July 12, 1902.3 
FOREST AND STREAM 
camp for the night where it is supposed the animals 
are about. 
On the other hand, professors of zooh:)gy insist that 
there is no such animal, but as far as I am concerned 
I think I saw one. It was squatting in the road just 
in front of me, had a coal black skin, a thin, loose- 
jointed body, a rather heavy tail with a tendency to 
bush toward the end, a square head, small ears and 
large, clear, yellow eyes. It looked to mc more like 
a panther than a jaguar, and yet it was too heavy about 
the shoulders, neck and head for a panther. 
Naturally, I wanted that animal, and there it was, all 
ready for fight. I drew my pistol, the only firearm I 
had with me, and tried to drive the mule nearer, but 
she didn't appear to like it, and began to act silly. I 
kept her head on the animal, which was crouching there 
jerking its tail from side to side with savage vehemence; 
and from time to time seemed to gather itself as if for 
a spring, and then settled back again. I was just get- 
ting near enough to consider risking a shot, and was 
trying to quiet the mule, when suddenly around the 
corner my pack train appeared on a full run, the gold 
pans clattering, the peons swearing, a tumult generally. 
The animal raised its head, looked for an instant, and 
then with a graceful bound disappeared among the ferns 
and palm trees. I was disappointed, but I never did 
have particular luck in shooting. 
An lacident in Mule Life. 
Once on a mining expedition we had among the 
mules a strong rebellious young animal that was deter- 
mined to go where and as she pleased. Sometimes her 
fancy took her along the high places above the road, 
sometimes she went down below it, then she seemed 
to have lost something, and acted as though she ex- 
pected to find it in the woods, but she had decided ob- 
jections to walking on the road, and so gave the peons 
a great deal of trouble. Finally there came to one a 
brilliant thought. I had a steady old horse, and they 
caught the ambitious mule and tied her securely to my 
horse's tail; it wasn't considerate to the horse, but it 
did fix the mule. She couldn't stop convenienth'', and 
she couldn't get past the horse, neither could she wander 
up to the hilltops or climb down among the guUeys 
without taking the horse along, too, but that was in- 
convenient. For a time all went well, but after a 
while we came to a place where the road went down be- 
tween pretty steep banks till it reached a stream of con- 
siderable volume. My horse went down the trail in a 
resigned sort of way, but the mule started along the 
bank and wouldn't come into the trail; the result was 
that presently she could go not further, and then came 
a tug of war, to see whether the horse in the gully 
could pull the mule down from the high bank or whether 
the mule could pull the horse's tail out. I scrambled 
from the saddle as fast as possible, and then the ani- 
mals seemed to come to-- an understanding; the horse 
backed up as far as he could, and the mule braced her 
fore feet and hung her head over the bank as far as 
possible, and so they stood. Presently the peons came,.- 
and untied them, and I declined to have them done up 
again; and so for the rest of the way that mule fol- 
lowed its own sweet will, "and a 'mule's' will is the 
wind's will," and the thoughts of a mule are long, long 
thoughts, incomprehensibly long. 
Apologies to the memory of America's great poet, 
Longfellow. 
Enigaas. 
Probably all who travel in tropical America will have 
some experience with eniguas, an insect resembling the 
flea. The female fastens herself to any protected place 
on one's skin, particularly under the toe nails; and then 
working her way through the outer skin forms a little 
nest and lays a multitude of eggs; these increase in 
size, and gradually develop till numerous little grubs are 
formed, which immediately begin to feed on the living 
flesh of the person who is so unfortunate as to harbor 
them. Then serious results may be expected, the pain 
is most severe, and not unfrequently the loss of one's 
feet follows, or, perhaps, blood poisoning sets in, to end 
in a most miserable death. This, however, is only among 
those who, from ignorance or other cause, allow the 
eniguas' eggs to remain under the skin till they develop 
the living grubs. Fortunately, some days pass before 
the grubs develop, while an intense itching giA^es early 
warning that something is wrong, and to remove the 
eggs is a very simple matter; usually after removing 
them an unpleasant sore is left, requiring some days 
to heal. Having had one experience with eniguas, I 
have learned to be careful. My plan of treatment is to 
remove the eggs and then drop a little permanganate of 
potash in the place from which they were taken. It 
smarts for a moment, but after that the sore dries up at 
once and gives no further trouble. During one of my 
earlier explorations in Central America I found a num- 
ber of sores on my feet looking like little boils with a 
black spot in the center of each. I thought they were 
nothing but boils, and was surprised to find a tough 
skin covering them, but by pricking this open I cleaned 
them out rather indifferently, and finding the pain re- 
lieved, thought no more about it. Later my feet began 
to pain again, presently swelling set in, till one morn- 
ing I could not put on my shoes, and then I became 
rather alarmed. 
I called one of the natives and learned that eniguas 
had attacked my feet, that I had allowed some of the 
eggs to hatch, and that now the grubs were eating intO' 
the living flesh, which might cause the loss of both my 
feet. This was serious, and the remedy they proposed 
was a thing that the bravest might srink from. I was 
told that the only way to save my feet was to let the 
ijatives strap me down on a table so that I could not 
move, while they scraped the sores with bits of glass till 
they had taken out all the grubs, and they might be 
obliged to even scrape the bones. 
I consented, of course, but the preparations sent cold 
perspiration trickling down my back. Fortunately, I 
was spared the suffering; an aid medicine woman hap- 
pened to be in camp, who said that if I would give her a 
dollar she would cure my feet in a day without cutting 
them. A dollar was no consideration, and she had it at 
once, though I must confess I doubted her. She seemed 
\o know just what she was about, and went at once to 
the woods to get sotrie herbs. Within an hour she was 
back again carrying a lot of bruised leaves crushed to- 
gether in one hand. These she roasted over the fire and 
squeezed a black liquor out of them, which she dropped 
into the sores on my feet. It seemed as though she was 
using liquid fire, but the sting was only for an instant; 
then as soon as the smarting had passed, the pain in 
m}'^ feet became easier. I had a number of other sores 
on my feet and legs which she treated, and then told " 
mc that all would be well in the morning. They cer- 
t^iinly were feeling much better, and I was decidedly re- 
lieved. She would not taken any more money, but or- 
dered me to keep quiet and she would come back to see 
me next day. 
When morning came I was surprised to find that my 
feet were perfectly cool and natural, that all the swelling 
had gone down, and that the sores were beginning to 
heal. 
They never gave me any more trouble, and when the 
medicine woman came back I determined to learn her 
secret. It was hard work, and money would not buy it; 
but finally she consented to tell me because I assured her 
it would be useful to a great many people. 
I found that what she had used was a common weed 
growing all over Olancho in Honduras; yet I have never 
met with it in any other country. 
I took samples, but, when later I showed them to doc- 
tors and manufacturing chemists, I was met with a smile 
of incredulity for my story, and informed that the pro- 
fession was abundantly supplied with antiseptics, 
Francis C. Nicholas. 
One Summer. 
All through the spring of '96 the moot question with 
the city pedagogue and his chum, Fred, was whether they 
should spend their annual fishing and camping trip in the 
old place, the valley of Dead River in Maine, or seek new 
scenes. Odd hours and evenings had been spent at the 
rooms of one or the other in smoke talks, plans and more 
active preparations. Rods had been put in order. Fly- 
books had been inspected and their contents overhauled, 
■ till the old flies on the last page, kept for the good they 
had done, actually failed to suggest another story. Tackle 
stores had been visited and the last leader, fine-snelled 
hook and bit of whipping silk, had been added till the 
stained seal covers could hardly be clasped and the stray 
ends would insist on proclaiming that the contents of the 
book was not bank bills. 
Then came the sad news of sickness in the chum's 
family, a hurried packing of his trunk, the straining 
hand grips, arid a sense of desolation for the pedagogue. 
Who cared for a trip even to the woods if Fred was 
not along? Fred, who never could understand how he 
alwaj's came to be high line, who could laugh and be 
jolly when wet to the skin in a cold drizzle with five 
miles of paddling between him and camp, and who — 
but lack of space forbids. 
After the school books had been laid aside and the 
dtist;^d turmoil of the city had been exchanged for the 
fresh breezes of his native hill town in Maine, the peda- 
gogue felt full force again the old desire to be near to 
nature's h-eart. Those who know will agree that nothing 
will satisfy this craving, but such as to lie as near to 
mother earth as a bed of boughs will permit, and to Hve 
on the fat of the land — viz., venison, chops or fried trout 
in their season. So with many regrets that the trip 
must be taken alone and many remarks from those who 
had not been thervC on the absurdity of such a proceed- 
ing, the canoe was loaded on its wheels, the rods and 
duffle were stowed tmder the buggy seat, and the fifty- 
mile drive to Dead River begun. 
On a warm, still July morning the canoe glided smooth- 
ly from the bank, pointed her nose down the river into a 
region where she must either convey the traveler or be 
conveyed bj^ him. It is nine miles of lazy, even paddling 
over the glassy dead water, between brown earth and clay 
banks partly concealed by cornels, dogwoods, alders, etc.. 
and surmounted by the first phalanx of spruces, cedars 
and other soft woods which extend back on either side in 
unbroken undulations over the foothills till they are met 
by the hardwoods on the sides of the distant ridges. As 
the morning advanced the hot sun beat down on the 
shimmering river surface and incidentally on the lone 
paddler's unprotected head. There was little evidence of 
animal life. Only an occasional thin piping of the dainty 
little Canadian warblers broke the stillness. Where 
would trout be found in -such heat? 
But at length the head of the carry is reached and 
here is shade, a cool drink and rest. Ah! the delight of 
stretching cramped limbs on a cool mossy bank, of gazing 
iirito leafy depths or through the thin screen of green that 
only half conceals the dancing water! Close by is the 
head of the rapids — rapids that stretch away for a mile 
into the forest. But now a few lusty mosquitoes spur to 
activity. The inverted canoe resting on paddles lashed to 
the cross bars is first carried safely down the dim trail 
marked here and there on the rocks by white scratches 
and dents made by the steel calks in the river drivers' 
shoes, then back for the pack. This rides easily high 
on the shoulders, held securely in place by the broad 
cedar bark thong across the forehead. Fine f-ellows in 
their own native wilds, those straight, strong Indians 
must have been. They did not numb their arms nor 
round their shoulders with ill-slung burdens, but used 
their heads in more ways than one, and loaded their 
packs so as to be carried easily, as they knew it, over 
the center of gravity, as we know it. 
Now the last pitch in the rapids is reached and the 
pack is portaged almost as far as the canoe. A few feet 
out on this jutting point of torn granite rock and the 
whole foamy mass of the river, dead no longer, is seen to 
leap and thunder down between steep, ragged, gray rocks 
and spread bubbling and eddying out into a delightful 
pool. What a tempting cast ! But trout will not be found 
in this water of 65 degrees or so. This cool, moist breeze 
above the surging water will serve far better than the 
fan waved over any Eastern potentate to drive dull care 
away, and incidentalli' the pestiferous mosquito. An 
ideal place for a limch ! A lunch with coffee over a 
small fire followed by a cigar I Life is surely well worth 
living ! The portage past and the afternoon well on, it 
is only about four miles to the old log camp on the 
bank where, last winter, in the early snows, four hunters 
.stayed to track and shoot. There is the white birch stump 
from which we felled firewood on to the ice. Here is 
the old camp just out of sight from the river; but, oh! 
how changed ! High water has floated the floor logs all 
awry, the long bench is overturned, the lower bunks are 
sodden and musty* the table is covered with gnawed, 
stained newspapers, on which is a thick layer of brown 
dust from the worm-eaten rafters overhead. A desolate, 
deserted camp ! There, just over the table, is the hole in 
the roof where went out the bullet, not so very far from 
the head of a dear camp comrade who was standing ' 
near while the new i-ifle was being wiped out and oiled. 
A jerk of the lever to show the smooth action and then, 
a,s the hamiper is let down, it slips under the oily 
thumb, and, bang! A" smothered exclamation, a white, 
drawn face peering over the smoking barrel to find the 
friend iminjured. A few awkward, choking words, a 
hand grasp, a mental vow, since kept, never again to take 
a gun containing cartridges, even in the magazine, into 
camp. How plainly it all comes back! 
Biit the afternoon wanes. On this low ground the mos- 
quitoes are collecting in clouds. The camp windows are 
easily closed with old burlap and cedar splits from the 
roof, and a small smudge fire is soon kindled on the 
earth am.ong the floor logs. Another small fire outside 
for coffee, and later a smudge serves to discourage some 
of the less voracious of the mosquitoes at least, but the 
others present long bills to be satisfied only with blood, 
and hquidate their draughts at sight from neck, wrists > 
and calves whenever these are left a moment out of the 
.smoke. Supper eaten, the cigar smoked in silence and 
alone, is not quite able to dispell the first and only sense 
of loneliness of the trip, brought on perhaps by the 
gathering shadows and the tormenting hordes. How- 
ever, the camp is clear of the little pests, and will so re- 
main, and soon all loneliness is forgotten in sleep. 
A drowsy vibrant scream arouses the sleeper on the 
upper bunk, but this is soon recognized as the reveille of 
one or two representatives from the clouds of the mos- 
quitoes outside. As the door creaks open a flood of 
sunshine pours in, and the enthusiasm of the new day 
puts to blush the slight homesickness of the preceding 
night. A belated wood thrush sends his ringing flute 
notes out over the bog at the back of the camp. A couple 
of white-throated sparrows are calling "Old Ben Pea- 
body" to each other, and an 'energetic member of the ever- 
present tribe of red squirrel is whisking and scolding 
about on a nearby cedar log. Otherwise it is very still and 
very satisfactory out here alone. 
dncc more afloat! Five miles further down the river 
is a long dam built logs, and above it on the hill- 
side, well above the mosquito line, is a commodious log 
drivers' camp, furnished Avith stove, tableware and bed- 
ding, to which the key is somewhere in the duffle bag. 
Ah! Here is comfort and plenty, for only two miles away 
is the conflitence of the Spencer Streams, Big and Little, 
both good trout streams, and only a mile away the united 
Spencers join the river, and neater yet is the mouth of 
a cold brook, guarded alwfays by a few big trout; if only 
they can be coaxed to rise. 
After a day 'xv two of comfortable fishing and camping, 
the canoe is carried over to the forks of the Spencers, and 
as an occasional cloud rolls over, a few tentative casts 
are essayed in the big pool at the foot of the cliff. No 
result ! The water must be too warm or the sun too 
bright. Across the pool among a lot of boulders and 
down treetops, seeps in a little rill of cold water out of 
the deep black spruce growth. Standing in the canoe 
and paddling lazily up toward this, the lone fisher saw 
down in three feet of quiet water, just where the cool 
water of the brook flows along the bottom into a shallow 
basin nicely cleaned and hollowed out, a good sixty lusty 
trout lying closely packed together, evidently enjoying 
their perpetual cool bath. A few at the sides were darting 
uneasily about, flashing their white-edged fins, but most 
of them lay very quiet. Enough ! One must not stare 
royalty out of countenance. Very gently the canoe is 
stayed, then backed aAvay out of sight and vibration 
reach of those beauties. What a regal sight it was ! 
Some of those vermiculated backs must have been at least 
eighteen inches long, which means two and a quarter 
poimds or rngre. Quickly the plan of campaign is layed. 
Not till that spntce-crowned cliff throws its deep shadow 
on the pool shall a fly be cast. While waiting for the 
sun to sink sufficiently, a pint of luscious wild straw- 
berries is gathered into a birch-bark box from an old, 
half-grown-up, stumpy field, the only one in twenty 
miles, cleared years ago by the lumbermen on which to 
raise hay. 
When the shadow on the pool is deep and the sun is 
just sinking toward the horizon, the canoe is very gently 
worked up into the gorge around and above the shadowy 
beauties' bower, is allowed to drift down to just in good 
casting distance and beached on a convenient submerged 
rock in such a position that the fisherman is screened by 
a big boulder. Now, very deliberately, fly-dope is applied 
to neck, wrists. " etc.. and a cigar lighted. A leader is 
put to soak and flies follow as fast as selected. A Parma- 
chenee-belle for snapper, a silver-doctor for middle, and a 
brown-hackle for dropper. The rod is set up and rigged, 
leader bent on and flies looped into place. All is whist. 
Trout and cailoe are in deep shadow, but far up on the 
hare ledges above, the sun's last rays linger. 
A preliminary cast or two up stream and the flies are 
allowed to spread just over the chosen locality, then to 
settle gentlj' — when, slap ! swirl — a double is on and some- 
thing worth while certainly is hooked! Yes, both are on. 
How they do fight ! Steady now ! By this time we are 
well away from the brook mouth and waging battle in the 
deep, quiet water of the pool. Will the leader hold? If 
that dropper trout can be kept near the surface he will 
serve as a counterweight for the bigger one below. At 
length the dashes are less fierce and the steady strain 
of the lithe bamboo begins to tell. Then there are no 
rocks nor brush out here and the odds are against you, 
my beauties. Great snakes, what a tug ! Who would 
have thought it was in them ? Now, as this trip was one 
of the light-marching order style and for brook trout 
primarilj^, there was no landing net along. Can those 
fellows be saved ! Cautiously a hand is rtm down the 
leader to the thoroughly exhausted dropper fish, which 
is easily a twelve-ounce trout, the fingers draw the snell 
m gently till they are on the fly, all the while moving the 
