July ii, igo3. 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
is 
Camp Happy, where supper awaits you. But why js 
it you eat so much more when you are "resting" in 
camp than when you are working in town? 
With the quiet evening come the voices of the cricket 
and the frogs, and best of all, the stories by the camp- 
fire that is built of dry hemlock and pine to keep away 
the friendly mosquito. You arc just planning to dress 
the fish for breakfast and to go to bed in one of the 
comfortable hammocks, when you hear the screech of 
a bird nearby and you realize with sorrow that your 
happ3^ dream is surely a dream, and the tjffoughts of 
the happy week are gone up in the smoke of the "mos- 
quito" fire — and you are really seated on the old bench 
by the mass of logs and brush that was once your 
Camp Happ3\ Mable Annis Cook. 
Camp-Fire Stories from Canadian 
Woods. 
IX.— A Tramp Through the "Wilderness. 
Some two decades ago all that vast portion of central 
Ontario lying between the Ottawa River and the 
Georgian Bay, on the one hand, and Lake Nippissing 
and the frontier townships on the other, was one vast 
wilderness dotted here and there by a lumber depot, and 
was known only to the wood ranger and trapper — "a 
terra incognita." 
Only a few large timber limits were parceled out, 
belonging to the lumber kings at Ottawa. The rest 
was "Crown" domain. The term "Crown" in Canada 
means the Dominion or Provincial Government. 
The whole country is a network of lakes and streams 
of crystal waters, which teem with brook and lake 
trout The land is principally mountain and rocky 
ridges generally clothed with primeval forests of pine, 
whose plumy giants on the hilltops towered aloft in 
adoration of their Divine Creator. 
The lumber firms employ "wood-rangers" to explore 
and examine their vast limits, the "avant courrier" to 
those who carry on the work. The duties of "wood- 
ranger" were arduous and required years of training 
and experience to fit him for such a responsible posi- 
tion. Within recent years a certain large firm lost 
over a million of dollars through the carelessness or 
improper estimate of their i-angers, paying hundreds 
of thousands of dollars for a small limit, the timber 
falling far below the estimate, and, a large portion 
proving to be punky and consequently worthless. Go- 
ing into the lumber woods in his youth, first as road 
cutter, then as log-maker or hewer, then, perhaps, as 
foreman, and again as culler, he gradually acquired 
proficiency. He must prove himself to be a "courrier- 
du-bois," half hunter, half surveyor, and versed in all 
manner of woodcraft. The vast and impenetrable for- 
est must be as plain and open to him as his own coun- 
try lanes, or the streets of his native village. It was, 
however, in looking up and exploring new limits which 
required the services of the very best men. First sup- 
plies would be taken into the wilds by canoe and por- 
tage, and properly cached, then the ranger would start 
out on his lonely journey, and for months, perhaps, he 
would not hear the sound of a human voice. It may 
easily be imagined how interesting the recital of the 
trials and experience of these rangers might be. 
In my early visits to the lumber depots I fell in 
with many of these men and determined that, should 
the opportunity offer, I would endeavor to share with 
some of them the perils and adventures of their lonely 
tramps. 
It is a custom with lumber firms to require their 
local ranger to make a tour of the limit to see if any 
trespass has been committed by adjoining proprietors 
or their jobbers. These tours of inspection are taken 
toward the end of the season, during the month of 
FebruaiT, and the trip must be made on snowshoes. 
I received an invitation to accompany one of these 
rangers. Our equipment prepared, we set forth from 
one of the lumber camps. Our duty was. to follow the 
limit-line, thus making a circuit of the whole limit. 
During the first day I was curious to know what kind 
of a camp I was going to sleep in, or if J should lay 
out like the deer in some balsam thicket. About an 
hour before sunset we selected a spot in a thicket. We 
built our fire against a large rock so that the heat 
would be retained and reflected back into our camp. 
Then long, slender stakes were placed in the snow, so 
that they stood at about an angle of thirty degrees, 
about a foot or so apart, and extending the width' of 
what our camp should be. Then a cotton cloth was 
thrown over. The sides fastened down upon the snow 
by heavy sticks, as well as the back part of the same, 
which reached down the stakes to the snow. This is 
the kind of tent used by the Indians, very light to 
carry, and forms a complete shed-tent. With a liberal 
amount of boughs to protect from the cold and damp 
of the snow underneath, and a fire at the front, these 
tents are very comfortable in cold weather. There is 
one thing about them, one never suffers for the want 
of fresh air. One of the most important points is to 
collect enough fire wood to last through the night. 
After a "snack" and a pipe we fix up our fire and roll 
into the blankets. After about two hours or so the 
fire burns low and we are awakened by the cold, we 
throw on a few sticks and perhaps take a pull at the 
pipe and again roll over to sleep. This is repeated 
until we wake up as the gray dawn appears, when we 
rouse ourselves for the day's experience. 
The beauties of a pine forest cannot be described 
by pen or picture, the pine forest must be seen and 
experienced in all its pristine glory: the stately col- 
umns, the moss-covered rocks, and, above all, the air 
laden with resinous odors. 
Our 'duty was to explore the limit as well as to fol- 
low the line,_and, in our excursions we had the good 
fortune to witness scenes which seldom fall to the lot 
of a novice. 
On one particular trip we came across a lakelet 
along the shore of which entered a spring that did not 
freeze up. About the spring we saw numerous deer 
tracks, from which we concluded the deer came down 
to drink from their winter yard near by, but the snow 
was tracked up, cut up and scraped — no farmyard could 
be more cut up by a flock of sheep. As there were 
plenty of brook trout to be seen, we thought that a 
few of them would be an acquisition to our slender 
larder, and, in the meantime we might obtain an ex- 
planation of the numerous deer tracks. Accordingly 
on the following morning we started for our fish. 
The wind, fortunately, was in our favor, for when we 
came in sight of the place we saw a large drove of 
deer at the spring. We quickly concealed ourselves 
and waited for developments. There were, perhaps, 
thirty deer in that crowd, which included many young 
ones! It was a bright warm morning, and those aeer 
on the glistening snow, with the dark pines for a back- 
ground, made a beautiful picture. Presently the fawns 
began to skip and play, and this accounted for the 
numerous deer tracks in the snow, which afforded us 
so much conjecture the day before. They bounded over 
one another — upon the backs of the old ones— their 
gambols were precisely similar to those of lambs in the 
spring. We enjoyed the view until the deer departed, 
then caught our fish and returned to camp. 
On another occasion we came out on a lake which 
was about two miles long and pretty well windswept 
and the ice glare. We heard a racket, made by wolves, 
not knowing but that it might be a pack upon our track, 
we prepared to take to a tree, having left our rifles 
in camp. Presently a fawn came out upon the ice, fol- 
lowed by wolves, one on each side, at about a hun- 
dred yards or so from the deer, with several others 
directly behind the same. So soon as the poor deer 
reached the ice it was helpless, and could make but 
little headway. The wolves seeing this, closed in, and 
as we saw they would surely catch the fawn, we began 
to shout, but they paid no attention to us. We ran to 
camp for our guns, but when we returned nothing but 
a few stains of blood, some hair and a few crumbs of 
bones were all that was left of the unfortunate deer, 
and the wolves were nowhere to be seen. 
After tramping over mountain and swamp, through 
pine forests clad with snow, we reached the end of our 
trip and returned to the lumber camp. A summer 
canoe voyage is delightful, but you have the flies. A 
winter excursion is attended with hardships, it is true, 
but you are repaid by the glorious scenery and the 
health-giving exercise. E. B. F. 
A Relic of the Old Frontier. 
Years ago, before the advent of paved streets and 
fourteen-story buildings, when the town of Dayton con- 
sisted of a very small group of log cabins collected at 
the confluence of the Mad and Great Miami rivers, a man 
named George Newcom erected a large tavern, near what 
is now the corner of Main street and Monument avenue. 
This tavern was built in the year 179S, and was the 
pride of the whole region. It was two stories in height 
and contained four rooms. It served jointly as the first 
tavern, store, church, court house and jail in Montgomery 
county, and was the first house chinked with lime mortar 
in the town. In it also Jane Newcom, the first white 
child born in Dayton, saw the light of day. 
In 1800 a man named McDougal opened a store in the 
building and did a flourishing business with the Indians. 
Three years later the first county court was opened in the 
tavern and the law violaters, so common to frontier com- 
munities, were brought to justice. Those convicted were 
either flogged or fined a certain amount of furs or grain. 
THE OLD NEWCOM TAVERN. 
which was the chief currency at that time. While in con- 
finement the prisoners were kept in the corn crib or in a 
dry well on the lot. 
Col. George Newcom, the builder and proprietor of the 
famous tavern, was Irish by birth ; emigrating to America 
with his parents in 1775, and settling first in Delaware 
and later in Penns3dvania. Marrying here he removed 
with his family to Cincinnati in 1794. Two years later he 
accompanied a party of emigrants to Dayton, and assisted 
in laying out the place. He then erected the tavern and 
continued its proprietor for many years. He served as a 
soldier in Wayne's famous campaign and also in the War 
of 1812. He was a member of the Ohio Legislature for 
twenty-three years. He lived to the advanced age of 
eighty-two, dying in February, 1853. 
While proprietor of the tavern, he had considerable 
trouble with the Indians. They would come to the settle- 
ment to dispose of their furs, and after getting drunk 
on the proceeds, would come to the tavern and attempt to 
bully the landlord, but in this they were generally 
worsted. The strong, active pioneer proved more than a 
match for the drunken redskins, and they were generally 
landed in the jail, where they were kept until sober. 
When the tavern passed out of Newcom's hands, its name 
was changed to the Sun Inn. 
The country surrounding Dayton was a perfect paradise 
for sportsmen in the early days. The Indians were well 
aware of this and were loth to give it up. Indeed, the 
rivalry was so great and deadly that it gained for the 
valley the name of "Miami Slaughter House." Deer, 
wild turkeys, foxes, pheasant, quail and rabbits were plen- 
tiful, and 'coon hunts and squirrel hunts were the order 
of the day. In 1822 there was a squirrel hunt in which 
one thousand of the little animals were killed. At times 
migrations of squirrels took place, and even the rivers 
could not turn them from their course. It is said that 
men and boys would stand along the banks of the Miami 
and kill them witl> clubs as they came out of the 
water. 
Curwen, the first historian of Dayton, thus describes the 
method of fire-hunting as practiced by the pioneers : 
"The deer came down to the river to di-ink in the evening, 
and sheltered themselves for the night under the bushes 
which grew along the shore. As soon as they were quiet, 
the hunters in pirogues paddled slowly up the stream, the 
steersman holding aloft a burning torch of dried hickory 
bark, by the light of which the deer were discovered and 
fired on." All this took place in plain view of Newcom's 
tavern. 
Fishing in both the Mad and Miami rivers was excel- 
lent, and in 1835 a seining party procured two wagon 
loads of fish in the course of an afternoon. 
As Newcom's tavern was the central point of interest 
in the village, no doubt the hunters and fishermen assem- 
bled here in the evenings and "swapped yarns." 
In 1896 the centennial celebration of the founding of 
Dayton began, and public interest in the historic old 
building, which had lagged for some time, was again 
aroused, and steps w^ere taken to preserve the famous 
relic. 
Surrounded as it is by tall modern buildings, it looks 
strangely out of place, but in its day it was of more im- 
portance to the county than the most stately one is to- 
day. It stands in a beautiful lawn, facing Monument ave- 
nue, while at its back the Great Miami flows silently by, 
just as it did on that eventful morning of April i, 1796, 
when the pioneers landed and began the foundations of 
the "Gem City." 
, As you approach -the front door, the first object that 
catches your eye is a pair of antlers over the doorway, 
recalling the happy hunting days of the past; and when 
you step jnside and close your ears to the noise and con- 
fusion of the city, it seems as if you have been trans- 
ported into another world. There is the big fireplace, 
with its crane and pot hanging over it. There are the 
old-fashioned candlesticks, spinning wheel, loom, cup- 
board, table and benches, such as were used by our fore- 
fathers in the early days. The walls are decorated with 
'coon skins, bows, arrows and flintlock rifles, while on the 
ceiling overhead a quantity of seed corn is hung up to 
drj'. This was the living room. In one corner of the 
room a rude stairway leads to the sleeping apartments 
above, while to the right of the stairway a door opens 
into another room, which was once used, as court room 
and jail. This room now contains a fine collection of pio- 
neer relics, many of which are rare and valuable. An 
examination of the tavern and contents is well worth a 
visit to the city. Clarence Vandiveer. 
MlAMISBURC, Ohio. 
— • — 
Visits with Apes and Monkeys. 
I.— Visits with Man-Like Apes. 
The "Manlike Apes," so called from their close re- 
semblance to man, comprise the gorilla and chimpanzee 
of Africa, and the orang-utan and gibbons of south- 
eastern Asia. They are easily identified by their hu- 
man-like countenance and structural resemblance to 
man, which, by the way, is most striking in the young, 
undeveloped apes. The gorilla, chimpanzee and orang- 
utan assume a stooping posture when on the ground, 
supporting themselves by their long arms, their fingers 
doubled into the palms of their hands. The gibbons 
are the only members of the order primates that can 
naturally walk upon their feet without the support of 
their hands. The expression of apes is nearly as varied 
as with the human race. 
During the summer of 1897 the London Zoological 
Garden contained two fine specimens of chimpanzees 
named Daisy and Jemima. Glossv black and in the 
prime of health, they were by far the liveliest and most 
interesting animals in the gardens. 
They were fond of play and spent hours frolicking 
together. In the excitement of the game they fre'^- 
quently uttered smothered chuckles of delight as 
though trying to suppress laughter, and they repeated 
these sounds whenever anyone played with 'them, and 
doubled their head beneath their body to protect their 
chest when tickled. 
It was interesting to watch them while at play. In 
attempting to escape from each other they swung 
hand over hand from bar to bar, or when one secured 
a rope she tantalized her mate by swinging the end 
toward her; taking care that it did not come within 
her reach. 
Once Jemima, while eluding pursuit, jumped to the 
side of the cage and clung to a warped board, which 
afforded but slight hold. Her feet had no support 
whatever, which gave her little chance to spring, and 
being beyond reach of any of the perches, she was 
certainly in a dilemma. She seemed at once to realize 
her position, and began to cry. Her companion, quite 
bewildered for the minute, looked at her as though 
wondering what the fuss was about.. As Jemima's 
grasp grew weaker she cried louder, and looked below 
to note the distance to the flooi". Daisy at last went 
to the end of the perch, extended her hand, which was 
quickly accepted, and lifted her playmate safely back 
to the bar. The keeper informed me that he had fre- 
quently seen them assist each other in this manner. 
Daisy was the stronger of the two, and after a 
couple of hours of such play, Jemima, completely ejj- 
