Jan. 13, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
51 



THE MASSIVELY BUTTRESSED TRUNK. 
upon the fact that you are lost. Banish such 
visions and get a good night’s sleep. When you 
awake in the morning try to locate yourself the 
first thing while your faculties are not clouded 
with fatigue. Very often what seemed dark be- 
fore will now appear light and you will be able 
to move off directly toward camp. If, however, 
you still cannot find yourself, choose some 
distant landmark and travel toward it all the 
time, looking out for something that is familiar. 
It is well to choose some smooth barked tree 
and inscribe upon its\trunk the day and hour 
that you were there and your condition) of mind 
and body. This will serve as guide to your 
friends in the event that they attempt a rescue. 
I can add but little to the suggestions already 
made. I shall expect that you have either al- 
ready found your own way out or that your 
companions have located you before this. There 
only remains one little practical suggestion and 
I am done. That is, the sun always rises in 
the east and sets in the west. Please bear that 
in mind. It may seem childish to remind you 
of this simple astronomical fact, but there are 
thousands of people who become lost that in- 
sist that the whole system of solar affairs is 
turned clear around. That is only proof of the 
fact that a lost man is insane. 
Cuas. S. Moopy, M.D. 
A Night of Terror. 
Tue Thirty-second Congress passed an. act in 
1853 authorizing the Secretary of War to 
organize an expedition for the survey of the 
far West and the location of the most practica- 
ble route for a railway connecting the East with 
the Pacific coast. This, I believe, was the pioneer 
attempt of the Government at a systematic 
study of this practically unexplored region. It 
was while with one division of this expedition 
that the most exciting incident of my life oc- 
curred, and it all came about through my love 
of sport. 
I was young then, daring, without the judg-. 
ment necessary to restrain me from dangerous 
risks, and almost wholly ignorant of the great 
territory into which we were penetrating. Need- 
less to say, I occupied a very subordinate posi- 
tion and was proportionately anxious to bring 
myself to the particular attention of my 
superiors. 
Our course for some days lay along Milk 
River, and the monotony of routine work had 
already taken the place of the first novelty. Day 
after day on the route between St. Paul and Ft. 
Union we had passed through treeless plains 
until the sight of timber was a welcome one. 
Game was supplied in plenty by our hunters, 
but the division in which I worked had seen 
far less of it than a lover of the sport could 
wish. Already the native Indians of that lo- 
cality had received warning of the white man’s 
destructive advance, and more than once our 
party caught them driving the herds of buffalo 
back from the river along which we were work- 
ing and out of our sight; so it was often neces- 
sary to make quite extensive inland trips for 
our meat supply. 
During this time I wanted more than any- 
thing else to accompany one of these hunting 
expeditions, but was always relegated to other 
duties less to my taste but doubtless more to 
the welfare of our ever-hungry party. On one 
or two occasions I had seen an attack upon a 
herd of buffalo from afar, but these distant 
glimpses of the sport only made me the more 
anxious to participate. 
One memorable day that I shall never quite 
forget, I was allowed as a special privilege to 
shoulder my gun and try my skill for the after- 
noon upon the prairie chickens with which the 
plains abounded. 
The plains were nearly passed and we were 
now approaching that great back-bone of the 
American continent, the Rocky Mountain sys- 
tem. Already tracts of ‘timber began to show 
themselves and my attention was at once at- 
tracted to a forest not so very far distant from 
our camp. No buffalo could be expected there, 
but the cool woods, after the ceaseless monotony 
of the unchanging prairie, were not easily re- 
sisted by one who had ever been accustomed 
to them, and I soon turned my steps thither, 
though well knowing that to venture there alone 
was not only against the advice, but the positive 
orders of my superiors. My disobedience was 
punished with remarkable promptness. 
I had barely reached the outskirts of the 
forest when I was greeted by a sound that 
frightened me beyond measure, quite as much 
perhaps, from the unexpectedness of such an. 
encounter in that place as from the threatened 
danger itself. For who would be prepared to 
meet an angry buffalo bull alone in the edge of 
a forest? I looked at the majestic form in 
silent admiration, for the moment forgetting 
my own peril; but the hoarse bellow and lowered 
head soon brought me to my senses again. 
What could I do? To retreat was suicidal. 
That mountain of bone and flesh would be upon 
me in a moment. To fire, with my unpracticed 
hand, made more unsteady by excitement, with 
that ‘king of the plains looking me in the face 
less than ten rods away seemed equally rash. 
I did not have a chance to deliberate long, how- 
ever, for in a moment the bison charged full 
upon me and without stopping to consider what 
I did, I fired blindly and then, throwing away 
my gun as a useless incumbrance, climbed up 
the nearest tree without one look backward and 
never stopping until well toward the top. 
Once safe from pursuit, I looked down at my 
adversary circling about the tree below me. 
Would he attempt to dig it out by the roots? 
What a splendid mark if I had only kept pos- 
session of my gun. That being now beyond 
my reach, I soon lost interest in the buffalo 
other than that which was forced upon me, and 
began to figure on the possibility of getting 
back to camp. Two possible chances of escape 
seemed worthy of consideration. If I remained 
quiet it was probable the angry beast would 
leave me of his own accord ere long and seek 
to rejoin the herd from which he had strayed. 

HOW NATURE BUILDS A WOODEN WALL, 
Ceiba Tree in Nassau. 
Unless this proved to be the case, I would have 
to stay where I was until a searching party was 
sent out for me. As no alarm would be felt 
until I failed to return at night, and as I was 
besides supposed to be tramping about in quite 
another direction, I did not enjoy a weary wait, 
but my superiors would discover my diso- 
bedience and curtail my hunting privileges more 
than ever. Besides I could not quite forget the 
gauntlet of fun that would await me should my 
comrades have to come out to my rescue. 
Hoping my jailor would give up his vigils all 
the sooner if he could not see me, I concealed 
myself the best I could among the limbs and 
settled down to outstay him. The result was 
disappointing in the extreme. After’ what 
seemed to me an endless wait, I peeped down 
only to discover that he had camped upon my 
taril; in other words, had quietly laid down at 
the foot of the tree to take things easy. His 
head I could not see and did not care to, as 
every glimpse he got of me would only en- 
courage him to stay longer. 
Hour after hour went past and still there 
came no signal of relief or sign that the siege 
was likely to be raised. Gradually the sun ap- 
proached the horizon, then sank from sight, as 
I could tell by the fading colors on the trees 
about me. Still that stern sentinel refused to 
leave. 
Tired out and desperate I began to drop 

THE HISTORIC CEIBA OF HAVANA, 
