Aug. IS, i903.j f^OI^ESf AND STREAM. . " l28 
sordid, low, brutal, shameful. That rifle was handed 
back to its rightful owner and the hateful question was 
never uttered. 
"That's right," said the backwoodsman. "She was 
origin'ly a flintlock. Made in Kentucky in '31. Father 
had her altered to percussion. He carried her aU 
':hrough Black Hawk's war. Ef you boys want a deer 
nmt, you're welcome up that to my cabin to stay just as 
long as you've a mind to. Season's not open? That 
'iiakes nary difference. Nobody'U bother you, I reckon, 
up here with me. Law don't permit no shootin' out of 
season? Wall, I've just got to lay in my supply of 
ierked venison, and season or no season, I don't let nary 
deer bite me." 
The summit of the ridge was reached, and in a saucer- 
shaped valley, girt with mountains on every side, lay 
the little city of Ukiah, the frontier of the unknown wil- 
derness beyond— unknown at least to the voyagers. Here 
Marin made his confession to his companion. 
"And you were ready to pay that old pot-hunter one 
iLindred dollars for his rifle? Why in thunder didn't you 
lifter it to him, then?" inquired Bob of the practical 
nind. 
"Because, my dear fellow, I was afraid he needed the 
iioney and hence would accept my offer and regret it to 
lis dying day. There are some things in this world, Bob, 
hat cannot be bought or sold. You would not ask the 
Hindoo priest to sell his idol, and if you did succeed in 
nducing him to commit this, to him, unspeakable sacri- 
ege, wouldn't he bemoan it and wouldn't you feel that 
.ou had done a shabby — and I'm not so sure — but a 
jvicked action?" 
"You're right, Marin. Anyone could see with half an 
;ye that the old man just adored that gun. Well, here's 
LJkiah. Let us put up at the Grand. That camel yam 
las been sloshing 'round inside me and I must investigate 
burst." Marin, 
(to be continued.) 
Notes of Trail and Camp. 
Swimming a Horse. 
Mk. Hough, the other day, had something to say 
ibout the swimming power of a horse. Were a man 
o tell me that the average horse could not swim with 
. man on his back, I should only laugh at him. I have 
lad too many of them swim with me on their backs. 
rode cavalry horses for twenty yeai^s and sometimes 
lad the same horse for four or five years; but I never 
lad one which could not swim and carry me on his 
lack. I have often undressed; then mounting my 
lorse bareback, swam him for fifteen minutes at a 
ime. I rode one horse for four years that I would 
lot hesitate to swim the Mississippi with. He was a 
lender, long-legged sorrel and a fast one, too. I ran 
lim against some of the fastest horses the cowboys 
xiuld scare up, and he beat them all. 
But I would never ask a horse to swim with his 
saddle on and then carry me. In that case I would 
wim behind him, holding on to his tail. I have seen 
ncn swim clinging to the horse's mane. That is a 
joor place. There is always a danger of the horse 
litting the man with his forefeet; he cannot hit you 
vith his hind feet if you swim holding on to his tail. 
In the summer of 1884 I was down on the Sabonal 
biiver, Tex., just where the railroad crosses it. The 
iver was bank full after a heavy rain, and the currentf 
an like a mill race. There was a cattle ranch on our 
;ide, but none on the other for a good many miles; 
md a stage coach full of passengers was water bound 
. er there, and they were hungry. The men at the 
:inch wanted to send them something to eat, but 
laid that none of their horses could swim in that cur- 
-ent. 
"I have one that can," I told them. "Get your ropes 
■eady." 
They got a long coil of ha;]f-inch rope, and cutting it 
n the middle, we had two that would reach across. 
Then taking my horse I went to the river, stripped to 
ny undershirt and drawers, and tying an end of each 
ope around my waist, got my horse in the water, and 
ising only his head stall and halter strap, no bridle, 
warn across, and the ropes were stretched and a basket 
lauled across. I was then ready to go back, but two 
adies in the. coach tried to stop me; they were afraid 
'that my nice horse would be drowned." They did not 
com to care ^yhether I was or not. I got the horse in 
he water again, then wrapping his tail around my left 
land told him to "go ahead, Charley." I had never 
ised a whip on him; he did not need it. He swam 
vith the current, and went 200 yards down stream be- 
ore landing, then climbed out, none the worse for his 
rip. 
In swimming a horse, if on his back, I would sit as 
,ar back as possible. Use no bridle, but only the 
lalter; let the horse have his head and never hurry 
}im. 
Tins for Bread Baking. 
A short time since I got a letter from one of a 
'arty of young men who go on a trip each for a month 
>r more and generally go by water, using canoes and 
mall skiffs. They often get so far away from any 
itlement that they cannot get bread to buy, so they 
: ry their flour and bake it themselves, and the metal 
n ens they had were too heavy and too much in the 
oad. Did I know of a better plan to do the baking? 
did, and told them what it was. I would not carry 
Dutch oven anywhere now, unless I had a wagon, 
d then would only use it to roast meat in. 
I told them to get sheet iron mess pans; they can 
got in any large city; the army uses them. These 
ire about 14 inches in diameter at the top and less at 
;he bottom, the sides flare, and are about 6 inches 
Jeep. Now cut off a strip 2 inches wide around the 
top of one pan; then put the dough in this one and 
jse the one not cut to cover with; it fits close and 
will keep out all dirt and ashes. 
Use them in baking just the same as a Dutch oven 
,s used, only there need not be so much fire used with 
;be pans; they bake in half the time an oven does, but 
must be watched to prevent the bread burning. It is 
better to mould the dough in the shape of-biscuits, but 
loaves can be baked in the pans if they are wanted. 
These pans are just the thing to carry in a small 
boat; after being nested together, the tin plates, knives, 
forks and tin cups can be put in them, and the whole 
affair takes up but little room under a seat. In camp 
the small pan can be used as a frying pan, a split stick 
domg duty as a handle, while the pan that has not 
been cut does very well for a cooking pot. 
I have baked as good bread in these pans as any 
man need want to eat, and enough of them to bake 
for 50 men can be nested in each other, then thrown 
in a gumy sack and tied on top of a mule's pack; they 
will not weigh more than an oven lid would, and can- 
not get broken. 
Another trouble my friends had was that they could 
not always get good bread, though they were using the 
only good baking powder that is made (this is the 
maker's opinion of it, not mine). I told them, if they 
used this powder, to put in one-fourth more of it than 
the directions call for, or if they used another that is 
just as good, but don't cost 40 cents a pound, to use 
still a little more of this one; then put the powder in 
the flour and mix up both well while still dry; then 
melt lard or grease in hot water and use this to mix 
the dough. Never use cold water about it. Then work 
the dough well and the bread won't be heavy. 
Cabia Blanco. 
The Extinct Mink from the Maine 
Shell Heaps. 
By the politeness of the National Museum I have a 
leaflet entitled "Description of an extinct Mink from 
the Shell-heaps of the Maine Coast," the introduction 
to which is as follows: 
"Upon the shores and islands of Penobscot Bay and 
the adjacent coast there exist numerous shell-heaps, 
the majority of which were made by Indians. They 
vary greatly in size, some being an acre in extent, while 
others cover but a few square yards. The age of these 
shell-heaps is unknown, but from the absence of metals 
and articles of European manufacture from many of 
them, it is allowable to suppose that they date back at 
least to pre-Columbian times. This idea is strength- 
ened by the discovery in one of them of the fragment 
of the skull of a mink, representing an extinct species 
which appears to be new, and is described for the first 
time. Remains of other extinct animals will doubtless 
be detected as our knowledge of these shell-heaps in- 
creases." 
Some seventy-five years ago, and for many years 
thereafter, my father, who was a fur-buyer, used to 
have nearly all the furs taken on the islands of Penob- 
scot Bay, from the mouth of the Penobscot eastward to 
Frenchman's Bay. Many of the mink, especially from 
Swan's Island and Marshall's Island, were fully twice 
as large as the mink from inland, the smallest of them 
being as large as the largest inland mink and the 
largest fully twice the size of their inland relatives. I 
remember frequently hearing them spoken of as being 
"as large as small cats." Later I saw and handled 
many of these mink. Their fur was much coarser and 
Avas of a more reddish color than that of the inland, or 
as they were then called, the "woods mink," to dis- 
tinguish them from the "sea mink." These sea mink 
Avere usually extremely fat, and the skins had an en- 
tirely different smell from that of the woods mink. I 
could with my eyes shut pick them out from the woods 
mmk by their peculiar smell. In the old days, when 
mink were judged by size instead of by fineness and 
color, as was done later, these sea mink used to bring 
considerably more than others on account of their 
great size. On this account they were persistently 
hunted. Yet scarcely any were trapped on the islands. 
Instead they were shot or hunted with dogs trained for 
the purpose. As the price of mink rose, they were 
hunted more and grew scarcer, till in the sixties, when 
mink skins brought eight or ten dollars apiece, parties 
who made a business of hunting nearly or quite exter- 
minated the race. Some of these men went from island 
to island, hunting any small ledge where a mink could 
hve. They carried their dogs Avith them, and, besides 
guns, shovels, pick-axes and crow-bars, took a good 
supply of pepper and brimstone. If they took refuge 
in holes or cracks of the ledges, they were usually dis- 
lodged by working with shovels and crow-bars, and the 
dogs caught them when they came out. If they were 
in crevices of the rocks where they could not be got at 
and their eyes could be seen to shine, they were shot 
and pulled out by means of an iron rod with a screw at 
the end. If they could not be seen, they were usually 
driA-en out by firing in charges of pepper. If this failed, 
then they were smoked Avith brimstone, in which case 
they either came out or Avere suffocated in their holes. 
Thus in a short time they were nearly or quite exter- 
minated. 
My opinion is that the so-called new mink is nothing 
more nor less than the skull of one of these large sea 
mink. I think so because, having handled at a very 
low estimate at least 50,000 mink skins taken in Maine 
and the Provinces, besides skins from most of the 
States and Territories, I have never seen any as large 
as those mink used to be. I have handled very large 
mink from Minnesota, the Red River of the North and 
Eraser's River, but some of the sea mink were larger 
than any of these. 
We have in Maine and the Provinces quite a number 
of varieties of mink which are very local, living within 
restricted limits and being found elsewhere only as 
stragglers. While for the larger part the mink of 
Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are nearly 
alike in general size and color, we get some which dif- 
fer so in size, color, or fineness, than an expert can tell 
at once where they were taken. From Baedec and Bras 
d'Or we get a large, fine, dark mink which commands 
the highest price. From the Baie de Chaleurs the 
mmk are not above medium size and the under fur is 
very light colored, reminding one of the so-called "cot- 
ton mmk" of Kentucky. From the north side of the 
Minmichi Bay we get a medium-sized mink with very 
soft fur of a brownish shade, which, when the usual 
New Brunswick skins brought six dollars each, sold' 
for a dollar less apiece on account of color. From the 
large lakes on the head of both branches of the St, 
Croix we get a very large mink of good color and fur, 
being the largest of any inland mink taken in Maine 
that I have ever seen. Why they should be larger than 
those taken on Moosehead and the large lakes of 
Upper Allegash is a puzzle, but such is the fact. North 
of Moosehead are the little black mink not over two- 
thirds the size of average mink. They are the darkest 
mink taken m Maine, and seem to care less for water 
than most mink, as they are often found a long dis- 
tance from it. I have never seen one of these mink 
from any place except the region north of Moosehead 
Lake. 
I might mention several other well-marked geo- 
graphical races. In all those I have mentioned the 
variety is confined to a quite limited territory, and 
they differ each from each more than do the geograph- 
ical races of horned larks, ruffed grouse and other birds 
markedly affected by environment. I can count up 
over twenty well-marked varieties of mink which I 
have seen from various parts of the United States and 
Canada, and I feel sure that there are a great many 
more as avcU entitled to recognition as any of the races 
of birds, if they were separated, as the birds are, by 
size and color. 
The mink which are now taken on our sea-coast 
along Penobscot Bay are quite large and the fur is 
coarse, but Ave get none of the great sea mink like 
those taken forty or more years ago. 
We also used to have a very large otter on the same 
coast as the sea mink. I used to see scores of them 
brought in when I was a boy, but after I took my 
father's place in the fur business early in the sixties I 
bought but few, and for thirty years I have not seen 
one. I have bought some of these seashore otter 
which were at least one-fourth larger than any land 
otter I ver saw, and I have handled many thousands 
of otter skins. 
Referring to the statement that "remains of other 
extinct species of animals will doubtless be detece«d 
as our knowledge of these shell-heaps increases," [ 
would say that the shell-heaps of Maine have been 
pretty thoroughly examined. Many of them have been 
dug over and over again, each one thinking that he 
was the first. As early as 1878, while digging in a 
shell-heap on Great Deer Isle, I had the pleasure of un- 
earthing near the very bottom of the heap part of a 
clay pipe marked T. D. I think the great majority 
of the shell-heaps of any size on our coast and island's 
have been dug over. In 1878 I sent to Prof. F. W. 
Putnam, of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass.. 
with some Indian skulls and bones, pottery and other 
relics, a lot of the teeth of moose and beaver and the 
jaws or parts of the .jaws of deer, bear, fisher and 
mink. These were examined and reported upon by 
one of the Harvard professors, but no mention was 
made of any of them being different from the common 
forms. I have several times found remains of the 
great hooded seal or "hooked seal," as it used to be 
called, on our coast, and the teeth of seal are quite^ 
common in shell-heaps. One singular fact is that while" 
shells of very large oysters can be found in countless 
thousands near Damariscotta, I have never in my 
digging, in many places, from Camden to beyond Mount 
D esert, found a single oyster shell and but one shell 
of the quahog. Yet fifty years ago an old inhabitant 
of Mount Desert told me that when he Avas a boy 
quahogs were found near Indian Point at West Eden. 
Manly Hardy. 
B SEWER, Maine. 
Man and the Brute. 
While conceding the probable truth of much of Mr. 
Hallock's recent interesting paper entitled as above, 
I feel that sundry of his contentions are open to ques- 
tion. I cannot, for instance, admit that animals study 
causes and consequences, or that they deliberate in the 
true sense of the term, that is, revolve in their brutish 
minds matters pro and con to the issue, to then strike 
a balance in their final decision. I am persuaded that 
such mental operations imply a higher reasoning fac- 
ulty than animals possess, but space admits of. but a 
limited discussion of this particular subject. 
Animals undoubtedly have a limited vocabulary, b^t- 
that "words, or the number used, are not the measure 
of intelligence, brute or human," as Mr. Hallock con- 
tends, appears to me a rank heresy. Words are the 
implements of thought, without them complex mental' 
processes are impossible; in short, as Max Muller de- 
clares, "thought is identical with language." In ani- 
mals language appears to be an observation or inter- 
pretation of 'moA^ements or sounds, and their actions 
may be said to be guided, as a rule^ by habit, inherited 
or acquired. Except in instantaneous action, as a 
boxer in sparring, a man usually formulates his inten- 
tion to some extent, in words: the boxer, of course, 
has no time to think, and like the animal, depends 
upon the operation of habit. The boxer, in recalling 
his performance, conjures up a vivid picture of his own 
and his opponent's action, and, similarly, the memory 
tablet of the animal is probably occupied by a series 
of pictures, unconnected with causes or effects, a con- 
sideration of which, in my view, does not enter the 
animal mind. 
It is not to be denied that animals have imagination 
of a certain kind, but the faculty is the operation of a 
memory, very retentive of minutis. The savage may 
give us some insight into the animal, mind. Like it 
it is occupied Avith trifling details, but it is to be as^ 
sumed that Avith the brute, such absorption occurs in 
far greater degree. Denham, in his Travels in Cen- 
tral Africa, speaks- of a savage of exceptional intelji. 
gence, who, though capable of recognizing rej>resenl;:a- 
