a few cartridges^ Reaching the 
head of one arm of the lake we took to the canoe, fol- 
lowed the arm down to the main body of water, crossed 
this with the moist, fresh, mysterious night wind in our 
faces, and the liquid voices of the night waves speaking 
to us from the bow of the canoe, and entered the long, 
narrow arm in which the islands lay. 
Landing just before the first gray dawn at the extreme 
rear of the nearer islet, we hid the canoe, pushed our way 
through the brush and passed along the backbone of the 
island to gain its other end, from which the marsh, the 
little bay and the ford between the islands and the 
further shore could be most fully kept under survey. 
It was as I had supposed. Before reaching the other 
end of the island, a scant fifty yards, we crossed one 
and stopped at the second of two narrow but palpable 
runways leading up from the marsh over the island and 
down to the ford. The second of these runways was 
just within the edge of the patch of woods which covered 
the island's top, and sitting down by it we had before us, 
throtigh the thin brush, on our left the marsh, in front 
the little bay and the other island, on our right the two 
fords, one between the island in front of us and the shore 
of the lake, the other on our extreme right leading from 
the island on which we were. 
As day came and I sat watching the twigs and leaves 
of the bushes, the needles of the spruce trees, and the 
other details of forest civilization grow distinct, I thought 
of the robber baron whose castle was so often perched 
on some convenient pinnacle above a ford, and how if 
one in this world sat oneself down by a ford and waited, 
either the merchant from Frankfort with his many bales 
of cured pelts, or the natural-history-museum-specimen 
with his solitary uncured pelt would come by sooner or 
later and pay toll. 
The rule is substantially invariable. The lines of least 
resistance on the face of nature are the valleys and the 
fords, and even Ephraim and his cousins when they 
journey from one lair to another are apt to travel by 
the same road which the pursy burgher, the sleek cit 
and the wandering tinker have always found most suited 
to_ their respective deficiencies. Therefore were we jus- 
tified in waiting with calm confidence that which must 
betidel 
Nevertheless all signs fail in a dry time— which is more 
proverbial philosophy presented to the gentle reader free 
of charge. 
The woods might, indeed, be full of fur running round 
lookmg for owners, but no personal property of that am- 
bulatory nature seemed desirous on that day of going 
to Bagdad to see the king, or wherever else 'it was that 
t:be forest highways led to, and some hours of contempla- 
tion passed none too quickly before the first victim 
walked into the trap. 
Indians are supposed to be the most impassive of mor- 
tals. If the statement be true, then the event which oc- 
curred must have been out of the ordinar>', for after ab- 
solute silence had prevailed for a long time, my com- 
panion gave a sudden start, uttered an exclamation of 
surprise, if not alarm, and rose to his feet. I turned to- 
ward him in considerable disgust which changed to as- 
tonishment when he somewhat deprecatingly said in his 
halting French: 
"A man came from the forest and made gestures to- 
ward me with a cane." 
"What man?" I said. "He could not see you." 
''He came out and made gestures with a cane and went 
back in the woods," he said. 
"Whereabouts?" 1 inquired. 
"There," he said, pointing to the southern shore of the 
lake beyond our island. 
"What did he look like?" was not unnaturally my next 
inquiry. 
"An old man with a long beard," said the Indian. 
Of course by this time it was apparent to me what 
had happened. The Wandering Jew was loose, and hav- 
ing exhausted the byways of civilization, was sauntering 
through the trackless forest. Or else Chamisse was right 
and "that very learned work of Ticckins" was in er'-or 
and Peter Schlemihl's seven-leagued boots were not yet 
worn out. An old man with a long beard who came out 
of the woods and made gestures with a cane was a set of 
circumstances which admitted of no other rational de- 
duction. 
"There he is again," said the Indian, suddenly. 
This time I saw him, too; he was nearer than before, 
an old man with a long gray beard and a staff, working 
his way with great difficulty along the shore of the lake. 
Now, I have no objection to old men or young men 
wandering through the forest, but the permanent inhabi- 
rants of the woods don't like them, and it was apparent 
to me that if any one with whom I could traffic and do 
business was to cross the ford that day, the quicker 
the Wandering Jew was sent on about his own affairs 
the better; so I said to my companion: 
"Well, go back and get the canoe and go over for 
him and bring him here." 
As we were now both standing up, our unexpected 
guest caught sight of us and renewed his obnoxious "ges- 
tures with his cane;" which greeting so alarmed toy su- 
perstitious associate that he respectfully but firmly de- 
clined to play Charon to our unknown visitant. How- 
ever, I hallooed across to the wanderer, arid established 
the fact that he was looking for us and had letters, had 
left his camp companions only a few iniles below* and 
thinking we were nearer than we actually were, had 
pushed on by himself. Not unnaturally he had gotten 
himself lost and was glad to see us. 1 theii peirsuaded 
my attendant to go to him in the canoe and bring him 
over. 
His statelVights proved to be accurate; he had a bundle 
of despatches and letters. Selecting such as were for me, 
I turned him over to the Indian with instructions to take 
him on to our camp, as he needed food and rest, to 
leave the canoe at the lake and immediately on arriving 
eitker to return himself or send sbttie one oadk to bi^irig 
the canoe to me, as even at that it would be after night 
tall before I reached camp. 
They having departed, I made up my mind that it 
would be a long time now before anything came to the 
ford. Too much shouting and tramping around in the 
woods affects unfavorably the nerves of their denizens. 
Moreover, it was now near the middle of the morning, 
and I doubted if the highway would be much traveled 
until late afternoon. I therefore boiled the kettle, made a 
birch-bark dish full of tea, smoked a pipeful of tobacco 
and lay down to take a nap. A steady drizzle had set in, 
which, however, as it had been more than anticipated, did 
not trouble me, for I was in greased beef hide moccasins, 
and wore rubber overalls and a short rubbei coat with a 
close-fitting hood. 
^ • ■ ; , 3 
After an hour or so I was awakened by a cheeping and 
twittering and found a queer little fat bird with a much 
perked up tail, presumably some variety of nuthatch, 
hopping about from twig to twig in my immediate 
vicinity, turning its head from side to side and inspecting 
me with critical care. I sat up quietly, whereupon he 
promptly flew away some ten or twelve feet, and then, 
emboldened to believe by toy absolute stillness that I 
was not alive after all, he returned and resumed his 
research after more accurate knowledge concerning this 
new 'forest growth. 
All the most exaggerated expressions for perfect quiet 
would fail to convey to your mind the unwinking rigidity 
with which I sat for the space of fifteen or twenty minutes 
while my small friend hopped about me. nearer and 
nearer, chirping every now and then, and attempting to 
elucidate to his own satisfaction the puzzle which was 
presented to his mind. Finally, incited by a curiosity 
which, had he been human, would have argued him of 
the female persuasion, he hopped on to my knee. Find- 
ing the experiment unattended with danger, the next 
step was to my shoulder, from which he attempted to 
peer round the rubber hood into my face. This being 
only partly satisfactory, a little flutter came next, and in 
an outburst of temerity he alighted for the thousandth 
part of a second on my nose. He was undoubtedly im- 
pressed with the conviction that he was dealing with 
.some not only unknown and terrifying but dangerous ob- 
ject through my involuntarily winking and wrinkling my 
nose when he fluttered into my face, for that was the last 
I saw of my small friend. He was gone so absolutely and 
instantly that the disappearing lady at the magician's 
show would have expired with envy had she witnessed it. 
This was bad business, for it left me only a squirrel 
for company, and he was very angry with me and re- 
garded me as an intruder, as I doubtless was, and did not 
hesitate to sit upon a fallen tree trunk at a safe distance 
and express his views in what I judged to be no measured 
terms. Finding me deaf to all reason and argument, he 
also departed and the day wore quietly on till mid-after- 
noon. 
Nature, in her bountiful care that all her creatures 
shall have a fair chance, had suspended the drizzle, in 
the midst of which 1 had fallen asleep, presumably for 
the express purpose of allowing the nuthatch and the 
squirrel to act their little parts in the day's play. These 
light interludes being complete, the quiet leaden clouds 
came down a little nearer the surrounding mountain tops 
and the business of replenishing the reservoirs of moss, 
that the streams might not run dry and the trout go with- 
out their perpetual baths or the beavers find the build- 
ing of dams a useless art, was resumed. The great de- 
luging thunder storms run oft' the face of the land to roar 
down the brooks and swell the streams to torreyits. But 
the soft, quiet, drizzling rain seems to have the quality 
of soaking in and staying. A sort of special deposit td 
be drawn on from time to time as necessity arises, lest 
the caribou should miss the pleasant sight of the water- 
fall amid the rocks, or the otter go without the consola- 
tory and gleeful splash at the end of his slide. 
Perhaps another hour had passed when I heard over 
my left shoulder my returning Indian coming through 
the brush. I was amazed and indignant that he should 
make so much noise. In sulky silence I waited. On a 
sudden it flashed across my mind that it was impossible 
that anyone should have reached camp and returned by 
that time. Moreover, although some seconds had elapsed 
since ! first heard him, the moving in the brush con- 
tinued without apparently advancing. I turned my head 
cautiously round and looked to the north and a little 
behind me. The slight breeze had been easterly all day, 
which indeed had dictated "the position I occupied; one 
from which, as much of the marsh and fords as was 
compatible with holding them under scrutiny would be 
up wind from me. But there, coming across the marsh, 
and though not actually down wind, still fairly quarter^- 
ing up wind toward me, nibbling at the grass, swishing 
their short tails from time to time in quiet contentment, 
and generally behaving as though they were the sole occu- 
pants of the universe, and dreaded neither hindrance nor 
opposition, was a young caribou bull with his cow and 
yearling calf. They were perhaps fifty yards away when 
I first saw them, and it was doubtless from the fact that 
I was Cold, from having lain so still, and was clothed 
in wet rubber from head to foot, that they had not 
scented me. 1 presume, as indeed the facts show, that 
the conditions were such that there was very little scent 
and that my envelopment of rubber and water acted as 
a practical non-conductor. There was not a head among 
them which 1 wanted. Moreover it approached uncom- 
fortably near murder to open fire under the circum- 
stances, while to break up an interesting a/.d peaceful 
faiiiily, cohtehted ^vith its lot and pursuing its own 
avocations witjiou: interfeting -With the_ community at 
large, seemed hardly desirable, I remained, therefo'e, 
immovable, curious to see how near they would coiil€, 
for they were palpably making for the narrow runway on 
one edge of which I sat. Loitering unconcerned they 
approached and paused at the steeo little ascent for a 
last nibble at the marsh grass antf the bushes. They 
were somewhat below me, and, as near as 1 could judge, 
yotl could havfc touched the nearest one with an ordinary 
trout rod. Gathering myself together, J sprang to my 
feet, waving my arms wildly in the air and Uttering a silc- 
cession of piercing and blood-curdling yells. Perhaps tli€ 
effect on the little caribou family can be best judged from 
the depth of their last front tracks, which I afterward 
innpected. They drove their front feet deep into the 
marsh, whirled in the air and departed in three several 
directions. Across the marsh they fled, three grayish 
brown streaks of flying fear. I grabbed up the rifle and 
fired a shot into the matsh behind them. What they 
thought had happened to the island 1 do not know, but 
can well surmise. Doubtless in after years the young 
bull, become the patriarch of some herd on the Ungava 
barrens, leading his followefs in a mad race from the 
mosquitoes Up to some little eminence to stamp and 
shake themselves and let the wind blow their pestilential 
annoyances far down to leeward, would recount to hi.^ 
admiring catellites: "Speaking of haste, you know," how, 
"on one occasioil a iiew volcano opened suddenly before 
his astonished eyes on a small island down in the lake 
district," and how he "had ever thereafter given one par- 
ticular star-shaped lake as wide a berth as fate and his 
recollection of its ex,act whereabouts permitted." 
In the meanwhile, however, there is one thing to be 
said to the credit of the young bull. Crossing the marsh 
his cow had veered to the left to skirt the mountain sid«; 
rather than to face its sharp and rugged slope, and 
naturally her calf trailed after her. The bull, with hh 
greater strength, mad with terror, had faced the moun- 
tain, and two gigantic bounds had carried him more yards 
up its slope than one would readily believe. In an instant 
it was evident, however, that he saw that his family had 
fled to the left. Although to change his course would 
keep him nearer the danger, his better instincts prevailed. 
He swerved sharp to the left, and slanting down the 
mountain side disappeared behind his vanished wife and 
son. 
It was not until I had ceased laughing that it suddenly 
occurred to me that while I had been having fun with 
the caribou, I had spoiled the ford for a couple of hours. 
There was nothing in the woods that was within ear-shot 
and making for the ford but had suddenly become con- 
vinced that some other highway had superior attractions; 
and my brief amusement would doubtless cost me a 
further long period of waiting. Under the circumstances 
a pipeful of tobacco could do no harm, and for the next 
half hour or so I sat and smoked and concluded that the 
incidents of the day were probably closed. 
Something like two hours afterward I tendered a silent 
apology to the North American savage at having im- 
agined the approaching caribou to have been my return- 
ing Indian. The reason for my so doing was that a 
slight touch on my., arm alone informed me that the 
Wandering Jew wa.« safe in camp and the canoe wa.s 
back at the end of the island. We sat in silence some 
further time, but the trap caught nothing more. The 
fords remained untraversed, 
Just as day closed the hush of nature came on— the 
absolute quiet, {he desi|? of the wind, the ceasing of thf 
