Dec 2^,1963.1 i^QFlESt AiJt) ^fftfiAM. SOg 
Winter Echoes of the Summer Caftip 
Let. me say at diice I have never camped out in my life. 
I can tell you nothing of tents, nor of cutting brush; I. 
have no knowledge of insect pests nor of how to exter- 
minate or endure them; no opinions of the" proper or im- 
proper way tO' build a fire, to make the bed, to air the 
bedding, to divide the work; or of anything else that 
goes to the making of the camp itself. Yet I know some- 
thing of camping from actual experience. I have started 
cut so many parties, and have put away their impedi- 
menta when they returned so many times that a good 
deal of information has rubbed off. I know, of course, 
only of the beginning and of the end; of the start and of 
the return. But if half the yarns be true that my fisher- 
man tells me of the strange prepai'ations men sometimes 
make, and of the articles they conceive to be appropriate 
for such occasions, a word or two of advice from so ex- 
perienced a person as I can hardly come amiss. 
This question of impedimenta, by the way, becomes a 
serious one after twenty or thirty years of accumulation. 
Sotne years ago my fishennan started to build a bam on 
the end of the lot. -He planned it with care, and was 
ingenious in discovering uses to which it could be put. 
This was natural, for we had neither horse nor cow, 
goat -nor pig, --wagon nor sleigh, to render it necessary. 
One day, however, in response to a rigid cross-examina- 
tion,, he revealed the truth as to why he was building this 
apparently unnecessary addition to the place. He had to 
have a place in which to store his fishing rods ! 
In spite of this, however, there have been times when 
the fishing in the river near home was very good, and 
one trip trod hard upon the heels of the preceding one; 
v/hen bait cans, buckets of minnows, black-jacks and cat- 
fish; nets large and small, fishing-rods, gum boots and 
wading shoes so filled the front yard that visitors had 
hard work making their way to the house. At the same 
time the back yard hung full night and day with old 
clothes drying for the next trip. I always feel^ on these 
periodic outbreaks that the only thing that has kept us 
from the attention of the authorities is the fact that it 
must be years since anyone in the village has expected us 
to be sane on this subject. 
Other fishermen's wives have a similar tale to tell. A 
kinsman one time married a wife, and when the dray 
came to the door bringing the belongings of the head 
of the new household, there were in it, of course, some 
furniture, clothing, books, and other so-called necessary 
articles, but these were entirely concealed by his more 
valuable possessions — fishing rods, baskets, gum boots, 
and tackle of all kinds, so that apparently the load con- 
sisted entirely of them. 
In his hay mow, so called, for it never had a wisp of 
hay, the campers keep their outfit, which has been gather- 
ing for years : a large tent, a small tent ; a box of cook- 
ing utensils, coffee pots, tin plates, dishes, etc., of all kinds 
and conditions; hampers and baskets in various stages of 
decay; gum boots and fishing-rods, and a variety of other 
things that I avoid looking at or touching, they seem 
so unpromising. 
The camping parties that start from my fisherman's 
hay mow usually go about the last of June. When the 
fateful day draws near, all the stuff is overhauled many 
I times by the various members of the party, and long lists 
are made of articles that will be needed. One camp that 
I have heard of tried provisioning by having each mem- 
ber bring what he thought best. When they took ac- 
count of stock they found that one man had brought only 
a bunch of onions that he had gathered while escaping 
through the barn; another a crock of scrapple; still an- 
other a head of cabbage and an apple pie, and that th&y 
were nearly as badly off for food as was the Ifistoric 
camp with four gallons of whisky and a loaf of bread. 
The provisions are an important part of the trip, and the 
parties that I know about take pains to provide them 
carefully. 
This method of getting ready really adds considerably 
to the pleasures of the trip. In fact, the camping begins 
the minute the campers take the first step up the ladder 
into the hay mow to see what they will need. From that 
minute they are no longer lawyers, doctors, teachers, par- 
sons; they are all at one or another stage back toward 
the primitive man. I even notice a change in their at- 
tire — a more rakish air; first a handkerchief tied around 
' the neck replaces the coHar; then a slouch hat, a belt, a 
' flannel shirt, until by the day they start they all with one 
accord attire themselves in as near the outfit of a wild 
woodsman as their resources and imaginations permit. 
Then comes the packing up. The parties that start 
from our haymow always pack up the day before. They 
pack all day, and almost all night. They usually begin 
v,nth the bread and only realize their mistake when all of 
the heaviest articles are discovered waiting their turn. 
Then the packing starts over again. They are no fonder 
of advice than ordinary men, and it is only when it waxes 
on toward midnight, and the box has been unpacked at 
least once by each member of the party, that it is received 
with even ordinary civility. 
In spite of this arduous day's work, they usually insist 
on starting very early in the night, even earlier than or- 
dinary fishing excursions, being satisfied, as a rule, with 
not later than three or four o'clock. They usually forget 
something — the bag of potatoes, the crock of butter, the 
hammock, or the lantern, for which they must return or 
be greatly inconvenienced. 
Various echoes from the camp reach me. Frequently 
I am consulted- about the cooking, and am asked to fur- 
nish recipes. One year my fisherman aspired to flannel 
cakes. There was no reason, he said, why they should 
not add this dainty to their fare, especially since it was 
so easily made. He wrote out the directions — flour, eggs, 
milk, soda — carefully. The sequel I heard later. 
Toward the end of the week, when the campers were 
a little tired of the fishing and probably^ of each other, 
they decided that the time had come for the flannel cakas. 
It was about three a'elock in the afternoon, and they 
started at once to get them ready. One man went for 
milk to the farmhouse on the hill, and while waiting, n:y 
fisherman measured out the flour into an eight-quart 
bucket. Instead of the two quarts called for in the recipe, 
he took four, to be sure to have enough. As they did not 
have eight eggs he took five, and — ^thtnk of this, ve 
cooks! — ^broke them right into the flour, and proceeded 
to stir the mixture until the milk arrived. He then added 
the ihilk and other ingredients and kept a man stirring all 
the rest of the day to get out the lumpSj which, it is un- 
necessary to add, could not have been stirred out in an 
"eternity. They tell nie there was a man on the road 
coming; or going for milk for two hours, and that when 
they finally desisted from beating the mixture, there' was 
as much of the batter on the outside of the bucket and on 
the gallant cooks themselves as in the bucket. Then they 
baked the batter in an iron pan and had supper, aud were 
thankful to find themselves alive the next morning. 
Verily, cooks are born not made. 
At another time a kinsman aspired to make an omelet, 
another very simple thing. He took his directions from 
Mrs. Rorer, learned them by heart, and kept repeating 
them over and over. "Give seven beats of the fork." 
They tell me he said it at last in his sleep. The opinion, 
however, was unanimous that he must have given eight 
beats or spoiled it some other way, but all agreed nobody 
had been in any danger of dying from the effects, for no- 
body had been able to eat it. They had better success 
v,'ith Saratoga potatoes, and, I judge, learned to cook 
several things pretty well — trout, coffee, ham, potatoes, 
eggs. Many times, during the long winter, when the 
blissful summer days seem very far off, they pine .for a, 
cup of the coffee they made while camping. 
Stories of other things come to my ears. They tell me 
of the beautiful spot where they always make their camp ; 
the grove of maple trees with the big creek on one side 
and the little creek on the other, and the grand old 
mountain across the stream ; of the way it all looks, by 
moonlight and in the sunrise. They try to arouse my 
fears by tales of rattlesnakes and bears. They all claim 
to do all the work; and make assertions as to how lazy 
the others are; how careless with their dress they get; 
hovr much they eat and sleep, and smoke. They tell me 
of the daily happenings : how someone sometimes steals 
their fish or eats up all the ginger cakes. They relate 
gleefully how afraid the others are when hard storms 
come or a miniature flood drives them to seek higher 
quarters ; if a strange animal prowls about the camp or if 
a snake is found. In fact, the character of hero changes 
with the narrator, quite as in life. 
They discuss various subjects. Sometimes the number 
of campers is too small, and they disagree; sometimes too 
large and they have not room to sleep comfortably. One 
night, when nothing better presented itself, and somebody 
was in a contrary mood, the whole camp argued until 
nearly morning whether the sun sits or sets in the even- 
ing; and vvhether a hen sits or sets on her nest. Some- 
times politics and other of the cares and anxieties of life 
creep in and threaten the peace. Sometimes one of the 
campers has a new girl whom he cannot forget, or sick- 
ness at home tugs at the heartstrings. But usually, I 
doubt not, they are happy, care free days that refresh the 
wearied souls of the men and send them back to their 
work with new ties, new ideas, and, best of all, with new 
stories to tell. 
During these many years I have thoroughly enjoyed 
these camping parties. Were all the pleasant gossip con- 
cerning them around my fireside cut out, I, no less than 
my fisherman, Avould miss it sadly. I sometimes won- 
der if any part of the success of an outing that a woman 
has started out and welcomed home properly belongs to 
her. Whether the certainty of sympathy does really add 
a zest to the trip? If the bit of adventure is ever a little 
more interesting because of the audience to whom it will 
be related? Whether it does not form a little closer 
tie than that of mere friendship? Indeed, I am some- 
times prepared to answer these questions myself, and to 
assert that by her sympathy, her encouragement, and her 
aid, many excursions are made much more pleasant than 
they would be but for the woman who stays behind. 
JusTiNA Johnson. 
The ''Upper Missourr' of To-Day. 
Appkkunny's serial story entitled "Floating Down 
the Missouri," which appeared in Forest and Stream 
.luring the years 1901-2, filled the minds of the Doctor 
and the Colonel with an intense longing to instantly 
follow the footsteps, or rather, the paddle dips, of tlm 
author and his Blackfoot wife; but O temporal O 
mores! were loath to consent. The confederates were 
bull-headed, however, as well as self-indulgent, and 
so they conspired, contrived and persevered until the 
opposing waves rolled back and the way opened for 
them in this autumn of 1903. Appekunny himself had 
promised guidance; but alack! alas! his services were 
withheld at a late hour, and so Tommy, whose origin 
was in the Maine woods, came into requisition — a 
canoe builder, cook, hunter and everything-else-you- 
can-think-of all combined, is Tommy — and he was 
despatched to the rendezvous with instructions to build 
a boat, equip it with provisions, utensils and if neces- 
sary, also a crew, for, the absence of a guide must 
not be permitted to circumvent the seemingly long an- 
ticipated voyage. Upon the receipt of a telegram an- 
nouncing the consummation of Tommy's mission, the 
Doctor and Colonel dropped the tools of their trade 
and forthwith set out for Fort Benton (Montana), the 
long-time accepted head of navigation of the Missouri 
River, and three days later viewed with complacency, 
from the river's bank, a little fleet of three boats which 
constituted their command. _ There were three boats, 
because a small skiff is an indispensable adjunct to a 
house-boat and besides, the two men whom Tommy 
had corraled owned a large skiff, which must, of 
necessity, accompany them, because they were Ijound 
down the river trapping and had to have with them, 
of course, their traps, their stores for the coming win- 
ter and, worse luck, two dogs for society. These two 
men were Jim, a professional trapper, late from the 
Cascade Mountains, who had spent a successful winter 
along the Missouri in 1900-1901, and was about to try 
it again as a panacea for his slender resources, and 
Joe. who, after bivouacking for three years with a 
cavalry regiment in South Africa, had found the British 
Isles too conventional and too narrow to suit his new 
formed ideas as to the fitness of things. 
They had entered into a co-partnership with designs 
upon fur-bearing and bounty-yielding animals of the 
romantic country drained by the river from which, just 
99 years previous, Lewis and Clark had viewed with 
amazement, the swarming beasts, birds and fishes that 
inhabited this, then newly acquired, territory of the 
United States. 
After an inspection by the Doctor and Colonel of 
the remains of the old fort, still standing near the 
water's edge, which in 1846, and 20 years thereafter, 
was the most westernmost and one of the best known 
of the American Fur Company's trading posts, and 
inhaling a little of the atmosphere of its stirring past, 
the craft was boarded in the late afternoon and pushed 
into the current the presence of a representation of 
the citizens of the town. 
The boat of Tommy's creation was 26 feet long, 8 
feet wide and 2 feet deep, carried a sail of liberal di- 
mensions, was supplied also with a pair of oars, as an 
additional means of propulsion, had two bunks amid- 
ship, under a canvas roof, and one across the stern. 
When laden with bunks, photographic paraphernalia, 
stove, provisions, etc., she drew but S inches of water, 
while the men's skiff, 12 ft. by 4, carrying some 1,500 
pounds of cargo, had a greater draft by several inches, 
and this fact was subsequently frequently made im- 
pressive. The wind was fair, all sail was spread and 
the voyage began; but very soon thereafter rapid water 
was encountered, which thus promptly drilled every- 
body in the simultaneous handling of three boats and 
two dogs, when each and every one of them evinced 
a decided in&lination to exercise an uncompromising 
individuality. All hands were pressed with exacting 
duties for a little while, when, besides being buffeted 
by wind and waves, the heavy rear boat threatened to 
crush the skiff, and the dog passengers of the former 
jumped overboard. The difficulties were overcome 
without harm, and after an hour's travel camp was 
established for the night a few miles below the town. 
Jim entertained the party with a camp-fire story of 
what would be seen further down stream. Sand bars 
would appear to move, because of the many prairie 
chickens and sage hens upon them; ducks would be in- 
numerable; fish of huge proportions were in schools; 
deer would gaze askance from every copse — the white 
tails on one side of the river and black tails on the 
other — while the wraith-like mountain sheep would 
stand upon the heights along the river's course in 
picturesque poses. Jim, like Appekunny, told of con- 
ditions as he knew them several years ago, and in 
several years— but let us not anticipate. 
The boat had sufficient deck room, forward of the 
bunks, to admit of cooking and serving meals, even 
though the oars were in use; therefore, on each day of 
travel the first duty was to push into the current and, 
subsequently, breakfast was prepared without haste 
or confusion. Some ducks were sighted soon after 
getting under way thfe next morning, and they, being 
duly sampled, proved to be members of the teal fam- 
ily. Before noon, as landing was made on Brul4 Bot- 
tom for the purpose of visiting the site of Fort Mc- 
Kenzie, which stood here in the heart of the Blackfoot 
country, between the years 1832-184-3, in which latter 
year it was abandoned, because of Indian hostility and 
immediately burned by the redskins. The probability 
that some animated scenes had taken place in this 
bottom was attested by a number of mounds of the 
suggestive dimensions, 7 feet by 2. The boundaries of 
the fort were readily discerned, and beads, clay pipes, 
hand-made nails and bullets were found midst charred 
timber and crumbling stones. The river's outlines be- 
come bluffs hereabouts, and rise sheer from the water's 
edge to a height of 100 feet. They display an interest- 
ing variety of strata in many colors, and in them some 
petrifactions were found, one of which — that of a so- 
called snake, a baculite — possessed prismatic hues like 
to mother of pearl. Twenty miles having been over- 
come by 6:30 P. M., notwithstanding the loitering on 
the way, and the deterrent head winds of the afternoon, 
when the Colonel and Tommy had donned waders and 
towed the flotilla around a bend, the day was declared 
at an end. The lapping of water against the prow, the 
lay of a co3^ote among the hills and a brilliant moon 
were delightful concomitants of sleep. 
The water and air, at 5 o'clock of the following morn- 
ing, must have given the two voyagers a cool recep- 
tion, judging by their haste to find covering; but the 
appearance of ducks soon afforded them an opportunity 
to stir tkeir blood by manning the skiff and giving 
chase. They returned with a dozen blue and green- 
winged teal, mostly young and tender. Ranches were 
passed from time to time during the day, whenever 
a bottom would admit of one, and the interested cow- 
boys were most polite in their greetings and compli- 
mentary to the "outfit," as they termed it. One and 
all anticipated floating down to St. Louis next year, 
and probably they were more observant of river craft 
than usual. 
This forceful evidence of people, however agreeable 
they made themselves, was deplorable to the Doctor 
and Colonel, who hungered and thirsted for the soli- 
tudes which were associated in their thoughts with 
this upper Missouri. In the afternoon the bluffs height- 
ened to 200 or more feet, and a variation in the color- 
ing of them often brought striking contrasts into close 
juxtaposition. At times a dark-colored headland would 
be ensconced between two of marble whiteness, or vice 
versa, all of them towering high above the river in fan- 
tastic outlines. In one instance a city walled by marble 
was so closely resembled that it was difficult to recog- 
nize in the formation a mere freak of nature. This 
evening's camp-fire was built under the beetling brows 
of a bluff to which were cemented hundreds of bird's 
iiests, and from the crevices above these hawks were 
frequently seen to dart after their prey. A fresh deer 
track, the first sign of big game, was noticed near the 
place of landing. Halts had been made during the day 
for purposes^ of photography, but, nevertheless, owing 
to the aid of the sail, 33 miles,, were accomplished. 
Jim set his lines in the evening for some of the huge 
catfish he" had frequently described, and when it came 
up with bait intact. Tommy and Joe, who had prev- 
iously displayed considerable incredulity, made face- 
tious remarks. .-7i" 
On the succeeding day, the third from Fort Bentoti,' 
the bordering acclivities increased their height to 300 
feet on either side of the river, which was about 56 
yards wider just here, and the combined effect o| 
