BB4 
FOREST AND STHEAM 
pounds apiece. The water was y^ry clear and I could 
see them distinctly as they poised themselves lightly in the 
current or made little tolirs around the pool, rising now 
and then at a midge or fly. I woiild return, I decided, in 
an hour, refreshed by my kittiwake dinner, and try to 
catch at least three of those big fellows. But t reckoned 
without Paol Jens. While I was eating my kittiwake, that 
iTliserable boy awoke to a misplaced activity, took his 
heavy fishing pole and line, and thrasked the .^surface of 
that pool, scaring away every fish in the neighborhood. 
I had but one day more to spend in Saxen, as I was 
obliged to be in Westmanhavn on the following day in 
order to catch the little Smyril. Easjy next morning it 
blew a gale, but I was early at the pool, only to find that 
a man had stretched a net across it. Two beautiful sea 
trout, weighing five and six pounds, were in it, caught by 
the gills. Further up the stream I took three sea trout 
of a pound and a half apiece, and half a dozen river trout. 
But by that time the storm had increased, so that the 
flies were whisked high above the water and I almost 
blew awaj^ up the glen; and the men of the house sent 
word that the Froken must come home and rest; that 
she did not know what it meant to walk from Saxen to 
Westmanhavn. 
'"There are undoubtedly big fish at Saxen, but they are 
not taken in large numbers. Generally every year two or 
three Englishmen find their way to Saxen, provided with 
tents, folding boats, waders, and a skillful oarsman and 
interpreter from Thorshavn. By spending moet of their 
time on the v^jater, two rods may take seven or eight large 
fish during the dlay, some weighing as much as eight 
pounds, and perhaps a fair supply of the fario trout. A 
skillful angler who cam cast a long, clean line would un- 
doubtedly get some big fish without a boat. But the man 
with a boat or servant will have the best sport. 
In leaving Saxen for WestmanhaAm, one can go twelve 
miles by sea, if the sea is calm, or nine miles over the 
fjelds. I had intended to take the former route, going in 
a large boat with eight oarsmen, on a serene day, the 
afternoon sun gilding the wonderful peaks and crags of 
Western Stromoe, I taking kodaks and sketches on the 
way, and my men lifting up their voices in song. Three 
months of adverse experience had not taught me wisdom. 
Instead, I went, as might have been expected, by land, in 
a howling storm. All the waters were out, and four times 
one of my men, a giant of a Faroese, had to carry me 
tHrough the streams, I rejoicing^ in the meantime in the 
bigness of his calves. There are, I believe, fine views to 
be seen en route in good weather, but I saw nothing but 
shifting gray walls of mist, and it rained "shoemaker's 
apprentices" — the Faroe equivalent of the English "cats 
and dogs." 
A few days later found me on the way to Sand or 
Sando, where I hoped to catch one big trout before re- 
turning to Thorshavn. As we passed down the west- 
ern side of the island, the captain of Smyril pointed out 
the place where the ill-fated Principia was lost in Novem- 
ber some years ago. On that same night I had left 
Thorshavn on a Danish steamer. We had passed on the 
other side of the island at the very hour when, hidden 
fr<om all help behind the cliffs of an uninhabited coast, the 
Principia was burning. Out of all the crew and passen- 
gers, one only was saved after drifting for thirteen hours 
lashed te a plank. And that same night a clergyman in 
Scotland, whose brother was on the ship, saw her in a 
dream; saw the fire amidships, the life boats burned, a 
hastily constructed raft overturned and wrecked in 
launching, and his brother jumping into the water. He 
woke with the words "Faroe Islands" sounding in his' 
ears. But he knew nothing of the Faroe Islands, and 
thought the ship was hundreds of miles south, bound for 
America. He told his old housekeeper his dream next 
morning, and six weeks later when the post came from 
Faroes, he heard that a fire had broken out on the Prin- 
cipia, passengers and crew had fought it for three days; 
they could not steer the vessel, and a southwest gale had 
driven it far north; and there, burning, she was dashed to 
pieces against the cliffs of Sandoe. When I went to Mid- 
vag, I found that it was Jegvand, Sr., who had found the 
brother's body and helped to bury it. "A fine man, a 
kraftig [strong] man," said Jegvand, sadly. "He had a 
life belt on, but there was little chance for him; of all 
the wreck that came ashore, not one piece was big enough 
to use. It was in splinters. There was great surf that 
night. I have never seen worse." 
I post this letter from Thorshavn. I accomplished my 
mission to Sand and caught my big trout. Only one big 
one, to be sure, among a number of small ones,_but he 
was a fish to satisfy the most exacting, a beautiful sea 
trout, fresh from the bay, caught with my light rod and a 
small green-mantle fly. He weighed a full five pounds, 
and we had a long and fair fight. And then a fierce equi- 
noctial storm arose, and— little Smyril was due before 
•it was over. Each day I watched the surf, and talked 
with old sea dogs, who were digging their potatoes, about 
the prospects of my being able to board her ^ if she came. 
They were unpleasantly optimistic. "Don't be afraid, 
Froken," they said. "We'll get you on board somehow ! 
Yes, unless it gets worse (though it won't be pleasant) 
we can do it !" And I could only hope and pray it would 
get worse and so make the attempt impossible. 
But Smyril came at last, the old sea dogs put me on 
board "somehow," and that trip to Thorshavn gave me a 
fellow feeling for the voyagers of the "Lotus Eaters — 
"Most weary seem'd the sea, weary the oar, 
Weary the wandering fields of barren foam." 
The little capital, after my four sionths' absence among 
the lonely islands, looked cosy and hospitable. There 
was the hum of voices, the clatter of pattens in the nar- 
row lanes ; lights twinkled in the grass-covered cabins and 
on a fleet of fishing smacks from Iceland— Norse, Scotch 
and Faroe— that had taken refuge from the storm. The 
baker was making his Saturday evening crullers and little 
cakes. I could smell the spices in a whiff of land breeze. 
The cheerful voice of a friend greeted me in English as, 
dhiUed and tired, I stumbled out of the boat. 
It is good to be back again. Elizabe th Taylor. 
"Curious thing about a man with a watch is that if you 
see him' take it out and look at it, and you ask him two 
s.econds later what time it is, he never remembers. He has 
to look at it again." . .. . 
"Yes; I've noticed that he'll always do it— if his watch 
is a fine pne."— Oiicago Tribune. 
The Wild Horse of the Banks. 
There ts really no more historical as well as interest- 
ing and curious territory in the United States than the 
long sand banks which mark the eastern boundary of 
North Carolina, and which form a vast breakwater, with- 
in which are the "sounds" through which the Govern- 
ment now proposes to provide an inland water-way 
which will end the terrors of Cape Hatteras. 
This is to be a story of that part of the banks further 
to the southward of Cape Hatteras, where the little ponies 
are, the only wild horses east of the Mississippi; ponies 
which have over three centuries of history behind them, 
and which date back to the time of knightly Sir Walter 
Raleigh and the days when the Moors of Barbary were 
a power. 
The part of the banks in question is known as 
"Shackelford's banks," taking its name from the chief 
owner. Beginning at Ocracoke Inlet, this stretch of 
sand reaches to Bogue Inlet, terminating at Shackel- 
ford's Point, in front of the town of Beaufort. Shackel- 
ford's banks are almost forty miles long, low-lying, with 
here and there dunes or sand hills, rising to a height 
of say forty feet, tree covered, the trees loaded with 
vines, and in this mass of nearly sub-tropical vegetation, 
much of it evergreen, are the Spanish bayonet, prickly 
pear or small cactus, and the fan, or scrub palmetto. 
There are homes here and there along this irregular 
stretch of Shackelford's banks, and there is also a light- 
house and near it a natural harbor of refuge, at Cape 
Lookout, which the Government is also planning to 
utilize. 
On Shackelford's banks alone are the little ponies re- 
ferred to. It is strange but true, that they are found 
in their wild state nowhere else. There are said to 
be about twelve hundred of them on the banks. Inquiry 
made of residents as to whether the number of ponies 
had decreased during the past fifty years brought the 
response that it had, and that until about 1850 the ponies 
increased. The ponies weigh about 800 pounds, and 
their height is about thirteen to fourteen hands, that is, 
aYa to 4K feet. Their life is mainly on the banks, though 
in very stormy weather they sometimes swim over to 
the mainland, a distance of from two to five miles away. 
Their food is marsh grass, sea oats, leaves of scrubby 
trees, and shrubs and berries, particularly the berries of 
the holly. The woods give them usually a good shelter, 
and hence it is seldom that they seek the shelter of the 
mainland. They live to quite an age, but the average is 
about 22 years. Some reach the age of forty. When 
they want water they paw holes in the sand in low 
places, and get plenty of it. 
These ponies have owners. The "Banks" are owned 
by various persons, largely upon grants sold by the 
State. These people make pens out of drift wood and 
rough logs and poles, and into these the ponies and 
their colts are driven and branded. A colt following a 
branded mare is considered the property of the owner 
of the mare, and he brands it. In cases where there 
are colts which do not follow the mares, then the "pen- 
ners," that is men who make and own the pens, take 
them. Such is the unwritten law. The ponies are 
driven out of the scrub by drivers or herders, and this 
is a matter of no small difficulty, as the scrub is often 
so thick as to be jungle, threaded by thousands of nar- 
row paths through the shining sand. The wind and salt 
keep down much of the vegetation, so that there may 
be seen hickory trees not over three feet in height, yet 
loaded with nuts, and horse chestnut trees equally as 
dwarfed. 
The colts are covered with hair several inches in 
length, a nature's protection against the weather. This 
is called colt hair, and looks like felt. It falls off in 
large flakes: Most of the colts are of a faded brown 
color, but are sometimes black. They are termed colts 
until they are branded, though they may be three years 
old or more before they are pennned and the brand put 
on. These ponies are always known in all parts of the 
State as "bankers" ponies. They do not appear to be 
sold much outside of North CaroHna. as the people in 
other States do not know anything about them. They 
cross well with horses. When taken up-country and 
fed upon corn, hay and oats they fill out and darken 
in color somewhat. Their instinct is remarkable. They 
know by means of it the way to get to the mainland or 
to islands with the minimum amount of swimming, and 
the writer has seen them wade great distances without 
getting out of their depth, making various turns and 
changes of direction to conform to the shoals, yet they 
are fearless swimmers. 
Though an inlet only about two miles m- width sepa- 
rates Shackelford's banks from Bogue banks yet the 
ponies never go on the latter banks, nor do they cross 
the Ocracoke Inlet. 
Ancestors of these hardy and valuable httle horses 
were the Barbary horses which Sir Walter Raleigh sent 
over with his colonists to Roanoke Island. They have 
bred and multiplied, and for at least two centuries have 
been utilized by the people of that section. Sir Walter 
Raleigh's colonists, when the relief from England was so 
long delayed in reaching them, went with the Indians to 
the mainland, but must have left the pomes. The In- 
dians were unused to horses. These Indians were the 
Haterasks, who gave their name to the dreaded cape. 
When Raleigh's colonists first landed there they found 
that the Haterasks were distinguished by their blue 
eyes and that they had a tradition that their fathers 
could talk out of a book." Hence the inference that at 
some former period a crew of white men had been cast 
away thereabouts and had amalgamated with the In- 
^^These sturdy little ponies are,_ therefore, a part of the 
romance which hangs about this qttaint part of North 
Carolina. There are persons who hold that Raleigh s 
colonists first landed on Shackelford's banks, and later 
went to the "Isle of Roanoke," whera they built their 
fort because it was a more defensible place, and tha 
they left the "little Barbary horses" on the banks until 
better times should come. Fred. A. Olds. 
In a Restaurant.-He-"Will you,have a little lobster ?" 
She— "Oh. John, this is so sudden!"— Philadelphia Even- 
ing Bulletin. 
— • — 
Life of the North. 
The last issue of North American Fauna (No. 22), the 
publication of the Division of the Biological Survey of 
the Department of Agriculture, contains a paper of un- 
rsual interest. Prepared under the direction of Dr. C. 
Hart Merriam, the Chief of the Division, it was published 
Oct. 31, and gives an account of a "Biological Investiga- 
tion of the Hudson Bay Region," by Edward A. Preble. 
For more than a century the employees of the Hudson 
Bay Company used to send collections of birds and mam- 
mals from Hudson Bay to London. These were examined 
and described by naturalists, for, of course, the new coun- 
try gave many new species. Many of the specimens from 
which the description were drawn have now disappeared, 
and often the specimens were without labels showing 
just where they came from, so that really little more was 
known about them than that they were secured in the 
northern part of North America. No modern museum 
possessed anything like a representative collection of the 
mammals and birds of Hudson Bay, and this became a 
matter of great importance when the Biological Survey 
began to receive large collections of birds and mammals 
from Alaska. Without specimens for comparison, it was 
impossible in many cases to tell whether the Alaska speci- 
mens were or were not different from those described 
long ago from other parts of boreal America. In view 
of this embarrassment. Dr. Merriam decided to send an 
expedition to Hudson Bay in order to collect the topotypes 
that he so greatly required, and Mr. Preble was chosen 
for this laborious task. The report just published, con- 
taining about 125 pages, is the result of this expedition. 
It shows that the work was well performed, and is full 
of interest — a useful contribution to our knowledge of 
the north. 
The party, consisting of Mr. Preble and his brother, Al- 
fred E. Preble, as assistant, started from Winnipeg June 
14. At Winnipeg and throughout their journey there- 
after, they were everywhere assisted by the Hudson Bay 
Company and its employees. Without this assistance the 
trip would hardly have been practicable. They crossed 
Lake Winnipeg by steamer and reached Norway House 
June 17. Here they procured Indians and a large Peter- 
"boro canoe, and from Norway House, starting down Nel- 
son River, they passed by river and lake to Htidson Bay 
at York Factory. Here they exchanged their canoe for a 
sailboat, and proceeded up the west coast to Fort 
Churchill. The younger Preble remained there to collect, 
while his brother pushed northward to the Barren 
Grounds. This trip occupied three weeks, and on his 
return to Fort Churchill it was necessary to start on the 
return journey, to avoid being shut in by the winter. 
Mr. Preble describes in some detail the character of the 
country traversed and illustrates it by a number of capital 
photographs; the plates in the volume, numbering four- 
teen, beside a map, on which the route is marked, showing 
the whole of Hudson Bay and extending west as far as 
Bathurst Inlet and Aylmer Lake. He tells something 
of the life zones of the region passed through — from Win- 
nipeg successively the Canadian and Hudsonian zones, and 
well into the Arctic. Above Cape Churchill the Arctic 
zone is continuous on the coast, as shown by the birds 
and the mammals collected there. A more or less brief 
review is given of the previous work done in this region, 
and a bibliography beginning with Edward.-^j I743-SI> and 
ending with Obcrholser, 1902. 
The report treats chiefly of the bird? mammals and 
batrachians of the Province of Keewatin, though, oi 
course, there are many references outS' e of those limits, 
since the travels of some of the Ar._tic voyagers have 
been used. The report describes six new species and 
subspecies of mammals, a mouse, a muskrat, a hare, a 
mink, a weasel and a shrew ; and, since the completion 
of the trip, three other species which fall within the scope 
of the report have been described, two of them mice and 
one a form of Arctic fox. Quite full notes are given on 
some species in the lists of mammals and birds. 
The Greenland whale was formerly found as far south 
as Churchill River in the bay, and still occurs further to 
the north. The narwhal is found to the north, and the 
white whale is abundant; so much so, that at the time of 
Mr. Preble's visit men were at work for the Hudson Bay 
Company capturing them at the mouth of Churchill River. 
The woodland caribou is found in some numbers every- 
v/here between Norway House and Hudson Bay, and Mr. 
Preble's party saw tracks frequently. Barren Ground 
caribou were not uncommon at the mo«t northerly point 
reached, and were just beginning the autumnal migration 
southward. The southern limit of the range of the Bar- 
ren Ground caribou on the west slope of Hudson Bay is 
giyen as Churchill River. Even in former years, ac- 
cording to Hearne, they seldom crossed that stream. 
Further inland they go south as far as the south end of 
Reindeer Lake. 
The moose occurs in considerable numbers between the 
head of Lake Winnipeg and Norway House. Tracks 
were frequently seen, and some of them so recent that the 
mud had not yet settled in them. 
While Mr. Preble's party saw no musk-ox, yet he brings 
back an interesting southerly record of recent date. It 
is probable that the musk-ox commonly occurs as far 
south as Chesterfield Inlet ; but "Several times during the 
summer of 1897 parties of Indians reported seeing a pair 
of musk-oxen on the 'Barrens,' about half-way between 
York Factory and Fort Churchill. The male was finally 
killed in August, and the head brought by the Indians to 
York Factory." This pair had probably wandered beyond 
the limits of their normal range during the preceding 
winter, and for some reason failed to return. 
The beaver is becoming scarce throughout this region, 
though skins are annually traded at most of the posts. 
Of the skins seen at Norway House, several were black. 
The northern muskrat is smaller than our common 
form. It is extremely abundant, and though worth but 
a few cents in trade, many thousand are taken each year. 
Mr. Preble says: "The sweet flag (Acorns calatn-us), a 
favorite food, abounds in the Robinson's Portage, and the 
great number of muskrat houses seen there show the 
focality to be a favorite resort. We saw many muskrats 
