Wfl * jLsm Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/cruisingsincascaOOshierich 9.r 6 >f e "- c c c" c , Cruisings in the Cascades. A NARRATIVE OF Travel, Exploration, Amateur Pliotography, Hunting, and Fishing, WITH SPECIAL CHAPTERS ON HUNTING THE GRIZZLY BEAR, THE BUFFALO, ELK, ANTELOPE, ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT, AND DEER; ALSO ON TROUTING IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS; ON A MONTANA ROUND-UP; LIFE AMONG THE COWBOYS, ETC. By G. 0. SHIELDS, ("coquina" ) AUTHOR OF " RUSTLINGS IN THE ROCKIES," " HUNTING IN THE GREAT WEST," "THE BATTLE OF THE BIG HOLE," ETC. chicago and new york: Rand, McNally &. Company, Publishers. 1889. SKv-^ Copyright, 1889, by Rand, McNally & Co. The articles herein on Elk, Bear, and Antelope Hunting are reprinted by the courtesy of Messrs. Harper & Brothers, in whose Magazine they were first published; and those on Buffalo Hunting and Trouting are reproduced from "Outing" Magazine, in which they first appeared. Come live with me and be my love. And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and vallej^s, dales and fields, Woods or steepy mountains, yield." — Marlowe. "Earth has built the great watch-towers of the mountainCj and they lift their heads far up into the sky, and gaze ever up- ward and around to see if the Judge of the World comes not." — Longfellow, 280810 PREFACE. And now, liow can I suitably apologize for having inflicted another book on the reading public? I would not attempt it but that it is the custom among authors. And, come to think of it, I guess I won't attempt it anyway. I will merely say, by way of excuse, that my former literary efforts, especially my "Rustlings in the Rockies," have brought me in sundry dollars, in good and lawful money, which I have found very useful things to have about the house. If this volume shall meet with an equally kind reception at the hands of book buyers, I shall feel that, after all, I am not to blame for having written it. THE AUTHOR. Chicago, March, 1889. (7) CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. The Benefits, Mental and Physical, of Mountain Climbing— A Never-failing Means of Obtaining Sound Sleep and a Good Appetite — The Work to be in Proportion to the Strength of the Climber — People Who Would Like to See, but are Too Lazy to Climb — How the Photograph Camera May Enchance the Pleasures and Benefits of Mountain Climbing — Valuable Souvenirs of Each Ascent — How " These Things are Done in Europe" — An Effec'ive Cure for Egotism. ... 17 CHAPTER n. The Cascade Mountains Compared with the Rockies— Character- istics and Landmarks of the Former — The Proper Season for Cruising in the Cascades— Grand Scenery of the Columbia — Viewing Mount Tacoma from the City of Tacoma — Men Who Have Ascended this Mysterious Peak — Indian Legends Con- cerning the Mountain — Evil Spirits, Who Dwell in Yawning Caverns— The View from the Mountain— Crater Lake and the Glaciers — Nine Water-falls in Sight from One Point. . 25 CHAPTER IIL The City of Seattle— A Booming Western Town— Lumbering and Salmon Canning — Extensive Hop Ranches — Rich Coal and Iron Mines — Timber Resources of Puget Sound — Giant Firs and Cedars— A Hollow Tree for a House— Big Timber Shipped to England — A Million Feet of Lumber from an Acre of Land— Novel Method of Logging- No Snow in Theirs— A World's Supply of Timber for a Thousand Years. . 35 (9) 10 CONTENTS. . CHAPTER IV. Length, Breadth, and Depth of Puget Sound — Natural Re- sources of the Surrounding Country — Flora and Fauna of the Region — Great Variety of Game Birds and Animals — Large Variety of Game and Food Fishes— A Paradise for Sports- man or Naturalist — A Sail Through the Sound— Grand Mountains in Every Direction — The Home of the Elk, Bear, Deer, and Salmon — Sea Gulls as Fellow Passengers — Photo- graphed on the Wing — Wild Cattle on Whidby Island- Deception Pass; its Fierce Current and Wierd Surroundings — Victoria, B. C. — A Quaint Old, English-looking Town. 42 CHAPTER V. Through English Bay— Water Fowls that Seem Never to Have Been Hunted— Rifle Practice that was Soon Interrupted — Peculiarities of Burrard Inlet— Vancouver and Port Moody — A Stage Ride to Westminster — A Stranger in a Strange Land— Hunting for a Guide — " Douglass Bill" Found and Employed^ An Indian Funeral Delays the Expedition. . 53 CHAPTER VI. The Voyage up the Frazier — Delicious Peaches Growing in Sight of Glaciers — The Detective Camera Again to the Front — Good Views from the Moving Steamer — A Night in an Indian Hut — The Sleeping Bag a Refuge from Vermin — The Indian as a Stamping Ground for Insects— He Heeds Not Their Ravages 59> CHAPTER VII. A Breakfast with the Bachelor — Up Harrison River in a Canoe — Dead Salmon Everywhere — Their Stench Nauseating— The Water Poisoned with Carrion — A Good Goose Spoiled with an Express Bullet — Lively Salmon on the Falls — Strange In- stinct of this Noble Fish — Life Sacrificed in the Effort to Reach its Spawning Grounds — Ranchmen Fishing with Pitch- forks, and Indians with Sharp Sticks — Salmon Fed to Hogs, and Used as Fertilizers; the Prey of Bears, Cougars, Wild Cats, Lynxes, Minks, Martins, Hawks, and Eagles. 66 CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER VIII. The River Above the Rapids — A L:ike Within Ba altic Walls — Many Beautiful Waterfalls — Mount Douglas and ils Glaciers ^A Trading Post of the Hudson Bay Fur Company — The Hot Springs; an Ancient Indian Sanitarium — Anxiously Waiting for "Doughiss Bill"— Novel Method of Photo- graphing Big Trees 75 CHAPTER IX. An Early Morning Climb — A Thousand Feet Above the Lake — Fresh Deer Signs in Sight of the Hotel — Three Indians Bring in Tliree Deer — " Douglass Bill " Proves as Big a Liar as Other Indians — Heading off a Flock of Canvas Backs — A Goodly Bag of these Toothsome Birds— A Siwasli Hut — A Revolting Picture of Dirt, Filth, Nakedness, and Decayed Fish — Another Guide Employed — Re;idy on Sh'^rt Notice — Off for the Mountain' 82 CHAPTER X. Characteristics of the Flathead Indians — Canoeists and Pack- ers by Birth and Education — A Skillful Canoe Builder — Freighting Canoes — Filling Canoes — Traveling Canoes — Two Cords of Wood for a Cargo, and Four Tons of Mer- chandise for Another — Dress of the Coast Indians. . 89 CHAPTER XL Climbing the ]Mountain in a Rainstorm — Pean's Dirty Bl inkets — His Careful Treatment of His Old Musket — A Novel Charge for Big Game— The Chatter of the Pine Squirrel— A Shot Tlirough the Brush — Venison for Supper — A Lame Con- versation: English on the One Side, Chinook on the Other — The Winchester Express Staggers the Natives — Peculiarities of the Columbia Black Tail Deer • 97 CHAPTER XII. The Chinook Jargon; an Odd Conglomeration of Words; the Court Language of the Northwest; a Specimen Conversa- tion — A Camp on the Mountain Side — How the Indian Tried 12 CONTENTS. to Sleep Warm — The Importauce of a Good Bed when Camping — Pean is taken 111 — His Fall Down a Mountain — Unable to go Further, We Turn Back — Bitter Disappoint- ment 102 CHAPTER XIII. The Return to the Village— Two New Guides Employed— Off for the Mountains Once More — The Tramp up Ski-ik-kul Creek Through Jungles, Gulches, and Canons— And Still it Rains —Ravages of Forest Fires— A Bed of Mountain Feathers- Description of a Sleeping Bag; an Indispensable Lux- ury in Camp Life; an Indian Opinion of It. . . 107 CHAPTER XIV. Meditations by a Camp Fire — Suspicions as to the Honesty of My Guides; at Their Mercy in Case of Stealthy Attack — A Frightful Fall — Broken Bones and Intense Suffering — A Painful and Tedious Journey Home — A Painful Surgical Operation — A Happy Denouement 113 CHAPTER XV. The Beauties of Ski-ikkul Creek; a Raging Mountain Torrent; Rapids and Waterfalls Everywhere; Picturesque Tribu- taries — Above the Tree Tops — The Pleasure of Quenching Thirst — A Novel Spear — A Fifteen-Pound Salmon for Sup- per — The Indians' Midnight Lunch — A Grand Camp Fire— At Peace with All Men 118 CHAPTER XVI. Seymour Advises a Late Start for Goat Hunting; but His Council is Disregarded — We Start at Sunrise — A Queer Craft — Navi- ' gating Ski-ik-kul Lake — A " Straight-up " Shot at a Goat— Both Horns Broken Off in the Fall— More Rain and Less Fun — A Doe and Kid — Successful Trout Fishing — Peculiar- ities of the Skowlitz Tongue; Grunts, Groans and Whistles — John has Traveled — Seymour's Pretended Ignorance of English 125 CONTENTS. 13 CHAPTER XVII. En Route to the Village Again — A Water-Soaked Country — "Oli, What a Fall was There, My Countrymen!" — Walking on Slip- pery Logs — More Rain — Wet Indians — " Semo He Spile de Grouse" — A Frugal Breakfast — High Living at Home — A Bear He did a Fishing Go; but He was Caught Instead of the Fish, and His Skin is Bartered to the Unwashed Siwashes 133 CHAPTER XVHI. John and His Family " At Home " — An Interesting Picture of Domestic Economy — Rifle Practice on Gulls and Grebes — Puzzled Natives — '* Phwat Kind of Burds is Them?" — A day on the Columbia — The Pallisades from a Steamer— Photo- graphing Bad Lands from a Moving Train. . . 142 CHAPTER XIX. Deer Hunting at Spokane Falls— Ruin Wrought by an Over- loaded Shotgun : A Tattered Vest and a Wrecked Watch — Billy's Bear Story — The Poorest Hunter Makes the Biggest Score — A Claw in Evidence — A Disgusted Party. . 146 CHAPTER XX. A Fusilade on the Mule Deer — Two Do?s as the Result — A Good Shot Spoiled — View from the Top of Blue Grouse Mountain — A Grand Panorama ; Lakes, Mountains, Prairies and Forests — Johnston's Stoy — Rounding Up Wild Hogs — A Trick on the Dutchman — A Bucking Mule and a Balky Cayuse — Falls of the Spokane River. ...... 153 CHAPTER XXI. Hunting the Grizzly Bear — Habitat and Characteristics — A Camp Kettle as a Weapon of Defense — To the Rescue with a Wm- chester — Best Localities for Hunting the Grizzly — Baiting and Still-Hunting — A Surprise Party in the Trail — Two Bull^- eyes and a Miss — Fresh Meat and Revelry in Camp. . 164 14 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXII. Elk Hunting in the Rocky Mountains — Characteristics of the Elk— His Mode of Travel— A Stampede in a Thicket— The Whist'eofthe Elk, the Hunter's Sweetest Music— Measure- ments of a Pair of Antlers — Saved by Following an Elk Trail— The Work of Exterminators— The Elk Doomed. . 181 CHAPTER XXIII. Antelope Hunting in Montana — A Red Letter Day on Flat Wil- low — Initiating a Pilgrim — Sample Shots — Flagging and Fanning — Catching Wounded Antelopes on Horseback — Four Mule-Loads of Meat 194 CHAPTER XXIV. Buffalo Hunting on the Texas Plains — A " Bull Train " Loaded with Skins — A Sensation in Fort Worth — En Route to the Range — Red River Frank's Mission — A Stand on the Herd — Deluged with Buffalo Blood — A Wild Run by Indians — Tossed into the Air and Trampled into the Earth. . 213 CHAPTER XXY. Hunting the Rocky Mountain Goat — Technical Description of the Animal— Its Limited Range — Dangers Incurred in Hunt- ing It — An Army Officer's Experience — A Perilous Shot — A Long and Dangerous Pursuit — Successful at Last — Carry- ing the Trophies to Camp — Wading up Lost Horse Creek — Numerous Baths in Icy Water — An Indian's Fatal Fall — Horses Stampeded by a Bear — Seven Days on Foot and Alone — Home at Last 236 CHAPTER XXYI. Trouting in the Mountains— Gameness of the Mountain Trout^^ A Red Letter Day on ihe Bitter Root — Frontier Tackle and Orthodox Bait — How a Private Soldier Gets to the Front as an Angler — A Coot Interrupts the Sport, and a Rock Inter- rupts the Coot— Colonel Gibson takes a Nine-Pounder- A Native Fly Fisherman — Grand Sport on Big Spring Creek — How Captain Hathaway does the Honors^ Where Grand Sport may be Found 257 CONTENTS. 15 CHAPTER XXVII. Deer Hunting in Northern Wisconsin— On tlie Range at Day- liglit — The Woods Full of Game — Missing a Standing "Broadside " at Thirty Yards— Several Easy Shots in Rapid Succession; the only Fruils Shame and Chagrin — Nervous- ness and Excitement Finally Give Way to Coolness and Deliberation — A Big Buck at Long Range — A Steady Aim and a Ruptured Throat — A Blind Run Through Brush and Fallen Trees— Down at Last — A Noble Specimen — His Head as a Trophy 280 CHAPTER XXVIII. Among the Pines— A Picture of Autumnal Loveliness — Cor- dial AVelcome to a Logging Camp — A Successful Shot — The Music of the Dinner Horn — A Throat Cut and a Leg Broken — A Stump for a Watch-Tower — The Raven Homeward Bound — A Suspicious Buck — A Mysterious Presence — Dead Beside His Mate— Three Shots and Three Deer. . 288 CHAPTER XXIX. A Typical Woodsman — Model Home in the Great Pine Forest — A Lifetime in the Wilderness — A Deer in a Natural Trap — Disappointment and Despondency — "What, You Killed a Buck!" — Sunrise in the Woods — An Unexpected Shot — A Free Circus and a Small Audience — A Buck as a Buck r — More Venison. . . . , 296 CHAPITER XXX. Cowboy Life— The Boys that Become Good R^nge Riders — Peculiar Tastes and Talents Required for the Ranch — Wages Paid to Cowboys — Abuse and Misrepresentation to which They are Subjected— The " Fresh Kid ," and the L 'ng-Haired " Greaser" — The Stranger Always Welcome at the Ranch — A Dude Insul'ed — A Plaid Ulster, a Green Umbrella, and a Cranky Disposition— Making a Train Crew Dance— An Uncomplimentary Concert— No Sneak Thieves on the Plains — Leather Breeches, Big Spurs, and a Six- Shooter in a Sleep- ing Car— Fear Gives Way to Admiration— The Slang of the 16 CONTENTS. Range— The " Bucker," and the "Buster "—The Good Cow- Horse — Roping for Prizes — Snaking a Bear with a Lariat— A Good School for Boys — Communion with Nature Mak s' Honest Men 304 CHAPTER XXXL A Ilontana Roundup — Ranges and Ranches on Powder River ; Once the Home of the Buffalo, the Elk, the Antelope; now the Home of the Texas Steer and the Cowboy — The Great Plains in Spring Attire— A Gathering of Rustlers — *' Chuck Outfits "to the Front — Early Risers — Taming an " Alecky " Steer— A Red-Hot Device— Branding and Slitting— The Run on the Mess Wagon — " Cutting Out" and "Throwing Over " — A Cruel Process. ... . 327 CRUISINGS.IN THE CASCADES. CHxVPTER I. Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery." — RUSKIN. ^OR anyone who lias the courage, the hardihood, and the physical strength to endiire the exercise, there is no form of recreation or amusement known to mankind that can yield such grand results as mountain climbing. I mean from a mental as well as from a phys- ical standi3oint ; and, in fact, it is the mind that receives the greater benefit. The 'exertion of the muscular forces in climbing a high mountain is necessarily severe; in fact, it is [more than most i^ersons unused to it can readily endure ; and were it not for the inspiration which the mind derives from the experience when the ascent is made it would be better that the subject should essay some milder form of exercise. But if one's strength be sufficient to endure the labor of ascending a grand mountain X3eak, that extends to or above timber line, to the regions of perpetual snow and ice, or even to a height that gives a general view of the surrounding country, the compensation 2 (17) 18 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADP^S I AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 19 must be ample if one Lave an eye for the beauties of nature, or any appreciation of the grandeur of the Creator's greatest works. Yain, self-loving man is wont to consider himself the noblest work of Grod, but let him go to the top of one of these lofty mountains, surrounded by other towering peaks, and if he be a sane man he will soon be convinced that his place in the scale of creation is far from the top. Let him stand, for instance, on the summit of Mount Hood, Mount Tacoma, or Mount Ba- ker, thousands of feet above all surrounding peaks, hills, and valleys, where he may gaze into space hun- dreds of miles in every direction, with naught to ob- struct his view, face to face with his Creator, and if he have aught of the love of nature in his soul, or of appreciation of the sublime in his mental composi- tion, he will be moved to exclaim with the Apostle, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him T ' He will feel his littleness, his insignificance, his utter lack of im- portance, more forcibly perhaps than ever before. It seems almost incredible that there should be men in the world who could care so little for the grandest, the sublimest sights their native land affords, as to be unwilling to perform the labor necessary to see them to the best possible advantage ; and yet it is so, for I have frequently heard them say : '' I should like very much to see these grand sights you describe, but I never could afford to climb those high mountains for that pleasure ; it is too hard work for me." And, after all, the benefits to be derived from mountain climbing are not wholly of an intellectual 20 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES AND OTHER IIUNTIJS^G ADVENTURES. 21 character ; the physical system may be benefited by it as well. It is a kind of exercise that in turn brings into nse almost every muscle in the body, those of the legs being of course taxed most se- verely, but those of the back do their full share of the work, while the arms are called into action almost constantly, as the climber grasps bushes or rocks by which to aid himself in the ascent. The lungs ex- pand and contract like bellows as they inhale and exhale the rarified atmosphere, and the heart beats like a trijD-hammer as it pumps the invigorated blood through the system. The liver is shaken loose from the ribs to which it has perchance grown fast, and the stomach is aroused to such a state of activity as it has probably not experienced for years. Let any man, especially one of sedentary habits, climb a mountain 5,000 feet high, on a bright, pleasant day, when " Night's candles are burnt out and jocund d ly Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." There let him breathe the rare, pure atmosphere, fresh from the portals of heaven, and my word for it he will have a better appetite, will eat heartier, sleejj sounder, and awake next morning feeling more refreshed than since the days of his boyhood. Although the labor be severe it can and should be modulated to the strength and cax:)abilities of the person undertaking the task. No one should climb faster than is compatible with his strength, and halts should be made every five or ten minutes, if need be, to. allow the system ample rest. In this manner a vast amount of work may be accomplished 22 CRUISINGS I]^ THE CASCADES in a day, even by one who has had no x^revious experience in climbing. Tlie benefits and pleasures of mountain climbing are much better understood and appreciated in ox THE COLUMBIA. Europe than in this country. Nearly every city of England, France, Spain, Germany, and other Euro- pean countries has an Alpine, Pyrenese, or Hima- layan club. The members of these clubs spend their AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 23 summer outings in scaling the great x>Gaks of the mountains after which the societies are named, or other ranges, and the winter evenings in recounting to each other their experiences; and many a man, by his association with the clubs and by indulgence in this invigorating pastime develops from a delicate youth into a muscular, sturdy, athletic man in a few years. The possible value of mountain climbing as a recrea- tion and as a means of gaining knowledge, has been greatly enhanced, of late years, by the introduc- tion of the dry-plate system in photography, and since the small, light, compact cameras have been constructed, which may be easily and conveniently carried wherever a man can pack his. blankets and a day's supply of food. With one of these instruments fine views can be taken of all interesting objects and bits of scenery on the mountain, and of the surrounding country. The views are interesting and instructive to friends and to the public in gen- eral, and as souvenirs are invaluable to the author. And from the negatives thus secured lantern slides may be made, and from these, by the aid of the calcium light, pictures projected on a screen that can only be excelled in their beauty and attractive- ness by nature herself. CHAPTER II. ^ACH- succeeding autumn, for years past, has found me in some range of mount- ains, camping, hunting, fishing, climbing, and taking views. The benefits I have derived from these expeditions, in the way of health, strength, and vigor, are incalculable, and the x)leasures inexpressible. My last outing was in the Cascade Range, in Oregon jand Washington Territory, where I spent Ta month in these delightful occupations, and it is with a view of encouraging and promoting a love for these modes of recreation that this record is written. '* I live not in myself, but I become Portion of that around me; and to me High mountains are a feeling, but the hum Of human cities torture." The Cascade Range of mountains extends from Southern Oregon through Washington Territory, away to the northward in British Columbia. In width, from east to west, it varies from fifty to one hundred miles. It is the most densely-timbered range on the continent, and yet is one of the highest and most rug- ged. It may not possess so many ragged, shapeless crags and dark canons as the Rocky Range, and yet everyone who has ever traversed both accords to the (25) (26) AND OTHER HUNTING ADVi:NTURES. 27 Cascades tlie distinction of being the equal, in pictur- esqueness and grandeur, of the Rockies, or, in fact, of any other range in the country. As continental landmarks, Mounts Pitt, Union, Thielson, Jefferson, Hood, Adams, St. Helens, Tacoma, Baker, Stuart, Cliiam, Douglass, and others are unsurpassed. Their hoary crests tower to such majestic heights as to be visible, in some instances, hundreds of miles, and their many glaciers feed mighty rivers ujDon whose bosoms the commerce of nations is borne. Mount Jef- ferson is 9,020 feet high; Mount Adams, 9,570; Mount St. Helens, 9,750; Mount Baker, 10,800, Mount Hood, 11,025, and Mount Tacoma, 14,444. There are many other peaks that rise to altitudes of 7,000 to 9,000 feet, and from these figures one may readily form something of an idea of the general lieight and beauty of the Cascade Range. The fooc-hills are generally high, rolling, and j^icturesque, and so heavily tim- bered that in many places one can not see a hundred, yards in any direction. Higher up the range, how- ever, this heavy timber is replaced by smaller trees, that stand farther apart, and the growth of under- brush is not so dense; consequently, the labor of travel is lightened and the range of vision is extended. The geological formation in the Cascades is varied. Igneous rock abounds; extensive basaltic cliffs and large bodies of granite, limestone, sandstone, etc., are frequently met with, and nearly all the table- lands, in and about the foot-hills, are composed of gravel drift, covered with vegetable mold. The Cas - cades may be explored with comfort later in the fall than the Rockies or other more eastern ranges, the winter settino; in on the former much later than 28 CRUISII^GS liS^ THE CASCADES OXEONTA GORGE, COLUMBIA RIVER, OREGON. AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 29 on the latter, although the winter rains usually come in November. September and October are the most pleasant months for an outing in the Cascades. ■* * "^ It was late in October when my wife and I started from Chicago for a tour of a month among the bristling peaks of the Cascades and the pictur- esque islands of Puget Sound. A pleasant ride of fifteen hours on the Wisconsin Central Railroad to St. Paul, and another of three days and nights on the grand old Northern Pacific, brought us face to face with the glittering crests and beetling cliffs that were the objects of our pilgrimage. As the tourist goes west, the first view of the range is obtained at the Dalles of the Columbia river, from whence old Mount Hood, thirty-five miles distant, rears its majestic head high into the ethereal vault of heaven, and neighboring peaks, of lesser magnitude, unfold them- selves to the enraptured vision. As the train whirls down the broad Columbia river, every curve, around which we swing with dazzling speed, reveals to our bewildered gaze new forms of beauty and new objects of wonder. So many descriptions of the scenery along this mystic stream have been writ- ten, that every reading man, woman, and child in the land must be familiar with it, and I will not repeat or attempt to improve ux)on any of them. To say the most extravagant representations are not exaggerated, is to speak truly, and no one can know how beautiful some of these towers and cliffs are until he has seen them. The train arrived at Portland, that old and far- famed metropolis of the North Pacific coast, at half past ten o' clock in the morning, and after twenty- 30 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES four hours pleasantly spent in viewing its many- points of interest and the snow-covered mountains thereabouts, we again boarded the Northern Pacific train and sped toward Tacoma, where we arrived at six o' clock in the evening. Here we passed another day in looking over a booming Western city, whose future prosperity and greatness have been assured by its having been chosen as the tide-water terminus of the Northern Pacific Railway. Tacoma is situated on Commencement Bay, an arm of Puget Sound, and has a harbor navigable for the largest ocean steamships. The vast forests of pine, fir, and cedar, with which it is surrounded, give Tacoma great commercial importance as a lumbering town, and the rich agricultural valleys thereabout assure home pro- duction of breadstuffs, vegetables, meats, etc., sufii- cient to feed its army of workingmen. Rich coal fields, in the immediate neighborhood, furnish fuel for domestic iand manufacturing purposes at merely nominal prices. All the waters hereabouts abound in salmon, several varieties of trout and other food- fishes, while in the woods and mountains adjacent, elk, deer, and bears are numerous; so the place will always be a popular resort for the sportsman and the tourist. The chief attraction of the city, how- ever, for the traveler, will always be the fine view it affords of Mount Tacoma. This grand old pinnacle of the Cascade Range, forty-five miles distant, lifts its snow- mantled form far above its neighbors, which are themselves great mountains, while its glacier-crowned summit rises, towers, and struggles aloft 'til — " Round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head;" AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 31 and its crown is almost lost in the limitless regions of the deep blue sky. From the verandas of the Tacoma House one may view Mount Tacoma until w^eaded with gazing. The Northern Pacific Railway runs within fifteen miles of the base of it, and from the nearest point a trail has been made, at a cost of some thousands of dollars, by which tourists may ascend the mountain on horseback, to an altitude of about 10,000 feet, with comparative comfort; but he who goes above that height must work his passage. There are several men who claim the distinction of being the only white man that has ever been to the top of this mountain. Others declare that it has been ascended only twice; but we have authentic information of at least three successful and complete ascents having been made. Indian legends people the mountain with evil spirits, which are said to dwell in boiling caldrons and yawning caverns — " Calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire, ^ And airy tongues that syllable men's names." Tradition says their wild shrieks and groans may be heard therein at all times; and no Indians are known ever to have gone any great distance uj) Mount Rainier, as they call it. White men have tried to employ the native red men as guides and packers for the ascent, but no amount of money can tempt them to invade the mysterious canons and cliffs with which the marvelous pile is surrounded. They say that all attempts to do so, by either white or red men, must result in certain destruction. Un- doubtedly the first ascent was made about thirty years ago, by General (then Lieutenant) Kautz, and 32 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES Lieutenant Slaughter, ©f the United States Army, who were then stationed at Steilacoom, Washington Territory. They took pack animals, and with an escort of several men ascended as far as the animals could go. There they left them and continued the climb on foot. They were gone nine days, from the time of leaving their mules until they returned to the animals, and claimed, no doubt justly, to have gone to the top of Liberty Cap, the highest of the three distinct summits that form the triplex corona; the others being known as the Summit and the Dome. The next ascent, so far as known, was made in 1876 by Mr. Hazard Stevens, who gave an account of his experiences in the Atlantic Monthly for No- vember, of that year. In 1882, Messrs. Yan Trump and Smith, of San Francisco, made a successful ascent, and in the same year an Aus'rian tourist who attempted to ascend the mountain, got within three hundred feet of the top, when his progress was arrested by an avalanche, and he came very near losing his life. Mr. L. L. Holden, of Boston, went to within about six hundred feet of the summit in 1883, and Mr. J. E,. Hitchcock claims to have reached it in 1885. From the ]'Oint gained by the trail above men- tioned, the tourist may look down upon the glaciers of the North Fork of the Puyallup River, 3,000 feet below, while on the other hand, the glaciers of the canon of the Carbon may be seen 4,000 feet beneath him. Away to the north, glimmering and glinting under the effulgent rays of the noonday san, stretches that labyrinth of waters known as Puget Sound — '* Whose breezy waves tos3 up their silvery spray;" AND OTHER HUNTIIS^G ADVENTURES. 33 while the many islands therein, draped in their evergreen foliage, look like emeralds set in a sheet of silver. Many prominent landmarks in British Columbia are seen, while to the north and south stretches the Cascade Range, to the west the Olym- pic, and to the southwest the Coast Range. All these -are spread out before the eye of the tourist in a grand panorama unsurpassed for loveliness. Crater Lake forms one of the mysteries of Mount Tacoma. About its ragged, ice-bound and rock-ribbed shores are many dark caverns, from which the Indians con- ceived their superstitious fears of this mysterious pile. An explorer says of one of these chambers: "Its roof is a dome of brilliant green, with long icicles pendant therefrom; while its floor is com- posed of the rocks and debris that formed the side of the crater, worn smooth by the action of water and heated by a natural register, from which issue ■clouds of steam." The grand canon of the Puyallup is two and a half miles wide, and from its head may be seen the great glacier, 300 feet in thickness, which supplies the great volume of water that flows through the Pu- yallup river. From here no less than nine different waterfalls, varying in height from 500 to 1,500 feet, are visible; and visitors are sometimes thrilled with the magnificent spectacle of an avalanche of thou- sands of tons of overhanging ice falling with an overwhelming crash into the canon, roaring and reverberating in a way that almost makes the great mountain tremble. Fed by the lake, torrents pour over the edge of the cliff, and the foaming waters, forming a perpetual veil of seemingly silver lace, 34 CRUISIXGS IN THE CASCADES. fall with a fearful leap into the arms of the surging waves below. Mount Tacoma will be the future resort of the continent, and many of its wondrous beauties yet remain to be explored. YIKW OX GREEN EIVEU NEAK MOUNT TACOMA. CHAPTER III. V Oregon Railway & Navigation Company' s steam- ers leave Tacoma, for Seattle, at four o' clock in the morn- ing, and at six- thirty in the evening, so we were unable to see this portion of the sound until our return trip. Seattle is another those rushing, pushing, thriving, West- em towns, whose energy and dash always surprise Eastern people. The population of the city is 15,000 souls; it has gas-works, water- works, and a street railway, and does more business, and han- dles more money each year than many an Eastern city of 50,000 or more. The annual lumber shipments alone aggregate over a million dollars, from ten saw-mills that cost over four millions, and the value of the salmon-can- ning product is nearly a million more. The soil of the valleys adjacent to Seattle is peculiarly adapted to hop -raising, and that industry is extensively car- ried on by a large number of farmers. Some of the largest and finest hop-ranches in the world are loca- ted in the vicinity, and their product is shipped to (35) 36 CRUISINGS IX THE CASCADES various American and Euroi3ean ports, over 100,000 tons having been shipped in 1888, bringing the growers the handsome sum of $560,327. During the fifteen years since the beginning of this imiDortant cultivation, the hop crop is said never to have failed, nor has it been attacked by disease, nor deteriorated by reason of the roots being kept on the same land without rei)lanting. It is believed that the Dwamish, the White River, and the Puyallup Valleys could easily produce as many hops as are now raised in the United States, if labor could be obtained to pick them. Indians have been mainly relied upon to do the picking, and they have flocked to the Sound from nearly all parts of the Territory, even from beyond the mountains. Many have come in canoes from regions near the outlet of the Sound, from British Columbia, and even from far off Alaska, to engage temporarily in this occupa- tion; then to purcliase goods and return to their wigwams. They excel the whites in their skill as pickers, and, as a rule, conduct themselves peace- ably. Elliot Bay, on which Seattle is built, affords a fine harbor and good anchorage, while Lakes Union and Washington, large bodies of fresh water — the former eleven and the latter eighteen feet above tide level — lie just outside the city limits, oj)posite. There are rich coal mines at hand, which produce nearly a million dollars worth each year. Large fertile tracts of agricultural lands, in the near vicinity, produce grain, vegetables, and fruits of many varieties, and in great luxuriance. Iron ore of an excellent quality abounds in the hills and AND OTHER HFNTING ADVENTURES. 37 mountains back of the city, and with all these natural resources and advantages at her command, Seattle is sure to become a great metropolis in the near future. The climate of the Puget Sound coun- try is temperate; snow seldom falls before Christ- mas, never to a greater depth than a few inches in the valleys and lowlands, and seldom lies more than a few days at a time. My friend, Mr. W. A. Perry, of Seattle, in a letter dated December 6, says: ''The weather, since your departure, has been very beautiful. The morning of your arrival was the coldest day w^e have had this autumn. Flowers are now blooming in the gardens, and yesterday a friend who lives at Lake Washington sent me a box of delicious strawberries,, picked from the vines in his garden in the open air on December 4, while you, i30or fellow, were shivering, wrax)ped up in numberless coats and furs, in the arctic regions of Chicago. Why don't you emigrate? There's lots of room for you on the Sumas, where the flowers are ever blooming, where the summer never dies, where the good Lord sends the tyee (great) salmon to your very door; and where, if you want to shoot, you have your choice from the tiny jacksnipe to the cultus bear or the lordly elk." There are thousands of acres of natural cranberry marshes on the shores of the sound, where this fruit grows Avild, of good quality, and in great abundance. It has not been cultivated there yet, but fortunes will be made in that industry in the near future. But the crowning glory of Puget Sound, and its greatest source of wealth, are the vast forests of AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 39 timber. It is scarcely advisable to tell the truth concerning the size to which some of the giant hrs and cedars grow in this country, lest I be accused of exaggeration; but, for proof of what I say, it will only be necessary to inquire of any resident of the Sound country. There are hundreds of fir and cedar trees in these woods twenty to twenty-five feet in diameter, above the spur roots, and over three hundred feet high. A cube was cut from a fir tree, near Vancouver, and «hipped to the Colonial Exhi- bition in London in 1886, tliat measured nine feet and eight inches in thickness each way. The bark of this tree was fourteen inches thick. Another tree was cut, trimmed to a length of three hundred and two feet, and sent to the same destination, but this one, I am told, was only six feet through at the butt. From one tree cut near Seattle six saw-logs were taken, ^ve of which were thirty feet long, each, and the other was twenty- four feet in length. This tree was only five feet in diameter at the base, and the first limb grew at a height of two feet above where the last log was cut off, or over one hundred and seventy feet from the ground. A red cedar was cut in the same neighborhood that measured eighteen feet in diameter six feet above the ground ; and there is a well-authenticated case of a man, named Hepburn, having lived in one of these cedars for over a year, while clearing up a farm. The tree was hollow at the ground, the cavity measuring twenty-two feet in the clear and running up to a knot hole about forty feet above. The homesteader laid a fioor in the hollow, seven or eight feet above the ground, and 40 CRUISINGS IT^ THE CASCADES placed a ladder against the wall by which to go up and down. On the floor he built a stone flreplace, and from it to the knot hole above a stick and clay chimney. He- lived iips' airs and kept his horse and cow downstairs. It may be well to explain that he was a bachelor, and thus save the reader any anxiety as to how his wife and children liked the situation. The " Sumas Sapling" stands near Sumas Lake^ northeast of Seattle. It is a hollow cedar, twenty- three feet in the clear, on the ground, and is esti- mated to be fifteen feet in diameter twenty feet above the ground. I have, in several instances, counted more than a hundred of these mammoth trees on an acre of land, and am informed that one tract has been cut off that yielded over 1,000,000 feet of lumber i3er acre. In this case tlie trees stood so close together that many of the stumps had to be dug out, after the trees had been felled, before the logs could be gotten out. The system of logging in vogue here differs widely from that practiced in Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, and elsewhere. No snow or ice are required here, and, in fact, if snow falls to any considerable depth while crews are in the woods a halt is called until it goes off. Corduroy roads are built into the timber as fast as required, on which the teams travel, so that it is not necessary that the ground should be even frozen. Skids, twelve to eighteen inches thick, are laid across these roads, about nine feet apart, and sunk into the ground so as to project about six inches above the surface ; the bark is peeled off the top, they are kept greased, and the logs are " snaked" over them with four to seven yoke of cattle, as may be required.. AXD OTHER HUNTING ADVE:XTURES. 41 The wealthier operators use steam locomotives and cars, building tracks into the timber as fast and as far as needed. This great timber belt is co-extensive with Puget Sound, the Straits of Georgia, and the Cascade Mountains. I believe that at the present rate at which lumber is being consumed, there is tir, pine, and cedar enough in Washington Territory and British Columbia to last the world a thousand years. "^^^ ^ • CHAPTER ly. ^UGET SOUND is a great inland sea, extending nearly 200 miles from the ocean, having a sur- face of about 2,000 square miles, and a shore line of 1,594 miles, indented with numerous bays, harbors, and inlets, each with its xjeculiar name ; and it contains numer- ous islands inhabited by farmers, lumbermen, herds- men, and those engaged in quarrying lime and build- ing stone. Nothing can surpass the beauty of these waters and their safety. Not a slioal exists within the Sound, the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Bay, Hood's Canal, or the Straits of Georgia, that would in any way interrupt their navigation by a seventy- four-gun ship. There is no country in the world that possesses waters equal to these. The shores of all the inlets and bays are remarkab'ybold, so much so that a ship's side would touch the shore before her keel would touch the ground. The country by which these waters are surrounded has a remarkably salubrious climate. The region affords every advantage for the accom- modation of a vast commercial and military marine, with conveniences for docks, and there are a great many sites for towns and cities, which at all times would be well supplied with water, and the sur- rounding country, which is well adapted to agricult- (42) AND OTHER HUNTIXa ADVENTURES. 43 lire, would supply all the wants of a large population. JSTo part of the world affords finer islands, sounds, or a greater number of harbors than are found within these waters. They are capable of receiving the largest class of vessels, and are without a single hid- den danger. From the rise and fall of the tide (18 feet), every facility is afforded for the erection of works for a great maritime nation. The rivers also furnish hundi'eds of sites for water-power for manu- facturing purposes. On this Sound are already situ- ated many thriving towns and cities, besides those already mentioned, bidding for the commerce of the world. The flora of the Sound region is varied and inter- esting. A saturated atmosphere, constantly in con- tact with the Coast Eange system of ui)heaval, to- gether with the warm temperature, induces a growth of vegetation almost tropical in its luxuriance. On the better soils, the shot-clay hills and uplands, and on the alluvial plains and river bottoms, grow the great trees, already mentioned, and many other species of almost equal beauty, though of no commer- cial value. "The characteristic shrubs are the cornels and the spiraeas, many species. These, with the low thickets oisalsil (Gaultheria shallon), Oregon grape (berries), and fern (chiefly pteris, which is the most abundant), and the tangle of the trailing blackberry {Ruhus pedatus) make the forests almost impenetrable save where the ax or the wild beast or the wilder fire have left their trails. "The dense shade of the forest gives little oppor- tunity for th& growth of the more lowly herbs. (44) AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 45 Where the fire has opened these shades to the light tlie almost universal lire weed {epilohiiim) and the lovely brown fire-moss {fiinaria) abound. In swamj)s and lowlands the combustion of decay, almost as quick and effective as fire itself, opens large sj)aces to the light ; and here abound chiefly the skunk cabbage of the Pacific coast (lysichiton) and many forms of the lovliest mosses, grown beyond belief save by those who have looked upon their troi)ical congeners. Hypmims and Mniums make the great mass which meet the eye ; and among the many less obvious forms a careful search will reveal many species characteristic of this coast alone. The lower forms of the cryptogams, the lichens and the fungi, abound in greatest profusion as might be exj^ected. The chief interest in these, in the present state of our knowledge of them, springs from their disposition to invade the more valuable forms of vegetation which follow advancing civilization." I measured one fungus, which I found growing upon the decaying trunk of a mammoth fir, that was thir- teen inches thick and thirty-four inches wide. I have frequently seen mosses growing on rotten logs, in the deep shades of these lonely forests, that were twelve to sixteen inches deep, and others hanging from branches overhead three feet or more in length. There are places in these dense forests where the trees stand so close and their branches are so intertwined that the sun's raj^s never reach the ground, and have not, perhaps for centuries ; and it is but natural that these shade and moisture loving plants should grow to great size in such places. The fauna of this Territory includes the elk, black- 46 'CRUISINGS IIS" THE CASCADES tailed deer, Cervus columhianus ; the mule-deer, Cervus macrotus ; the Yirginia deer, Cervus virgin- ianvs ; the caribou, the Rocky Mountain goat^ Rocky Mountain sheep, the grizzly and black bear. Among the smaller mammals there are the raccoon, the cougar, wild cat, gray wolf, black wolf, prairie wolf or coyote, gray and red fox, fisher, mink, martin, oeaver, otter, sea otter, red squirrel, ermine,, muskrat, sea lion, fur and hair seals, wolverine,, skunk, badger, iDorcupine, marmot, swamp hare, jack-rabbit, etc. Of birds and wild fowls there is. a long list, among which may be mentioned several varieties of geese and brant, including the rare and toothsome black brant, which in season hovers in black clouds about the sand spits ; the canvas back, red head, blue bill, teal, widgeon, shoveler, and vari- ous other ducks ; ruffed, pinnated, and blue grouse ;. various snipes and j)lovers ; eagles, hawks, owls^ woodpeckers, jays, magpies, nuthatches, warblers, sparrows, etc. There are many varieties of game and food fishes in the Sound and its tributaries, in ad- dition to the salmon and trout already mentioned. In short, this whole country is a paradise for the sportsman and the naturalist, whatever the specialty of either. We left Seattle, e7i route for Victoria, at seven o'clock on a bright, crisp November morning. The air was still, the bay was like a sheet of glass, and only long, low swells were running outside. We had a charming view of the Cascade Mountains to the east and the Olympics to the west, all day. The higher peaks were covered with snow, and the sun- light glinted and shimmered across them in playful^ AND OTHEK HUNTING ADVENTURES. 47 cheery mood. Deep shadows fell athwart dark canons, in whose gloomy depths we felt sure herds, of elk and deer were nipping the tender herbage, and along whose raging ri\^ers sundry bears were doubtless breakfasting on salmon straight. Old Mount Baker' s majestic head, rising 10,800 feet above us and only fifty miles away, was the most prom- inent object in the gorgeous landscape, and one on which we never tired of gazing. We had only to cast our eyes from the grand scene ashore to that at our feet, and vice versa, to — " See the mountains kiss high heaven, And the waves clasp one another." A large colony of gulls followed the steamer, with ceaseless beat of downy wings, from daylight till dark, and after the first hour they seemed to regard us as> old friends. They hovered about the deck like winged spirits around a lost child. Strange bird thus to poise with tireless wing over this watery waste day after day! Near the route of the vessel one of the poor creatures lay dead, drifting sadly and alone on the cold waves. Mysterious creature^ with — " Lack lustre eye, and idle wing, And smirched breast that skims no more, Hast thou not even a grave Upon the dreary slioi e, Forlorn, forsaken thing?" Our feathered fellow-passengers greeted us with, plaintive cries whenever we stepped out of the cabin, dropping into the water in pursuit of every stray bit of food that was thrown overboard from the cook- room. My wife begged several plates of stale bread 48 CRUISINaS IIT THE CASCADES from tli8 steward, and, breaking it into small pieces, threw liandf als at a time into the water. Twenty or thirty of the birds would drop in a bunch where the bread fell, and a lively scramble would ensue for the coveted food. The lucky ones would quickly corral it, however, when the whole Hight, OUR FEATHERED FELLOW-PASSENGERS. rising again, would follow and soon overtake the vessel. Then they would cluster around their patron, cooing, and coaxing for more of the welcome bounty. I took out my detective camera and made a number of exposures on the gulls, which resulted very satis- factorily. Many of the prints show them sadly out of focus, but this was unavoidable, as I focused at a:n^d other hunting adventures. 49 twenty feet, and of course all that were nearer or farther away, at the instant of exposure, are not sharp. Many, however, that were on wing at the time of making the exposure, and at the proper dis- tance from the lens, are clearly and sharply cut. These pictures form a most interesting study for artists, anatomists, naturalists, and others, the wings being shown in every position assumed by the birds in flight. The shutter worked at so high a pressure that only one or tw^o birds in the entire series show any movement at all, and they are but very slightly blurred. When we consider that the steamer, as well as the gulls, was in motion — run- ning ten miles an hour — trembling and vibrating from stem to stern, and that, in many cases, the birds were going in an opposite direction from that of the vessel, the results obtained are certainly mar- velous. It may interest some of my readers to know that I used an Anthony detective camera, making a four-by-five-inch picture, to which is fitted a roll holder, and in all the work done on this trip, I used negative paper. I also obtained, en route, several good views of various islands, and points of interest on the mainland, while the boat was in motion. There are many beautiful scenes in and about the Sound; many charming islands, clothed in evergreen foliage, from whose interiors issue clear, sparkling brooks of fresh water; while the mainland shores rise abruptly, in places, to several hundreds of feet, bearing their burdens of giant trees. There are per- pendicular cut banks on many of the islands and the mainland shores, thirty, forty, or fifty feet high, AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 51 almost perpendicular, made so by the hungry waves having eaten away their foundations, and the earth having fallen into the brine, leaving exposed bare walls of sand and gravel. On Whidby Island, one of the largest in the Sound, there was, up to a few years ago, a herd of wild cattle, to which no one made claim of ownership, and which were, conse- quently, considered legitimate game for anyone who cared to hunt them. They were wary and cun- ning in the extreme. The elk or deer, native and to the manor born, could not be more so. But, alas, these cattle were not to be the prey of true^ consci- entious sportsmen; for the greed of the market hunter and the skin hunter exceeded the natural cunning of the noble animals, and they have been nearly exterminated; only ten or twelve remain, and they will soon have to yield up their lives to the insatiable greed of those infamous butchers. One of the most curious and interesting points in the sound is Deception Pass. This is a narrow chan- nel or passage between two islands, only fifty yards wide, and about two hundred yards long. On either side rise abrupt and towering columns of basaltic rock, and during both ebb and flow the tide runs through it, between Padilla and Dugalla Bays, with all the wild fury and bewildering speed of the maelstrom. This pass takes its name from the fact of there being three coves near — on the west coast of Whidby Island — that look so much like Deception that they are often mistaken for it at night or dur- ing foggy weather, even by experienced navigators. All the skill and care of the best pilots are required to make the pass in safety, and the bravest of them 52 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES. heave a sigh of relief when once its beetling cliffs and seething abysses are far astern. Gulls hover about this weird place, and eagles soar above it at all hours, as if admiring its pristine beauties, yet in superstitious awe of the dark depths. Mount Erie, two miles away, rising to a height of 1, 300 feet, casting its deep shadows across the pass and surrounding waters, completes a picture of rare beauty and grandeur. We reached Victoria, that quaint, old, aristocratic, ultra-English town, just as the sun was sinking beneath the waves, that rolled restlessly on the surface of Juan de Fuca Strait. We were surprised to see so substantial and well-built a town as this, and one possessing so much of the air of age and inde- pendence, so far north and west. One might readily imagine, from the exterior appearance of the city and its surroundings, that he were in the province of Quebec instead of that of British Columbia. My wife felt that she must not remain longer away from home at present, and we w^ere to part here; there- fore, in the early morning she embarked for home, while I transferred my effects and self to the steamer Princess Louise, bound for Burrard Inlet. CHAPTER V. daylight in the morning we entered English Bay, having crossed the strait during the night. The sun climbed up over the snow- mantled mountains into a cloudless sky, and his rays were reflected from the limpid, tranquil surface of the bay: " Blue, d'^rkly, deeply, beautifully blue," as if from the face of a mirror. A few miles to the east, the triple-mouthed Frazer empties its great volume of fresh, cold, glacier- tinted fluid into the briny inland sea, and its delta, level as a floor, stretches back many miles on either side of the river to the foot-hills of the Cascades. Thousands of ducks sat idly and lazily in the water, sunning themselves, pruning their feathers, and eyeing us curiously but fearlessly, as we passed, sometimes within twenty-five or thirty yards of them. A few geese crossed hither and thither, in low, long, dark lines, uttering their familiar . honk, lionk; but they were more wary than their lesser cousins, and kept well out of range. I asked the purser if there was any rule against shooting on board, and he said no; to go down on the after main deck, and shoot until I was tired. I took my Winchester express from the case, went below and opened on the ducks. They at once found (53) 54 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES it necessary to get out of the country, and their motion, and that of the vessel combined, caused me to score several close misses, but I finally found the bull's-eye, so to speak, and killed three in rapid suc- cession. Then the mate came down and said: ''We don't allow no one to be firin' off guns on board." "I have the purser's permission," I said. n " Well," he replied, " the captain's better author- ity than the purser on this here boat," whereupon he returned to the cabin deck, and so did I. I was not seriously disappointed, however, for I cared little for the duck shooting; I was in quest of larger game, and only wanted to practice a little, to renew acquaintance and familiarity with my weai3on. Early in the day we entered Burrard Inlet, a narrow, crooked, and peculiarly shaped arm of the salt water, that winds and threads its way many miles back into the mountains, so narrow in places, that a boy may cast a stone across it, and yet so deep as to be navigable for the largest ocean steamship. The inlet is so narrow and crooked that a stranger, sailing into it for the first time, would x)ronounce it a great river coming down from the mountains. Through this picturesque body of water our good boat cleft the shadows of the overhanging mountains until nearly noon, when we landed at Vancouver, the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In consequence of this important selection, the place is a busy mart of trade. The clang of saw and hammer, the rattle of wheels, the general din of a building boom, are such as to tire one's nerves in a few hours. Later in the day we reached Port Moody. This town was origi- AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES 55 nally designated as the tide-water terminus of the road, and had its brief era of prosperity and specu- lation in consequence; but now that the plan has been changed it has been reduced to a mere way station, and has relapsed into the dullest kind of dullness. From here I staged across the divide to New Westminster, on the Frazer river, the home of Mr. J. C. Hughs, who had invited me there to hunt Rocky Mountain goats with him. I was grieved beyond measure, however, to learn on my arrival that he was dangerously ill, and went at once to his house, but he was unable to see me. He sank rapidly from the date of his first illness, died two days after my arrival, and I therefore found myself in a strange land, with no friend or acquaintance to whom I could go for information or advice. My first object, therefore, was to find a guide to take me into the mountains, and although I found several pretended sportsmen, I could hear of no one who had ever killed a goat, except poor Hughs, and a Mr. Fannin, who had formerly lived there, but had lately moved away, so of course no one knew where I could get a guide. Several business men, of whom I asked information, inquired at once where I w^as from, and on learning that I was an American, simply said ' ' I don't know," and were, or at least pretended to be, too busy to talk with me. They seemed to have no use for people from this side of the boundary line, and this same ill-feeling tov/ard my Nation (with a big N) was shown me in other places, and on various occasions, while in the province. I found, however, •one gracious exception, in New Westminster, in the 66 CRUISIJ^GS IN THE CASCADES person of Mr. C. G. Major, a merchant, who, the mo- ment I made known to him my wish, replied: "Well, sir, the best guide and the best hunter in British Columbia left here not three minutes ago. He is an Indian who lives on Douglass Lake, and I think I can get him for you. If I can, you are fixed for a good and successful hunt." This news, and the frank, manly, cordial greeting that came with it, were surprising to me, after the treatment I had been receiving. Mr. Major invited me into his private office, gave me a chair by the fire, and sent out a messenger to look for ' ' Douglass Bill," the Indian of whom he had spoken. This important personage soon came in. Mr. Major told him what I wanted, and it took but a few minutes to make a bargain. He was a solid, well-built Indian, had an intelligent face, spoke fair English, and had the reputation of being, as Mr. Major had said, an excel- lent hunter. Mr. Major further said he considered Bill one of the most honest, truthful Indians he had ever known, and that I could trust him as implicitly as I could any white man in the country. This arrangement was made on Saturday night, but Bill said lie could not start on the hunt until Wednesday morning, as his mother-in-law had just died, and he must go and help to bury her on Tues- day. The funeral was to take ]3lace on the Chiluk- weyuk river, a tributary of the Frazer, about fifty miles above New Westminster, and it was arranged that I should go up on the steamer, and meet him at the mouth of Harrison river, another tributary stream, on Wednesday morning. We were then to go up the Harrison to the hunting grounds. I was. AXD OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 57 delighted at the prospect of a successful hunt, with so good a guide, and cheerfully consented to wait the necessary three days for the red man to perform the last sad rites of his tribe over the remains of the departed kloochman, but I was doomed to dis- appointment. A VIEW ON THE FRAZER. (58) CHAPTER YI. pR many years I had read, heard, and dreamed of the Frazer, that mysterious stream which flows out from among the icy fastnesses of the Cascades, in the far-off confines of British Columbia. For many years had I longed to see with my own eyes some of the grand scenery of the region it drains, and now, at last, that mighty stream flowed at my feet. How eagerly I drank in the beauty of the scene ! How my heart thrilled at the thought that I stood face to face with this land of my dreams and was about to explore a portion, at least, of the country in which this great river rises. The beautiful lines penned by Maria Brooks, on the occasion of her first visit to the St. Law- rence, came vividly to my mind : "The first time I beheld thee, beauteous stream, How pure, how smooth, how broad thy bosom heaved; What feelings rushed upon my heart! a gleam As of another life my kindling soul received." I left New Westminster at seven o'clock Monday morning on the steamer Adelaide, for the mouth of Harrison river, sixty miles up the Frazer. There were over twenty Indians on board, going up to the mouth of the Chilukweyuk, to attend the funeral of Douglass Bill's deceased relative. As soon as I "(59) 60 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES learned tlieir destination I inquired if he were among tliem, but they said he was not. He had come aboard before we left, but for some reason had decided to go on another boat that left half an hour ahead of the Adelaide. The voyage proved intensely interesting. The Frazer is from a quarter to half a mile wide, and is navigable for large steamers for a hundred miles above its mouth. There are portions of the valley that are fertile, thickly settled, and well cultivated. The valleys of some of its tribu- taries are also good fanning districts, and grain, fruits, and vegetables of various kinds grow in abundance. At the mouth of the Chilukweyuk I saw fine peaches that had grown in the valley, with- in ten miles of perpetual snow. The river became very crooked as we neared the mountains, and finally we entered the gorge, or canon, where the rocky-faced mountains rise, sheer from the water's edge, to heights of many hundreds of feet, and just back of them tower great peaks, clad in eternal snows. The little camera was again brought into requisition and, as we rounded some of these pic- turesque bends and traversed some of the beautiful reaches, I secured many good views, though the day was cloudy and lowery. The boat being in motion, I was, of course, compelled to make the shortest possible exposures, and was, therefore, unable to get fine details in the shadows; yet many of the prints turned out fairly well. We saw several seals in the river on the way up, and the captain informed me that at certain seasons they were quite plentiful in the Frazer and all the larger streams in the neighborhood. They go up AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 61 the Frazer to the head of navigation and he could not say how much farther. He said that on one occasion a female seal and her young were seen sporting in the water ahead of the steamer, and that when the vessel came within about fifty yards they dove. Nothing more was seen of the puppy, and the captain thought it must have been caught in the wheel and killed, for the mother followed the vessel several miles, whining, looking longingly, pitifully, and beseechingly at the passengers and crew. She would swim around and around the steamer, coming close up, showing no fear for her own safety, whatever, but seeming to beg them to give back her baby. She appeared to have lost sight of it entirely, whatever its fate, and to think it had been captured and taken on board. Her moaning and begging, her intense grief, were pitiable in the extreme, and brought tears to the eyes of stout, brawny men. Finally she seemed completely exhausted with anguish and her exertions and grad- ually sank out of sight. My informant said he hoped never to witness another such sight. We arrived at the mouth of Harrison river at six o'clock in the evening. There is a little Indian vil- lage there called by the same name as the river, and Mr. J. Barker keeps a trading post on the reserva- tion, he being the only white man living there. He made me welcome to the best accommodations his bachelor quarters afforded, but said the only sleep- ing-room he had was full, as two friends from down the river were stopping with him for the night, and that I would have to lodge with one of the Indian families. He said there was one Moochman (the 63 CRLTISINGS IX THE CASCADES Chinook word for squaw) who . was a remarkably neat, cleanly housekeeper, who had a spare room, and who usually kept any strangers that wished to stop over night in the village. While we were talk- ing the squaw in question came in and Mr. Barker said to her: "Mary, yah-kwa Boston man tik-eli moo-sum me-si-ka house po-lak-le." (Here is an American who would like to sleep in your house to-night.) To which she replied: " Yak-ka hy-ak " (lie can come), and the bargain was closed. I remained at the store and talked with Mr. Barker and his friends until ten o' clock, when he took a lantern and piloted me over to the Indian rancherie, where I was to lodge. I took my sleeping- bag with me and thanked my stars that I did, for notwithstanding the assurances given me by good Mr. Barker that the Indian woman was as good a housekeeper as the average white w^oman, I was afraid of vermin. I have never known an Indian to be without the hemipterous little insect, Pediculus {humanus) capitis. Possibly there may be some Indians who do not wear them; I simply say I have never had the pleasure of knowing one, and I have known a great many, too. I seriously doubt if one has ever yet lived many days at a time devoid of the companionship of these pestiferous little creatures. In fact, an Indian and a louse are natural allies — boon companions — and are as inseparable as the boarding-house bed and the bedbug. The red man is so inured to the ravages of his parasitic com- panion, so accustomed to have him rustling AXD OTHER HUNTING ADVENTUKES. 63 around on liis i^erson and foraging for grub, that he paj^s little or no attention to the insect, and seems hardly to feel its bite. You will rarely see an Indian scratch his head or, in fact, any portion of his person, as a white man does when he gets a bite. Lo gives forth no outward sign that he is thickly settled, and it is only when he sits or lies down in the hot sun that the inhab- itants of his hair and clothing come to the front; then you may see them crawling about like roaches in a hotel kitchen. Or, when he has lain down on a board, or your tent canvas, or any light-colored sub- stance and got up and gone away, leaving some of his neighbors behind, then you know he is — like others of his race — the home of a large colony of insects. When Mary and her husband, George, saw my roll of bedding, which they sui3posed to be simply blankets, they protested to Mr. Barker that I would not need them, that there was ^'hy-iu mit-lite pa- se-se " (plenty of covering on the bed). I told them, however, that I could sleep better in my own blankets and preferred to- use them. I took the bundle into my room, spread the sleeping-bag on the bed and crawled into it. The outer covering of the bag being of thick, hard canvas, I hoped it would prove an effectual barrrier against the assaults of the vermin, and that they might not find the portal by which I entered, and so it jjroved. George and Mary live in a very well-built, comfort- able, one-story frame cottage, divided into two rooms; the kitchen, dining-room, parlor and family sleeping- room all in one, and the spare room being the other. 64 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES The house has four windows and one door, a shingle roof and a board floor. They have a cooking-stove, several chairs, a table, cupboard, etc. The bedstead on which I slept was homemade, but neat and sub- stantial. It was furnished with a white cotton tick, GEORGE AND MARY. filled with straw, feather pillows, several clean-look- ing blankets, and a pair of moderately clean cotton sheets. I have slept in much worse -looking beds in hotels kept by white people. This Indian village, Harrison river, or Skowlitz, as the Indians call both the river and the village, is composed of about twenty families, living in houses AND OTHER HUNTING x\DVENTURES. 65 of about the same class and of the same general design as the one described, although some are slightly larger and better, while others are not quite so good. All have been built by white carpenters, or the greater part of the work was done by them, and the lumber and other materials were manufactured by white men. None of the dwellings have ever been painted inside or out, but there is a neat mission church in the village that has been honored with a coat of white paint. There are a few log shacks standing near, that look very much as if they had been built by native industry. The frame houses, I am informed, were erected by the Government and the church by the Catholic Missionary Society. CHAPTER VII. was not 'compelled to eat with George and Mary, for Mr. Barker liad kindly invited me to breakfast with him, and when I reached his store, at the breakfast hour in the morning, I found a neat inviting- looking table in the room back of the store, loaded with broiled ham, baked ^potatoes, good bread and butter, a pot of steaming coffee, etc.; all of which we enjoyed intensely. Mr. Barker informed me there was a cluster of hot springs ten miles up the river, at the foot of Harrison Lake, the source of Harrison river, near which a large hotel had lately been built. Upon inquiry as to a means of getting up there, I learned that he had employed a couple of Indians to take some freight up that morning in a canoe, and that I could probably secure a passage with them. As Harrison Lake, or rather the mount- ains surrounding it, were the hunting-grounds which Douglass Bill had selected, and as we would have to pass these hot springs en route, I decided to go there and wait for him. I therefore arranged with Barker to send him up to the springs, when he should call for me at the store, and took passage in the freight canoe. The Harrison river is a large stream that cuts its way through high, rugged mountains, and the water (66) AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 67 has a pronounced milky tinge imparted by the gla- ciers from which its feeders come, away back in the Cascades. It is a famous salmon stream, and thou- sands of these noble fishes, of mammoth size, that had lately gone up the river and into the small creeks to spawn, having died from disease, or hav- ing been killed in the terrible rapids they had to encounter, were lying dead on every sand bar, lodged against every stick of driftwood, or were slowly floating in the current. Their carcasses lined the shore all along the lower portion of the river, and the hogs, of which the Indians have large num- bers, were feasting on the putrid masses as vora- ciously as if they had been ears of new, sweet corn. The stench emitted by these festering bodies was nauseating in the extreme; and the water, ordinarly so pure and palatable, was now totally unfit for use. I counted over one hundred of these dead fishes on a single sand bar of less than half an acre in extent. Cruising amid such surroundings was anything but pleasant, and I was glad the current was slow here so that, though going up stream, we were able to make good progress, and soon got away from this nauseating sight. About a mile above the village we rounded a bend in the river, where it spread out to nearly a quarter of a mile in width, and on a sand bar in the middle of the stream, sat a flock of geese. I picked up my rifle and took a shot at them, but the ball cut a ditch in the water nearly fifty yards this side, and went singing over their heads into the woods beyond. They did not seem (o enjoy such music, and taking wing started for some safer feeding-ground, carrying AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 69 on a lively conversation in goose Latin, probably about any fool who would try to kill geese at that distance. I turned loose on them again, and in about a second after pulling the trigger one of them seemed to explode, as if hit by a dynamite bomb. For a few seconds the air was full of fragments of goose, which rained down into the water like a shower of autumn leaves. My red companions enjoyed the result of this shot hugely, and a canoe load of Indians from up river, who were passing at the time, set up a regular war whoop. We pulled over and got what was left of the goose, and found that my express bullet had carried away all his stern rigging, his rudder, one of his paddles, and a considerable portion of his hull. The water was covered with fragments of sail, provisions of various kinds, and sundry bits of cargo and hull. Charlie picked up so much of the wreck as hung together, and said in his broken, laconic English: " Dat no good goose gun. Shoot him too much away." There were plenty ot ducks, coots, grebes, and gulls on the river, and I had fine sport with them whenever I cared to shoot. A mile above where I killed the goose we entered a long reach of shoal ra^Dids, where all the brawn and skill of the Indians were required to stem the powerful current and the immense volume of water. The rapids are over a mile long, audit took us nearly two hours to reach their head. As soon as we were well into them we came among large numbers of live, healthy salmon. Many of them were running down the stream, sonie up, while others seemed not to be AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 71 going anywhere in particular, but just loafing around, enjoying themselves. They were wild, but, owing to the water being so rough and rapid, we frequently got within two or three feet of them before they saw us, and the Indians killed two large ones with their canoe poles. Occasionally we would corner a whole school of them in some little pocket, where the water was so shallow that their dorsal fins would stick out, and where there was no exit but by passing close to the canoe. When alarmed they would cavort around like a herd of wild mustangs in a corral, until they would churn the water into a foam; then, emboldened by their peril, they would flash out past us with the velocity of an arrow. They were doing a great deal of jumping; frequently a large fish, two or three feet long, would start across the stream, and make four or five long, high leaps out of the water, in rapid succession, only remain- ing in the water long enough after each jump to gain momentum for the next. I asked Charlie why they were doing this, if they were sick, or if something was biting them. "No," he said. "Play. All same drunk— raise hell!" These salmon run up the rivers and creeks to deposit their spawn, and seem possessed of an insane desire to get as far up into the small brooks as they possibly can. They frequently pursue their mad course up over boiling, foaming, roaring rapids, and abrupt, perpendicular falls, where it would seem impossible for any living creature to go— regardless of their own safety or comfort. They are often found in dense schools in little creeks away up near their 72 CRUISINGS IIS^ THE CASCADES sources, where there is not water enough to cover their bodies, and where they become an easy prey to man, or to wild beasts. In such cases, Indians kill them with sjjears and sharp sticks, or even catch and throw them out with their hands. Or if their journeyings take them among farms or ranches, as is often the case, the people throw them out on the banks with pitch-forks, and after supply- ing their household necessities, they cart the noble fish away and feed them to their hogs, or even use them to fertilize their fields. I have seen salmon wedged into some of the small streams until you could almost walk on them. The banks of many creeks, far up in the foot-hills, are almost wholly composed of the bones of salmon. In traveling through dense woods I have often heard, at some distance ahead, - a loud splasliing and general commotion in water, as if of a dozen small boys in bathing. This would, perhaps, be the first intimation I had that I was near water,. and, on approaching the source of the noise, I have found it to have been made by a school of these lordly salmon, wedged into one of the little streams, thrashing the creek into suds in their efforts to get to its Ijead. After depositing their spawn the poor creatures, already half dead from bruises and exhaustion incurred in their perilous voyage up stream, begin to drift down. But how different, now, from the bright, silvery creatures that once darted like rays of living light through the sea. Unable to control their move- ments in the descent, even as well as in the ascent, they drift at the cruel mercy of the stream. They are driven against rough bowlders, submerged logs AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 73 and snags, or through raging rapids by the fury of the torrent, until hundreds, yes thousands, of them are killed outright, and thousands more die from sheer exhaustion. I have seen salmon with their noses broken and torn off; others with a lower jaw torn away; some with sides, backs, or bellies bruised and bleeding; others with their tails whipped and split into shreds, and still others with their entrails torn out by snags. In this sad plight they are beset at every turn in the river by their natural enemies. Bears, cougars, minks, wild cats, fishers, eagles, hawks, and worst and most destructive of all, men, await them everywhere, and it would be strange, indeed, if one in each thousand that left the salt water should live to return. The few that do so, are, of course, so weak that they fall an easy prey to the seals, sharks, and other enemies, that wait with open mouths to engulf them. So, all the leap- ing, rushing multitude that entered the river a few months ago, have, ere this, gone to their doom, but their seed is planted in the icy brook, far away in the mountains, and their young will soon come forth to take the place of the parents that have passed away. The instinct of reproduction must, indeed, be an absorbing passion in poor dumb creatures, when they will thus sacrifice life in the effort to deposit their ova where the offspring may best be brought into being. 74 ORUISINGS 11^ THE CASCADES CHAPTER VIII. 'BOYE the rapids we had a lovely reach of river, from a quarter to half a mile wide, with no perceptible cur- rent. Impelled by our united efforts, our light cedar canoe shot over the water as lightly and almost as swiftly as the gulls above us sped through the air. I took one of the X)oles and used it while the In- dians plied their paddles, and for a distance of nearly two miles the depth of water did not vary two inches from four and a half feet. The bottom was composed of a hard, white sand, into which the pole, with my weight on it, sunk less than an inch; in fact, the current is so slight, the width of the river so great, and the gen- eral character of the water such, that it might all be termed a lake above the falls; though the foot of the lake, as designated on the map, has a still greater widening five miles above the head of the falls. Abrupt basaltic walls, 500 to 1,000 feet high and nearly perpendicular, rise from the water's edge on either side. On the more sloping faces of these, vegetation has obtained root-room, little bunches of soil have formed, and various ever- greens, alders, water hazels, etc., grow vigorously. (75) (76) AXD OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 77 Half a foot of snow liad lately fallen on the tops of these mountains, and a warm, southwest wind and the bright sun w^ere now sendini^ it down into the river in numerous plunging streams of crystal fluid. For thousands of years these miniature torrents have, at frequent intervals, tumbled down here, and in all that time have worn but slight notches in the rocky walls. Shrubs have grown up along and over these small waterways, and as the little rivulets come coursing down, dodging hither and thither under over- hanging clumps of green foliage, leaping from crag to crag and curving from right to left and from left to right, around and among frowning projections of invulnerable rock, glinting and sparkling in the sun- light, they remind one of silvery satin ribbons, tossed by a summer breeze, among the brown tresses of some winsome maiden. I took several views of these little waterfalls, but their transcendent beauty can not be intelligently expressed on a little four-by-five silver print. Several larger streams also put into the Harrison, that come from remote fastnesses, and seem to carve their way through great mountains of granite. Their shores are lined with dense growths of conifers, and afford choice retreats for deer, bears, and other wild animals. At three o'clock in the afternoon we rounded a high point of rocks that jutted out into the river, and another beautiful picture — another surprise, in this land of surprises — lay before us. Harrison Lake, nestling among snowy peaks and dotted with basaltic islands, reflected in its peaceful depths the 78 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES surrounding mountains as clearly as though its placid surface had been covered with quicksilver. This lake is about forty miles long, is fed by the Lillooet river and numerous smaller streams. Silver creek, which comes in on the west side; twenty miles north of the hot springs, is a beautiful mountain stream of considerable size. A quarter of a mile above its mouth, it makes a perpendicular fall of over sixty feet. It is one of the most beautiful falls in the country. Near the head of the lake, and in full view from the springs, old Mount Douglass, clad in perpetual snow and glacial ice, towers into the blue sky until its brilliancy almost dazzles one's eyes. Though forty miles away, one who did not know would estimate the distance at not more than five, so clearly are all the details of the grand picture shown. It is said that from the glaciers on this peak come the streams whose waters give their peculiar milky cast to Harrison Lake and Harrison river. Near the base of Mount Douglass is an Indian village of the same name,. and the Hudson Bay Fur Com- pany formerly had a trading post in the neighbor- hood, which they called Fort Douglass. This Indian village is the home of my prospective guide, and from it he has adopted his unpoetic cognomen. Half a mile to the right of where we entered the lake, the famous hot springs, already mentioned, boil out from under the foot of a mountain, and discharge their steaming fluid into the lake. The curative power of these waters has been known to the natives for ages past, and the sick have come from all direc- tions, and from villages many miles away, to bathe in the waters and be healed. All about the AND OTHER IIUNTINa ADVENTURES. 79 place are remains of Indian encampments, medicine lodges, etc. The tribes in this vicinity are greatly exercised over the fact of the white man having lately asserted ownership of their great sanitarium, and having assumed its control. Mr. J. R. Brown has erected over the springs a large bath-house, and near that a commodious hotel. He has cut a road through a pass in the mountains to Agassiz station, on the Canadian Pacific Railway, five miles distant, so that the springs may now be easily reached by invalids wishing to test their curative properties. Soon after my arrival at the springs, I climbed the mountain to the east of the hotel, and passed the time ]3leasantly, until sunset, viewing the beautiful scenery in the neighborhood. On the following morning I took a boat and rowed up the east shore of the lake, in hope of getting a shot at a deer, but though I saw plenty of fresh signs all along the shore no game was visible. I spent the afternoon looking anxiously for my promised guide, but he came not. I again amused myself, however, taking views of the scenery, but found on develop- ing the negatives that I had not been eminently suc- cessful with either Mount Douglass or Mount Chiam. Snowy mountains are about the most difficult objects in all nature to photograph, especially if you attempt to include anything beside the snowy peaks in the picture ; for they are so intensely white, and the sky or even clouds that form the background are so light and afford so slight contrast, that it is next to impossi- ble to get good sharp pictures of them. The landscape about the mountains is sure to offer some dark objects, perhaps deep shadows, and even the mountain itself 80 CRUISIKGS IN THE CASCADES nearly always has bare rocks and dark, gloomy cafi- ons, and to get tliese g-nd the dazzling whiteness of the snow and ice on the same plate is decidedly difficult. Of course we see many fine photographs of snow-cov- ered mountains, but if taken with a clear sky or with light clouds for background, there is generally more or less retouching necessary, and more or less doctor- ing in printing, with tissue paper, glass screens, etc., in order to obtain the results we see in the prints. I made some fair views of both these peaks, but not such as an enthusiastic amateur might wish. Of the lower mountains, where at that time there was no snow, of the lake, the islands, etc., I got very sat- isfactory pictures. I went up the road, toward the railway station, a mile or more, where it passes through one of those grand forests for which this country is so famous, where — " Those green-robed senators of mighty woods Dream, and so dream all night without a stir." There I made views of some of the giant cedars, the dense moss-hung jungles, the great lir trees, etc. In these dark, densely-shaded woods I had to take off the flying shutter and make time exposures. I gave three to five seconds to each plate. In the prints the trees and other objects nearest to the lens are of course over-exposed, but the details in the shadows and objects in the extreme distance are clearly and beautifully brought out. For these time exposures I placed the camera on some convenient log, stump, or stone, in lieu of a tripod. In two instances I seated the rear end of the instrument on the ground, with the lens bearing up through the tops of the trees. The whitened trunk and broken, straggling arms of AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 81 one great old dead fir — one that has flourished in this rich soil and drawn sustenance from the moist, ozone-laden atmosphere of these mountains for hun- dreds of years, but has lived out his time and is now goin^ the w^ay of all things earthly — forms the sub- ject of one of the best and most interesting pictures of the whole series. The tops of several other trees — birch, maple, etc., that stood near the fir — are also shown in the picture. It can best be seen and appre- ciated by holding it above your head,^ looking up at it, and imagining yourself there in the forest, look- ing up through the tops of the giant trees into the blue ethereal dome of heaven. CHAPTER IX. 'N the morning I got up early to look for Doug- lass Bill, thinking and hoping he might have landed during the night, but no one fe had seen him and there was no strange canoe in the harbor. After breakfast, in order to kill time, I climbed the mountain east of the hotel to a height of about a thousand feet. It is heavily timbered, and I found plenty of fresh deer-signs within plain sound of the hammers wielded by the carpenters at Avork on the hotel, but failed to get a shot. I returned at eleven o'clock, but Bill had not yet shown up. Three other Indians were there, however, with three deer in their canoe, which they had killed on the opposite side of the lake the day before. I now concluded that Mr. Major's confidence in Bill was misplaced ; that he was not going to keep his contract, and was, in short, as treacherous, as unre- liable, and as consummate a liar as other Indians ; so I entered into negotiations with these three Indi- ans to get one or two of them to go with me. But they hafl planned a trip to New Westminster, to sell their venison, and I could not induce any one of them to go, though I offered big wages, and a premium on each head of game I might kill, besides. They said that if I wished they would take me to their village — (82) AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 83 which is five miles down the river — and that there were several good goat hunters there whom I could get. I accepted their offer of transportation, stepped into the canoe, and we pulled out. As we entered the shoal water in the river I asked for a pole, and impelled by it and the three paddles we sped down the stream at a rapid rate. There was a cold, disagreeable rain falling and a chilly north wind blowing. This storm had brought clouds of ducks into the river, among them several flocks of canvas backs. The Indians, who were using smoorh-bore muskets, killed several of these tooth- some fowls. One flock rose ahead of us and started directly down the river, but by some kind of native intuition the Indians seemed to know that they would come back uj) the opposite shore. They dropped their guns, caught up the paddles and plied them with such force that every stroke fairly lifted the light cedar canoe out of the water, and we shot across the river with the speed of a deer. Sure enough, after flying a hundred yards down stream the ducks turned and, hugging the shore, undertook to pass up the river on the other side, but we cut them off, so that they had to pass over our heads. At this Juncture the two muskets carried by the two young men cracked and three canvas backs dropped, limp and lifeless, into the water within a few feet of us. We arrived at the hut occupied by this family at noon. It stands on the bank of the river, half a mile above the village of Chehalis, and as we pulled up, two old and two young squaws and nine small Indi- ans, some of them mere papooses in arms (but not 84 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES in long clothes — in fact, not in any clothes worth men- tioning), came swarming out to meet us. Their abode was a shanty about twelve feet square, made by set- ting four corner posts into the ground, nailing cross- ribs on, and over these clapboards riven from the native cedars, and the roof was of the same material. The adult members of this social alliance had been engaged in catching and drying salmon during the recent run; the heads, entrails and backbones of which had been dumped into the river at their very door. There being no current near the shore they had sunk in barely enough water to cover them, and lay there rotting and x)oluting the water used by the family for drinking and cooking. Cart-loads of this offal were also lying about the dooryard, and had been trampled into and mixed up with the mud until the whole outfit stunk like a tanyard. Within was a picture of filth and squalor that beggars description. The floor of the hut was of mother earth. A couple of logs with two clapboards laid across them formed the only seats. On one side was a pile of brush, hay, and dirty, filthy blankets, indiscriminately mixed, on which the entire three families slept, presumably in the same f as h ion. 'Neav the centre of the hut a small fire struggled for exist- ence, and that portion of the smoke that Avas not absorbed by the people, the drying fish and other objects in the room, escaped through a hole in the centre of the roof. The children, barefooted and half- naked^ came in out of the rain, mud, and fish carrion, in which they liad been tramping about, and sat or lay on the ground about the fire, looking as happy as a litter of pigs in a mud hole. On poles, attached AXD OTHER IIUNTIXG ADVENTURES. 85 by cedar withes to the ra-fters, were hung several hundred salmon, absorbing smoke, carbonic acid gas from the lungs of the human beings beneath, and steam from the cooking that was going on. It is understood that after tliis process has been prolonged for some weeks these once noble fishes will be fit for the winter food of the Siwash. Some of the houses in Chehalis are neat frame cottages ; in fact, it is a better-built town, on the whole, than the village of Harrison River already described ; but these better houses all stand back about a quarter of a mile from the river, and the inhabitants have left them and gone into the "fish- houses," the clapboard structures, on the immediate river bank. Some of these shanties are much larger than the one mentioned above, and in some cases four, iive, or even six families hole up in one of these filthy dens during the fish-curing season. As a matter of fact, there are salmon of one variety or another in these larger rivers nearly all the year, but sometimes the weather is too cold, too wet, or otherwise too disagreable in winter for the noble red man to fish with comfort, and hence all these prep- arations for a rainy day. After the fishes are cured they are hung up in big out-houses set on posts, or in some cases built high up in the branches of trees, in order to be entirely out of the reach of rats, minks, or other vermin, and the members of the commune draw from the stock at will. The coast Indians live almost wholly on fish, and seem perfectly happy without flesh, vegetables, or bread, if such be not at hand, though they can eat plenty of all these when set before them. If one of them kills a deer he sel- 86 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES dom or never eats more of it than the liver, heart, lungs, etc. He sells the carcass, if within a three days' voyage of a white man who will buy venison. One of the young men already mentioned went with SALMON BOXES IN TREES. me down to one of the big fish-houses and called out Pean, a man about fifty years of age, who he said was a good goat hunter and a good guide. They held a hurried conversation in their native tongue, at the ATs'D OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 87' close of which the young man said Pean would go with me for two dollars a day. I asked Pean if he could talk English, and he said *'yes," but this proved, in after experience, to be about the only English word he could speak. He rushed into the hut, and in about three or four minutes returned with his gun, powder-horn, bullet-pouch, pipe, and a small roll of blankets, and was ready for a journey into the mountains of, he knew not how many days. His canoe was on the river bank near us, and as we were stepping into it I asked him a few questions which he tried to answer in English, but made a poor stagger at it, and slid olf into Chi- nook. Just then another old Indian came up with a canoe-load of wood. I asked him if he could speak English — "wah-wahKing George"; and he said ^'Yes." I then told him I had hired this other man to go hunting with me and asked him if he knew him. "Oh, yes," he said; "me chief here. Alldese house my house. All dese people my people. 'No other chief here." I said I was delighted to know him, shook hands with him, gave him a cigar, and inquired his name. " Captain George," he said; "me chief here." " Is he a good hunter f pointing to Pean. ' 'Yes, Pean good hunter; good man. He kill plenty sheep, deer, bear. ' ' With this additional certificate of efiiciency and good character I felt more confidence in Pean, and stepping into the canoe was once more en route to the mountains. 88 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES Still, I felt some misgivings, for my past experience with the fish eaters had taught me not to place implicit faith in their statements or pretensions, and the sequel will show how well grounded these fears were. CHAPTER X. 'HE Flathead nation, to which nearly all the Puget Sound Indians belong, may almost be termed amphibians; for though they can, and do in some cases, live inland ex- clusively, they are never happy when away from the water. They are canonists by birth and education. A coast Indian is as helpless and miserable with- out a canoe as a plains Indian without a horse, and the Siwash (Chinook for coast Indian) is as expert in the use of the canoe as the Sioux, Crow, or Arapahoe in the use and control of his cayuse. Almost the sole means of travel, of intercommunication among these people, and between themselves and the whites, is the canoe. There are very few horses owned in any of the coast tiibes, and these are rarely ridden. When a Siwash attempts to ride a horse he climbs onto it kicking and grunting with the effort, much as an Alabama negro mounts his mule, and sits him about as gracefully. But let the Siwash step into his canoe, and he fears no rapid, whirlpool, nor stormy billow. He faces the most perilous water and sends (89) 90 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 91 his frail cedar shell into it with a skill and a conscious- ness of mastery that would put to the blush any of the prize winners in our Eastern canoe-club regattas. The canoes are models of nautical architecture. They are cut and carved from the cedar trees which bounteous Nature, in wise provision for the wants of Her children, has caused to grow so plentifully and to such prodigious size in the Sound country. They are of various sizes and lengths, owing to the uses for which they are intended. If for spearing sal- mon or for light traveling, they are cut from a tree twenty to twenty-four inches in diameter, and are not more than twelve to fifteen feet long. If for attending nets and bringing in the catch, they are generally longer, and if for freighting and long-dis- tance traveling, they are of immense size and capable of carrying great burdens. A tree of the size wanted is selected, perfectly sound and free from knots, and a log of the desired length cut off. The log is hol- lowed, carved out to the desired shape, then trimmed and tapered outside until it is a mere shell, scarcely more than an inch thick anywhere. It is then filled with water, a fire is built near in which rocks are heated and thrown into the canoe until the water boils. This is continued until the wood is thoroughly cooked and softened, when the water is turned out, the canoe is spread at the centre, braced out to nearly twice its natural width or diameter, and left to dry. This gives it "sheer" and enables it to ride a heavy sea like a lifeboat. Handsomely carved figureheads are attached to some of the large canoes, and the entire craft is painted, striped, and decorated in gay colors. I 92 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES measured one of these cedar canoes that was thirty- four feet long and five and a half feet beam, and was told by its owner that he had carried in it four tons of freight on one trip, and two cords of green wood on another. It would carry fifty men comfortably and safely. There are not many of the Indians that can make the larger and better grade of canoes, and the trade is one that but few master. There is one famous old canoe builder near Van- couver, to whom Indians go from distances of a hundred miles or more when they want an extra fine, large, light canoe. For some si:)ecimens of his handiwork he gets as high as $80 to $100. The In- dians throughout Washington Territory and British Columbia do considerable freighting for whites, on streams not navigable for steamers, and they take freight up over some of the rapids where no white man could run an empty canoe. Some of these Flatheads are industrious and are employed by the whites in salmon canneries, lum- bering and logging operations, farming, etc. Steam- boat men employ them almost exclusively for deck hands, and they make the best ones to be had in the country; better than either whites or Chinamen. They are excellent packers by education. In this densely-timbered country horses can not, as a rule, be used for packing, and the Indians, in going across country where there is no watercourse, pack all their plunder on their backs. Whites traveling in the woods also depend on Indians to pack their lug- gage; consequently it is not strange that the latter become experts at the business, and it is this schooling that makes them valuable as deck hands. AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 93 They are not large men, but are tougli, sinewy, and muscular. An average Siwash will pick up a barrel of flour or pork, a case of dry goods, or other heavy freight weighing three hundred pounds or more, roll it onto his back, and walk up a gang-plank or a steep river-bank as easily as a white man would with a barrel of crackers. No work is too dirty or too hard for them. They are obedient to orders and submissive to discipline, but their weak point, like that of all Indians, is their inordinate love of whisky. Quite frequently, after working a few weeks or months, they quit and go on a drunken debauch that ends only when their money is gone. Their dress is much the same, in general, as that of the whites in this region, with the exception that the Indians wear moccasins when hunting. This footgear is little in favor here with white hunters, owing to there being so much rain- fall, and so much wading to do. Rubber boots are indispensable for hunting in most seasons, and a rub- ber coat should also be included in every hunter' s outfit. I found the Hannaford ventilated rubber boot the most comfortable and perfect footgear I have ever worn. You can scarcely walk a mile in any direction in this country at any time of year, on mountains or lowlands, without encountering water. Moccasins soon become soaked, and are then the most uncomfortable things imaginable. I asked one of my guides why he did not wear rubber boots instead of moccasins, and he replied: ''0, I dunno. De moxicans cheaper, mebbe. I mek him myself. Can't mek de boots." This is about the only use the Indians make of 94 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES buckskin. It is not popular with them as a material for clothing, on account of the vast amount of rainy weather. It has been said they make cloth from the wool of the goat, but, so far as I could learn, they make very little, if any of it, of late years. I saw some blankets that Indians had woven from this wool, but they were very coarse. They have no machinery for spinning; the yarn is merely twisted by hand, and is so coarse and loose that it would not hold together a week if made into a garment and worn in the woods. Of course, a fair article of yarn, and even cloth, may be, and has been, made entirely by hand, but these people have neither the skill, the taste, nor the industry to enable them to do such work. A coarse hair grows with the wool on the goat, and the squaws do not even take the trouble to separate it, but work both up together, making a very uncouth-looking fabric, even if thick, warm, and serviceable. As a class, these Indians appear to be strictly honest, toward each other at least. They leave their canoes, guns, game, or in fact, any kind of property, anywhere they choose, without the slightest eifort at concealment, and always feel perfectly sure of find- ing it on their return. About the only case of pilfer- ing I ever heard of while among them (and I took special i^ains to investigate) was when John asked me for some fish-hooks, and said in expla- nation: "I had plenty hooks, but I reckon Seemo he steal all my hooks." "Why, does Seymour steal f I inquired. He AND OTHER HUNTII^G ADVENTURES. 95 looked all around to see it' Seymour was within hear- ing, and not seeing him, replied: ''You bet. He steal my hooks, too.'' A tolWASH AND HIS MORNING'S CATCH. 96 CRUISINGS IX THE CASCADES AN INDIAN SALMON FISHERY. CHAPTER XL HAD left my Hotel, and retumln bedding at the Hot Springs to get it staid there all night. Early next inorning (Friday, J^ovember 12) we crossed Harrison Lake, in a drenching rain, to the foot of a high mountain, about two miles from the springs, on which Pean, Captain George, ^ and other Indians said there were plenty ''of goats. We beached our canoe, and made up packs for the climb np the mountain. The outfit consisted of our guns, my sleeping-bag, Pean's gun and blankets, a few sea biscuits, a piece of bacon, and some salt. My sleeping-bag was wrapped uj) in a piece of canvas, and when I handed it to Pean, he commenced to unroll it to put his blankets in with it, but I objected. Visions of the insects with which I knew his bedding was inhabited rose up before me. I thought of the rotary drill, key -hole saw, and suction pump with which they are said to be armed, and I did not want any of them in my bag. So I unrolled the canvas only a part of its length, laid his blankets in and rolled it up again, hoping the i-emain- ing folds might prevent the vermin from finding their way in, and my reckoning proved correct. One of his blankets had been white in its day, but had long since lost its grip on that color, and was 7 (97) 98 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES • now about as pronounced a brunette as its owner. The other blanket was gray, but even through this sombre shade, as well as through the rank odor it emitted, gave evidence that it had not been washed for many years. Pean brought with him a cotton bedspread that had also once been white, but left this with the canoe. In my pack I carried the grub, and an extra coat for use on the mountain, where w^e expected to encounter colder weather. We started up the mountain at ten o'clock in the forenoon. For the first two miles we skirted its base to the eastward, through dense timber, crossing several deep, dark jungles and swamps. Then we began the ascent proper, and as soon as we got up a few hundred feet on the mountain side, we found numerous fresh deer-signs. We halted to rest, when Pean took from its case his gun, which up to this time he had kept covered, and which I naturally supposed to be a good, modern weapon. It proved, however, an old smooth bore, muzzle-loading, percussion-lock musket, of .65 calibre, with a barrel about fifty inches long. He drew out the wiping stick, on the end of which was a wormer, l>ulled a wad of paper from the gun and poured a charge of shot out into his hand. This he put care- fully into his shot-bag. Then he took from another X)oucli a No. 1 buckshot, and dropped it into the muzzle of his musket. It rolled down onto the pow^der, when he again inserted the bunch of j^aper, rammed it home with the rod, put on a cap, and was loaded for bear, deer, or whatever else he might encounter. He then replaced the musket in its seal- AIS^D OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 99 skin cover as carefully as if it had been a $300 breech-loader. Nearly all these Indians use just such old mus- kets, bought from the Hudson Bay Company, and yet they keep them in covers made of the skin of the seal, which tliey kill in the rivers hereabout, or of deer or other animals. They take excellent care of their guns in this respect, but I have never seen one of them clean or oil his weapon, and several of them told me they seldom do so. My Winchester express, with fancy stock, Lyman sight, etc., was a curiosity to them. None of them had ever seen anything like it, and one of them asked me what kind of a rifle it was. When told it was a Winchester, he said: ^' I didn't know Winchester so big like dat. Didn't know he had stock like dat." He had only seen the little .44 Winchester, with a plain stock, and innocently supposed it was the only kind made. Pean and I had a hard day's work toiling up the mountain through fallen timber, over and around great ledges of jutting rock, across deep, rugged canons and gulches, and through dense jungles of underbrush. About two o'clock in the afternoon we halted, lay down for a rest, and had been there but a few minutes when I heard the sharp, familiar chatter of the little pine squirrel. I looked around quickly, exi3ecting to see one within a few feet of me, but instead saw Pean lying close to the ground, beckoning to me and x)ointing excitedly up the game trail in which we had been walking. Looking through the thick, intervening brush, I saw two 100 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES deer, a buck and a doe, looking toward us. They had not seen nor scented us, but had merely heard the chatter of the little squirrel, as they supposed, and, though apparently as completely deceived by it as I had been, they had stopped to listen, as they do at almost every sound they hear in the woods. But there was no squirrel there. Pean had taken this method of calling my attention, and had imitated the cry of the familiar little cone-eater so perfectly that even the deer had been deceived by it. I cautiously and slowly drew my rifle to my shoulder, and taking aim at the breast of the buck, iired. Both deer bounded away into thicker brush, and w^ere out of sight in an instant. Pean sprang after them, and in a few minutes I heard the dull, muffled report of his musket. He shouted to me, and going to him I found the buck dead and the Indian engaged in butchering it. My bullet had gone a little farther to the left than I intended, breaking its shoulder, and had passed out through the ribs on the same side. The deer had fallen after going but a few yards, but was not quite dead when Pean came up and shot it through the head. We took out the entrails, cut a choice roast of the meat for our supper and breakfast, and hurried on our way. We camped at four o'clock on a small bench of the mountain, and you may rest assured, gentle reader, tljat our conversation in front of the camp fire that night was novel. Pean, you will remember, could not speak half a dozen words of English. He spoke entirely in Chinook, and I knew but a few words of that jargon. I had a Chinook dictionary AND OTIIEK HUNTING ADVENTURES. 101 with me, however, and by its aid was able to pick out the few words necessary in what little talking I had to do, and to translate enough of Pean' s answers to ni}^ questions to get along fairly well. The great trouble with him seemed to be that he was wound up to talk, and whenever I made a remark or asked a question in his adopted language he turned loose, and talked until I shut liim off with "Halokum- tucks" (I don't understand). No matter how often I repeated this he seemed soon to forget it, and would open on me again whenever he got a cue. He was a fluent talker, and if I had only been well up in the jargon, 1 could have got lots of pointers from him. The deer of this region is the true black-tail (Csr- vus Columbian us) ^ not the mule-deer {Cervus ma- crotis), that is so often miscalled the black-tail. The black-tail is smaller than the mule-deer, and its ears, though not so large as those of the latter, are larger than those of the Virginia d.eev {Cervus vir- qinianus). Its tail is white underneath, dark out- side, shading to black at the lower end, and while longer than that of the mule-deer, is not so long as that of the Virginia deer. CHAPTER XII. HINOOK is a queer jargon. It is said to have been manufactured many years ago by an employe of the Hud- son Bay Fur Company, who taught the principal chiefs of various Indian tribes to speak it in order to facilitate traffic with them. From that time it has grown and spread until almost every Indian of the North Pacific Coast, and many inland tribes of Washington, British Columbia, and Oregon speak it. White men of all nations who live in this country speak it, and even the almond-eyed China- man learns it soon after locating here. In short, it is the court language of the Northwest, as the sign language is of the plains. It is made up from vari- ous Indian tongues, with a few English, or rather pigeon -English, French, and Sx^anish words inter- mixed. There are only about 1,500 words in the language and it is very easy to learn. Of course, it is woefully lacking in strength and beauty. You will often want to say something that can not be said in Chinook, because there are no words in that jargon with which to say it. But it is made to answer the purposes of trade, travel, and barter, in common forms. For instance: "Kah-tah si-ah ko-pa Frazer chuck?" would be, " How far is it to the Frazer riveri!" ''Yutes kut klat-a-wa la-pe-a," "Only a short (102) AND OTHER HITNTING x\DVENTUIlES. 103 walk." If you wish to say good-morning or good- evening to an Indian you say: ''Kla-how-ya, six." *' Cliah-co yah-wa " is " Come here." ''Mi-ka tik-eh mam-ook?" "Do you want to workf ' ' Ik-ta mi-ka mam-ook?' ' "At what?' ' " Mam-ook stick." " Cut some wood." "Na-wit-ka." "Certainly." " Kon-si dat-la spose mi-ka mam-ook kon-a-way o-koke stick?" "What do you want for cutting that lot of wood?" "Iktdolla." "One dollar." The numerals are ikt (one), mox (two), klone (three), lock-it (four), kwin-num (live), tagh-kum (six), sin-na mox (seven), sto te-kin (eight), twaist (nine), tah-tlum (ten), tah-tlum pee-ikt (eleven), tah- tlum pee-mox (twelve), mox-tah tlum (twenty), klone tah-tlum (thirty), ikt tali-kamo-nux (one hundred), tah-tlum to-ka mo-mik (one thousand), etc. It is often difficult to get accurate information from these Indians as to distances or time, as they have little idea of English miles or of the measure- ments of time, and very few of them own or know how to read a watch or clock. Under Pean's tutelage I learned rapidly, and was soon able to carry on quite an interesting conversation by the aid of the little dictionary. By the light of a rousing camp-fire I cut a large quantity of cedar boughs and made for myself a bed a foot deep. On this I spread my sleeping-bag, crawled into it and slept the sleep of the weary hun- ter. Pean cut only a handful of boughs, spread 104 CRUISINGS IX THE CASCADES them near the fire, threw his coat over them, and lay down. Then he folded his two blankets and spread them over him, mostly on the side away from the fire, leaving that part of his body next to the fire exposed so as to catch its heat direct. During the night, whenever he turned over, he would shift his blankets so as to keep them where most needed. At frequent intervals he would get up and replenish the fire from the large supply of dry wood we had provided. The night was bitter cold, at this high altitude, and snow fell at frequent intervals. A raw wind blew, and the old man must have suffered from the cold to which he exposed himself. There are few of these savages that understand and appreciate fully the value of a good bed when camping. In fact, many white hunters and mount- aineers go on long camping trips with insufficient bedding, simply because they are too lazy to carry enough to keep them comfortable. I would rather get into a good warm, soft bed at night without my supper, than eat a feast and then sleep on the hard ground, without covering enough to keep me warm. After a hard day's work a good bed is absolutely necessary to prepare one for the labor and fatigue of the following day. " In bed we laugh, in bed we cry. And born in bed, in bed we die; The near approach, a bed may show. Of human bliss to human woe," Any ablebodied man may endure a few nights of cold, comfortless sleep, but it will tell on him sooner or later; while if he sleep comfortably and eat AND OTHER IIUNTING ADVENTURES. 105 heartily, lie may endure an incredible amount of labor and hardship of other kinds. You may tramp all day with your feet wet, and all your clothing wet, if need be, but be sure you crawl into a good, warm, dry bed at night. Old Pean complained of feeling unwell during the evening, and in the morning when we got up said he was sick. I prepared a good breakfast, but he could not, or at least would not, eat. Then he told me that he had once fallen down a mountain; that his breast-bone had been crushed in by striking on a sbarp rock, and that it always hurt him since when doing any hard work. He said the climb up the mountain with the pack was too hard for him and he was played out, that he could go no farther. Here was another bitter disappointment, as we were yet two miles from the top of the mountain, and in going that distance a perpendicular ascent of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet must be made. I deliberated, therefore, as to whether I should go up the mount- ain alone and let Pean go back, but decided it would be useless. I could not carry more load than my sle3i3ing-bag, gun, etc., and therefore could bring no game down with me if I killed it, not even a head or skin. Beside, if he went back he would take his canoe, and I would be left with no means of crossing the lake. So the only thing to be done was to pack up and retrace our steps. On our way down we stopped and took the head and skin off of the deer killed the day before, and I carried them to the canoe. Arriving at the lake, we pulled again for Chehalis in a cold, disagreeable rain. I stopped 106 CRtJISINGS IX THE CASCADES. at the hot springs on my way down, and took my leave of my host, Mr. Brown, Avho had been so kind to me, and who regretted my ill luck almost as much as I did. CHAPTER XIII. |N our return to Chehalis— that town of unsavory odors and salmon-drying, salmon-smoking Siwashes — I at once employed two other Indians, named John and Seymour, and, on the following day we started up Ski-ik-kul Creek, to a lake of the same name, in which it heads ten miles back in the mountains. The Indians claimed that goats, or slieep, as they call them, were plentiful on the cliffs surrounding this lake, and that we could kill plenty of them from a raft while floating up and down along the shores. Seymour claimed to have killed twenty-three in March last, just after the winter snows had gone off, and a party of seven Siwashes from Chehalis had killed ten about two weeks pre- vious to the date of my visit. Such glowing accounts as these built up my hopes again to such a height as to banish from my mind all recollection of the bitter disappointment in which the former expedition had ended, and, although the rain continued to fall heavily at short intervals, so that the underbrush reeked with dampness and drenching showers fell from every bush we touched, I trudged cheerily along regardless of all discom- forts. The first two miles up the creek, we had a good, open trail, but at the end of this we climbed a steep, (107) 108 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES rocky bluff, about 500 feet high, and made the greater portion of the remaining distance at an average of about this height above the stream. There was a blind Indian trail all the way to the lake, but it led over the roughest, most tortuous, outlandish country that ever any fool of a goat hunter attempted to traverse. There are marshes and morasses away up among these mountains, where alders and water beeches, manzanitas, and other shrubs grow so thick that their branches intertwine to nearly their full length. Many of these have fallen down in various directions, and their trunks are as inextricably mixed as their branches, forming altogether a labyrinthine mass, through which it was with the utmost difficulty we could walk at all. There were numberless little creeks coming down from the mountain into the main stream, and each had in time cut its deep, narrow gulch, or canon, lined on both sides with rough, shapeless masses of rock, and all these we were obliged to cross. In many cases, they were so close together that only a sharp hog-back lay between them, and we merely climbed out of one gulch 300 or 400 feet deep, to go at once down into another still deeper, and so on. Fire had run through a large tract of this country, killing out all the large timber, and many trees have since rotted away and fallen, while the blackened and barkless trunks of others, with here and there a craggy limb, still stand as mute monuments to the glory of the forest before the dread element laid it waste. We camped that night at the base of one of these great dead firs around which lay a cord or more AND OTHER STUNTING ADVENTURES. 109 of old dry bark that had fallen from it, and which, with a few dry logs we gathered, furnished fuel for a rousing, all-night fire. Within a few feet of our camp, a clear, ice-cold little rivulet threaded its ser- pentine way down among rocks and ferns, and made sweet music to lull us to slee]3. After supper, I made for myself the usual bed of mountain feathers (cedar boughs), on which to spread my sleeping-bag. This old companion of so many rough Jaunts, over plains and mountains, has become as necessary a part of my outfit for such voyages as my rifle. Whether it journey by day, on the hurricane deck of a mule, in ths hatchway of a canoe, on my shoulder blades or those of a Si wash, it always rounds up at night to liouse me against the bleak wind, the driv- ing snow, or pouring rain. I have learned to prize it so highly that I can appreciate the sentiments of the fallen monarch, J^apoleon, on the lonely island of St. Helena, when he wrote: "The bed has become a place of luxury tome. I would not exchange it for all the thrones in the world " These Indians, like Pean, and, in fact, all others who have seen the bag, are greatly interested in it. They had never seen anything like it, and watched with undisguised interest the unfolding and prepar- ing of the article, and when I had crawled into it, and stowed myself snugly away, they looked at each other, grunted and uttered a few of their peculiar guttural sounds, which I imagined would be, if translated: "Well, I'll be doggoned if that ain't about the sleekest trick I ever saw. Eh?' ' 110 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES " You bet it's nice to sleep in, but heavy to carry." By the way, some of my readers may never have seen one of these valuable camp appendages, and a description of it may interest them. The outer bag is made of heavy, brown, waterproof canvas, six feet long, three feet wide in the centre, tapered to two 'I I I i^ DIAGRAM OF SLEEPING-BAG. feet at the head and sixteen inches at the foot. Above the head of the bag proper, flaps project a foot farther, with which the occupant's head may be comx)letely covered, if desired. These are provided with buttons and button-holes, so that they may be buttoned clear across, for stormy or very cold weather. The bag is left open, from the head down one edge, two feet, and a flap is provided to lap over AND OTHER HITXTING ADVENTURES. Ill this ox)eiiing. Buttons are sewed on the bag, and there are button-holes in the flaps so it may also be buttoned up tightly. Inside of this canvas bag is another of the same size and shajDe, less the head flaps. This is made of Jamb skin with the v^^ool on, and is lined w^ith ordinary sheeting, to keep the wool from coming in direct contact with the per- son or clothing. One or more i)airs of blankets may be folded and inserted in this, as may be necessary, for any temperature in which it is to be used. If the weather be warm, so that not all this cover- ing is needed over the sleeper, he may shift it to suit the weather and his taste, crawling in on top of as much of it as he may wish, and the less he has over him the more he will have under him, and the softer will be his bed. Beside being w^aterproof , the canvas is windproof , and one can button himself up in this house, leaving only an air-hole at the end of his nose, and sleep as soundly, and almost as com- fortably in a snowdrift on the prairie as in a tent or house. In short, he may be absolutely at home, and comfortable, wherever night finds him, and no matter wiiat hormd nightmares he may have, he can not roll out of bed or kick off the covers. Nor will he catch a draft of cold air along the north edge of his spine every time he turns over, as he is liable to do when sleeping in blankets. Nor will his feet crawl out from under the cover and catch chilblains, as they are liable to do in the old- fashioned way. In fact, this sleeping-bag is one of the greatest luxuries I ever took into camp, and if 112 CKUISINGS IN THE CASCADES. any brother sportsman who may read this wants one, and can not find an architect in his neighborhood capable of building one, let him communicate with me and I will tell him where mine was made. CHAPTER Xiy. ,# fi' ONGr after the Indians went to sleep I lay there, looking into the fire and thinking. Many and varied were the fancies that chased each other through my restless brain — some pleasant, some unpleasant. I pondered on the novelty, even the danger, of my situation. I was away up there in that wild, trackless, mountain wilderness, alone, sp far as any congenial com- panionship was concerned. Yes, I was worse than alone, for the moment I might close my eyes and sleep I would be at the mercy of these two reckless red men. True, they are not of a courageous, war- like race, but what might they not do for the sake of plunder ? They could crush my skull at a blow and conceal my body beyond all possibility of discovery; or they could leave it and, saying I had killed my- self by a fall, reveal its resting place to anyone who might care to go in search of me. I had some prop- erty with me, especially my rifle, sleeping-bag, and a small sum of money, that I knew they coveted, and I reflected that they might already have concocted some foul scheme for disposing of me and getting possession of my effects. 8 (113) 114 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES In their native tongue of strange, weird gutturals^ hisses, and aspirations, they had conversed all the evening of— I knew not what. John had rather an honest, frank face, that I thought bespoke a good heart, but Seymour had a dark, repulsive countenance that plainly indicated a treacherous- nature. From the first I had made up my mind that he was a thief, if nothing worse. He pre- tended not to be able to speak or understand Eng- lish, although I knew he could. John spoke our tongue fairly, and through him all communication with either or both was hekl. Should they contem- plate any violence I Avould welcome them both to an encounter, if only I could have notice of it a second in advance. Their two old smooth -bore muskets would cut no figure against the deadly stream of fire that my Winchester express could pour forth. But I dreaded the treachery, the stealth, the silent mid- night assault that is a characteristic of their race. Yet, on further consideration, I dismissed all such forebodings as purely chimerical. These were civil- ized Indians, living within the sound of the whistle of a railroad engine, and would hardly be willing to place themselves within the toils of the law, by the commission of such a crime, even if they had the courage or the desire to do it, and I hoped they had neither. Then my fancies turned to the contemplation of pleasanter themes. I thought of the dear little black-eyed woman, whom I had parted with on board the steamer nearly a Aveek ago. She is homeward- bound and must now be speeding over the Dakota or Minnesota prairies, well on toward St. Paul. Will AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 115 she reach home in safety ? God grant it — and that in due time I may be permitted to join her there. Then other familiar images passed and repassed my mental ken. The kind acts of dear friends, the hospitalities shown me by strangers and passing acquaintances in distant lands and in years long agone came trooping through my memory, and a feel- ing of gratitude for those kindnesses supplanted for the time that of solitude. Gradually and sweetly I sank into a profound slumber and all was stillness and oblivion. Several hours, perhaps, have passed, and I am thirsty. I get up and start to the little brook for water ; to reach it a log, lying across a deep fissure in the rocks, must be scaled. With no thought of danger I essay the task by the dying fire's uncer- tain light and that of the twinkling stars. I have not counted on the heavy covering of frost that has been deposited on the log since dark, and stepping out upon the barkless part of the trunk, my mocca- sins slip, and with a shriek and a wild but unsuccess- ful grasp at an overhanging limb I fall twenty feet and land on the mass of broken and jagged granite beneath ! The Indians, alarmed by my cries, spring to my relief, carry me to the fire, give me stimulants, bind up my broken arm, and do all in their power to alleviate my sufferings. They are not the crafty villains and assassins that my fancy had painted. They are kind, sympathetic friends. I Realize that my right collar-bone and three ribs on the same side are broken, and when I remem- ber where I am, the deplorableness and utter help- lessness of my condition appal me. 116 cruisiinGS iin the cascades The long hours until daylight drag slowly by, 'and at last, as the sun tips the distant mountain tops >vith golden light, we start on our perilous and painful journey to the Indian village and to the steamboat landing. The two red men have rigged a litter from poles and blankets, on which they carry me safely to their homes, and thence in a canoe to the landing EN EOUTE TO THE INDIAN VILLAGE. below. How the long, tedious journey thence, by steamer and rail, to my own home is accomplished ; how the weary days and nights of suffering and delirium which I endure en route were passed, are subjects too painful to dwell ui^on. I am finally assisted from the sleeper at my destination. My wife, whom the wire has informed of my misfortune and my coming, is there. She greets me with that fervent love, that intensity of pity and emotion that only a AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 117 wife can feel. Her lips move, but her tongue is par- alyzed. For the time she can not speak ; the wells of her grief have gone dry ; she can not weep ; she can only act. I am taken to my home, and the suspense, the anxiety, having been lived out, the climax having been reached and passed I swoon away. Again the surgeon appears to be racking me with pain in an effort to set the broken ribs, and seems to be making an incision in my side for that purpose, when I awake. . The stars shone brightly above me, the frost on the leaves sparkled brightly in the fire-light. It took me several minutes to realize that I had been dream- ing. I searched for the cause of the acute pain in my side, and found it to be the sharp point of a rock that my cedar boughs had- not sufficiently covered and which was trying to get in between t wo of my ribs. I got up, removed it and slept better through the remainder cf the night. CHAPTER XY. |KI-IK-KUL, or Chehalis Creek, as the whites call it, is surely one of the most beautiful streams in the whole Cascade Range. Its size may be stated, approxi- mately, as two feet in depth by fifty feet in width, at or near the mouth, but its course is so crooked, so tortuous, and its bed so broken and uneven that the explorer will seldom find a reach of it sufficiently quiet and undisturbed to afford a measurement of this character. At one point it is choked into a narrow gorge ten feet wide and twice as deep, with a fall of ten feet in a distance of thirty. Through this notch the stream surges and swirls with the wild fury, the fearful power, and the awe-inspiring grandeur of a tornado. At another place it runs more placidly for a few yards, as if to gather strength and courage for a wild leap over a sheer wall of frowning rock into a foaming pool thirty, forty, or fifty feet below. At still another place it seems to carve its way, by the sheer power of madness, through piles and walls of broken and disordered quartz, granite, or basalt, even as Cortes and his handful of Spanish cavaliers hewed their way through the massed legions of Aztecs at Tlascala. Farther up, or down, it is split into various (118) AND OTHER HUT^TING ADVENTURES. 119 channels by great masses of upheaved rock, and these miniature streams, after winding hither and thither through deep, dark, narrow fissures for perhaps one or two hundred yards, reunite to form this headlong mountain torrent. Viewing these scenes, one is forcibly reminded of the poet's words: "How the giant element, From rock to rock, leaps with delirious bound." Series of cascades, a quarter to balf a mile long, are met with at frequent intervals, which rival in their beauty and magnificence those of the Columbia or the Upper Yellowstone. Whirlpools occur at the foot of some of these, in which the clear, bright green water boils, sparkles, and effervesces like vast reservoirs of champagne. The moanings and roar- ings emitted by this matchless stream in its mad career may be heard in places half a mile. At many points its banks rise almost perpendicularly to heights of 300, 400, or 500 feet. You may stand so nearly over the water that you can easily toss a large rock into it, and yet you are far above the tops of the massive firs and cedars that grow at the water's edge. Looking down from these heights you may see in the crystal fluid whole schools of the lordly salmon plowing their way up against the almost resistless fury of the current, leaping through the foam, striking with stunning force against hidden rocks, falling back half dead, and, drifting into some clear pool below, recovering strength to renew the hopeless assault. The time will come when an easy roadway, and possibly an iron one, will be built up this grand canon, and thousands of tourists will annually stand 120 CRUISINGS I^ THE CASCADKS within its walls to gaze upon these magic pictures, absorbed in their grandeur and romantic beauty. Nor does the main stream afford the only objects of beauty and interest here. It is a diamond set in a cluster of diamonds, for many of the little brooks, already mentioned as coming down the mountain on either side, are only less attractive because smaller. Many of them tumble from the tops of rocky walls, and dance down among the branches of evergreen trees, sparkling like ribbons of silver in the rays of the noonday sun. Theodore Roosevelt, in his excellent work, *' Hunt- ing Trips of a Ran -liman^" says: " Thirst is largely a matter of habit." So it may be, but I am sadly addicted to the habit, and I found it one from which, on this trip, I was able to extract a great deal of comfort, for we crossed one or more of these little brooks every hour, and I rarely passed one without taking a copious draught of its icy fluid. The days, were moderately warm, and the hard labor we per- formed, walking and climbing, made these frequent opportunities to quench thirst one of the most pleasant features of the journey. I was frequently reminded of Cole' s beautiful tribute to the mountain brook: " Sleeping in crystal wells, Leaping in shady dells, Or issuing clear from the womb of tlie mountain, Sky-mated, related, earth's holiest daughter; Not the hot kiirs of wine. Is half so divine as the sip of thy lip, iuspiring cold water." We arrived at our destination, the foot of Ski-ik- kulLake (and the source of the creek ujj which we had been traveling), at four o'clock in the afternoon AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 121 of the second day out. We made camp on the bank of the creek, and John and I engaged in gathering a supply of wood. After we had been thus occu- pied for ten or fifteen minutes, I noticed that Sey- mour was nowhere in sight, and asked John where he was. " He try spear salmon.' " What will he spear him with?" I said. " Sharp sticks" ''No. He bring spear in him pocket," said John. We were standing on the bank of the creek again, and as he spoke there was a crashing in the brush overhead, and an immense salmon, nearly three feet long, landed on the ground between us. Seymour had indeed brought a spear with him in his pocket. It was made of a fence-nail and two pieces of goat horn, witli a strong cord about four feet long attached. There was a sort of socket in the upper end of it, and the points of the two pieces of horn were formed into barbs. As soon as Seymour had dropped his pack he had picked up a long, dry, cedar pole, one end of which he had sharpened and inserted between the barbs, fastening the string so that when he should strike a fish the spear point would pull off. W^ith this simple weapon in hand he had walked out on the vast body of driftwood with which the creek is bridged for half a mile below the lake, and peering down between the logs, had found and killed the fish. We made a fire in the hollow of a great cedar that stood at the water's edge. The tree was green, but the fire soon ate a large hole into the central cavity, and, by fre- quent feeding with dry wood, we had a fire that SUPPER FOR TUREK-SAUJfOJH ROTI. (122) AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 123 roared and crackled like a great f uanace, all night. It " Kindled the gummy bark of fir or pine, And sent a comf ortabl 3 heat from far, Which might supply the sun." Seymour cut off the salmon's head, split the body down the back, and took out the spine. Then he spread the fish out and put skewers through it to hold it flat. He next cut a stick about four feet long, split it half its length, tied a cedar withe around to keep it from splitting further, and insert- ing the fish in the aperture, tied another withe around the ux)per end. He now stuck the other end of the stick into the ground in front of the fire, and our supper was under way. I have often been reduced to the necessity of eat- ing grub cooked by Indians, both squaws and men, and can place my hand on my heart and say truth- fully I never hankered after Indian cookery. In fact, I have always eaten it with a mental reservation, and a quiet, perhaps unuttered protest, but I counted the minutes while that fish cooked. I knew Sey- mour was no more cleanly in his habits than his kin — in fact, he would not have washed his hands before commencing, nor the fish after removing its entrails, had I not watched him and made him do so; but even if he had not I should not have refused to eat, for when a man has been climbing mountains all day he can not afford to be too scrupulous in regard to his food. When the fish was thoroughly roasted on one side the other was turned to the fire, and finally, when done to a turn, it was laid smok- ing hot on a platter of cedar boughs which I had 124 CKUISIXGS IN THE CASCADES. prepared, and the savory odors it emitted would have tempted the palate of an epicure. I took out my hunting knife, and making a suggestive gesture toward the smoking fish, asked John if I should cut off a piece; for not withstanding my consuming hun- ger, my native modesty still remained with me, and I thus liinted for an invitation to help myself. ' ' Yes, ' ' he said. "Cut off how much you can eat. ' ' You can rest assured I cut off a ration that would have frightened a tramp. Good digestion waited on appetite, and health on both. I ate with the hunger born of the day's fatigue and the mountain atmos- phere, and the Indians iollowed suit, or rather led, and in half an hour only the head and spine af that fifteen- pound salmon remained, and they were not yet in an edible condition. Near bedtime, however, they were both spitted before the fire, and in the silent watches of the night, as I awoke and looked out of my downy bed, I saw those two simple-minded children of the forest, sitting there picking the last remaining morsels of flesh from those two j^ieces of what, in any civilized camp or household, would have been considered offal. But when a Siwash quits eating fish it is generally because there is no more fish to eat. After such a supper, charmed by such weird, novel surroundings, lulled by the music of the rushing waters, and warmed b}^ a glowing camp-fire, I slept that night with naught else to wish for, at peace with all mankind. Even " mine enemy's dog, though he had bit me, should have stood that night against my fire " CHAPTEH XYI. [EFORE going to bed, Seymour cautioned me tlirougli liis interpreter, the faithful John, against getting out too early in the morning. He said the goats did not commence to move ^'^^ around until nine or ten o' clock, ' and if we started out to hunt before that time we were liable to pass them asleep in their beds. But I read the hypocrite' s meaning between his words; he is a lazy loafer and loves to lit^' and snooze in the morning. It was his own comfort, more than our success in hunting, that he was con- cerned about. Goats, as well as all other species of large game, are on foot at daylight, w^hether they have been out all night or not, and from that time until an hour after sunrise, and again just before dark in the evening, are the most favorable times to hunt. The game is intent on feeding at these times and is not so wary as at other times. I told Seymour we would get up at four o'clock, get breakfast, and be ready to move at daylight. And so we did. The night had been clear and cold; ice had formed around the margin of the lake, and a hoar frost a quarter of an inch deep covered the ground, the logs, and rocks that were not sheltered by trees. Ski-ik- kul or Willey's Lake, as it is termed by the whites, (125) 126 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES is a beautiful little mountain tarn about a quarter of a mile wide and four miles long. It is of glassy transparency, of great depth, and abounds in mount- ain trout, salmon, and salmon trout. It is walled in by abrupt, rocky-faced mountains that rise many hundreds of feet from the water's edge, and on which a scanty growth of laurel, currant bushes, and moss furnish food for tb.e goats. Stunted cedars, balsams, spruces, and pines also grow from small fissures in the rocks that alford sufficient earth to cover their roots. The craft on which we were to navigate this lake was an interesting specimen of Indian nautical architecture. It was a raft Seymour had made on a former visit. The stringers were two large, dry, cedar logs, one about sixteen feet long, the other about twenty; these were held together by four poles, or cross-ties, pinned to the logs, and a floor composed of cedar clapboards was laid over all. Pins of hard, dry birch, driven into the logs and tied together at the tops, formed roAvlocks, and the craft was provided with four large paddles, or oars, hewed out with an ax. In fact, that was the only tool used in building the raft. The pins had been sharpened to a flat point and driven firmly into sockets made by striking the ax deeply into the log, and instead of ropes, cedar withes were used for lashing. These had been roasted in the fire until tough and flexible, and when thus treated they formed a good substitute for the white sailor's marline or the cow-boy's picket rope. We boarded this lubberly old hulk and pulled out up the north shore of the lake just as the morning AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 127 sun gave the lirst golden tints to the mountain tops. Our progress was slow despite our united strength applied to the oars, but it gave us more time to scan the mountain sides for game. I did not find it so plentiful as I had been prom- ised, for I had been told by the Indians that we should see a dozen goats 128 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES the first hour, but we had been out more than that length of time before we saw any. Finally, how- ever, after we had gone a mile or more up the lake shore, I saw a large buck goat browsing among the crags about four hundred feet above us. He had not seen us, and dropping the oar I caught up my rifle. The men backed water, and as the raft came to a standstill, I sent a bullet into Lim. He sprang forward, lost his footing, came bounding and crash- ing to the foot of the mountain, and stopped, stone dead, in the brush at the water' s edge not more than twenty feet from the raft. We pushed ashore and took him on board, when I found, to my disappoint ment, tbat both horns had been broken off in the fall, so that his head was worthless for mounting. We cruised clear around the lake that day and could not And another goat. In the afternoon it clouded up and set in to rain heavily again in the canon, while snow fell on the mountains a few hun- dred feet above us. The next morning I went up a narrow canon to the north, and ascending a high peak hunted until nearly noon, when I found two more goats, a female and her kid (nearly full growL), both of which I killed, and taking the skins and one ham of the kid, I returned to camp. It continued to rain at frequent intervals, which robbed camp life and hunting of much of their charm, so I decided to start for home the following morning. In the afternoon I rigged a hoo'.c and line, cut an alder pole, and caught live fine trout, the largest seventeen and a half inches long. Seymour speared three more salmon and roasted one of them, so that we had another feast of fish that night. We also roasted AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 129 a leg of goat for use on our way home, and spent the evening cleaning and drying the three skins as best we could by the camp-fire, to lighten their weight as much as possible. Meanwhile, I questioned John at considerable length regarding the nature of his language, but could get little information, as he seemed unable to convey his ideas on the subject in our tongue. The language of the Skowlitz tribe, to which he and Sey- mour belong, is a strange medley of gutturals, aspi- rates, coughs, sneezes, throat scrapings, and a few words I said: ''Your language don't seem to have as many words as ours." " No; English too much. Make awful tired learn him." ' ' Where did you learn it?' ' "O, I work in pack train for Hudson Bay one year, and work on boat one year." '' Where did the boat run?" ''She run nort from Victoria," he said. " Where :to, Alaska?" "O, Idunno." " How far north?" "0, I dunno. Take seven day. We go to de mout of de river." " What river? What was the name of the town?" "O, I dunno know what you call 'em." And thus I learned, by continued questioning, that he did not know or remember the English names of the places he had visited, but that they were probably in Alaska. He always appealed to Seymour to reply to any of my questions that he 130 CRUisiNGS i:n^ the cascades could not himself answer, and a question or remark that in our tongue liad taken a dozen words to express he would repeat in a cough, a throat-clearing sound, and a grunt or two. Seymour s answer would be returned in a half sneeze, a lisp, a suppressed whistle, a slight groan, and an upturning of the eye. Then John would look thoughtful while framing the answer into his pigin English, and it would come back, for instance, something like this: " Seymo say he tink we ketch plenty sheep up dat big mountain, on de top " Or, ''He say he tink maybe we get plenty grouse down de creek. To- morrow we don't need carry meat," etc. John seemed to regard Seymour as a perfect walking cyclopedia of knowledge, and, in fact, he was well informed on woodcraft, the habits of birds and animals, Indian lore, and other matters pertaining to the country in which he lived, but outside of these limits he knew much less than John. I was disgusted with his pretended inability to speak or understand English, for on one of my former visits to the village I had heard him speak it, and he did it much better than John could. Beside, Pean had told me that Seymour had attended school at the mission on the Frazer river, and could even read and write, but now that he had an interpreter he considered it smart, just as a great many Indians do, to affect an utter ignorance of our language. I asked him why he did not talk; told him I knew he could talk, and reminded him that I had heard him speak good English; that I knew he had been to school, etc. He simply shook his head and grunted. Then I told him he was a boiled-down AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 131 fool to act thus, and that if he really wanted to appear smarter even than his fellows, the best way to do it was to make use of the education he had whenever he could make himself more useful and agreeable by so doing. I saw by the way he changed countenance that he understood every word I said, though he still remained obstinate. On several occasions, however, I suddenly fired some short, sharp question at him when he was not expecting it, and before stopping to think he would answer in good English. CHAPTER XVII. TER making a liearty breakfast on Rocky Mountain kid, salmon, and sea biscuits, we began our return journey down the creek in a drizzling rain. Our burdens were increased by the weight of the three goat skins, and the walking was rendered still • . more precarious than before by the logs, grass, soil, pine needles, and everything else having become so thoroughly watersoaked. If we had had hard climbing up the steep pitches on our outbound cruise, we had it still harder now. We could not stick in our toe nails as well now as before, and even if we stuck in our heels going down a hill, they would not stay stuck any better than a second-hand postage-stamp. I remem- bered one hill, or canon wall, that in the ascent made us a great deal of hard work, and much perturbation of spirit, because it was steep, rocky, and had very few bushes on it that we could use as derricks by which to raise ourselves. I dreaded the descent of this hill, now that the rocks were wet, but we made it safely. Not so, however, the next one we attempted; it was not so rocky as the other, and had a goodly bed of blue clay, with a shallow covering of vegetable mold for (132) A^B OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 133 a surface, with a little grass and a few weeds. It was very steep, I think about what an architect would call a three-quarter pitch, but we essayed it boldly and fearlessly. Seymour was in the lead, his faithful partisan, John, followed, and I consti- tuted the tail end of the procession. We had just got well over the brow, when the end of a dry hem- lock stick caught in the mansard roof of my left foot; the other end was fast in the ground, and, though I tried to free myself, both ends stuck; the stick played a lone hand, but it raised me clear out in spite pf my struggles. I uttered a mournful groan as I saw myself going, but was as helpless as a ten- derfoot on a bucking cay use. My foot was lifted till my heel punched the small of my back, and my other foot slid out from under me; I spread out like a step ladder, and clawed the air for succor, but there was not a bush or branch within reach. I think I went ten feet before I touched the earth again, and then I landed head first among John's legs. He sat down on the back of my neck like a trip-hammer,, and we both assaulted Seymour in the rear with such violence as to knock him clear out. For a few seconds we were the worst mixed up community that ever lived, I reckon. Arms, legs, guns, hats, packs, and human forms were mingled in one writhing, squirming, surging mass, and groans, shouts, and imprecations, in English, Chinook, and Scowlitz, rent the air. Every hand was grabbing for something to stop its owner, but there were no friendly stoppers within reach; if one caught a weed, or a stunted juniper, it faded away from his herculean grasp like dry grass before a prairie fire. I seemed to have the TRYING TO GET UP. (134) A^B OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 135 liighest initial velocity of any member of the expe- dition, and, though in the rear at the start, I was a full length ahead at the finish. We finally all brought up in a confused mass at the foot of the hill, and it took some time for each man to extricate him- self from the pile, and reclaim his property from the wreck. Strange as it may seem, however, but little damage was done. There was a skinned nose, a bruised knee or two, a sprained wrist, and every- body was painted with mud. All were, however, able to travel, and after that, when going down steep hills, the Siwashes kept looking back to see if I were coming. We performed several dangerous feats that day and the next, walking along smooth, barkless logs, that lay across some of the deep gorges; in places we were thirty feet or more above the ground, or rather rocks, where a slip would have resulted in instant death. My hair frequently stood on end, what little I have left, but John and Seymour always went safely across and I could not afford to be outdone in courage by these miserable, fish-eating Siwashes, so I followed wherever they led. We read that the wicked stand on slippery places, but I can see these wicked people, and go them about ten better, for I have stood, and even walked, on many of these wet logs, and they are about the all-firedest slipperyest things extant, and yet I have not fallen off. I fell only that once, when I got my foot in the trap, and that would have downed a wooden man. Just before going into camp that night, John shot a grouse, but we were all too tired and hungry to cook it then, and made our meal on cold kid, fish, and biscuits. TKYliVa TO GET DOWX. (136) AND OTHER IIUXTIXG ADVEXTIJRES. 137 After supper, however, John dressed the bird and laid it aside for breakfast, saying we would each have a piece of it then. The rain ceased falling at dark, and the stars came out, which greatly revived our drooping spirits. We gathered large quantities- of dry wood and bark, so we w^ere able to keep a good fire all night. 1 drew from a half -rotten log, a flat, slab-like piece of pine, which at flrst I failed to recognize. John saw it and said: ''Good. Dafs beech." ' ' Beech, ' ' I said. ' ' Why , there' s no beech in this- country." "No, beech wood, make good fire, good kindle, good what you call him? Good torch." "Oh," I said, " pitch pine, eh?" " Yas, beech pine." And this was as near as he could get to pitch. About two o'clock in the morning, it commenced to rain heavily again, and the poor Indians were soon in a pitable condition, with their blankets and cloth- ing wet through. They sat uj) the remainder of the night, feeding the tire to keep it alive and them- selves warm, for they had neither canvas or rubber coats, or any other kind of waterproof clothing. They put up some of the longer pieces of the bark we had gathered for fuel, and made a passable shelter, but it was so small, and leaked so badly, that it was far from comfortable. I pitied the poor fel- lows, but had nothing I could give or even share with them for shelter. I got up at five o'clock, and we commenced preparations for breakfast. I told John he had better cook the grouse, but he shook his head, and said sadly: 138 CRUISINGS 11S[ THE CASCADES '' Seymo, he spile de grouse." '' How did lie do that?" I inquired. ' ' He say put him on stick by fire to cook in de night. Then he go to sleep and stick burn off. Grouse fall in de fire and burn." "That's too thin," I said. ''Seymour cooked that grouse and ate it while you and I were asleep." Seymour glared at me, but had not the courage to resent or deny the charge. An Indian does not let sleep interfere with his appetite; he eats whatever there is first, and then sleeps. I divided the last of the bacon and biscuits equally between us, and with a remnant of cold broiled salmon, we eked out a scant breakfast on which to begin a day's work. John was clawing some white greasy substance from a tin can with his fingers, and spreading it on his biscuits with the same tools. He i)assed the can to me, and said: . "Havebutta?" "No, thanks," I answered; "I seldom eat butter in camp." "Hike him all time," he replied; "I never git widout butta for brade at home." This by way of informing me that he knew what good living was, and practiced it at home. It rained heavily all day, and our tramp through the jungle was most dreary and disagreeable. " The day was dark, and cold, and dreary; It rained, and the wind was never weary." About three o' clock in the afternoon, we sat down to rest on the bank of the creek. We had been there but a few minutes, when a good sized black bear €ame shambling along up the bank of the creek, AND OTHER HTTNTING ADVEI^TURES. 139 looking for salmon. The Indians saw liim when a hundred yards or more away, and flattened them- selves out on the ground to await his nearer aiDproach. I raised my rifle to my shoulder, but they ENFAMILLE both motioned me to wait, that he was yet too far away. I disregarded their injunction, however, and promptly landed an express bullet in the bear's breast. He reared, uttered a smothered groan, turned, made one jump, and fell dead. Now arose the question of saving his skin; it was late, and we were yet tliree miles from the Indijin village; to skin 140 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES. the bear then meant to camp there for the night, and as the rain still came down in a steady, heavy sheet, I at once decided that I would not stay out there another night for the best bear skin in the country. Seymour and John held a short consultation, and then John said they would come back and get the skin next day, and take it in lieu of the money I owed them for their services. We struck a bargain in about a minute, and hurried on, arriving at the village just as it grew dark. My rubber coat and high rubber boots had kept me comparatively dry, but the poor Indians were wet to the skin. \ ^ CHAPTER XYIIL |N arriving at Chehalis John kindly- invited me to stop over night with him, but I declined with thanks. I went into his house, however, to wait while he got ready to take me down to Barker's. It was the same type of home that nearly all these Indians have — a large clap- board building about eight feet high, with smoked salmon hung everywhere and a fire in the centre of the room, which, by the way, w^as more of a smoke than fire, curing the winter provender. A pile of wood lay in one corner of the room, some empty barrels in another, fish- nets were liung in still another, and the family lived, principally, in the fourth. John lives with his father-in-law, mother-in- law, two brothers-in-law, one sister-in-law, his wife and three papooses. Blankets, pots, tinware and grub of various kinds were piled up promiscuously in this living corner, and the little undressed kids hov- ered and shivered around the dull fire, suffering from the cold. We were soon in the canoe again, en route to the steamboat landing, where we arrived soon after dark. I regretted to part with John, for I had found him a good, faithful servant and staunch friend. I was glad to get rid of Seymour, however, for I had learned that he was a contemptible sneak, and told him so in as many words. (141) 142 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES En route home I had about two hours to wait at Port Moody for the boat. There w^ere great numbers of grebes and ducks in the bay, and I asked the dock foreman if there was any rule against shooting there. He said he guessed not ; he had never seen anyone shooting there, but he gnessed there w^ouldn' t be any objection. I got out my rifle and two boxes of cart- ridges and opened on the birds. The ducks left at once, but the grebes sought safety in diving, and as soon as the fusillade began a number of gulls came hovering around, apparently to learn the cause of the racket. I had fine sport between the two, and a. large audience to enjoy it with me. In ten minutes from the time I commenced shooting all the clerks in the dock office, all the freight hustlers in the warehouse, all the railroad section men, the ticket- agent and baggage-master, numbering at least twenty men in the aggregate, were clustered around me, and their comments on my rifle and shooting w^ere extremely amusing. Not a man in the party had ever before seen a Winchester express, and the racket it made, the way in which the balls plowed up the water, and the way the birds, when hit, van- ished, in to thin air and a few feathers, were myste- ries far beyond their jiower to solve. At the first lull in the firing half a dozen of them rushed up and wanted to examine the rifie, the fancy finish and combination sights of which were as profoundly strange to them as to the benighted Indians. They soon handed it back to me, however, with the request to resume hostilities against the birds ; they pre- ferred to seethe old thing work rather than to handle it. The gulls were soaring in close, and six shots^ a:n^d other hui^ttng adventures. 148 rapidly delivered, dropped three of them into the water, mutilated beyond recognition. This was the climax ; the idea of killing birds on the wing, with a rifle, was something these men had never before heard of, and two or three examined my cart- ridges to see if they were not loaded with shot, instead of bullets. When they found this suspicion was groundless they were beside themselves with wonder and admiration of the strange arm. As a matter of fact, it required no particular skill to kill the gulls on the wing, for they were the large gray variety, and frequently came within twenty or thirty feet of me, so that anyone who could kill them with a shotgun could do so with a rifle. Finally the steamer came in and I went aboard. The train arrived soon after and several of its passen- gers boarded the boat. The gulls were now hover- ing about the steamer, picking up whatever particles of food were thrown overboard from the cook-room. One old Irishman, who had come in on the train from the interior wilds, walked out on the quarter deck and looking at them intently for a few minutes, turned to me and inquired : " Phwat kind of burds is thim— geese ? " " Yes," I said, "thim's geese, I reckon." "Well, be gorry, if I had a gun here I' d shoot some o'thim" ; and he went and told his companions "there was a flock of the tamest wild geese out thare ye iver sawed." The return journey to Portland was without inci- dent. There I boarded the steamer and spent another delightful day on the broad bosom of the Columbia river, winding uj) among the grand basaltic 144 CKUisiNGS IN THE cascad:ks l!!!i"f"' ill ^'4|ii^!,i:^y!iiil||jf;,iii,^ AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 145 cliffs and towering mountain peaks of the Cascade Range. Again the little camera came into requisi- tion, and though the day was cloudy and blusterous, though snow fell at frequent intervals, and though the steamer trembled like a reed shaken by the wind, I made a dozen or more exposures on the most inter- esting and beautiful subjects as we passed them, and to my surprise many came out good pictures. Most of them lack detail in the deeper shadows, but the results altogether show that had the day been clear and bright all would have been perfect. In short, it is possible with this dry-plate process to make good pictures from a moving steamboat, or even from a railway train going at a high rate of speed. I made three pictures from a Northern Pacific train, coming through the Bad Lands, when running twenty-five miles an hour, and though slightly blurred in the near foreground, the buttes and bluffs, a hundred yards and further away, are as sharp as if I had been standing on the ground and the camera on a tripod; and a snap shot at a prairie-dog town — just as the train slowed on a heavy grade — shows several of the little rodents in various poses, some of them appar- ently trying to look pretty while having their ''pict- ures took." 10 CHAPTER XIX. stopped off at Spokane Falls, on my way home, for a few days' deer hunt- ing, and though that region be not exactly in the Cas- cades, it is so near that a few points in relation to the sport there may be admissible in connection with the foregoing narrative. I had . advised my good friend. Dr. C. S. Penfield, of my com- ing, and he had kindly planned for me a hunt- ing trip. On the morn- ing after my arrival his brother-in-law, Mr. T. E. Jefferson, took me up behind a pair of good roadsters and drove to Johnston's ranch, eighteen miles from the falls, and near the foot of Mount Carle- ton, where we hoped to find plenty of deer. We hunted (146) AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 147 there two days, and though we found signs reason- ably plentiful and saw three or four deer we were unable to kill any. Mr. Jefferson burned some powder after a buck and a doe the first morning after our arrival, but it was his first experience in deer hunting, so it is not at all strange that the game should have escaped. Mr. Jefferson was compelled to THE STAGE RANCH. return home at that time on account of a business engagement, but Mr. Johnston, with characteristic Western hospitality and kindness, said T must not leave without a shot, and so hooked up his team and drove me twenty-five miles farther into the mountains, to a place where he said we would surely find plenty of game. On the way in we picked up old Billy Cowgill, a famous deer hunter in this region, and took him along as guide. 148 CRUISINGS IIS^ THE CASCADES We stopped at Brooks' stage ranch, on the Colville road to rest the team, and the proprietor gave us an amusing account of some experiments he had been making in shooting buckshot from a muzzle- loading shotgun. He had made some little bags of buck- skin, just large enough to hold twelve No. 2 buck- shot, and after tilling them had sewed up the ends. He shot a few of them at a tree sixty yards away, but they failed to spread and all went into one hole. Then he tried leaving the front end of the bag open, and still they acted as a solid ball; so he had to aban- don the scheme, and loaded the charge loose, as of old. He concluded, however, not to fire this last load at the target, and hung the gun up in its usual place. A few days later he heard the dog barking in the woods a short distance from the house, and supposed it had treed a porcupine. Mr. Brooks' brother, who was visiting at the time, took the gun and went out to kill the game, whatever it might be. On reaching the place, he found a ruffed grouse sitting in a tree, at which he fired. The ranchman said he heard the report, and his brother soon came back, carrying a badly -mutilated bird; he threw it into the kitchen, and put the gun away; then he sat down, looked thoughtful, and kept silent for a long time. Finally he blurted out: ''Say, Tom; that gun got away from me." ' ' How was that V ' queried the ranchman. "I don't know; but I shot pretty near straight up at the grouse, and somehow the gun slii3ped off my shoulder and done this." And opening his coat he showed his vest, one side of which was split from top to bottom; lie then took out a handful of his AT^D OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 149 watch and held it up — one case was torn off, the crystal smashed, the dial caved in, and the running gear all mixed up. The ranchman said he guessed he had put one of the buckskin bags of shot into that barrel, and forgetting that fact, had added the loose charge. He said he reckoned twenty-four No. 2 buckshot made too heavy a load for an eight-pound gun. We reached '' Peavine Jimmy' s " mining cabin, which was to be our camp, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and busied ourselves till dark in the usual duties of cooking, eating, and gathering wood. Old Billy proved a very interesting character; he is a simple, quiet, honest, unpretentious old man, and unlike most backwoodsmen, a veritable coward. He has the rare good sense, however, to admit it frankly, and thus disarms criticism. In fact, his frequent admission of this weakness is amusing. He says that for fear of getting lost he does not like to go off a trail when hunting, unless there is snow on the ground, so that he can track himself back into camp. He rides an old buckskin pony that is as modest and gentle as its master. Billy says he often gets lost when he does venture away from the trail, but in such cases he just gives old Buck therein, hits him a slap, and tells him to go to camp and he soon gets there. He told us a bear story that night, worthy of repetition. Something was said that reminded him of it, and he mentioned it, but added, modestly, that he didn't know as we cared for any bear stories. But we said we were very fond of them, and urged the recital. " Well, then," he said, ''if you will wait a minute, 150 CKUISINGS IN THE CASCADES I'll take a drink of water first and then I' 11 tell it to you," and he laughed a kind of boyish titter, and began: " Well, me and three other fellers was up north in the Colville country, huntin' , and all the other fellows was crazy to kill a bear. I didn't want to kill no bear, and didn't expect to. I'm as 'feard as death of a bear, and hain't no use for 'em. All I wanted to kill was a deer. The other fellers, they wanted to kill some deer, too, but they wanted bear the worst. So one mornin' we all started out, and the other fellers they took the best huntin' ground, and said I'd better go down along the creek and see if I couldn't kill some grouse, for they didn't believe I could kill anything bigger' n that; and 1 said, all right, and started off down the creek. Purty soon I come to an old mill that wasn't runnin' then. And when I got purty near to the mill I set down on a log, fori didn't think it was worth while to go any furder, for I didn't think I would find any game down the creek, and I didn't care much whether I did or not. Well, I heard a kind of a racket in the mill, and durned if there wasn't a big black bear right in the mill. And I watched him a little bit, and he started out towards me. And I said to my- self, says I, ' IN^ow Billy, here's your chance to kill a bear.' "I hadn't never killed no bear before, nor never seed one before, and durned if I wasn't skeered nearly to death. But I thought there wasn't no use of runnin', for I knowed he could run faster' n I could, so I took out my knife and commenced cut- tin' down the brush in front of me, for I wanted to AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 151 make a sliure shot if I did shoot, if I could. And the bear, he come out of the mill and rared up, and put his paws on a log and looked at me, and I said to myself, says I, ' JSTow Billy, this is your time to shoot' ; but I wasn' t ready to shoot yit. They was one more bush I wanted to cut out of the way before I shot, so I cut if off and laid down my knife, and then I took up my gun and tried to take aim at his breast, but doggoned if I didn't shake so I couldn't see the sights at all. And I thought one time I wouldn't shoot, and then I knowed the other fellers would laugh at me if I told 'em I seed a bear and didn't shoot at him, and besides I was afraid some of 'em was up on the hillside lookin' at me then. So I just said to myself, says I, ' Now Billy, you' re goin' to get eat up if you don' t kill him, but you might as well be eat up as to be laughed at.' So I jist took the best aim I could for shakin', an' shet both eyes an' pulled. ''Well, I think the bear must a begin to git down jist as I pulled, for I tore his lower jaw off and shot a big hole through one side of his neck. He howled and roared and rolled around there awhile and then he got still. I got round where I could see him, after he quit kickin' , but I was af eared to go up to him, so I shot two more bullets through his head to make sure of him. And then I set down and w^aited a long while to see if he moved any more; for I was afeard he mightn't be dead yit, and might be playin' possum, jist to get ahold of me. But he didn't move no more, so I went uj) to him with my gun cocked and pointed at his head, so if he did move I could give him another one right quick. An' then I punched him a little with 152 CKUISINGS IlN THE CASCADES. my gun, but he didn't stir. An' when I found he was real dead I took my knife and cut off one of his claws, an' then I went back to camp, the biggest feelin' old cuss you ever seed. *'Well, arter while the other fellers they all come in, lookin' mighty blue, for they hadn't any of 'em killed a thing, an' when I told 'em I'd killed a bear, they wouldn't believe it till I showed 'em the claw. An' then they wouldn't believe it, neither, for they thought I' d bought the claw of some Injin. And they wouldn' t believe it at all till they went out with me and seed the bear and helped skin 'im, and cut 'im up, and pack 'im into camp. An' they was the dog- gondest, disappointedest lot of fellers you ever seed, for we hunted five days longer, an' nary one of 'em got to kill a bear nor even see one. They thought I was the poorest hunter and the biggest coward in the lot, but I was the only one that killed a bear that clip." CHAPTER XX. were out at daylight the next morning and hunted all. day with fair success. Johnston and Billy jumped a bunch of five mule-deer, a buck, two does, and two fawns. Johnston fired fourteen shots at them before they got out of the country, and killed the two does. In sx)eaking of it afterward Billy said he was just taking a good aim at the old buck's eye when Johnston's gun cracked the first time, and of course the buck ran, so he did not get a shot. ''But why didn't you shoot at him running?" I inquired. "Because I can't hit a jumpin' deer," he replied, frankly, "and I hate like thunder to miss." I spent the day about a mile from camp on top of Blue Grouse Mountain, a prominent landmark of the country. A heavy fog hung about the mount- ain and over the surrounding country until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when it lifted and disclosed a view of surpassing loveliness. Away to the west and southwest there was a level tract of swampy, heavily timbered country about thirty miles long and ten miles wide. I looked down on the tops of the trees composing this vast forest, and they appeared at this distance not unlike a vast field of half -grown green grain. Beyond this tract to the (153) Wm ^ ONE Ul-' JOHNSTON'S PRIZES. (154) AiS^D OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 155 west a chain of hills wound in serpentine curves from north to south, their parks and bits of prairie gleaming in the sun like well-made farms. To the north lay Loon Lake nestling among the pine-clad hills, its placid bosom sparkling in the setting sun like a sheet of silver. Farther to the north and northeast were two other lakes of equal size and beauty, while far distant in the east were several large bodies of prairie separated by strips of pine and fir. I longed for my camera, but on account of the unfavorable outlook of the morning, I had not brought the instrument. The following morning promised no better, for the fog hung like a pall over the whole country; but I took the little detective with me, hoping the mist would lift as before; in this, however, I was disap- pointed. I staid on the mountain from early morn- ing till half -past three, and there being then no pros- pect of a change went down. Just as I reached the base I saw a rift in the clouds, and supposing the long-wished change in the weather was about to take place, I turned and began the weary climb, but again the fog settled down, and I was at last com- pelled to return to camp without the coveted views. I made several exposures during the day on crooked, deformed, wind-twisted trees on the top of the mountain, which, strange to say, came out good. The fog was so dense at the time that one could not see fifty yards. I used a small stop and gave each plate from five to twenty seconds, and found, when developed, that none of them were over exposed, while those given the shorter time were under exposed. That day' s hunting resulted in three more 156 CRUISmOS IN THE CASCADES deer, and as we then had all the meat our team could take out up the steep hills near camp, we decided to start for home the next morning. While seated around our blazing log fire in the old cabin that night, ARE YOU LOOKING FOR US? Mr. Johnston entertained us with some interesting- reminiscences of his extensive experience in the West. He has been a ''broncho buster," a stock ranchman, and a cow-boy by turns, and a recital of his varied experiences in these several lines would fill a big book. Among others, he told us that he once lived AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 157 in a portion of California where the ranchmen raised a great many hogs, but allowed them to range at will in the hills and mountains from the time they were littered until old enough and large enough for market; that in this time they became as wild as deer and as savage as peccaries, so that the only way they could ever be reclaimed and marketed was to catch them with large, powerful dogs, trained to the work. Their feet were then securely tied with strong thongs, and they were muzzled and packed into market or to the ranches, as their owners desired, on horses or mules. Johnston had a pair of these dogs, and used to assist his neighbors in rounding u|) their wild hogs. In one case, he and several other men went with an old German ranchman away up into the mountains to bring out a drove of these pine- skinners, many of whom had scarcely seen a liuman being since they were pigs, and at sight of the party the hogs stam- peded of course, and ran like so many deer. The dogs were turned loose, took up a trail, and soon had a vicious critter by the ears, when the packers came up, muzzled and tied it securely. The dogs were then turned loose again, and another hog was rounded up in the same way. These two were hung onto a pack- animal with their backs down, their feet lashed together over the pack-saddle, and their long, sharp snouts pointing toward the horse' s head. They were duly cinched, and the horse turned loose to join the train. This operation was rejjeated until the whole herd was corralled and swung into place on the horses, and the squealing, groaning, and snorting of the ter- rified brutes was almost deafening. One pair of hogs tiaittiiimmmlilllimttiimmm (158) AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 159 were loaded on a little mule which had never been accustomed to this work, and, as the men were all engaged in handling the other animals, the old ranch- man said he would lead this mule down the mountain himself. Johnston and his partner cinched the hogs on in good shape, while the Dutchman hung to the mule. As they were giving the ropes the final pull, Johns- ton gave his chum a wink, and they both slipped out their knives, cut the muzzles off the porkers when the old man was looking the other way, and told him to go ahead. He started down the trail towing the little mule, which did not relish its load in the least, by the halter. The hogs were struggling to free themselves, and, as the thongs began to cut into their legs, they got mad and began to bite the mule. Then there was trouble; stiff-legged bucking set in, and mule and hogs were cturned up and down, and changed ends so rapidly that' for a few minutes it was hard to tell which of the three animals was on the outside, the inside, the topside, or the bottom- side. The poor little mule was frantic with rage and fright, and what a mule can not and will not do under such circumstances, to get rid of a load can not be done by any four-footed beast. He pawed the air, kicked, and brayed, jumped backward, forward, and sidewise, and twisted himself into every imag- inable shape. The old Dutchman was as badly stam- peded as the mule; he shouted, yanked, and swore in Dutch, English, and Spanish; he yelled to the men above to come and help him, but they were so convulsed and doubled up with laughter that they could not have helped him if they would. 160 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES Finally, the mule got away from the old man and went tearing down into the canon ; he overtook and passed the balance of the pack-train, stampeded them almost beyond control of the packers, and knocked the poor hogs against trees and brush until they were almost dead. He ran nearly six miles, and being unable to get rid of his pack, fell exhausted and lay there until the men came up and took charge of him. The old man accused Johnston of cutting the muzzles T THE BUCKER AN D THE BUSTER. off the hogs, but he and his partner both denied it, said they certainly must have slipped off, and they finally convinced him that that was the way the trouble came about. This, with sundry other recitals of an equally interesting nature, caused the evening to pass pleas- antly, and at a late hour we turned into our bunks. We were up and moving long before daylight tlie next morning, and as soon as we could see the trail AXD OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 161 hooked up the team and attempted to go, but, alas for our hopes of an early start, one of the horses refused to pull at the very outset — in short, he balked and no mule ever balked worse. Johnston plied the buckskin until the horse refused to stand it any longer and began to rear and to throw himself on the tongue, back in the harness, etc. Johnston got off the wagon, went to the animaF s head and tried to lead it, but the brute would not be led any more than it would be driven, and commenced rearing and strik- ing at its master as if trying to kill him. This aroused the ire of the ranchman and he picked up a piece of a board, about four inches wide and three feet long, and fanned the vicious critter right vigor- ously. I took a hand in the game, at Johnston's request, and warmed the cay use' s latter half to the best of my ability with a green hemlock gad. He bucked and backed, reared and ranted, pawed, pitched, plunged and pranced, charged, cavorted and kicked, until it seemed that he would surely make shreds of the harness and kindling wood of the wagon ; but the whole outfit staid with him, including Johnston and myself. We wore out his powers of endurance if not his hide, and he finally got down to business, took the load up the hill and home to the ranch, without manifesting any further inclination to strike. We reached the ranch about nine o'clock at night, and the next day Johnston drove me into Spokane Falls, where, in due time, I caught the train for home. Spokane Falls is a growing, pushing town, and the falls of the Spokane river, from which the town takes its name, afford one of the most beautiful and 11 (162) AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 163 interesting sights on the line of the Northern Pacific road. There are over a dozen distinct falls within a half a mile, one of which is over sixty feet in per- pendicular height. Several of these falls are split into various channels by small islands or pillars of basaltic rock. At one place, where two of these channels unite in a common plunge into a small pool, the water is thrown up in a beautiful, shell- like cone of white foam, to a height of nearly six feet. It is estimated by competent engineers that the river at this point furnishes a water-power equal in the aggregate to that of the Mississippi at St. Anthony' s Falls. Every passenger over this route should certainly stop off and spend a few hours viewing the falls of the Spokane river. CHAPTER XXI. HUNTING THE GRIZZLY BEAR. bear, like man, inhabits almost every latitude and every land, and has even been translated to the starry heavens, where the constellations of the Great " Dipper and the Little Dipper are known to us as well as to the ancients as Ursi Major and Minor. But North America 'furnishes the largest and most aggressive species in the gvizzlj {Ursus horrlbilis), the black {Ursus americanus), and the polar (Ursus maritimus) bears, and here the hunter finds his most daring sport. Of all the known plantigrades (flat-footed beasts) the grizzly is the most savage and the most dreaded, and he is the largest of all, saving the presence of his cousin the polar bear, for which, nevertheless, he is more than a match in strength and courage. Some specimens measure seven feet from tip of nose to root of tail. The distinctive marks of the species are its great size; the shortness of the tail as compared with the ears; the huge flat paws, the sole of the hind foot sometimes measur- ing seven and a half by fiYe inches in a large male; the length of the hind legs as compared with the fore legs, which gives the beast his awkward, sham- bling gait; the long claws of the fore foot, sometimes seven inches in length, while those of the hind foot (164) AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 165 measure only three or four; the erect, bristling mane of stiff hair, often six inches long; the coarse hair of the body, sometimes three inches long, dark at the base, but with light tips. He has a dark stripe along the back, and one along each side, the hair on his body being, as a rule, a brownish-yellow, the region around the ears dusky, the legs nearly black, and the muzzle pale. Color, however, is not a dis- tinctive mark, for female grizzlies have been killed in company with two cubs, one of which was brown, the other gray, or one dark, the other light; and the supposed species of ' ' cinnamon " and ' ' brown ' ' bears are merely color variations of Ursus horrihilis himself. This ubiquitous gentleman has a wide range for his "habitat. He has been found on the Missouri river from Fort Pierre northward, and thence west to his favorite haunts in the Rockies; on the Pacific slope clear down to the coast; as far south as Mexico, and as far north as the Great Slave Lake in British America. He not only ranges everywhere, but eats everything. His majesty is a good liver. He is not properly a beast of prey, for he has neither the cat-like instincts, nor the noiseless tread of tiiefelidce, nor is he fleet and long-winded like the wolf, although good at a short run, as an unlucky hunter may find. But he hangs about the flanks of a herd of buffalo, with probably an eye to a wounded or disabled animal, and he frequently raids a ranch and carries off a sheep, hog, or calf that is penned beyond the possi- bility of escape. Elk is his favorite meat, and the knowing hunter who has the good luck to kill an elk makes sure 166 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES that its carcass will draw Mr. Grizzly if he is within a range of five miles. He will eat not only flesh, fish, and fowl, but roots, herbs, fruit, vegetables, honey, and insects as well. Plums, buffalo-berries, DEATH AND THE CAUSE OF IT. and choke-cherries make a large part of his diet in their seasons. The grizzly bear possesses greater vitality and tenacity of life than any other animal on the conti- nent, and the hunter who would hunt him must be well armed and keep a steady nerve. Each shot must be cooly put where it will do the most good. Several AND othf:r hunting adventures. 167 are frequently necessary to stop one of these savage beasts. A single bullet lodged in the brain is fatal. If shot through the heart he may run a quarter of a mile or kill a man before he succumbs. In the days of the old muzzle-loading rifle it was hazard- ous indeed to hunt the grizzly, and many a man has paid the penalty of his folly with his life. With our improved breech -loading and repeating rifles there is less risk. The grizzly is said to bury carcasses of large ani- mals for future use as food, but this I doubt. I- have frequently returned to carcasses of elk or deer that I had killed and found that during my absence bears had partially destroyed them, and in their excitement, occasioned by the smell or taste of fresh meat, had pawed up the earth a good deal there- about, throwing dirt and leaves in various directions, and some of this debris may have fallen on the bodies of the dead game; but I have never seen where any systematic attempt had been made at burying a carcass. Still, Bruin may have play ad the sexton in some cases. He hibernates during winter, but does not take to his long sleep until the winter has thoroughly set in and the snow is quite deep. He may frequently be tracked and found in snow a foot deep, where he is roaming in search of food. He becomes very fat before going into winter quarters, and this vast accumulation of oil furnishes nutriment and heat sufficient to sustain life during his long confinement. The newspapers often kill grizzlies weighing 1,500, 1,800, or even 2,000 pounds, and in any party of frontiersmen "talking grizzly" you will find plenty 168 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES of men who can give date and place where they killed or helped to kill at least 1,800 pounds of Bruin. "Did you weigh itr' ''No, we didn't weigh 'im; but every man as seed 'im said he would weigh that, and they was all good jedges, too." And this is the way most of the stories of big bear, big elk, big deer, etc., begin and end. Bears are usually, though not always, killed at considerable distances from towns, or even ranches, where it is not easy to lind a scales large enough to weigh so much meat. The largest grizzly I have ever killed would not weigh more than 700 or 800 pounds, and I do not believe one has ever lived that would weigh 1,000 pounds. The flesh of the adult grizzly is tough, stringy, and decidedly unpalatable, but that of a young fat one is tender and juicy, and is always a welcome dish on the hunter's table. The female usually gives birth to two cubs, and sometimes three, at a time. At birth they weigh only about IJ to 1^ pounds each. The grizzly breeds readily in confinement, and several litters have been produced in the Zoological Gardens at Cincinnati. The female is unusually vicious while rearing her young, and the hunter must be doubly cautious about attacking at that time. An Indian rarely attacks a grizzly single-handed at any time, and it is only when several of these native hunters are together that they will attempt to kill one. They value the claws very highly, however, and take great pride in wearing strings of them around their necks. AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. .169 The grizzly usually frequents the timbered or brush-covered portions of mountainous regions, or the timbered valleys of streams that head in the mountains. He occasionally follows down the course of these streams, and even travels many miles from one stream to another, or from one range of mount- ains to another, across open prairie. I once found one on a broad open plateau in the Big Horn Mountains, about half a mile from the nearest cover of any kind. He was turning over rocks in search of worms. At the report of my rifle he started for the nearest canon, but never reached it. An explosive bullet through his lungs rendered him unequal to the journey. Few persons believe that a grizzly will attack a man before he is himself attacked. I was one of these doubting Thomases until a few years ago, when I was thoroughly convinced by ocular demon- stration that some grizzlies, at least, will attempt to make a meal off a man even though he may not have harmed them previously. We were hunting in the Shoshone Mountains in Northern Wyoming. I had killed a large elk in the morning, and on going back to the carcass in the afternoon to skin it we saw that Bruin had been there ahead us, but had fled on our approach. Without the least apprehension of his return, we leaned our rifles against a tree about fifty feet away, and commenced work. There were three of us, but only two rifles, Mr. Huffman, the photog- rapher, having left his in camp He had flnished taking views of the carcass, and we were all busily engaged skinning, when, hearing a crashing in the brush and a series of savage roars and growls, we 170 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES looked up the hill, and were horrified to see three grizzly bears, an old female and two cubs about two- thirds grown, charging upon us with all the savage fury of a pack of starving wolves upon a sheepfold. To make a long story short, we killed the old female and one cub; the other escaped into the jun- gle before we could get a shot at him. The resolute front we put on alone saved our lives. In another instance, when hunting deer in Idaho, I came suddenly upon a female grizzly and two cubs, when the mother bear charged me savagely and would have killed me had I not fortunately con- trolled my nerves long enough to put a couple of bullets through her and stop her before she got to me. I have heard of several other instances of grizzlies making unprovoked attacks on men, which were so well substantiated that I could not question the truth of the reports. The grizzly is partially nocturnal in his habits, and apparently divides his labor of obtaining food and his traveling about equally between day and night. It is not definitely known to what age he lives in his wild state, but he is supposed to attain to twenty-five or thirty years. Several have lived in domestication to nearly that age, and one died in Union Park, Chicago, a few years ago, that was known to be eighteen years* old. Notwithstanding the great courage and ferocity of this formidable beast, he will utter the most pitiable groans and howls when seriously or mortally wounded. Two brothers were prospecting in a range of mount- AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 171 ains near the headwaters of the Stinking Water river. The younger of the two, though an able- bodied man, and capable of doing a good day's work with a pick or shovel, was weak-minded, and the elder brother never allowed him to go any distance away from camp or their w ork alone. He, however, sent him one evening to the spring, a few rods off, to bring a kettlef ul of water. The spring was in a deep gorge, and the trail to it wound through some fissures in the rock. As the young man passed under a shelving rock, an immense old female grizzly, that had taken up temporary quarters there, reached out and struck a powerful blow at his head, but for- tunately could not reach far enough to do him any serious harm. The blow knocked his hat off, and her claws caught his scalp, and laid it open clear across the top of his head in several ugly gashes. The force of the blow sent him spinning around, and not knowing enough to be frightened, he attacked her savagely with the only weapon he had at hand — the camp kettle. The elder brother heard the racket, and hastily catchng up his rifle and hurrying to the scene of the disturbance, found his brother vigorously belabor- ing the bear over the head with the camp kettle, and the bear striking savage blows at him, any one of which, if she could have reached him, would have torn his head from his shoulders. Three bullets from the rifle, fired in rai)id succf ssion, loosened her hold upon the rocks, and she tumbled lifelessly into the trail. The poor idiotic boy could not even then realize the danger through which he had passed, and could only appease his anger by 172 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES continuing to maul the bear over the head with the camp kettle for several minutes after she was dead- Some years ago I went into the mountains with a party of friends to hunt elk. Oar guide told us we should find plenty of grouse along the trail, from the day we left the settlements; that on the third day out we should find elk, and that it would there- fore be useless to burden our pack-horses with meat. We accordingly took none save a small piece of bacon. Contrary to his predictions, however, we found no grouse or other small game en route, and soon ate up our bacon. Furthermore, we were five days in reaching the elk country, instead of three as lie said. All this time we were climbing mountains and had appetites that are known only to mountain climbers. We had plenty of bread and potatoes, but these were not sufficient. We hankered for flesh, and though we filled ourselves with vegetable food, yet were we hungry. Finally we reached our destination at midday. While we were unloading the horses, a "fool hen" came and lit in a tree near us. A rifle ball beheaded her, and almost before she was done kicking she was in the frying pan. A negro once had a bottle of whisky, and was making vigorous efforts to get outside of it, when a chum came up and asked for a pull at it. " O, g' long, nigger," said the happy owner of the corn juice. "What's one bottle of whisky 'mong one man?" And what was one little grouse among five lialf- starved men? The smell and taste only made us long for more. AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 173 After dinner we all went ont and hunted until dark. Soon after leaving camp some of us heard lively firing up the canon, where our guide had gone, and felt certain that he had secured meat, for we had heard glowing accounts, from him and his friends, of his prowess as a hunter. The rest of us were not so despondent, therefore, when we returned at dusk empty handed, as we should otherwise have been, until we reached camp and found the guide there wearing a long face and bloodless hands. He told a doleful story of having had five fair shots at a large bull elk, who stood broadside on, only seventy-five yards away, but who finally became alarmed at the fusilade and fied, leaving no blood on his trail. The guide of course anathematized his gun in the choicest terms known to frontiersmen, and our mouths watered as we thought of what might have been. Our potatoes, having been compelled to stand for meat also, had vanished rapidly, and we ate the last of them for supper that night. Few words were spoken and no jokes cracked over that meal. We ate bread straight for breakfast, and turning out early hunted diligently all day. We were nearly famished when we returned at night and no one had seen any living thing larger than a pine squirrel. It is written that "man shall not live by bread alone, " and we found that we could not much longer. And soon we should not have even that, for our flour was getting low. But we broke the steaming flat-cake again at supper, and turned in to dream of juicy steaks, succulent joints, and delicious rib roasts. 174 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES We were up before daylight to find that six or eight inches of light snow had fallen silently during the night, which lay piled up on the branches of the trees, draping the dense forests in ghostly white. Our drooping spirits revived, for Ave hoped that the tell-tale mantle would enable us to find the game we so much needed in oar business. We broke our bread more cheerfully that morning than for two days previously, but at the council of war held over the frugal meal, decided that unless we scored that day we must make tracks for the nearest ranch the next morning, and try to make our scanty rem- nant of flour keep us alive until we could get there. Breakfast over we scattered ourselves by the four points of the compass and set out. It fell to my lot to go up the canon. Silently I strode through the forest, scanning the snow in search of foot- prints, but for an hour I could see none. Then, as I cautiously ascended a ridge, I heard a crash in the brush beyond and reached the summit just in time to see the latter end of a large bull elk disappear in the thicket. He had not heard or seen me, but had winded me, and tarried not for better acquaintance. I followed his trail some three miles up the canon, carefully penetrating the thickets and peering among the larger trees, but never a glimpse could I get and never a sound could I hear of him. He seemed unusually wild. I could see by his trail that he had not stopped, but had kept straight away on that long, swinging trot that is such a telling gait of the species, and which they will sometimes keep up for hours together. Finally I came to where he had AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 175 left the canon and ascended the mountain. I fol- lowed up this for a time, but seeing that he had not yet paused, and finding that my famished condition rendered me unequal to the climb, was compelled to abandon the pursuit and with a heavy heart return again to the canon. I kept on up it, but could find no other game or sign of any. Like the red hunter, in the time of famine, who " Vainly walked through the forest, Sought for bird, or beast, and found none; Saw no track of deer or rabbit, In the snow beheld no foot-prints, In the ghostly gleaming forest Fell fing noises, accompanied by rex^orts of break- ing brush, which I knew at once w^ere made by a band of elk jumping over a high log. The game was now not more than fifty yards away and in open ground, yet I could not see even a movement, for I was looking down toward a dark canon, many hundreds of feet deep. Slowly the great beasts worked toward me. They were coming down wind and I felt sure could not scent me, but they could evidently see my horses, outlined against the sky, and had doubtless heard them snorting and moving about. 186 CRUISIXGS IX THE CASCADES The ponies grew more anxious but less frightened than at first, and seemed now desirous of making the acquaintance of their wild visitors. Slowly the elk moved forward until within thirty or forty feet of me, when I could begin to discern by the starlight their dark, shaggy forms. Then they stopped. I could hear them sniffing the air and could see them moving cautiously from place to place, apparently suspicious of danger. But they were coming down wind, could get no indica- tion of my presence, and were anxious to interview the horses. They moved slowly forward, and when they stopped this time, two old bulls and one cow, who were in the front rank, so to speak, stood within ten feet of me. Their great horns towered up like the branches of dead trees, and I could hear them breathe. Again they circled from side to side and I thought surely they would get far enough to one quarter or the other to wind me, but they did not. Several other cows and two timid little calves crowded to the front to look at their hornless cousins who now stood close behind me, and even in the starlight, I could have shot any one of them between the eyes. My saddle cay use uttered a low gentle whinny, whereat the whole band wheeled and dashed away; but after making a few leaps their momentary scare seemed to subside, and they stopped, looked, snorted a few times and then began to edge uj) again — this time even more shyly than before. It was intensely interesting to study the caution and circumspection with which these creatures AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 187 planned and carried out their investigation all the way through. The only mistake they made, and one at which I was surprised, considering their usual cunning and sagacity, was that some of them at least did not circle the horses and get to tlie leeward. But they were m such a wild country, so far back in the remote fastnesses of the Rockies, that they had probably never encountered hunters or horses before and had not acquired all the cunning of their more hunted and haunted brothers. After their temjjorary scare they returned, step by step, to their investigation, and the largest bull in the bunch approached the very log behind. Avhich I sat. He was Just in the act of stepping over it when he caught a wliiif of my breath and, with a terrific snort, vaulted backward and sidewise certainly thirty feet. At the same instant I rose uj) and shouted, and the whole band went tearing down the mountain side making a racket like that of an avalanche. As before stated, I could have had my choice out of the herd, but my only pack-horse was loaded so that I could have carried but a small piece of meat, and was unwilling to waste so grand a creature for the little I could save from him. The antlers of the bull elk grow to a great size. He sheds them in February of each year. The new horn begins to grow in April. During the summer it is soft and pulpy and is covered with a fine velvety growth of hair; it matures and hardens in August ; early in September he rubs this velvet off and is then ready to try conclusions with any rival that comes in 188 CRUISING5 IK THE CASCADES liis way. The rutting season over, he has no further use for his antlers until the next autumn, and they drop off. Thus the process is repeated, year after year, as regularly as the leaves grow and fall from the' trees. But it seems a strange provision of nature that should load an animal with sixty to seventy- iive pounds of horns, for half the year, when weax)ons of one-quarter the size and weight would be equall}^ effective if all were armed alike. I have in my collection the head of a bull elk, killed in the Shoshone Mountains, in Northern Wyoming, the antlers of which measnre as follows: Length of main beam, 4 feet 8 inches; length of brow tine, 1 foot 6^ inches; length of bes tine, 1 foot 8J inches; length of royal tine, 1 foot 7 inches; length of surroyal, 1 foot 8 J inches: circumference around burr, 1 footSi inches; circumference around beam above burr, 12 inches; circumference of brow tine at base, 7^mches; spread of main beams at tips, 4 feet 9 inches. They are one of the largest and finest pairs of antlers of Avhich I have any knowledge. The animal when killed would have weighed nearly a thousand pounds. The elk is strictly gregarious, and in winter time, especially, the animals gather into large bands, and a few years ago herds of from Hve hundred to a thousand were not uncommon. Now, however, their numbers have been so far reduced by the ravages of ' ' skin hunters ' ' and others that one will rarely find more than twenty-five or thirty in a band. In the fall of 1879, a party of three men were sight-seeing and hunting in the Yellowstone Na- tional Park, and having prolonged their stay until AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 189 late in October, were overtaken by a terrible snow- storm, which completely blockaded and obliterated all the trails, and filled the gnlches, canons, and conlees to such a depth that their horses could not travel over them at all. They had lain in camp three days waiting for the storm to abate; but as it continued to grow in severity, and as the snow became deeper and deeper, their situation grew daily and hourly more alarming. Their stock of pro- visions was low, they had no shelter sufficient to withstand the rigors of a winter at that high alti- tude, and it was fast becoming a question whether they should ever be able to escape beyond the snow- clad peaks and snow-filled canons with which they were hemmed in. Their only hope of escape was by abandoning their horses, and constructing snow- shoes which might keep them above the snow; but in this case they could not carry bedding and food enougli to last them throughout the several days that the journey would occupy to the nearest ranch, and the chances of killing game en route after the severe weather had set in were extremely precarious. They " had already set about making snow-shoes from the skin of an elk which they had saved. One pair had been completed, and the storm having abated, one of the party set out to look over the surrounding country for the most feasible route by which to get out, and also to try if possible to find game of some kind. He had gone about a mile toward the northeast when he came uiion the fresh trail of a large band of elk that were moving toward the east. He followed, and in a short time came -up with them. They were traveling in single file, led 190 CRUISINGS IX THE CASCADES by a powerful old bull, who wallowed through snow in which only his head and neck were visible, with all the patience and perseverance of a faithful old ox. The others followed him — the stronger ones in front and the weaker ones bringing up the rear. There were thirty-seven in the band, and by the time they had all w^alked in the same line they left it an open, well-beaten trail. The hunter approached within a few yards of them. They were greatly alarmed wiien they saw him, and made a few bounds in various directions ; but seeing their struggles were in vain, they meekly submitted to what seemed their impending fate, and fell back in rear of their file-leader. This w^ould have been the golden oppor- tunity of a skin hunter, who could and would have shot them all down in their tracks from a single stand. But such w^as not the mission of our friend. He saw in this noble, struggling band a means of deliverance from what had threatened to be a wintry grave for him and his companions. He did not fire a shot, and did not in any way create unnecessary alarm amongst the elk, but hurried back to camp and reported to his friends what he had seen. In a moment the camp was a scene of activity and excitement. Tent, bedding, provisions, everything that was absolutely necessary to their journey, were hurriedly packed upon their pack animals; saddles were placed, rifles w^ere slung to the saddles, and leaving all surplus baggage, such as trophies of their hunt, mineral specimens and curios of various kinds, for future comers, they started for the elk trail. They had a slow, tedious, and laborious task, breaking a way through the deep snow^ to reach it, AND OTHER IIUXTIjS^G ADVENTURES. 191 but by walkin^^ and leading their saddle animals ahead, the i^ack animals were able to follow slowly. Finally they reached the trail of the elk herd, and following this, after nine days of tedious and painful traveling, the party arrived at a ranch on the Stinking Water river, which was kept by a "squaw man" and his wife, where they were enabled to lodge and recruit themselves and their stock, and whence they finally reached their homes in safety. The band of elk passed on down the river, and our tourists never saw them again; but they have doubtless long ere this all fallen a prey to the ruthless war that is constantly being waged against them by hunters white and red. It is sad to think that such a noble creature as the American elk is doomed to early and absolute extinction, but such is nevertheless the fact. Year by year his mountain habitat is being surrounded and encroached upon by the advancing line of set- tlements, as the fisherman encircles the struggling mass of fishes in the clear pond with his long and closely-meshed net. The lines are drawn closer and closer each year. These lines are the ranches of cattle and sheep raisers, the cabins and towns of miners, the stations and residences of employes of the railroads. All these places are made the shelters and temporary abiding places of Eastern and for- eign sportsmen who go out to the mountains to hunt. Worse than this, they are made the perma- nent abiding places, and constitute the active and convenient markets of the nefarious and unconscion- able skin hunter and meat hunter. Here he can find a ready market for the meats and skins he AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 193 brings in, and an opportnnity to spend the iDroceeds of such oatrageous traffic in ranch whisky and rev- elry. The ranchmen themselves hunt and lay in their stock of meat for the year when the game comes down into the valleys. The Indians, when they have eaten up their Government rations, lie in wait for the elk in the same manner. So that when the first great snows of the autumn or winter fall in the high ranges, when the elk band together and seek refuge in the valleys, as did the herd that our fortunate tourists followed out, they find a mixed and hungry horde waiting for them at the mouth of every canon. Before they have reached the valley where the snow-fall is light enough to allow them to live through the winter their skins are drying in the neighboring "shacks." This unequal, one-sided warfare, this ruthless slaughter of inoffensive creatures, can not last always. Indeed, it can last but little longer. In ranges where only a few years ago herds of four or five hundred elk could be found, the hunter of to-day considers himself in rare luck when he finds a band of ten or .twelve, and even small bands of any number are so rare that a good hunter may often hunt a week in the best elk country to be found anywhere without getting a single shot. All the Territories have good, wholesome game-laws which forbid tlie killing of game animals except during two or three months in the fall ; but these laws are not enforced. They are a dead letter on the statute-books, and the illegal and illegitimate slaughter goes on unchecked. 13 CHAPTER XXIII. AIS^TELpPE HUNTING IX MONTANA. all the numerous species of large game to be found in the far West, there is none whose pursuit furnishes grander sport to the expert rifleman than the antelope {Antilocapra americana). His habitat being the high, open plains, he may be hunted on horse- back, and with a much greater degree of comfort than may the deer, elk, bear, and other species which inhabit the wooded or mountainous districts. His keen eyesight, his fine sense of smell, his intense fear of his natural enemy, man, however, render him the most difficult of all game animals to approach, and he must indeed be a skillful hunter who can get within easy rifle range of the antelope, unless he happens to have the circumstances of wind and lie of ground peculiarly in his favor. When the game is first sighted, even though it be one, two, or three miles away, you must either dismount and picket your horse, or find cover in some coulee or draw, where you can ride entirely out of sight of the quarry. But even under such favorable circumstances it is not well to attempt to ride very near them. Their sense of hearing is also very acute, and should your horse' s hoof or shoe strike a loose rock, or should he (194) AXD OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 195 snort or neigli, the game is likely to catch the sound while you are yet entirely out of sight and faraway, and when you finally creep cautiously to the top of the ridge from which you expect a favorable shot, you may find the game placidly looking for you from the top of another ridge a mile or two farther away. But we will hope that you are to have better luck than this. To start with, we will presume that you are an expert rifleman; that you are in the habit of making good scores at the butts; that at 800, 900, and 1,000 yards you frequently score 200 to 210 out of a possible 225 points. We will also suppose that you are a hunter of some experience; that you have at least killed a good many deer in the States, but that this is your first trip to the plains. You have learned to estimate distances, however, even in this rare atmosphere, and jDOssess good judgment as to windage. You have brought your Creedmoor rifle along, divested, of course, of its Yenier sight, wind- guage, and spirit-level, and in their places you have fitted a Beach combination front sight and Lyman rear sight. Besides these you have the ordinary open step sight attached to the barrel just in front of the action. This is not the best arm for anteloi)e hunt- ing; a Winchester express with the same sights would be much better; but this will answer very well. We camped last night on the bank of a clear, rapid stream that gurgles down from the mountain, and this morning are up long before dayliglit; have eaten our breakfasts, saddled our horses, and just as the gray of dawn begins to show over the low, flat prairie to the east of us, wj 196 CRUISINGS IX THE CASCADES mount, and are ready for the start. The wind is from the northeast. That suits us very well, for in that direction, about a mile away, there are some low foot-hills that skirt the valley in w^hich we are camped. In or just beyond these we are very likely to find antelope, and they will probably be coming toward the creek this morning for water. We pat spurs to our horses and gallop away. A brisk and exhilarating ride of ten minutes brings us to the foot-hills, and then we rein up and ride slowly and cautiously to near the top of the first one. Here we dismount, and, picketing our ponies, we crawl slowly and carefully to the apex. By this time it is almost fully daylight. We remove our hats, and jyeer cautiously through the short, scatter- ing grass on the brow of the hill. Do you see anything? No; nothing but prairie and grass. No? Hold! What are those small, gray objects away off yonder to the left? I think I saw one of them move. And now, as the light grows stronger, I can see white patches on them. Yes, they are antelope. They are busily feeding, and we may raise our heads slightly and get a more favorable view. One, two, three — there are five of them — two bucks, a doe, and two kids. And you will observe that they are nearly in the centre of a broad stretcL of table-land. "But," you say, "may we not wait lier^ a little while until they come nearer to us?" Hardly. You see they are intent on getting their breakfast. There is a heavy frost on the grass, which moistens it sufficiently for present purposes,, AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 197 and it may be an hour or more before they will start for water. It won't pay us to wait so long, for we shall most likely find others within that time that we can get within range of without waiting for them. So you may as well try them from here. Now your experience at the butts may serve you a good turn. After taking a careful look over the ground, you estimate the distance at 850 yards, and setting up your Beach front and Lyman rear sights, you make the necessary elevation. There is a brisk wind blowing from the right, and you think it nec- essary to hold off about three feet. We are now both lying prone upon the ground. You face the game, and support your rifie at your shoulder by resting your elbows on the ground. The sun is now shining brightly, and you take careful aim at that old buck that stands out there at the left. At the report of your rifle a cloud of dust rises from a point about a hundred yards this side of him, and a little to the left, showing that you have underestimated both the distance and the force of the wind — things that even an old hunter is liable to do occasionally. We both lie close, and the anima's have not yet seen us. They make a few jumps, and stoj) all in a bunch. The cross-wind and long distance x^revent them from knowing to a certainty where the report comes from, and they don't like to run just yet, lest they may run toward tlie danger instead of away from it. You make another half-point of elevation, hold a little farther away to the right, and try them again. This time the dirt rises about twenty feet beyond them, and they jump in every direction. That was certainly a close call, and the bullet evi- 198 CKUISINGS IN THE CASCADES dently whistled uncomfortably close to several of them. They are now thoroughly frightened. You insert another cartridge, hurriedly draw a bead on the largest buck again, and fire. You break dirt just beyond him, and we can't tell for the life of us how or on which side of Lim your bullet passed. It is astonishing how much vacant space there is round an antelope, anyway. This time they go, sure. They have located the puff of smoke, and are gone with the speed of the wind away to the west. But don't be discouraged, my friend. You did some clever shooting, some very clever shooting, and a little practice of that kind will enable you to score before night. We go back to our l^orses, mount, and gallop away again across the table-land. A ride of another mile brings us to the northern margin of this plateau, and to a more broken country. Here we dismount and picket our horses again. We ascend a high butte, and from the top of it we can see three more antelope about a mile to the north of us; but this time they are in a hilly, broken country, and the wind is com- ing directly from them to us. We shall be able to get a shot at them at short range. So we cautiously back down out of sight, and then begins the tedious process of- stalking them. We walk briskly along around the foot of a hill for a quarter of a mile, to where it makes a turn that would carry us too far out of our course. We must cross this hill, and after looking carefully at the shape and location of it, we at last lind a low point in it where by lying flat down we can crawl over it without revealing our- selves to the game. It is a most tedious and painful AXD OTHER HUNTi:N'a ADVENTURES. 199 piece of work, for the ground is almost covered with cactus and sharp liinty rocks, and our hands and knees are terribly lacerated. But every rose has its thorn, and nearly every kind of sport has something unpleasant connec^ted with it occasionally; and our r^ A PORTRAIT. reward, if we get it, will be worth the pain it costs us. With such reflections and comments, and with frequent longing looks at the game, we kill time till at last the critical part of our work is done, and we 200 CKUISINGS IN THE CASCADES can arise and descend in a comfortable but cautiou? walk into another draw. This we follow for about two hundred yards, until we think we are as near our quarry as we can get. We turn to the right, cautiously ascend the hill, remove our hats, and peer over, and there, sure enough, are our antelope quietly grazing, utterly oblivious to the danger that threatens them. They have not seen, heard, or scented us, so we have ami^le time to plan an attack. You take the stand- ing shot at the buck, and together we will try and take care of the two does afterward. At this short distance you don't care for the peep and globe sights, and wisely decide to use the plain open ones. This time you simply kneel, and then edge up until you can get a good clear aim over the apex of the ridge in this position. The buck stands broadside to you, and at the crack of your rifle springs into the air, and falls all in a heap, pierced through the heart. And now for the two does. They are flying over the level stretch of prairie with the speed of an arrow, and are almost out of sure range now. You turn loose on that one on the right, and I will look after the one on the left. Our riHes crack together, and little clouds of dust rising just beyond tell us that, though we have both missed, we have made close calls. I put in about three shots to your one, owing to my rifle being a -repeater, while you must load yours at each shot. At my fourth shot my left- fielder doubles up and goes down with a broken neck; and although you have fairly " set the ground afire " — to use a Western phrase — around your AXD OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 201 right-fielder, you have not had the good fortune to stop her, and she is now out of sight behind a low ridge. But you have the better animal of the two, and have had sport enough for the first morning. We will take the entrails out of these two, lash them across our horses behind our saddles, go to camp, and rest through the heat of the day; for this Sep- tember sun beams down with great power in mid- day, even though the nights are cool and frosty. And now, as we have quite a long ride to camp, and as we are to pass over a rather monotonous prairie country en route, I will give you a point or two on flagging antelope, as we ride along, that may be useful to you at some time. Fine sport may frequently be enjoyed in this way. If you can find a band that have not been hunted much, and are not familiar with the wiles of the white man, you will have little trouble in decoying them within rifle range by displaying to them almost any brightly-colored object. They have as much curiosity as a woman, and will run into all kinds of danger to investigate any strange object they may discover. They have been known to follow an emigrant or freight wagon, with a white cover, several miles, and the Indian often brings them within reach of his arrow or bullet by standing in plain vleAV wrapped in his red blanket. A x)iece of bright tin or a mirror answers the same purpose on a clear day. Almost any conspicious or strange -looking object wall attract them; but ihe most convenient as well as the most reliable at all times is a little bright-red flag. On one occasion I was hunting in the Snowy Mount- 202 CRUISIJ^GS IN THE CASCADES ains, in Northern Montana, with S. K. Fishel, the government scout, and Richard Thomas, the packer, from Fort Mag innis. We had not been successful in finding game there, and on our way back to the post camped two days on the head of Flat Willow creek, near the foot of the mountains, to hunt antelopes. As night approached several small bands of them came toward the creek, but none came within range of oar camp during daylight, and we did not go after them that night, but were up and at them betimes the next morning. I preferred to hunt alone, as I always do when after big game, and went out across a level flat to some low hills north of camp. When I ascended the first of these I saw a handsome buck antelope on the prairie half a mile away. I made a long detour to get to leeward of him, and meantime had great difficulty in keeping him from seeing me. But by careful maneuvering I finally got into a draw below him, and found the wind blowing directly from him to me. In his neighborhood were some large, ragged volcanic rocks, and getting in line with one of these I started to stalk him. He was feeding, and as I moved cautiously forward I could frequently see his nose or rump show up at one side or the other of the rock. I would accordingly glide to right or left, as necessary, and move on. Finally, I succeeded in reaching the rock, crawled carefully up to where I could see over it, and there, sure enough, stood the handsome old fellow not more than fifty yards away, still complacently nipping the bunch-grass. "Ah, my fine laddie," I said to myself, '' you'll AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 203 never know what hurt you;" and resting the muzzle of the rifle on the rock, I took a fine, steady aim for his heart and turned the bullet loose. There was a terrific roar; the lead tore up a cloud of dust and went screaming away over the hills, while, to my utter astonishment, the antelope went sailing across the prairie with the speed of a greyhound. I sprang to my feet, pumped lead after him at a lively rate, and, though I tore the ground up all around him, never touched a hair. And what annoyed me most was that, owing to some peculiar condition of the atmosphere, the smoke of each shot hung in front of me long enough to prevent me from seeing just where my bullets struck, and, for the life of me, I could not tell whether I was shooting over or under the game! I went back over the hill to my horse, with my heart full of disappointment and my magazine only half full of cartridges. I loaded up, however, mounted, and, as I rode away in search of more game, I could occasionally hear the almost whis- pered "pulf, puff" of Fisher s and Thomas's rifles away to the south and west, which brought me the cheering assurance that they were also having fun, and also assured me that we should not be without meat for supper and breakfast. I soon sighted a band of about thirty antelopes, and riding into a coulee dismounted, picketed my horse, and began another crawl. In due time I reached the desired ''stand," within about eighty yards of them, and, picking out the finest buck in the bunch, again took a careful, deliberate aim and fired, scoring another clear miss. The band, 204 CEUISIKGS IlN THE CASCADES intsead of running away, turned and ran directly toward me, and, circling- slightly, passed witliin thirty yards of me, drawn out in single file. It was a golden opportunity and I felc sure I should kill half a dozen of them at least; but, alas! for fleeting hopes. I knew not the frailty of the support on which I built my expectations. I fanned them as long as there was a cartridge in my magazine, and had to endure the intense chagrin of seeing the last one of them go over a ridge a mile away safe and sound. I was dumb. If there had been anyone there to talk to, I don't think I could have found a word in the language to express my feelings. As before, the smoke prevented me from seeing Just where my bul- lets struck the ground, but I felt sure they must be striking very close to the game. I sat dow^n, pon- dered, and examined my rifle. I could see nothing wrong with it, and felt sure it must be perfect, for within the past w^eek I had killed a deer with it at 170 yards and had shaved the heads off a dozen ^grouse at short range. I was, therefore, forced to the conclusion that I had merely failed to exercise proper care in holding. I returned to my horse, mounted, and once more set out in search of game, determined to kill the next animal I shot at or leave the country. I rode away to the west about two miles, and from the tojD of a high hill saw another band of forty or fifty antelopes on a table-land. I rode around till I got within about two hundred yards of them, when I left my horse under cover of a hill and again began to sneak on the unsuspecting little creatures. AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 205 They were near the edge of the table, and from just beyond them the formation fell abruptly away into the valley some fifty feet. I crawle