Aug. i 6, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
205 
by which a spoiled woodcock may be so disguised 
by a sauce that you have no comprehension of 
the real flavor of the most delicate of birds. 
Tastes are fashions. The gamy twang, or what 
is called in French the faisande flavor, only 
became d la mode when it was impossible to 
bring game rapidly to market, and the length of 
time used in transportation caused absolute de- 
St. Barnabe, Canada, 1873 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: We had been told such marvel¬ 
ous stories about the abundance of game here 
that we made up our minds that if we once got 
started, nothing would stop the slaughter but 
darkness or lack of shooting material. Friday 
night we scoured the town for guns, and laid 
in our stock of ammunition, which, by the way, 
is a very important part of a hunter’s outfit. I 
calculate that our stock averaged about as well 
as that of any party that has fitted out since the 
days of Daniel Boone. It was near 8 o’clock 
A. m. when we left St. Barnabe and plunged into 
the mud and primeval forest. Our party con¬ 
sisted of Mr. Roloff, myself, two Canadian guides 
in full war paint, and two dogs. Immediately 
on striking the woods we threw’ ourselves into 
attitudes ready for instant action, and I am 
sorry to say we had no occasion to throw our¬ 
selves out of them, only as the position became 
tiresome and obliged us to change hands for a 
rest. In fact, we traveled from early morn until 
2 p. m. without seeing a living thing twice the 
size of a June bug, and it was astonishing how 
fast I lost interest in that raid after 12 o’clock. 
I begged one of the guides to throw himself 
up and let us try him on the w’ing, but he flatly 
refused. Nothing presented itself to relieve the 
monotony but certain fluids, that suffered con¬ 
tinually. 
At a quarter past 2 p. m., while sitting on 
a fallen tree, I thought of my dream of the night 
before, and then the mortifying fact dawned 
upon my benighted mind that dreams always go 
tly contraries. 
As it was then late, and we w r ere about 
eight miles from any living thing, we deemed 
it best to strike civilization as soon as possible, 
and with this thought uppermost in our minds 
u’e turned in the direction of St. Barnabe. I 
don’t know how the others felt, but I was grow¬ 
ing savage. I was determined to shoot some¬ 
thing before I got home, and when we were so 
near St. Barnabe that I knew where I was, I 
left the party and went into business for myself, 
and it came very near being a grave mistake. 
Shortly after we separated, as I was making my 
way through an opening in the woods, I was 
startled by hearing a loud grunt and something 
run. I was frightened. I thought of bears and 
panthers, and a cold sweat fairly stood on my 
gun barrel. I buttoned my coat around me to 
keep from shaking to pieces, and cautiously 
moved away. In doing so I discovered the 
cause of my unmanly agitation. It was stand¬ 
ing about five rods away, and was nothing more 
nor less than a hog; but such a hog I never saw 
on hoofs before. He looked as though he had 
composition. It then became necessary to invent 
methods of making food palatable, which other¬ 
wise would have been repulsive. Of course the 
season of the year has much to do with this 
question, but we are still in doubt whether a 
canvasback duck in dead winter is not better 
when cooked a day after it is killed than when 
kept frozen for a week. 
just returned from an expedition in search of 
Sir John Franklin, and had endured the priva¬ 
tions and hardships of numerous Arctic winters. 
Why, you could have cooked him bodily and he 
wouldn't have produced enough grease to lubri¬ 
cate the balance wheel of a Howard adjustment. 
The idea of being frightened by a hog roused 
my indignation to such a pitch that I determined 
to teach his hogship a good lesson. Accordingly, 
I leveled my Canadian stub twist in his direc¬ 
tion and covered what I could with my sight, 
and then, without a word of warning. I intro¬ 
duced to his notice about a quarter of a pound 
of No. 8, backed up by a reasonable amount of 
projective material. To say that the swine was 
taken by surprise doesn’t express it. For about 
a minute I guess he thought King William had 
made another forced march on the Rhine. 
Eleven seconds later, hatless and gunless and 
senseless, I was ruminating on the mutability of 
human calculations among the branches of a 
small oak, whither I had taken myself rather 
suddenly to escape the fury of that hog’s on¬ 
slaught. Looking at him from the tree, I never 
for an instant doubted but what that hog’s whole 
soul was in the work before him. I never saw 
a more thoroughly interested specimen of hog 
anatomy in my life. He peeled the bark off the 
tree with his tusks, and ploughed deep furrows 
in the dirt and leaves directly under me. From 
a baseball point of view, that porker did the 
finest bit of fielding I ever saw. I thought of 
George Wright, Ros. Barnes, and some other 
noted players, but the hog suffered by compari¬ 
son. I tried to enter into conversation with him, 
with the view of getting him to play in Boston 
next season, but as near as I could make out, 
he was already engaged. I didn't relish the idea 
of remaining in that tree long, for I was bare¬ 
headed, and feared sunstroke; besides, I never 
took much interest in the lumber trade. But de¬ 
liverance came from an unexpected quarter. It 
appears that when I fired, one of the dogs left 
the party and started in the direction of the 
sound, thinking, no doubt. I had discovered game, 
and so I had. I would give all I possess in the 
world to know what that dog’s feelings were 
as he came upon the scene and saw me up the 
tree and the hog standing guard. I was com¬ 
pletely overjoyed, and came near falling out of 
the tree into the jaws of death, or the hog’s. 
However, the grunter now turned his attention 
to the newcomer, and I made up my mind that 
if that dog didn’t want crape on his front door 
in the morning, he had better leave me to my 
fate, but the result clearly proved the truth of 
Bill’s remark, that “there are more things in 
heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our 
philosophy.” The dog seemed to take in the 
situation at a glance; he also noted that he had 
got no slouch of a hog to deal with, ana then 
commenced a series ot movements between the 
two whicn tor grandeur of conception and 
rapidity of execution have had no equal. The 
highest ambition of that dog at this particular 
moment seemed to be to get in the rear of the 
hog, and the hog was just as anxious to keep 
Ins enemy in front, and for me to describe the 
movements of the two 111 this contest would re¬ 
quire a volume as large as the cornerstone of 
the new postoffice. I should think that fifteen 
minutes had passed when the hog showed signs 
of distress, and he was evidently contemplating 
one of those masterly retreats that made Mc¬ 
Clellan’s name so famous, when an unexpected 
movement on the part of the dog brought the 
idea to a head at once. The dog had been watch¬ 
ing for the chance, and when he caught the hog 
oft his guard, he made a lightning spring and 
fastened to one of the hog’s ears, and that set¬ 
tled the fate of Europe on that field. You could 
hear that hog give vent to his injured feelings 
for miles as he crashed through the woods, drag¬ 
ging the canine with him. I lost no time in get¬ 
ting out of that tree, and gathering up my hat 
and gun, I commenced to put real estate between 
me and the scene of the late conflict in a some¬ 
what marvelous manner. Before I got home, the 
dog joined me, and he seemed as modest and 
unconcerned about his victory as I was in not 
saying anything about it when we arrived. I 
don’t care to go hunting here any more; it isn’t 
a happy pastime. 
Inside Route to Florida. 
The United States Coast and Geodetic 
Survey charts give a pleasant inside trip from 
New York to Key West, Florida. Leaving New 
York, the trip is through the protected reaches 
of water to the Raritan River at South Amboy. 
Running up the Raritan River to New Bruns¬ 
wick, enter the Delaware and Raritan Canal and 
run through to Bordentown on the Delaware 
River. After a short run down the Delaware 
enter the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, thence 
go through to Back Creek at the head of 
Chesapeake Bay. 
Chesapeake Bay, the freest running section 
of the whole trip, can kick up a squall of ocean 
size when in the mood, and the pilot should do 
no night running there unless the moon is out 
and the weather is right. 
Arrived at Norfolk, go through the Dismal 
Swamp Canal, and after negotiating a maze of 
rivers and creeks and Pamlico Sound, you will 
get into Beaufort Inlet for a little open run¬ 
ning. Then comes a series of large and small 
inlets during the run to Winwah Bay, S. C-, and 
a run through the canal to Charleston. 
From Charleston to Fernandina, Fla., the 
trip is through a smooth series of well-protected 
sounds and canals, and from there through Cum¬ 
berland Sound to the St. John’s River to Jack¬ 
sonville. 
The last leg of the journey from Jackson¬ 
ville to Key West through Miami and the East 
Coast winter resorts and through the ’gator 
country is pretty hard going in some places as 
there are long stretches of water very shallow, 
except when favored by the not very swelling 
tide or by heavy rains. 
A “Watch on the Rhine” 
By DAMON 
(From issue of Dec. 25, 1873.) 
