FOREST AND STREAM 
63 
AMERICAN CANNIBALS. 
(Continued from page 13.) 
mesquite bean; but their favorite food is the 
'burro and the horse which they steal from 
ranchers, a dead animal of uncertain age and 
condition attracting them as it would vultures. 
Their arms are spears for fish and turtles, and 
hows and arrows the latter poisoned by a decoc- 
1 tion of putrid meat, and scorpion, and centipedes, 
according to common report; and for this they 
are dreaded by all the Sonorans, as men and 
horses wounded by their arrows have often died 
horrible deaths. Exactly what the poison is, is 
not known but there is no question as to its ef¬ 
fectiveness. 
When alone they go comparatively naked, but 
will wear clothes if they have them. An ac¬ 
quaintance o'f mine who sitopped at the island 
in the winter of 1909, gave them some old 
clothes which they took and wore with great 
gusto. Normally, they wear pelican skins which 
hang from the waist to ‘the knee, or it may be 
a piece of cotton cloth. In their houses they 
display a degraded type. A gorilla will build 
a nest in a tree, but he deserts it. The bush- 
men of Australia like many animals, have homes 
where they happen to be, but the Seri builds a 
house that is but little above these, a most im¬ 
possible place made by thrusting skatilla branch¬ 
es or mesquite in the ground bending them 
over, on the sides and top and then piling tur¬ 
tle shells and sponges on the roof and at the 
sides. 1 have in mind a bird that builds a sim¬ 
ilar house, but better and even beautiful, while 
this house or jackal of the Seri is a horror keep¬ 
ing out neither wind, cold, rain or sand and in¬ 
dicating the low nature of the m'aker. 
In one of these dens a family or two, or a 
man with two or three wives and children will 
live, lying together all night, pulling the rags 
and pelican skins over them. ‘Swine of the 
human type. The life in these miserable huts 
is not alluring. In summer, the midday heat 
ranges from 95 to no deg. sometimes to 120 deg. in 
the shade, and on the night of such a day it is 
likely to fall to 60 deg., and make a daily change of 
sixty degrees, while during the winter months it 
often freezes in the low places. In such a clim¬ 
ate the Seri lives in his house without the wit 
to copy even the clever wood rat which fills 
the trees with its nests and has more comforts. 
They have no horses and cannot ride. A Seri 
knows nothing about the riata, the horse ap¬ 
pears to him as game only. 
A family of this race living in a miserable hut 
on the shore near our camp on the Gulf of 
California had several dogs, as all Seris have, 
half breed coyotes which snarled at me when I 
approached the hut. They never fed these “pets” 
which were half starved. This is a Seri trait; 
they keep dogs, but if the latter cannot feed 
themselves they starve, and gross cruelties prac¬ 
ticed by these people would not bear printing. 
They have a mystic religion; believe that an¬ 
cient pelicans created all things, and have some 
gods suggested by the animals about them, as 
turtles, pelicans or the sun or moon. But if 
they worship the pelican, it is to kill him and use 
his skin as bed and dress; or if the turtle is a 
god there is no hesitation in spearing him, 
tearing him in shreds with their big white teeth, 
using the shield as a roof tile. I have seen In¬ 
dians of many tribes from Florida to the North¬ 
west, on deserts and in mountainous regions, but 
I never appreciated what a savage really was, 
until I tried to ‘bribe a family group of these 
people to permit my photographer to take them. 
They eyed us like snakes. The dogs snarled and 
showed their teeth, and the expression of the 
eyes of the whole family from the oldest bel¬ 
dame down to the baby, was the kind of a 
glance that makes a man feel for his gun. That 
night, lying out on a shell heap, a few rods away 
it was sort of a pacifier to see one of my com¬ 
panions put his six shooter under his head while 
the other drew his rifle down by his side into 
his blanket, perhaps a habit. I had my fists and 
several times during the night I was tempted 
to reach out and grasp one of their wolfish 
dogs by the throat, as an outlet to my feelings, 
as the beast circled around near my head. Even 
our mules were nervous and snorted their dis¬ 
trust at the foul odor of Seri, that came down 
the wind. 
(To be continued.) 
PIONEERING QUEBEC’S NEW GAME 
COUNTRY. 
(Continued from page 11.) 
cruised; but in that itself I found fresh sign of 
both moose and bear sufficient to warrant the 
statement that there are enough of both game 
species to supply heads—and some immense bulls 
undoubtedly home here—to all the sportsmen 
caring to hunt for them, with any kind of luck. 
We got out late in October to the steel at the 
Nottaway, only to find no train would go east to 
Mileage 360, where the through construction ser¬ 
vice of Macdonnell & O’Brien commenced, for 
four days. Through the courtesy of Mr. Cas¬ 
sidy, superintendent of the Martin-O’Brien Com¬ 
pany, we got a hand-car and, leaving the outfit 
to follow on the train later, we pumped twenty 
four miles out in a drizzling autumn rain to the 
Megiskan. Here we caught the “Muskeg” late 
that night and slept in her four miles further 
east, pulling into Doucette early Sunday morn¬ 
ing. On the assurance that the train would not 
leave for some time we availed ourselves of the 
invitation of the Divisional Engineer, telephoned 
down to me the previous day, and went to the 
engineers’ residence for a decent breakfast. 
Alas! our confidence in the word of all con¬ 
ductors was shattered. We came out, our in¬ 
ner man satisfied, to see the “Muskeg”-—that we 
had pumped a hand car twenty-four miles in a 
rain to catch—pulling out across a series of half- 
built sideage tracks over which nobody could 
pass save at the expense of much slow and care¬ 
ful travel. She quickly faded around a sharp 
rock-cut and we were once more up against a 
situation that required prompt adjustment. In 
Doucette this bright Sunday morning not a big 
gasoline speeder was to be had—the engineers 
happened to be out with them. After consider¬ 
able trouble, through the exceptional courtesy of 
Mr. Campbell, the resident engineer we were 
given two one-cylinder speeders and two men to 
take my party of three east' forty-seven miles to 
Mileage 305, where Mr. Bolger was stopping and 
where I hoped we could secure his big speeder to 
chase the train to Parent, 107 miles to the east. 
We had a pretty cold ride, but made Mileage 305 
for dinner and soon, once the big car got under 
way, reached Parent. _ Here we boarded the 
Muskeg once more and stayed on her “sleeper” 
right through. 
Everything considered, it was a unique trip in 
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many ways; best of all, however, my purpose in 
going was amply filled. I went to explore new 
country and a certain actual game and fish condi¬ 
tions. What I found I indicated in the pre¬ 
vious article—one of the finest Moose and Bear 
districts on this continent, still virgin and un¬ 
hunted, save by scattered Indians in certain lim¬ 
ited areas; a new Hinterland that is as yet only 
the Woods Indian Country, with all the romance 
and history of the Hudson Bay Company and 
their red-skinned employes woven into it. Yet 
next season will find it most ready of access in 
around twenty-four hours from Toronto and 
with the actual game country less than four 
hours’ paddle from steel. 
Hunting and Fishing Camps. 
As was intimated in my previous descripti n 
of this new Quebec Gameland, comfortable, cozy 
camps will be built, under the writer’s direct su¬ 
pervision, for sportsmen. Personally selected 
guides, accommodation and Wholesome food, et 
al. will be supplied, and a series of two weeks 
parties placed in the Shabogama camp and pos¬ 
sibly in a couple small camps on the Coffee 
river; parties leaving for camp on September ist 
and at subsequent two week intervals, the cost 
being on a per diem estimate, a lump sum for 
fourteen days per member. 
Any further details regarding these camps and 
parties for each of the several trips may be had 
upon inquiry. This is about the last unknown 
North that offers game worth going after and 
that can be gotten into by the average bus ness 
man, whose vacation is necessarily limited to two 
or three weeks. In addition to its big game, its 
fishing and canoe cruising stretches are likewise 
well worth visiting. I consider the Nottaway 
route to James Bay unequalled for a three or 
four weeks cruise by any of the more western 
routes. As indicated in my former article, 
there is excellent trout fishing available here 
from July until the end of September. 
