|an. i6, 1904.1 
forEsT and sf hIaM. 
then spread out and the beds, blankets, etc., wrapped 
in it, and tied up. The tin hox containing^ the' stove 
and other articles was prpvided with a rope handle. 
The fifth . parcel was a large canvas bag containing 
loose articles and changes of clothing. The station agent 
shipped the canoe by express to Osage City, Mo., 117 
miles distant from St. Louis, and about 99 miles from 
Valley Park, while he checked the other parcels as bag- 
gage, all going over the Missouri Pacific railway. This 
is one of the railways that will not carry canoes as 
baggage. Some roads will carry them as baggage ; 
and one road merely requires full tickets for two per- 
sons, and the assurance that they are members of the 
American Canoe Association, and entitled to the privi- 
lege. I was compelled to pay for the canoe at the 
rate of four times first class express matter. 
Three days after the canoe and outfit had been ship- 
ped, Mrs. Frazer, little Helen— who is almost a veter- 
an canoeist, although little more than two years of 
age— and myself, all clad in comfortable old clothing, 
arrived at Osage on an afternoon train, carrying with 
us a camera, two fishing rods and two .22-caliber 
rifles, one of them a single shot and the other an auto- 
matic with telescope sights. At the little station we 
found the canoe, the outfit and a box of groceries we 
had shipped from St. Louis, all in good condition. 
timers were to be believed. There was no current to 
be noticed in this part of the Osage, so that ascetldirig- 
it was an easy matter. The wind made progress slow, 
however, although we hugged the eastern shore, get- 
ting some protection from overhanging willows for a 
distance of three miles. 
While passing the mouth of the Big Marais, that 
afternoon, we saw the first and only raft of railway ties 
encountered during the cruise. In this country the 
best of oak ties are sought, and this' fact has been 
chiefly instrumental in the cutting out of the one-time 
immense forests which shaded the Osage. The ties 
are placed as closely together as possible in long rows 
or tiers, as they are called, and held in place by split 
poles of sycamore, poplar, or other material found 
handy. The tiers are then fastened together side by 
side with other poles, making a complete raft. A 
sweep made from a pole with a bit of plank spiked in 
its large end, which is split for the purpose, is placed 
at each end. This raft, we were told, contained 1,500 
cross ties, and was small by way of comparison with 
the rafts the writer found so common on this river 
in the early '80s, when we first cruised there. Three ^ 
men were in charge, and they alternately used the 
sweeps to steer the thing, and their long poles to 
push it along, as the current aided them but little. The 
Forest ami Stream 
CHART OF THE OSAGE RIVER. 
The agent was a St. Louis man who had grown home- 
sick and lonely during his enforced stay in the village, 
and as he was glad of the opportunity to talk with any- 
one' from his home town, he was very friendl}', and 
aided ; us in many little ways, besides permitting us 
to leave a bag and the burlap in his office until our 
return, in a fortnight. And as this was at one time 
an important railway crosstie shipping point, and the 
negro workmen were at that time idle, it was not dif- 
ficult to obta,in help in transferring Nomad and the 
outfit from the station to the shore of the Osage River, 
300 yards distant In fact, it was a matter of asking 
the crowd of loafers if anyone was willing to help me. 
All, were willing enough, so I chose the first man I 
came to. Meanwhile, my wife went across the way to 
a general store and purchased a supply of fresh eggs 
and butter. I carried the canoe to the river, expect- 
ing to return with my helper for the other parcels, but 
was astonished, on putting the canoe down at the 
water's edge, to find, every article en route for the river, 
each on black shoulders, some big, others little, but all 
filing down toward me. A pickaninny brought up 
the rear guard with the lantern, which had dropped out 
of the canoe on the way. The big fellow whom I had 
engaged said, "two bits," (25 cents) ^yas enough, for 
him, but it was fortunate we had some small silver for, 
the others. Altogether there was a gathering of well 
pleased individuals on the muddy bank of the Osage, 
most of whom found reserved seats on the nearby ties 
and watched the two men who helped me stow the 
numerous heavy articles in the canoe. 
"I 'spec' you ain't never goin' git all dem t'ings in 
dat lil boat, boss," said one, while another afterward 
agreed that "Hit do beat all whar. dem t'ings went to," 
although there was room for both of us to sit or kneel, 
at our option, and a cosy space amidships for Helen to 
sit on the blankets, and issue orders to the old folks, 
or play with the diiYerent articles she could reach and 
pull out of their places. The. bank was a very muddy 
on^j' but by means of two planks and a skiff tied at, 
the water's edge aU hands reached their places and we; 
paddled away into' a fresh breeze that had sprung up 
within an hour. 
We left behind us the village, and the long steel 
bridge at its foot. Here and there a stern wheel 
steamboat was..nioored along shore, and a glance down 
stream revealed the long curve of the river where it 
hastens to meet the Missouri, a short distance beyond. 
There ahead of us was a long reach of water perhaps 
400 yards in width, somewhat muddy because of recent 
rains, its surface ruffled by the wind. The shores were 
low and fringed with willows, which, in turn, hid- the 
wide and rich bottoms that were covered everywhere 
with water the previous spring, when the Missouri 
was higher than it has been since 1844, if the old 
ties were so low in the water that the men were wading 
constantly in tramping back and forth, but a fire 
smoldered and smoked on some green poles placed in 
the center of the raft for the purpose of maintaining 
a fire. Just below the Marais, the first bluff \yas seen, 
and also the first squirrel. And this high hill is in- 
teresting for two reasons: On its summit are to be 
seen several Indian mounds of large size, and also 
on its summit there stands an immense pole from which 
telegraph wires span the river, their next support on 
the western shore being a series of poles so high that I 
would be afraid to even estimate how far in the air 
the wires swing. At the Marais there is a sweep-pro- 
pelled ferryboat and a steamboat landing that is called 
Westphalia Landing, a well-traveled road leading off 
among the hills to Westphalia, an inland town, where 
ma:ny anglers and quail shooters go for sport. 
It was our intention to make camp that night on the 
western shore, in a picturesque spot where I had often 
camped in other years, but as the banks had been cov- 
ered with a' deposit of deep mud, and the woods in ques- 
tion had disappeared, we went on, stopping a short time 
under an overhanging tree while a shower passed. 
The old camping place being out of the question, and 
the. next available one several miles distant, we crossed 
the river, and at last found a place under a wide-spread- 
ing hickory tree in a bit of woods close to Westphalia 
Landing No. 2. At dusk the steamboat Romana, which 
plies between this landing and Osage, tied up for the 
night, leaving in the morning. 
Getting away the first morning of a cruise takes 
time, as the whole outfit requires overhauling in order 
to stow the different articles where they belong, so we 
did not leave until late, meeting a shower just as ^ye 
passed through the open lock of the new dam the Fed- 
eral Government began to build at the foot of Shipley's 
Shoal, then left to the mercy of the elements, lacking 
an_ appropriation^ from Congress. If this dam is ever, 
finished and put into operation, the river as a cruising 
stream for canoeists will be. ideal, as the waters for 
miles above this point will lack current, and it will be 
comparatively easy to. reach points nearly 100 miles 
from the rnouth without encountering any. current 
worth mentioning. At present, however, the dam. af- 
fects the river very little, as it does not extend entirely 
across the river, and, its finished parts rise only to the 
surface of the water at the stage found at the time. 
A half-dozen immense pillars of dressed stone mark 
the height of the proposed structure, and judging from 
these, one would infer that when the dam is completed 
the river immediately above it will be at least twelve 
feet deeper at low water than at present. The finished 
lock is a fine structure. It is on the extreme western 
side of the Osage, and seems large enough to accom- 
modate any of the river craft likely to ply these waters. 
Immediately below the lock, far up on the low ghore, 
lie several stone barges that tell how high the water 
was last spring; and also that those responsible to 
Uncle Sam were either unable to float them into deeper 
water, or too lazy to do so, in time to save thenl when 
the water receded. : ''..'.[ 
Not far above the darn' we came to the Idw gravel 
bars and the towheads that gave a practical illustration 
of the need of the dam to the friends of the Osage, 
country. For a long distance the eastern two-thirds of 
the river is occupied by these obstructions to any craft 
drawing more water than a canoe, while at low water, 
there is more shingle than water. And here, in a com- 
paratively small space, is enough magnificent red, clean ■ 
gravel to pave every street in New York city several 
inches in depth. Every tiny particle of stone forming 
these bars is as smooth and as clean as if polished by 
hand, and if such bars were referred to by Kipling, I 
do not wonder that he was fond of basking in the sun- 
Nomad Under Way. 
shine on them. And all along the stretches of clean 
gravel were thousands of beautifully tinted mussel 
shells that had been washed down by the freshets, and 
polished by the gravel until not a vestige of the fresh- 
water clams they one time shielded was to be found in 
them. Crows stalked along the bars in numbers, seem- 
ing, to understand that we were too busily employed 
with the single blades to disturb them; for a west wind 
had sprung up and freshened with the passing clouds, 
and presently the sun was shining brightly. 
Shipley's Shoal consists of a low dam and chute 
placed there by the Government during the Civil War 
for the purpose of making the river navigable to gun- 
boats of small size which, it was anticipated, would 
be used on that stream in the event of the seat of war 
being west of the Mississippi river. And this dam is 
the first of a series to be found at intervals along the 
river as far as my acquaintance with it extends. This 
shoal compels the canoeist to use his blade steadily for 
about 300 yards, but when we reached the head of the 
chute, we bore off to the left-hand shore, following 
close to the bars until Rice's Island was passed, when 
the river widens slightly and is deeper. As we grad- 
ually turned northward and then to the northeast, in 
circling the first great bend in the river, the wind hind- 
ered progress less and became a beam wind. Then a 
small flock of ducks rose a long distance ahead and we 
remembered that autumn had come, but the sun seemed 
bent on reminding us of its power in August. Agam, 
in passing a small creek, 'four wood ducks scurried 
The Osage from the Bluff; Round Bottom and Harrington's Shoal 
in. the Right Background. 
out and over the tree tops, and shortly afterward a 
great blue heron was disturbed, and it flappel along, 
alighting here and there until we had passed Prince 
Edward's Island, in the shoal water at the head of 
which it took its final stand and refused to be dis- 
turbed again. 
We had completed the first curve and were turned 
in the opposite direction when hunger, and a grove of 
persimmon trees with the fruit ripening, sent us ashore, 
A splendid spring of water pours out from under the 
bluff at that place, and this was an additional attraction. 
While eating luncheon we ■ could look across the 
wide bottoms on the eastern shore, now denuded of 
every tree that could cast a shadow, arid although I could 
recall the day when woods extended alriiost everywhere. 
on that side of the river, so utterly desolate was the 
place then that remembrance seemed more of a dream 
than reality. Turning further west that afternoon, in 
rounding the second great bend in the river's course, 
we felt the full force of the wind. At Castle Rocky 
once an important town on the river, all that remained : 
were a few tumble-down houses and the ferry, a flat-- 
bottomed scow, large enough to transfer wagons from 
one side to the other. In antebellum days, steamboats 
were built here, and the village boasted a hotel, a great 
