Jan. 29, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
<0 
Meriwether Lewis’ Grave. 
Carter’s Creek, Term., Jan. 20 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The shooting season opened in 
Tennessee on the 15th of November for the fall 
of 1907. Our party, six in number, were look¬ 
ing for a place to go on a general camp hunt. 
We learned that birds and other small game 
were plentiful in Lewis county about fifty miles 
from home. We made tins trip to Lewis in 
1907, 1908 and 1909. In 1909 the party was in¬ 
creased to eight members. On these three trips 
we killed fifteen hundred birds, a few woodcock, 
eight wild turkeys and caught five ’possums, four 
foxes and one ’coon. 
Besides this hunting we fished just a little, 
went in swimming, made pictures, visited friends, 
went for the mail and supplies and then we en¬ 
joyed the finest horseback riding all over the 
country, as there were 110 fences nor anything 
else to stop us. I think we enjoyed each suc¬ 
ceeding trip more and more, and the one that 
ended with Thanksgiving, 1909, was one of the 
most delightful. It is not, however, to give any 
detailed account of this hunt *hat I write this 
article, but to tell something of ibe burial place 
of Meriwether Lewis. This is the Lewis of the 
this is Lewis county. It was named in honor 
of Lewis, who is buried here, and his grave was 
only a few miles from our camp. 
Most of your readers may be familiar with 
the history of Lewis, but not all may know that 
his grave to this day is surrounded by an un¬ 
broken forest. No sign of any habitation is to 
be seen and none I think is within several miles. 
The grave is right by the side of an old road 
known as the Natchez trace (locally called 
“Notchy trace”). This road was cut by General 
Jackson from Nashville, Tenn., to Natchez, 
Miss., during one of his wars, and before the 
railroads came was very much traveled, so much, 
so, in fact, that it became necessary and maybe 
profitable to build wayside inns for the accom¬ 
modation of travelers. It was at one of these 
inns where Lewis was spending the night that 
he lost his life, and he is buried on the spot. 
No sign of the inn now remains. 
In 1848 the Legislature of this State erected 
a monument over the grave and on our last trip 
I succeeded in getting a picture of this monu¬ 
ment. An iron fence at one time surrounded 
the monument, but nothing of the fence is now 
to be seen; however, the stone curbing in which 
the fence stood is still in place and is about ten 
feet square. Just inside this curbing is the base 
of the monument, eight feet square at the bot¬ 
tom. It slopes upward from all sides to a height 
of eight feet and is six feet square at the top. 
This base is built of blocks of native yellow 
stone. On top of this base is a block of gray 
stone four feet square by two feet thick and 
above this a round polished shaft (also gray 
stone) ten feet high, making the whole about 
twenty feet. On the four sides of the square 
block are numerous inscriptions. One reads: 
“His melancholy death occurred where this 
monument now stands and under which rest 
his mortal remains.” Another gives the place 
and date of his birth and the date of his death; 
still another states that he was an officer in the 
regular army, private secretary to President Jef¬ 
ferson, and that he was commander of the ex¬ 
pedition to Oregon in 1803-1806, and there are 
others. Lewis is buried in a quiet, lonely spot 
and the road is seldom traveled now. It is a 
game country. I understand the deer are about 
gone, but foxes and wild turkeys are to be found 
and bobwhite is everywhere. 
W. E. Babb. 
A Word for the Quail. 
Linville Falls, N. C., Jan. 10.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Did you ever dress a pretty little 
quail and find its crop bursting with weed seeds 
of which it had kindly cleared your land? And 
did you stop to think that for the fun of kill¬ 
ing and for two or three ounces of meat—de¬ 
licious, it is true—you had destroyed a friend 
that was working hard every day in your in¬ 
terest? Well, that is my experience, and I must 
say it took some of the zest of quail shooting 
away when I thought of what I had done. 
Before I came here I was merely a sportsman. 
When I came back to town I left the game at 
the meat market, and when we wanted some 
THE LEWIS MONUMENT. 
birds we simply telephoned how many were 
wanted, and they were sent us, dressed. It was 
a very comfortable plan, as many sportsmen no 
doubt know, saving a great deal of grief at 
home, and perhaps a strike in the kitchen. But 
here we are “back to nature,” living the simple 
life, which really means, you know, that one 
goes without the conveniences that make up 
civilization. So I have learned a good many 
things better than I knew before; one of them, 
as I was saying, being that the gentle little quail 
is the friend of the farmer and should be al¬ 
lowed to live. However, the sport of hunting 
them is too much work for too little meat to 
induce the mountaineers to do them much dam¬ 
age. Besides, unless they can get a pot shot, 
they do not take many chances on quail, for they 
have learned that it is a waste of ammunition. 
The quail are numerous hereabouts and good 
sport may be had by the man who brings a good 
dog with him. Mr. Wingfield, of Charlotte, 
managed to get about twenty a day for several 
days about a month ago. The cover is good for 
the birds in this region, the food is abundant 
and the flavor and fatness of the game delicious, 
so it is a great temptation to go after them. 
Many ’coons and ’possums have been taken 
this fall and winter, and what is better game 
for the table than a fat young ’coon with all the 
fat taken off that one can get off without cut¬ 
ting the carcass to pieces? Then parboil it for 
an hour and a half or two hours, depending 
upon size and age, after which you put it in a 
roaster, surrounded by peeled sweet potatoes and 
flavored with salt and pepper to taste, and roast 
for one hour. Even a large old ’coon is excel¬ 
lent this way, and has none of the rank taste 
and smell of the ’possum. People who have 
tried ’possum, cooked with all the grease in it, 
and never wanted any more, are apt to class the 
’coon along with the marsupial, but the ’coon, 
being a little bear, is quite a different thing. A 
guest of ours from New York, quite a con¬ 
noisseur, too, likened the ’coon to mutton. Others 
have compared it to rabbit, only it has a much 
finer flavor. Frank W. Bicicnell. 
Cooperation Asked For. 
Albany, N. Y., Jan. 17 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Commissioner Whipple has written 
every sawmill operator, pulp wood manufacturer 
and consumer of wood material in the State, 
showing them the necessity for forest conserva¬ 
tion, and has requested that they co-operate with 
his department, in so far as they can, for the 
purpose of bettering forest conditions and im¬ 
proving the use of woodlands and generally plac¬ 
ing our forests under a more productive and 
profitable management. 
The commission has been gathering statistics 
for nearly twenty years, showing the amount of 
lumber, pulp wood and other wood products an¬ 
nually cut within the State. These figures con¬ 
clusively indicate that as a whole our people are 
cutting every year more timber than is grown. 
The consumption is about five times greater than 
the production. This means exhaustion of wood 
supplies, closing of mills, large financial losses 
incurred by the depreciation of mill properties, 
unemployed labor, scarcity of forest products and 
higher prices for all wood materials. Unless we 
repair this constant depletion of forest growth, 
twenty years will see the culmination of an 
economic crisis in this State. Every commercial 
tree will have disappeared by that time. 
This commission can assist forest landowners 
by showing how they may secure better returns 
for a longer period if they will adopt tried and 
successful methods in handling forest proper¬ 
ties. This information can be obtained through 
the various publications issued by the depart¬ 
ment from time to time. 
We already have a pamphlet entitled “Instruc¬ 
tions for Reforesting Land,” which is mailed 
upon request. There is being prepared a pam¬ 
phlet explaining how better results can be se¬ 
cured by practicing proper forestry methods; 
also one relating to growing osiers, the basket 
willow material. We expect shortly to publish 
a bulletin on better utilization of the existing 
woods, and still another explaining what forestry 
is and what it can do. All names will be placed 
on our regular mailing list whenever application 
is made for that privilege. 
J. S. Whipple, Commissioner. 
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