

FOREST AND STREAM. . 
245 


history. ‘The blinding snow and sleet hid the bold cones of 
Porcupine Mountains from view, while away to the east we 
could faintly discern the rugged face of Fourteen Mile 
Point. The regular steamers which plied between the town 
of Ontonagon and the lower lakes, had one by one been ob- 
liged to pass the port and run for Bayfield and take shelter 
behind the Apostle Islands. 
Camping out was disagreeable business, and I had re- 
turned to the village and the inhabitants were mostly in- 
doors, except now and then a solitary individual who could 
be seen moving about in the snow snugly encased in his 
warm capote. Suddenly it was passed from house to house 
that an object had been discovered far out on the lake 
which looked like a boat. The news of an object of so 
much interest on the lake in such a fearful storm soon drew 
to the beach a large portion of the people. 
We leveled our glasses through the blinding storm at the 
strange object as wave after wave swept it towards us, and 
many were the speculations concerning it. The clouds of 
snow grew thicker and thicker, drifting into the most inac- 
cessible parts of our hoods and gathering on to the waves 
and shore.in such quantities that it was difficult to distin- 
guish land from water. 
First the object was seen on the crest of a wave, then it 
sank to reappear ofi thé top of another. Some thought it 
was part of an ill-fated vessel until it was finally discovered 
to be some kind of a boat, and on closer examination proved 
to be one of those most fragile of all crafts, @ birch bark canoe. 
Now we thought it must be capsized as sea after sea 
swept over it. Now we thought we could distinguish a 
human form in it struggling to make theshore. When the 
canoe had approached sufficiently near for us to discover its 
occupants, there in the stern sat an Indian stripped to his 
waist clenching in his hand his trusty paddle, while in the 
bottom of the birch bark sat his squaw, clasping to her 
breast her pappoose, and vainly endeavoring to shelter her 
charge from the pitiless storm. In the bow of the canoe 
was rigged an impromptu sail consisting of a ragged 
blanket stretched on poles and the company was further- 
more increased by the irrepressible dog. 
This family of Chippewas (as it was afterwards found) 
had started from Isle Royal intending to make some harbor 
on the north shore, but in the thickest of the gale had lost 
their way, and been driven a distance of sixty miles in this 
egg-shell to the south shore of the lake. From crest to 
crest they flew, until they reached the Ontonagan River; 
(from which the town takes its name), and with a last stroke 
of the paddle they shot into still water amid the shouts of 
the gazers. 
The Brave without looking tothe right or left, or notic- 
ing in any manner our anxiety for his safe arrival, hustled 
his family out of the bark, drew it up on the shore, threw 
his gun over his shoulder, and with his dog at his heels, 
disappeared into the woods with as little concern as if 
nothing unusual had happened. Mee Hath; 
$< a ——__—_—_ 
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 
——__~+>__—- 
Camp IN GENEVA PAarK, CoLtorapo, Nov. 8th, 1873. 
Epitor Forest AND STREAM:— : F 
MONG the many different species of game in a coun- 
try possessing such a variety there are none so diffi- 
cult to capture as the Rocky Mountain sheep, or big horns, 
as they are sometimes called. Living remote from civili- 
zation and the haunts of man—ranging along the roof of 
the Continent, on the almost inaccessible peaks high above 
timber-line, and endowed by Nature with keen scent and 
hearing, they are considered by hunters as being the most 
difficult to approach of any animal among the deer kind. 
The horns of the male are sometimes of enormous size. 
Thave seen them eight inches in diameter at the largest 
- part, and weighing sixteen pounds. Those of the female 
are small and sharp, resembling the horns of the goat; in 
fact, but for the borns, and a fine silky wool at the roots of 
the hair, they might readily be mistaken for deer. They 
feed upon the short nutritious grass which grows upon the 
treeless ridges and ravines along the Snowy Range, and 
when fat weigh from one to two hundred pounds. The 
flesh is very much like that of the deer, but jucier and of 
superior flavor. They are almost constantly on the move, 
ranging from one mountain to another, feeding as they go, 
and finding some rocky cliff sheltered from the Range 
winds, where they lie at night. Sometimes several hundred 
may be seen in one drove, but generally from two or three 
to adozen. When. pursued they make a break for the 
highest point of rocks in sight, where they stand looking 
curiously at the hunter as he slowly picks his way upward 
over the debris to get withing shooting distance. When 
that has been gained, however, the sheep have disappeared; 
nor does fhe tired sportsman get another glimpse of his 
game until he has. reached the cliff they have just left, 
when they may be seen standing on some point higher up 
on the mountain, and still beyond rifle shot. Should the 
hunter have perseverance and plenty of muscle, he will 
probably follow them to the highest pinnacle of the Range 
to find at last that his climbing has been in vain, and that 
the game he has been following,so faithfully and hopefully 
have mysteriously vanished from his sight. 
The vnly successful method of hunting the mountain 
sheep is to get above them, unseen, and, if possible, get a 
shot before being discovered. In this way the herd get 
confused, not knowing which way to run, and sometimes 
four or five may be killed before they recover themselves. 
Once started, however, pursuit is useless. Throwing back 
their heads they throw themselves into space as if shot 
from a cannon, and in a few minutes are miles away, tak- 
ing leaps of twenty or thirty feet, and hardly ever making 
a mishap, however rapid and headlong their flight. A. 
s 
Atoodland, Zawn and Garden. 
THE LAWN AND HOW TO MAKE IT. 
+ 
—“‘Strength may wield the ponderous spade, 
‘May turn the clod and wheel the comfort home; 
But elegance, chief grace the garden shows, 
‘ And most attractive is the fair result 
Of thought, the creature of a polished mind.— Cowper. 
NE of the principle elements of the beautiful, as ap- 
plied to the art of laying out landscape gardens, is a 
goodly sized, well-made, well-kept lawn. 
“flow shall we construct such a lawn as lies in front of 
Mr. H.’s fine residence?” said a gentleman to me last April. 
‘YT have just purchased some eighteen acres of good land, 
andl it lies in a good situation for forming a good lawn, but 
I do not know how to do it.” 
This apparently frank question deserves an equally frank 
and explicit answer. Every one well knows the fact that 
afine lawn, properly decorated with groups of trees and 
shrubs, is one of the indispensibles of landscape gardening. 
I do not mean to be understood, when I speak of lawns, 
that I refer to many little green spots of ground of from 
one half to one acre of land, that one beholds in riding 
through many of our country villages. These [ call ‘‘plats” 
of greensward; and there are many of them very well laid 
out, and answer the end for which they were designed. A 
small piece of land of half an acre in front of our several 
dwellings is much to be preferred, if it is well kept 
and frequently mowed to the same ground when designed 
and set apart for flowers. These little plats should, like 
the grand old lawn of many acres, be well and truly made, 
to give general and lasting satisfaction. We would prefer 
to trench to the depth of two feet to two and one-half feet 
the little grass plat that lies before our door. 
Having determined to have a ‘‘small lawn,” as we call It, 
with some two or three fine shrubs, such as every famlly 
who possess the same are desirous of enjoying, we will en- 
deavor to give you some of our own ideas upon. the best 
manner of doing thesame. And first, a large and extensive 
tract of ground, made into a fine and beautiful lawn, with 
all the accessory adornments of trees, shrubs, lakes and 
islands, are elements of the beautiful, however simple they 
appear to the beholder, that cost money. So with our 
little bright spot of evenly cut, finely rolled land, the joy of 
our hearts; this, small as it, is, with all its harmony and 
beauty, this costs money also, but notso muchas our grand 
old lawns. So wesay to all our friends: ‘‘Stop abit, before 
you begin your work on small or large plats, and see how 
much money you will necessarily have to expend upon the 
same, to give you something like a realization of your idea 
and your wishes. 
Here is the starting point in fact of your future opera- 
tions. 
Having settled in your own mind that you will spend 
such a sum of money, begin your operations. It does not 
follow of a necessity that making a good lawn involves so 



great an expenditure of money as many may suppose. 
I therefore propose to answer for the benefit of my read- 
ers the question proposed: ‘‘How can I obtaina fine lawn?” 
The soil which constitutes your lawn must be prepared-by 
deep and thorough trenching, or by very deep and thorough 
ploughing. Many of our farmers deem it one of the first 
steps to be taken in order to give them evena good crop of 
coarse grass. They do not feel assured of a remunerative 
crop by ordinary ploughing, and sowing grass seed in the 
ordinary manner. 
Many men, no doubt, have followed the thriftless prac- 
tice to some extent; they have found their mistake in 
meagre crops of grass, thinking doubtless that all they 
would have to doin orderto realize the fruits of their 
labor, would be in sowing their fields with grass seed and 
patiently awaiting the result. One season has generally 
brought its corrective, and theman who knew how to build 
a church, did not know how to raise a good crop of grass; 
with every appliance for the same beneath his hand, except 
the knowledge of how to prepare his five acre lot. 
Some men have pursued the same idea, or a very similar 
one, as applied to making an American lawn, and as singu- 
larly failed. It is quite impossible to obtain a thoroughly 
good, lasting, even lawn by the “‘sodding process;” how- 
ever neatly and evenly the greensward may be laid, it often 
fails in giving the satisfaction that the trench or deeply 
ploughed grounds give. 
We love to look upon a green and even lawn, with its 
broad acres of velvety carpet, and we can, if we have the 
patience to prepare our grounds properly, have before 
us not perhaps everything pertaining to an English lawn,* 
but a beautiful, never-failing source of pleasure. 
A deep trench is to be made in the first place, and it will 
be found of great value to the future lawn that all stones 
should be removed from the same. True, this costs time 
and money, but you desire that your “‘labor may not be in 
vain.” Then do your work thoroughly and well, and you 
can safely trust a kind Providence for the result. Sunshine 
and showers, a good season, and all is well with you, for 
you will reap your reward. By deep and even trenching 
every foot of your lawn is to be stirred to the depth of 
three feet at least; four feet would be better. + 
The trenching should be commenced at one end of the 
ground designed for your future.lawn, and the earth, to the 
* 

*The English lawn derives much of its beauty from the natural hu- 
midity of the atmosphere, which our brighter skies and warmer climate 
do not give us; still, with proper culture, the American lawn will never 
fail to please and remunerate. 
+I have seen the roots of clover and strawberry plants running from 
two to four feet on good ground, 
depth of three feet, thrown out upon the top of the ground’ 
and all the stones you may find, if you desire a smooth 
lawn. Having proceeded once across the end of your’ 
ground in this manner, you will make a second trench, and 
throw’ the soil you move back into the first trench you 
made, and so to the end of the lawn. If it is necessary to 
add manure it can be done while sub-soiling, and the good 
judgment of an intelligent farmer will at once determine 
the quantity to be used. Mr. Downing, from whom I re- 
ceived much of my agricultural knowledge, in answer to 
the question, ‘‘What do you consider the grand requisites 
for a good lawn?” replied, with much emphasis, ‘Deep 
soil, the proper kind of grasses, and freqyuent mowing.” 
These essential requisites, if applied as noted, will give 
you a lawn every way desirable, and one which will last in 
all its beauty for years, and such a lawn is worth the mak- 
ing. You must guard against the droughts of our hot sun- 
shiny season by the best natural means you possess, viz. : 
a thoroughly pulverized, deeply trenched or ploughed soil. 
Such a soil will safely carry almost any of the grasses 
through. Remember that grasses have root, and the clovers 
particularly love to strike deep into the cool, damp sail. 
T need not say to any of our New Hfttland cultivators, 
that a surface drought ora ‘‘dry spell,” as it is called, has 
no power over plants whose fibres or rootlets rest in the 
cool moist under-soil or lower stratum of earth. So with a 
well prepared lawn soil, if you desire to look upon a beau- 
tiful green, undulating lawn, even in mid-summer, take the 
proper means to secure it by preparing every foot of your 
ground, whether it is one-eighth of an acre, or garden plat, 
or your fifty acre lawn. We do not expect all our lawn 
makers will deem it expedient to trench with the spade ac- 
cording to our directions, as here laid down, but it would 
amply pay inthe end to do so, Deep ploughing will be the 
means generally used for lawn making for the present; this, 
with proper draining} and manuring, will give quite a good 
lawn. We prefer deep trenching to any preparation of 
lawn grounds we have yet seen. This month and the 
month of December, if open, are the best seasons for lawn 
making, and if a finished lawn cannot be obtained in 
autumn, your ground can be trenched and cleared of stones 
and then left to rest until the coming spring, when the 
ground canbe ploughed, top-dressed and sown at an early 
day. We suppose your ground now fit for the reception 
of the seed. And here the question again occurs, ‘‘What 
seed shallI sow?” You wish for a close, compact turf; 
you will sow only grass. The best, and seeds usually sown 
for this purpose are a mixture of “Red Top,” (Agrostis oul- 
garis) and ‘‘White Clover” (7rifoliwm vepens). These are 
short, hardy grasses, and will give you satisfaction. They 
are, in our opinion, better adapted to our climate and soil 
than ahy we have ever used. The seed sown as follows: 
Three-fourths of Red Top to one of Clover. Sow four 
bushels to the acre—the minimum This done, finish your 
lawn by passing over the same some four times with a 
heavy roller, and you may have a reasonable hope of look- 
ing the next summer upon a magnificent, well-made lawn. 
As a top dressing for all lawn grounds, the one recom- 
mended by Downing is the best we have ever used, and the 
good effects of the same prove its great value. Downing 
says ‘‘one bushel of guano and three bushels of ashes to 
the acre, to be applied in March and April.” Rough and 
coarse manure should be applied as your lawn gains in age, 
and applied in the fall—October, November and first De- 
cember—left evenly spread during the winter, and care- 
fully raked off (the coarser parts) by the 5th of April. Lawn 
grass, when cut, should be left to fertilize the lawn, and 
should be cut whenever it has attained the height of an 
inch or an inch and one-half in length, 
By following strictly all the above directions you will 
have a lawn you will feela just pride in showing to your 
friends. Try it, and if you do not succeed to your mind, 
we will tell you ‘‘what’s the matter.” OLLipop Qui. 

tOf drainage in general and particular, how and when to be used, we 
shall speak in another paper. 
—~ oe 
—Few people have any clear idea of the extent of forest 
land in Germany, and most imagine that of the Black 
Forest little is left except a tradition and a conventional 
blister of woodland, so-named. On the contrary, in Han- 
over alone there are 900,000 acres of wood under state man- 
agement; while nearly a fourth part of the area of Prussia. 
is in forest, although half of thatis in private hands. As 
is well known, the forest administration in particular dis- 
tricts has long been famous, especially in Thuringia and 
the Hartz mountains, In North Germany generally the 
responsibilities are allotted in districts among a carefully 
organized body of officers, presided over by a forest direc- 
tor. The appointments are fairly remunerated; and they 
are so eagerly sought after that candidates will remain on 
probation for years at their.own cost, or with moderate and 
precarious pay, in the hope of securing a place in the corps 
at last. In Austria things are on a somewhat different foot- 
ing. The Austrian forests are magnificent—so magnificent, 
indeed, that the forest management has been neglected. 
~t 
Liny oF THE VALLEY FoR Wrxpow GARDENS.— While 
we are taking up our plants let us not forget to take a few 
tubes of the Lily of the Valley, the loveliest flower of all 
Flora’s kingdom. Select large, healthy clumps, and plant 
them in boxes filled with very rich soil, mingled with one- 
third sand. Put the boxes beside a warm stove, or on the 
shelf of the kitchen range. Give them water, at first spar- 
ingly, but as the sheathed leaves appear increase the quan- 
tity. Too much at an early stage would cause the roots to 
decay. When the flowers appear, put the boxes into the 
sunniest location you posssess. All window gardeners will 
be charmed with this lovely gem, and its fragrance is not 
too powerful in any room, 


