462 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 3, 1904. 
In the Mountains, 
The October days of the present year were passing all 
too rapidly. The delicate tints of the frost-bitten leaves, 
blending with the grays and browns of the rocky cliffs 
and the dark green of the firs and pines, painted the 
mountain sides in hues of evanescent splendor, forming a 
picture which drew wistful glances from the eyes of the 
old hunter, and pulled at his heart as a magnet upon a 
needle. 
For anxious days the work of the ranch persisted in 
detaining, but opportunity came at length. Though his 
sons were grown to manhood and had gone out into the 
world for themselves, he persuaded himself that he was 
yet able to endure alone the labor of another expedition 
intoi the hills, and the work of preparation went busily 
on as the days flew by. 
Billy, the old gray pony, was hardly sufficient for the 
task of carrying his increased weight up the mountain 
sides, but the sorrel mare, strong and vigorous, would 
do for a saddle animal; for though her stumbling awk- 
wardness had long ago merited for her the homely appel- 
lation of the Old Sow, it was a case of Hobson's choice. 
Billy could carry the pack saddle. The wall tent being 
too heavy, three yards of six-foot wide sheeting were- 
purchased and saturated in two pounds of melted paraf- 
fine, the cloth being held by the ends and edges in dip- 
ping, that the central part would receive all the cloth 
could hold, and the rest was worked into the liquid as 
soon as it grew cool enough to be handled, and I had a 
sheet 9 by 6 that shed water perfectly. The old .45-70 
Sharps, with its express ball cartridge, was taken along 
for deer and the 12-gauge double-barrel for grouse. My 
beautiful little black spaniel pet was to be my companion, 
though he would have to be tied in camp while deer hunt- 
ing went on. 
Finally the cavalcade was formed, and with Billy's 
halter firmly tied to the mare's tail, and the eager spaniel 
dancing and yelping with delight under her nose, the 
march was begun. 
For a number of miles the way along the base of the 
mountain was easy; but when the place was reached 
where the ascent should have begun the steep pitch and 
the rugged rocks looked so forbidding that my heart 
failed, -and recollecting something of a legendary trail 
further to the northward, reputed to lead one into the 
deepest recesses of these mountains, I continued along 
the mountain base in search of it. Here the words of the 
sage Uncle Remus were again verified — "Right dar is 
whar he done broke his merlasses jug!"_ For a time all 
was easy; for soon finding a trail leading in the right 
direction, it was followed joyously, an occasional par- 
tridge being taken in to prevent the yelping spaniel going 
positively insane; but gradually it became apparent that 
the-trail did not lead through the kind of ground usually 
traversed by Indian trails, and I suddenly found myself 
at the edge of a small clearing, near a little log cabin, 
unoccupied and decayed, a monument of the hopeless 
ventures where a place for a home is selected by some 
industrious immigrant without adequate knowledge of 
the worthless nature of much of this, as of all other, 
mountain land. Hurrying past the deserted cabin, I re- 
joiced to find the trail still leading on, and hoping still 
that it would lead me safely through the jungle that had 
now closed in on all sides, tangled and _ impenetrable ; a 
mile further brought me to another similar place, where 
the trail ended. Here the pack was unloaded and the 
ponies were turned loose to graze, while dinner was 
cooked and eaten ; and the meal for myself and my dog 
was made perfect by the smell and taste of a partridge 
cooked in the finest of all ways meat is prepared for the 
table — toasted on a stick before an open fire. 
A way out of the surrounding jungle was now the 
problem. A careful search revealed a wagon track, dim 
and crossed by fallen poles and brush,, leading northeast 
and seeming to invite effort, and the slow march was 
resumed. Confusion worse confounded soon resulted, 
the dim track turning down a ravine, which . grew 
gradually narrower as the hills on either hand crowded 
closer and steeper, and I soon encountered places where 
the spring floods had torn everything loose and in the 
descending roadway had plowed cellar-like pits, through 
which a path must be found among the giant boulders 
where a brawling stream elbowed its turbulent way or 
loitered lazily in deep, darp pools, and the whole difficult 
gorge crossed and recrossed by fallen timber. Oh, it_ was 
fine — for the man in search of such a highway — and the 
whole perplexing business culminated in an indescribable 
tangle where, in jumping the creek, the unwilling pack 
pony was dragged across by main "strength"; and the Old 
Sow, having finally wrestled every last one of all her 
snaky legs through a snarl of brush and snags, left the 
sad-faced Billy firmly anchored between two leaning 
trees which stoutly refused to let the loaded pack saddle 
slip through the gap, and with his halter lashed to the 
mare's tail, his gray neck was stretched out like that of 
a gander. As the novelists tell us, we will now draw a 
veil over the scene ! 
If the atmosphere in that abominable gorge grew sud- 
denly hazy with vociferation until the listening partridges 
hurriedly plugged their tingling ears with their toes, and 
the vagrant bear shrank shudderingly into the nearest 
gopher hole, paralyzed into hibernating weeks before his 
time, where is he who really loves the great wilderness 
(where Dame Nature sometimes cuffs the ears of rash in- 
trusion), who will not be easily persuaded to forgive an 
occasional emphatic statement of the case on the part of 
the long harassed hunter? How that elongated cavalcade 
was finally rescued from the jungle by the exercise of 
generalship compared with which Xenophon's story of the 
"Retreat of- the Ten Thousand" pales into mythical in- 
significance, I'll never tell, for I hardly know myself. 
Though the three-pound package of soda crackers in the 
pack of the long suffering pony was ground into a dusty 
mass of flour, thickened by shreds of flaming bright- 
lettered advertisement, the toiling procession finally halted 
in triumph in an open glade, with Billy's pack wrestled 
into the appearance of a last year's birds' nest, and we 
felt that, in the language of the irate Southerner, we had 
"done done it" at last. 
A few rods further a wide, well-beaten trail leading 
northward was found, and following it up a gradually 
ascending grade, a dim trail, old and time-worn, turned 
in the direction of the mountains, and I fondly hoped this 
would prove to be the one of my anxious search. Turn- 
ing into the old, disused trail, I rode along its gradually 
. ascending way until, as the sun sank below the mountain 
crest a beautiful grassy hillside was found, where fine 
feed for the ponies grew in abundance, and with wood 
and water conveniently at hand a beautiful camping 
ground awaited me. Here the ponies were watered, hob- 
bled and turned loose, promptly taking the back track as 
fast as they could shuffle along; and when supper had 
been disposed of and the bed made down in the open, as 
the clear autumn sky gave no indication of foul weather, 
the tired man, worn with the fatigues of the day's march, 
lay down to rest. 
As the shades of evening began weaving fantastic 
shadows around the sinking camp-fire and drowsiness to 
weigh upon his eyelids, his ear caught that sweetest of all 
dear Mother Nature's melodies, the languorous murmur 
of a tiny mountain brooklet; and as the heart of the old 
hunter opened to its charm, the small stream sang to him, 
in murmuring monotone, a soothing song of peace ; and 
its own little answer to the problem of the mystery of 
human life, so unfathomable to us all. Following the 
direction indicated by the dreamy murmur of the stream, 
his mind wandered back into the far distant past, while 
the sweet melody sang to him of a 
"former happier day, 
When heaven was yet the spirit's home, 
And her wings had not yet fallen away!" 
And then the music of the tiny stream told of the days 
of his own innocent childhood, SO' far away drifted into 
the past. , . f 
"I remember, I remember, the fir trees, dark and high; 
I used to think their slender tops were just against the sky; 
It was a childish ignorance, but now 'tis little joy 
To know I'm farther off from heaven than when I was a boy." 
And still the song murmured on, and into the hunter's 
attentive ear was poured, in siren tones, the tale of his 
own joyous youth; of the long-gone time when to his 
eager gaze was shown— 
"Every goose a swan, lad, 
And every lass a queen!" 
And next the melody found expression in a song of 
sad and sober days, of the time when, with the passing 
years, came the sad conviction that 
"All the sports are stale, lad, 
And all the wheels run down." 
And now, in still sweeter tones the song floated on, 
fainter and still further away; on, and still onward, into 
the land of the great Beyond. And in wondrous notes it 
sang of a hunting ground where the happy hunter wan- 
dered with unentangled feet in the land of blessed camp- 
fires, by gently murmuring brooks, where landscapes of 
surpassing loveliness 
"Restored every rose, yet secreted its thorn!" 
And as the slumber of the tired hunter deepened toward 
oblivion, the melody in faintest, far-off notes of more 
than mortal music, whispered to his soul of the wonders 
of the mysterious Ocean of Eternity, where, in some fair 
Island of the Blest, a home of unfading joy awaited the 
weary feet ; where "There shall be no more death ; neither 
sorrow nor crying ; neither shall there be any more pain : 
for the former things are passed away." 
A low growl raised him to his elbow. The October 
moon, riding high in the unclouded heavens, flooded the 
lonely camp ground with light, showing the night to be 
far a'dvanced, and the vigilant spaniel, with ruffled hair, 
gazing intently into the thicket just above the camp, 
from whence the night breeze brought to his sensitive 
nostrils some olfactory note of warning. But the mid- 
night intruder failing to appear, the restful slumber of 
the forest camp again took possession of the wayfarer. 
The morning dawned gloriously, and after a hurried 
breakfast the trail was again followed. Up and still up- 
ward and with increasing steepness the way meandered 
the mountain side, where the hunter dismounted and led 
his horse up the most difficult steeps, until at length a 
wide basin of gently sloping land was found inclining 
southward; and here the man found himself almost on a 
level with the summit to the westward, while the view in 
all other directions was grand. Far away the wide ex- 
panse of mountain scenery spread out around him like a 
billowy ocean of green stayed in mid-upheaval ; and while 
the peace of the mighty hills took possession of the soul, 
the fatigues and annoyances of the upward climb were 
forgotten. 
Here was met the first of that finest of all our grouse, 
the blue or mountain grouse. A small flock scattered in 
front of us, and the crazy spaniel raved beneath the trees 
where they had taken refuge, and a few of them were 
added to* the bag to preserve his peace of mind. But now 
the trail grew dim, and finally spread out and vanished 
entirely. In vain was the mountain side searched. Away 
to the westward rose the crest of the divide, while the 
wide basin to the southward, through which a stream 
meandered, was so filled with fallen timber between the 
creek and the open hillside where I rode, that unless a 
trail through the jungle could be found the lack of water 
would drive us down the mountain again. More tantaliz- 
ing still, fresh deer tracks were now noted, which became 
more plentiful as the search for water led me further 
westward. But search as T. might for a trail to water, 
the impassable tangle of fallen timber still interposed, 
until I stopped to study the signs and learn the situation. 
Pony tracks months or years old were found at the 
foot of small trees, where their stamping feet had worked 
circular depressions of considerable -depth in the soft 
earth, showing that it had been done in fly-time, and 
that in each case the pony must have been tied for hours. 
Further search discovered patches of huckleberry bushes; 
and, a small pine tree stripped of its bark for a length of 
two feet at a point about breast high from the ground, 
made all plain. The old trail led up to the berry patch, 
and the bark had been stripped from the tree to make a 
berry basket. 
Not until the afternoon waned was the search for 
water abandoned, but finally the retreat began. Fuel, 
feed and water are absolute necessities in successful 
camping; and slowly and sadly the journey down the 
mountain continued until the old camping ground was 
reached, and in the depression of evident defeat camp 
was again made for the night. Then once again came 
the restful charm of the moonlit camp, and the song of 
the brook during the silent hours. 
"Still nature's vesper chimes are rung, 
And songs, by unseen spirits sung, 
Float round my head, that on a stone 
Finds rest; I sleep, but not alone." 
By this time it became manifest that deer hunting on 
the line of this trail was impossible under the circum- 
stances, and the dog was tied in camp, another route was 
•selected, and all day I wandered in search of the timid 
deer, which are growing scarcer as the years go by. But 
the hunt proved fruitless, and when nearing camp, and 
noting what I fancied to be a ruffed grouse 75 yards in 
front, I fired at it and scored a clean miss. The bird 
flew up to a limb a short distance away, and now seemed 
less like a partridge than before. Carefully approaching 
until within 25 yards, I fired at its neck and brought it 
down with the head dangling from a bit of skin. In the 
meantime I noted a similar bird on the ground to> my 
right ; and as I gathered the dead bird and looked more 
carefully at both, I saw that I had found a pair, male and 
female, of the strange grouse known .as fool hens. A 
shot at the head of the second clipped the skull just 
enough to paralyze the bird, which was secured in shape 
for entire examination. 
The first one proved to be the male, bluish slate in 
color on back and sides, with the short feathers crossed 
by delicate pencilings in black, and a few of the wing and 
tail feathers tipped with white, while small black mark- 
ings ornamented the short slate-colored feathers at the - 
base of the bill, and a narrow band of naked orange- 
colored skin was found above each eye, very like that of 
the male of the larger blue grouse. This band of naked 
skin appeared wrinkled, as though it might be inflated or 
widened, and probably made to appear more vivid in 
color during the mating season, after the manner of the 
blue grouse. The female was similar in appearance, save 
that instead of the delicate pencilings of the short feathers 
of the back and sides being black in color, they were of 
a cinnamon tint, making the bird lighter in color, and 
the skin above the eye was feathered. There was little, 
if any, difference in size or weight, both appearing to be 
about the size of the ruffed grouse or partridge, but a 
trifle plumper. The flesh was dark colored, but rich and 
sweet in flavor. 
I was much pleased at securing the beautiful birds in 
such fine shape, and they were taken home for exhibition 
among friends. They are not at all plentiful in our 
mountains, and their existence, as a distinct species, is by 
many considered mythical. Years ago I found one sitting 
on a limb of a small fir about five feet from the ground, 
and carefully and very slowly approaching it, got my 
hand within two feet of its legs, when, in spite of all my 
care, the snapping of a twig under foot startled the 
pretty creature, and it hopped up on another branch just 
above reach. 
The following morning found me stiff and sore, and 
it became manifest that nothing remained for me but to 
"hit the trail" for home. Making camp, cooking, and 
hunting horses, besides the fatigue of the daily climb, 
proved a heavy task for a lone hunter of my years, and 
reluctantly and somewhat , sadly the ponies were saddled, 
packed, and turned down the trail. 
