

AvuG. 10, 1907.] 


FOREST AND STREAM. 




N | 



August. 
My garden gay with poppies, 
Nasturtiums garish-’gainst the old stone wall; 
The zing of the cicada now and then, 
To tell us that the summer now is high. 

Training for the Trail. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
It was a few days after Christmas last when 
I employed a guide to accompany me on an early 
autumn hunt this year for Rocky Mountain sheep 
in the heart of British Columbia 
north of the railroad zone. 
me that it was very hard hunting and that the 
beyond and 
The guide advised 
work required a great deal of patience and en- 
durance. I was very anxious to make a good 
bag, including a silver-tip and some big wild 
Therefore I consulted the highest 
authorities on big game hunting. I read the 
books of Roosevelt, Selous, Van Dyke, Phillipps, 
Wooley, Baillie-Grohman, E. N. Buxton and W. 
T. Hornaday. 
formation about the habits of wild animals and 
told me what articles 
rams horns. 
They gave’me much useful in- 
were necessary for the 
hunter’s outfit. I got a pretty clear idea as to 
what a hunter had to do to make a successful 
bag, but realized that I was not physically equal 
to the necessary hardships of the trip. The hun- 
ter-authors I appealed to unwittingly failed to 
give me the information I needed most. I had 
to fit myself for the trail and, consequently, was 
left largely to my Own.resources. 
One-third of the twenty-four hours was the 
least I could give to my business. The 
sixteen I devoted Chiefly to the restoration and 
other 
upbuilding of -my physical organs. As a mark 
to be reached I held in view the long hard trips 
of the hunters I have mentioned. I 
began at the bottom, so to speak, with my feet 
famous 
and legs, I lived in the country and my busi- 
ness was in the city; consequently, whenever 
possible, I walked. Gradually I worked up to 
being independent of the street cars and walked 
to and from my office, amounting to ten miles 
a day, developing the muscles of the lower half 
of the body wonderfully. 
On Sundays and holidays I got in my heavy 
work. From six to eight hours I devoted my- 
self seriously to the task. I walked twenty miles 
on a stretch, often without lunch and occasion- 
ally without breakfast. I tramped in every direc- 
tion, choosing a new route each time. The rus- 
tic bridges, silent groves, river bluffs and peace- 
ful meadows, all became familiar objects to me. 
Next I devoted my 
sprint before breakfast on the driveways in the 
big deserted park appealed to me. A hunter had 
to run and head off his game and could not 
choose his ground; I therefore ran up hills so 
energies to running. A 
that my breath exhausted 
on reaching the top. 
long and steep was 
I stuck to it earnestly and 
ran through the thick forest and swarmed up 
the rugged face of precipitous bluffs, 
selecting uncertain foot and hand-holds among 
the brambles, roots and sharp rocks. I remem- 
bered that I must not only reach the top quickly, 
almost 

deliberate and 
but must be ,ready then for a 
deadly shot. 
Discovery soon came to me that ordinary shoes 
and boots obstructed, the free use of my feet. 
The hard soles would not stick to the rock edges 
and prevented the muscles of the foot from re- 
sponding readily to the calls made on them. I 
stiff 
pair of moccasins or a pair of low cut ‘rubbers 
procured footwear without soles—an_ old 
(ladies’ over rubbers, fitting the stockinged foot 
best), and, beginning with two pairs of soit, 
thick home-knit woolen socks, I ran over rough 
roads and 
macadam over 
Finally 
I made a declaration of juvenile independence 
through quarries 
freshly-turned wheat lands frozen hard. 
and went barefoot over rough ways. The mus- 
cles of the toes, ball, instep and heel developed 
quickly and literally I was no longer a tender- 

in such soft woolens as were 
warmth of body, and 
and clothed myself 
necessary to retain 
comed the storms. 
wel- 
My chosen route during the winter months lay 
along the course of a creek, and I became inti- 
mately acquainted with every turn almost from 
its main source in some wooded knob hills to its 
mouth in the big river. There were some pretty 
bits’ of rustic scenery. Squirrels disturbed in 
their winter forage, rabbits driven from their 
scanty beds, now and then a muskrat, a pair of 
mallard ducks, a blue crane or a red fox, appro- 
priately suggested wild life. | made it a rule 
to wade the creek with all clothes on, getting 
wet to the belt or arm pits, and sometimes | 
went clean under, allowing my hat to float off 
on the surface. At first it was cold ‘and I was 
a little apprehensive of evil results. Soon, how- 
ever, the body became accustomed to the water, 
and its. chilliness was scarcely perceptible ex- 
cept in a ring Of the surface water about the 
legs or body. I would cross the creek innumer- 

WADING A 
foot. for the soles bade defiance to the worst 
paths I could find. 
I recovered confidence in my feet and was not 
afraid to walk the parapets of wagon bridges. 
Like the squirrel I ran along the siderails of the 
foot bridges, two by four inch scantlings set 
edgewise, and twenty or thirty feet above the 
torrent swollen with winter floods. Here and 
there’ the fence lines were carried across the 
creek with water gates. and the ridge poles of 
these afforded me excellent tight rope practice, 
which I found good for steadying the nerves. 
I climbed trees after affrighted squirrels, safe 
enough in their hollow retreats, crossed streams 
over timber felled in the storm, and worked my 
way along the sides of rock ledges left vertical 
by the quarrymen. Once or twice my uncertain 
supports gave way and dropped me twelve or 
fifteen feet below, but with no serious result. 
The weather I did not permit to interfere with 
my plans, for the authorities told me that wild 
animals left their lairs in stormy weather and 
were then easier victims of the hunter’s prowess 
My dress varied little except an extra shirt and 
an extra pair of socks inthe storm. The knowl- 
edge soon came to me that clothes could not 
keep the weather out, unless they were of such 
a nature as to greatly destroy the usefulness of 
the body and its members. I therefore bade 
good-bye to waterproofs, left my coat at home 
STREAM 
IN MIDWINTER. 
able times or follow the bed either against or 
with the swift current, planting my moccasined 
feet on the pebbly bed. If a windy or sunny 
day, my woolens would dry quickly with the aid 
of bodily warmth generated by exercise. If the 
day were raw and cold, with the mercury hover- 
ing about zero, my trousers froze hard and stiff 
like boards. The thought that my feet and legs 
in water-soaked garments might congeal into 
solid blocks gave me a little trouble at first, but 
a vigorous run sent the, warm blood coursing 
through my veins and upon arrival home my wet 
socks steamed with heat and I had suffered no 
discomfort from cold. My friends gave: expres- 
sion of disapproval at my rashness, as they were 
pleased to term it, and warned me against pneu- 
monia and rheumatism. On the contrary, I 
thrived beautifully. 
Bunchy clothes I avoided, discarding the over- 
coat entirely. During business hours and when, 
in the city my winter apparel consisted of linen 
mesh underwear and an outer suit of medium 
weight. I bared my hands and left my neck to 
the icy blasts, though one ear did suffer a pretty 
bad frost bite. At night I threw my windows 
wide open and courted the draft on the principle 
that the freshest and purest air is* best... Every 
morning, regardless of temperature or bodily 
feeling, I thoroughly chilled my body with a 
plunge in cold water or at least with a sponge 

