GEORGE-H- 
 ELLWANGER 
 
 ifornia 
 
 >nal 
 
 ity
 
 .i 
 
 :: 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 Gift of 
 Mrs. Frank Good
 
 IN GOLD AND SILVER is also published 
 in an Edition de Luxe, on Japanese 
 vellum, limited to two hundred copies. 
 Price, $5.00.
 
 IN GOLD 
 AND SILVER 
 
 1)e sor&en rug of Uermansljal) 
 EJPavtoers of tije toootis 
 SI sljatjoto upon tljc pool 
 ?Tt)e sflber for of Aunt's 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE H. ELLW ANGER 
 
 AUTHOR OH 
 
 "THE GARDEN'S STORY," 
 " THE STORY OF MY HOUSE " 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 Much have 1 travelled in the realms of gold 
 KEATS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 MDCCCXCII
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1892. 
 BY D. APPI.F.TON ANT) COMPANY. 
 
 ELKCIROTYHKD AND PRINTED 
 AT THK APPI.F.TON PRKSS. U. S. A.
 
 \5 C (\ 
 
 
 TO 
 
 MY FATHER AND MOTHER, 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 
 
 398750
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE GOLDEN RUG OF KERMANSHAH : 
 
 A SOUVENIR OF IRAK-AJEMI i 
 
 WARDERS OF THE WOODS 56 
 
 A SHADOW UPON THE POOL . . . -77 
 
 THE SILVER Fox OF HUNT'S HOLLOW : 
 
 AN IDYL OF THE UPPER GENESEE . . 101
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 In Realms of Gold . 
 
 A. B. WEXZELL 
 
 
 
 Fron tispiece 
 
 
 Head piece 
 
 W. C. GREENOUGH 
 
 i 
 
 Initial Letter 
 
 A. B. WENZELL 
 
 i 
 
 A Kalian . 
 
 W. C. GREENOUGH 
 
 3 
 
 A Persian Blade 
 
 " " 
 
 8 
 
 Vase and Fan 
 
 " 
 
 22 
 
 Shiran 
 
 A. B. WENZELL Facing 
 
 24 
 
 A Rebab . . . 
 
 W. C. GREENOUGH 
 
 25 
 
 Street with Distant 
 
 
 
 Mosque . . 
 
 
 
 2S 
 
 Inlaid Persian Gun . 
 
 " 
 
 32 
 
 Scene at Teheran 
 
 " " 
 
 4 2 
 
 The Golden Rug 
 
 A. B. WENZELL Facing 
 
 48 
 
 Tail piece . 
 
 W. C. GREENOUGH 
 
 55 
 
 Initial Letter 
 
 W. HAMILTON GIBSON 
 
 56 
 
 By Wood-girt Shores 
 
 " " Facing 
 
 59 
 
 A Lost Leader . 
 
 K (i 
 
 63 
 
 Warders of the Woods 
 
 " 
 
 6S 
 
 A Tamarack Swamp . 
 
 " " Facing 
 
 ?i 
 
 
 (vij) 

 
 viii In Gold and Silver. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Tail piece . 
 
 W. HAMILTON GIBSON 76 
 
 Initial Letter 
 
 " 77 
 
 A Trout Stream 
 
 " " Facing 82 
 
 Charming the Fish 
 
 " " Facing 90 
 
 Cause and Effect 
 
 91 
 
 A-Flyin' it 
 
 97 
 
 Tail piece . 
 
 " " ICO 
 
 Initial Letter 
 
 " " 101 
 
 The Silver-Gray 
 
 " " Facing 113 
 
 A Manoeuvre 
 
 u J23 
 
 Over the Hills and far 
 
 
 away . 
 
 " " Facing 126 
 
 Baffling the Hounds . 
 
 " 130 
 
 Leading the Chase 
 
 146 
 
 The Final Leap 
 
 " I5 1 
 
 Vale . 
 
 156
 
 THE GOLDEN RUG OF KERMANSHAH : 
 A SOUVENIR OF IRAK-AJEMI. 
 
 And I said, " By the love I bear you, visions of 
 beauty, come before me and play me magnificent 
 shows ! " LEIGH HUNT, A Sight of the Gods. 
 
 1 fear, O Arab ! that thou wilt not reach the 
 Cabin, for the road that thou art taking 
 leads to Turkistan, or the region of infidels. 
 SAADI, The Rose Garden of Gulistdn. 
 
 FIRST heard of the rug while so 
 journing with several friends in Al 
 giers, through a Persian delldl, one 
 of the numerous class of venders 
 who pass from town to town with 
 their pack of. stores. Often the stores, which 
 usually consist of so-called curios, are next to 
 worthless ; and again, among them there may 
 be many articles of rare beauty and value. 
 The itinerant merchant is a close buyer, shrewd, 
 cunning, and an excellent judge of human na 
 ture. When to the general attributes of his 
 
 (i)
 
 2 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 calling is added the possession of good taste 
 in his selections, his pack is always deserving 
 of careful examination. His prices, it is true, 
 may be exorbitant ; but the prices demanded 
 by the average Oriental tradesman are seldom 
 fixed, and the asking price and the absolute 
 selling price are generally two distinct matters. 
 A wide traveler who visits many remote 
 provinces, whose zeal is unflagging, and whose 
 opportunities for purchasing the wares in which 
 he deals are great, the roving tradesman is 
 often a true virtuoso, who really loves his call 
 ing and the numerous beautiful objects with 
 which he is so closely associated. He may 
 buy a unique example for a song, or he may- 
 pay a large price for it in cash or in exchange. 
 In his constant visits from house to house and 
 place to place, as the harvest seems most ripe 
 for the gleaning, he gathers many works of 
 art that are out of the ordinary reach of com 
 merce, and that only he may supply from his 
 extraordinary depot of stores. Not infre 
 quently, as a lucrative trade paves the way to
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 3 
 
 prosperity, he becomes a dealer in gems and 
 jewels, and from the little bag which he car 
 ries concealed on his person flashes forth a 
 mine of precious stones. There is little chance 
 for prolonged indecision in one's dealings with 
 this personage. It is rarely that his wares can 
 be duplicated, and once his business in a place 
 accomplished, he vanishes with his belongings 
 as silently as he appears. If through your 
 parsimony, therefore, you have failed to secure 
 the objects of your envy, you must remain for 
 ever the loser. To know a desirable object is 
 one thing ; to know it and secure it, another. 
 In his magic pack you are not unlikely to dis 
 cover the very Indian idol you may long have 
 been searching for, the sword that severed the 
 head of a rajah, or the ideal ruby of your de 
 sire. 
 
 I found him awaiting my return one 
 afternoon at the hotel where I was 
 stopping swarthy, sunburned, suave. 
 His long, black, silken beard fell smooth 
 ly from his massive chin ; on his fore-
 
 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 finger gleamed a rare antique graven gem, 
 while his velvet sandals shed no sound as he 
 approached me with a profound salam. He 
 addressed me in a fluid voice in excellent 
 French, and his manners evinced far more 
 than the average refinement that one expects 
 from his class. The collection he would 
 do himself the honor to show me I would find 
 well worthy of inspection. I need not neces 
 sarily buy, but it must prove a pleasure to me 
 to examine his rarities ; many were unique ex 
 amples of ancient art, which he himself could 
 not undertake to replace at any price. Not a 
 line of his impassive face relaxed as he con 
 tinued to descant upon his stores ; neither his 
 jet-black eyes nor his firmly-molded mouth 
 expressed the least anxiousness or cupidity. 
 He remained grave, dignified, serene. 
 
 His treasures would have graced a pasha's 
 palace, and have tempted -a saint to violate 
 the tenth commandment. There were carved 
 ivories, jades, inlaid work, ancient Chinese 
 porcelains, iridescent reflet tiles, Shiraz and
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 5 
 
 Broussa embroideries, antique armor, splendid 
 damascened Khorassan blades inscribed with 
 verses from Saadi and Firdoiisee, lacquers, old 
 bronzes, India silken stuffs, and rugs. 
 
 But the jewels of his collection, gathered 
 with rare taste and judgment from many 
 lands, were his rugs a collection of antique 
 prayers, thirteen in all, representing the rarest 
 blossoms of the Oriental loom. Rugs abso 
 lutely and geometrically straight, each one 
 perfect of its kind, even to the usually puffed 
 and crooked Meccas ; rugs with a delicate 
 bloom upon them rivaling that of a ripe peach ; 
 rugs with a pile like velvet and beflowered like 
 a parterre ; silky rugs, satiny rugs, damasked 
 rugs ; rugs with the ancient dates inscribed 
 a rainbow of hues and tints and shades. 
 
 I well remember them. There was a Me- 
 lace with an embroidered vine border of cro 
 cus and hyacinth, and primrose prayer-disk; 
 a heavy velvety Khorassan gorgeous in the 
 four shades of its golden floriage ; an Ashiret 
 camel's-hair finely woven as a Cashmere shawl,
 
 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 its purple bloom like the haze that hangs on 
 distant hills ; a superb sage-green Pergamos 
 with a center of mignonette green ; a lustrous 
 old Ladik with a double prayer-disk of cardi 
 nal and maroon ; a magnificent wine-colored 
 Herat glossy as a leopard's skin ; a gray Bo 
 khara prayer; a Coula full of graceful fanta 
 sies, the mosaic design in brocade work upon 
 the terra-cotta field, its five " S's " of the upper 
 panel worked in blue and gold ; a Kuba opal 
 escent as an Abalone shell, its silver self-center 
 supported by two columns of black ; a palm- 
 leaf Senna such as I had never seen equaled 
 in design, sheen, and odd combination of col 
 ors ; a Mecca arabesqued and foliated in gold 
 on a brown velvet ground ; and, finally, two 
 ancient Geordes or Yourdes, a perfect pair, 
 symmetrical as if cast in a die, without a spot, 
 patch, or flaw, the one with a violet and the 
 other with a lavender prayer-disk. The Con 
 stantinople bazaars and vast carpet warerooms 
 contained no such examples of the ancient 
 handicraft of the inspired workers of the loom.
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 7 
 
 They were unique masterpieces of the long- 
 ago. 
 
 My offer was quickly made one third of 
 the fabulous sum the merchant demanded. 
 He would not break the collection under any 
 circumstances, even if it never left his hands ; 
 it belonged and should be preserved together 
 in its entirety. For that matter, he did not 
 care to part with it. " For where might it be 
 reproduced ? It had been the labor of years, 
 and mirrored the crowning glory of the weav 
 er's art when the artist labored not for riches, 
 but for the love of art itself. The silken car 
 pets promised by the Koran to the goodly in 
 the next life alone might rival these." 
 
 My proposal was rejected as quickly as it 
 was made. " I have but one price," was his 
 reply. To attempt a compromise then, I knew 
 would be impolitic ; I should only be showing 
 my hand, and I was determined to possess the 
 rugs at a more reasonable figure if possible. 
 
 " You have my address ; when you place 
 your collection within my reach, I will be glad
 
 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 to confer with you. Your treasures are most 
 desirable, it is true, but I do not possess the 
 magic ring of Aladdin. ' All intelligences 
 awake with the morning,' saith the Rig- Veda ; 
 you will think better of my offer to-morrow. 
 I shall remain two days ere I leave for Bom 
 bay." 
 
 At the same hour on the subsequent after 
 noon the merchant called again, his bearing 
 marked by the same dignity and courteous im 
 passibility which had distinguished him before 
 
 " You wish to tempt me once more? I 
 am glad to see you. The swords, the 
 jades, the tigers' skins from Mazan- 
 deran, the silver boar struggling 
 with the serpents, the ^tg*^ J ar 
 
 of green attar "WttSSSff^ 5 of roses 
 
 from Ghazepore, I should like to examine more 
 carefully. The Yung-Ching gourd-shape vase 
 decorated with white mice on an ivory ground, 
 the green silk damask mosque-hanging with 
 blue borders diapered with lotus-flowers and 
 birds, the cloisonne enameled Ming beaker
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 9 
 
 with red dragons and vampires, the inlaid inro 
 with chrysanthemums and butterflies, the 
 bronze temple - censer, the lacquers I only 
 glanced at them hastily yesterday. The rugs, 
 you know, it is impossible to consider on your 
 terms ; is it not a Persian adage that was 
 graven upon the golden crown of the wise 
 monarch Noosheerwan, ' Stretch thy legs no 
 farther than the size of thy carpet ' ? " 
 
 " The rugs which I had the pleasure of 
 showing Monsieur " 
 
 " Are desirable, certainly, but not on such ex 
 travagant conditions. Indeed, I do not really 
 need them at all. Where should I place them ? 
 my collection is already large. To please you 
 I might look at them again ; there are always 
 the upper rooms where they might be placed, 
 and, moreover, in the living-rooms a change of 
 floor patterns is restful to the eye. Or, possi 
 bly, they might be utilized as hangings. You 
 have considered my offer ? " 
 
 " Monsieur is an amateur, and must have 
 recognized at once that my price was not un- 
 3
 
 io In Gold and Silver. 
 
 reasonable. Le gotit coiite cher. Monsieur 
 made a serious mistake in not immediately se 
 curing so exceptional a collection. The terms 
 which he deemed excessive scarcely covered 
 their cost a bagatelle for such priceless tex 
 tiles. It was a chance in a lifetime that Mon 
 sieur has chosen to throw away. The rugs 
 are sold." 
 
 " Sold ! sold ! at your price ? to whom ? " 
 " Chaplin, buyer for the Paris Bon Marche, 
 heard of them after I left Constantinople, and 
 came here this morning and secured them on 
 the spot." 
 
 Ah, the evils of procrastination ! Another 
 had I added to the long list of vanished oppor 
 tunities. Alas ! their beauty might only re 
 main as a poignant recollection. " The hand 
 which hath held a violet doth not soon forego 
 her perfume, nor the cup from which sweet 
 wine hath flowed his fragrance," saith the 
 poet of Shiraz. Willingly would I have paid 
 the merchant his fabulous sum, could I not 
 have obtained them otherwise ; such marvelous
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. \ \ 
 
 specimens were reasonable at any figure. In 
 the extortionate clutches of a professional 
 buyer they were now past recall. He would 
 treble the purchase price ; they would be hid 
 den in the chateau of a Rothschild, or buried 
 beyond my sight in the museum of some 
 greedy collector. 
 
 " Monsieur does not regret his loss more 
 than I, for I now perceive he was not in ear 
 nest in his offer. I like to see my treasures 
 pass into the hands of the amateur who pur 
 chases for love, and not for mercenary gain. 
 But perhaps I can console Monsieur. Ihe 
 garden contains many flowers, and if one has 
 plucked the roses, there may still remain the 
 lilies." 
 
 " Thy mouth uttereth sweet things. But in 
 the words of Omar : 
 
 Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say ; 
 Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday ? 
 
 And this first Summer month that brings the Rose 
 Shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobad away. 
 
 And in the refrain of Villon of old :
 
 12 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 Prince for this sevennyght be not fain, 
 Nor this twelfmonthe to question wher 
 
 They be, withouten this refraine, 
 ' Nay wher are the snowes that fell last year ? ' " * 
 
 " I speak of that which I know. Moreover, 
 is it not likewise hymned in the Rubaiyat ? 
 
 Iram indeed is gone with all his Rose, 
 
 And Jamshyd's sev'n-ring'd Cup where no one knows ; 
 
 But still a Ruby kindles in the Vine, 
 And many a Garden by the Water blows. 
 
 "There is a rug in Kermanshah, in Persian 
 Kurdistan, within the confines of the province 
 of Ardalon a large, silk hanging-rug such as 
 hath no equal in all Iran. Allah displumes 
 the hues of the sunset sky, but here they glow 
 immutable. It is as consummate in its beauty 
 and perfection as the smile of voluptuous wom 
 an, the cool flow of a woodland spring, the 
 
 * Stephen Temple's translation of Ballade Des 
 Dames du Temps Jadis : 
 
 Prince, n'enquerez, de sepmaine 
 
 Ou elles sont, ne de cest an, 
 Que ce refrain ne vous remaine : 
 Mais ou sont les neiges d'Antan ?
 
 The Go 1 den Rug of Kennanshdh. 13 
 
 liquid strains of the bulbul's song. In its ra 
 diant hues, its enchanting blendings and inter- 
 blendings, the artist has caught the swift-flying 
 light and transmuted its rays, giving symmetry 
 to the glare of day, and fixing the effulgence 
 of the moon-illumined night. Known as ' The 
 Golden Rug of Kermanshah ' from its golden 
 center and the place of its production in the 
 district of that name, it is one of the seven fa 
 mous large Persian silk antiques, as familiar to 
 the Oriental connoisseur as are the Madonna 
 di San Sisto or the Venus di Medici to Chris 
 tian peoples. Missing for more than a cent 
 ury, it has only recently reappeared, whence I 
 have been unable to learn. It was undoubt 
 edly purloined and secreted during the long 
 interval, similar to many paintings of your old 
 masters. 
 
 " Its production dates from the reign of 
 Karim Khan, who died upward of a hundred 
 years ago, and it is as absolutely perfect as on 
 the day of its completion. Ay, a hundred 
 fold more perfect ; for each year of its cent-
 
 14 /// Gold and Si her. 
 
 ury of age has added fresh bloom to its beauty 
 the bloom which age alone may yield. It 
 was designed and executed by the talented 
 and lovely niece of the Khan, and represents 
 the work of a lifetime. Familiar with the 
 tenets, literature, traditions, and mysticisms of 
 Islam, into it is incorporated her subtlest in 
 spirations in the form of poetry, art, and leg 
 endary lore, all fashioned and traced in the 
 finest of silken strands. Withstanding the mu 
 tations and vicissitudes of Time, it has marked 
 the fall of empires and beheld dynasties crum 
 ble to the dust. Amaranthine in its youth and 
 charms, it has remained forever young while 
 Shahs and Sultans ruled their allotted span, 
 and Sultanehs perceived their beauty fade. 
 The very dyes employed in its fabrication its 
 resplendent greens and blues and golds pro 
 duced from herbs of the mountain-side, are 
 secrets of the past. The rose unfolds her 
 fragrant petals but to wither and decay ; the 
 lily exhales her perfume for an hour : but 
 the fancy that conceived and the hands that
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. \ 5 
 
 wrought its marvelous design, though inert 
 beneath the cypress shade, live and pulsate 
 through its colors still. As the ear is en 
 tranced with the cadence of music, so the eye 
 beholding it is filled with its beauty. For 
 thrice the sum I offered you my collection per 
 chance you may be able to obtain this. Pos 
 sessing it, you will possess the talisman of 
 Oromanes, and have secured perpetual con 
 tent." 
 
 It was as I had supposed : the French buyer 
 was exultant over his possessions, refusing to 
 relinquish them in part or as a whole ; he al 
 ready had several places for them on his own 
 terms. Wealthy connoisseurs would dispute 
 over them, and implore them of him as a 
 priceless boon. Why should I complain ? I 
 had had the opportunity, and had chosen to 
 let it escape. 
 
 Chagrined at my disappointment, upon fur 
 ther inquiry I at once determined to change 
 my plans, and accompany the merchant on his 
 return to Persia to secure the Kerman rug.
 
 1 6 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 The supreme beauty and rarity of the collec 
 tion that had escaped me was enough to con 
 vince me that the silken rug would justify his 
 description. My time was my own, the sea 
 son of the year most favorable for the journey. 
 I should be glad, withal, of the opportunity to 
 explore a country that it had always been my 
 ardent desire to know more intimately. My 
 guide, who, besides his native tongue and 
 French, understood both Turkish and Arabic, 
 was remarkably intelligent, and his thorough 
 acquaintance with the customs, joined to his 
 familiarity with Persian history and poetry, 
 could not fail to prove a source of pleasure and 
 instruction. Opportunities for sport would be 
 frequent. Game of numerous kinds was abun 
 dant in many portions of the country hares, 
 red-legged partridges, ducks, snipe, and water- 
 birds, together with the exciting chase with 
 falcons for the great habara, or noble bustard. 
 If, after all, I should fail to secure the main 
 object of my pilgrimage, I might proceed to 
 Shiraz, hidden amid its roses and vocal with
 
 The Golden Rug of Kennanshdh. 17 
 
 its nightingales. There 1 might sip its famous 
 wine, eat its figs, dates, and nectarines, and 
 luxuriate in its delightful climate, while adding 
 to my collection from its renowned bazaars 
 which were out of the rapacious grasp of the 
 ordinary traveler. Celebrated for its carpets 
 from time immemorial, it would prove a unique 
 experience to collect rugs in the home of Hafiz 
 among the howling of dervishes, one of the 
 favorite chants with which they entertain the 
 stranger being the one in which they sing that 
 the true believer's road to heaven and volupt 
 uous houris must be washed with the blood 
 of infidels. But for the sake of its splendid 
 carpets one could afford to risk the dervishes 
 and its proverbial earthquakes. 
 
 Three routes were open to us : the old Assyr 
 ian, Babylonian, and Roman route from Alex- 
 andretta, crossing the Akma Dagh Mountains 
 to Aleppo, Harran, Mardin, Mosul, and Bagh 
 dad ; that from Beyrout to Damascus, and 
 thence through Syria and the pashalic of 
 Baghdad ; or the roundabout passage by water 
 4
 
 1 8 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 through the Red Sea, Straits of Ormuz, Per 
 sian Gulf, and the Tigris. Previous to my 
 sudden resolve it was part of the plan of the 
 two years' foreign travels of myself and friends 
 to visit India, China, and Japan, as a portion of 
 our Eastern trip. Our yacht, freshly equipped 
 for the voyage, was in waiting, and my friends 
 would willingly turn from their course if I still 
 persisted in starting upon so foolish an errand. 
 Though longer by water, the journey would 
 be far pleasanter than the shorter and indeed 
 precarious caravan route skirting the Syrian 
 Desert, or even that of the well-watered 
 mountainous district between the Euphrates 
 and the Tigris. Favored by fair winds and 
 weather, in due time we arrived at Mohamme- 
 rah, our friends bidding us farewell and com 
 mending us to the mercies of Allah. From 
 this point it is a monotonous voyage of about 
 five hundred miles by steamer to Baghdad 
 past green banks and groves of date-palms as 
 far as Kornah, the supposed site of the Gar 
 den of Eden, and thence with the shores of
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 19 
 
 the river fringed by grass reeds and bushes for 
 its only vegetation. 
 
 The hundred mosques of the former capital 
 of the empire of the Caliphs, the shrine of 
 Saint Abdul Kadir, its famed gardens, its ba 
 zaars, and its motley crowd, detained us but 
 for a few days while awaiting the return jour 
 ney of a large caravan to Teheran and Mashed, 
 with the karwanbashi or leader of which my 
 companion was acquainted. I was fortunate 
 in my mount, having secured a wiry, powerful 
 horse belonging to a venerable Hadji, that had 
 thrice performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and 
 back, and that could readily amble seven miles 
 an hour. On the saddle which went with his 
 trappings was stitched a sentence of the Koran 
 " All who follow where I go reach Para 
 dise." 
 
 In accordance with a recommendation made 
 in the Koran, we set out on Friday at the 
 most auspicious hour that which immediate 
 ly follows the noonday prayer. The route to 
 our destination extended fifty-four parasangs.
 
 2O In Gold and Silver. 
 
 equivalent to about two hundred and seventy 
 miles, northeast, and, though marked by no 
 unusual incidents of Eastern travel, proved 
 both novel and exhilarating. As we rode out 
 through the gate of Imam Azam we marked 
 the fringe of palms that borders the shores of 
 the Euphrates grow gradually fainter, and one 
 by one the minarets recede in the distance 
 while we advanced upon the sterile plain 
 toward Yakubabad. Thence, resting by night 
 for the most part at poor caravanserais, or 
 khans, the journey was continued through 
 Kazrabad, Khanakin, and Mian Jangal, near 
 the edge of the great Persian plateau ; through 
 Kurind, the picturesquely situated capital of 
 Kurdistan, with its vineyards and gardens and 
 lints of poplar-trees, and over rocky ranges and 
 small plains of silt to Mahi Dasht the " yearly 
 birth - giving plain," stretching for leagues 
 toward the east below. 
 
 The numerous mountain-ranges and fertile 
 valleys abounded with game, and were brilliant 
 with the flora of early spring. The saffron or
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 2 1 
 
 yellow crocus was in bloom, covering the rocky 
 hillsides ; and the air was laden with the de 
 licious penetrating perfume of the bunch-flow 
 ered daffodil. The early bulbous iris, too 
 smiled from sunny banks and hollows, in com 
 pany with scillas, purple muscari, the round- 
 leaved rest-harrow, and a throng of Alpine 
 flowers. Near Kurind, women were gather 
 ing the myrtle-like leaves and stems of the 
 camphire or henna, which, after drying, are 
 made into a paste with lime-water to dye the 
 hair and nails, the women abstaining from its 
 use at the death of their parents and husbands. 
 An extract is also obtained from its aromatic 
 small blossoms which is used in the bath, and 
 as a perfume in visits and religious ceremonies. 
 From the green Zagros hills we looked down 
 upon the windings of the Kara Soo River, the 
 ruined walls of the ancient town, and the 
 minarets of the great mosque of Kermanshah, 
 long ere the caravan threaded its narrow, tort 
 uous streets. Here, taking leave of our es 
 cort, we proceeded at once to the southwest-
 
 22 
 
 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 ern suburbs, the home of the Hadji and his 
 brother. A warm welcome was extended my 
 companion by his aged mother, who, despite 
 her advanced years, bore traces of her youth 
 ful beauty. She spoke in Persian with great 
 rapidity and in an excited manner, though 
 from my limited familiarity with the Persian 
 tongue I was unable to follow the trend of her 
 discourse. Startlingly, amid a brief lapse in 
 the conversation, the music of a lute accom 
 panying a contralto voice of magnificent vol 
 ume yet exquisite sweetness, vibrated through 
 the apartments, like a song heard in a dream 
 a voice sensuous as a perfume and intoxicat 
 ing as wine, ^ passionately interpreting 
 a love-song jgfjl of Hafiz. 
 
 ^EN^^V* 
 
 " A mo- * ment, and you shall see 
 
 her with Vug your own eyes," ex 
 claimed the of Hadji's mother.
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 23 
 
 And preceding us to the andertin, the speak 
 er returned soon afterward, motioning us to 
 follow her in silence. Through an aperture of 
 the heavy portiere which shut off the inner 
 portion of the apartment, we could see the fair 
 performer unobserved, reclining, lute in hand, 
 on the silken cushions of a divan a dazzling 
 vision of youthful charms. In the full flush of 
 her alluring loveliness she recalled some gor 
 geous tropic flower, its petals just unfolded to 
 the light and sun. Thus, high upon some 
 towering tree of the jungle, or heaving upon 
 the bosom of some lilied lake, the Vanda or 
 the Nenuphar blooms unseen save by wan 
 dering butterfly and bee. A delicious odor of 
 Oriental spices and essences seemed to ema 
 nate from her as from a censer, charging the 
 air with the mingled odor of nard and galba- 
 num, myrrh and attar of roses. How came 
 she here, this glorious exotic, in this secluded 
 town ? For beauty has its price in the Orient, 
 and this was not a Sultan's seraglio. Such 
 beauty, meseemed, justly belonged to the
 
 24 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 Prophet, to stroll with him amid the alleys of 
 Paradise, or loll on silken carpets in heavenly 
 anderdns. 
 
 Whene'er with soft serenity she smiled, 
 
 Or caught the Orient blush of quick surprise, 
 How sweetly mutable, how brightly wild 
 
 The liquid luster darted from her eyes ! 
 Each look, each motion waked a new-born grace, 
 
 That o'er her form a transient glory cast ; 
 Some lovelier wonder soon usurped the place, 
 
 Chased by a charm still lovelier than the last. 
 
 There were great rubies in her finely-molded 
 ears, and a torque or necklace of large yellow 
 pearls caressed her full, white throat, from 
 which depended a heart-shaped turquoise sur 
 rounded by sapphires. A bazubdnd contain 
 ing a talisman clasped her smooth, rounded 
 arm. Diamonds and rubies flashed from her 
 fingers, and ruby serpents entwined her shape 
 ly wrists. Dressed in the prevailing Persian 
 house costume, in a short-sleeved vest of di 
 aphanous yellow silk, and short embroidered 
 petticoats reaching above the knees, there 
 were no obtruding folds of the feredje to con 
 ceal the voluptuous bust and arms, the superb
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 25 
 
 play of the limbs and hips, and the opulent 
 curves of her figure. The light shed by a sil 
 ver candelabrum fell full upon her beauty on 
 the luxuriance of her Titian hair, her eyelashes 
 and arched eyebrows tinged with henna, and 
 the pomegranate of her ripe red lips ; upon the 
 pearly whiteness of her teeth, the softness of 
 her skin, and the luminousness of her passion 
 ate gray eyes. 
 
 From a stand of blue and red inlaid work a 
 bronze incense-burner discharged a thin spire 
 of fragrant smoke. At its base reposed a sil 
 ver kalian and a pair of embroidered sandals. 
 Two hanging, antique Geordez prayer-rugs, 
 and some fine old Persian blades, were the 
 
 principal adorn 
 On the superb 
 were an ivory- 
 
 ments of the walls. 
 Kerman carpet 
 handled whip,
 
 26 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 an unfinished embroidery, a great Angora 
 cat dozing upon a tiger's skin, and numer 
 ous musical instruments : an ancient shawm, 
 a poet's rebdb or Arabian stringed instrument 
 played with a bow, a nefir or species of haut 
 boy, an Algerian guitar of wood inlaid with 
 tortoise-shell, the catgut strings of which are 
 plucked with a plectrum ; a kanoon or Turkish 
 dulcimer, with strings of lamb's-gut on a tri 
 angular sounding-board ; a santtr with its wire 
 strings set in couples and tuned by metal 
 keys. 
 
 She may have been eighteen, or a year 
 younger ; it is difficult to judge the age of an 
 Oriental girl. She was still singing. It was 
 Shiran, the lovely Georgian, now the odalisque 
 of the Hadji's brother, a voluptuary whose dis 
 solute life and morose nature had sorely dis 
 pleased his mother. To this, and to the son's 
 absence, we owed the glimpse of the beauti 
 ful odalisque whose features by rights should 
 be beheld of all living men by her master 
 alone.
 
 The Golden Rug of Kennanshdh. 27 
 
 His brother was away from home, the Hadji 
 explained ; and, alas ! the rug had been sold to 
 a Sheikh and slave-dealer of Teheran, in part 
 exchange for the lovely Georgian. Far better 
 that I had never started on the journey, or 
 heeded the persuasions of the Hadji. I had 
 relinquished my long -contemplated trip to 
 India and China, for what ? to be stranded in 
 an estranged Persian town, with its lack of 
 creature comforts, and with the hardships of a 
 yet longer journey before me should I continue 
 my undertaking. There was also the constant 
 danger of sickness from exposure, change of 
 climate, and poor food ; and I found it more 
 and more difficult to dispel the remembrance 
 of the funereal burden I had heard chanted by 
 a band of Baktash dervishes before the shrine 
 of the Tekiyeh at Baghdad : 
 
 The black Camel, Death, kneeleth once at each Door, 
 And a Mortal must mount to return Nevermore. 
 
 The loss of the merchant's collection should 
 have warned me at the onset of the futility of 
 accomplishing my object. Ill-luck proverbially
 
 28 
 
 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 and almost invariably repeats itself. Even now 
 the rug might be beyond the power of recall, 
 enshrouded in some distant mosque, or en 
 shrined in an omrah's hall. No nut-brown 
 Habech from Abyssinia, nor golden-haired 
 Tcherke of Circassia, however alluring, could 
 retrieve it, did it still remain in the possession 
 of the Sheikh ; the glitter of golden lira alone 
 might wrest it from his usurious grasp.
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 29 
 
 After all, was it worth the pains and the 
 price it would cost, even could I succeed in at 
 taining it? The Shiraz and Isfahan bazaars 
 could supply many rare products of the loom, 
 without my continuing a hazardous search for 
 an object I had never seen. Again, what 
 guarantee had I of its existence, or that, in the 
 case of its existence, it would realize the mer 
 chant's descriptions ? the mere words of a 
 crafty tradesman whose very calling was but 
 an end for pecuniary gain. I had but his 
 promises and honeyed phrases. To turn back, 
 however, was now virtually out of the ques 
 tion ; the yacht had long since sailed from 
 Mohammerah. The vision of the voluptuous 
 Georgian rose before me. If such loveliness 
 had indeed been trafficked for the rug, as my 
 companion had informed me, it must realize 
 the descriptions of its beauty. 
 
 " Monsieur hesitates to proceed ? Allah is 
 great ; even if it be already disposed of, the 
 chances are it may yet be obtained. It is 
 worthy Monsieur's while to try. It is as
 
 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 beautiful as the odalisque of the velvet 
 eyes." 
 
 Upon mature reflection I determined it was 
 as well to proceed as to return. Our escort 
 was assured, and it might be a long time ere 
 we could find a safe convoy with which to re 
 trace our steps. To proceed to Isfahan and 
 Shiraz would prove a fatiguing journey, and 
 be impracticable besides, without suitable pro 
 tection. Moreover, the Hadji seemed as dis 
 appointed as myself at the turn events had 
 taken. 
 
 Four days had been fixed as the limit for 
 our halt. It was immediately after the noon 
 tide prayers on the fifth day that we mounted 
 our horses at the khan, and, again joining the 
 caravan, passed out of the northeastern gates 
 of Kermanshah. Our course lay northeast 
 ward toward Bisitoon, the Bisitoon mountain - 
 range rising abruptly on our left ; through 
 Sahna, seated amid its groves and gardens, 
 and on to Kangawar, four thousand feet above 
 the sea ; through Sadawah to Hamadan, the
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 31 
 
 former Ecbatana and ancient capital of the 
 Median Empire. 
 
 We were traversing the great historical 
 highway from Iran to Mesopotamia, from Ec 
 batana to Babylon, from Teheran to Baghdad 
 the same as that traversed by the conquer 
 ing armies of Tiglath-Pileser, by Alexander 
 on his return from the land of the Imams, and 
 since followed by expeditions innumerable of 
 war, of rapine, of pilgrimage, and of com 
 merce : for the course of these great caravan 
 routes has scarcely varied since remote an 
 tiquity, fixed as they are by the greater or less 
 abundance of water, or the conformation of 
 the country they pass through. Conquerors 
 have died and are forgotten, peoples and cus 
 toms change with the centuries, languages and 
 races become extinct, but these arteries of 
 travel still remain as they existed thousands of 
 years ago, when the Pleiades sparkled above 
 the hosts of Sennacherib, and the Star of the 
 East shone down upon the Wise Men of old. 
 In the onward march of the centuries, will the
 
 32 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 neigh of the iron charger, I marvel, ever re 
 sound amid the hills of Hamadan, and startle 
 the antelopes of the Mount Orontes plain ? 
 
 Along the route we passed ferocious- look 
 ing Kurds with coni- ^A cal caps of black 
 sheepskin, long, ^f^^ bushy hair, and 
 jackets of ^^^^ thick, white woolen ; 
 
 jjQ/r 
 
 bands ^^^ of travel - stained pilgrims 
 
 ^^f^ bound for the shrines of Meshed 
 
 adar Hussein, Alee, and Imam Moosa, be- 
 
 i^r 
 
 y yond Baghdad ; a trio of fair young Su- 
 zemaneeah 
 
 Trois belles filles, 
 L'y en a'z une plus belle que le jour, 
 
 who laughingly urged my companion and my 
 self to accompany them home ; wildly ges 
 ticulating dervishes with unkempt beards and 
 disheveled hair, and ram's horns slung across 
 their sunburned shoulders by a thong, repeat 
 ing the Vanitas vanitorum of Firdoiisee : 
 " The spider weaves his net in the palace of 
 the Caesars, and the owl keeps her watch, like 
 a sentinel, upon the ruined tower of Afrasiab."
 
 The Golden Rug of Kennanshdh. 
 
 Kourdi girls we saw amid the hamlets, of 
 graceful carriage, handsome features and phy 
 sique, dressed in tight-fitting shirts, short jack 
 ets, and innumerable petticoats, the arms bare 
 from the elbow and the legs from the knee 
 downward. From one of these, near Kanga- 
 war, I purchased, as a memento, the diadem 
 of beads she wore across her forehead, to 
 gether with a finely-woven rug which she 
 stated had been wrought by her own hands. 
 There were lovely Persian roses blooming in 
 her cheeks. 
 
 " Another occasion for Monsieur to add to 
 his collection of delightsome souvenirs. The 
 Rose bloometh that its fragrance may be 
 breathed ; the flower of Youth cometh but to 
 flee away, evanescent as the footprints of the 
 Camel on the Desert sands." 
 
 The simple toll I claimed was naively grant 
 ed, while the delicti looked on and smilingly 
 stroked his beard. Her name was Hoosemee, 
 she informed us, meaning "beautiful." Time, 
 no doubt, in his all too rapid flight, would
 
 34 I' 1 Gold and Silver. 
 
 evolve her into a houri of Paradise, where, let 
 us hope, there are better caravanserais than 
 those which have succeeded the nine hundred 
 ninety-and-nine of Shah Abbas, and where car 
 avans pause longer than did ours at Kangawar. 
 
 " And will there be celestial houris as beau 
 tiful as Hooseinee ? " I inquired of my com 
 panion, than whom none was more familiar 
 with the code of Mahomet. 
 
 " Assuredly ! How could man exist with 
 out them ? Each true believer will be pos 
 sessed of sixty-two, besides the wives he had 
 in the world below." 
 
 " But what will become of Feth Alee Shah, 
 who had seven hundred wives ? According to 
 the extremely liberal allowance meted out to 
 the ordinary among the faithful, he should be 
 entitled to at least several thousand, and this 
 would soon deplete the supply in Circassia un 
 less the ranks of the unlovely were pressed 
 into service. Perhaps the Prophet thinks with 
 Marie de Medicis, ' woman is always young ; 
 she is always twenty in some corner of her
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 35 
 
 heart.' And the fardshis or carpet-spreaders, 
 for so many of the fair of course they can not 
 be expected to spread their rugs themselves ? " 
 
 " Monsieur forgets that the Prophet ordains 
 for all, and that everything has been provided 
 for." 
 
 " But the veils of the houris ? will they wear 
 yashmaks or chaddrs in the gardens of Para 
 dise? Imagine, for a moment, the possibility 
 of their lovely eyes and lips being shrouded, 
 their beautiful complexions masked, and their 
 alluring contours concealed by hideous feredjes. 
 Surely it were impossible for Paradise to exist 
 with yashmaks ! " 
 
 " Again Monsieur forgets that there will be 
 no jealousy in the realms above, and conse 
 quently there will exist no need for yash 
 maks." 
 
 " And the poets tell me, will Omar, Saadi, 
 and Hafiz sing on high with harps of gold ? " 
 
 " Already immortal here below, how much 
 more renowned must they be in the world to 
 come ! In the very nature of things, the poet's
 
 36 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 strain and the hulbul's song shall never cease 
 to charm." 
 
 Through villages hung high upon the hills 
 we filed by worshipers performing their ori 
 sons in the streets at sunset at the muezzin's 
 call; vagrant Arabs we encountered roaming 
 the plain on fleet coursers, while their wives 
 and children tended their flocks ; droves of 
 asses and mules laden with salt from Mendeli, 
 jangling with bells and munching from their 
 nose-bags at their baiting-places their dole of 
 corn ; sheep, goats, and oxen contentedly graz 
 ing on verdant upland pastures; meek-eyed 
 camels and dromedaries goaded by merciless 
 dragomen, trudging patiently, as in Abraham's 
 day, with their burden of wheat and dates and 
 corn. 
 
 We rested two days at Hamadan, a town of 
 fifteen thousand inhabitants, during which time 
 we explored its attractive environs and the his 
 toric shrines of Esther and Mordecai, besides 
 enjoying the luxury of a Turkish bath. At 
 one of the khans we drank the Hamadan wine,
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 37 
 
 a white wine of similar flavor to sparkling St. 
 Peray, and a red wine not unlike the Listrac 
 and Moulis growths of the Gironde. It was 
 but natural, after having sipped of the potent 
 juice of the Ramadan vine, and while watch 
 ing the sunset fade behind the heights of 
 Mount Elvend, to dwell upon a fancy of the 
 Rubaiyat : 
 
 Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai 
 Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, 
 
 How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp 
 Abode his destin'd Hour, and went his way. 
 
 A Moment's Halt a momentary taste 
 
 Of Being from the Well amid the Waste 
 
 And Lo ! the phantom Caravan has reacht 
 The Nothing it set out from Oh, make haste ! 
 
 It was natural, too, as I mused in the bare 
 apartment at the khan, to conjure up the 
 splendors of the past, when the ancient city, 
 leaning from its hanging gardens, was sur 
 rounded by its seven concentric walls, various 
 ly colored in white, black, scarlet, blue, orange, 
 silver, and gold ; when the Temple of the Sun 
 and Palace of the King, fashioned of cedar 
 
 398750
 
 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 and of cypress, and whose pillars and ceilings 
 in portico and peristyle, incrusted with gold 
 and silver scales, reverberated with the shouts 
 of revelry and Bacchic glee ; when the co 
 horts of the Macedonian conqueror peopled 
 the streets in all the panoply of war ; when, 
 later, ravaged in turn by the invading armies 
 of Seleucus and Antiochus, it became the sum 
 mer resort of the Median, Persian, and Par 
 thian kings and their gilded retinues. To 
 day, the couchant lion of stone placed by the 
 command of Nebuchadnezzar to guard the 
 town from excessive cold and snows, and the 
 fragments of columns and polished capitals, 
 are the sole vestiges that exist of the once 
 magnificent and most ancient metropolis of 
 Media. 
 
 During eight months of the year one of the 
 most delightful climates in the world, it was 
 not without regret that I left Hamadan. But 
 caravans do not linger, and I was becoming 
 doubly desirous, withal, to reach Teheran. 
 The traveler who can pause as long as he
 
 The Golden Rug of Kennanshdh. 39 
 
 would in a place that charms, and hurry away 
 from one that displeases, must seek other fields 
 than those of Irak-Ajemi. Teheran is situate 
 forty-eight parasangs northeast from Rama 
 dan, equal to about two hundred miles, with 
 wretched khans and miserable accommoda 
 tions along the route ; for, in planning and 
 keeping the average khan, Johnson's apho 
 rism, " The finest landscape in the woild is im 
 proved by a good inn in the foreground," still 
 remains totally disregarded by the Persian ar 
 chitect and comprador. 
 
 Filing slowly out of ancient Ecbatana, while 
 the karwanbashi, who headed the caravan, 
 solemnly muttered a " bismillah " or invoca 
 tion to Allah, we started on our first stage to 
 Malagird over the low mountains and hills 
 which separate the dreary Malagird plain from 
 that of Hamadan. From Malagird we pro 
 ceeded to Zara across an uninteresting level 
 plateau, and from Zara rode on to Nebaron, a 
 distance of fifty miles, the latter being the prin 
 cipal village between Hamadan and Teheran.
 
 40 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 Continuing our course toward Kushak, the 
 scenery changed as we ascended the Karaghan 
 Mountains and crossed them by the pictur 
 esque pass of Azad Dagh, seven thousand feet 
 above the sea, with the majestic cone of Dama- 
 vand towering ten thousand feet above the 
 range. With its sister villages, the little ham 
 let of Kushak, where we obtained a supply of 
 bitter, brackish water, had recently been dev 
 astated by famine and cholera. The inhabi 
 tants of the vicinity, my companion informed 
 me, think that these visitations are sent by 
 Div Sefeed, the Horned White Demon of 
 Mount Damavand, though tradition asserts 
 that the monster fell a victim to the invincible 
 sword of Rustm when mounted on his fa 
 mous steed Ruksh. From Kushak to Ra- 
 badkareem, a stage of nearly thirty miles, 
 we saw no sign of human habitation amid 
 the bare and treeless waste, save an old cara 
 vanserai in ruins, telling its tale of the muta 
 bility of earthly things. Even the banditti that 
 haunt the neighborhood of the deserted cara-
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 41 
 
 vanserai near the latter place did not show 
 themselves to relieve the monotony of this ut 
 terly dreary stage. A relief it was beyond ex 
 pression to leave Rabadkareem behind, and 
 continue our march over the plain the last 
 stage to our destination. 
 
 Meanwhile I had referred frequently to the 
 object of our journey. But beyond assuring 
 me that we would undoubtedly succeed in ac 
 complishing it, provided that I left the matter 
 entirely with my companion, I could gain but 
 little additional information on this point. 
 Since our departure from Hamadan I had ob 
 served the delldl and the leader of the caravan 
 in frequent consultation a matter I should 
 scarcely have noticed, but for the fact that 
 they invariably ceased their conversation on 
 my approach. " It was my friend," the delldl 
 explained, " who brought the odalisque to Ker- 
 manshah." 
 
 It was some time after the noonday prayers 
 ere, looming in all the enchantment of distance 
 through the purple haze of the plain, the Per- 
 7
 
 42 //; Gold and Silver. 
 
 sian capital rose before us, vaguely outlined 
 against the Elburz chain. I had visited Tehe 
 ran twice before, but never had it appeared 
 half so inviting as it did after our prolonged 
 journey. The hardships of the march, the 
 
 poor food and water, had already proved a 
 sore infliction, and I was profoundly grateful 
 that within a few hours I should be able to 
 obtain much-needed rest and accustomed com 
 forts. Soon the great wall and earthworks 
 which clasp the city like a girdle became dis-
 
 The Golden Rug of Kennanshdh. 43 
 
 tinctly visible, as mosque and kiosk, pavilion 
 and tower, slim minaret and gilded cupola, 
 shaded cypress grove and masses of verdure 
 drew nearer and nearer, like the realization of 
 a beautiful dream. 
 
 After weeks of patient journeying, how many 
 caravans, leaving the barren plain behind, had 
 not attained the splendors within through the 
 welcome portal over which waves the yellow 
 and green standard of Iran ! Wearied and 
 travel-stained, we likewise pressed through the 
 magnificent southern gate of the capital of the 
 " King of Kings," to see the sinking sun irra 
 diate the snowy ridge of the Shimran, while 
 the nightingale warbled amid the planes, and 
 the muezzin's solemn call to prayer rang out 
 from the minarets of the mosque of Maschide 
 Shah. 
 
 When, a fortnight later, I awoke from the 
 delirium of fever, I found the Hadji seated by 
 my side, his face as impassible as when I first 
 met him at the Mustafa Superzeur at Algiers.
 
 44 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 And yet methought a smile was lurking in his 
 jet-black eyes. 
 
 " Ah ! I am more than delighted to find 
 Monsieur convalescent. For one not inured 
 to the climate, and the discomforts of caravan 
 travel, the journey was too fatiguing. But 
 Monsieur has had the best of medical care, 
 and " glancing toward a fair Persian girl, of 
 whose presence I had hitherto been unaware 
 " his nurse has been unceasing in ministering 
 to his comforts. Though he has addressed 
 her unknowingly as Hoeselnee, her name is 
 Mahmoure. We are no longer in Kangawar." 
 
 " ' Mahmoure,' you say ? How beautiful their 
 names ! And yet, even a commonplace name 
 becomes beautiful when indelibly associated 
 with beautiful things and beautiful thoughts. 
 Surely they will be enshrined among the houris 
 of the world to come ? " 
 
 " As surely as the sun will woo the rose, the 
 moon arise to light the lover on his way. The 
 road before them should be paved with jade, 
 and swept with perfumed brooms plucked from
 
 The Golden Rug o/ Kennanshdh. 45 
 
 the silken beards of padishahs," replied the 
 Hadji. " In a few days I perceive Monsieur 
 will be himself again ; it now only remains for 
 him to read the Koran, and join the ranks of 
 the faithful." 
 
 " And the golden rug is it secured ? " 
 But the Hadji had departed, and to all my 
 interrogations my attendant professed pro 
 found ignorance. 
 
 Three days afterward I was conducted by 
 my companion into a luxuriously appointed 
 house, where, after being ushered in by the 
 eunuch, we were handed kalidns and tea by a 
 page while awaiting the master's entrance. 
 The Sheikh was absent on our arrival at Te 
 heran, I had already been informed, and had 
 only returned a week previous from a pilgrim 
 age to Mashed after Mecca and Kerbellah 
 the holiest city in the world to the Mussulman 
 having gone thither to make arrangements 
 for the sale of the rug for the Harem or inner 
 sanctuary of the sumptuous shrine of Imam 
 Rhezah.
 
 46 /;/ Gold and Silver. 
 
 I now learned for the first time the import 
 of the consultations between my companion 
 and his friend during the journey. The latter 
 had informed the Hadji of the particulars of 
 the trade with which he had become familiar 
 in his travels, between the Sheikh and his 
 brother ; and the information thus obtained 
 had rendered it within my companion's power 
 to treat with the slave-dealer on reasonable 
 terms ; for the lovely odalisque, who had 
 been bartered in part exchange for the rug, 
 had been abducted by the minions of the 
 Sheikh from a remote seraglio. The rug itself 
 was still in his possession, and it now only de 
 pended upon myself whether I cared to secure 
 it on the terms demanded, the sole condition 
 being that neither the Hadji, his friend, nor my 
 self would divulge the secret. In due time the 
 master appeared, and after the usual saluta 
 tions and the tender of a glass of arrack he 
 bade the eunuch appear with the rug. 
 
 The soft Oriental sunlight streaming through 
 the mullioned windows fell upon its splendor.
 
 The Golden Rug of Kennanshdh. 47 
 
 revealing its iridescent lights and marvelous 
 hues as I changed my position, like the play of 
 an opal. The merchant had not exaggerated 
 its beauty. It glowed like a magnificent opal, 
 and shone like the fires scattered by a cluster 
 of precious stones. I can but faintly outline 
 its beauties ; its exuberance of detail and splen 
 dor of coloring none but a Persian poet might 
 portray. 
 
 The central panel was in the shape of a dia 
 mond with curved lines, having a background 
 of white, typical of purity, in the midst of which 
 figured an emblem of royalty, succeeding which 
 was a large diamond figure comparable only to 
 a superb canary stone in brilliancy. Covering 
 this and surrounding the crown was an in 
 tricately wrought tracing of vines and flowers 
 grouped in manifold colors, representing the 
 nobility, the flower and the chivalry of the 
 kingdom. Freely interspersed with these in 
 low relief were the heads of sacred animals 
 and birds worshiped and held in esteem by 
 Persians. The glowing band of pure sap-
 
 48 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 phire-blue succeeding the yellow divided the 
 golden or upper classes from the lower or 
 common people, who figured as a compact 
 mass of flowers upon a ruby ground, symbol 
 izing the populace and life-blood of the na 
 tion. 
 
 From each of the four sides of the diamond 
 stood out in high relief the head of a sacred 
 cow the guardian gods or Cerberi of Iran, 
 ever watchful to prevent evil from entering its 
 domain. A large blank space, like a great 
 Oriental pearl, succeeded this lustrous center, 
 its most striking feature being the effect pro 
 duced by different lights upon it, according to 
 the angle of view and shiftings of the nap. 
 This silvery space represented the sea and the 
 desert that separate Persia from the outside 
 world. Four peacocks, portraying the pride 
 and vanity that prevail in the world without 
 the pale of the Prophet, flanked each of the 
 corner panels. Within this expanse, wrought 
 in mezzo rilievo, the struggle between sacred 
 animals and birds with serpents and mytho-
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 49 
 
 logical monsters proclaimed the conflict be 
 tween good and evil. 
 
 Surrounding the outer border were two bands 
 worked in the traditional designs of Kerman- 
 shah. Between these was a border of deep 
 ruby-red, spangled by geometrical figures of 
 gold outlined with black, and studded at short 
 intervals with medallions of pure silver thread, 
 the edge of the sides being likewise worked in 
 silver thread. 
 
 Sentient with beauty and animate with har 
 mony, its varied hues vibrated through every 
 chord and octave of the colorific scale, like the 
 consonance of a harp or the carol of a bird. 
 No tapestry ever spun might equal its fineness 
 of texture and the intricacy of its graceful 
 arabesques, nor no flame of mediaeval stained 
 glass surpass the glory of its coloring and the 
 life that leaped from every facet of the design. 
 
 The price demanded seemed exorbitant ; and 
 yet, what ancient Flemish or Italian textile of 
 equal size could compare with it at twice the 
 sum ?
 
 50 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 "Monsieur need not necessarily decide to 
 day ; he can examine it again to-morrow, if he 
 chooses," said the grim custodian, fixing his 
 glittering eyes upon me like a bird of prey. 
 
 Again I remembered the Paris buyer and 
 the loss of the merchant's collection. But the 
 holder refused to let it pass from his possession 
 without receiving the entire purchase price. It 
 was a far cry to London and golden lira ; and 
 I was now trebly anxious to remove the rug 
 beyond all power of reprisal. Once more the 
 Hadji proved an oasis in the desert : " There 
 are Monsieur's friends who were about de 
 parting for Stamboul, with whom he can com 
 municate by telegraph." It was smooth sail 
 ing when, to my intense relief, the means of 
 ransom were received, and with the Hadji, 
 who had proved so loyal, I finally set out for 
 Constantinople. From Teheran an excellent, 
 well-traveled highway leads to Casbeen and 
 Aga Baba, passing thence through wildly ro 
 mantic scenery over the lofty pass of Kharzan 
 to Koodoom, Imam Zade, Rescht, and Enzeli.
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. ^\ 
 
 From Enzeli the journey is easy by steamer 
 through the Caspian to Baku, by rail from 
 Baku through Georgia and the city of Tiflis to 
 Poti, and thence by steamer through the Black 
 Sea to the Golden Horn. 
 
 At the Hotel Royal, almost the first person 
 I met was the Paris buyer. 
 
 " I am just leaving for Paris, with a superb 
 collection. I missed you at Algiers. You look 
 wearied ; you have perhaps been making the 
 voyage of the Nile ? " 
 
 " No ; I have just returned from Persia." 
 
 " Ah ! you have no doubt visited Teheran ? " 
 
 " I stopped there on my return from Ker- 
 manshah.'' 
 
 " So far out of the ordinary caravan route ? 
 The journey must have been extremely fatiguing. 
 A few years since I went to Isfahan and Shiraz ; 
 but I shall never repeat the journey. The 
 cooking is execrable and the wine abominable. 
 You found some rugs at Kermanshah ? It is 
 noted for its fine antiques." 
 
 " I only remained there a short time. I found
 
 52 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 a few rare specimens there, and at Ramadan, 
 as well as some beautifully embroidered an 
 cient nacsh. But the one rug 1 went in search 
 of was gone." 
 
 " Ah ! I am sorry. And the collection at 
 Algiers you also failed to secure. During 
 twelve years' experience I have never seen its 
 equal. Fine specimens are becoming scarcer 
 day by day." 
 
 " Yes. But I found the rug I was looking 
 for at Teheran." 
 
 " It was a rare Kurdistan or Senna ; or pos 
 sibly an antique Kermanshah ? " 
 
 " It is a large and perfect antique silk Ker 
 manshah, eight by ten. If you care to see it, 
 it is in my rooms, rolled in its leathern case." 
 
 " Saprtsti! you have not stated the price for 
 which you will part with it ! I will double the 
 original price, whatever it was, and give you the 
 superb collection of prayers at the sum it cost ! " 
 
 " It may be two years, it may be longer 
 one must wait for such things but so soon as
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 53 
 
 I have duplicated the collection which I regret 
 escaped Monsieur, depend upon it he will hear 
 from me. I shall not forget his message at Te 
 heran, nor to Hoosei'nee when I pass through 
 Kangawar. Ah ! were I Monsieur, and could 
 I recall my youth, I should have tarried longer 
 at Kangawar." 
 
 " But we shall meet the sweet divinities 
 again, let us trust, in the regions of the blest ; 
 and had I tarried, the rug might now be hang 
 ing in the shrine at Mashed." 
 
 " Monsieur speaks truly. His generosity I 
 shall always remember, and his souvenir is 
 deeply engraven on my heart. The Burmah 
 ruby which he admired a pomegranate in the 
 garden of precious stones I will deem it a 
 favor if he will accept as a memento ; its color 
 and its fire he will vainly seek to equal," were 
 the farewell words of the Hadji, whose hand I 
 pressed fervently as the train drew out of Con 
 stantinople, bound for Paris. 
 
 It is a fortunate dispensation that the hard 
 ships and vexations of travel are forgotten, and
 
 54 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 that only its fragrant memories remain. All 
 these the gorgeous hanging in my hall recalls 
 with redoubled emphasis and charm, as, with 
 every change of light and shade, its expres 
 sion varies like a living thing. For, ever, when 
 I contemplate its wondrous beauty, it reflects, 
 as by a mirage, a hundred images of a distant 
 land the picturesque cavalcade of the caravan, 
 the startled antelopes fleeing across the sands, 
 the splendors of mosque and minaret and 
 sacred shrine, the bulbul's song in the che- 
 ndrs, the ecstatic chant of the muezzin from 
 the parapet on high. 
 
 The rug I secured ; the beauteous odalisque 
 with the velvet eyes I could not attain one 
 can not have all. Besides, admitting it were 
 possible to have obtained her, what could I 
 have done with her? The rug was too tender 
 and precious for even a houri to repose upon ; 
 and how could I have guarded her without a 
 Nubian seneschal? As for giving her away, 
 the idea were too preposterous to entertain for 
 an instant. During the lapse of time since I
 
 The Golden Rug of Kermanshdh. 55 
 
 first beheld her, unlike the rug, she must per 
 force have submitted to the irremeable fate of 
 most terrestrial things, and witnessed her beau 
 ty wane. I shall alway associate her with the 
 rug, and see her with the inward eye, reclining 
 upon silken cushions, lute in hand, in the blaze 
 of her voluptuous beauty, her glorious con 
 tralto voice passionately interpreting a ghazdl 
 of Hafiz. There may be more beautiful car 
 pets and houris in the palaces of the Paradise 
 of the Prophet, but I have my doubts ; and, 
 perhaps, as the delldl said, in possessing The 
 Golden Rug I have secured, as nearly as it is 
 possible to secure, the talisman of Oromanes. 
 Great indeed is Allah !
 
 WARDERS OF THE WOODS. 
 
 ~ 
 
 No sound was heard except, 
 c' from far away, 
 
 The ringing of the wit- 
 wall's shrilly laughter, 
 Or, now and then, the chat 
 ter of the jay, 
 That Echo murmured 
 after. HOOD, 
 
 The Haunted House. 
 
 HE trout ! my speckled friend, he of 
 the rubies and chrysoberyls, the living 
 jewel of spring-fed waters to how 
 many enchanting scenes is he not the Open 
 Sesame ! 
 
 During one among many excursions to the 
 Dominion, having for its object the spotted 
 " trophies of the tapering line," I became ac 
 quainted with a singular character in 
 the person of the local fisherman. 
 Not that this was of itself at all 
 strange, for the local fisherman inva- 
 ---. riably is a distinct character ; but this 
 particular personage was more striking 
 than those among the fraternity I had 
 
 (56)
 
 Warders of the Woods. 57 
 
 usually met a presence standing out plainly 
 as the pines against the evening sky. I had 
 become familiar with so many phases of this 
 versatile genius, that, on visiting a new locali 
 ty, it was a subject of no little interest to pic 
 ture the guise in which he would next present 
 himself. One never meets him twice alike, but 
 one is certain to find him an active looker-on 
 wherever a fringe of alders is swaying over the 
 trout-stream. I had learned to expect him just 
 as surely as the stereotyped statement which 
 greets the angler, that if he had only come 
 three or five or ten years before, he would have 
 caught more trout in an hour than he could 
 carry. From experience I had found it an ad 
 vantage to cultivate the locum tenens. There 
 are many benefits to be derived from him : he 
 is an adept at the paddle ; he is familiar with 
 the waters ; the woods are an open book to 
 him ; there is not a short cut or turn he does not 
 know by heart. Desirable he is, I had learned ; 
 but not alvvay to be secured by the first cast 
 of proffered friendship, I also discovered.
 
 38 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 I was wondering, accordingly, what manner 
 of man my next mentor would be, on arriving 
 one pleasant summer's day in a retired hamlet 
 in Grey County. Here a neat-looking inn near 
 a beautiful small lake seemed to offer more in 
 ducements than are usually to be met with in 
 the average Canadian hostelrie that advertises 
 to provide for the entertainment of man and 
 beast. The tap was fresh, and the table I 
 found as conducive to a contented state of 
 mind as the sparkling waters of the lake's out 
 let were soothing to contemplate in their rapid 
 sweep almost past the very door of the inn. 
 " An angler's Elysium," I thought to myself, 
 providing the lake sustains its reputation, and 
 the fish are wi'ling to listen to flattery. 
 
 " The boy would man the canoe," the land 
 lord paradoxically observed, when arising from 
 the dinner-table we started out for the lake 
 which, nearly encircled by wood-girt shores 
 and shimmering in the sunshine of a bland 
 June afternoon, looked like a signet set in 
 emeralds. A more beautiful sheet of water
 
 Warders of the Woods. 59 
 
 angler's eye never rested upon. Pure as the 
 ether, transparent as plate-glass, one could 
 count every pebble at the bottom, thirty feet 
 below. 
 
 I had been casting but a few minutes in an 
 inviting cove, when, noticing a swell on the 
 previously unruffled surface, I intuitively turned 
 round, to perceive that I was no longer alone. 
 A canoe, riding low in the water, with a soli 
 tary occupant, had appeared unobserved ; it 
 had glided rather than approached, noiselessly 
 and stealthily, like the flight of an owl. 
 
 Surely I was not mistaken my piscatory 
 guide, philosopher and friend ! 
 
 " A large mornin' to you, stranger ; I seed 
 you a-fishin' round the bend, and it struck me 
 I'd take a look and see what you coaxes 'em 
 with." 
 
 The speaker was a tall, well-knit man of 
 about fifty, the most striking part of whose 
 presence was his superb flowing rufous beard. 
 His face was bronzed with the sun's reflection 
 on many a trout-stream, and his small, sharp
 
 60 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 eyes were expressive of much cunning. I 
 called to mind a fox at once, on looking at him 
 and considering his crafty approach. His rod 
 reposed at his side, and a number of fine trout 
 flashed from the bottom of his canoe. 
 
 " You're too late in the day to have much of 
 a haul ; you wants to try for 'em early of a 
 mornin'. They doesn't bite well day-times, 
 lessen its cloudy or it's early in the spring. 
 Most on 'em I catched with a fly ; some o' the 
 little 'uns I got down to the outlet, after they 
 quit a-bitin' up here." 
 
 And while he spoke there was a nervous 
 twitching of his right eyelid. I extended him 
 my flask, and, passing the time of day, took 
 occasion to examine his catch. He had be 
 tween two and three dozen very dark-colored, 
 brilliantly marked fish, several of which would 
 scale close to three pounds. There were no 
 traces of the gill-net on his captives. Neither 
 had they been taken on a night-line ; the gills 
 of the large ones were a bright vermilion, 
 denoting conclusively that they had been
 
 Warders of the Woods. 61 
 
 freshly caught. His cast consisted of a large, 
 coarsely tied, well-whipped scarlet fly. The 
 gut to which it was attached looked rotten, 
 and was badly frayed. It might possibly hold 
 a heavy fish on a springy piece of lance-wood, 
 providing a fish could be induced to rise to 
 the entomological apparition which the fly 
 represented. But it appeared hardly stout 
 enough to withstand the resistance of a big- 
 trout for a terminal fixture to the ponderous 
 baton that served him for a rod. His eyelid 
 hitched again when I examined his insidious 
 lure. 
 
 There was no sign of a landing-net in his 
 canoe. I became convinced he was foxy both 
 in his nature and his looks. 
 
 He made his own flies, he said. " There was 
 heaps o' trout in the lake, if a feller could only 
 coax 'em. If I wanted any he could let me 
 have some beauties ; he had plenty in his ' well ' 
 up to the shanty." 
 
 A few minutes later his form was obscured 
 by the distance, as his obedient craft sped si-
 
 62 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 lently up the lake under the subtile stroke of 
 his paddle. 
 
 An afternoon's diligent work on my part re 
 sulted in but a small catch, and I returned to 
 the inn at dusk with a light basket, while I 
 elegized : 
 
 Full many a fish of speckled ray serene 
 The lake's transparent depths and shallows bear ; 
 
 Full many a trout is born to feast unseen, 
 And guard his rubies in his watery lair. 
 
 I learned subsequently from the landlord that 
 my foxy-looking acquaintance, whose name was 
 Miles, combined the accomplishments of a nat 
 uralist and an angler. " He possessed a great 
 number of native birds, in the mounting of 
 which he was an adept, and his success in 
 fishing was proverbial. He fished all the 
 neighboring waters : the Beaver River, the lake, 
 the outlet, the mill-pond below, and the stream 
 flowing from the pond. He liked his glass of 
 'alf-and-'alf, and he ought to be around soon." 
 
 Of course, I should ply him assiduously, and 
 have him do duty with the paddle ; his mag-
 
 Warders of the Woods. 63 
 
 nificent beard might prove a stimulus to the 
 fish which apparently required an introduction 
 to strangers. He happened in later during the 
 evening, and I found him a capital story-teller. 
 Under the influence of the 'alf-and-'alf he be 
 came still more expansive, while the twitching 
 of his right eyelid was almost constant during 
 his accounts of the monsters he had brought 
 to basket in the lake. 
 
 " Would he point out the way to piscine fa 
 vors, the following day ? " 
 
 " He would like to," winking on setting down 
 his fifth glass, " but he had some sheep-shearin' 
 to do to-morrow and next day, up the road
 
 64 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 a piece, and he wouldn't have no time, except- 
 in' may be a few minutes on his way back. 
 Early in the mornin' I might find the big uns 
 a-bitin' near the inlet, if I tried for 'em with a 
 big red fly or a minnow. But in the spring, 
 and through the ice in winter, was the time to 
 make a haul ! " 
 
 I found some fair sport, ere the sun was high 
 the next morning, at the head of the lake, where 
 a good-sized stream filtered through a dense 
 growth of tamarack and alder into a swamp 
 that, receding from the east shore for a con 
 siderable distance, discharged innumerable 
 small springs into the main reservoir. But 
 although I tried with religious persistency a 
 number of flies, including a scarlet-ibis, they 
 failed to call forth anything like the leviathans 
 which had allowed themselves to be persuaded 
 by him of the alder truncheon and flaming 
 beard. 
 
 The surface of the water near the inlet was 
 dimpled by rising trout, feasting upon the mi 
 nute diptera that came sailing past with gos-
 
 Warders of the Woods. 65 
 
 samer wings and feathery antennae, utterly un 
 conscious of the story of the spider and the fly. 
 Unless to deceive an occasional youngster, it 
 was useless to try a counterfeit, while even a 
 minnow, and a little black cricket which was 
 floating in swarms on the water, were equally 
 unavailing in their powers of persuasion. It 
 was the " bright fox," that bete notr of the 
 angler, upon which the fish were feasting above 
 the ripple of the wave. Every now and then 
 a glittering fin or an investigating nose would 
 break the water's surface as some unwary in 
 sect, rising from below, passed to that bourne 
 whence no insect ever returns. But the arti 
 ficial fly, or anything else attached to the most 
 minute leader, became more and more useless 
 with the advancing hours. One might as well 
 have tossed a bumble-bee to the fastidious 
 epicures. 
 
 It was pleasant, nevertheless, to be floating 
 idly on the clear, liquid mirror ; to hearken to 
 the harp of the pines ; to trace the reflections 
 of the tree-girt shores ; to mark the occasional
 
 66 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 leap of a feeding fish ; to watch the wheels of 
 a hawk overhead ; to listen to the warblings 
 of innumerable tiny throats ; to note the differ 
 ent hues of the water where the chrysoprase 
 of the shallows merged into the emerald of the 
 deeps ; to yield one's self listlessly to the insin 
 uating charm of the Hour. The spirit of Peace 
 seemed to have chosen this as a temple for her 
 abiding-place ; to have shut out the artificial 
 world from her sanctuary, and left only the 
 world of Nature to steep the senses in a lotus- 
 dream of repose. What though the fish were 
 mute to the overtures of one's reed ? the very 
 consciousness of living and dreaming and idling 
 in the sunshine was of itself an inspiration. 
 Here were no carking cares, no worldly dis 
 cords to intrude. Lamartine might have been 
 drifting on another just such a lovely liquid 
 mirror when he heard the voice calling upon 
 Time to " suspend its flight," for the hours 
 "to stay their course."* 
 
 * O temps ! suspends ton vol ! et vous heures pro- 
 pices,
 
 Warders, of the Woods. 67 
 
 But what, of a sudden, are those shrill sounds 
 from the depths of the swamp, followed in 
 quick succession by others more clamorous 
 still, that come like the driving scud of a March 
 gale on the serenity of a spring landscape, to 
 jar upon the solitude in a very Babel of dis 
 cordant cries ? The noise sounded like the 
 harsh blasts of a bagpipe amid the melody of 
 the forest songsters. There was something 
 which had alarmed the advance-guard of a 
 colony of blue-jays those warders of the 
 woods and the danger-signal was being 
 passed rapidly along the line. A fox, proba 
 bly, out for an airing, or some other wild ten 
 ant of Sylva's court, had intruded upon their 
 sacred domain. By following their cries, pos 
 sibly I might have crept up to a deer which 
 
 Suspendez votre cours ! 
 Laissez-nous savourer les rapides delices 
 Des plus beaux de nos jours. 
 
 Assez de rnalheureux ici-bas vous implorent, 
 
 Coulez, coulez pour eux ; 
 Prenez avec leurs jours les soins qui les devorent ; 
 
 Oublez les haureux.
 
 68 
 
 In Gold and Silver, 
 
 had come to quench his thirst. But the boggy 
 ground in the direction whence the alarm was 
 
 sounded was too 
 treacherous to in 
 vite a tour of ex 
 ploration 
 even had 
 
 ment existed in a 
 shaded pool and a 
 shoal of hungry 
 fish. It seemed as 
 if the jays had communicated 
 their fears to the denizens of the 
 water ; or else it was owing to the 
 withdrawal of the flies ; for soon afterward the 
 trout left off surface feeding altogether. I
 
 Warders of the Woods. 69 
 
 made a fair catch, later on, at the outlet ; but 
 on reeling up, my basket, though well filled, 
 owed its weight to numbers rather than to size. 
 Lake-fishing I had ahvay found provokingly 
 uncertain, a poor respecter of apparently fav 
 orable atmospheric conditions ; I might find 
 the trout in better humor the following day. 
 
 At night Miles came in for his evening glass, 
 with his glorious beard and blinking eye, hold 
 ing up for my admiration a half-dozen magnifi 
 cent fish he had caught " after sundown, on his 
 way home." Beauties they were, nearly of a 
 size, an even thirteen pounds and a quarter on 
 my pocket steelyards ; dark, brilliantly-stud 
 ded fellows, with vividly-colored fins and black 
 backs, quite dissimilar in shape and markings 
 to the small-headed silvery specimens which 
 had responded to my invitations in the lake. 
 
 " They were hungrier nor usual to-night, 
 and took a green caterpillar that was droppin' 
 from the trees along the shore. If I hadn't no 
 use for 'em, he would pack 'em and ship 'em 
 to the city afore he left in the mornin'. To-
 
 70 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 morrow he couldn't go a-fishin' ; he had prom 
 ised to repair some fences at the next ' Con 
 cession ' that would keep him busy for a day 
 or two. I had better try the Beaver or the 
 Mad River; the fish might take hold better in 
 the streams. With the moon risin' so late 
 now, they were beginnin' to feed nights in the 
 lake, and wouldn't be likely to bite well day 
 times till we had a new moon." 
 
 Again, awaiting the pleasure of the fickle 
 flocks of Proteus, was I casting at the head of 
 the lake, my labors rewarded by an occasional 
 investigating fish. Again was I floating idly 
 on the clear, liquid mirror, and enjoying to its 
 utmost the insinuating charm of the Hour, 
 when once more, from the locality whence the 
 clamor had previously proceeded, the warders 
 of the woods filled the solitude with their dis 
 cordant cries of alarm. 
 
 Curious to know the reason, I determined, 
 if possible, to obey the voice crying in the wil 
 derness, and follow the blue-jays. Nothing 
 but a woodcock or ousel could have threaded
 
 Warders of the Woods. 71 
 
 the thick screen of alder and tamarack. I 
 could make no headway here, beyond a few 
 rods where the main inlet ceased and came 
 bubbling out of the wet, fern-covered ground. 
 On the other hand, to attempt a passage through 
 the open swamp extending along the east 
 shore, would undoubtedly result in a watery 
 imprisonment not pleasant to contemplate. 
 
 On the south side I could effect a landing, 
 and perhaps, by a circuitous route, find firm 
 footing, and so avoid the obstacle to onward 
 progress. I had proceeded but a short dis 
 tance when my further ingress was barred by 
 another feeder to the swamp, and I found my 
 self on a small track resembling a runway 
 of wild animals that skirted the edge of the 
 spongy ground. Following this with difficulty 
 for quite a distance, plunging over fallen trees 
 and wading through a thicket of jewel-weed 
 and poison-ivy, the path came to an abrupt 
 termination, where a dead tree-trunk, lying 
 across the morass, afforded a natural bridge 
 to the opposite side. Here the tamaracks.
 
 72 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 ferns, and climbing plants gave place to the 
 hard timber, and the beauties of the primeval 
 forest were revealed. The jays had ceased 
 their alarum, excepting at intervals an occa 
 sional scolding scream from the tree-tops. In 
 the forest recesses there reigned a cathedral 
 quiet save for the subdued melody of the song 
 birds. Maintaining a southeasterly course, I 
 advanced in the direction whence the alarum 
 had proceeded. For a considerable distance 
 there was a gradual rise to the ground ; then 
 it began to slope in the direction I was taking, 
 and ere long I could discern the spires of a 
 multitude of leafless tamaracks spreading out 
 far as the eye could reach in the swamp below. 
 There were watchers in the woods still, fit 
 guardians of such a ghostly spot ; and the jays 
 again awakened the echoes with their piercing 
 cries. A strange fascination existed in the 
 very loneliness of the place, attracting while it 
 repelled, and in which the clamor of the jays 
 appeared to be its Voice speaking to the Soli 
 tude. A place meet for evil deeds ; a home
 
 Warders of the Woods. 73 
 
 for the bat and the owl forlorn, savage, deso 
 late, drear. 
 
 As I continued to descend, suddenly the joy 
 ous sound of running water fell upon the ear, 
 and, like a glow of evening light through the 
 gray waste of skeleton trees, a broad, crystal 
 line stream flashed into view. A heron, star 
 tled by my approach, got up heavily from the 
 shore where he was feeding ; a flock of wood- 
 ducks rose with clattering wings from the 
 water. Along the shore there were many 
 footprints. I was not the first human visitor 
 in this inland solitude to startle the jays, which 
 continued their warning cries. Not the first, 
 nor the only one at that moment, for, looking 
 up the stream where it widened into a pond 
 surrounded by dead cedars and tamaracks, 
 a canoe was anchored, with a solitary occu 
 pant a familiar-looking figure with a fiery 
 beard : 
 
 There, by the side of yonder grizzled tree, 
 That wreathed its old fantastic roots so high, 
 
 His lissome length a-fishing did I see, 
 Angling upon the stream that murmured by.
 
 74 lit Gold and Silver. 
 
 The fox was out for his airing, the deer had 
 come to slake his thirst. I waved my flask in 
 the air ! 
 
 " He would give me a ' lift ' as soon as he 
 had landed the trout he was playin'. They 
 were bitin' like a deer-fly, and, with the fixin's 
 I had, I could catch a boatful afore dark. 
 
 " Nobody knew the place but him ; he had 
 found it out when after birds for stuffin', years 
 ago. There wasn't no trout in it till he put a 
 pailful o' little uns in from the lake. The 
 stream formed from springs in the pond and 
 disappeared in the swamp a piece below, so 
 the fish couldn't get out ; they spawned on the 
 gravel-beds by the main spring at the head o' 
 the pond. 
 
 " I allers fishes with bait, lessen I tries a 
 chub sometimes. I puts on a fly occasionally 
 when I comes in, to make 'em think it's the fly 
 as takes the big uns. They grow bigger here 
 nor they do in the lake. The blue-jays allers 
 sets up a hollerin' when I comes." 
 
 My flask, together with my tobacco-pouch
 
 Warders of the Woods. 75 
 
 and an extra line I had, were at his disposal. 
 All he enjoined upon me was not to kill the 
 golden Ptscis. He would paddle down to the 
 end of the stream, and in ten minutes would 
 hide my canoe in the " bush," and get my rod 
 and landing-net. 
 
 The fishing exceeded even my most san 
 guine expectations ; I had merely to extend a 
 large scarlet-ibis to insure an audience. 
 
 It was not until the sun sank behind the 
 hoary spires of the tamaracks, and the reflect 
 ed evening star danced upon the ripple in the 
 deepening dusk, that I reluctantly left the pond, 
 weighted down with the spoils it had yielded. 
 It was the fitful roar of the waterfall, no doubt, 
 or the vague whisper of the night-breeze in the 
 tree-tops, which sounded so eerie as we groped 
 our way through the somber wood ; for the 
 jays had long since retired to roost, and, at 
 most, some restless bird might have been mur 
 muring in his sleep. 
 
 Miles was even more impressive as a racon 
 teur than before, when he lounged into the inn
 
 7 6 
 
 /;/ Gold and Silver. 
 
 later than usual, and affected profound sur 
 prise on being shown my catch. 
 
 " Them's the finest lot o' trout I ever seed 
 come out o' the water ! " he exclaimed, strok 
 ing his silky beard and blinking his cunning- 
 eye. " It takes the fly to coax 'em ; and if you 
 hain't got no objexun, I don't mind if I takes a 
 turn with you in the mornin' ; atwixt the two 
 of us we kin scoop the lake ! "
 
 A SHADOW UPON THE POOL. 
 
 And there were crystal pools, peopled with fish, 
 
 Argent and gold ; and some of Tyrian skin, 
 Some crimson-barred ; and ever at a wish 
 They rose obsequious. 
 
 HOOD, The Plea of the 
 Midsummer Fairies. 
 
 the time that the 
 rosy apple if the apple of 
 our earliest forefather was a 
 rosy one ; from the time that 
 the leaves of the Ficus fig 
 ured so prominently in a 
 certain primitive garden, it 
 was ever the thing one was 
 interdicted from doing which one 
 most ardently desires to do. It is al- 
 way the forbidden fruit that is sweetest, 
 the proscribed water the invalid pines for, the 
 prohibited flesh-pots the dyspeptic craves. 
 
 To this yearning after the forbidden un 
 doubtedly may be attributed the prime cause 
 
 (77)
 
 78 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 of that omnipresent individual, the poacher, 
 who in his various moods and tenses fre 
 quents every community where the incentive 
 to his vocation exists. He may thrive as a 
 moucher, the bane of the English game 
 keeper, with his agile lurcher at his heels, 
 ever ready to pounce upon an unsuspecting 
 hare or pheasant ; he may eke out a sub 
 sistence with the snare and in pouching un 
 lawful game ; or he may haunt the preserved 
 trout-stream with the persistency of his par 
 ticipators in illicit sport, the mink and king 
 fisher. 
 
 It was a mystery how Poacher Jack obtained 
 his trout not so much in the numbers of the 
 fish themselves, for they were abundant in the 
 numerous streams and ponds of the vicinity, 
 as in the unusual size of the speckled captives 
 that fell to his baskets. To be sure, he was 
 the acknowledged crack angler of the neigh 
 borhood ; he did everything well that he set 
 his mind to do. If a broken fish rod, lumber- 
 wagon, or a neglected piece of roadway needed
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 79 
 
 repairing, he was called upon in preference to 
 put it to rights; if a fat sheep were wanted, 
 either for a friend or to appease the appetite 
 of his numerous family, it was promptly forth 
 coming ; if a dish of especially fine trout were 
 desired for some particular occasion, the fish 
 never failed to respond to his summons. He 
 was a general favorite, not only with the trout 
 but the villagers ; and although a few among 
 the latter were inclined to look upon him with 
 jealousy, or even distrust, yet his wit was so 
 ready and his knowledge of their own weak 
 nesses so keen, that they wisely deemed discre 
 tion the better part of valor in meddling with his 
 affairs. With the fair sex he stood in the high 
 est esteem. He was alway doing them some 
 small favor which cost him little, but that was 
 remembered. It was one of his axioms, if you 
 have the " women-folks " on your side, you are 
 sure to come out with flying colors. So a 
 freshly dressed coarse-wool hanging in the 
 rear of his house, or a basket of pound-trout 
 out of season in his possession, were passed
 
 8o /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 by as a matter concerning no one but himself. 
 A jack of all trades, fishing was his overpower 
 ing passion. He would leave the harvest-field, 
 mill, or workshop at any time, if the weather 
 was only promising for his favorite pastime ; 
 nothing could keep him from his accustomed 
 haunts. 
 
 I used to have him accompany me on my 
 angling expeditions in the neighborhood. In 
 paddling a boat he was a graduate of the high 
 est honors. Skimming the length of a pond, 
 he never once lifted his paddle ; he used it as 
 a duck would its web silently, softly, power 
 fully. If there was a big rise ahead, he knew 
 the precise moment to stop, to take advantage 
 of it, without instruction or without alarming 
 the game. He possessed, moreover, a never- 
 failing flow of humor, and was eminently Tap- 
 leyan in his views of things. If your luck were 
 poor, he had a pleasant way of flattering you 
 into the belief that, under the circumstances, 
 you had made a most creditable showing. His 
 twinkling eye was jollity itself, and placidity
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 81 
 
 beamed from every seam of his weather-beaten 
 face. 
 
 In the full-blown flower of lusty health and 
 physical manhood he lived, and was the vis 
 itor's guiding-star in the little village of Mid- 
 dleton, famous from time immemorial for its 
 trout-ponds a quaint, old-fashioned Canadian 
 hamlet perched upon a hill, with creaking 
 weather-vanes, and clouds of martins chatter 
 ing amid the eaves ; with rambling, grass-grown 
 streets, and tumbling dwellings tinctured with 
 a flavor of the long-ago. A listless place of 
 Drowsyhead it is : 
 
 A place for idle eyes and ears ; 
 
 A cobwebbed nook of dreams ; 
 Left by the stream whose name is years 
 
 The stranded village seems. 
 
 A large mill-pond reflects the cumuli clouds 
 of June, and mirrors the murmuring pines of a 
 breezy hill-side within a stone's-throw of the 
 village church. But it was not here that Jack's 
 rod of empire swayed. From what diaphanous 
 depths he lured the darlings of the water, was
 
 82 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 a problem more difficult of solution than the 
 precise pastures in which he occasionally enact 
 ed the role of a nocturnal Menalcas. When 
 asked where he caught his fish, he invariably re 
 plied, " In the big swamp " a locality rarely vis 
 ited, owing to the almost impenetrable thicket 
 and the treacherous nature of the ground. A 
 purling trout-stream, translucent as a beryl, 
 that flowed through a swamp, crossed the 
 high-road on its winding way, several miles 
 from the village ; and, though soon hidden 
 amid the dense umbrage of the cedars and 
 undergrowth, it was known to be prolific of 
 heavy fish. But a few venturesome anglers 
 who had given it several trials met with only 
 moderate success ; and Jack's version, like his 
 sheep-stories, was considered unsatisfactory, 
 notwithstanding he had been seen repeatedly 
 coming laden with his spotted trophies from 
 this direction. 
 
 It was not until a third visit to Middleton 
 that the mystery of his big baskets was made 
 plain to me when the magic door was un-
 
 A S/iciJon upon the Pool. 83 
 
 locked behind which was treasured the ripe 
 experience of years. We were fishing one day 
 in the Borland Pond, a well-tenanted water, 
 where, by using- a fine leader and midge-flies, 
 one was sure, in sunshine or in shadow, of a 
 large catch of small fish in the weed-beds 
 toward shore. A vast swarm of flies was per 
 petually hovering over the glassy surface, the 
 insect ranks augmented momentarily by fresh 
 recruits, which, bursting the pupa, emerged as 
 radiant imago, to become the prey of the hun 
 gry fish and an equally eager mob of feathered 
 assassins the cedar-birds, which hung sus 
 pended over the water to dispute the spoils 
 with the trout. Everywhere the surface was 
 in a tremble of rings and resonant with the 
 slapping of innumerable finny tails, as the fish 
 darted upward, to dive down again .with the 
 coveted morsels to the shelter of the weeds. 
 The gormandizing fish rose at every cast, two 
 and sometimes three fastening on at a time. 
 Jack sat silently watching the sport and lazily 
 puffing his pipe.
 
 84 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 " If them little uns you're a-haulin' in weighed 
 a pound or two apiece, you wouldn't like it, I 
 suppose? I'll show you some fishin' that'll 
 beat your flyin' all holler, if you swear you'll 
 never let out on me ! " 
 
 " Agreed ! my persuasive friend. Here's 
 strict secrecy, and hoping the price in mutton 
 may continue firm." 
 
 " You'll need a pole with more muscle than 
 that, though. A big trout smashed mine all 
 to pieces the other day, and another snapped 
 my line like a pipe-stem. They're the awfulest 
 trout you ever see in the Dunton Pond draw 
 a feller all round when they get started ; it 
 takes a cast-iron ox-chain to hold 'em." 
 
 There is always a fascination in listening to 
 a big fish-story, especially when the fish are of 
 a titled family. 
 
 " But I supposed the Dunton Pond was pri 
 vate property, and you were debarred from its 
 privileges." 
 
 " Jus' so ! You see, the capt'in, him and me 
 had a fallin' out. I used to angle there occa-
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 85 
 
 sionally, and I never once hogged on 'im. 
 Some poachers stole in at night, tore the pad 
 locks off his boat and turned the pond upside 
 down, and he laid it all to me. I've allers go 
 to take the blame ! If any poachin's a-goin' 
 on, it's me ; if a lamb's been killed by some 
 body else's dog, or a sheep's died of old age, 
 I've had a hand in it certain. But I'll be even 
 with 'im. I've poached more out of his pond 
 this year than I ever caught out of it afore al 
 together. I could put some quicksilver in it 
 and send the dam a-kitin', but I wouldn't serve 
 the trout so mean a trick. Where a man lets 
 me fish, I lets him off easy ; but if he goes to 
 clubbin' me off, I'm bound to poach on 'im. 
 To-morrow we'll slip up to the pond, and I'll 
 show you a trick wuth a dozen o' yourn." 
 
 " Much as I appreciate your artistic paddling, 
 the fact that I have permission to fish in the 
 pond fortunately renders it unnecessary for me 
 to play the poacher. I shall not fail, however, 
 to profit by your information, and again ex 
 amine its capacities for myself to-morrow."
 
 86 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 " As you like ; but you'll find you can't tickle 
 'em so handy. They need a power o' ticklin' ; 
 no use o' flyin' it there ! " 
 
 The long pond, a water-wilderness of sub 
 merged stumps and snags, lies isolated in a 
 hollow. It was a hot, sleepy day, with no 
 breeze to fan the water, that shone lustrous 
 as a sheet of burnished steel, when I was 
 seated in a boat waving an eight-ounce wand. 
 With but poor results in quantity, but excellent 
 in quality, I had been pitching two big, gaudy 
 flies for some time. The trout were not in 
 the humor, and objected to leave their hiding- 
 places. By casting a long line and allowing 
 the flies to sink deeply, and then reeling in 
 quickly, an occasional fish would satisfy his 
 curiosity by fastening if a snag did not tie up 
 the leader. But this style of fishing, and the 
 loss of several flies, soon became tedious. 
 
 The cool shade of the pines on the farther 
 shore looked inviting for a siesta ; I would give 
 the fish a chance to finish their afternoon nap 
 undisturbed, and wait until the western bank
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 87 
 
 cast a shadow upon the pond. So a pipe was 
 lighted and a seat in the boat exchanged for 
 a couch on the grass. There was no lack 
 of company here. If the shy tenants of the 
 water were reserved, their fellow-creatures of 
 the earth and air were draining the fullest 
 measure of delight from the golden chalice of 
 the day. Clear as the tinkling of a silver bell 
 the hymn of the thrush floated from the depths 
 of the woods ; the drowsy hum of unseen in 
 sects rose and fell in the air overhead ; a locust 
 " shrilled his song of heat " ; a white-throated 
 and a white-crowned sparrow, too, joined by 
 turns exultingly in the concord ; while the king 
 fisher's clarion announced that his click-reel 
 was in working order, and he was about start 
 ing forth upon a poaching expedition of one. 
 
 I was fast being soothed into slumber, 
 when, suddenly, Nature's many voices ceased ; 
 its clock appeared to stop its ticking. The 
 birds suspended their singing ; the locust broke 
 off his monotonous refrain ; and a mink, em 
 boldened by seasons of gorging unseasonable 
 13
 
 88 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 game, who had been fearlessly trimming his 
 whiskers, whisked along the bank to disappear 
 in the bowels of the earth. Assuredly there 
 must be a reason for all this ; Nature's pulse 
 does not cease beating without a cause. 
 
 What is the coming event that is casting its 
 shadow before ? 
 
 Nothing could be discerned which could have 
 produced the sudden silence. There was no 
 circling hawk or eagle ready to pounce upon 
 bird or beast. Soon, however, there was a 
 rustling in the bushes a few rods to my right, 
 when the source of the hush upon Nature was 
 revealed. Pausing amid the undergrowth, and 
 cautiously peering through the branches, was 
 a familiar human figure. There was no mis 
 taking the leather-colored blouse and overalls, 
 the short, black pipe, and cat-like tread, as the 
 man and his long rod appeared in view and cast 
 a shadow upon the pool. I could watch him 
 unobserved from my place of concealment ; 
 he could neither see me nor the boat that 
 was drawn close to shore. Again he eagerly
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 89 
 
 scanned the surroundings, when, thrusting his 
 hand into the bag which hung suspended in 
 place of a basket, he drew forth a good-sized, 
 wide-necked bottle. 
 
 " Aha ! he's going to put a familiar stanza 
 into practice, and drink the health of the fish " : 
 
 How doth the gentle fisherman improve each shining 
 
 hour, 
 By gathering troutlings all the day whene'er he has 
 
 the power ; 
 How busily he throws his line, how neatly spreads his 
 
 fly, 
 How thirstily he takes his drink whenever he is dry ! 
 
 I was reckoning without my crafty host. 
 
 Out of the bottle he drew another smaller 
 vessel, fingering it as tenderly as if it contained 
 attar of roses. I could see him shake out a 
 portion of the larger bottle, on which he poured 
 some of the liquid the smaller one contained. 
 
 A puff of wind curled the surface of the water. 
 
 I fancied I could detect a peculiar, subtle, 
 aromatic odor on his pouring out the liquid, 
 like the strong scent of the Santalum, or burn 
 ing incense. This accomplished, he stepped
 
 90 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 out, with the litheness of an otter, upon a fallen 
 tree-trunk extending half across the pond, scat 
 tering a portion of the contents of his hand into 
 the water. Almost instantly there was a surge 
 upon the surface, followed in quick succession 
 by a series of vermilion flashes where a shoal 
 of heavy trout threw themselves out of the 
 pool. It was as if his rod were a lamp of 
 Aladdin, and the fish were lured by its light. 
 
 I could see them cleaving the crystalline 
 depths in their charge from every direction, 
 like hounds hot upon the scent of the game. 
 What was the mystic potion he possessed, to 
 exercise such a spell over the wary tenants of 
 the pond, which but an hour before seemed im 
 prisoned in their watery fastness ? This, then, 
 was the trick he spoke of ; this the explication 
 of his big baskets ! He was baiting a certain 
 pool with some secret bait known only to him 
 self, and the moths were already flocking in 
 swarms round the candle. A trout-charmer ! 
 a necromancer of fishes ! a backwoods Zanoni, 
 was this lover of surreptitious fins and fleeces !
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 91 
 
 Soon his long, stiff rod was unslung from his 
 shoulder, his hook baited with a portion of the 
 bait he had scattered, when immediately there 
 was a rush from below, and a large trout was 
 fast on the barbed steel. His magic rod was 
 guileless of reel ; he lifted him out before he 
 had a chance to turn to the bottom. Another 
 one, larger than the first, was soon floundering 
 in his bag. He carefully examined his tackle, 
 baited afresh, and rapidly repeated the success 
 of his previous casts. 
 
 At that rate he would fill a bushel-basket 
 within an hour. I became alarmed for the fish 
 and my evening chances. To see the largest 
 fish of the pond answering to his sim 
 ple beck and call, was more than 
 human sufferance could passively en 
 dure. I pushed out in the 
 boat, to see him turn , 
 round savagely, when, 
 recognizing me, he 
 resumed his wonted 
 placid expression.
 
 92 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 " Puttin' some salt on their tails, you 
 see ! " 
 
 " Yea, verily, so I do see, my mysterious 
 friend." 
 
 And I extended my flies without a second's 
 loss of time. A small fish took the tail fly at 
 the third cast ; and another came up to look 
 at it, but would not fasten, after three or four 
 more invitations. It was evident my medicine 
 was not to their liking; they would rather 
 swallow Jack's purgatives than take my sug^r- 
 coated pills. 
 
 " Need a heap o' ticklin', these trout ; no use 
 o' flyin' it here ! " 
 
 And with this his hook again fell upon the 
 surface to disappear down a pair of monstrous 
 jaws. 
 
 " If your seductive manipulations extend to 
 pastures as they do to waters, Middleton mut 
 ton must be at a heavy premium, my skillful 
 brother of the hazel flail. Where did you dis 
 cover your panacea for spangled shyness ; and 
 what subtle scent is it that draws the fish so
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 93 
 
 wonderfully, my poaching confrere of the rod 
 and line ? " 
 
 He tendered me the mysterious bottle. It 
 was half filled with what looked like balls of 
 kneaded yellow paste. The strong odor I had 
 noticed before was almost overpowering on 
 placing the smaller vial to my nostrils. 
 
 " That's my secret," he said, anticipating 
 my inquiry. " It took me a week to bait this 
 here hole. It's the smell as draws 'em. If 
 they quit a-bitin', all I got to do is to toss 'em 
 a little fresh bait, and I can call 'em like a flock 
 o' chickens. That's how I get my big ketches ; 
 it's the whoppers it draws. Soon's I've got my 
 ketch, I slip into the village by the back way, 
 so they'll think I've come from the swamp, 
 don't ye see ? 
 
 " Yes, they've ketched me a-fishin' here, but 
 I never lets 'em see my ketch ; and I begin 
 fishin' with a worm, and they stop bitin' pretty 
 much, so they don't suspect nothin'. I've had 
 to hide my ketch in the bush, and come back 
 for 'em after dark. If the capt'in ketches me.
 
 94 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 he can't do nothin'. I'm on the side o' the 
 pond the miller owns ; he's a friend o' mine, 
 and no fisher, and don't care how many I 
 ketch, and the capt'in and him don't hitch." 
 
 What was I to do ? It yet lacked several 
 hours of evening when I could count upon a 
 possible rise to the fly. Alway extremely ca 
 pricious in their feeding, the fish might even 
 refuse to rise at all. Were it not wiser to seize 
 the passing hour ? The opportunity might nev 
 er present itself again. Already had I returned 
 from the pond with empty creel, and my stay- 
 in Middleton was fast drawing to a close. 
 Was it the passing breeze that bore me the 
 echo of the sentiment that has gone reverber 
 ating down the ages from time immemorial: 
 
 The season of the rose is brief, make haste to pluck 
 
 your posies ; 
 Another day you'll chance to find bare thorns where 
 
 bloomed the roses ! 
 
 The temptation was a great one. Here was 
 a pond full of wild trout, noted as the largest 
 and finest in the county, notoriously shy of
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 
 
 hook and line, and yet ready to come at call. 
 By using the scented bait I should be guilty 
 not only of an underhanded mode of fishing, 
 but I should be abusing the privilege extended 
 me of fishing in the pond. I was in a quan 
 dary. The spirit, though sorely tried, was will 
 ing to resist ; but the sight of another mottled 
 monarch tugging at Jack's rod rendered the 
 flesh weak. 
 
 Surely a trout is a trout, so long as he is 
 taken in season and with hook and line. I 
 would try the insidious lure, score just an even 
 dozen, and then await the evening rise. As 
 before, the fish seemed under some potent 
 spell, a dozen at each cast struggling for the 
 privilege of seizing the proffered bait. The 
 leviathans of the pond that were wont to 
 show themselves only on the spawning-beds ; 
 the wary patriarchs of the deepest pools ; the 
 crimson foxes of the water, that the wiles of 
 the angler were ordinarily powerless to charm, 
 were most eager for the coveted prize. It 
 made no difference if a hooked fish broke 
 14
 
 96 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 loose ; there were plenty only too anxious to 
 take its place. I could see the finny giants 
 swimming round and round in graceful circles,, 
 amid the roots and logs of the pool. Our rods 
 were kept in a constant curve, and in less than 
 half an hour an eighteen-pound basket cried, 
 " Hold ! enough ! " with two fish of the dozen 
 to spare. I could afford to wait for the even 
 ing shadows, which in due time came stealing 
 over the pond. 
 
 The tender plaint of the whip-poor-will fell 
 upon the tranquil air, and a hermit-thrush 
 trilled his sacred vesper hymn. 
 
 The bats and night-hawks in scores came 
 out from their retreats, wheeling in undulating 
 flight over the water. There were plenty of 
 heavy fish left to share the millers with their 
 feathered banqueters, when the waning light 
 of day brought on a change of appetite, and a 
 swarm of nocturnal insects. By nine I had 
 more than doubled my previous catch, seconded 
 by the "Coachman" and "Professor"; and, 
 gathering the spoils, we turned our backs upon
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 97 
 
 the pond, which looked wan and spectral in the 
 dim light of a young August moon. 
 
 We came in the " back way " that night, 
 and our catch was the talk of the village. I 
 vowed strict secrecy to Jack, who packed the 
 fish, but all my efforts to discover the magic 
 bait were unavailing. It was not anise, nor 
 cummin, nor oil of rhodium. 
 
 " It's my stock in trade, and I only use it oc 
 casionally with mean fellers as won't let me 
 fish." 
 
 When I left on my home 
 ward way, the following 
 morning, with the 
 
 first flush of dawn 
 
 i / ^- 
 kindling the eastern 
 
 sky, to catch the 
 early express ten
 
 /;/ Gold and Silver. 
 
 miles distant. Jack was on hand to drink a 
 parting health. His pouch and rod were slung 
 over his brawny shoulders, and a merry 
 twinkle was in his eye on responding to the 
 landlord's interrogation : 
 
 " I'm jest a-goin' to ride on a piece with 
 my Yankee friend him as ' flies ' it and I'm 
 a-thinkin' I'll be takin' another turn at the 
 swamp to-day." 
 
 Eheu fugaces! This was years ago, and 
 years have wrought their changes in the ham 
 let of Middleton. The martins cease not to 
 chatter amid its eaves, and the large mill-pond 
 yet reflects the murmurous pines of the neigh 
 boring hill-side. But on my last visit, long be 
 fore climbing the steep ascent that leads to 
 the sleepy village, I became conscious in some 
 vague, half-defined way, that I should not find 
 Jack ready to receive me as of yore. The 
 great rock-elm, that cast its shade far along 
 the dusty highway, had been riven by light 
 ning ; the inn had burned down ; and the
 
 A Shadow upon the Pool. 99 
 
 trout-stream, though sparkling and singing on 
 its shallows, had shrunk to half its accustomed 
 size. Heavy spring freshets, sweeping from 
 the uplands, had carried off the dams in all 
 the neighboring ponds. And, alas ! like them, 
 Jack, too, had passed away. 
 
 The village seemed estranged and altered 
 with the lapse of time, as if it were another 
 village than the one I knew when he was there. 
 I attempted but one essay on the pond where 
 we made our famous catch. To the visual sense 
 the scene remained unchanged. The swallows 
 and dragon-flies were still chasing their reflec 
 tions in the water, and the self-same trees 
 were imaged upon the clear mirror of the 
 hollow. The dam had been repaired, the 
 mill-wheel droned, and in due time the even 
 ing shadows came stealing over the surface. 
 From the thicket's screen the whip-poor-will 
 launched his twilight song, and the bats and 
 night-hawks still wheeled on fitful, wavering 
 wing. The mist-wreaths rose gray and ghost 
 ly amid the gathering gloom, while dimly from
 
 100 
 
 /;/ Gold and Silver. 
 
 the arc of the August sky a faint moon's 
 crescent shed its pallor over the pond. But 
 its glory its large trout had departed when 
 the shadow of Jack's rod no longer fell upon 
 the pool. Was it his requiem that the hoarse 
 chorus of the Rana tribe was solemnly chant 
 ing, and his requiescat that an owl was sound 
 ing from the shades of the slumberous wood ?
 
 THE SILVER FOX OF HUNT'S HOLLOW: 
 AN IDYL OF THE UPPER GENESEE. 
 
 The phantom of a cup that comes and goes. 
 
 TENNYSON The Holy Grail. 
 Loecher fanden sich hier, und Hoehlen mit vielerlei 
 
 Gaengen, 
 Eng und lang, und mancherlei Thueren zum Oeffnen 
 
 und Schliessen. 
 
 
 Caves here 
 abounded, and dens 
 with many an exit, 
 Narrow and long, and 
 many a door to open and fasten. 
 GOETHE Reineke Fuchs. 
 
 WANDERER from the hills, starting 
 as a trout-stream at its fountain-head in 
 northern Pennsylvania, and receiving 
 the sparkling waters of many a trio-
 
 IO2 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 utary on its way, the Genesee River flows 
 through the counties of Allegany, Livingston, 
 and Monroe, in the State of New York, un 
 til, turning the mill-wheels and leaping the 
 twin falls of Rochester, it finally discharges 
 into Lake Ontario. In all its varied journ- 
 eyings amid woodland, farmstead, and val 
 ley, through regions rendered historical by 
 the red-man, past spots of surpassing pastoral 
 loveliness, including its traverse through the 
 fertile flats of Livingston and southern Monroe 
 the garden of the Empire State it reveals 
 no such picturesque beauty as, when leaving 
 its tranquil upper level, it suddenly plunges 
 between the High Banks into the great gorge 
 below Portage in its three precipitous descents. 
 Nor is the surrounding region, the rolling 
 wooded landscape and extended panorama of 
 hill and dale which environs the upper river, 
 less lacking in a romantic charm of its own. 
 Remote from the highway and the increasing 
 inroads of civilization, the wild life of the 
 woods and unrestrained Nature yet remains
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 103 
 
 comparatively unscathed. Here the great 
 white hare abounds, the ruffed grouse beats 
 his reveille, and Reynard roams his native 
 hills. So much, a vol d'ozseau, for the chosen 
 haunt of the subject of my sketch. To him 
 who knows the region in all its changing 
 phases, and is conversant with the furtive life 
 that lurks within its penetralia, it were un 
 necessary to emphasize its charms. To those 
 who know it not, even though his silhouette 
 be but a dim semblance measuring the beauty 
 of him who casts it, let its presiding genius be 
 the courier, he of the argent coat and foot 
 step fleet the Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow ! 
 
 Assuredly, my sweetheart never appeared so 
 lovely as when, listening to a recital of the 
 incidents attendant on an autumnal outing, I 
 mentioned having met with a silver fox. Was 
 it because she was conscious of looking still 
 more bewitching in soft, warm furs than in 
 cool, white lawn, that, with eyes agleam and 
 cheeks aglow, she exclaimed : " Really and 
 truly, a silver fox, a veritable genuine silver- 
 15
 
 IO4 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 gray? Oh, I'd give the world for him if you 
 were his captor ! Only think what a set of 
 furs he would make ! Silver-fox furs, you 
 know, are a talisman ; and she who wears 
 them, according to the Russian belief, can 
 never grow old." 
 
 " Would you have me chase the rainbow, 
 seek the philosopher's stone, or start on the 
 quest of the Holy Grail? Any of these were 
 fully as easy to compass as to hold the beau 
 tiful brush that steadies the Silver Fox of 
 Hunt's Hollow." 
 
 " Can you not at least try for me? " 
 
 " Others have longed for his magnificent 
 coat ; for years others have essayed to break 
 the spell he holds. But the hounds return 
 without the quarry, and the hunters give up in 
 despair after weary days of following his elu 
 sive shadow. Of what avail to pursue the un 
 attainable an ignis-fatuus that only lures to 
 mislead ? " 
 
 " Are there not traps and snares and poi 
 soned baits and pitfalls?"
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 105 
 
 " But he is a phantom, and rides on wings 
 of the wind. Actason and all his hounds, 
 Diana and all her buskined virgins, could not 
 effect his capture. Futile is every attempt to 
 beguile him. You might as well covet a neck 
 lace of the Pleiades." 
 
 It was, however, useless to protest, so sweet 
 my sweetheart's lips, so alluring the love-light 
 of the violets of her eyes ; I could but faintly 
 murmur : 
 
 In vain are all the charms I can devise : 
 She hath an art to break them with her eyes. 
 
 I must perforce undertake the essay, even 
 though I should prove one more of the num 
 ber to swell the chorus, " In vain ! in vain ! " 
 
 Ah, would that the power were mine to de 
 pict it to you as it is so vividly pictured to me 
 the fleet and ever-flitting form flinging the 
 miles so lightly behind, and covering the hills 
 and valleys with easy, tireless stride ! I see 
 him now as distinctly as if it were yesterday, 
 the embodiment of grace and speed, leading 
 the panting train along the labyrinths of his
 
 io6 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 choice. I hear the music of the pack follow 
 ing in fruitless quest, disappearing in the gul 
 lies, rising on the ridges now faint in the dis 
 tance, now distinctly heard ; a silver sky above. 
 a silver floor beneath, a silver form speeding 
 ghost-like over the cold, white, glittering ex 
 panse. 
 
 My acquaintance with " Old Silver " for 
 such was the name by which he was most fa 
 miliarly known occurred while grouse-shoot 
 ing with a companion in one of the fox's fa 
 vorite retreats a dense, large woods at Hunt's 
 Hollow, near the High Banks of the Genesee. 
 It was while partaking of the lunch in a chosen 
 spot, in a glade through which a trout-stream 
 flows, that we caught the baying of a hound 
 remote to the northward. A light breeze was 
 blowing toward us, sifting down the many-col 
 ored leaves, when, as the sound gradually drew 
 nearer, suddenly a silvery form sprang upon a 
 log in the stream below. 
 
 Pausing to reveal his exquisite contour, and 
 turning his head backward and sideward to
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 107 
 
 hearken for the approach of his pursuer, he 
 seemed a component part of the sylvan land 
 scape, free and buoyant as the October air it 
 self. Without him, no doubt the scene would 
 have appeared as fair and perfect as many 
 another pageant when the pomp of autumn 
 floods the vales and hill-sides with its glory ; 
 with him, it possessed a life and movement 
 that nothing, save the glamour of his presence, 
 might convey. For he was the picture ; the 
 landscape but the frame. Could Barye have 
 beheld him as we beheld him, and as I beheld 
 him many a time afterward in the triumph of 
 his flight, it were needless for me to dwell 
 upon his beauty ; he would be immortalized in 
 bronze, and stand in place of the Jaguar de 
 vouring a Hare, as the type of ferine grace. 
 A few moments after landing from his spring, 
 he trotted leisurely up-stream on the shallows 
 for several rods, leaped up the bank at a 
 bound, and once more took to the stream for 
 a short distance ; when, resuming his course 
 on the opposite shore, he disappeared on an
 
 io8 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 easy canter into the thick beech under 
 growth. 
 
 A gleam of late autumnal gold fell upon his 
 form as he passed noiselessly from the sun- 
 flecked glade upon the symmetry of his clean- 
 cut haunches, his lustrous silvern hair, his sharp- 
 pointed, nervous ears, and his long, broad, 
 feathery, silver brush. He might have been 
 the incorporate spirit of the Indian summer 
 which was brooding upon the silent woods ; 
 lovely, fleeting, and impalpable as the last lin 
 gering October sunbeam so light, so airy, so 
 imponderable, the rustling autumn breeze, 
 rather than any volition of his own, seemed to 
 impel him on his way. 
 
 So unexpected was his presence, so fasci 
 nating the grace of his every movement, and 
 so brief the time consumed by his manoeuvres, 
 that, even had our guns been within reach, I 
 doubt if it would have availed us. To be con 
 fronted unexpectedly by a silver fox and retain 
 one's presence of mind, is not for the novice in 
 vulpine warfare. He was an unusually large
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Holloiv. 109 
 
 dog-fox, his coat a brilliant glossy black tipped 
 with gray that radiated a metallic sheen in the 
 sun. Apparently he was in the prime of life, 
 and was robed in the full vesture of his winter 
 furs. About ten minutes after his disappear 
 ance, a hound who gave evidences of a hard 
 chase, in direct contrast to the object of his 
 pursuit, followed upon his trail, and, after con 
 siderable delay in recovering the scent on the 
 banks of the stream, took up the trail again 
 where the fox broke for the cover. 
 
 Later, I discovered we were the first to meet 
 with Old Silver since the previous autumn, 
 when he had mysteriously disappeared after 
 his famous run with the Brooks' Grove hounds. 
 His arrival in no less measure than his depart 
 ure was an enigma. By many he was sup 
 posed to have permanently left his terrestrial 
 hunting-grounds. By others he was said to 
 have deserted Livingston for the adjoining 
 county of Allegany, where a price was not set 
 upon his head, and he would not remain in 
 constant dread of his pursuers. As if he cared
 
 no /;/ Gold and Silver. 
 
 for the hounds ! Had he not baffled them for 
 years ? His last run attested conclusively the 
 soundness of his wind and the fleetness of his 
 stifles. To assert, as some did, that he had 
 exhausted his resources, was equally absurd : 
 could he not turn his foes from the scent at 
 will ? Additional age would not impair, but 
 enhance, his cunning. His return, therefore, 
 while welcomed by every one who knew him, 
 was still a puzzle to all, and countless were the 
 surmises as to the true cause of his reappear 
 ance. 
 
 Not that the presence of a silver fox was a 
 rarity, by any means, in the Livingston wilds. 
 Others of his kindred, fleet of foot and skilled 
 in strategy, had made their harbor in the same 
 locality, and for many years had led the chase 
 with varying success. But none of his breth 
 ren had haunted the covers with the persist 
 ency of Old Silver, whose immunity from capt 
 ure had passed into a proverb among the in 
 habitants of the upper Genesee. Like all 
 beautiful things that are difficult to attain, he
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. \ \ \ 
 
 was the more coveted from the apparent inu- 
 tility of pursuit ; while naturally alert and cau 
 tious to an extreme degree, continued per 
 secution had increased his innate craft, until 
 now he was believed to possess a life invio 
 lable. It was indeed asserted by some that he 
 had roved the Livingston covers since the days 
 of the Indians, by whom he was venerated as 
 the tutelary genius of the groves disappear 
 ing latterly at certain intervals, to resume his 
 abode in his ancestral realms and bid defiance 
 to his foes Whether verily he possessed a 
 life beyond the power of mortal to assail, and 
 whether his allotted span, like the marvelous 
 measure of his cunning, transcended that of 
 his predaceous brethren, it were premature to 
 disclose. Rather let the whisper of his ad 
 vancing and the rustle of his retreating foot 
 step, so far as I may trace his mystic outline, 
 voice their own interpretation. 
 
 But who might analyze the sentiments that 
 inspired his return ? For, surely, some hazy 
 
 thought at least, some faint mist of reason, 
 16
 
 ii2 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 must have passed through his brain ere he 
 forsook his new quarters to return to the old. 
 Did not his phenomenal finesse, the charmed 
 existence he had led, the artifice by which he 
 had successfully evaded every attempt at capt- 
 ture, at once presuppose and irrefutably pro 
 claim the possession of a reasoning power ? 
 Instinct alone, as opposed to reason, could not 
 account for all ay, for many of the least of 
 the innumerable wiles by which he still bore 
 the brush that steadied him in his flights. 
 
 Was it that the ruffed grouse and hares of 
 his native district were more wary and thus 
 more worthy of his cunning ; or did his trained 
 palate discern in them a subtler flavor than 
 those of remoter woodlands ? Or was he, 
 perchance, an ardent lover of Nature that 
 Nature which had been so prodigal to him 
 and had the extended and varied views 
 through the forest windows of his early home 
 opened to him yet more enticing enchantments 
 of scenery ? In the hushed arcades of the 
 hemlocks, where /Eolus fingers the leafy keys ;
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 1 13 
 
 in the profound solitudes of the beech-woods, 
 where the white-throat and hermit sing; amid 
 the almost impenetrable fastnesses of the fern- 
 plumed swamps, he might dream out his strata 
 gems, and plan new means for outwitting his 
 canine enemies. 
 
 How, familiar as he was with every feature 
 of the dreamful landscape, acquainted with 
 ever)' field and swamp and coppice, every 
 grove and glade and thicket, every turn and 
 rapid of the river, every mood of the passing 
 hour as reflected by the sky and atmosphere 
 how might he forego the beauty of his native 
 haunts ? Looking out from his forest strong 
 hold, he might mark how the seasons waxed 
 and waned ; how the sweet spring-tide merged 
 swiftly into summer, and summer, with foot 
 step fluent as his own, lapsed imperceptibly into 
 autumn ; how autumn's golden pageant gave 
 place in turn to winter's frost and pale, while 
 adding new luster to his velvet coat and a live 
 lier pace to his tireless sinews ; how, finally, 
 the wintry season, waking from its protracted
 
 ii4 In Gold and Silver, 
 
 sleep, yielded to softer skies and balmier airs 
 the bloom and song and sunshine of spring. 
 
 Threading his devious way, he might hear 
 the rivulet's vernal chime, and the awakening 
 chorus of the hylodes quavering over the low 
 land pools. With the earliest opening blood- 
 root's corol comes the first blue-bird to pipe an 
 April psalm. The bee in the willow catkin, 
 the flicker in the maple-bough, the redwing in 
 the alder-brake, return to rejoice with him. 
 The violet and wind-flower bring the linnet 
 and pewee to lilt their welcome, till all the suc 
 ceeding woodland choir intone him with their 
 earliest song. 
 
 From the edge of the thicket, too, command 
 ing the wide extent of hill and vale and purple 
 upland, how oft has his hazel eye marked the 
 play of the wind-swept shadows, the violet 
 haze, the advancing shower ! Rising from his 
 brief repose with the rising mists of morning, 
 he is first to read the auguries of awaken 
 ing day. Starting upon his foray with the 
 lengthening shadows, he may note every tone
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. \ \ 5 
 
 and shade of the twilight and the setting sun ; 
 for at night, when deep sleep has compassed 
 the woodland, and field and pasture are hushed 
 in slumber, begins his day. 
 
 Then for him the starry firmament pulsates 
 with intenser splendor to guide him on his 
 rounds, as, glancing upward for a moment, he 
 beholds Endymion's silver horn, and in the 
 glittering constellation Orion, the mighty hunt 
 er and his dogs Canis major and minor with 
 Cygnus the swan, Columba the dove, and Le- 
 pus the hare, alas ! far beyond his reach. For 
 him Alcyone glows, and Sirius sparkles in his 
 season, and the diamonds of the Greater Dip 
 per flash and blaze. The north star lights its 
 torch, and myriads upon myriads the stars 
 come out upon the Milky Way. Even his 
 dusky friend, the crow, becomes radiant with 
 living light, in Corvus, resplendent above his 
 head. For him Hesper gleams, and the au 
 rora streams and scintillates in the polar sky. 
 The Great Bear looks down upon his beauty, 
 and the hunter's moon burnishes the silver of
 
 n6 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 his fur. The glory of the starlit night super 
 nal ! as season after season, the estival and the 
 hyemal hours wear on, to light him on his day. 
 
 Considered from a merely physical stand 
 point, how keen his enjoyment of life ! his su 
 perb health and intense development of the 
 senses a development scarce conceivable by 
 man ; his acute taste, hearing, smell, and vis 
 ion, even to the exquisite sensitiveness of the 
 long feelers of the nose which supply him with 
 the sense of touch ! His sight, hearing, and 
 smell more especially, so signally vivified as a 
 safeguard from his enemies, what superlative 
 corporal enjoyment must they not afford the 
 possessor ! The very consciousness of his 
 speed and endurance must be in itself a source 
 of supreme joy ; just as the bird must revel in 
 its song and exult in the force of the wings 
 with which it cleaves the air. 
 
 The foe upon the farthest hil!-side, the hawk 
 skirting the distant stubble, the bobolink sink 
 ing caroling in the grass, his heightened vision 
 may detect in an instant. The pyre of the
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 1 17 
 
 autumnal upland, the marvel of the butterfly's 
 unfolding chrysalis, the gossamer's fine-spun 
 tracery, the blossom's wondrous alchemy all 
 the landscape's hoard of beauty through the 
 seasons' rhythmic cycle is his to admire. 
 The crash of the falling tree in the farther 
 grove, the song the wind sings to the pines, 
 the lisp of the chickadee and roll-call of the 
 grouse, the low, sonorous undertone of the 
 wood does he not hear them all, thrice inten 
 sified and defined ? 
 
 And what a world of purely bodily delight 
 lies concentrated in his sense of smell, the most 
 highly organized sense of all his long, pointed 
 muzzle, with which he parts the air in his flights, 
 and scents the enemy from afar! What untold 
 savors are not wafted to him across the undu 
 lations, and borne from every hollow and ra 
 vine ! The suave, delicious incense of the fields 
 at night, the myriad aromas rising from the 
 summer swamps, what a hive of fragrance 
 must they not hold for him ! In his every 
 ramble through the woodland shrine perfume
 
 ii8 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 follows him as a garment. For does not his 
 dainty tread crush out countless odors at every 
 turn from beds of arbutus and pyrola and 
 ground-pine, and pungent wintergreen and 
 blossoming partridge-vine ? The bouquet of 
 the wild grape and spice-wood meets him as 
 he wanders by ; the cool effluence of the sweet- 
 fern greets him as he treads the mazy tangle ; 
 while on dewy autumn swards his feet are 
 scented by wild pennyroyal, and his flanks 
 brushed by fragrant everlasting in flower. 
 
 And what insidious distinction of scents and 
 infinitesimal atoms of scents can enable him 
 to detect, through the flood-tide of odors ex 
 haled by Nature herself, the corporal exhala 
 tions of his prey and his foes at a distance 
 odors inodorous to and inconceivable by man, 
 yet domineering all others to him, himself 
 charged with his own wild, animal emana 
 tion ? 
 
 His heightened senses, his nimble frame, his 
 acute physical organism, seem made for en 
 joying to its utmost measure the feast which
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 1 19 
 
 Nature so lavishly bestows. But it is in win 
 ter that his real and active life begins, when, 
 clad in his warm, thick robes, he welcomes the 
 cold and snow, and eagerly looks forward to 
 the excitement of the chase. His extended 
 tramps, as his spoils become more difficult to 
 procure, have put a keener edge upon his stay 
 ing powers, and added fresh elasticity to his 
 muscles. Fleet indeed must be the hounds to 
 follow him as he leads them " over the hills 
 and far away." 
 
 The hilly nature of his haunts would neces 
 sarily preclude hunting him other than on foot. 
 If I would win my spurs and I recalled ec 
 statically what my sweetheart whispered to 
 me I must stoop to vulpicide. His lustrous 
 pelt might not be mangled. To entrap or 
 snare him was out of the question ; this might 
 be possible with his plebeian brethren, but not 
 with such as he. A well-directed rifle-shot, if 
 he approached within range, alone could se 
 cure his lovely pelt in all its matchless splen- 
 dor.
 
 I2O /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 Should I finally secure the silver-gray ? Could 
 I hope to succeed where all others had failed ? 
 On the other hand, could an animal endowed 
 even as he was endowed with almost preter 
 natural cunning, cope successfully with the 
 unremitting efforts of hunters and hounds? 
 
 It was no easy matter to start the silver- 
 gray. He was an exception to his tribe in that 
 he had no precisely defined retreat, and that, 
 though found in a certain locality to-day, he 
 was as liable to lead from a locality ten miles 
 in an opposite direction to-morrow. Usually 
 he was met with by accident, the hounds gen 
 erally deserting the game they were following 
 when they chanced to cross his track. His 
 scent must have been stronger, the hunters in 
 turn readily distinguishing him by his print, 
 larger than that of the red and cross species. 
 The print was easy to distinguish, the mold 
 of the lithe feet upon the snow, even to a pe 
 culiarity of one of the toes of the left hind- 
 foot. But the fleet limbs that formed the 
 imprint had ever turned the ravine ; and ever
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 121 
 
 hastening on, his form had long since been ob 
 scured by the sheltering shadows. 
 
 The points where he had been sprung most 
 frequently were in the Hunt's Hollow woods, 
 three miles distant from the village of Nunda, 
 and a deep gorge near Canandaigua Lake, a 
 few miles from the village of Naples. A light 
 tracking snow had fallen overnight when I 
 started on his quest ; but a two days' arduous 
 endeavor proved fruitless in coining upon his 
 trail, while a heavy rain which set in at evening 
 melted the snow and forced us reluctantly to 
 postpone the search. A week later the search 
 was resumed, with a fresh snow-fall. The 
 dark entanglement of the boundless woods 
 surged interminably before me, wave upon 
 wave, mile upon mile to the horizon, their 
 teeming life hidden from human eye within 
 their protecting arms. How great the con 
 trast between their cold, deserted corridors and 
 the sound and movement and ecstasy that 
 peopled their summer halls ! when ferns and 
 wild flowers and checkered shadows danced,
 
 122 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 and the growing life of the year reveled in very 
 joy of existence. A grim foreboding silence, 
 emphasized by the wan light of the wintry day, 
 now brooded amid their mysterious depths 
 where erst green leaves whispered and song 
 birds sang. Only the blue-jay's cry and plaint 
 of the wind amid the upper boughs gave a 
 voice to the solitude. What sinuous labyrinths 
 and concealed retreats, what a mighty wall of 
 vantage, did there not arise between the hunter 
 and the silver-gray ! No wonder the jay jeered 
 at me from his perch on high, and the inter 
 mittent murmur of the boughs seemed a pre 
 sage of the futility of my quest. 
 
 Some time afterward the quarry was sprung 
 from the highlands south of the lake, when, at 
 once leaving his pursuers, he led northwest 
 over the wooded hills and through the ravines 
 to Stony Brook Glen, three miles south of 
 Dansville. Thence he crossed the Erie Rail 
 way at a point between Canaseraga and Swains, 
 reaching this by threading the long, dense gully 
 called Poag's Hole. In this gully he habitu-
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 123 
 
 ally frustrated his pursuers, now by one means, 
 now by another. To attempt to head him off at 
 this point were useless ; his direction hence was 
 only the merest conjecture, until the hounds 
 again took up the scent. Were he in the habit 
 of following any regular run 
 ways, his flight might be in 
 tercepted ; but his objective 
 point was always a matter of 
 uncertainty, while generally 
 he only emerged from the 
 covers when closely pressed, 
 and when leaving one covert 
 for the refuge of another.
 
 124 I H Gold and Silver. 
 
 Not alone in his marvelous finesse and speed 
 and phenomenal endurance had lain the spell 
 of his charmed career. His immunity from 
 capture consisted equally in his absolute fa 
 miliarity with every part and portion of his ex 
 tended circuit, the crypts and cloisters of his 
 sanctuary. It were difficult to say in which of 
 his manifold ruses he excelled. His boldest and 
 most brilliant escapes, however, had usually 
 been made toward nightfall in the scarped gul 
 lies and gulches leading to the river-bottoms, 
 the hounds being close upon the trail. A fa 
 vorite ruse during a prolonged chase, by which 
 he invariably put the hounds to rout, was to 
 enter the dens of his brethren, and, dislodging 
 the occupant, take his departure while leaving 
 his substitute to lead the chase. This, I fancy, 
 he was wont to do, more as a diversion than 
 otherwise, or possibly as a means of revenging 
 himself upon some of his fellow-freebooters for 
 encroaching upon his preserves. Certainly he 
 required no such adventitious aid in making 
 good his escape ; time and time again he had
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 125 
 
 sufficiently proved his ability to shake off the 
 dogs at will. But an occasional prolonged run 
 hardened his sinews and strengthened his wind, 
 and served to preserve, as a latent force, his 
 sustained bursts of speed to call upon during 
 any extraordinary emergency. 
 
 The numerous water-courses with which 
 his haunts were intersected were likewise an 
 equally facile means of baffling the hounds 
 whenever he cared to avail himself of such 
 a subterfuge. Not infrequently, when leading 
 a long distance in advance, he would zigzag 
 in his course till he met with a fresh fox- 
 track, following this for quite a distance, un 
 til after a series of springs to either side, 
 and thence advancing to the trail again, he 
 would disappear in some occult way. Or 
 sometimes, instigated seemingly by the mere 
 desire of taxing the patience of his pursuers, 
 he would lead them only at half speed, until, 
 quickening his pace in the gloaming, he was 
 enveloped in the environing mantle of the 
 night. His devices varied with different packs
 
 126 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 or with different individual hounds ; and it had 
 been repeatedly noted that he so modified or 
 altered the direction of his runs, that it were 
 vain to count upon a precedent as a means of 
 relying upon any direct or well-defined course 
 of his flight. The legend of the were-wolf, who, 
 reversing the order of lycanthropic belief, could 
 transform himself into a man when harried by 
 pursuit, and, meeting the hunters, would divert 
 them from their course, might almost find its 
 parallel in the super-vulpine cunning of the sil 
 ver-gray. But in war the means are, after all, 
 inconsequent, so long as the victory is secured ; 
 the silver-gray had many strings to his bow, 
 and had always borne off his beautiful brush in 
 triumph. 
 
 It was not until afternoon that the pack was 
 again in full cry, as he led merrily over French 
 Hill on his course to the head-waters of Ke- 
 shequa Creek, at White's Settlement, in the 
 town of Grove. From this point he took a 
 southwesterly course through the swamps and 
 shrubby bottom-lands on Black Creek to the
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 127 
 
 towns of Birdsall and Allen, thence down 
 again through the town of Grove into the town 
 of Portage, south of Hunt's Hollow, the direc 
 tion of his route being indicated by the voices 
 of his pursuers. Though the pack was fleet, 
 thus far he seemed to be running mainly for 
 enjoyment, with but few attempts to puzzle 
 the dogs, relying apparently upon his supe 
 rior speed and stamina to make his escape. 
 The shifting music of the chase, flooding the 
 valleys with its glorious crescendo, had already 
 preceded us ere we reached a runway, by a 
 short cut, in the vicinity of the locality where 
 I first saw him the previous autumn. From 
 our elevated position we could just discern his 
 hastening outline a shadow amid the shadows 
 as, with a wave of his magnificent brush, he 
 suddenly veered, speeding straight as the line 
 of a bee for the alder-swamp farther on, to dis 
 appear in its fastnesses and the gathering dusk. 
 The west-bound express, hurrying by on the 
 main line of the Erie in its relentless pursuit 
 
 of the hours, sped scarcely faster than the 
 18
 
 128 Iii Gold and Silver. 
 
 flight of the fox, as both it and the silver-gray 
 receded from our view. 
 
 Once only a shot at distant range had pre 
 sented itself as he was coursing leisurely along, 
 rounding the edge of a hollow, his nose straight 
 to the wind, and his long brush on a level with 
 his lissome form. The hounds were far in the 
 rear, where he had thrown them from the trail ; 
 he was jogging at his ease, sniffing the exhila 
 rating air. For a moment he paused to impa 
 tiently bite off the snow from his feet, and to 
 listen for the movements of his followers. The 
 shot was a long one, and the wind was blowing 
 briskly across the hollow, strongly enough, in 
 deed, to deflect a ball from the object, unless 
 in the most skillful hands. Surely he was even 
 more beautiful, standing amid the wintry scene, 
 than when I first beheld him in the sun-flecked 
 glade, his beautiful color seeming a reflection 
 of his surroundings the dark shadow of the 
 woods blended with the luminous silver of the 
 snow. 
 
 What artifice, what wily stratagem in that
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 129 
 
 brief interval, was passing through his fer 
 tile brain to circumvent the hunters and the 
 hounds ? How many long leagues had he not 
 already traversed in the valiant race for his 
 life ! and of what heinous offense had he been 
 guilty that he should be hunted, as a felon, 
 to his death ? Perhaps, disregarding the in 
 stinct of sympathy that for the moment over 
 powered the infatuation of the chase, I might 
 nevertheless have pressed the trigger of the 
 rifle I had intuitively raised, but for the sud 
 den baying of the on-coming hounds which 
 caused him forthwith to resume his flight. 
 
 Nearly a fortnight had already elapsed since 
 I started on my quest, and the object was still 
 far as ever out of reach. Of what nature 
 would his next move be ; what would the 
 morrow hold in store ? Would he point for 
 the steeper hillsides and denser jungles of the 
 adjoining county, or would he lead, leagues 
 away, to the impassable swamps of the Cohoc- 
 ton Valley ? Would he even remain in the 
 swamp overnight, or must the following day
 
 In Gold and Si her. 
 
 be vainly consumed in his 
 search ? Already the white 
 winged messengers were in 
 the air, and within a few 
 hours his elusive footstep 
 would leave no clew upon 
 the snow. 
 
 Failing to start him next 
 morning at the place of his 
 disappearance, it was re 
 solved to divide the pack as 
 a means of sooner recover 
 ing the scent. Five 
 hours afterward the 
 pack was in full cry 

 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 131 
 
 in the deep gully south of Dalton. The fox 
 was heading for the uplands, and by skirting 
 the steep aclivity I might come upon him on 
 the farther side. But, circling and doubling 
 upon his tracks, he turned to the opposite 
 flank of the mountain, and, abruptly descend 
 ing, was heading for the thick tamarack- 
 swamp, two miles away, ere the hounds 
 had recovered the scent. Here his pursuers 
 were put to task anew, and a long delay en 
 sued by his manoeuvres amid the windings of 
 Keshequa Creek. A thrilling sight it was 
 the shifting pageant of the chase over the er 
 mine floor, on the frost-bound, sparkling win 
 try day, the fast-flying form of the fox traced 
 clearly against the evergreens of the swamp 
 beyond. 
 
 Again, to take his bounding life seemed 
 like wanton sacrilege. For, what crime had 
 he committed that his life should pay the 
 penalty ? His rufous relatives it was who in 
 vaded the barn-yards, who plotted the destruc 
 tion of the feathered flocks, and who grew bold
 
 132 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 and sleek through illegitimate spoils. So far 
 as he was concerned, the poultry might roost 
 secure in the farmsteads ; his dainty palate 
 craved only a taste for the wild, the legitimate 
 prey which Nature had allotted him as a tithe. 
 To place the true arch-enemy of the barn-yard's 
 peace, it was but necessary to view the dens 
 of his smaller congeners, strewed with tattered 
 plumage and grizzly with bleaching bones. 
 Upon them, and not on him, should vengeance 
 fall ! Coming and going where he listed, here 
 one day and there another, ranging the wide 
 circuit of the covers as his whim or the preva 
 lence of game led him, the woods proper were 
 his only hunting-grounds, and game his main 
 subsistence. 
 
 Exultant in his ruse and fleetness and 
 strength, in the super-development of every 
 bodily sense, in the intimate knowledge of the 
 arcana of his wide demesne, should he not be 
 permitted to enjoy inalienably his natural dower 
 and tenure, the untrammeled freedom of his 
 wild-wood home? With him, their rightful
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 133 
 
 heritor, I must ever afterward associate his 
 chosen haunts ; while every bird and beast 
 that was familiar with his presence must long 
 for his wondrous grace and beauty. As well 
 fell some immemorial elm whose verdurous 
 umbrage cools the heated croft, and whose 
 grateful canopy the panting flocks are wont to 
 seek for shade. And to what end must he 
 thus be murderously cut down in his career? 
 a feminine whim ; the mere caprice of a 
 woman who coveted his lovely fur ! Ah, the 
 witchery of lovely woman's smile ! 
 
 Overarched and hemmed in by hemlocks, 
 tamaracks, and the rife growth of moisture, 
 the swamp was his favorite summer retreat, 
 with every recess of which he was as familiar 
 as the bittern with the ooze, the swallow with 
 the sky. Then, when the uplands lie quiver 
 ing in noonday glare, and the grasshopper's 
 burden smites the arid fields, he turns to its 
 refreshing gloom. The pewee knows him 
 and flutes his recognition ; the owl echoes his 
 prowling footfall ; the veery salutes him as he
 
 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 passes by. The fresh stream laves his flanks 
 and lulls him with its somnolent song. For 
 him the honeysuckle and apios exhale their 
 fragrance, while his foot sinks into the soft 
 cushion of the sphagnum, where the pale rein- 
 orchis hides and the white cotton-rose lifts its 
 plumes. In his hill-side cavern, with its many 
 exits, tunneled deep beneath the great beech- 
 bole in the distant wood, he might escape the 
 heat. But here, in the green penumbra of the 
 swamp, he has the ceaseless plash and flow of 
 running water to render doubly cool the mur 
 mur of the cedar's resinous boughs. It is his 
 summer sanctuary, his hermitage from the heat. 
 Full of shy surprises, cool in summer and 
 warm in winter, invested with an atmosphere 
 of its own in keeping with the perpetual twi 
 light beneath its roofage, he loves its rest and 
 calm. Less wild and beauteous than he, the 
 Cecropia moth that floats through its seques 
 tered glooms, the dragon-fly skimming its wa 
 tery mirror, the trout that dart through its 
 dusky pools.
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 135 
 
 The treacherous tamarack-swamp stretched 
 away to the southward like an impregnable 
 barrier. On the sharp crust of the snow the 
 lacerated feet of the hounds had left a carmine 
 trail. Hounds and hunters were already tired 
 and sore from the continuous strain, while the 
 fox, to all appearances, was still as fresh as 
 when he first led off, two days previous, fifteen 
 miles away. 
 
 The afternoon shadows were lengthening, 
 and the brief wintry twilight would soon en 
 fold the slumberous hills. But in the crisp, 
 tenuous air, and the tranquil splendor of the 
 dying day, I almost forgot the loss of the fox, as, 
 resting from our fatiguing tramp, we watched 
 the sun sink behind the empurpled hills, and 
 the moon merge through the roseate after-glow 
 to light him on his way. Yet, why should I be 
 disappointed ? After all, was not mine the 
 experience of every one who had been lured 
 by the Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow? The 
 Brooks' Grove and Geneseo hounds had long 
 since grown languid in his pursuit, and tried 
 19
 
 136 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 dogs and hunters from afar had relinquished 
 the chase after repeated failures. Did he in 
 truth roam the solitudes on moonlight nights, 
 leading a phantom pack, as some of the coun 
 try-folk averred ; and was it his phantom bark 
 they heard, like a laugh of derision through 
 the hollows of the hills ? 
 
 Urgent business requiring my presence in 
 town the following day, it was not until over a 
 fortnight afterward that I was enabled to re 
 sume the chase. The pursuit was unavailing, 
 I had inwardly resolved, yet I was powerless 
 to relinquish it without further efforts. Night 
 after night in dreams was I haunted by a phan 
 tom fox, and the baying of phantom hounds 
 was unceasingly ringing in my ears. A wraith 
 of his flitting form was ever before me, leading 
 his pursuers along the precipitous cliffs of the 
 Genesee, until, weary of the race, and turning for 
 a farewell view of the hounds, he leaped from 
 the verge of the precipice to meet a ghastly 
 death on the rocks of the river beneath. Per 
 chance my latest addition to the pack" Sound-
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 137 
 
 er," a powerful, clean-built hound, remarkably 
 fast, and noted for his marvelous nose and stay 
 ing powers might aid me in my apparently 
 hopeless emprise. 
 
 Prompted by a telegram from Nelson, the 
 genius loci who accompanied us on the pre 
 vious chase, an evening train brought me once 
 more to the abode of Old Silver. There was 
 an excellent tracking snow of three or four 
 inches, and the outlook was promising for a 
 fair hunting day on the morrow. The fox had 
 " treed " in the tamarack-swamp, my inform 
 ant stated ; for, upon his resuming the hunt 
 after my departure, no traces of him were to 
 be found, and it were useless to attempt to 
 discover him in the wilderness of heavy tim 
 ber and denser undergrowth. 
 
 Four days after my departure Nelson and a 
 companion, while coursing the white-hare be 
 yond Portage, unexpectedly crossed the path 
 of the silver-gray. " We had a fine, full-blood 
 ed fox-hound," the former proceeded to relate, 
 " who would run rabbits until the track was
 
 138 /;/ Gold and Silver. 
 
 crossed by a fox-track, when he would desert 
 the old scent for the new. We were follow 
 ing a fresh rabbit-track, when the dog started 
 at right angles from the line we were taking, 
 and all at once a silver fox broke in sight some 
 thirty rods ahead of the hound. Although en 
 countered so suddenly, he seemed to be in no 
 hurry, but continued on an easy canter toward 
 a deep gully in the direction of the river. Fol 
 lowing as rapidly as we could, and surmising 
 where he was making for, we took advantage 
 of the run by crossing the woods and fields, in 
 order to head him off on the circle he was tak 
 ing. This brought us to the ravine beyond 
 Stanton's Corners, about two miles from the 
 river. From a clear spot on the upper side we 
 had a good view of the fox, with the hound 
 close behind, and we thought everything was 
 favorable for a shot at him as he came up from 
 the gully. But, contrary to our expectation, 
 when he reached the bottom of the glen he 
 turned straight to the left, scaling the steep 
 hill-side in a twinkling, and distancing the dog.
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 139 
 
 Again we left the trail, and by nearly doubling 
 on our tracks tried to cut him off at the point 
 where we first saw him. We could hear the 
 dog giving tongue every few minutes, so we 
 could form a very fair opinion of the direction 
 he was taking. In this we were not mistaken, 
 for, on coming out of a neck of woods, we per 
 ceived him again on the same trail that old 
 Ranger had started him six hours before ; 
 but, instead of taking the rounds this time, he 
 led straight out for the swamp on the road 
 from Hunt's Hollow to Portage, crossing the 
 railway, and making for the heavy timber on 
 the right. He was greatly in the lead, and, as 
 it was already dark, we called in the old dog 
 and abandoned the chase. 
 
 " Old Silver was not seen again for nearly a 
 week," continued my informant, " when George 
 Miller observed him crossing the road, one even 
 ing, near High Point, on the bluff north of Port 
 age. There was a strange hound after him, 
 the dog's protruding tongue and jaded appear 
 ance evincing a prolonged chase, the fox show-
 
 140 /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 ing no signs of distress. Miller was without a 
 gun, and so did not follow. On going to his 
 barn next morning, he perceived a hound 
 stretched at the foot of the straw-stack, which 
 a second look disclosed to be the strange dog 
 he saw after Old Silver the evening before. 
 His feet were cut and bleeding and very badly 
 swollen, and his sides torn and lacerated by 
 briers. A day or two afterward Miller heard 
 that a man at Stony Brook Glen had lost a 
 dog which answered the description of the one 
 he had in his possession. When, later, his 
 owner came to compare the time the dog 
 started after the fox with the time that Miller 
 saw him after the fox, it was found the dog 
 had been on a steady chase from Saturday 
 morning till Tuesday night ! The party who 
 came for the dog said the hunters in his vicin 
 ity had tried for four winters to capture the 
 fox ; but, though they had sometimes got al 
 most near enough to shoot him, he would al 
 ways manage to elude them. As for trapping 
 him, he claimed that this was utterly impossi-
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 141 
 
 ble ; while they could run him all day, only to 
 lose him at night, and the next morning could 
 seldom find trail fresh enough to get the dogs 
 to work." 
 
 My previous impression thus seemed addi 
 tionally confirmed ; the silver-gray was an eido 
 lon, and bore a charmed life. Chance alone 
 a single chance in a thousand might yield me 
 his coveted pelt, if Sounder did not prove a 
 match for his speed. This time the object of 
 our quest was started near the State road in 
 the town of Granger, south of Nunda, the fox 
 leading at once toward the distant gully be 
 yond Hunt's Hollow. Anticipating that he 
 might double on his trail, I had subsequently 
 taken position on a commanding ridge or 
 hog's-back, some three miles south of the 
 latter point, in years long since a favorite look 
 out of the Indians, and signal-station of the 
 Tuscaroras when the red-man roamed the 
 Livingston hills. 
 
 The bright sunshine of early morning had 
 given place meanwhile to ominous clouds, and
 
 142 In Gold and Stiver. 
 
 a chill east wind had risen during the after 
 noon. Stealthily a dense mist stole along the 
 hills, enveloping the landscape with its pallid 
 shroud. At intervals the fog would lift for a 
 moment, disclosing the frowning cliffs of the 
 river beyond, and the dark crowns of the ever 
 greens in the vast forest beneath. A queru 
 lous gust rose and died away through the 
 hillsides, moaning among the hemlocks, and 
 sobbing amid the leaves of the hornbeams. 
 The low warble of the tree-sparrow and sweet 
 lisp of the chickadee had ceased in the thick 
 ets. Only the ceaseless drip-drip from the 
 trees, the rush of the rapids, and roar of the 
 falls in the gorge below, with now and then 
 the muffled voices of the hounds, far away to 
 the windward, broke the impressive silence of 
 the solitudes. Was it fancy ? the very birches 
 and aspens above me seemed waving their wan 
 and spectral arms, as if mutely imploring me 
 to spare the life of the creature who was about 
 to cross my path. For, by an intuition that 
 no reasoning could dispel, I knew to a certain-
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 143 
 
 ty that he would pass in all his beauty close to 
 the spot where I stood. After weeks of pur 
 suing his evasive shadow his robes would 
 finally be mine. A touch of the trigger, a puff 
 of smoke, a sharp report, and he would fall 
 forward instantly in his tracks, as the leaden 
 missile crashed through his brain. There 
 would be no pain nor torture ; death would be 
 immediate ; and the echoes of the volley, as 
 they reverberated through the valleys which 
 had been caressed by his loving tread, would 
 voice his elegy : 
 
 Mourn, Spring, thou darling of the year ! 
 Ilk cowslip cup shall kep a tear : 
 Thou Summer, while each corny spear 
 
 Shoots up its head, 
 Thy gay, green flowery tresses shear 
 
 For him that's dead. 
 
 For the most pervading and furtive spirit of 
 the wild-woods would have forever fled when 
 his footstep ceased to rove their rustling re 
 cesses, and his shadow no longer fell upon the 
 mossy floor. 
 
 Still, the music of the pack continued to
 
 144 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 drift down the wind, steadily breaking through 
 the fog in a deeper wave of sound. Audibly 
 and surely the chase was approaching ; un 
 less the fox suddenly altered his course, he 
 must soon pass by. He could scarcely per 
 ceive me through the thick mist and the shel 
 ter of the saplings ; while the wind, blowing 
 upward to the knoll, would prevent his detect 
 ing my presence through his scent from the 
 runway immediately below me. Ah, the 
 beauty, the indescribable beauty of the silver- 
 gray, when, leading the foremost of the pack, 
 he came speeding on, laying the ghostly land 
 scape behind him in his stride ! Was it but a 
 dream, after all a ghostly landscape with a 
 ghostly fox and ghostly hounds ? A few rods 
 more, and he would be within range of the 
 charge that would forever stop him in his fleet 
 career ! 
 
 Reviewing the chase, whose every incident 
 is indelibly stamped upon my memory, I might 
 explain, were it worth the while, how the snap 
 ping of a dead branch under foot, just ere the
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 145 
 
 rifle's report rang out upon the air, caused the 
 fox to swerve suddenly in his course ; and how, 
 instantly doubling his speed, he vanished in 
 the mist. 
 
 The morning dawned clear and radiant, and, 
 on arising, I looked out upon an enchanted 
 land. On every hand through the fretted 
 hallways of the hemlocks, over the luminous 
 dome of the hill-sides, upon the glittering stub 
 ble of the fields the hoar-frost had set its 
 magic touch. I could at least bask in the 
 splendor of the sylvan scene, even though I 
 might not hope to secure the silver-gray. 
 This, I knew, was beyond mortal power; at 
 the most I might obtain a farewell view of his 
 haunting beauty to treasure as a cherished 
 memory. 
 
 Was it for me to contest his woodland 
 craft, to cope on his own vantage-ground 
 with his surpassing cunning ? The plaintive 
 minor of the breeze that forever vibrated 
 through the alleys of his stronghold, perchance 
 might impart his secrets could I interpret the
 
 146 
 
 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 accents with which it charmed the tree-tops 
 
 above. The crow, whose raucous bass echoed 
 
 through the aisles of the covert ; the nut-hatch, 
 
 whose busy mallet 
 
 ' 
 
 was never stilled; 
 the hawk, 
 
 whose searching glance es 
 pied every movement 
 - of the landscape, might 
 "^ have revealed 
 *" his movements 
 were their utterances expressed in an in 
 telligible tongue. All the wild animate life 
 upon which he had preyed might have be 
 trayed him the grouse who had escaped his
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 147 
 
 strategy ; the hares who had crouched before 
 his footfall ; the ground-birds who had been a 
 witness to his guile. But the song of the wind 
 went on unchanged in the pines, and the rap 
 torial denizens of the covers kept their own 
 counsels during my quest for the silver-gray. 
 Did not the friendly shadows ever dance for 
 him, and the very tree-trunks intervene their 
 defensive screen ? The breeze but bore him 
 the scent of his foes, and the hawk's warning 
 cry but proclaimed his danger from afar. 
 
 Fatigued from the long run, and discouraged 
 by repeated failures, the hounds were slow in 
 recovering the trail. The wintry day was wear 
 ing on ere he w r as again started at the precise 
 point where he had been sprung the morning 
 before in the same woods near the State road 
 in the town of Granger the fox at once head 
 ing for the ravine beyond Hunt's Hollow. 
 Doubling on his track subsequently, he led in 
 a southerly direction for a few miles, then east 
 ward into Grove, turning thence directly north 
 toward the river. He had lost none of his
 
 148 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 speed, neither had he exhausted his cunning, 
 having led from the onset a long way in ad 
 vance of the dogs, and having repeatedly 
 thrown them off the scent. 
 
 Twice through my field-glass I caught sight 
 of his glorious form once leisurely crossing 
 a distant ridge, and again on the edge of a re 
 mote beech-knoll-running back and forth on 
 the trunk of a fallen tree, ere leaping as far as 
 he could upon a root-fence which skirted the 
 field. Along this he traveled for a consider 
 able distance until he came to a swamp, when 
 he disappeared in the thicket. Which way 
 would he next wheel in the erratic mazes of 
 his flight ? There remained but a few hours 
 until darkness, and to-day would end my chase 
 for a phantom it was hopeless to pursue. 
 
 At precisely five by the clock of the sun we 
 discerned him plainly for the third time that 
 memorable day, near the precipitous cliffs of 
 the Genesee, above St. Helena. Never shall 
 I forget the ethereal sight he presented as 
 he glided along the knoll, with the hounds
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 149 
 
 so tired as almost to drop in their tracks 
 the setting sun shedding its light upon his 
 lustrous fur, his supple frame outlined in dis 
 tinct shadow on the snow upon the hill-side 
 above. His gait was perceptibly slower. Was 
 he finally becoming weary of the remorseless 
 chase, and had the pace begun to tell upon his 
 sinews of steel ? His brilliant hazel eye, might 
 it no longer mark the seasons wax and wane ; 
 his magnificent brush, would it never more 
 steady him in his wonderful flights ? Must 
 he, in truth, give up when the race was almost 
 run, and he had well-nigh reached the goal ? 
 Swiftly in the hyemal evening the dusk would 
 fall upon the scene, and, encompassing all 
 the corridors of the covers, obscure the land 
 scape with its protecting pall. A burst of his 
 wonted speed, a half-hour's race for his life, 
 and he would be out of reach of the hounds. 
 Still his pace remained unquickened ; his jaded 
 muscles refused to respond to a further ten 
 sion. 
 
 And yet, in the inexorable decree of Fate,
 
 ISO /// Gold and Silver. 
 
 from which even vulpine strategy is of no 
 avail, Death must some time claim him for its 
 own. Where were its sting, that he should 
 not face it boldly in his prime ? The race is 
 not alway to the swift nor the battle to the 
 strong ; but time and chance happeneth to 
 them all. Sooner or later the end must come 
 the deep sleep which knoweth no awakening. 
 Past, then, the bane of declining years, the 
 harassing dread of capture, the constant strug 
 gle for his freedom. The hero of many bat 
 tles, he had lived his life valiantly, to leave it 
 crowned with renown. Returning to their sum 
 mer home, the white-throat and hermit would 
 hymn his eulogy in their sweetest strains, and 
 the mourning-dove, and all the sylvan choir, 
 would chant a coronach for the departed wild- 
 wood king. Around his hill-side den the fairy- 
 ring would weave its mystic circle, the evening 
 primrose light its lamp, the twin-flower toll its 
 bells. Were it not far preferable he should 
 close his days amid the mad excitement of 
 the chase, than that he should live on to
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow, 1 5 1 
 
 die lingeringly 
 
 in hoary age ife^ 
 
 when his mus- . , ^ 
 
 cles had re- .*, '''' 't&fc- "' 
 
 laxed, his jaws f ^--' ' <J "'/W 
 
 * :' '. -'v\- . 
 had become I -" "/, "^K^fK^ 
 
 at last he, the 
 rightful lord 

 
 1 52 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 of the woodlands his fur torn by awaiting 
 beasts, and his eyes plucked out by hovering 
 birds of prey ? 
 
 He had now approached so near the High 
 Banks that his capture was trebly assured. To 
 jump from the cliff were certain death ; of ne 
 cessity he must turn on his trail ; and, sur 
 rounded as he was, how might his phenomenal 
 craft avail him ? With no faintest breath of 
 wind below, a sigh arose from the snow-laden 
 summits of the hemlocks a murmur and dirge 
 of the forest within whose precincts he had so 
 often found a haven from his foes. Even now 
 he turned for a farewell view of his pursuers. 
 The hoarse growl of the river frothing on its 
 rocky bed resounded from the gorge beneath, 
 as if impatient for its prey. Ah, at whatever 
 the price, how gladly would I have relinquished 
 his lovely robes, could I but have obtained his 
 freedom ; could I, at the last, have spared the 
 life I had so eagerly sought to obtain ! But, 
 surely so oft had he escaped before at the 
 supreme moment when the hounds had been
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. \ 53 
 
 close upon him there must yet be some way 
 of escape, in spite of the frowning precipice 
 beyond. 
 
 Etched against the crimson after-glow, it 
 was the last time I ever beheld his graceful 
 form ; for, still continuing toward the brink 
 of the abyss, he suddenly vanished from the 
 sight of hunters and hounds ! By a circuit 
 ous descent down the banks we discovered 
 Sounder and Music, the foremost of the pack, 
 crushed to a shapeless mass on the second 
 sharp rocks below. But we searched in vain 
 for a trace of the silver-gray, 
 
 Who stayed not for brake, and who stopped not for 
 
 stone, 
 Who rode all unarmed, and who rode all alone ! 
 
 Gathering all of his forces for the final 
 effort, had he designedly overleaped the sec 
 ond rocks, to perish in the rapids, where 
 search were unavailing ? Better far to meet 
 his fate in the swirl of the angry waters, than 
 to be mangled by the cruel tushes of the 
 hounds !
 
 1 54 In Gold and Silver. 
 
 You should ford the Genesee on the rapids 
 above St. Helena, as I did, opposite the cliffs 
 where the fox made his fearful leap. With a 
 powerful field-glass and careful scrutiny you 
 may then discern the projecting crag upon 
 which he jumped from the dizzy brink of the 
 precipice, and the long, narrow, overhanging 
 sandstone ledge along which he crept ; where 
 the hounds dared not follow, and whence he 
 returned, under cover of the darkness, by 
 means of the prostrate tree-trunk that has 
 lodged across the chasm. My story, down 
 to its most infinitesimal details, you may hear 
 confirmed by every inhabitant of the sec 
 tion where the fox still eludes the skill of the 
 most experienced hunters, and baffles the fast 
 est hounds. Not a myth or a dream is The 
 Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow, whose beauty no 
 pen may do justice to ; but an existing, breath 
 ing reality, more beautiful than any dream. 
 
 It was not without a poignant feeling of 
 alarm that, since recounting the history of Old
 
 The Silver Fox of Hunt's Hollow. 155 
 
 Silver, the following item in the Nunda News 
 arrested my attention : 
 
 " William Hay received Saturday last two 
 hundred and twenty-five dollars for furs he 
 had gathered in five weeks' time in this vi 
 cinity. The silver-fox skin mentioned last 
 week brought him in one hundred and twenty- 
 five dollars." 
 
 Alas ! could it be the old Silver-Gray, the 
 Hero of Hunt's Hollow, who had been thus 
 wantonly slain for a hundred pieces of silver ? 
 To my immediate inquiry by telegraph I re 
 ceived this reply from Nelson : 
 
 " The silver-fox noted in the item is not Old 
 Silver; he has been seen farther south since 
 then, and known by his peculiar track." 
 
 " It is well," I moralized to my sweetheart, 
 " that I failed to capture the silver-gray. To 
 have taken his radiant life admitting it were 
 possible to have taken it would be to denude 
 the woodlands of their most sylvan attribute 
 and expression ; to strip them of their incarnate
 
 1 5 6 
 
 /;/ Gold and Silver. 
 
 wild-wood charm. With him for their lord 
 and warder, their solitudes possess a deeper 
 meaning, their brooks flow on with a sweeter 
 song. For every denizen of the forest fane, 
 every living, pulsating thing that was familiar 
 with his presence, would miss his haunting 
 grace and beauty the squirrel in the tree, the 
 warbler on her nest, the butterfly upon the 
 flower, the very hares and rabbits upon which 
 he preyed ! Ay, the shadows and the mighty 
 trees, the hamadryads and the unseen spirits 
 of the wood must mourn his loss, when, his 
 lease of life accomplished, a higher than a 
 human power shall lead him to his long and 
 dreamless sleep."
 
 D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 GEORGE H. ELLW ANGER'S BOOKS. 
 
 The Garden s Story ; or, Pleasures 
 
 and Trials of an Amateur Gardener. With 
 Head and Tail Pieces by Rhead. i6mo. 
 Cloth, extra, $1.50. 
 
 "This dainty nugget of horticultural lore treats of the 
 pleasures and trials of an amateur gardener. From the time 
 when daffodils begin to peer and the 'secret of the year' 
 comes in to mid-October, Mr. Ellwanger provides an outline 
 of hardy flower-gardening that can be carried on and worked 
 upon by amateurs. ... A little chapter on ' Warm Weather 
 Wisdom ' is a presentment of the cream of English literature. 
 Nor is the information of this floral calendar confined to the 
 literary or theoretical sides. 'Plant thickly; it is easier and 
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 rection from tlie garden syllabus." Phila. Public Ledger. 
 
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 Union. 
 
 "A dainty, learned, charming, and delightful book." 
 New York Sun. 
 
 The Story of My Hoitse. with 
 
 an Etched Frontispiece by Sidney L. Smith, 
 and numerous Head and Tail Pieces by W. 
 C. Greenough. i6mo. Cloth, extra, $1.50. 
 
 " An essay on the building of a house, with all its kaleido 
 scopic possibilities in the way of reform, and its tantalizing 
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 but natural to follow these with a treatise on rugs full of Ori-
 
 D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 entalism and enthusiasm ; on the literary den and the caller, 
 welcome or otherwise ; on the cabinets of porcelain, the rare 
 editions on the shelves, the briefly indicated details of the 
 spoils of the chase in their proper place ; on the greenhouse, 
 with its curious climate and wonderful botany and odors, about 
 which the author writes with unusual charm and precision ; on 
 the dining-room and the dinner. . . . The book aims only to 
 be agreeable; its literary flavor is pervasive, its sentiment 
 kept well in hand." A'e-w York Evening Post. 
 
 " When the really perfect book of its class comes to a 
 critic's hands, all the words he has used to describe fairly sat 
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 daintily printed volume to do better." Art Amateur. 
 
 In Gold and Silver, with many 
 
 Illustrations. 161110. Cloth, $2.00. Also, 
 limited Edition de luxe, on Japanese vel 
 lum, $5.00. 
 
 In this volume the author carries the reader from 
 the Orient to the outdoor life of our own country, of 
 which he is so competent to speak. "In Gold and 
 Silver " has been magnificently illustrated by two of 
 the foremost American artists, W. Hamilton Gibson 
 and A. B. Wenzell, who have furnished full-page draw 
 ings, vignettes, and initials ; while there are several 
 pen-and-ink drawings of Oriental articles by \V. C. 
 Greenough, and a specially designed title-page and 
 cover by H. B. Sherwin. Altogether, this book may 
 safely be called one of the best examples of fine book- 
 making produced in recent years. 
 
 New York: D. APPLETON & CO., i, 3, & 5 Bond St
 
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