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 Travel at Home and Abroad 
 
 SELECTED AND ARRANGED BY 
 
 OHAELES MORRIS 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 J B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 1896 
 
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 S-I70 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The world is growing very narrow in these late nine- 
 teenth century days. In place of the crawling slowness 
 of former travel, the steamship and steam-railway now 
 fairly hurl travellers over the face of the earth, while by 
 aid of the far-extending wire we are able to talk freely 
 with our neighbors of the antipodes. " From Dan to 
 Beersheba" has now become from New York to New South 
 Wales, or from Chicago to Hong-Kong. And yet this 
 growing neighborliness does not decrease, but rather re- 
 doubles, our interest in the scenes and people of foreign 
 lands. Nature retains her variety, nor is man's unity 
 much increased by his growing propinquity. Tropic and 
 Arctic lands are as far apart in condition as ever ; Europe 
 differs from Asia, America from Africa, as greatly as of 
 yore ; man still presents every grade of development, from 
 < the lowest savagery to the highest civilization ; and our 
 <2 interest in the marvels of nature and art, the variety of 
 plant and animal life, and the widely varied habits and 
 conditions, modes of thought and action, of mankind, is 
 not likely soon to lose its zest. 
 
 It is in view of these facts that we have here endeavored 
 to tell the story of the world, alike of its familiar and its 
 unfamiliar portions, as displayed in the narratives of those 
 who have seen its every part, and particularly of those 
 travellers who first gazed upon the wonders and observed 
 the inhabitants of previously unknown lands, and whose 
 descriptions are therefore those of discoverers. It is re- 
 
 429387
 
 4 PREFACE. 
 
 markable what variety has been found to exist in human 
 life and habits, what diversity in scenery and climate, 
 what multiplicity of form in the works of man's hands, 
 what vast complexity in natures unity. This widely 
 varied prospect is what so deeply interests us in the works 
 of travellers, and in the present work has been gathered a 
 series of descriptive passages covering all regions of the 
 several continents, in the hope that those who have not 
 the time or opportunity to read these many works in extenso 
 may find interest and profit in the extracts here given, 
 and be enabled thereby to pass many a pleasant half-hour 
 in the broad domain of travel and adventure. 
 
 For the material here employed we are indebted to many 
 travellers old and new, and to the courtesy of numerous pub- 
 lishers and authors. Among these it is desired to acknowl- 
 edge particularly indebtedness to the following publishers 
 and works: To Harper & Brothers, for selections from 
 Prime's " Tent Life in the Holy Land," Stanley's " Through 
 the Dark Continent," Du Chaillu's "Equatorial Africa," 
 Orton's " The Andes and the Amazon," and Browne's " An 
 American Family in Germany." To Charles Scribner's 
 Sons: Stanley's "In Darkest Africa," Field's "The Greek 
 Islands," Schley's "The Kescue of Greeley," and Finck's 
 "Pacific Coast Scenic Tour." To G. P. Putnam's Sons: 
 Taylor's " Lands of the Saracens," De Amicis's " Holland 
 and its People," and Brace's "The New West." To Hough- 
 ton, Mifflin & Co. : Melville's " In the Lena Delta" and 
 Hawthorne's "Our Old Home." To Eoberts Brother*: 
 Hunt's " Bits of Travel at Home." To H. C. Coates & 
 Co. : Leonowens's " Life and Travel in India," and to the 
 several authors who have courteously granted us similar 
 favors.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SUBJECT. AUTHOR. PAGE 
 
 The Fort William Henry Massacre . . Jonathan Carver 9 
 
 Winter and Summer in New England Harriet Martineau 18 
 
 Niagara Falls and the Thousand 
 
 Islands Charles Morris 27 
 
 From New York to Washington in 
 
 1866 Henry Latham 35 
 
 The Natural Bridge and Tunnel of 
 
 Virginia Edward A. Pollard 45 
 
 Plantation Life in War Times .... William Howard Russell ... 58 
 
 Among Florida Alligators S.C.Clarke 70 
 
 In the Mammoth Cave Therese Yelverton 79 
 
 Down the Ohio and Mississippi . . . Thomas L. Nichols 90 
 
 From New Orleans to Red River . . . Frederick Law Olmsted . . . 100 
 
 Winter on the Prairies O. W. Featherstonhaugh . . . 110 
 
 A Hunter's Christmas Dinner . . . . J. S. Campion 120 
 
 A Colorado " Round-Up" Alfred Terry Bacon 129 
 
 Among the Cow- Boys Louis C. Bradford 137 
 
 Hunting the Buffalo Washington Irving 143 
 
 In the Country of the Sioux Meriwether Lewis 153 
 
 The Great Falls of the Missouri . . . William Clarke 164 
 
 Hunting Scenes in the Canadian 
 
 Woods B. A. Watson 174 
 
 The Grand Falls of Labrador . . . . Henry G. Bryant 185 
 
 Life among the Esquimaux William Edward Parry . . . 196 
 
 Fugitives from the Arctic Seas . . . Elisha Kent Kane 2(!(i 
 
 Rescued from Death W. S. Schley 2 Id 
 
 The Muir Glacier Septima M. Collis 226 
 
 A Summer Trip to Alaska James A. Harrison 235 
 
 Winnipeg Lake and River W. F. Butler . . . 245 
 
 A Fine Scenic Route Henry T. Finck 255 
 
 South Pass and Fremont's Peak . . . John C. Fremont 266 
 
 In the Yellowstone Park Ferdinand V. Hayden .... 273 
 
 The Country of the Cliff-Dwellers . . Alfred Terry Bacon 282 
 
 6
 
 6 CONTENTS. 
 
 SUBJECT. AUTHOR. PA<US 
 
 Lake Tahoe and the Big Trees . . . . A. H. Tevis 292 
 
 The Chinese Quarter in San Francisco Helen Hunt Jackson 302 
 
 Mariposa Grove and Yoseinite Valley . Charles Loring Brace .... 312 
 
 A Sportsman's Experience in Mexico . Sir Rose Lambert Price .... 323 
 
 The Scenery of the Mexican Lowlands Felix L. Oswald 332 
 
 Among the Ruins of Yucatan .... John L. Stephens 343 
 
 The Route of the Nicaragua Canal . . Julius Froebel 354 
 
 The Destruction of San Salvador . . Carl Sherzer 361 
 
 Scenes in Trinidad and Jamaica . . . James Anthony Froude .... 369 
 
 The High Woods of Trinidad .... Charles Kingsley 381 
 
 Animals of British Guiana C. Barrington Brown 393 
 
 Life and Scenery in Venezuela . . . Alexander von Humboldt . . . 403 
 
 The Llaneros of Venezuela Ramon Paez 414 
 
 The Forests of the Amazon and Ma- 
 deira Rivers Franz Keller 424 
 
 Canoe- and Camp-Life on the Madeira " " 436 
 
 Besieged by Peccaries James W. Wells 443 
 
 The Perils of Travel Ida Pfeiffer 456 
 
 Brazilian Ants and Monkeys .... Henry W. Bates 464 
 
 The Monarchs of the Andes James Orton 475 
 
 Inca High-Roads and Bridges . . . . E. George Squier 485 
 
 The Gaucho and his Horse Thomas J. Hutchinson 495 
 
 Valparaiso and its Vicinity Charles Darwin 503 
 
 An Escape from Captivity Benjamin F. Bourne 512
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cocoanut-Trees, Jamaica Frontispiece. 
 
 Natural Bridge, Virginia 45 
 
 Dalles of the Columbia Kiver 164 
 
 In the Polar Ice 210 
 
 Homes of the Cliff-Dwellers 290 
 
 Botanical Gardens, Rio Janeiro 456
 
 HALF-HOURS 
 
 OP 
 
 Travel at Home and Abroad. 
 
 THE FORT WILLIAM HENRY MASSACRE. 
 
 JONATHAN CARVER. 
 
 [Carver's interesting " Travels through the Interior Parts of North 
 America, in the years 1766, 1767, and 1768," is the source of the nar- 
 rative given below, relating to an event with which most of our read- 
 ers are probably familiar from historical reading, though few of them 
 have read the experience of an actual participant. Carver served as 
 a captain in the French and Indian War, and tells this most thrill- 
 ing narrative of the American wars as an illustrative episode in his 
 subsequent work of travels. He is describing the cruel actions of the 
 Indians in war.] 
 
 I have frequently been a spectator of them, and once 
 bore a part in a similar scene. But what added to the hor- 
 ror of it was that I had not the consolation of being able 
 to oppose their savage attacks. Every circumstance of the 
 adventure still dwells on my memory, and enables me to 
 describe with greater perspicuity the brutal fierceness of 
 the Indians when they have surprised or overpowered an 
 enemy. 
 
 As a detail of the massacre at Fort William Henry in 
 the year 1757, the scene to which I refer, cannot appear 
 foreign to the design of this publication, but will serve to 
 
 9
 
 10 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Carver 
 
 give my readers a just idea of the ferocity of this people, I 
 shall take the liberty to insert it, apologizing at the same 
 time for the length of the digression and those egotisms 
 which the relation renders unavoidable. 
 
 General Webb, who commanded the English army in 
 North America, which was then encamped at Fort Ed- 
 ward, having intelligence that the French troops under 
 Mons Montcalm were making some movements towards 
 Fort William Henry, he detached a corps of about fifteen 
 hundred men, consisting of English and provincials, to 
 strengthen the garrison. In this party I went as a volun- 
 teer among the latter. 
 
 The apprehensions of the English general were not with- 
 out foundation, for the day after our arrival we saw Lake 
 George (formerly Lake Sacrament), to which it lies con- 
 tiguous, covered with an immense number of boats, and in 
 a few hours we found our lines attacked by the French 
 general, who had just landed with eleven thousand regu- 
 lars and Canadians and two thousand Indians. Colonel 
 Munro, a brave officer, commanded in the fort, and had no 
 more than two thousand three hundred men with him, our 
 detachment included. 
 
 With these he made a brave defence, and probably would 
 have been able at last to preserve the fort had he been 
 properly supported and permitted to continue his efforts. 
 On every summons to surrender sent by the French gen- 
 eral who offered the most honorable terms, his answer re- 
 peatedly was, that he found himself in a condition to repel 
 the most vigorous attacks his besiegers were able to make; 
 and if he thought his present force insufficient, he could 
 soon be supplied with a greater number from the adjacent 
 
 army. n .,, 
 
 Jiut the colonel having acquainted General Webb with 
 his situation, and desired he would send him some fresh
 
 Carver] THE FORT WILLIAM HENRY MASSACRE. 11 
 
 troops, the general despatched a messenger to him with 
 a letter, wherein he informed him that it was not in his 
 power to assist him, and therefore gave him orders to sur- 
 render up the fort on the best terms he could procure. 
 This packet fell into the hands of the French general, who 
 immediately sent a flag of truce, desiring a conference with 
 the governor. 
 
 They accordingly met, attended only by a small guard, 
 in the centre between the lines, when Mons. Montcalm told 
 the colonel that he was come in person to demand posses- 
 sion of the fort, as it belonged to the king, his master. 
 The colonel replied that he knew not how that could be, 
 nor should he surrender it up while it was in his power to 
 defend it. 
 
 The French general rejoined, at the same time delivering 
 the packet into the colonel's hand, " By this authority do I 
 make the requisition." The brave governor had no sooner 
 read the contents of it, and was convinced that such were 
 the orders of the commander-in-chief, and not to be dis- 
 obeyed, than he hung his head in silence, and reluctantly 
 entered into a negotiation. 
 
 In consideration of the gallant defence the garrison had 
 made, they were to be permitted to march out with all the 
 honors of war, to be allowed covered wagons to transport 
 their baggage to Fort Edward, and a guard to protect 
 them from the fury of the savages. 
 
 The morning after the capitulation was signed, as soon 
 as day broke, the whole garrison, now consisting of about 
 two thousand men, besides women and children, were 
 drawn up within the lines, and on the point of marching 
 off, when great numbers of the Indians gathered about and 
 began to plunder. We were at first in hopes that this was 
 their only view, and suffered them to proceed without op- 
 position. Indeed, it was not in our power to make any,
 
 12 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Cartkr 
 
 had we been so inclined, for, though we were permitted to 
 carry off our arms, yet we were not allowed a single round 
 of ammunition. In these hopes, however, we were disap- 
 pointed ; for presently some of them began to attack the 
 sick and wounded, when such as were not able to crawl 
 into the ranks, notwithstanding they endeavored to avert 
 the fury of their enemies by their shrieks or groans, were 
 soon despatched. 
 
 Here we were fully in expectation that the disturbance 
 would have concluded, but in a short time we saw tbe same 
 division driven back, and discovered that we were entirely 
 encircled by the savages. We expected every moment 
 that the guard, which the French, by the articles of capit- 
 ulation, had agreed to allow us, would have arrived, and 
 put an end to our apprehensions, but none appeared. The 
 Indians now began to strip every one, without exception, 
 of their arms and clothes, and those who made the least 
 resistance felt the weight of their tomahawks. 
 
 I happened to be in the rear division, but it was not long 
 before I shared the fate of my companions. Three or four 
 of the savages laid hold of me, and whilst some held their 
 weapons over my head, the others soon disrobed me of my 
 coat, waistcoat, hat, and buckles, omitting not to take from 
 me what money I had in my pocket. As this was trans- 
 acted close by the passage tbat led from the lines on to 
 the plain, near which a French sentinel was posted, I ran 
 to him and claimed his protection, but he only called me 
 an English dog, and thrust me with violence back again 
 into the midst of the Indians. 
 
 I now endeavored to join a body of our troops that were 
 crowded together at some distance, but innumerable were 
 the blows that were made at me with different weapons as 
 I passed on ; luckily, however, the savages were so close 
 together that they could not strike at me without endan-
 
 Carver] THE FORT WILLIAM HENRY MASSACRE. 13 
 
 gering each other, notwithstanding which one of them 
 found means to make a thrust at me with a spear, which 
 grazed my side, and from another I received a wound with 
 the same kind of weapon on my ankle. At length I gained 
 the spot where my countrymen stood, and forced myself 
 into the midst of them. But before I got thus far out of 
 the hands of the Indians the collar and wristbands of my 
 shirt were all that remained of it, and my flesh was 
 scratched and torn in many places by their savage grips. 
 
 By this time the warwhoop was given, and the Indians 
 began to murder those that were nearest to them without 
 distinction. It is not in the power of words to give any 
 tolerable idea of the horrid scene that now ensued ; men, 
 women, and children were despatched in the most wanton 
 and cruel manner, and immediately scalped. Many of the 
 savages drank the blood of their victims as it flowed warm 
 from the fatal wound. 
 
 We now perceived, though too late to avail us, that we 
 were to expect no relief from the French ; and that, con- 
 trary to the agreement they had so lately signed to allow 
 us a sufficient force to protect us from these insults, they 
 tacitly permitted them ; for I could plainly perceive the 
 French officers walking about at some distance, discoursing 
 together with apparent unconcern. For the honor of 
 human nature I would hope that this flagrant breach of 
 every sacred law proceeded rather from the savage dis- 
 position of the Indians, which I acknowledge it is some- 
 times almost impossible to control, and which might now 
 unexpectedly have arrived to a pitch not easily to bo re- 
 strained, than from any premeditated design in the French 
 commander. An unprejudiced observer would, however, 
 be apt to conclude that a body of ten thousand Christian 
 troops, most Christian troops, had it in their power to pre- 
 vent the massaci-e from becoming so general. But what- 
 
 2
 
 14 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Carter 
 
 ever was the cause from which it arose, the consequences 
 of it were dreadful, and not to be paralleled in modern 
 history. 
 
 As the circle in which I stood enclosed by this time was 
 much thinned, and death seemed to be approaching with 
 hasty strides, it was proposed by some of the most resolute 
 to make one vigorous effort, and endeavor to force our way 
 through the savages, the only probable method of pre- 
 serving our lives that now remained. This, however des- 
 perate, was resolved upon, and about twenty of us sprung 
 at once into the midst of them. 
 
 In a moment we were separated, and what was the fate 
 of my comrades I could not learn till some months after, 
 when I found that only five or six of them effected their 
 design. Intent only on my own hazardous situation, I en- 
 deavored to make my way through my savage enemies in 
 the best manner possible. And I have often been aston- 
 ished since, when I have recollected with what composure 
 I took, as I did, every necessary step for my preservation. 
 Some 1 overturned, being at that time young and athletic, 
 and others I passed by, dexterously avoiding their weapons ; 
 till at last two very stout chiefs, of the most savage tribes, 
 as I could distinguish by their dress, whose strength I 
 could not resist, laid hold of me by each arm, and began to 
 force me through the crowd. 
 
 I now resigned myself to my fate, not doubting but that 
 they intended to despatch me, and then to satiate their 
 vengeance with my blood, as I found they were hurrying 
 me towards a retired swamp that lay at some distance. 
 But before we had got many yards, an English gentleman 
 of some distinction, as I could discover by his breeches, the 
 only covering he had on, which were of fine scarlet velvet, 
 rushed close by us. One of the Indians instantly relin- 
 quished his hold, and, springing on this new object, en-
 
 Carver] THE FORT WILLIAM HENRY MASSACRE. 15 
 
 deavored to seize him as his prey; but the gentleman, 
 being strong, threw him on the ground, and would prob- 
 ably have got away, had not he who held my other arm 
 quitted me to assist his brother. I seized the opportunity, 
 and hastened away to join another party of English troops 
 that were yet unbroken, and stood in a body at some dis- 
 tance. But before I had taken many steps I hastily cast 
 my eye towards the gentleman, and saw the Indian's toma- 
 hawk gash into his back, and heard him utter his last 
 groan ; this added both to my speed and desperation. 
 
 I had left this shocking scene but a few yards when a 
 fine boy of about twelve years of age, that had hitherto 
 escaped, came up to me, and begged that I would let him 
 lay hold of me, so that he might stand some chance of 
 getting out of the hands of the savages. I told him that 
 I would give him every assistance in my power, and to 
 this purpose bid him lay hold ; but in a few moments he 
 was torn from my side, and by his shrieks I judge was 
 soon demolished. I could not help forgetting my own 
 cares for a minute to lament the fate of so young a 
 sufferer ; but it was utterly impossible for me to take any 
 methods to prevent it. 
 
 I now got once more into the midst of friends, but wo 
 were unable to afford each other any succor. As this was 
 the division that had advanced the farthest from the fort, 
 I thought there might be a possibility (though but a very 
 bare one) of my forcing a way through the outer ranks of 
 the Indians and getting to a neighboring wood, which I 
 perceived at some distance. I was still encouraged to hope 
 by the almost miraculous preservation I had already ex- 
 perienced. 
 
 Nor were my hopes vain or the efforts I made ineffectual. 
 Suffice to say that I reached the wood, but by the time I 
 had penetrated a little way into it my breath was so ex-
 
 16 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Carver 
 
 hausted that I threw myself into a brake, and lay for 
 some minutes apparently at the last gasp. At length I 
 recovered power of respiration, but my apprehensions 
 returned with all their former force when I saw several 
 savages pass by, probably in pursuit of me, at no very great 
 distance. 
 
 In this situation I knew not whether it was better to 
 proceed or endeavor to conceal myself where I lay till 
 night came on. Fearing, however, that they would return 
 the same way, I thought it most prudent to get farther 
 from the dreadful scene of my past distresses. Accordingly, 
 striking into another part of the wood, I hastened on as 
 fast as the briers and the loss of one of my shoes would 
 permit me, and, after a slow progress of some hours, 
 gained a hill that overlooked the plain which I had just left, 
 from whence I could discern that the bloody storm still 
 raged with unabated fury. 
 
 But not to tire my readers, I shall only add that after 
 passing three days without subsistence, and enduring the 
 severity of the cold dews for three nights, I at length 
 reached Fort Edward ; where with proper care my body 
 soon recovered its wonted strength and my mind, as far as 
 the recollection of the lato melancholy events would per- 
 mit, its usual composure. 
 
 It was computed that fifteen hundred persons were 
 killed or made prisoners by these savages during this fatal 
 day. Many of the latter were carried off by them and 
 never returned. A few, through favorable accidents, found 
 their way back to their native country after having ex- 
 perienced a long and severe captivity. 
 
 The brave Colonel Munro had hastened away, soon after 
 the confusion began, to the French camp to endeavor to 
 procure the guard agreed by the stipulation ; but his 
 application proving ineffectual, he remained there till
 
 Carter] THE FORT WILLIAM HENRY MASSACRE. 17 
 
 General Webb sent a party of troops to demand and pro- 
 tect him back to Fort Edward. But these unhappy oc- 
 currences, which would probably have been prevented had 
 he been left to pursue his own plans, together with the 
 loss of so many brave fellows, murdered in cold blood, 
 to whose valor he had so lately been a witness, made such 
 an impression on his mind that he did not long survive. 
 He died in about three months of a broken heart, and with 
 truth might it be said that he was an hcnor to his country. 
 
 I mean not to point out the following circumstance as 
 the immediate judgment of Heaven, and intended as an 
 atonement for this slaughter, but I cannot omit that very 
 few of those different tribes of Indians that shared in it 
 ever lived to return home. The small-pox, by means of 
 their communication with the Europeans, found its way 
 among them, and made an equal havoc to what they them- 
 selves had done. The methods they pursued on the first 
 attack of that malignant disorder, to abate the fever at- 
 tending it, rendered it fatal. Whilst their blood was in a 
 state of fermentation, and nature was striving to throw 
 out the peccant matter, they checked her operations by 
 plunging into the water: the consequence was that they 
 died by hundreds. The few that survived were trans- 
 formed by it into hideous objects, and bore with them to 
 the grave deep indented marks of this much-dreaded 
 disease. 
 
 Monsieur Montcalm fell soon after on the plains of 
 Quebec. 
 
 i.—b 2* 
 
 1
 
 18 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Martineau 
 
 WINTER AND SUMMER IN NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 HARRIET MARTINEAU. 
 
 [The "Society in America" and the "Ketrospect of Western 
 Travel," by Harriet Martineau, contain many interesting pictures of 
 life and scenery in the United States. Of the descriptive passages of 
 the latter work we select that detailing her experience of winter weather 
 in Boston, which she seems to have looked upon with true English 
 eyes, and not with the vision of one " to the manner born."] 
 
 I believe no one attempts to praise the climate of New 
 England. The very low average of health there, the prev- 
 alence of consumption and of decay of the teeth, are evi- 
 dences of an unwholesome climate which I helieve are 
 universally received as such. The mortality among chil- 
 dren throughout the whole country is a dark feature of 
 life in the United States. . . . Wherever we went in the 
 North we heard of the "lung fever" as a common com- 
 plaint, and children seemed to be as liable to it as grown 
 persons. 
 
 The climate is doubtless chiefly to blame for all this, and 
 I do not see how any degree of care could obviate much 
 of the evil. The children must be kept warm within- 
 doors ; and the only way of affording them the range of 
 the house is by warming the whole, from the cellar to the 
 garret, by means of a furnace in the hall. This makes all 
 comfortable within ; but, then, the risk of going out is very 
 great. There is far less fog and damp than in England, 
 and the perfectly calm, sunny days of midwinter are en- 
 durable ; but the least breath of wind seems to chill one's 
 very life. I had no idea what the suffering from extreme 
 cold amounted to till one day, in Boston, I walked the
 
 Martineau] WINTER AND SUMMER. 19 
 
 length of the city and back again in a wind, with the ther- 
 mometer seven degrees and a half below zero. I had been 
 warned of the cold, but was anxious to keep an appoint- 
 ment to attend a meeting. We put on all the merinoes and 
 furs we could muster, but we were insensible of them from 
 the moment the wind reached us. My muff seemed to be 
 made of ice ; I almost fancied I should have been warmer 
 without it. We managed getting to the meeting pretty 
 well, the stock of warmth we had brought out with us last- 
 ing till then. But we set out cold on our return, and by 
 the time I got home I did not very well know where I was 
 and what I was about. The stupefaction from cold is par- 
 ticularly disagreeable, the sense of pain remaining through 
 it, and I determined not to expose myself to it again. All 
 this must be dangerous to children ; and if, to avoid it, they 
 are shut up through the winter, there remains the danger 
 of encountering the ungenial spring. . . . 
 
 Every season, however, has its peculiar pleasures, and 
 in the retrospect these shine out brightly, while the evils 
 disappear. 
 
 On a December morning you are awakened by the 
 domestic scraping at your hearth. Your anthracite fire 
 has been in all night ; and now the ashes are carried away, 
 more coal is put on, and the blower hides the kindly red 
 from you for a time. In half an hour the fire is intense, 
 though, at the other end of the room, everything you touch 
 seems to blister your fingers with cold. If j 7 ou happen to 
 turn up a corner of the carpet with your foot, it gives out 
 a flash, and your hair crackles as you brush it. Breakfast 
 is always hot, be the weather what it may. The coffee is 
 scalding, and the buckwheat cakes steam when the cover is 
 taken off. Your host's little boy asks whether he may go 
 coasting to-day, and his sisters tell you what days the 
 schools will all go sleighing. You may see boys coasting on
 
 20 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Martineatt 
 
 Boston Common all the winter day through, and too many 
 in the streets, where it is not so safe. 
 
 To coast is to ride on a board down a frozen slope, and 
 many children do this in the steep streets which lead down 
 to the Common, as well as on the snowy slopes within the 
 enclosure where no carriages go. Some sit on their heels 
 on the board, some on their crossed legs. Some strike 
 their legs out, put their arms akimbo, and so assume an air 
 of defiance amid their velocity. Others prefer lying on 
 their stomachs, and so going headforemost, an attitude 
 whose comfort I could never enter into. Coasting is a 
 wholesome exercise for hardy hoys. Of course, they have 
 to walk up the ascent, carrying their boards between every 
 feat of coasting ; and this affords them more exercise than 
 they are at all aware of taking. 
 
 As for the sleighing, I heard much more than I experi- 
 enced of its charms. No doubt early association has some- 
 thing to do with the American fondness for this mode of 
 locomotion, and much of the affection which is borne to 
 music, dancing, supping, and all kinds of frolic is trans- 
 ferred to the vehicle in which the frolicking parties are 
 transported. It must be so, I think, or no one would be 
 found to prefer a carriage on runners to a carriage on 
 wheels, except on an untrodden expanse of snow. On a 
 perfectly level and crisp surface I can fancy the smooth, 
 rapid motion to be exceedingly pleasant ; but such surfaces 
 are rare in the neighborhood of populous cities. The un- 
 certain, rough motion in streets hillocky with snow, or on 
 roads consisting for the season of a ridge of snow with 
 holes in it, is disagreeable and provocative of headache I 
 am no rule for others as to liking the bells; but to me 
 their incessant jangle was a great annoyance. Add to this 
 the sitting, without exercise, in a wind caused by the rapid- 
 ity of the motion, and the list of desagremens is complete.
 
 Martineau] WINTER AND SUMMER. 21 
 
 I do not know the author of a description of sleighing 
 which was quoted to me, but I admire it for its fidelity. 
 " Do you want to know what sleighing is like ? You can 
 soon try. Set your chair on a spring-board out on the 
 porch on Christmas-day ; put your feet in a pailful of 
 powdered ice ; have somebody to jingle a bell in one ear, 
 and somebody else to blow into the other with the bellows, 
 and you will have an exact idea of sleighing." 
 
 [This quotation would appear to be a variant of Dr. Franklin's 
 recipe for sleighing. As for Miss Martineau's experience " behind the 
 bells," it seems to have been very unfortunate.] 
 
 If the morning be fine, you have calls to make, or shop- 
 ping to do, or some meeting to attend. If the streets be 
 coated with ice, you put on your India-rubber shoes — un- 
 soled — to guard you from slipping. If not, you are pretty 
 sure to measure your length on the pavement before your 
 own door. Some of the handsomest houses in Boston, 
 those which boast the finest flights of steps, have planks 
 laid on the steps during the season of frost, the wood being 
 less slippery than stone. If, as sometimes happens, a warm 
 wind should be suddenly breathing over the snow, you go 
 back to change your shoes, India-rubbers being as slippery 
 in wet as leather soles are on ice. [It must be borne in 
 mind that the writer is speaking of the rubber shoes of 
 sixty years ago.] Nothing is seen in England like the 
 streets of Boston and New York at the end of the season, 
 while the thaw is proceeding. The area of the street had 
 been so raised that passengers could look over the blinds 
 of your ground-floor rooms; when the sidewalks become 
 full of holes and puddles they are cleared, and the pas- 
 sengers are reduced to their proper level; but the middle 
 of the street remains exalted, and the carriages drive along 
 a ridge. Of course, this soon becomes too dangerous, and
 
 22 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Maktinkau 
 
 for a season ladies and gentlemen walk ; carts tumble, slip, 
 and slide, and get on as they can ; while the mass, now 
 dirty, not only with thaw, but with quantities of refuse 
 vegetables, sweepings of the poor people's houses, and other 
 rubbish which it was difficult to know what to do with 
 while every place was frozen up, daily sinks and dissolves 
 into a composite mud. It was in New York and some of 
 the inferior streets of Boston that I saw this process in its 
 completeness. 
 
 If the morning drives are extended beyond the city there 
 is much to delight the eye. The trees are cased in ice; and 
 when the sun shines out suddenly the whole scene looks 
 like one diffused rainbow, dressed in a brilliancy which can 
 hardly be conceived of in England. On days less bright, 
 the blue harbor spreads in strong contrast with the sheeted 
 snow which extends to its very brink. . . . 
 
 The skysights of the colder regions of the United States 
 are resplendent in winter. I saw more of the aurora 
 borealis, more falling stars and other meteors, during my 
 stay in New England than in the whole course of my life 
 before. Every one knows that splendid and mysterious 
 exhibitions have taken place in all the Novembers of the 
 last four years, furnishing interest and business to the 
 astronomical world. The most remarkable exhibitions 
 were in the Novembers of 1833 and 1835, the last of which 
 I saw. . . . 
 
 On the 17th of November in question, that of 1835, I 
 was staying in the house of one of the professors of Har- 
 vard University at Cambridge. The professor and his son 
 John came in from a lecture at nine o'clock, and told us 
 that it was nearly as light as day, though there was no 
 moon. The sky presented as yet no remarkable appear- 
 ance, but the fact set us telling stories of skysights. A 
 venerable professor told us of a blood-red heaven which
 
 Martinkau] WINTER AND SUMMER. 23 
 
 shone down on a night of the year 1789, when an old lady 
 interpreted the whole French Kevolution from what she 
 saw. None of us had any call to prophesying this night. 
 John looked out from time to time while we were about the 
 piano, but our singing had come to a conclusion before he 
 brought us news of a very strange sky. It was now near 
 eleven. "We put cloaks and shawls over our heads, and 
 hurried into the garden. It was a mild night, and about 
 as light as with half a moon. There was a beautiful rose- 
 colored flush across the entire heavens, from southeast to 
 northwest. This was every moment brightening, contract- 
 ing in length, and dilating in breadth. 
 
 My host ran off without his hat to call the Natural His- 
 tory professor. On the way he passed a gentleman who 
 was trudging along, pondering the ground. " A remark- 
 able night, sir," cried my host. Sir! how, sir?" replied the 
 pedestrian. " Why, look above your head !" The startled 
 walker ran back to the house he had left to make every- 
 body gaze. There was some debate about ringing the 
 college-bell, but it was agreed that it would cause too much 
 alarm. 
 
 The Natural Philosophy professor came forth in curious 
 trim, and his household and ours joined in the road. One 
 lady was in her nightcap, another with a handkerchief 
 tied over her head, while we were cowled in cloaks. The 
 sky was now resplendent. It was like a blood-red dome, a 
 good deal pointed. Streams of a greenish-white light radi- 
 ated from the centre in all directions. The colors were so 
 deep, especially the red, as to give an opaque appearance 
 to the canopy , and as Orion and the Pleiades and many 
 more stars could be distinctly seen, the whole looked like 
 a vast dome inlaid with constellations. These skysights 
 make one shiver, so new are they, so splendid, so mys- 
 terious. We saw the heavens grow pale, and before mid-
 
 24 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Martinkaf 
 
 night believed that the mighty show was over; but we had 
 the mortification of hearing afterwards that at one o'clock 
 it was brighter than ever, and as light as day. 
 
 Such are some of the wintry characteristics of New 
 England. 
 
 If I lived in Massachusetts, my residence during the hot 
 mouths should be beside one of its ponds. These ponds 
 are a peculiarity in New England scenery very striking to 
 the traveller. Geologists tell us of the time when the 
 valleys were chains of lakes ; and in many parts the eye 
 of the observer would detect this without the aid of science. 
 There are many fields and clusters of fields of remarkable 
 fertility, lying in basins, the sides of which have much the 
 appearance of the greener and smoother of the dykes of 
 Holland. These suggest the idea of their having been 
 ponds at the first glance. Many remain filled with clear 
 water, the prettiest meres in the world. A cottage on 
 Jamaica Pond, for instance, within an easy ride of Boston, 
 is a luxurious summer abode. I know of one unequalled in 
 its attractions, with its flower-garden, its lawn, with banks 
 shelving down to the mere, — banks dark with nestling pines, 
 from under whose shade the bright track of the moon may 
 be seen, lying cool on the rippling waters. A boat is 
 moored in the cove at hand. The cottage itself is built for 
 coolness, and the broad piazza is draperied with vines, 
 which keep out the sun from the shaded parlor. 
 
 The way to make the most of a summer's day in a place 
 like this is to rise at four, mount your horse and ride 
 through the lanes for two hours, finding breakfast ready 
 on your return. If you do not ride, you slip down to the 
 bathing-house on the creek; and, once having closed the 
 door, have the shallow water completely to yourself, care- 
 fully avoiding going beyond the deep-water mark, where 
 no one knows how deep the mero may be. After break-
 
 Martineatt] WINTER AND SUMMER. 25 
 
 fast you should dress your flowers, before those you gather 
 have quite lost the morning dew. The business of the 
 day, be it what it may, housekeeping, study, teaching, 
 authorship, or charity, will occupy you till dinner at two. 
 You have your dessert carried into the piazza, where, 
 catching glimpses of the mere through the wood on the 
 banks, your watermelon tastes cooler than within, and 
 you have a better chance of a visit from a pair of hum- 
 ming-birds. 
 
 You retire to your room, all shaded with green blinds, lie 
 down with a book in your hands, and sleep soundly for two 
 hours at least. When you wake and look out, the shadows 
 are lencrtheninor on the lawn, and the hot haze has melted 
 away. You hear a carriage behind the fence, and conclude 
 that friends from the city are coming to spend the evening 
 with you. They sit within till after tea, telling you that 
 you are living in the sweetest place in the world. When 
 the sun sets you all walk out, dispersing in the shrubbery 
 or on the banks. When the moon shows herself above the 
 opposite woods, the merry voices of the young people are 
 heard from the cove, where the boys are getting out the 
 boat. You stand, with a companion or two, under the 
 pines, watching the progress of the skiff and the receding 
 splash of the oars. If you have any one, as I had, to sing 
 German popular songs to you, the enchantment is all the 
 greater. You are capriciously lighted home by fireflies, 
 and there is your table covered with fruit and iced lemonade. 
 When your friends have left you you would fain forget it 
 is time to rest, and your last act before you sleep is to look 
 out once more from your balcony upon the silvery mere 
 and moonlit lawn. 
 
 The only times when I felt disposed to quarrel with the 
 inexhaustible American mirth was on the hottest days of 
 summer. I liked it as well as ever ; but European strength 
 B 3
 
 2 g HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Martineau 
 
 will not stand more than an hour or two of laughter in 
 such seasons. I remember one day when the American 
 part of the company was as much exhausted as the Eng- 
 lish. We had gone, a party of six, to spend a long day 
 with a merry household in a country village, and, to avoid 
 the heat, had performed the journey of sixteen miles before 
 ten o'clock. For three hours after our arrival the wit was 
 in full flow ; by which time we were all begging for mercy, 
 for we could laugh no longer with any safety. Still, a little 
 more fun was dropped all round, till we found that the 
 only way was to separate, and we all turned out of doors. 
 I cannot conceive how it is that so little has been heard 
 in England of the mirth of the Americans ; for certainly 
 nothing in their manner struck and pleased me more. One 
 of the rarest characters among them, and a great treasure 
 to all his sportive neighbors, is a man who cannot take a 
 
 joke. 
 
 The prettiest playthings of summer are the humming- 
 birds. I call them playthings because they are easily tamed, 
 and are not very diflicult to take care of for a time. It is 
 impossible to attend to book, work, or conversation while 
 there is a humming-bird in sight, its exercises and vagaries 
 are so rapid and beautiful. Its prettiest attitude is vi- 
 brating before a blossom which is tossed in the wind. Its 
 long beak is inserted in the flower, and the bird rises and 
 falls with it, quivering its burnished wings with dazzling 
 
 rapidity. My friend E told me how she had succeeded 
 
 in taming a pair. One flew into the parlor where she was 
 
 Btiting and perched. E 's sister stepped out for a branch 
 
 of honeysuckle, which she stuck up over the mirror. The 
 other bird followed, and the pair alighted on the branch, 
 
 flew off, and returned to it. E procured another branch, 
 
 and held it on the top of her head; and thither also the 
 little creatures came without fear. She next held it in her
 
 Morris] NIAGARA AND THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 27 
 
 hand, and still they hovered and settled. They bore being 
 shut in for the night, a nest of cotton-wool being provided. 
 Of course, it was impossible to furnish them with honey- 
 suckles enough for food; and sugar-and- water was tried, 
 which they seemed to relish very well. 
 
 One day, however, when E was out of the room, one 
 
 of the little creatures was too greedy in the saucer ; and, 
 
 when E returned, she found it lying on its side, with its 
 
 wings stuck to its body and its whole little person clammy 
 
 with sugar. E tried a sponge and warm water : it was 
 
 too harsh ; she tried old linen, but it was not soft enough ; 
 it then occurred to her that the softest of all substances is 
 the human tongue. In her love for her little companion 
 she thus cleansed it, and succeeded perfectly, so far as the 
 outward bird was concerned. But though it attempted to 
 fly a little, it never recovered, but soon died of its surfeit. 
 Its mate was, of course, allowed to fly away. 
 
 NIAGARA FALLS AND THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 
 
 CHARLES MORRIS. 
 
 [Among travellers' descriptions of the natural marvels of this con- 
 tinent, much has been written of perhaps the greatest of them all, the 
 celebrated cataract of the Niagara River. The Thousand Islands have 
 also excited much admiration. Fortunately, these two scenic wonders 
 are sufficiently contiguous to be dealt with in one record, and the 
 compiler of the present work ventures to give his own impressions 
 of them, from a printed statement made some twenty-five years ago.] 
 
 Who has not read in story and seen in picture, countless 
 times, how the water goes over at Niagara? I came hero 
 expecting to find every curve and plunge of the river ap- 
 pealing like a household thing to my memory. So in
 
 28 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Morris 
 
 great measure it proved, yet travellers never succeed in 
 exhausting a situation in their narratives; something of 
 the unexpected always remains to freshen the sated appe- 
 tite of new-comers. 
 
 Tourists are apt to be disappointed at first sight of the 
 cataract. Their expectations have been overwhetted ; and, 
 moreover, the first glance is usually obtained from the 
 American shore, an edgewise view that gives but an ink- 
 ling of the full majesty of the scene. Yet even from this 
 point of view we behold the river, almost at our feet, rush- 
 ing with concentrated energy to the brink of the precipice, 
 and pouring headlong, in an agony of froth and foam, into 
 a fearful void, from which forever rises a rainbow-crowned 
 mist. To stand on the brink and gaze into this terrible 
 abyss, with the foaming waters plunging in a white wall 
 downward, is apt to rouse an undefined desire to cast 
 one's self after the torrent, while minute by minute the 
 mind grows into a realization of the sublimity of Niagara. 
 But to behold the cataract in the fulness of its might 
 and glory one must cross to the Canadian shore, and make 
 his way on foot from the bridge westward. Carriages will 
 be found in abundance, manned by drivers more importu- 
 nate than mellifluous; but if the tourist would see the 
 Falls at leisure and from every point of view, he must be 
 obdurate, and resolutely foot his way along the river's pre- 
 cipitous bank. 
 
 First, arriving opposite the American Fall, we seat our- 
 selves under a tree, and gaze with admiration on this mag- 
 nificent water front, spread before us in one broad, straight 
 sheet of milk-white foam, swooping ever downward with 
 graceful undulations, until beaten into mist on the rocks 
 
 below. 
 
 Passing onward, we approach that grand curved reach 
 of falling water, whoso sublime aspect has been a fruitful
 
 Morris] NIAGARA AND THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 29 
 
 theme for poet and artist since America has had poetry 
 and art. The Horseshoe Fall is the paragon of cataracts. 
 Sitting on what remains of Table-Rock, and gazing on the 
 tumbling, heaving, foaming world of waters, which seem 
 to fill the whole horizon of vision, the mind becomes op- 
 pressed with a feeling of awe, and realizes to its full extent 
 nature's grandest vision. 
 
 With one vast leap the broad river shoots headlong into 
 an abyss whose real depth we are left to imagine, since the 
 feet of the cataract are forever hidden in a white cloud of 
 mist, shrouded in a dense veil which no eye can penetrate. 
 At the centre of the curve, where the water is deepest, the 
 creamy whiteness of the remainder of the cataract is re- 
 placed by a hue of deep green. It seems one vast sheet of 
 liquid emerald, curving gracefully over the edge of the 
 precipice, and swooping downward with endless change 
 yet endless stability, its green tinge relieved with countless 
 flecks of white foam. 
 
 The mind cannot long maintain its high level of appre- 
 ciation of so grand a scene. The mighty monotony of the 
 view soon loses its absorbing hold on the senses, and from 
 sheer reaction one perforce passes to prosaic conceptions 
 of the situation. For our part, we found ourselves pur- 
 chasing popped corn from a peripatetic merchant who 
 ludicrously misplaced the h's in his conversation, and, 
 taking a seat above the Falls, where the edge of the rapids 
 swerved in and broke in mimic billows at our feet, we 
 enjoyed mental and creature comforts together. 
 
 One need but return to the American side, and cross to 
 the islands which partly fill the river above the Falls, to 
 obtain rest for his overstrained brain among quieter aspects 
 of nature. Goat Island one cannot appreciate without a 
 visit. Travellers, absorbed in the wilder scenery, rarely do 
 justice to its peculiar charm. Instead of the contracted 
 
 3*
 
 30 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Morris 
 
 space one is apt to expect, he finds himself in an area of 
 many acres in extent, probably a mile in circumference, its 
 whole surface to the water's edge covered with dense forest. 
 Passing inward from its shore, scarce twenty steps are 
 taken before every vestige of the river is lost to sight, and 
 on reaching its centre we find ourselves, to all appearance, 
 in the heart of a primeval forest, — only the subdued roar 
 of the rapids reminding us of the grand scene surround- 
 ing. On all sides rise huge trunks of oaks and beeches, 
 straight, magnificent trees, many of the beeches seem- 
 ingly from six to eight feet in circumference, their once 
 smooth bark covered inch by inch with a directory of the 
 names of notoriety-loving visitors. At our feet wild flow- 
 ers bloom, the twittering of birds is heard overhead, nim- 
 ble ground-squirrels fearlessly cross our path, soft mosses 
 and thick grass form a verdant carpet, and on all sides 
 nature presents us one of her most charming phases, a 
 picture from Arcadia framed in the heart of a scene of 
 hurry and turmoil undescribable. 
 
 Near the edge of the P'alls a rickety bridge leads to a 
 small island on which stands Terrapin Tower, which yields 
 a fine outlook upon the Horseshoe Fall, with its mists and 
 rainbows. From the opposite side of Goat Island we pass 
 to the charming little Luna Island, from whose brink one 
 may lave his hand in the edge of the American Fall. From 
 the upper end of Goat Island bridges lead to the Three 
 Sisters. These are small, thickly-timbered islands, stand- 
 ing in the stream far back from the edge of the precipice, 
 but in the very foam and fume of the rapids, the con- 
 tracted stream dashing under their graceful suspension 
 bridges with frightful speed and roar. 
 
 From the bridge joining the two outer islands one may 
 see the rapids in their wildest aspect. Here the river, 
 dashing fiercely onward, plunges over a shelf of rock six
 
 Morris] NIAGARA AND THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 31 
 
 or eight feet deep, and is tossed upward in so tumultuous 
 a turmoil of foam that the heart involuntarily stops beat- 
 ing and the teeth set hard, as if one were preparing for 
 a desperate conflict with the fierce power beneath him. 
 From every point on the shore of the outer island the 
 rapids are seen heaving and tossing as far as the sight can 
 reach, like the waves of a sea fretted by contrary winds, 
 here tossed many feet into the air, there sweeping fiercely 
 over a long ledge of rocks, and ever hurrying forward with 
 eager speed to where in the distance we see a long, curved, 
 liquid edge, with a light mist floating upward and hovering 
 in the air beyond it. Here one hears only the roar of the 
 rapids. Indeed, anywhere in the nearer vicinity, the sound 
 of the rapids is chiefly heard, the voice of the cataract 
 itself predominating only on the Canadian side near the 
 Horseshoe Fall. 
 
 Here, on this outreaching island, I sat for hours on the 
 gnarled trunk of a fallen tree that overhung the water, 
 drinking in the grandeur and glory of Niagara with a 
 mental thirst that seemed unquenchable, and feeling in my 
 soul that I could willingly stretch the hours into days and 
 the days into weeks, and still descend with regret from 
 the poetry of life into its prose. 
 
 Leaving Niagara, I took car for Lewistown, the railroad 
 running for its whole length in full view of the river, 
 whose lofty and rigidly-erect walls, stretching in unbroken 
 lines for miles below the cataract, give striking evidence 
 of the vast work performed by the stream in cutting its 
 way, century after century, through the ridge of solid lime- 
 stone that separates the lakes. Far down below the level 
 of the railroad the water is seen, placidly winding through 
 the deep gorge, or speeding onward in rapids, its hue in- 
 tensely green, its banks as lofty and precipitous as the Pal- 
 isades of the Hudson.
 
 32 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Morris 
 
 Before Lewistown is reached the ridge sinks to the river 
 level. At this point the cataract began its long career, 
 inch by inch eating its way backward through the former 
 rapids, until they were converted into one mighty ver- 
 tical downfall. At Lewistown boat is taken for Toronto, 
 — of which city only a lake view of warehouses and 
 church steeples is seen as we change boats for the lake 
 journey. 
 
 For the rest of the day and evening we steamed along 
 in full view of the Canadian shore, an ever-changing pano- 
 rama of farm lands, sandy bluffs, occasional hamlets, and 
 several towns of some pretensions to size and beauty. 
 Kingston, a city at the head of the lake, is reached at four 
 o'clock in the morning. Immediately after leaving this 
 thriving town the state-rooms begin to disgorge their occu- 
 pants, for we now enter the broad throat of the St. Law- 
 rence Kiver, and here the Thousand Islands begin. Who 
 that has a soul beyond cakes and ale would let the desire 
 to indulge in his own dreams cheat him from enjoying one 
 of nature's loveliest visions? 
 
 For some four hours thereafter the boat runs through 
 an uninterrupted succession of the most beautiful island 
 scenery. These islands number, in fact, more than eighteen 
 hundred, and are of every conceivable size and shape ; some 
 so minute that they seem but rock pediments to the single 
 tree that is rooted upon their surface, while the rocky 
 shores of others stretch for a mile or more along the chan- 
 nel. They are all heavily wooded, with here and there a 
 light-house, or a rude hovel, as the only indication of man's 
 contest with primitive nature. 
 
 [This description, it may be said, does not apply to the present time, 
 when mansions and hotels have taken possession of many of these 
 islands, and evidences of man's occupancy are somewhat too numer- 
 ous.]
 
 Morris] NIAGARA AND THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 33 
 
 Every few turns of the wheel reveals some new feature of 
 the scene, unexpected channels cutting through the centre 
 of a long, wooded reach, broad open spaces studded with 
 islets, narrow creek-like channels between rocky island 
 shores, in which the whole river seems contracted to a 
 slender stream, while farther on the channel expands to a 
 mile in width, and glimpses of other channels open behind 
 distant islands. Quick turns in our course plunge us into 
 archipelagos, through which a dozen channels run and wind 
 in every direction. Sudden openings in the wooded shore 
 along which we are swiftly gliding yield glimpses of charm- 
 ing islands, here closing the view, there cut by narrow 
 channels which reveal more distant wooded shores, and 
 lead the imagination suggestively onward till we fancy 
 that scenes of fairy-like beauty lie hidden beyond those 
 leafy coverts, enviously torn from our sight by the remorse- 
 less onward flight of the boat. For hours we sit in rapt 
 delight, drinking in new beauty at every turn, and heed- 
 less of the fact that the breakfast gong has long since 
 sounded, and the more prosaic of the passengers have 
 allowed their physical to overcome their mental hunger. 
 
 One tall, long-whiskered old devotee of " cakes and ale," 
 hailing from somewhere in Ohio, shaped somewhat like a 
 note of interrogation, and sustaining his character by ask- 
 ing everybody all sorts of questions, did not, I am positive, 
 digest his breakfast well, for I took a wicked pleasure in 
 assuring him that we had passed far the most beautiful 
 portions of the scenery while he was engaged in absorbing 
 creature comforts, and that the world beside had nothing 
 to compare with the fairy visions he had lost. Old Buckeye, 
 as I had irreverently christened him, wished his breakfast 
 was in Hades, and at once set out on a tour of interrogation 
 to learn if he could not return by the same route and pick 
 up the lost threads of beauty he had so idly dropped. 
 I.— c
 
 34 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Morris 
 
 Another of our fellow-passengers was an English gentle- 
 man of perfect Lord Dundreary pattern, his every move- 
 ment being so suggestive of those of his stage counterpart 
 as to furnish us an unfailing source of amusement. At 
 Prescott, Canada, a New England college boat-club came 
 on board with their boat, and highly amused the passengers 
 during the remainder of the journey with a long succession 
 of comical songs. Three of them were sons of one of our 
 venerable New England professors, one an unvenerable 
 professor himself, yet their tanned faces, worn habiliments, 
 and wild songs bore so strong a flavor of the backwoods 
 that it was hard mentally to locate them within college 
 walls. 
 
 We were roused from dinner by the announcement that 
 the Long Sault Eapid was at hand, and gladly deserted 
 one of the meanest tables we had ever encountered to par- 
 take of one of nature's rarest banquets. 
 
 The boat was entering what seemed a heaving sea, the 
 waters lifting into dangerous billows, and tossing our craft 
 with unmitigated rudeness, until it became almost im- 
 possible to retain a level footing. But the appearance of 
 these rapids was different from what we had been led to 
 expect. The frightful aspect of danger, the rapid down- 
 hill plunge of the boat, and all the fear-inspiring adorn- 
 ments of the guide-books, while they might bo visible from 
 the shore, did not appear to those on the deck. Apparently 
 tho boat was fixed in the heart of a watery turmoil, her 
 onward motion lost in her various upward and sidelong 
 movements, while as for fear, its only evidence lay in little 
 shrieks full of laughter, as the equilibrium of the craft 
 was suddenly destroyed. 
 
 Five minutes or so of this experience carried us through 
 the perilous portion of the great rapid, and brought us 
 into safe waters again. The St. Lawrence has various
 
 Latham] FROM NEW FORK TO WASHINGTON, 1866. 35 
 
 other rapids between the Long Sault and Montreal, differ- 
 ing in appearance, some of them being, as far as the eye can 
 reach, a succession of crossing and tumbling waves, which 
 give the boat unexpected little heaves, and appear like the 
 waves of a tossing sea. Here the water plunges rapidly 
 down a narrow throat between two islands, there it curves 
 round a rocky shore, on which it breaks in ocean-like 
 billows. But the only point where danger becomes ap- 
 parent to untrained eyes is at the La Chine Eapids, near 
 Montreal, where the river runs through a narrow foaming 
 channel between two long ridges of rock, over which the 
 water tumbles with a terrible suggestion of peril. 
 
 The peak of Montreal mountain has been long visible, 
 and now we rapidly approach the long line of Victoria 
 bridge, the great pride of Canadian engineering. Under 
 this we glide with a gymnast at the mast-head, whose 
 erected feet seem nearly to touch the bridge ; and in a 
 short time we round into the wharf and are ashore in the 
 largest city of Canada. 
 
 FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON IN 1866. 
 
 HENRY LATHAM. 
 
 [It is not our purpose to enter into descriptions of the cities of the 
 United States. They are sufficiently familiar already to our readers. 
 But Mr. Latham has given so graphic a picture of the outward aspect 
 of the two leading coast cities and the capital of this country during 
 a past generation that we have been tempted to quote it. It need 
 scarcely be said that this account represents only in embryo these cities 
 as they appear to-day.] 
 
 Safe arrived last night, after spending twelve days of 
 my life at sea. I say last night, as it took us so long to
 
 36 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Latham 
 
 land and get through the custom-house that it was dark 
 before we reached the Fifth Avenue Hotel. But it was 
 bright daylight and sunshine as we steamed up the splendid 
 harbor of New York, a view which I should have been 
 sorry to have missed. As far as our personal experiences 
 go, the custom-house officers of New York are not half so 
 troublesome as they are said to be. We had nothing to 
 smuggle, but there was a vast amount of smuggling done 
 by some of our fellow-passengers. One man landed with 
 his pocket full of French watches, and another with a 
 splendid Cashmere shawl round his neck. The custom- 
 house officer, searching the next luggage to mine, un- 
 earthed two boxes of cigars ; of course these were contra- 
 band. He spoke as follows : " Which are the best ?" Opens 
 box. " Have you a light ? I forgot ; we must not smoke 
 here. Well, I will take a few to smoke after my supper." 
 Takes twenty cigars, and passes the rest. 
 
 December U, 1866.— I have been on my feet all day, 
 delivering letters of introduction. These are plants that 
 require to be put in early, or they are apt to flower after 
 the sower has quitted the country. The stores of the 
 Broadway are the most wonderfully glorified shops ever 
 seen. Something between a Manchester warehouse and a 
 London club-house. 
 
 I have spent all my day in going to and fro in Broad- 
 way, the wonderful street of New York; in ten years' 
 time the finest street in the world. At present there are 
 still so many small old houses standing in line with the 
 enormous stores, that the effect is somewhat spoiled, by 
 reason of the ranks not being well dressed. Broadway 
 is now much in the condition of a child's mouth when cut- 
 ting its second set of teeth,— slightly gappy. The enor- 
 mous stores look even larger now than they will do when 
 the intervals are filled up. The external splendor of the
 
 Latham] FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON, 1866. 37 
 
 shops is chiefly architectual ; they make no great display 
 of goods in the windows ; but the large size of the rooms 
 within enables them to set out and exhibit many times the 
 amount of goods that an English shop-keeper shows. 
 
 The city of New York is on the southern point of Man- 
 hattan Island, having the East Kiver running along one 
 side, and the North Eiver or Hudson along the other. 
 Some day far in the future, when the present municipality 
 is purged or swept away, and the splendor of the Thames 
 Embankment scheme has been realized, New York will 
 probably have two lines of quays, planted with trees and 
 edged with warehouses, which will make it one of the 
 finest cities in the world. The business quarter is at the 
 point of the peninsula. The fashionable quarter is to the 
 north, reaching every year farther inland. As the city in- 
 creases, the stores keep moving northward, taking posses- 
 sion of the houses, and driving the residents farther back. 
 The land is not yet built over up to Central Park, said to 
 be called so because it will be the future centre of the city 
 that is to be. 
 
 The concentrated crowd that passes along Broadway in 
 the morning " down-town" to its business, and back in the 
 evening " up-town" to its homes, is enormous ; but the 
 pavements are bad for men and abominable for horses: to- 
 day I saw five horses down, and two lying dead. At the 
 same time, allowance must bo made for the fact that it has 
 been snowing and thawing and freezing again ; but as this 
 is no uncommon state of things in this climate, why pave 
 the streets with flat stones that give no foothold ? The 
 " street-cars" are the universal means of conveyance. 
 These are omnibuses running on tramways, but the name 
 of omnibus is unknown : if you speak of a " bus" you are 
 stared at. A young New Yorker, recently returned from 
 London, was escorting his cousin home one evening; as 
 
 4 
 
 429387
 
 38 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Latham 
 
 the way was long, he stopped and said, "Hold on, Mary, 
 and let's take a bus." " No, George, not here in the street," 
 the coy damsel replied. . . . 
 
 We went to-day to the top of Trinity Church tower ; a 
 beautiful panorama, with the bay of New York to tho 
 south, the city stretching away northward, and a great 
 river on either side. But it was bitterly cold at the top, as' 
 we had heavy snow yesterday, and the wind was blowing 
 keenly. We went also to the Gold Exchange, and gold 
 happened to be "very sensitive" this morning, in conse- 
 quence of some rumors from Mexico which made it pos- 
 sible that the time for United States interference was 
 nearer than had been supposed. The noise was deafening ; 
 neither the Stock Exchange nor the ring at Epsom at all 
 approach it. All the men engaged in a business which one 
 would suppose required more experience than any other, 
 the buying and selling of gold, seemed to be under twenty- 
 five years of age ; most of them much younger, some quite 
 boys. The reason given me was that older heads could not 
 stand the tumult, all gesticulating, all vociferating, every 
 man with a note-book and pencil, crowded round a ring 
 in the centre of the hall like a little cock-pit, to which you 
 descend by steps. Every now and then a man rushes out 
 of the telegraph corner with some news, which oozes out 
 and makes the crowd howl and seethe again. The hands 
 of a big dial on the wall are moved on from time to time, 
 marking the hour of the day and the price of gold. This 
 is the dial of the barometer of national prosperity, marked 
 by gold instead of mercury. . . . 
 
 A huge sum of money has been laid out on Central Park, 
 the Bois de Boulogne of New York. When the timber has 
 grown larger it will be very pretty. The ground is rocky, 
 with little depth of soil in it ; this makes it difficult to get 
 the trees to grow, but, on the other hand, gives the place a
 
 Latham] FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON, 1S66. 39 
 
 feature not to be found in our parks' or at the Bois, in the 
 large masses of brown sandstone cropping up through the 
 turf here and there, and in the rocky shores of the little 
 lakes. 
 
 In the evening we went, by invitation of our courteous 
 banker, to the Assembly at Delmonico's rooms. In this we 
 consider ourselves highly honored and introduced to the 
 best society of New York. The toilets and the diamonds 
 were resplendent, and one figure of the " German" (cotil- 
 lon), in which the ladies formed two groups in the centre, 
 facing inward with their bright trains spread out behind 
 them, was a splendid piece of color and costume. Prince 
 Doria was there, and most of the magnates of the city 
 looked in. Some of the wealthiest people in the room 
 were pointed out to me as the present representatives of 
 the families of the old Dutch settlers ; those are the pedi- 
 grees respected here. 
 
 December 20, 1866. — We left New York, having stayed 
 exactly a week, and meaning to return again. By rail to 
 Philadelphia, ninety-two miles, through a flat, snow-covered 
 country, which, under the circumstances, looked as dismal 
 as might be. The latter part of our journey lay along the 
 left bank of the Delaware, which we crossed by a long 
 wooden bridge, and arrived at the Continental Hotel just 
 at dusk. It is evident we are moving South. The waiters 
 at this hotel are all darkies. 
 
 December 21, 1866. — Philadelphia is a most difficult town 
 just now for pedestrians, the door-steps being all of white 
 marble glazed with ice, and sliding on the pavement may 
 be had in perfection. Spent the best part of the day in 
 slipping about, trying to deliver letters of introduction. 
 The system of naming the streets of Philadelphia and of 
 numbering the houses is extremely ingenious, and answers 
 perfectly when you have made yourself acquainted with
 
 40 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Latham 
 
 it; but as it takes an ordinary mind a week to find it out, 
 the stranger who stops four or five days is apt to execrate 
 it. All the streets run at right angles to one another, bo 
 that a short cut, the joy of the accomplished Londoner, is 
 impossible. It is a chess-board on which the bishop's 
 move is unknown. Nothing diagonal can be done. The 
 city is ruled like the page of a ledger, from top to bottom 
 with streets, from side to side with avenues. It is all divided 
 into squares. When you are fii-st told this, a vision arises 
 of the possibility of cutting across these squares from 
 corner to corner. Not a bit of it : a square at Philadelphia 
 means a solid block of houses, not an open space enclosed 
 by buildings. When you have wandered about for some 
 time, the idea suggests itself that every house is exactly 
 like the house next to it; although the inhabitants have 
 given up the old uniformity of costume, the houses have 
 not ; and without this elaborate system of numbering, the 
 inhabitants of Philadelphia would never be able to find 
 their way home. 
 
 Nevertheless, if that is the finest town in which its in- 
 habitants are best lodged, Philadelphia is the finest town 
 in the world. It lodges a much smaller population than 
 that of New York in more houses. In no other large 
 town are rents comparatively so cheap. Every decent 
 workingman can afford to have his separate house, with 
 gas and water laid on, and fitted with a bath. 
 
 We have been making a study of the negro waiters. 
 Perhaps cold weather affects them; but the first thing 
 about them that strikes you is the apathetic infantine 
 feeble-minded ness of the "colored persons" lately called 
 niggers. I say nothing of the seven colored persons, of 
 various shades, who always sit in a row on a bench in the 
 hall, each with a little clothes-brush in his hand, and never 
 attempt to do anything; I allude to those who minister to
 
 Latham] FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON, 1866. 41 
 
 my wants in the coffee-room with utterly unknown dishes. 
 I breakfasted yesterday off dunfish and cream, Indian 
 pudding, and dipped toast ; for dinner I had a baked black- 
 fish with soho sauce, and stewed venison with port wine ; 
 for vegetables, marrow, squash, and stewed tomatoes; and 
 for pudding, " floating island." 
 
 You see there is something exciting about dinner. After 
 you have ordered four courses of the unknown, and your 
 colored person has gone in the direction of the kitchen 
 you sit with the mouth of expectation wide open. Some- 
 times you get grossly deceived. Yesterday F ordered 
 
 " jole," and was sitting in a state of placid doubt, when his 
 colored person returned with a plate of pickled pork. At 
 present I am quite of the opinion of the wise man who 
 discovered that colored persons are born and grow in ex- 
 actly the same way as uncolored persons up to the age of 
 thirteen, and that they then cease to develop their skulls 
 and their intelligence. All the waiters in this hotel appear 
 to be just about the age of thirteen. There are two who 
 in wisdom are nearly twelve, and one gray-headed old 
 fellow who is just over fourteen. 
 
 [Our traveller contented himself in the way of sight-seeing by fol- 
 lowing Charles Dickens's path to the Penitentiary, and afterwards 
 visited Girard College. He concludes as follows :] 
 
 Even in this city of Penn the distinctive marks of 
 Quakerism are dying out. The Quaker dress does not seem 
 much more common in Philadelphia than in any other 
 city, nor do they use the "thee" and "thou" in the streets; 
 but at their own firesides, where the old people sit, they 
 still speak the old language. A Quaker in the streets is 
 not to be distinguished from other Philadelphians. I was 
 talking to Mr. C about this, and he said, "Let me in- 
 troduce you to a Quaker ; I am a member of the church 
 
 4*
 
 42 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Latham 
 
 myself." L was not quite clear whether he was a 
 
 Quaker or not. His parents had been ; his sons certainly 
 were not. Some of the best of the Southern soldiers came 
 from the city of the Quakers. There is a story of a Quaker 
 girl, who was exchanging rings with her lover as he set 
 off to join the army ; when they parted she said, " Thee 
 must not wear it on thy trigger-finger, George." 
 
 Dined with Mr. L , the publisher. He showed us 
 
 over his enormous store, which seemed to be a model of 
 discipline and organization, and described the book-market 
 of America as being, like the Union, one and indivisible, 
 and opened his ledger, in which were the names of cus- 
 tomers in every State in the Union. He told us that he 
 had about five thousand open accounts with different 
 American booksellers. His policy is to keep in stock 
 everything that a country bookseller requires, from a Bible 
 to a stick of sealing-wax, so that when their stores get low 
 they are able to write to him for everything they want. 
 He contends, as other Philadelphians do, that New York is 
 not the capital of America, but only its chief port of im- 
 port, and that Philadelphia is the chief centre for distribu- 
 tion. Mr. Hep worth Dixon had been here not long before, 
 and, as was right and fitting in the city of Quakers, a high 
 banquet had been held in honor of the vindicator of William 
 Penn. 
 
 [Thence Mr. Latham went to Baltimore, of which he describes the 
 following old-time experience : " When an American train reaches 
 a town it does not dream of pulling up short in a suburb, but advances 
 slowly through the streets ; the driver on the engine rings a large bell, 
 and a man on horseback rides in front to clear the way. Thus we 
 entered Baltimore, arrived at the terminus and uncoupled the engine ; 
 and then, still sitting in the railway-car, were drawn by a team of 
 horses along the street-rails to the terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio 
 Kailway on the other side of the town. " lie is talking of antediluvian 
 days. We have reformed all that. After some experience in duck
 
 Latham] FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON, 1866. 43 
 
 and partridge shooting, and a taste of terrapin soup, he proceeded to 
 Washington. Of his varied experience there we can give but a single 
 out-door example.] 
 
 We went this morning over the Capitol, an enormous 
 edifice still in progress, parts of it are continually built on 
 to, and rebuilt, to meet the wants of the legislature. The 
 two new white marble wings are very beautiful and nearly 
 complete, and the dome is on the same scale with them, 
 and of the same material. The centre is now out of pro- 
 portion since the wings were built, and is of stone, painted 
 white to match the rest in color and preserve it from the 
 frost. If the South had succeeded in seceding it might 
 have sufficed ; but now it is bound to grow, and Congress 
 are going to vote the amount of dollars necessary to make 
 the Capitol complete. When completed it will be magnifi- 
 cent. 
 
 We are very unlucky in seeing these great marble palaces 
 (for several of the public buildings of Washington are of 
 this material) with the snow upon the ground. Against 
 the pure white snow they appear dingy ; under a summer 
 sun they must show to far greater advantage. What 
 ancient Athens appeared like, surrounding its marble 
 temples, I can hardly realize ; but the effect of the splen- 
 did public buildings in Washington is very much detracted 
 from by the sheds and shanties which are near them. The 
 builders of Washington determined that it should be a 
 great city, and staked out its streets accordingly twice the 
 width and length of any other streets: rightly is it named 
 the city of magnificent distances. But although the 
 Potomac is certainly wide enough, and apparently deep 
 enough to justify a certain amount of trade, and its situa- 
 tion is more central than that of Philadelphia, the town 
 has never grown to fill the outlines traced for it. 
 
 To make a Washington street, take one marble temple or
 
 44 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Latham 
 
 public office, a dozen good houses of brick, and a dozen of 
 wood, and fill in with sheds and fields. Some blight seems 
 to have fallen upon the city. It is the only place we have 
 seen which is not full of growth and vitality. I have even 
 heard its inhabitants tell stories of nightly pig-hunts in the 
 streets, and of the danger of tumbling over a cow on the 
 pavement on a dark night ; but this must refer to by -gone 
 times. 
 
 One of the most curious and characteristic of the great 
 public buildings of Washington is the Patent Office, in 
 which a working model is deposited of every patent taken 
 out in the United States for the improvement of machinery. 
 
 This assemblage of specimens is an exhibition of which 
 all Americans are proud, as a proof of the activity of 
 American ingenuity working in every direction. Capacity 
 to take out a patent is a quality necessary to make up tho 
 character of the perfect citizen. Labor is honorable, but the 
 man who can invent a labor-saving machine is more honor- 
 able ; he has gained a step in the great struggle with the 
 powers of nature. An American who has utilized a water- 
 power feels, I take it, two distinct and separate pleasures : 
 first, in that dollars and cents drip off his water-wheel, and, 
 secondly, in that he has inveigled the water-sprites into 
 doing his work. If you tell an American that you are 
 going to Washington, his first remark is not, " Then you 
 will see Congress sitting," but, "Mind you go and see 
 the Patent Office."
 
 
 ***"'-Vfc 
 
 NATURAL BRIDGE, VIRGINIA.
 
 Pollard] THE NATURAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL. 45 
 
 THE NATURAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 EDWARD A. POLLARD. 
 
 [The Old Dominion— to give Virginia its home title— is full of 
 natural wonders, some of them unsurpassed in beauty and attractive- 
 ness elsewhere in the world. In number and variety of mineral 
 springs it stands unequalled; its caverns, Luray and Weyer's, are 
 rich in charms of subterranean scenery ; and its two remarkable ex- 
 amples of nature's grandeur, the Natural Bridge and Natural Tunnel, 
 are unique in their peculiar characteristics. Edward A. Pollard, in 
 his "Virginia Tourist," has ably described the various attractions of 
 the Old Dominion, and we select from this work his word picture of 
 the Natural Bridge. He made his way thither from Lynchburg, via 
 the James River Canal.] 
 
 As the traveller enters the gap of the Blue Eidge from 
 the east, the winding courses of the stage-coach carry him 
 up the mountain's side until he has gained an elevation of 
 hundreds of feet above the James Eiver, over the waters 
 of which the zigzag and rotten road hangs fearfully. On 
 every side are gigantic mountains hemming him in ; there 
 are black ravines in the great prison-house ; and the length- 
 ened arms of the winds smite the strained ear with the 
 sounds of the rapids below. While he looks at the dis- 
 tance, a mountain rivulet, slight and glittering from amid 
 the primeval forest, dashes across his path, and, leaping 
 from rock to rock, goes joyously on its way. 
 
 On the North River the scenes are quieter. Emerging 
 here, the traveller sees a beautiful and fertile country 
 opening before him, while still westward the blue outlines 
 of distant mountains in Rockbridge bound his vision. The 
 water landscape is beautiful. Lovely valleys debouch 
 upon the stream ; there are peaceful shadows in the steel-
 
 46 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Pollari> 
 
 blue waters, and on the broad shoulders of the cattle on 
 the banks we see the drapery of the shadows of the trees 
 beneath which they rest. The fisherman standing leg-deep 
 in the water can see his face as in a mirror. 
 
 But at present our way does not lie through these scenes. 
 The canal-boat is taking us along the James in the moon- 
 lit night, and by the time the day has broken we are within 
 two miles of the Natural Bridge. A rickety team awaits 
 us at the lock-house where we disembark. Through an 
 air filled with golden vapor, and with the mists of the 
 morning yet hanging in the trees by the wayside, we pro- 
 ceed on°our journey. The old stage-coach lumbers along 
 under the thick, overhanging boughs of the forest pines, 
 which ever and anon scrape its top or strike in through 
 the windows, scattering the dew-drops in the very faces of 
 the passengers, or perhaps smiting their cheeks with their 
 sharp-pointed leaves. 
 
 The first view of the bridge is obtained half a mile from 
 it at a turn on the stage-road. It is revealed with the sud- 
 denness of an apparition. Eaised a hundred feet above the 
 highest trees of the forest, and relieved against the purple 
 side of a distant mountain, a whitish-gray arch is seen, in 
 the effect of distance as perfect and clean-cut an arch as 
 its Egyptian inventor could have defined. The tops of 
 trees 'are waving in the interval, the upper half of which 
 we only see, and the stupendous arch that spans the upper 
 air is relieved from the first impression that it is man's 
 masonry, the work of art, by the fifteen or twenty feet of 
 soil that it supports, in which trees and shrubbery are firmly 
 embedded,— the verdant crown and testimony of nature's 
 great work. And here we are divested of an imagination 
 which we believe is popular, that the bridge is merely a 
 huge slab of rock thrown across a chasm, or some such 
 hasty and violent arrangement. It is no such thing. The
 
 Pollard] THE NATURAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL. 47 
 
 arch and whole interval are contained in one solid rock ; 
 the average width of that which makes the bridge is eighty 
 feet, and beyond this the rock extends for a hundred feet or 
 so in mural precipices, divided by only a single fissure, that 
 makes a natural pier on the upper side of the bridge, and 
 up which climb the hardy firs, ascending step by step on 
 the noble rock- work till they overshadow you. 
 
 This mighty rock, a single mass sunk in the earth's side, 
 of which even what appears is stupendous, is of the same 
 geological character, — of limestone covered to the depth of 
 from four to six feet with alluvial and clayey earth. The 
 span of the arch runs from forty-five to sixty feet wide, 
 and its height to the under line is one hundred and ninety- 
 six feet, and to the head two hundred and fifteen feet. 
 The form of the arch approaches to the elliptical ; the 
 stage-road which passes over the bridge runs from north 
 to south, with an acclivity of thirty-five degrees, and the 
 arch is carried over on a diagonal line, — the very line of 
 all others the most difficult for the architect to realize, 
 and the one best calculated fur picturesque effects. It is 
 the proportions of art in this wild, strange work of nature, 
 its adjustment in the very perfection of mechanical skill, 
 its apparently deliberate purpose, that create an interest 
 the most curious and thoughtful. The deep ravine over 
 which it sweeps, and through which traverses the beautiful 
 Cedar Creek, is not otherwise easily passed for several 
 miles, either above or below the bridge. It is needful to 
 the spot, and yet so little likely to have survived the great 
 fracture, the evidences of which are visible around, and 
 which has made a fissure of about ninety feet through the 
 breadth of a rock-ribbed hill, that we are at first disposed 
 to reflect upon it as the work of man. It is only when 
 we contemplate its full measure of grandeur that we are 
 assured it is the work of God. We have the pier, the arch,
 
 48 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Poixakd 
 
 the studied angle of ascent; and that nothing might be 
 wanted in the evidences of design, the bridge is guarded 
 by a parapet of rocks, so covered with fine shrubs and 
 trees that a person travelling the stage-road running over 
 it would, if not informed of the curiosity, pass it unnoticed. 
 But let him approach through the foliage to the side. 
 More than two hundred feet below is the creek, apparently 
 motionless, except where it flashes with light as it breaks 
 on an obstruction in the channel ; there are trees, attain- 
 ing to grander heights as they ascend the face of the pier ; 
 and far below this bed of verdure the majestic rock rises 
 with the decision of a wall, and the spectator shrinks from 
 contemplating the grand but cruel depths, and turns away 
 with dizzy sensations. But the most effective view is from 
 the base of the bridge, where you descend by a circuitous 
 and romantic path. Even to escape from the hot sun into 
 these verdant and cool bottoms is of itself a luxury, and it 
 prepares you for the deliberate enjoyment of the scene. 
 Everything reposes in the most delightful shade, set off by 
 the streaming rays of the sun, which shoot across the 
 head of the picture far above you, and sweeten with softer 
 touches the solitude below. 
 
 Standing by the rippling, gushing waters of the creek, 
 and raising your eyes to the arch, massive and yet light 
 and beautiful from its height, its elevation apparently in- 
 creased by the narrowness of its piers and by its projection 
 on the blue sky, you gaze off the great work of nature in 
 wonder and astonishment. Yet a hundred beauties beckon 
 you from the severe emotion of the sublime. When you 
 have sustained this view of the arch raised against the sky, 
 its black patches here and there shaped by imagination 
 into grand and weird figures,— among them the eagle, the 
 lion's head, and the heroic countenance of Washington ; 
 when you have taken in the proportions and circumstances
 
 Pollard] THE NATURAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL. 49 
 
 of this elevated and wide span of rock, — so wide that the 
 skies seem to slope from it to the horizon, — you are called 
 to investigate other parts of the scene which strain the 
 emotions less, and are distributed around in almost endless 
 variety. 
 
 Looking through the arch, the eye is engaged with a 
 various vista. Just beyond rises the frayed, unseamed 
 wall of rock ; the purple mountains stand out in the back- 
 ground ; beneath them is a rank of hills and matted woods 
 enclosing the dell below, while the creek coursing away 
 from them appears to have been fed in their recesses. A 
 lew feet above the bridge the stream deflects, and invites 
 to a point of view of the most curious effect. Taking 
 a few steps backward, moving diagonally on the course of 
 the stream, we see the interval of sky between the great 
 abutments gradually shut out ; thus apparently joined or 
 lapped over, they give the effect of the face of a rock, 
 with a straight seam running down it, and the imagination 
 seizes the picture as of mighty gates closed upon us. We 
 are shut in a wild and perturbed scene by these gates of 
 hell; behind and around us is the contracted and high 
 boundary of mountains and hills, and in this close and 
 vexed scene we are for a moment prisoners. 
 
 Now let us move across, step by step, to a position front- 
 ing where these gates apparently close. Slowly they seem 
 to swing open on unseen and noiseless hinges ; wider and 
 wider grows the happy interval of sky, until at last wide 
 open stands the gate-way raised above the forest, resting as 
 it were on the brow of heaven, — a world lying beyond it, 
 its rivers and its hills expanding themselves to the light 
 and splendor of the unshadowed day. 
 
 To an observer of both places a comparison is naturally 
 suggested between the Natural Bridge and Niagara Falls 
 in respect of the sublime and the beautiful; and, indeed, 
 i. — c d 5
 
 50 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Pollard 
 
 as in this respect the two greatest works of nature on this 
 continent, they may well be used as illustrations in our 
 American schools of esthetics. The first is unique in its 
 aspects of nature like art; it is nature with the propor- 
 tions of art. In its expressions of power, in its concentra- 
 tion of emotion, as when we look at it distinct or complete, 
 it is truly sublime; and its effect is alleviated (for it is a 
 maxim in {esthetics that the sublime cannot be long sus- 
 tained) by the picturesque scenery which surrounds it. It 
 is a greater natural curiosity and more wonderful than 
 Niagara, although it lacks the elements of sublimity which 
 the other has in sound, and of the visible, actual struggle 
 in which it displays the powers of nature. Niagara is a 
 living thing, while the Natural Bridge is monumental. The 
 first represents the sublime as allied to the terrific,-in con- 
 templating it we are overwhelmed with a sense of our in- 
 significance ; while the Natural Bridge associates the sub- 
 lime with the pleasing and curious, and, not transporting 
 us as violently as Niagara, entertains us more equably, and 
 dismisses us, we think, with more distinct and fruitful per- 
 ceptions of the grandeur and beneficence and variety of 
 nature which have been distributed in the picture. 
 
 [Washington, a century and a half ago, carved his name at a high 
 elevation on the rock walls of the ahyss. In 1818 Jjhese walls were 
 climbed to the top by James H. Piper, a student of Washington Col- 
 lege, Virginia. The narrative here given of this danng feat is from 
 the pen of William A. Caruthers.] 
 
 Mr Piper, the hero of the occasion, commenced climbing 
 on the opposite side of the creek from the one by which 
 the pathway ascends the ravine. He began down on the 
 banks of the brook so far that we did not know where he 
 had gone, and were only apprised of his whereabouts by 
 his shouting above our heads. When we looked up, he was
 
 Pollard] THE NATURAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL. 51 
 
 standing apparently right under the arch, I suppose a hun- 
 dred feet from the bottom, and that on the smooth side, 
 which is generally considered inaccessible without a ladder. 
 He was standing far above the spot where General Wash- 
 ington is said to have inscribed his name when a youth. 
 Tbe ledge of the rock by which he ascended to this peril- 
 ous height does not appear from below to be three inches 
 wide, and runs almost at right angles to the abutment of 
 the bridge. . . . 
 
 The ledge of rock on which he was standing appeared so 
 narrow to us below as to make us believe his position a 
 very perilous one, and we earnestly entreated him to come 
 down. He answered us with loud shouts of derision. . . . 
 
 He soon after descended from that side, crossed the 
 brook, and commenced climbing on the side by which all 
 visitors ascend the ravine. He first mounted the rocks on 
 this side, as he had done on the other, far down the 
 abutment, but not so far as on the opposite side. The pro- 
 jecting ledge may be distinctly seen by any visitor. It 
 commences four or five feet from the pathway on the lower 
 side, and winds round, gradually ascending, until it meets 
 the cleft of rock over which the celebrated cedar stump 
 hangs. Following this ledge to its termination, it brought 
 him thirty or forty feet from the ground, and placed him 
 between two deep fissures, one on each side of the gigantic 
 column of rock on which the aforementioned cedar stump 
 stands. 
 
 This column stands out from the bridge, as separate and 
 distinct as if placed there by nature on purpose for an ob- 
 servatory to the wonderful arch and ravine which it over- 
 looks. A huge crack or fissure extends from its base to the 
 summit ; indeed, it is cracked on both sides, but much more 
 perceptibly on one side than the other. Both of these 
 fissures are thickly overgrown with bushes, and numerous
 
 52 
 
 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Pollard 
 
 roots project into them from trees growing on the precipice. 
 It was between these that the aforementioned ledge con- 
 ducted him. Here he stopped, pulled off his coat and shoes 
 and threw them down to me. And this, in my opinion, is 
 a sufficient refutation of the story so often told, that he 
 went up to inscribe his name, and ascended so high that he 
 found it more difficult to return than to go forward. He 
 could have returned easily from the point where he disen- 
 cumbered himself, but the fact that he did thus prepare so 
 early, and so near the ground, and after he had ascended 
 more than double that height on the other side, is clear 
 proof that to inscribe his name was not, and to climb the 
 bridge was, his object. He had already inscribed his name 
 above Washington himself more than fifty feet. 
 
 Around the face of this huge column, and between the 
 clefts, he now moved backward and forward, still ascending 
 as he found convenient foothold. When he had ascended 
 about one hundred and seventy feet from the earth, and 
 had reached the point where the pillar overhangs the 
 ravine, his heart seemed to fail him. He stopped, and 
 seemed to us to be balancing midway between heaven and 
 earth. We were in dread suspense, expecting every mo- 
 ment to see him dashed in atoms at our feet. We had 
 already exhausted our powers of entreaty in persuading 
 him to return, but all to no purpose. Now it was perilous 
 even to speak to him, and very difficult to carry on con- 
 versation at all, from the immense height to which he had 
 ascended, and the noise made by the bubbling of the little 
 brook as it tumbled in tiny cascades over its rocky bed at 
 our feet At length he seemed to discover that one of the 
 clefts before mentioned retreated backward from the over- 
 hanging position of the pillar. Into this he sprang at 
 once and was soon out of sight and out of danger. 
 
 There is not a word of truth in all that story about our
 
 Pollard] THE NATURAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL. 53 
 
 hauling him up with ropes, and his fainting away so soon 
 as he landed on the summit. Those acquainted with the 
 localities will at once perceive its absurdity; for we were 
 beneath the arch, and it is half a mile round to the top, 
 and for the most part up a ragged mountain. Instead of 
 fainting away, Mr. Piper proceeded down the hill to meet 
 us and obtain his hat and shoes. We met about half-way, 
 and then he lay down for a few moments to recover him- 
 self of hi3 fatigue. 
 
 [Virginia possesses another marvel of nature's handiwork of the 
 same general character as the Natural Bridge, and of which Mr. Pol- 
 lard's description may here fitly be given.] 
 
 After progressing about three miles from the ford of the 
 Clinch Eiver, and after having repeatedly crossed its 
 crooked tributary, Stock Creek, we come to a small moun- 
 tain or globular hill which is our wondrous destination, for 
 here is the Natural Tunnel. There is nothing which ad- 
 vertises in advance this great wonder, or in any way 
 excites the expectations of the traveller. There is a 
 common road, from which we depart a few hundred yards 
 to make a half circuit of the base of the mountain, that 
 goes clean over the ridge, leading to a settlement some 
 miles farther, called Eye Cove, and which was once the 
 abode of a fierce Indian tribe. This main road goes over 
 the arch of the tunnel, furnishing a curious convenience 
 to the traveller, of which he would be unaware, seeing 
 nothing through the foliage but glimpses of the mural 
 rocks that guard and sustain the termination of the secret 
 passage-way many hundred feet below him. It is from 
 this convenience that the neighboring people name the 
 gigantic work of nature we are proceeding to explore a 
 natural bridge. But this name is certainly insufficient and 
 paltry for a rock- work that on one flank at least extends 
 
 " ' 6*
 
 54 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Pollard 
 
 some eight hundred feet, and which if regarded with refer- 
 ence to the breadth of the interval it spans, is, in fact, a 
 complication of bridges, arranged, as we shall presently 
 see, in one single massive spectacle. 
 
 The western face of the tunnel, near which we dismount, 
 continues partly concealed from view, or is imperfectly ex- 
 posed until we nearly approach it, the immense rock 
 which is perforated being here dressed with the thick 
 foliage of the spruce-pine, and the harsh surface adorned 
 with a beautiful tracery of vines and creepers. At last is 
 seen the entrance of what appears to be a huge subter- 
 raneous cavern or grotto, into which the stream disappears ; 
 a towering rock rising here about two hundred feet 
 above the surface of the stream, and a rude entrance 
 gouged into it, varying in width, as far as the eye can 
 reach, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, and 
 rising in a clear vault from seventy to eighty feet above 
 the floor. The view here terminates in the very blackness 
 of darkness; it is broken on the first curve of the tunnel. 
 The bed of the stream, from which the water has dis- 
 appeared on account of the drouth, the reduced currents 
 sinking to lower subterranean channels, is piled with great 
 irregular rocks, on the sharp points of which we stumble 
 and cut our hands: there is no foothold but on rocks, and 
 it is only when we have struggled through the awful, cruel 
 darkness, holding up some feeble lights in it, and issued 
 into the broad sunshine, that we find we have travelled 
 nearly two hundred yards (or say, more exactly, five hun- 
 dred feet) through one solid rock, in which there is not an 
 inch of soil, not a seam, not a cleft, and which, even beyond 
 the debouchure of the tunnel, yet runs away a hundred 
 yards in a wall five hundred feet high, as clean and whetted 
 as the work of the mason. 
 
 But we must not anticipate this majestical scene, "won-
 
 Pollard] THE NATURAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL. 55 
 
 derful beyond all wondrous measure." Happily, in enter- 
 ing the tunnel from the western side we have adopted the 
 course of exploration which affords a gradual ascent of 
 the emotions, until at last they tower to the standard of 
 a perfect sublimity. The course of the tunnel may be 
 described as a continuous curve: it resembles, indeed, a 
 prostrate v>. For a distance of twenty yards midway of 
 this course we are excluded from a view of either entrance, 
 and the darkness is about that of a night with one quarter 
 of the moon. The vault becomes lower here — in some 
 places scarcely more than thirty feet high— and springs 
 immediately from the floor. The situation is awful and 
 oppressive : the voice sounds unnatural, and rumbles 
 strangely and fearfully along the arch of stone. "We are 
 encoffined in the solid rock : there is a strange pang in the 
 beating heart in its imprisonment, so impenetrable, black, 
 hopeless, and we hurry to meet the light of day. In that 
 light we are disentombed : we cast off the confinements of 
 the black space through which we have passed, and we are 
 instantly introduced to a scene so luminous and majestic 
 that in a moment our trembling eyes are captivated and 
 our hearts lifted in unutterable worsbip of the Creator's 
 works. 
 
 It is that sheer wall of rock which we have already 
 mentioned, where the arch and other side of the tunnel 
 break away into the mountain slope; a high wall, slightly 
 impending ; an amphitheatre, extending one hundred yards, 
 of awful precipices; a clean battlement, without a joint in 
 it, five hundred feet high. And this splendid height and 
 breadth of stone, that a thousand storms have polished, 
 leaving not a cleft of soil in it, — this huge, unjoin ted 
 masonry raised against the sky, gray and weather-stained, 
 with glittering patches of light on it, — is yet part of the 
 same huge rock which towered at the farther end of the
 
 56 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Pollard 
 
 tunnel, and through whose seamless cavity we have 
 travelled two hundred yards. It is in this view that the 
 mystery of the scene seizes the mind, and the last element 
 of sublimity is added to it. It is in this view that the 
 Natural Tunnel we had come to see as a mere " curiosity" 
 takes rank among the greatest wonders of the world. 
 What power, what possible imaginable agency of nature, 
 could have worked out this stupendous scene? ... I 
 
 Turning our eyes away from the battlement of rock to 
 the opposite side of the ravine, a new revelation of the 
 grand and picturesque awaits us. Here a gigantic cliff, but 
 one broken with rock and soil, and threaded to its summit 
 by a sapling growth of the buckeye, the linden, and the 
 pine, rises almost perpendicularly from the water's edge to 
 a height almost equal to that of the opposite wall of rock. 
 A natural platform is seen to project over it, and yet a few 
 yards farther there is an insulated cliff, a Cyclopean chim- 
 ney, so to speak, scarcely more than a foot square at its 
 top, rising in the form of a turret at least sixty feet above 
 its basement, which is a portion of the imposing cliff we 
 have mentioned. It is at once perceived that here are two 
 points of view that will give us new and perhaps the most 
 imposing aspects of the scene. To attain these points, 
 however, it is necessary to make a circuit of half a mile ; 
 and the sinking sun admonishes us to defer this new 
 interest of the scene until to-morrow. . . . 
 
 We remounted for the tunnel in the early morning, and 
 were soon to find that the rising sun was to give a new and 
 unexpected glory to the scene. This time we ascend the 
 mountain instead of deflecting as before. The road is easy ; 
 there are no difficulties of access to the points of view from 
 the top of the tunnel, and they are undoubtedly the grandest. 
 We pass to the platform before described by a few steps from 
 the main road. It is a slab of rock projecting from an
 
 Pollard] THE NATURAL BRIDGE AND TUNNEL. 57 
 
 open patch of ground ; a dead ceclar-tree is standing at its 
 edge, throwing its gnarled and twisted arms, as in wild 
 and widowed sorrow, over the awful scene below. We 
 now see the great opposite amphitheatre of rock in added 
 grandeur, for we see it from above, — we see it across a 
 chasm nine hundred feet wide and five hundred feet deep, 
 and the exposure being almost exactly eastern, the long 
 spears of the rising sun are being shattered on it. The 
 effect is inexpressibly grand. But there is one more cir- 
 cumstance to be added to the scene ; we do not see from 
 this observatory the arch, the entrance of the tunnel. A 
 few yards farther the fearful chimney-shaped rock invites 
 to a more commanding view, but the ascent is dangerous; 
 the stone on top is loose, and so narrow that two persons 
 can scarcely stand on it. A single misstep, a moment's 
 loss of balance, and we would fall into eternity. But now 
 the sense of peril is lost, or is rather mingled, in the gran- 
 deur of the scene. It is a panoramic view. We have now 
 the whole sweep of the mural precipice opposite ; the sun's 
 glitter is incessant on the polished stone ; the trees which 
 fringe the bottom appear now scarcely more than shrubs ; 
 the entrance of the tunnel has now como into view, and 
 that which yesterday we thought so high and wide, now 
 appears, from our amazing height, as a stooped door-way. 
 We imagine the gloomy entrance into a cave of Erebus 
 and Death, the broken rocks lying within which look like 
 black and mangled entrails. It is a fearful picture, — it is 
 that of a supernatural abode. 
 
 [This marvel of nature is not without its tradition, — one of Indian 
 origin, — in which is repeated, with suitable variations, the familiar 
 Lover's Leap narrative. A more prosaic and modern interest attaches 
 to it, in its having been chosen as the route of a railroad, nature's con- 
 tribution of a passage through a difficult mountain wall.]
 
 58 
 
 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Russell 
 
 PLANTATION LIFE IN WAR TIMES. 
 
 WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL. 
 
 [Russell, of former celebrity as war correspondent of The Times, 
 visited the seceded States during the early period of the American 
 Civil War. His letters thence, published later as "Pictures of 
 Southern Life," are full of graphic descriptions of scenes and feelings 
 in the Confederate States during the era of enthusiasm and hopeful- 
 ness, before the war had borne its harvest of doubt and misery. It is 
 not our purpose, however, to give his experiences in this special field. 
 It is travel, not war, with which we are concerned, and we confine 
 ourself to an account of a visit to a plantation in the vicinity of 
 Charleston. A short preliminary sketch of the ebb and flow of rumor 
 in war times, however, may be of interest.] 
 
 The rolling fire of the revolution is fast sweeping over 
 the prairie, and one must fly before it or burn. I am 
 obliged to see all that can be seen of the South at once, 
 and then, armed with such safeguards as I can procure, to 
 make an effort to recover my communications. Bridges 
 broken, rails torn up, telegraphs pulled down,— I am quite 
 in the air, and air charged with powder and fire. One of 
 the most extraordinary books in the world could be made 
 out of the cuttings and parings of the newspapers which 
 have been published within the last few days. The judg- 
 ments, statements, asseverations of the press, everywhere 
 necessarily hasty, ill-sifted, and off-hand, do not aspire to 
 even an ephemeral existence here. They are of use if they 
 serve the purpose of the moment, and of the little boys 
 who commence their childhood in deceit, and continue to 
 adolescence in iniquity, by giving vocal utterance to the 
 "sensation" headings of the journals they retail so sharply 
 and so curtly.
 
 Russell] PLANTATION LIFE IN WAR TIMES. 59 
 
 Talk of the superstition of the Middle Ages, or of the 
 credulity of the more advanced period of rural life ; laugh 
 at the Holy Coat of Treves, or groan over the Lady of 
 Salette; deplore the faith in winking pictures, or in a com- 
 munique of the Moniteur ; moralize on the superstition 
 which discovers more in the liquefaction of the ichor of 
 St. (xennaro than a chemical trick ; but if you desire to 
 understand how far faith can see and trust among the 
 people who consider themselves the most civilized and in- 
 telligent in the world, you will study the American jour- 
 nals, and read the telegrams which appear in them. 
 
 One day the Seventh New York Regiment is destroyed 
 for the edification of the South, and is cut up into such 
 small pieces that none of it is ever seen afterwards. The 
 next day it marches into Washington or Annapolis, all the 
 better for the process. Another, in order to encourage the 
 North, it is said that hecatombs of dead were carried out 
 of Fort Moultrie, packed up, for easy travelling, in boxes. 
 Again, to irritate both, it is credibly stated that Lord 
 Lyons is going to interfere, or that an Anglo-French fleet 
 is coming to watch the ports ; and so on, through a wild 
 play of fancy, inexact in line, as though the batteries were 
 charged with the aurora borealis or summer lightning, in- 
 stead of the respectable, steady, manageable offspring of 
 acid and metal. . . . 
 
 I am now, however, dealing with South Carolina, which 
 has been the fons et origo of the secession doctrines and 
 their development into the full life of the Confederate 
 States. The whole foundation on which South Carolina 
 rests is cotton and a certain amount of rice ; or rather sho 
 bases her whole fabric on the necessity which exists in 
 Europe for those products of her soil, believing and as- 
 serting, as she does, that England and France cannot and 
 will not do without them. Cotton, without a market, is so
 
 60 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kxtssbll 
 
 much flocculent matter encumbering the ground. Eice, 
 without demand for it, is unsalable grain in store and on 
 the field. Cotton at ten cents a pound is boundless pros- 
 perity, empire, and superiority, and rice and grain need no 
 longer be regarded. 
 
 In the matter of slave labor, South Carolina argues 
 pretty much in this way: England and France require 
 our products. In order to meet their wants we must cul- 
 tivate our soil. There is only one way of doing so. The 
 white man cannot live on our land at certain seasons of 
 the year ; he cannot work in the manner required by the 
 crops. He must, therefore, employ a race suited to the 
 labor, and that is a race which will only work when it is 
 obliged to do so. 
 
 [And so on throughout the old argument, which, fortunately, the 
 logic of time has in great measure disproved. But, leaving this phase 
 of the subject, we shall accompany our traveller on a visit to the land 
 of rice and slave labor.] 
 
 Early one morning I started in a steamer to visit a 
 plantation in the Pedee and Macamaw district, in the 
 island coast of the State, north of Charleston. Passing 
 Sumter, on which men are busily engaged, under the Con- 
 federate flag, in making good damages and mounting guns, 
 we put out a few miles to sea, and with the low sandy 
 shore, dotted with soldiers and guard-houses and clumps 
 of trees, on our left, in a few hours pass the Santee Eiver, 
 and enter an estuary into which the Pedee and Macamaw 
 run a few miles farther to the northwest. 
 
 The steamer ran alongside a jetty and pier, which wan 
 crowded by men in uniform, waiting for the news and for 
 supplies of creature-comforts. Ladies were cantering along 
 the fine hard beach, and some gigs and tax-carts, fully 
 laden, rolled along very much as one sees them at Scar-
 
 Russell] PLANTATION LIFE IN WAR TIMES. 61 
 
 borough. The soldiers on the pier were all gentlemen of the 
 county. Some, dressed in gray tunics and yellow facings, in 
 high felt-hats and plumes and jack-boots, would have done 
 no discredit in face, figure, and bearing to the gayest cav- 
 aliei's who ever thundered at the heels of Prince Eupert. 
 Their horses, full of Carolinian fire and mettle, stood pick- 
 eted under the trees along the margin of the beach. 
 Among these men, who had been doing the duty of com- 
 mon troopers in patrolling the sea-coast, were gentlemen 
 possessed of large estates and princely fortunes ; and one 
 who stood among them was pointed out to me as captain 
 of a company, for whose use his liberality provided un- 
 bounded daily libations of champagne, and the best luxu- 
 ries which French ingenuity can safely imprison in those 
 well-known caskets with which Crimean warriors were not 
 unacquainted at the close of the campaign. 
 
 They were eager for news, which was shouted out to 
 them by their friends in the steamer, and one was struck 
 by the intimate personal cordiality and familiar acquaint- 
 ance which existed among them. Three heavy guns, 
 mounted in an earthwork defended by palisades, covered 
 the beach and the landing-place, and the garrison was to 
 have been reinforced by a regiment from Charleston, 
 which, however, had not got in readiness to go up on 
 our steamer, owing to some little difficulties between the 
 volunteers, their officers, and the quartermaster-general's 
 department. 
 
 As the "Nina" approaches the tumble-down wharf, two 
 or three citizens advance from the shade of shaky sheds to 
 welcome us, and a few country vehicles and light phaetons 
 are drawn forth from the same shelter to receive the pas- 
 sengers, while the negro boys and girls who have been 
 playing upon the bales of cotton and barrels of rice, which 
 represent the trade of the place on the wharf, take up 
 
 6
 
 62 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Russell 
 
 commanding positions for the better observation of our 
 proceedings. There is an air of quaint simplicity and old- 
 fashioned quiet about Georgetown, refreshingly antago- 
 nistic to the bustle and tumult of most American cities. 
 While waiting for our vehicle we enjoyed the hospitality 
 of one of our friends, who took us into an old-fashioned 
 angular wooden mansion, more than a century old, still 
 sound in every timber, and testifying in its quaint wains- 
 cotings, and the rigid framework of door and window, to 
 the durability of its cypress timbers and the preservative 
 character of the atmosphere. In early days it was the 
 crack house of the old settlement, and the residence of 
 the founder of the female branch of the family of our host, 
 who now only makes it his halting-place when passing to 
 and fro between Charleston and bis plantation, leaving it 
 the year round in charge of an old servant and her grand- 
 child. Eose-trees and flowering shrubs clustered before 
 the porch and filled the garden in front, and the establish- 
 ment gave me a good idea of a London merchant's retreat 
 about Chelsea a hundred and fifty years ago. 
 
 At length we were ready for our journey, and, mounted 
 in two light covered vehicles, proceeded along the sandy 
 track, which, after a while, led us to a deep cut in the 
 bosom of the woods, where silence was only broken by the 
 cry of a woodpecker, the boom of a crane, or the sharp 
 challenge of the jay. For miles we passed through the 
 shadow of this forest, meeting only two or three vehicles, 
 containing female planterdom on little excursions of pleas- 
 ure or business, who smiled their welcome as we passed. 
 Arrived at a deep chocolate-colored stream, called Black 
 River, full offish and alligators, we find a flat large enough to 
 accommodate vehicles and passengers, and propelled by two 
 negroes pulling upon a stretched rope, in the manner usual 
 in the ferry-boats of Switzerland, ready for our reeeption.
 
 Russell] PLANTATION LIFE IN WAR TIMES. 63 
 
 Another drive through a more open country, and we 
 reach a fine grove of pine and live-oak, which melts away 
 into a shrubbery, guai'ded by a rustic gate-way, passing 
 through which, we are brought by a sudden turn into the 
 planter's house, buried in trees, which dispute with the 
 greensward and with wild flower-beds every yard of the 
 space which lies between the hall-door and the waters of 
 the Pedee ; and in a few minutes, as we gaze over the ex- 
 panse of fields just tinged with green by the first life of the 
 early rice crops, marked by the deep water cuts, and 
 bounded by a fringe of unceasing forest, the chimneys of 
 the steamer we had left at Georgetown gliding as it were 
 through the fields indicate the existence of another navi- 
 gable river still beyond. 
 
 Leaving with regret the veranda which commanded so 
 charming a foreground, we enter the house, and are re- 
 minded by its low-browed, old-fashioned rooms, of the 
 country houses yet to be found in parts of Ireland or on 
 the Scottish border, with additions, made by the luxury and 
 love of foreign travel, of more than one generation of 
 educated Southern planters. Paintings from Italy illustrate 
 the walls, in juxtaposition with interesting portraits of early 
 colonial governors and their lovely womankind, limned with 
 no uncertain hand, and full of the vigor of touch and nat- 
 uralness of drapery of which Copley has left us too few 
 exemplars; and one portrait of Benjamin West claims for 
 itself such honor as his own pencil can give. An excel- 
 lent library — filled with collections of French and English 
 classics, and with those ponderous editions of Voltaire, 
 Eousseau, the memoires pour servir, books of travel and 
 history such as delighted our forefathers in the last cen- 
 tury, and many works of American and general history — 
 affords ample occupation for a rainy day. 
 
 But, alas ! these, and all things good which else the house
 
 64 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kussell 
 
 affords, can be enjoyed but for a brief season. Just as 
 nature has expanded every charm, developed every grace, 
 and clothed the scene with all the beauty of opened flower, 
 of ripening grain, and of mature vegetation, on the wings 
 of the wind the poisoned breath comes, borne to the home 
 of the white man, and he must fly before it or perish. The 
 books lie unopened on their shelves, the flower blooms and 
 dies unheeded, and, pity 'tis true, the old Madeira garnered 
 'neath the roof settles down for a fresh lease of life, and 
 sets about its solitary task of acquiring a finer flavor for 
 the infrequent lips of its banished master and his welcome 
 visitors. This is the story, at least, that we hear on all sides, 
 and such is the tale repeated to us beneath the porch, when 
 the moon enhances while softening the loveliness of the 
 scene, and the rich melody of mocking-birds fills the grove. 
 Within these hospitable doors Horace might banquet 
 better than he did with Nasidienus, and drink such wine 
 as can only be found among the descendants of the an- 
 cestry who. improvident enough in all else, learnt the wis- 
 dom of bottling up choice old Bual and Sercial ere the 
 demon of oidium had dried up their generous sources for- 
 ever To these must be added excellent bread, ingenious 
 varieties of the galette, compounded now of rice and now 
 of Indian meal, delicious butter and fruits, all good of their 
 kind And is there anything bitter rising up from the 
 bottom of the social bowl? My black friends who attend 
 on me are grave as Mussulman Khitmutgars. They are 
 attired in liveries, and wear white cravats and Berlin 
 gloves. At night when we retire, off they go to their 
 outer darkness in the small settlement of negrohood, which 
 is separated from our house by a wooden palisade. Their 
 fidelity is undoubted. The house breathes an air of security. 
 The doors and windows are unlocked. There is but one 
 gun, a fowling-piece, on the premises. No planter here-
 
 Russell] PLANTATION LIFE IN WAR TIMES. 65 
 
 abouts has any dread of his slaves. But I have seen, 
 within the short time I have been in this part of the world, 
 several dreadful accounts of murder and violence, in which 
 masters suffered at the hands of their slaves. There is 
 something suspicious in the constant, never-ending state- 
 ment that " we are not afraid of our slaves." The curfew 
 and the night patrol in the streets, the prisons and watch- 
 houses, and the police regulations, prove that strict super 
 vision, at all events, is needed and necessary. My host is a 
 kind man and a good master. If slaves are happy any- 
 where, they should be so with him. 
 
 These people are fed by their master. They have up* 
 ward of half a pound per diem of fat pork, and corn in 
 abundance. They rear poultry and sell their chickens and 
 eggs to the house. They are clothed by their master. He 
 keeps them in sickness as in health. Now and then there 
 are gifts of tobacco and molasses for the deserving. There 
 was little labor going on in the fields, for the rice has been 
 just exerting itself to get its head above water. These 
 fields yield plentifully ; for the waters of the river are fat, 
 and they are let in whenever the planter requires it, by 
 means of floodgates and small canals, through which the 
 flats can carry their loads of grain to the river for loading 
 the steamers. 
 
 [Following our traveller in. his peregrinations through the South, we 
 next take him up on a sugar plantation on the Mississippi. The part 
 of his journey in which we now find him is to be taken by boat.] 
 
 Charon pushed his skiff into the water — there was a 
 good deal of rain in it — in shape of snuffer-dish, some ten 
 feet long and a foot deep. I got in, and the conscious 
 waters immediately began vigorously spurting through the 
 cotton wadding wherewith the craft was calked. Had wo 
 got out into the stream we should have had a swim for it, 
 l.—e C*
 
 66 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Komb.1 
 
 and they do say the Mississippi is the most dangerous river 
 for that healthful exercise in the known world 
 
 "Why I deuee take you" (I said at least that, in my 
 wrathl « don't you see the boat is leaky ? 
 
 See it now for true, massa. Nobody able to tell dat 
 
 ^VZTefs'kiff proved to he stanch. I bade good by to 
 m y Mend, and sat down in my boat, which was soon forced 
 Xg up- tream close to the bank, in order to get a good 
 a facross to the other side. The view, from my Ion ly 
 nosition was curious, but not at all p.cturesque. The land- 
 Lap LI disappeared at once. The world was bounded 
 Thoth sides by a high bank, and was confuted by a 
 b oadrive^just as if one were sailing down an open sewer 
 of Enormous length and breadth. Above the bank rose, 
 howeveMhe tops of tall trees and the chimneys oi sugar 
 IZL A row of a quarter of an hour brought us to the 
 
 in front of me, across the road, appeared a carnage .gate- 
 way and wickets of wood, painted white in a me of park 
 IlWs of the same material, which extended up and 
 down the road far as the eye could follow, and guarded 
 wMe spread fields of maize and sugarcane. An avenue of 
 TrfeswUh branches close set, drooping and overarchmg a 
 walk paved with red brick, led to the house, the porch of 
 Itoh was just visible at the extremity of the lawn, wth 
 Uniting flowers, rose, jasmine, and creepers clmgmg to 
 thp miliars supporting the veranda. 
 
 The proprietor, who had espied my approach, .ssued 
 fortn wSh a section of sable attendants in Ms rear, and 
 gave me a hearty welcome. The house was harger and 
 fetter than the residences even of the nchest p anter , 
 a v, i* wa« in need of some little repair, and had Deen 
 Xerki; my jL ago, in the old Irish fashion, who
 
 Kussell] PLANTATION LIFE IN WAR TIMES. 67 
 
 built well, ate well, drank well, and, finally, paid very- 
 well. The view from the belvedere was one of the most 
 striking of its kind in the world. If an English agricul- 
 turist could see six thousand acres of the finest land in one 
 field, unbroken by hedge or boundary, and covered with 
 the most magnificent crops of tasselling Indian corn and 
 sprouting sugar-cane, as level as a billiard-table, he would 
 surely doubt his senses. But here is literally such a sight. 
 Six thousand acres, better tilled than the finest patch in 
 all the Lothians, green as Meath pastures, which can bo 
 cultivated for a hundred years to come without requiring 
 manure, of depth practically unlimited, and yielding an 
 annual profit on what is sold off it of at least twenty pounds 
 an acre at the old prices and usual yield of sugar. Eising 
 up in the midst of the verdure are the white lines of the 
 negro cottages and the plantation offices and sugar-houses, 
 which look like large public edifices in the distance. And 
 who is the lord of all this fair domain ? The proprietor of 
 Houmas and Orange grove is a man, a self-made one, who 
 has attained his apogee on the bright side of half a century, 
 after twenty-five years of successful business. 
 
 When my eyes " uncurtained the early morning," I might 
 have imagined myself in the magic garden of Cherry and 
 Fair Star, so incessant and multifarious wero the carols of 
 the birds, which were the only happy colored people I saw 
 in my Southern tour, notwithstanding the assurances of 
 the many ingenious and candid gentlemen who attempted 
 to prove to me that the palm of terrestrial felicity must be 
 awarded to their negroes. As I stepped through my win- 
 dow upon the veranda, a sharp chirp called my attention 
 to a mocking-bird perched upon a rose-bush beneath, whom 
 my presence seemed to annoy to such a degree that I re- 
 treated behind my curtain, whence I observed her flight to 
 a nest, cunningly hid in a creeping rose trailed around
 
 68 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Russell 
 
 a neighboring column of the house, where she imparted a 
 breakfast of spiders and grasshoppers to her gaping and 
 clamorous offspring. While I was admiring the motherly 
 grace of this melodious fly-catcher, a servant brought cof- 
 fee, and announced that the horses were ready, and that I 
 might have a three hours ride before breakfast. 
 
 If I regretted the absence of the English agriculturist 
 when I beheld the six thousand acres of cane and sixteen 
 hundred of maize unfolded from the belvedere the day pre- 
 vious, I longed for his presence still more when I saw those 
 evidences of luxuriant fertility attained without the use oi 
 phosphates or guano. The rich Mississippi bottoms need 
 no manure ; a rotation of maize with cane affords them the 
 necessary recuperative action. The cane of last years 
 plant is left in stubble, and renews its growth this spring 
 under the title of ratoons. When the maize is in tassel, 
 cow-peas are dropped between the rows, and when the 
 lordly stalk, of which I measured many twelve or even 
 fifteen feet in height, bearing three and sometimes four 
 ears, is topped to admit the ripening sun, the pea-vine 
 twines itself around the trunk with a profusion of leaf 
 and tendril that supplies the planter with the most desira- 
 ble fodder for his mules in -rolling-time," which is their 
 season of trial. Besides this, the corn-blades are culled 
 and cured. These are the best meals of the Southern race- 
 horse, and constitute nutritious hay without dust. ... 
 
 As we ride through the w*gon-roads,-of which there 
 are not less than thirty miles in this confederation of four 
 plantations held together by the purse and the life of our 
 host,-the unwavering exactitude of the rows of cane, 
 which run without deviation at right angles with the river 
 down to the cane-brake, two miles off, proves that the 
 negro would be a formidable rival in a ploughing-match. 
 The cane has been « laid by ;" that is, it requires no more
 
 Ktjssell] PLANTATION LIFE IN WAR TIMES. 69 
 
 labor, and will soon "lap," or close up, though the rows 
 are seven feet apart. It feathers like a palm top : a stalk 
 which was cut measured six feet, although from the ridges 
 it was but waist-high. On dissecting it near the root we 
 find five nascent joints not a quarter of an inch apart. In 
 a few weeks more these will shoot up like a spy-glass 
 pulled out to its focus. . . . 
 
 In the rear of this great plantation there are eighteen 
 thousand additional acres of cane-brake which are being 
 slowly reclaimed. . . . We extended our ride into this 
 jungle, on the borders of which, in the unfinished clearing, 
 I saw plantations of " negro corn," the sable cultivators of 
 which seem to have disregarded the symmetry practised in 
 the fields of their master, who allows them from Saturday 
 noon until Monday's cockcrow for the care of their private 
 interests. . . . 
 
 Corn, chicken, and eggs are, from time immemorial, the 
 perquisites of the negro, who has the monopoly of the two 
 last-named articles in all well-ordered Louisiana planta- 
 tions. Indeed, the white man cannot compete with them 
 in raising poultry, and our host was evidently delighted 
 when one of his negroes, who had brought a dozen Mus- 
 covy ducks to the mansion, refused to sell them to him 
 except for cash. " But, Louis, won't you trust me ? Am I 
 not good for three dollars?" "Good enough, massa; but 
 dis nigger want de money to buy flour and coffee for him 
 young family. Folks at Donaldsonville will trust massa, — 
 won't trust nigger." The money was paid, and, as the 
 negro left us. his master observed, with a sly, humorous 
 twinklo, " That fellow sold forty dollars' worth of corn last 
 year, and all of them feed their chickens with my, corn, 
 and sell their own."
 
 70 
 
 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clarke 
 
 AMONG FLORIDA ALLIGATORS 
 
 S. C. CLARKE. 
 
 [To the several stories of hunting life which we have introduced 
 into these pages we may add one description of the large _ game of he 
 streams and lakes of Florida, the hone-clad alligator. With it is given 
 a sketch of the Everglade region which may be of interest.] 
 
 Having organized an expedition to the great Lake Oke- 
 chobee, some thirty miles due west from the Indian River 
 Inlet, we hired a wagon and pair of mules to carry our 
 tents and necessary baggage, but, no other animals being 
 attainable, only those of us who were fit for a tramp of 
 nearly a hundred miles could go. Colonel Vincent, Mac- 
 leod and Herbert of the "Victoria," Captain Morris, Rob- 
 erts, and myself, with the two pilots, Pecetti and Weldon 
 as guides, and Tom and a negro whom we picked up at 
 Capron for cooks,-ten men in all, well-armed,-we were 
 strong enough to insure respect from any roving party of 
 Seminole, who might have been tempted to rob a weaker 
 party. There are at this time, it is supposed, two or three 
 hundred of these Indians in the region between Lake Oke- 
 chobee and the Keys, descendants of a few Seminoles who 
 concealed themselves in these inaccessible fastnesses when 
 the greater part of their nation was sent West in 1842. 
 They plant some corn on the islands of the Everglades 
 but live principally by the chase. Hitherto they have not 
 been hostile to the whites, but as they increase , in numbers 
 faster than the white settlers, it is not impossible that they 
 may reoccupy Southern Florida sooner or later, it being, in 
 fact, a region suited only to the roving hunter. . . 
 
 The first day we made about twenty miles through a
 
 Clarke] AMONG FLORIDA ALLIGATORS. 71 
 
 forest of yellow pine, such as stretches along the Southern 
 coast from Virginia to Alabama, the trees standing thirty 
 or forty feet apart, with little underbrush. Here and there 
 we came upon a hummock of good soil, covered with the 
 live-oak, magnolia, and cabbage-palm, all interlaced with 
 vines and creepers, so as to form an almost impassable 
 jungle. Now the road would lead into a wide savanna or 
 meadow, waving with grass and browsed by herds of wild 
 cattle and deer. In these meadows were set bright, mirror- 
 like lakes, the abodes of water-fowl and wading birds, black 
 bass, and the grim alligator, which in these solitudes, not 
 being impressed with the fear of man, will hardly trouble 
 himself to move out of the way. March in this region 
 corresponding to May in the Middle States, the birds were 
 in full spring song in every thicket,— the cardinal, the non- 
 pareil, the mocking-bird, and our old familiar robin, whose 
 cheerful note greets the traveller all over North America. 
 Up and down the great pine trunks ran the red and gray 
 squirrels, the little brown hare scudded through the pal- 
 metto scrub, and the turkey-buzzards floated above our 
 heads in long easy circles. 
 
 So we fared on our way till about four p.m., when we 
 made our camp on a clear branch or creek w^hich issued 
 from a lake near by, and while some of the party went to 
 look for a deer, Captain Herbert and I took our rods and 
 went up the creek towards the lake. Casting our spoons 
 into a deep hole, we soon took a mess of bass and pike, 
 which were very abundant and eager to be caught, when, as 
 we were preparing to return to camp, we suddenly saw an 
 alligator about eight feet long quietly stealing towards us. 
 I seized a young pine-tree about as thick as my arm, and 
 made for him. Not at all alarmed, the beast opened his 
 jaws and advanced, hissing loudly. I brought down my 
 club with full force upon his head, but it seemed to produce
 
 72 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clarkb 
 
 no impression ; he still advanced as I retreated battering 
 
 his skull. m 
 
 « What is that brute's head made of?" inquired Herbert, 
 as he came to my assistance with another club ; and be- 
 tween us we managed to stun the hard-lived reptile, and 
 left him on the ground. 
 
 The hunters brought in a young buck and two turkeys, 
 so that we bad a plentiful supper after our tramp. . . . 
 
 About two o'clock that night we were disturbed by the 
 mules, which had been staked out to graze hard by, and 
 which retreated towards the camp to the end of their 
 ropes, snorting with terror. The dogs rushed to the scene 
 of disturbance, and appeared to have a fight with some 
 animal which escaped in the woods. Our guides thought 
 it was a panther, and at daylight they started, with Morris 
 and myself and all the dogs, to hunt for it. The hounds 
 soon hit the trail, which we followed into a cypress swamp 
 about half a mile from the camp, in the midst of which 
 they started a large panther, which, being hotly pressed by 
 the hounds, treed in a big live-oak on the farther side ot 
 the swamp. When we came up we plainly saw the beast 
 lying out on a branch which stretched horizontally from 
 the trunk about twenty-five feet from the ground. 
 
 « Now," said Pecetti, « you two fire first, and if you don t 
 kill Weldon and I will be ready. Aim at the heart/' 
 
 Morris and I fired, and the panther sprang from the tree 
 among the dogs, which all piled on him at once. There 
 was a confused mass of fur rolling on the ground, snarling, 
 and snapping, for half a minute ; then the panther broke 
 loose, and was making off, when Weldon put half a dozen 
 buckshot in his head, and he rolled over and over, so nearly 
 dead that when the dogs mounted him again he could do 
 no mischief. He had badly cut both the deer-hounds, how- 
 over, which had been the first to seize him : Weldon s fox-
 
 Clarkk] AMONG FLORIDA ALLIGATORS. 73 
 
 hounds, having more experience with this sort of gari)e, 
 had kept clear of his claws. It was a fine male, measuring 
 eight feet from the nose to the tip of the tail, and we took 
 the skin for a trophy. The tenacity of life in these large 
 cats is very great. One of our balls had penetrated the 
 chest, and the other had broken the fore leg, but he was 
 still able to shake off the dogs, and would probably have 
 escaped but for Weldon's shot. . . . 
 
 The next morning, March 13, we breakfasted upon a 
 couple of gophers or land-tortoises which the men had 
 found the day before in the pine-woods. These creatures 
 are ahout eighteen inches long, and weigh twelve or fifteen 
 pounds. A stew of the gopher and the terminal buds of 
 the cabbage-palm is a favorite Florida dish. About noon 
 we came suddenly upon the shore of the great lake Oke- 
 cbobee, which extends away to the west and south as far 
 as the eye can reach : in fact, the shores are so low as 
 to be invisible at any distance. This is by far the largest 
 sheet of water in the State, being about forty miles long 
 and thirty wide, but it is not deep. It contains on the 
 western side several islands, which are occupied by the 
 Seminoles. To the south and east of this lake are the 
 Everglades, or Grassy Lakes, a region where land and 
 water are mingled, — rivers, lakes, dry islands, and wet 
 marshes all jumbled together in confusion, and extending 
 over many hundred square miles, the chosen abode of the 
 alligator, the gar-fish, the snapping-turtle, the moccasin 
 snake, and other hideous and ferocious creatures more or 
 less mythical, and recalling those earlier periods in the 
 earth's history when the great monsters, the Ichthyosauri 
 and the Plesiosauri, wallowed and crawled over the conti- 
 nents. 
 
 We made our camp in a grove near tho lake, almost on 
 the spot where Taylor fought his battle in 1838. As soon 
 n 7
 
 74 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clarkb 
 
 as this was done the pilots went in search of a tree to 
 make canoes. They found not far off a large cypress 
 which served, and by the next night they had completed 
 two canoes, each about twelve feet long and eighteen 
 inches wide, suitable for navigating the lake and able to 
 carry four men each. In the mean time we had commenced 
 hostilities against the alligators, which were here very 
 large, bold, and numerous. They lay basking in the sun 
 upon the beach in front of our camp, some of them fifteen 
 feet long, and it became necessary to drive them away, 
 lest they should devour our dogs, or even our mules, tor 
 some of these monsters looked able to do it. We opened 
 fire upon them with repeating rifles, and if any Indians 
 were within hearing they must have supposed that General 
 Taylor had come back again, such was the rapidity of our 
 fusillade. The brain of the alligator is small, and developed 
 chiefly in the region of destructiveness ; but after a dozen 
 were killed and many more wounded, it seemed to dawn 
 upon their perceptions that this part of the lake was un- 
 safe, and they gradually took themselves away. I disap- 
 prove of killing animals for mere sport, and destroy not 
 deliberately except when I wish to use them for food ; but 
 the alligator is the enemy of all living creatures, the 
 tyrant of the waters, and the death of one saves the lives 
 of hundreds of other animals. So blaze away at the 
 •gators, O ye Florida tourists !-you will not kill many of 
 them, anyway: their shells are too thick --but spare the 
 pelicans, who are a harmless race of fisherfolk, like our- 
 
 16 There were great numbers of large turtles in the lake, 
 Chelonura and Trionyx, from two to three feet long ; gar- 
 fish also, almost as big as the alligators. These mailed 
 warriors, like the knights of old, exercise their prowess 
 chiefly upon the defenceless multitudes of the fresh waters,
 
 Clarke] AMONG FLORIDA ALLIGATORS. 75 
 
 but I have heard of half a large alligator being found in 
 the stomach of a shark at a river mouth. In spite of all 
 these destroyers, the lake swarmed with fish. Pecetti 
 could generally get enough black bass, pike, or perch at 
 one or two casts of his net to feed our whole party if at 
 any time it happened that they would not bite at the 
 hook. 
 
 A curious feature of the lake and river scenery is the 
 floating island. This is principally formed of the water- 
 lettuce, or Pistia, an aquatic plant with long roots which 
 descend to the bottom. These beds of Pistia become 
 matted together with grass and weeds, so as to be thick 
 enough to bear the weight of small animals, and even 
 sometimes of man. In strong winds these islands break 
 loose from their anchorage and float aw T ay for miles, till 
 they bring up in some quiet bay, where the plants again 
 take root. Lake Okechobee contains many of these float- 
 ing meadows, which are a great resort for ducks and water- 
 fowl. In fact, one would think that all the ducks, divers, 
 herons, curlews, ibises, cranes, and waders generally had 
 assembled here in mass-meeting. Among them are those 
 rare and beautiful species, the scarlet ibis, roseate spoon- 
 bill, and black-necked stilt. The ducks, being birds of pas- 
 sage, spending their summers up North, are acquainted 
 with men and their arts, and are comparatively shy, 
 but the native birds are very tame and can easily be ap- 
 proached. 
 
 I was awakened the next morning at sunrise by sounds 
 from the woods as of a gang of ship-carpenters or calkers 
 at work. It was the great ivory-billed woodpecker (Picus 
 principalis) tearing off the bark and probing the dead trees 
 for insects and grubs, and making a noise which could 
 plainly be heard half a mile in the still morning air. 
 Another sound of a different character now made itself
 
 76 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clakke 
 
 heard from the swamps. It was something like the bel- 
 lowing of bulls, and proceeded from the old male alligators 
 calling to their mates. This indicates the coming of spring, 
 the breeding-season of these creatures. William Bartram, 
 who travelled in East Florida a hundred years ago, gives 
 a thrilling account of the terrible combats which he wit- 
 nessed in the St. John's Kiver between these rival cham- 
 pions, who did not hesitate to attack him in his boat. 
 
 The next day, March 15, being in want of meat, Colonel 
 Vincent, Dr. Macleod, Morris, and I started for a hunt, 
 taking Pecetti for guide, since nothing is easier than to 
 get lost in this wilderness. We kept up the lake shore to 
 the north on the sandy beach, towards the mouth of the 
 Kissimmee Eiver, which here enters the lake. This is a 
 deep and rapid stream, which drains the great wet prairies 
 to the north, and in the rainy season must carry a large 
 volume of water. Like the lake, it has great patches of 
 water-lettuce, which in some places almost bridge the 
 channel Much of its course is through swamps, though 
 in some places the pine barrens and live-oak hummocks 
 approach its banks. It contains immense quantities of fash, 
 —pike, bass, and perch. 
 
 In the first hummock which we reached the colonel shot 
 a buck, and I got two young turkeys from a flock As we 
 emerged from this hummock the guide spied a herd of wild 
 cattle feeding on the prairie about half a mile off, and 
 by his direction we crept through the scrub as far as it 
 afforded cover, and then trusted to the high grass for con- 
 cealment till we got within a hundred yards of the herd, 
 which consisted of about twenty cows and calves with a 
 couple of bulls. The doctor and colonel fired together and 
 brought down a heifer. A big bull immediately charged 
 towards the smoke and report of the guns, for he could 
 not see us. On he came, head down and tail erect, bellow-
 
 Clarke] AMONG FLORIDA ALLIGATORS. 77 
 
 ing with rage, — a magnificent animal of brindled color, 
 with an immensely heavy neck and shoulder, like a bison, 
 but without the mane. When within fifty yards I fired at 
 his head : the ball struck him full in the forehead and 
 staggered him, but he shook his head and kept straight for 
 us. I gave him another shot, which struck him in the 
 chest and turned him, when Pecetti gave bim sixteen buck- 
 shot in the shoulder from his big double-barrel, which 
 brought him down, dying bravely in defence of his family. 
 
 "His carcass is too old and tough to be of any good," 
 said the guide, " but I'll take off his hide : the heifer will 
 give us meat enough." 
 
 While he was butchering, Morris returned to the camp 
 and sent out Tom with the wagon to bring in the beef and 
 venison. It was not long before a flock of turkey-buzzards 
 appeared in sight and floated in circles above our heads, 
 waiting for our departure to begin their feast. It was 
 formerly the opinion of naturalists that these birds were 
 guided by scent in the discovery of the dead animals upon 
 which they feed, but later investigations show that they 
 are led by their acute vision ; and my own experience con- 
 vinces me that this is the fact. As we were returning to 
 camp through the hummock, Pecetti killed a large rattle- 
 snake : it was over five feet long, and as thick as the calf 
 of a man's leg. . . . 
 
 On the morning of March 20, Captain Herbert, Pecetti 
 and I went on a fishing excursion up the lake in a canoe. 
 A few casts of the net near the shore procured a supply of 
 small fish of the mullet species for bait, and we paddled up 
 near to the inlet of the Kissimmee. Here we found the alli- 
 gators and gars too numerous, the)' having collected prob- 
 ably to prey upon the fish which there enter the lake. In 
 a quiet bay near the fringe of Pistia and water-lilies, where 
 the water was five or six feet deep, we trolled with a spoon 
 
 7*
 
 78 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clarkk 
 
 for black bass, and took some of very large size,— eight, ten 
 
 and twelve pounds. . . . 
 
 What adds much to the interest of fishing in strange 
 waters is the uncertainty of the sport and the variety of 
 species; and in this lake we could not tell whether the 
 next offer would be from a peaceful perch, a bounding bass, 
 a piratical pike, or a gigantic gar. I put a chub, or a fish 
 resembling it, eight or nine inches long upon a gang ot 
 large hooks, and cast it astern with a hand-line. Presently 
 I saw a great roll towards it from out the weeds, and my 
 line stopped short. I had something very heavy, which, 
 however, played in the sluggish fashion of the pike family, 
 and in ten minutes, without much resistance, I had it along- 
 side the canoe, and it was gaffed by Pecetti. It was a huge 
 pike four feet four inches long, and weighed, when we got 
 to camp, thirty-four pounds. Pecetti called it the striped 
 pike, and said he had seen them six feet long in some of 
 the lakes: perhaps Esox vittatus (Kafinesque) of the Mis- 
 sissippi Basin. . 
 
 By this time the gars had collected about us in such 
 numbers that the other fish were driven away: we found 
 it impossible to get a hook into their bony jaws or bills, 
 and only succeeded in capturing one of small size by slip- 
 ping a noose over its head as it followed the bait. This 
 gar-fish is useless as food, but we wanted a few specimens 
 for Dr White, it being in demand for museums, particu- 
 larly in foreign countries, as it belongs to a species exclu- 
 sively American, and represents an order of fishes (the 
 ganoids) of which few families at present exist. This one, 
 Lepidosteus, has a wide range in America, being found from 
 Florida to Wisconsin. Another American ganoid is Amia 
 calva. the dog-fish or bow-fin, which is very numerous in 
 Western rivers. Both are voracious, but unfit for tooo. 
 They are described by Agassiz as being of an old-fashioned
 
 Telvertou] IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 79 
 
 type, such as were common in the earlier geologic periods, 
 and this is one among many proofs that North America 
 is the oldest of the continents. 
 
 Morris, Vincent, and the other hunters brought in to-day 
 a large supply of game, — deer, turkeys, and ducks, — but 
 sustained the loss of one of Morris's deer-hounds, which 
 they supposed to have been taken by an alligator while 
 swimming a lake in pursuit of a deer. They were some 
 miles south of the camp when this occurred. They did 
 not see the alligator, but the dog suddenly disappeared, 
 and was not to be found after a long search. Morris felt 
 so much disgusted by the loss of this valuable dog that he 
 wished to return to the yacht and go down towards the 
 Keys. So we started the next morning, and arrived at 
 the inlet on the 23d. The weather had been delightful, as 
 is usually the case in Florida in winter, but the day we 
 arrived at the inlet we encountered the beginning of the 
 equinoctial storm, which lasted two days and was very 
 violent. 
 
 IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 
 
 THERESE YELVERTON. 
 
 [Among the many marvels of nature in the United States the 
 Mammoth Cave holds a prominent position, and we feel it incumbent 
 on us to accompany some of our company of travellers into its depths. 
 The " Teresina in America" of Therese Yelverton (Viscountess Avon- 
 more) affords us the opportunity, of which we avail ourselves in the 
 following selection.] 
 
 We arrived at the Mammoth Cave on one of those 
 heavenly days which earthly words fail to depict. It 
 was the second week in November, the " Indian summer,"
 
 g HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Yklvkrtoi* 
 
 the most charming season in America. If anything were 
 necessary to convince me that a future beatitude is no 
 fiction, it would be this foretaste of bliss in such days 
 as these, when the whole being— mind and body— seems 
 lapped in a state of peace and beatitude combined. 
 Anxieties and worldly cares seem to float away into the 
 dim distance; our love is free from feverish excitement, 
 and hate has lost its gall and sting. The golden light 
 which floats around mellows our soul to repose. There is 
 that exhilarating, yet balmy nourishment in the atmos- 
 phere which lifts the weary spirit from its damp and 
 earthly coil, and makes it glad, and light, and gleesome. 
 The heavy "heart bowed down by weight of woe" sud- 
 denly imbibes some of the joyous elasticity which fills the 
 insect tribe,— the bees and grasshoppers, the golden fly, 
 glittering and humming in pure ecstasies, and the merry 
 little beetles revelling in one continuous contra-dance. 
 Earely, indeed, can we overcharged human beings feel as 
 blithesome as the insect world ; we seek to taste the apples 
 of delight which turn to ashes in our mouth, and neglect 
 to sip with them the nectar in the breeze. What can we 
 do ? these breezes come so seldom. The insect sparkles to- 
 day in the sunshine and to-morrow it dies. We of the 
 superior race have to live and labor through sunshine and 
 shade, and can only catch these rosy minutes as they fly. 
 
 Some of these halcyon moments we enjoyed on that for- 
 tunate day we arrived at the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. 
 The earth was covered with its autumn carpet of dry dark 
 leaves,— brown and glossy on one side, deep violet on the 
 other,— and crinkling and crushing beneath our tread, 
 they kept up a staccato treble to the dulcet sighing of 
 the wind through the yellow leaves still lingering on the 
 trees. A delicious concert of sweet sounds, and one that 
 Mozart and Mendelssohn must have studied well and care-
 
 Yklvkrton] IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 81 
 
 fully. The atmosphere was bright and clear as under a 
 summer sun, but without the heat ; the air as fine and 
 bracing as winter, but without the cold. We lost sight 
 entirely of the two great tormentors, heat and cold, and 
 for the few days of our stay forgot their very existence. 
 
 I have heard of persons feeling, under the effect of 
 laughter, as light and buoyant as if floating in ambient 
 air. The atmosphere during their "Indian summer" must, 
 doubtless, be strongly impregnated with oxygen, for we 
 experienced a similar sensation ; which was probably 
 deepened by the fact of our having come from Louisville, 
 where those hotel stairs had seemed a perfect toil to us. 
 
 The country around the caves, for eight or ten miles, 
 was a series of deep ravines, studded with projecting cliffs 
 and rocks, ana covered with oak — principally the English 
 oak — and another gigantic species, with leaves from a 
 quarter to half a yard long, but of the same form as the 
 ordinary oak-leaf. Up and down the ravines we scrambled 
 and roamed, as happy as goats or wild chamois. These 
 ravines, or glens, have no doubt been the beds of some 
 ancient river, now, perhaps, flowing through the bowels of 
 the earth ; for this part of the country is intersected by 
 underground rivers, a stream often suddenly appearing, 
 which, after flowing on for a few miles, plunges rapidly into 
 the earth and is lost to sight. 
 
 An anecdote is told of two millers who had their mills 
 on two different rivers, thirty miles apart. There had 
 been a long drought, and neither mill had been working; 
 but one day miller No. 1 heard his wheel going round at 
 a tremendous pace, and going to examine it perceived a 
 quantity of water, although there had not been a drop of 
 rain for some time. He went over to communicate his 
 good luck to his neighbor. 
 
 " Oh !" exclaimed miller No. 2, "you're gettin' my water
 
 g2 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Yelverton 
 
 unbeknownst, for a cloud burst over us the other night and 
 nearly drowned us all." 
 
 It was evident the millers were working the same stream, 
 which ran for thirty miles underground, similar to the 
 lakes in Florida, called sinks (for Americans call every- 
 thing by gross-sounding names), which suddenly disappear, 
 leaving all the fish stranded. Sometimes the water re- 
 turns, sometimes not. ... 
 
 Independent of the caves, the scenery around, to a lover 
 of nature, is well worthy of a visit, and for a summer 
 resort is unsurpassed ; shady, romantic walks through the 
 woods; a delicious air breathed from the gigantic mouth 
 of the cavern, whence, in the hot months, it blows cool and 
 refreshing; in the cold ones soft and warm; the actual 
 temperature of the cave never varying. The sensations of 
 heat and cold are produced by comparison with the outer 
 
 air. , 
 
 It occurred to a medical man some years ago that the 
 uniform atmosphere of this cave might be a specific for 
 consumption. 
 
 Possessed with this theory, the doctor had a dozen small 
 houses constructed in the cavern, about a mile or two from 
 its mouth, and to these he conveyed his patients. From 
 the appearance of these places of abode, the only wonder 
 is that the poor invalids did not expire after twenty-four 
 hours of residence in them. They, however, contrived to 
 exist there about three months, most of them being carried 
 out in extremis. The houses consisted of a single room, 
 built of the rough stone of the cavern,— which, in this part, 
 bears all the appearance of a stone-quarry,-and without 
 one particle of comfort beyond a boarded floor, the small 
 dwelling being constructed entirely on the model of a 
 lock-up, or « stone-jug." The cells of a modern prison are 
 quite palatial in comparison with them. The darkness is
 
 Yklverton] IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 83 
 
 such as might be felt ; and it is impossible to realize what 
 darkness actually is until experienced in some place where 
 a ray of sunlight has never penetrated. 
 
 From the mouth of the cavern to that part where the 
 doctor's houses were built was a continual, though gradual, 
 descent, and at that spot there was a solid roof of a hun- 
 dred and fifty feet of earth. The houses — or rather de- 
 tached stone boxes — were so small that without vitiating 
 the air only one person could remain in them at one time ; 
 so that, besides the darkness, — in case of any accident to 
 their lamps, — these poor creatures must have endured utter 
 solitude. Their food was brought from the hotel, two or 
 three miles away, on the hill, and consequently must have 
 been cold and comfortless. They were kept prisoners 
 within their narrow cells, for the rough rocks and stones 
 everywhere abounding rendered a promenade for invalids 
 quite impracticable. The deprivation of sunlight, fresh 
 air, and all the beauties of the earth must have been the 
 direst punishment imaginable. No wonder these poor 
 creatures were carried out one by one to die. 
 
 The last one having become so weak that it was deemed 
 unsafe to move him, his friends resolved to stay with him in 
 the cavern till the last. What transpired is now beyond 
 investigation. Whether some effect of light, which in this 
 cavern has a most mysterious and awful appearance, or 
 whether the death-bed was one of terrors, owing to some 
 imp of mischief having laid a plan to " scare" them, as they 
 say in this country, is not known ; but they rushed terror- 
 stricken from the cave, and on reaching the hotel fell 
 down insensible. Subsequently they declared they had 
 seen spirits carrying away their friend. Mustering a 
 strong force, the people from terra ftrma, with the guides 
 and plenty of torches, sallied down to the lower and sup- 
 posed infernal regions. The spirits, however, had fled,
 
 g 4 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Yelverton 
 
 leaving nothing but the stiffening corpse of the poor con- 
 sumptive. This ended all hope of the cavern as a cure for 
 consumption. 
 
 The Mammoth Cave is perhaps the most extensively 
 explored cavern known. It extends for nine continuous 
 miles, so that it would be possible to walk fifty miles in 
 and out by different roads. The cavern consists of various 
 large chambers and lofty domes, averaging from twenty 
 to one hundred feet in height. Some of the chambers ex- 
 actly resemble the tombs of the kings of Egypt, and the 
 narrow tortuous defiles through the rocks are also very 
 hue the roads into the Pyramids. Most of these chambers 
 are merely natural excavations in the solid rock. One of 
 the white-domed ceilings is covered with a thick scroll- 
 pattern traced in black, and consists entirely of bats, which 
 take up their winter quarters in these caverns, and fare 
 better in them apparently than the consumptives. It is 
 curious how these sightless creatures, from various parts 
 of the country, find out the caves, so impervious to light 
 and cold, and where, from the noise they make, they seem 
 to have a merry time of it. Not so, however, the visitors 
 passing through this part of the cave ; for the bats are apt 
 to fly right in one's face, or stick against one's clothes, and 
 bite furiously at any attempt to dislodge them. 
 
 Still farther on there is a vast vault, upward of eighty 
 feet high, formed of gypsum with some sort of crystals 
 embedded in it. When you sit and gaze on it for some 
 time, by the dim light of the lamps, the vault seems to 
 recede into azure space. A bright sparkling veil hangs 
 over it like the milky-way, seen dimly between the shelv- 
 ing rocks, which bulge out in round soft layers, of a whitish- 
 gray cast, and look exactly like petrified clouds. By a 
 judicious movement of the light of the lamps a most 
 beautiful phenomenon of cloud-scenery is effected, and by
 
 Yklverton] IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 85 
 
 their gradual extinction a Stygian darkness seems to wrap 
 all in perfect horror. This, the " Star Chamber," is one of 
 the finest effects in the Mammoth Cave, and it might be 
 enhanced to the wildest magnificence by an artistic ar- 
 rangement of variously colored lights. The cave would be 
 a fine place in which to read Dante's Inferno. 
 
 Here and there through the cave there are immense pits 
 or chasms, only some few yards in circumference, but from 
 two to three hundred feet in depth. A piece of paper sat- 
 urated in oil is thrown down and displays the fearful gulf, 
 the bottom of which appears to have the same formation 
 of rock and clay as the top. Sometimes we ascended ten 
 or twenty feet by ladders and occasionally descended. We 
 traversed about a mile of passage where the ceiling, six 
 feet high, was as smooth and white as plaster could have 
 made it. It was literally covered with the names of former 
 visitors. In some places there were hundreds of cards on 
 the floor, left by guests, — so it is not only English people 
 who have a mania for inscribing their names. Indeed, as 
 to that, it is common to most nations, for I had a secretary 
 named Van Kcnkle, who wrote his name upon every arti- 
 cle belonging: to me. 
 
 For eight or nine miles we continued to traverse pas- 
 sages and chambers, sometimes over rough pieces of rock, 
 sometimes through the thick dust of ages, sometimes 
 through the tortuous gorges, — mere slits between the rocks 
 through which we had to creep, — sometimes coming upon 
 a well or spring of sweet water. At about three or four 
 miles from the mouth we came to the chamber called "The 
 Church," from its resemblance to the ancient cathedral 
 vault, frequently to be seen on the European continent 
 under churches or monasteries, and called the crypt. 
 
 This church of the Mammoth Cave is a singular phe- 
 nomenon. The roof, which is not lofty, is supported by a 
 
 8
 
 86 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Yelvkbtok 
 
 number of pillars, in many places forming Gothic arches, 
 and running at somewhat regular distances, dividing the 
 church into aisles. These columns are actually enormous 
 stalactites, and the fresco of petrified water upon them has 
 all the appearance of the most rich and elaborate carving. 
 In some places the pillars of stone have not quite reached 
 the ground, and remain suspended from the roof. Other- 
 and smaller condensed stalactites resembled the drooping 
 rosettes which unite the spring of Gothic arches. In one 
 portion of the church is an enormous stone, carved out 
 exactly like the bishop's chair, or throne, usually seen on 
 the high altar. The altar itself is very like those primitive 
 stone edifices sculptured by the early Christians, when 
 driven to celebrate their worship in the catacombs of 
 
 Eome. 
 
 This chamber is a marvellous freak of nature imitating 
 art, for the hand of man has never touched it or worked it 
 into shape ; yet if any one were transported here uncon- 
 sciously, he would, on looking round, imagine himself in 
 the chancel crypt of some old cathedral of the ninth or 
 tenth century. Some romantic lovers, evidently influenced 
 by this idea, had actually, a few weeks before our visit, ar- 
 rived at the cave, accompanied by their friends and the 
 clergyman, and caused the marriage ceremony to be per- 
 formed in that very church. It was a whimsical idea, 
 and must have been a cold, comfortless, clammy affair ; but 
 the feelings and sentiment about weddings totally differ in 
 America from our European notions on the subject,— rarely 
 is it a joyous merry-making, rather the reverse, as I have 
 mentioned in a former chapter. 
 
 A few miles farther on, we came to the great natural 
 marvel, the subterranean river, with its buried water and 
 eyeless fish, its beautiful parterres of stone flowers and 
 shrubs, like a garden covered with morning hoar-frost.
 
 Yelverton] IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 87 
 
 On this dismal river we were launched in a little skiff, not 
 the most seaworthy in the world, — and I must confess to 
 having experienced a feeling of dread of being upset on 
 that mysterious stream, whose outlet might be, for all we 
 know, in a region we did not care to visit, or even to con- 
 template the possibility of visiting. The echo had a thrill 
 of awe that made one's flesh creep and hair stand on end. 
 If one called spirits there from the vasty deep, and they 
 did not come, yet they certainly answered from the dark 
 shadows of the rocks falling around the lurid glare of the 
 torches, — the only light on the river of Erebus. It was 
 quite easy to believe there were myriads of spirits flitting 
 around, and stretching out their weird arms to carry us 
 down to bottomless Hades. 
 
 There is another very interesting cave, which is not so 
 frequently visited by travellers, who when they have seen 
 the big thing, are only anxious to rush away again. It is 
 not so extensive as the Mammoth, but infinitely more beau- 
 tiful and more inaccessible, the descent having to be accom- 
 plished by ladders ; but once down, it is a fairy-land, a 
 continuous scene of rapturous enchantment. The stalac- 
 tites simulate the most exquisite parterre of flowers, the 
 most magnificent forest of crystallized trees, the most 
 wondrous marble carving, even to that perfection of art 
 which shrouds the figure in transparent drapery, like " the 
 statue of the Dead Christ" at Naples ; nor was Apollo's 
 charm unknown there. Our guide tapped upon these 
 magic crystals, and produced the sweetest harmony ear 
 ever heard, or at least it sounded so. 
 
 The walls of the chambers and passages were encrusted 
 with the stalactite flowers. They could be broken off their 
 stems, and as so few visitors ventured down, the guide al- 
 lowed me to take one. One chamber was absolutely cur- 
 tained with this marvellous formation of petrified water,
 
 gg HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Yelyertow 
 
 and when the guide held the light behind the scene, it 
 produced the effect of being draped in the purest amber. 
 These drooping curtains, some fifty feet in height, emitted 
 the most musical tones when struck. If the physician had 
 brought his patients to these fairy bowers, he might, I 
 think, have succeeded in sending them home quite cured, 
 but I believe the cave had not been discovered then. 
 
 With a brilliant light the spot was perfectly lovely, and 
 the atmosphere was that of constant, unchanged temper- 
 ature, which puts the human lungs in a state of beatitude. 
 I should not in the least object to live in that paradise of 
 crystal flowers and adamantine forms, the most beautiful 
 that the imagination of man has ever conceived to be cur- 
 tained in living amber, and pillowed — well, I must admit 
 that— in dust; but it was such clean dust. . . . The texture 
 of these stalactites, when examined by daylight, resembles 
 alabaster, thus the leaves, flowers, sprigs, are perfectly 
 beautiful. Nor are these caves without their incidents of 
 life's drama. The grave and the gay have been enacted 
 here as elsewhere. The episode of the physician and his 
 patients was sad enough, but a more terrible tragedy re- 
 sulted from a wager. 
 
 The guides are particular on entering the caves with a 
 large party to beg them to keep together, as it would be 
 impossible for a person to find his own way out of the 
 labyrinth of passages, chambers, etc. Two gentlemen of 
 a party made a bet that they would accomplish the feat, 
 and, taking their opportunity, slipped away from their 
 party, without the guides being aware of their absence, 
 and it was not until late in the evening that the other 
 party to the wager remarked that those two foolhardy 
 fellows had not found their way out of the cavern. This 
 coming to the ears of the guide, he exclaimed, " Then they 
 are dead men !" Nevertheless they went in full force to
 
 Yelverton] ry THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 89 
 
 do everything that was possible to find them, but spent 
 the night in vain searches. Sometimes they came upon 
 their track in the soft dust, then lost it again. 
 
 On the following day the search was renewed by the 
 guide who had escorted the party, and his description of 
 the finding of one of the gentlemen was truly horrible: 
 " It was the most tarnation cutting up job I ever had in 
 my life," said the guide. " We are not much of cowards, 
 we guides, — we get accustomed to awfulness down in the 
 bowels of the earth ; but when that critter's shrieks first 
 came to my ear, I just shivered all over and my feet rooted 
 to the ground, — not that I did not wish to save him, the 
 poor devil, but I got an idea that that shriek came right 
 straight from hell and no mistake, and I had no fancy to go 
 there before I was sent for ! Wall, when I had wiped my 
 brow and taken a drink, I went on in the direction of the 
 sound, for it came every now and again, the echoes making 
 like fifty devils instead of one. I found him sooner than I 
 expected ; he was a sight to behold ; he flew at me like a 
 tiger ; he clutched me, and pulled me, and wrestled with me, 
 yelling and howling like a wild beast. I thought he would 
 have torn me to pieces. I should not have known him 
 again for the same gentleman. His eyes glared, his mouth 
 was foaming, and his hair on end, his clothes all torn and 
 covered with dust. He was a real raving maniac, and so 
 he remained, as far as I know. The work I had to get 
 him out of that cave! He would stand stock still and 
 shake all over, then suddenly clutch at me again. I was 
 the stronger man of the two, and he was weak from long 
 fasting, or I never should have got him out. The doctor 
 said he was fright-stricken." 
 
 And this was the case, as they thought, with the other 
 poor fellow, who was not found for weeks, it having been 
 conjectured that he had fallen down a hole. One of the 
 
 8*
 
 90 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Nichols 
 
 guides making some new exploration, discovered him sit- 
 ting down, no sign of decomposition having taken place, 
 and no sign of his having died of starvation, for a piece 
 of biscuit was found in his pocket. He was supposed to 
 have died of terror, the terrible darkness working upon 
 the nervous system, and the hopelessness of penetrating 
 it making the minutes appear hours. A guide who had 
 once been lost there himself for some twenty hours, said 
 he never could believe he had not been there for several 
 days. 
 
 DOWN THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 THOMAS L. NICHOLS. 
 
 r« Forty Years of American Life," by Dr. Thomas L. Nichols, is 
 the source of the following selection, which gives a graphic. and inter- 
 esting picture of steamboat life on the great rivers of the West in the 
 days before the war. It needs only one thing to complete the story 
 the race and the explosion, which was no uncommon incident at that 
 period, but an example of which, fortunately for our author, was 
 not among his experiences.] 
 
 We embarked on a little steamboat which drew twelve 
 inches of water, and whose single wide paddle-wheel was 
 at the stern, and extended the whole width of the hull. A 
 succession of dams made the river navigable at that season 
 of low water, and at each dam we were let down by a lock 
 to a lower level. At the high stage of water dams and 
 locks are all buried deep beneath the surface, and larger 
 steamboats go careering over them. 
 
 What I best remember, in crossing the Alleghames and 
 descending this river, were the beds of coal. It seemed to 
 be everywhere just below the surface. We saw it along the
 
 Nichols] DOWN THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI. 91 
 
 route, where the people dug the fuel for their fires out of a 
 hole in the yard, ten feet from the door. Along the high 
 perpendicular banks of the river there were strata of coal 
 ten or twelve feet thick. Men were digging it down with 
 picks and sliding it into flat-boats, which, when the river 
 rose, would float down with the current to Cincinnati, 
 Louisville, Memphis, and New Orleans. These frail boats 
 — long boxes made of deal boards nailed together, and 
 loaded nearly to the top — would many of them be lost. 
 The swell of a passing steamboat, or a snag or a sawyer 
 in the river, would sink them. They would ground on 
 sand-bars. A sudden hurricane sometimes sinks a hundred 
 of them. Perhaps a third of the whole number are lost, 
 but the coal costs almost nothing — three halfpence a bushel 
 — and brings a price proportional to the distance which it 
 floats in safety. 
 
 At Pittsburg, a city of coal and iron, smoky and grimy as 
 Newcastle or Birmingham, we took a larger boat, but still 
 a small one, for Cincinnati. The Ohio was very low. We 
 passed slowly down, getting pleasant glimpses of the towns 
 upon its banks, and especial'y of the flourishing cities of 
 Cincinnati and Louisville. 
 
 I was disappointed with the Ohio for a few hundred miles 
 from its source, most unreasonable tourist that I was. I 
 recall whatever I may have said to its disparagement. The 
 Ohio, charming in all its course of a thousand miles, be- 
 comes grandly beautiful below Louisville for the lower 
 half of its course. Were it but deep as well as broad and 
 splendid in its great reaches, and graceful curves and pic- 
 turesque banks, nothing would be wanting to its pleasing 
 souvenirs. But I have tried its current at an unfortunate 
 period, — the river at its lowest point. At its highest it 
 would be fifty feet deeper, — a great torrent pouring onward 
 towards the sea. •
 
 92 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Nichols 
 
 We were all of us in high spirits on the " Fort Wayne." 
 The crew was firing up, and singing merrily below ; and in 
 the cabin we were sitting round our good coal-fire, chat- 
 ting, reading, and some playing poker, calculating the next 
 morning but one to wake upon the Mississippi. So passed 
 we down merrily, until, sunk upon a bar, we saw the wreck 
 of the steamboat " Plymouth," which two nights before had 
 been run into by another boat, which sunk her instantly, 
 and her deck-passengers woke up under the waters of the 
 Ohio. Twenty unfortunates were drowned; and our pas- 
 sengers, accustomed to the river, spoke of it with perfect 
 indifference, as a very common affair. 
 
 We passed this bar safely, touching bottom indeed, as 
 we often did ; but in passing over the next we grounded 
 firm and fast. The engines were worked at their greatest 
 power, but in vain. Efforts were made all day to get the 
 boat off, but without moving her, and older voyagers began 
 to tell pleasant stories of boats lying for three weeks on a 
 sand-bar, and getting out of provisions and wood. For us 
 passengers there was but patience, but for captain and crew 
 there was a hard night's work in a cold November rain. 
 They went at it heartily, and when we woke up in the 
 morning the steamboat was afloat, and as soon as she had 
 got in a fresh supply of wood we went merrily down the 
 Ohio again, putting off by a day our arrival at the Father 
 of Waters. So we went, talking on morals and politics, 
 reading the " Wandering Jew," and playing poker, until 
 dinner came ; and just after dinner we came to another bar, 
 on which we ran as before, giving our crew a second night 
 of hardship and toil, and us a more thorough disgust of 
 low-water navigation. We got off by morning as before, 
 by great exertion and the steady use of effective ma- 
 chinery, the boat being hoisted over the bar inch by inch 
 by the aid of great spars, blocks, and windlass.
 
 Nichols] DOWN THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI. 93 
 
 There was still, but a short distance below this spot, the 
 worst bar of all to pass. . . . Having been twice aground 
 and lost nearly two days, our captain determined to take 
 every precaution. He hired a flat-boat, into which were 
 discharged many tons of whiskey and butter, and which 
 was lashed alongside. A boat was sent down to sound the 
 channel and lay buoys. This done, just as breakfast was 
 ready, all the male passengers were summoned to go on 
 board the flat-boat, fastened alongside, with the butter and 
 whiskey, so as to lighten the steamer as much as possible, 
 and when we were all aboard we started down. As luck 
 would have it, the current carried the boat a few feet out 
 of her proper course, and she stuck fast again. The wheels 
 could not move her, and we jumped on board again to eat 
 our breakfast, now grown cold from waiting. 
 
 This despatched, we went out on the promenade deck, 
 and to our chagrin saw the "Louis Philippe," which left 
 Louisville one day behind us, coming down, looking light 
 and lofty, with a flat-boat alongside. She came down 
 rapidly, and passed close by us, her passengers laughing in 
 triumph at our predicament. The "Louis Philippe" had 
 not got her length below us before she too stuck fast and 
 swung round into a more difficult position, lying broadside 
 upon the bar, with the strong current full against her. 
 The laugh was now on our side, and the "Louis Philippe" 
 gave rise to the more jokes, because her hurricane-deck 
 was entirely covered with cabbages, with their stumps 
 sticking up, giving her a droll appearance, while our hur- 
 ricane-deck was filled with chicken-coops. It was time 
 now to go to work in earnest. More freight was dis- 
 charged into our lighter, and all the passengers, except the 
 women and children, were sent on board her. We thickly 
 covered the barrels of whiskey and kegs of butter, and the 
 captain, to keep us off" the steamer, cast us loose, and we
 
 94 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Nichols 
 
 floated off with the current, and were safely blown ashore 
 on the Kentucky side, about a mile below, leaving the two 
 steamers above to get off as soon as they were able. 
 
 When our flat-boat touched the Kentucky bank of the 
 river, her ninety passengers jumped joyfully ashore, and 
 with noisy hilarity scattered along the beach. The morn- 
 ing was beautiful. The clear sunlight glittered upon the 
 river and lighted up the forest with golden radiance. The 
 sky was blue, and the air cool and bracing. The land was 
 high, well wooded, and fertile. Seeing a substantial- 
 looking double log house a short distance from the river, 
 about a dozen of us went up to warm our fingers at its 
 
 fire. . . . 
 
 In a few moments our lucky boat swung round and 
 came down for us, leaving the less fortunate « Louis Phi- 
 lippe" to get off as she could, and her passengers to learn 
 not to halloo before they got out of the wood. And now— 
 now, by the first light of the morning for this grand, this 
 terrible Mississippi! 
 
 It was a misty moonlight night when we came to the 
 confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi. We had come 
 down a tedious, and in some degree a perilous, course of 
 one thousand miles ; we had still a thousand miles to go 
 before arriving at New Orleans, which is the next stage of 
 our Southern journey. 
 
 The Mississippi and the Ohio come together at an acute 
 angle, and their waters flow down in unmingled currents, 
 differing in color, for a long distance. Even at night we 
 could distinguish the line which divides them. The Ohio 
 water is filled with fine sand and loam ; the Mississippi is 
 discolored with clay besides, and the water looks like a tub 
 of soapsuds after a hard day's washing. 
 
 Whoever looks upon the map with a utilitarian eye sees 
 at the confluence of these great rivers a favorable point
 
 Nichols] DOWN THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI. 95 
 
 for a great city. A few years since an English company 
 took possession of or purchased this site, and, with a capital 
 of nearly a million of pounds sterling, commenced opera- 
 tions. They lithographed plans of the city and views of 
 the public buildings. There were domes, spires, and cupo- 
 las, hotels, warehouses, and lines of steamboats along both 
 rivers. How fair, how magnificent it all looked on the 
 India paper ! You should see the result as I saw it in the 
 misty miasma, by the pale moonlight. Cairo is a swamp, 
 overflowed by every rise of either river. The large hotel, 
 one of the two buildings erected, is slowly sinking beneath 
 the surface. Piles will not stand up, and, however deep 
 they are driven, sink still deeper. The present business 
 of the place, consisting of selling supplies to steamboats, 
 and transferring passengers from the down- to the up-river 
 boats, is done on floating store-boats, made fast to the 
 shore. Cairo has since been built into a considerable town 
 by dyking out the rivers, and was an important naval and 
 military point during the Civil War. . . . 
 
 This is my thirteenth day of steamboating, — the usual 
 time across the Atlantic, — and I have four days more at 
 least. You may well suppose that a hundred passengers 
 are put to their trumps for amusement. The "Wandering 
 Jew" did very well as long as it lasted. Some keep on 
 reading novels, having laid in a stock or exchanged with 
 other passengers, but cards are the resource of the ma- 
 jority. The centre-tables, as soon as breakfast is over, 
 are occupied with parties playing poker or loo, and are cov- 
 ered with bank-notes and silver. Many who do not play 
 look on to see the frolics of fortune. Several of these 
 players are professional gamesters, and quite cool, as men 
 who hope to win by chance or skill ought to be. Others, 
 in their flushing cheeks and trembling hands and voices, 
 show how the passion is fastening upon them. These are
 
 96 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Nichols 
 
 driven by weariness and tempted by the smallness of the 
 game to commence playing. The passion increases day 
 by day, and so do the stakes, until, before reaching New 
 Orleans, the verdant ones have lost all their money, and 
 with it their self-respect and their confidence in the future. 
 Depressed by shame, disheartened at being in a strange 
 city without money, they are in a miserable condition, and 
 ready to throw themselves away. They become dependent 
 upon the blacklegs who have led them on, are instructed 
 in their evil courses, made their tools and catspaws, and 
 perhaps induced to enter upon courses of crime of a more 
 dangerous character. All this comes of playing cards to 
 kill time on the Mississippi. 
 
 While those who need the excitement of betting play at 
 games of bluff and poker, some amuse themselves with 
 whist, and old-fashioned fellows get into a corner and have 
 a bout at old sledge ; and now at eleven o'clock the great 
 cabin of our boat presents a curious appearance. Playing 
 around the tables, with noisy, joyous laughter, are half a 
 dozen merry little boys and girls. These have all got well 
 acquainted with each other, and seem to enjoy themselves 
 
 thorough \y. 
 
 I can give you little idea of this portion of the Missis- 
 sippi. The river is very low, and does not seem large 
 enough to be the outlet of the thousand streams above ; 
 for the waters on which we float come not only from the 
 melting snows of the Eocky Mountains, but there are 
 mingled with them the bright springs of Western New 
 York, a large part of Pennsylvania, part of Maryland, Vir- 
 ginia, North Carolina, and a large portion of the Western 
 States. Yet, with all the waters of this vast area, our boat 
 can sometimes scarcely keep the channel. Last night, 
 running at her full speed, she went crashing into a snag, 
 with a concussion and scraping which woke us all up, and
 
 Nichols] DOWN THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI. 97 
 
 made the timid ones spring out of their berths. Our 
 safety was in our going down-stream instead of up, — the 
 difference of rubbing the back of a hedgehog the right and 
 the wrong way. These snags are great trees which cave 
 off and are washed down the current; the roots become 
 embedded in the bottom; and the stem and branches, 
 pointing down-stream, and half or wholly covered with 
 water, form a terrible steamboat de frise, which tears an 
 ascending steamboat to pieces, but generally allows those 
 going with the current to pass over or through them with 
 safety. 
 
 The river is full of islands, so that you often see but 
 a small portion of its waters ; it winds along in so many 
 convolutions that you must steam a hundred miles often 
 to make twenty in a straight line. Many of these bends 
 may be avoided at high water by taking the cross cuts, 
 called "running a chute" when the whole country for 
 twenty miles on each side is submerged. 
 
 Usually, on one side or the other, there is a perpendicular 
 bank of clay and loam some thirty feet high, and here and 
 there are small plantations. The river gradually wears 
 them off, carrying down whole acres in a season. From 
 this bank the land descends back to the swamps which 
 skirt nearly the whole length of the river. These, in very 
 low water are comparatively dry, but as the river rises 
 they fill up, and the whole country is like a great lake, 
 filled with a dense growth of timber. These curving banks, 
 the rude and solitary huts of the wood-cutters, the vast 
 bars of sand, covered gradually with canebrake, and the 
 range of impenetrable forest for hundreds of miles, com- 
 prise a vast gloomy landscape, which must be seen to be 
 realized. . . . 
 
 While the scene is fresh in my memory let mc describe 
 to you my last morning upon the Mississippi. But why do 
 
 I. — B g 9
 
 98 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Nichols 
 
 I speak thus of a scene which can never fade from my 
 remembrance, but in all future years will glow the bright- 
 est picture which nature and civilization have daguerreo- 
 typed upon my heart ? 
 
 I rose before the sun, while all the east was glowing with 
 his refracted light. The steamboat had made excellent 
 progress all night, not being obliged to stop by fog, and was 
 only detained a short time by running plump into the mud 
 on the river's bank ; but she soon backed out of that scrape. 
 
 We had here, fifty miles above New Orleans, an almost 
 tropical sunrise. The Mississippi, as if tired of its irregu- 
 larities, flowed on an even current between its low banks, 
 along which on each side are raised embankments of earth 
 from four to ten feet in height, — the levee, which extends 
 for hundreds of miles along the river, defending the planta- 
 tions from being overflowed at high water. 
 
 As I gained the hurricane-deck the scene was enchant- 
 ing, and, alas ! I fear indescribable. On each side, as far 
 as the eye could reach, were scattered the beautiful houses 
 of the planters, flanked on each side by the huts of their 
 negroes, with trees, shrubbery, and gardens. For miles 
 away, up and down the river, extended the bright green 
 fields of sugar-cane, looking more like great fields of In- 
 dian corn than any crop to which a Northern eye is fa- 
 miliar, but surpassing that in vividness of the tints and 
 density of growth, the cane growing ten feet high, and the 
 leaves at the top covering the whole surface. Back of 
 these immense fields of bright green were seen the darker 
 shades of the cypress swamp, and, to give the most pic- 
 turesque effect to the landscape, on every side, in the midst 
 of each great plantation, rose the tall white towers of the 
 sugar-mills, throwing up graceful columns of smoke and 
 clouds of steam. The sugar-making process was in full 
 operation.
 
 Nichols] DOWN THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI. 99 
 
 After the wild desolation of the Mississippi, for more 
 than half its course below the Ohio, you will not wonder 
 that I gazed upon this scene of wealth and beauty in a sort 
 of ecstasy. Oh ! how unlike our November in the far, 
 bleak north was this scene of life in Louisiana ! The earth 
 seemed a paradise of fertility and loveliness. The sun rose 
 and lighted up with a brighter radiance a landscape of 
 which I had not imagined half its beauty. 
 
 The steamer stopped to wood, and I sprang on shore. 
 Well, the air was as soft and delicious as our last days in 
 June,- — the gardens were filled with flowers ; yes, bushels 
 of roses were blooming for those who chose to pluck them ; 
 while oranges were turning their green to gold, and figs 
 were ripening in the sun. It was a Creole plantation, — 
 French the only language heard. A procession of carts, 
 each drawn by a pair of mules, and driven by a fat and 
 happy negro, who seemed to joke with every motion and 
 laugh all over from head to foot, came from the sugar- 
 house to get wood, of which an immense quantity was 
 lying upon the banks of the river, saved from the vast 
 mass of forest trees washed down at every freshet. 
 
 I cannot describe the appropriateness of everything on 
 these plantations. These Creole planters look as if nature 
 had formed them for good masters ; in any other sphere 
 they are out of their element, — here most decidedly at 
 home. The negroes, male and female, seem made on pur- 
 pose for their masters, and the mules were certainly mado 
 on purpose for the negroes. Any imaginable change would 
 destroy this harmonious relation. Do they not all enjoy 
 alike this paradise, — this scene of plenty and enchantment? 
 The negroes work and are all the better for such beneficial 
 exercise, as they would be all the worse without it. They 
 have their feasts, their holidays, — more liberty than thou- 
 sands of New York mechanics enjoy in their lifetimes, and
 
 100 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Olmsted 
 
 a freedom from care and anxiety which a poor white man 
 never knows. I begin to think that Paradise is on the 
 banks of the Mississippi, and that the nearest approach to 
 the realization of the schemes of Fourier is on our Southern 
 plantations. 
 
 FROM NEW ORLEANS TO RED RIVER. 
 
 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. 
 
 [We have given a descriptive sketch of steamboat travel down the 
 Ohio and Mississippi in the first half of the century, in what we may 
 almost call the days of the barbarians. It is here followed by a sketch 
 of steamboating, from New Orleans to and up the Red River, in the 
 ante-war period, in which will be found methods as unprogressive 
 and people as uncivilized as in any period of modern travel. The get- 
 ting off was a marvel of procrastination, worthy of the most primitive 
 days of American travel.] 
 
 On a certain Saturday morning, when I had determined 
 on the trip, I found that two boats, the " Swamp Fox" and 
 the " St. Charles," were advertised to leave the same evening 
 for the Eed River. I went to the levee, and finding the " St. 
 Charles" to be the better of the two, I asked her clerk if I 
 could engage a state-room. There was just one state-room 
 berth left unengaged ; I was requested to place my name 
 against its number on the passenger book ; and did so, 
 understanding that it was thus secured for me. 
 
 Having taken leave of my friends, I had my luggage 
 brought down, and went on board at half-past three, — the 
 boat being advertised to sail at four. Four o'clock passed, 
 and freight was still being taken on, — a fire had been made 
 in the furnace, and the boat's big bell was rung. I noticed 
 that the " Swamp Fox" was also firing up, and that her bell
 
 
 Olmsted] FROM NEW ORLEANS TO RED RIVER. 101 
 
 rang whenever ours did, — though she was not advertised to 
 sail till five. At length, when five o'clock came, the clerk 
 told me he thought, perhaps, they would not be able to get 
 off at all that night, — there was so much freight still to 
 come on board. Six o'clock arrived, and he felt certain 
 that, if they did get off that night, it would not be till very 
 late. At half-past six he said the captain had not come on 
 board yet, and he was quite sure they would not be able to 
 get off that night. I prepared to return to the hotel, and 
 asked if they would leave in the morning. He thought 
 not. He was confident they would not. He was positive 
 they could not leave now before Monday, — Monday noon. 
 Monday at twelve o'clock, — I might rely upon it. 
 
 Monday morning the Picayune stated, editorially, that 
 the floating palace, the " St. Charles," would leave for Shreve- 
 port at five o'clock, and if anybody wanted to make a 
 quick and luxurious trip up Eed Eiver with a jolly good 
 soul, Captain Lickup was in command. It also stated, in 
 another paragraph, that if any of its friends had any 
 business up Red Eiver, Captain Pitchup was a whole- 
 souled veteran in that trade, and was going up with 
 that remarkably low-draught favorite, the " Swamp Fox," 
 to leave at four o'clock that evening. Both boats were 
 also announced, in the advertising columns, to leave at 
 four o'clock. 
 
 As the clerk had said noon, however, I thought there 
 might have been a misprint in the newspaper announce- 
 ments, and so went on board the " St. Charles" again before 
 twelve. The clerk informed me that the newspaper was 
 right, — they had finally concluded not to sail until four 
 o'clock. Before four I returned again, and the boat again 
 fired up, and rung her bell. So did the " Swamp Fox." 
 Neither, however, was quite ready to leave at four o'clock. 
 Not quite ready at five. Even at six — not yet quite ready. 
 
 9*
 
 $ {02 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Olmstbd 
 
 At seven, the fires having burned out in the furnace, and 
 the stevedores having gone away, leaving a quantity 
 of freight yet on the dock, without advising this time 
 with the clerk, I had my baggage re-transferred to the 
 
 hotel. , 
 
 A similar performance was repeated on luesday. 
 On Wednesday I found the berth 1 had engaged occu- 
 pied by a very strong man, who was not very polite when 
 I informed him that I believed there was some mistake- 
 that the berth he was using had been engaged to me 1 
 went to the clerk, who said that he was sorry but that, as 
 I had not stayed on board that night, and had not paid for 
 the berth, he had not been sure that I should go, and he 
 hud, therefore, given it to the gentleman who now had it 
 in possession, and whom, he thought, it would no be best 
 to try to reason out of it. He was very busy, he observed 
 because the boat was going to start at four o clock; if 
 I would now pay him the price of passage, he would do 
 the best he could for me. When he had time to examine, 
 he would probably put me in some other state-room, per- 
 haps quite'as good a one as that I had lost Meanwhile 
 he kindly offered me the temporary use of his private 
 state-room. I inquired if it was quite certain that the 
 bolt would get off at four ; for I had been asked to dine 
 with a friend at three o'clock. There was not the smalles 
 doubt of it,-at four they would leave. They were all 
 ready at that moment, and only waited till four because 
 the agent had advertised that they would,-merely a tech- 
 nical point of honor. 
 
 But, by some error of calculation, I suppose, she didn t 
 
 o-n at four Nor at five. Nor at six. 
 S A seven o'clock the « Swamp Fox" and the "St. Charles" 
 were both discharging dense smoke from the.r ch.mneys 
 blowing steam, and ringing bells. It was obv.ous that
 
 Olmsted] FROM NEW ORLEANS TO RED RIVER. 103 
 
 each was making every exertion to get off before the 
 other. The captains of both boats stood at the break of 
 the hurricane-deck, apparently waiting in great impatience 
 for the mails to come on board. 
 
 The " St. Charles" was crowded with passengers, and her 
 decks were piled high with freight. Bumboatmen, about 
 the bows, were offering shells, and oranges, and bananas ; 
 aud newsboys, and peddlers, and tract distributors were 
 squeezing about with their wares among the passengers. 
 I bad confidence in their instinct; there had been no such 
 numbers of them the previous evenings, and I made up my 
 mind, although past seven o'clock, that the "St. Charles" 
 would not let her fires go down again. 
 
 Among the peddlers there were two of cheap " litera- 
 ture," and among their yellow covers each had two or 
 three copies of the cheap edition (pamphlet) of " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." They did not cry it out as they did the 
 other books they had, but held it forth among others, so 
 that its title could be seen. One of them told me he car- 
 ried it because gentlemen often inquired for it, and he sold 
 a good many ; at least three copies were sold to passengers 
 on the boat. . . . 
 
 It was twenty minutes after seven when the captain 
 observed, — scanning the levee in every direction to see if 
 there was another cart or carriage coming towards us, — 
 "No use waiting any longer, I reckon: throw oft', Mr. 
 Heady." (The " Swamp Fox" did not leave, 1 afterwards 
 heard, till the following Saturday.) 
 
 We backed out, winded round head up, and as we began 
 to breast the current, a dozen of the negro boat-hands, 
 standing on the freight piled up on the low forecastle, 
 began to sing, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and shirts 
 lashed to poles, tow T ards the people who stood on the sterna 
 of the steamboats at the levee.
 
 104 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Olmstkd 
 
 After losing a few lines, I copied literally into my note 
 
 book : 
 
 "Ye see dem boat way dah ahead. 
 
 Chorus. — Oahoiohieu. 
 De San Charles is arter 'em, dey mus' go behine. 
 
 Oahoiohieu. 
 So stir up dah, my livelies, stir her up. 
 
 Oahoiohieu. 
 Day's burnin' not'n but fat and rosum. 
 
 Oahoiohieu. 
 Oh, we is gwine up de Red River, oh ! 
 
 Oahoiohieu. 
 Oh, we mus' part from you dah asho'. 
 
 Oahoiohieu. 
 Gib my lub to Dinah, oh I 
 
 Oahoiohieu." . . . 
 
 The wit introduced into these songs has, I suspect, been 
 rather over-estimated. 
 
 As soon as the song was ended, I went into the cabin to 
 remind the clerk to obtain a berth for me. I found two 
 brilliant supper-tables reaching the whole length of the 
 long cabin, and a file of men standing on each side of both 
 of them, ready to take seats as soon as the signal was given. 
 
 The clerk was in his room, with two other men, and 
 appeared to be more occupied than ever. His manner 
 was, I thought, now rather cool, not to say rude ; and he 
 very distinctly informed me that every berth was occupied, 
 and he didn't know where I was to sleep. He judged I 
 was able to take care of myself; and if I was not, he was 
 quite sure he had too much to do to give all his time to 
 my surveillance. I then went to the commander, and told 
 him that I thought myself entitled to a berth. I had paid 
 for one, and should not have taken passage in the boat if 
 it had not been promised me. I was not disposed to fight 
 for it, particularly as the gentleman occupying the berth 
 engaged to me was a deal bigger fellow than I, and also
 
 Olmsted] FROM NEW ORLEANS TO RED RIVER. 105 
 
 carried a bigger knife, but I thought the clerk was account- 
 able to me for a berth, and I begged that he would inform 
 him so. He replied that the clerk probably knew his 
 business ; he had nothing to do with it j and walked away 
 from me. I then addressed myself to a second clerk, or 
 sub-officer of some denomination, who more good-naturedly 
 informed me that half the company were in the same con- 
 dition as myself, and I needn't be alarmed, cots would be 
 provided for us. 
 
 As I saw that the supper-table was likely to be crowded, 
 I asked if there would bo a second table. " Yes, they'll keep 
 on eating till they all get through." I walked the deck 
 till I saw those who had been first seated at the table 
 coming out ; then, going in, I found the table still crowded, 
 while many stood waiting to take seats as fast as any were 
 vacated. I obtained one for myself at length, and had no 
 sooner occupied it than two half-intoxicated and garrulous 
 men took the adjoining stools. 
 
 It was near nine o'clock before the tables were cleared 
 away, and immediately afterwards the waiters began to 
 rig a framework for sleeping-cots in their place. These 
 cots were simply canvas shelves, five feet and a half long, 
 two wide, and less than two feet apart, perpendicularly. 
 A waiter, whose good will I had purchased at the supper- 
 table, gave me a hint to secure one of them for myself, as 
 soon as they were erected, by putting my hat in it. I did 
 so, and saw that others did the same. I chose a cot as 
 near as possible to the midship door of the cabin, perceiving 
 that there was not likely to be the best possible air, after 
 all the passengers were laid up for the night in this com- 
 pact manner. 
 
 Nearly as fast as the cots were ready they were occu- 
 pied. To make sure that mine was not stolen from me, I 
 also, without much undressing, laid myself away. A singlo
 
 106 HALF.JIOVRS OF TRAVEL. [Olmsted 
 
 blanket was the only bedclothing provided. I had not 
 „ long before I i driven, by an excee ingiy • oftn-v. 
 smell to search for a cleaner neighborhood , but 1 found 
 nU he cots, fore and aft, were either occnpied or engaged, 
 mediately returned, and that I might have termer 
 ressort left my shawl in that I had first obtamed. 
 
 In the forward part of the cabin there was a bar, a 
 Jve a table and a placard of roles, forbidding smokmg, 
 garbling o-wearin P g in the cabin, and a dose company 
 of drinkers, smokers, card-players, and cons tut wearer^ 
 I went ont, and stepped down to the hoiler-decfc The 
 boat bad been provided with very poor wood, and the fire- 
 ten were crowding it into the furnaces whenever they 
 Tnld find room Jit, driving smaller sticks between the 
 larger ones at the top by a battering-ram method 
 
 Most of the firemen were Irish born; one with .whom I 
 conversed was English. He said they were divided into 
 hree watches, each" working fonr honrs at a time and al 
 hinds liable ;» be called, when wood ng or tending^ or 
 tnldnir on freight, to assist the deck-hands. Ihey were 
 la d mTbut t!irty do.lars a -nth-ordinarily forty, and 
 1 • • +.r inn hoard He was a sailor bred. Inw 
 
 tT H^Slan^faring, bnt the pay was better 
 boat-me w<t» regular th ng was to make 
 
 trios "on end" was as mnch as a man conld s and. He 
 Zt then take a "refreshment." Working this way for 
 Three weeks, and then refreshing for abont one, he did not 
 Sen was' nnhealthy.no more than ordinary eeatang. 
 He concluded by informing me that the most striking 
 necoharity of the business was that it kept a man, not- 
 Ssta ding whoiesale periodical refreshment, very dry 
 He was of opinion that after the mformaUon I had ob
 
 Olmsted] FROM NEW ORLEANS TO RED RIVER. 107 
 
 tained, if I gave him at least the price of a single drink 
 and some tobacco, it would be characteristic of a gentle- 
 man. 
 
 Going round behind the furnace, I found a large quantity 
 of freight: hogsheads, barrels, cases, bales, boxes, nail- 
 rods, rolls of leather, ploughs, cotton, bale-rope, and fire- 
 wood, all thrown together in the most confused manner, 
 with hot steam-pipes and parts of the engine crossing 
 through it. As I explored farther aft, I found negroes 
 lying asleep in all postures upon the freight. A single 
 group only, of five or six, appeared to be awake, and as I 
 drew near they commenced to sing a Methodist hymn, not 
 loudly, as negroes generally do, but, as it seemed to me, 
 with a good deal of tenderness and feeling; a few Avhite 
 people — men, women, and children — were lying here and 
 there among the negroes. Altogether, I learned we had 
 two hundred of these deck passengers, black and white. 
 A stove, by which they could fry bacon, was the only fur- 
 niture provided for them by the boat. They carried with 
 them their provisions for the voyage, and had their choice 
 of the freight for beds. 
 
 As I came to the bows again, and was about to ascend 
 to the cabin, two men came down, one of whom I recog- 
 nized to have been my cot neighbor. " Where's a bucket ?" 
 said he. " By thunder, this fellow was so strong I could 
 not sleep by him, so I stumped him to come down and 
 wash his feet." "I am much obliged to you," said I; 
 and I was, very much ; the man had been lying in the 
 cot beneath mine, to which I now returned, and soon fell 
 asleep. 
 
 I awoke about midnight. There was an unusual jar in 
 the boat, and an evident excitement among people whom I 
 could hear talking on deck. I rolled out of my cot and 
 stepped out on the gallery. The steamboat "Kimball"
 
 108 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Olmsted 
 
 was running head-and-head with us, and so close that one 
 might have jumped easily from our paddle-box on to her 
 guards. A few other passengers had turned out besides 
 myself, and most of the waiters were leaning on the rail 
 of the gallery. 
 
 Occasionally a few words of banter passed between them 
 
 and the waiters of the « Kimball ;" below, the firemen were 
 
 shouting as they crowded the furnaces, and some one could 
 
 be heard cheering them : " Shove her up, boys ! Shove her 
 
 up ! Give her hell I" " She's got to hold a conversation with 
 
 us before she gets by, anyhow," said one of the negroes. 
 
 « Ye har that ar' whistlin' ?" said a white man ; " tell ye 
 
 thar ain't any too much water in her bilers when ye har 
 
 that." I laughed silently, but was not without a slight 
 
 expectant sensation, which Burke would perhaps have 
 
 called sublime. At length the "Kimball" drew slowly 
 
 ahead, crossed our bow, and the contest was given up. 
 
 « De ole lady too heavy," said a waiter ; « if I could pitch a 
 
 few ton of dat ar freight off her bow, I bet de ' Kimball' 
 
 would be askin' her to show de way mighty quick." 
 
 [Our traveller missed the experience which in former days 
 travel now and then very lively upon the Mississippi,-a Mow up of one 
 or other of the racing hoats. A hell was rung to rouse the cot-sleepers 
 at half-past four, and the rest of the day was taken up in preparations 
 for and eating the three meals.] 
 
 Every part of the boat, except the black hurricane-deck, 
 was crowded ; and so large a number of equally uncom- 
 fortable and disagreeable men I think I never saw elsewhere 
 together. We made very slow progress, landing, it seems 
 to me, after we entered Eed Eiver, at every « bend," " bot- 
 tom," "bayou," "point," and "plantation" that came in 
 sight ; often for no other object than to roll out a barrel of 
 flour or a keg of nails ; sometimes merely to furnish news-
 
 Olmsted] FROM NEW ORLEANS TO RED RIVER. 109 
 
 papers to a wealthy planter, who had much cotton to send 
 to market, and whom it was therefore desirable to please. 
 
 I was sitting one day on the forward galley, watching a 
 pair of ducks, that were alternately floating on the river 
 and flying farther ahead as the steamer approached them. 
 A man standing near me drew a long-barrelled and very 
 finely-finished pistol from his coat-pocket, and, resting it 
 against a stanchion, took aim at them. They were, I 
 judged, fully the boat's own length — not less than two 
 hundred feet — from us, and were just raising their wings 
 to fly when he fired. One of them only rose ; the other 
 flapped round and round, and when within ten yards of the 
 boat dived. The bullet had broken its wing. So remark- 
 able a shot excited, of course, not a little admiration and 
 conversation. Half a dozen other men standing near me 
 at once drew pistols or revolvers from under their clothing, 
 and several were firing at floating chips or objects on the 
 shore. I saw no more remarkable shooting, however; and 
 that the duck should have been hit at such a distance was 
 generally considered a piece of luck. A man who had 
 been in the " Hangers" said that all his company could put 
 a ball into a tree, the size of a man's body, at sixty paces, 
 at every shot, with Colt's army revolver, not taking steady 
 aim, but firing at the jerk of the arm. 
 
 This pistol episode was almost the only entertainment 
 in which the passengers engaged themselves, except eating, 
 drinking, smoking, conversation, and card-playing. Gam- 
 bling was constantly going on, day and night. I don't 
 think there was an interruption to it of fifteen minutes in 
 three days. The conversation was almost exclusively con- 
 fined to the topics of steamboats, liquors, cards, black-land, 
 red-land, bottom-land, timber-land, warrants, and locations, 
 sugar, cotton, corn, and negroes. 
 
 After the first night I preferred to sleep on the trunks 
 
 10
 
 110 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Featherstonhattgh 
 
 in the social hall [the lobby which contained the passengers' 
 baggage] rather than among the cots in the crowded 
 cabin, and several others did the same. There were, in 
 fact, not cots enough for all the passengers excluded from 
 the state-rooms. I found that some, and I presume most, 
 of the passengers, by making the clerk believe that they 
 would otherwise take the " Swamp Fox," had obtained their 
 passage at considerably less price than I had paid. 
 
 [The above are the principal events of this description of steamboat 
 life before the war. Our passenger's journey ended at Nachitoehes, on 
 the Ked River, whence he started on a vagrant trip through Texas, in 
 which we need not follow him.] 
 
 WINTER ON THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 G. W. FEATHERSTONHAUGH. 
 
 [Of the earlier records of English travel in America one of the most 
 interesting and informing works is Featherstonhaugh's "A Canoe 
 Voyage up the Minnay Sotor," a journey made by the author in 1886, 
 and yielding much useful information in what is now the ancient his- 
 tory of the great West. The selection given is devoted to some of his 
 prairie experiences during his journey through the Sioux country 
 from Lac qui Parle to Lake Travers.] 
 
 Eenville had procured me a charette, or cart, to carry 
 the tent, baggage, and provisions. I was to ride an old 
 gray mare, with a foal running alongside; one of the 
 Canadians was to drive the charette, and Miler and the rest 
 were to walk. The morning was exceeding cold, and our 
 road was along the prairie parallel with the lake. All the 
 country in every direction, having been burnt over, was 
 perfectly black, and a disagreeable sooty odor filled the
 
 Featherstonhauoii] WINTER ON THE PRAIRIES. HI 
 
 atmosphere. At the end of five hours of a very tedious 
 march we reached a stream called Wahboptah, which may- 
 be translated Ground-nut river, the savages being in the 
 habit of digging up the Psoralea esculenta, a nutritive 
 bulbous root which grows here. The stream was about 
 thirty feet wide, and had some trees growing on its banks. 
 Having built up a good fire, the men proceeded to cook 
 their dinner, while I strolled up the stream and collected 
 some very fine unios, although I found it bitterly cold 
 wading in the shallow water to procure them. 
 
 Having fed our horses on the grass near the stream 
 which had not been burnt over, we started again for Les 
 Grosses Isles, which we were instructed were distant about 
 seven leagues, at the foot of Big Stone Lake. During the 
 first two leagues the strong sooty smell of the country 
 gave me a severe headache, and the weather became so 
 cold that I was very uncomfortable ; the fire, however, had 
 not extended beyond this distance, for in about an hour 
 and a half from our departure we came to the grass again, 
 and I fortunately got rid of my headache. Our cavalry 
 was exceedingly pleased by the change, the horses re- 
 peatedly winnowing to each other, as if to express their 
 satisfaction. I here perceived a live gopher, or geomys, 
 feebly running in the grass, and, dismounting, caught it. It 
 apparently had strayed from its burrow, and had suffered 
 from the weather. After examining it I let it go again, as 
 it was impossible to take care of it, and I did not like to 
 consign it to the men, as I knew they would kill and eat it, 
 for they spared nothing. 
 
 As the evening advanced it became excessively cold, and 
 a sharp wind, accompanied with frozen sleet, set in from 
 the northeast: this soon became so thick that I could 
 scarcely look up, much more see anything in the direction 
 in which I was proceeding. Securing my person and ears
 
 112 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Feathkrstonhaugh 
 
 as well as I could with ray blanket coat, I left it to the 
 mare— who Keaville told me had been more than once to 
 Lake Travers— to take her own course. At length the 
 sleet became so dense that I lost sight of everybody ex- 
 cept the little foal, which, generally lagging behind in the 
 wake of its dam, occasionally trotted up to her when in 
 her great anxiety she called for it. I never saw greater 
 marks of maternal feeling in an animal than in this poor 
 creature to her young one. 
 
 As we advanced my situation became exceedingly pain- 
 ful • the frozen sleet came in streams upon my face and 
 eyes when I looked up ; my feet and hands were so cold 
 that I had scarcely any power over them ; my whole ex- 
 terior, as well as the head and neck of the mare, was 
 covered with a glazing of ice ; night was advancing, and 
 we were without a guide, upon a dreary and shelterless 
 moor of very great extent, and far beyond our present 
 day's journey, with no prospect of an abatement of the 
 storm. In the course of a somewhat adventurous life I 
 have occasionally had to meet with serious privations and 
 to look danger rather steadily in the face, but I had never 
 been where there was so slight a chance of any favorable 
 change. I had not even the comfort before me that every 
 bleak moor in England offers under similar circumstances 
 to the imagination,— some kind of shelter to receive us at 
 last, if we were not overpowered by the inclemency of the 
 weather. It became absolutely necessary to consider what 
 it was best to do, if overtaken before dark by a deep 
 
 snow. 
 
 My first thought was not to separate myself from my 
 party, which I had not seen for some time, for they had 
 the cart, the tent, and the provisions ; and if we failed in 
 our attempt to reach the few trees that grew near Grosses 
 Isles —the only chance we had of finding materials to make
 
 Featherstonhaugh] WINTER ON THE PRAIRIES. 113 
 
 fire, — we could at any rate burn the charette, eat something, 
 and cover ourselves as well as we could with the tent. 
 This we inevitably should have to do if we missed the 
 station we were aiming at, and of which there was immi- 
 nent danger, as it was too thick for us to discern any trees 
 at a distance. I therefore stopped the mare for a while and 
 turned our backs to the storm, which seemed to be a great 
 relief to us both. I had not heard the voices of the men 
 for some time, but I knew the cart was slowly following 
 me, and I thought it best to wait awhile ere I advanced 
 towards them, as it was quite possible that I might deviate 
 from the direction they were advancing in and separate 
 myself from them altogether. 
 
 In about a quarter of an hour the voices of the men 
 answered to the shouts I had from time to time made, and 
 soon after they joined me, all of them covered with ice and 
 icicles. The men were afraid we had got into the wrong 
 track, having passed one or two that forked different ways, 
 and this would have been a most serious misfortune. Upou 
 appealing to Miler, who was covered with ice, his answer 
 was, "N'ayez pas peur, monsieur; n'ayez pas peur." I 
 was well aware that this opinion of a sagacious guide like 
 himself, trained to all the difficulties and incidents of 
 Indian life, was better than that of the others, and I had 
 more confidence in his prudence and in his conduct than I 
 had in them ; but still I was not without fear that darkness 
 would overtake us ; and if it had been left to myself, should 
 have been inclined to attempt to set up the tent while it 
 was daylight. 
 
 But Miler kept walking on before the charette, acting up 
 to his character of guide in the most thorough manner. I 
 determined, therefore, to be governed altogether by him, 
 and taking my place in the rear of the charette, thought 
 that, as I had now joined my party, I would alight, and 
 i.— A 10*
 
 H4 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Feathebstonhattgh 
 
 endeavor, by running a little, to restore the circulation of 
 my limbs ; but my feet and hands were so benumbed that 
 I found it even difficult to dismount, or to stand when 1 
 reached the ground. As to the poor mare, she had icicles 
 depending from her nose six or eight inches long, which 1 
 broke off; and holding the bridle under my right arm, and 
 averting my face a little from the storm, I tried to run and 
 draw her into a gentle trot, but it was all in vain ; she was 
 too anxious about her foal, which was tired and becoming 
 weak, and could scarce come up to her when she called it 
 Full of anxiety as I was about myself, I could not but 
 admire the solicitude of this good mother for her young, 
 so earnestly does the voice of nature plead even with the 
 inferior animals ; that voice which God has planted in our- 
 selves, no less for the safety of the species we are bound 
 to protect than to express the intensity of the love we 
 bear to our offspring. 
 
 After trying in vain to get the mare out of her snail s 
 pace without at all improving my own situation, I per- 
 ceived that I must be making leeway, for I had lost sight 
 of the charette, so I determined to mount again and push 
 her into a trot ; we had got up a quasi-trot in the morning 
 and I hoped I might succeed in doing it again, but it took 
 me a long time to do it. I was so benumbed that I could 
 not regain my seat in the saddle until I had made several 
 efforts, and then the adjusting my blanket-coat and the 
 covering my face to protect it from the cutting sleet lost 
 me so much time, that I was in a worse situation than 
 ever -separated from my party, night approaching, and 
 somewhat apprehensive that in the gray light that was be- 
 ginning to prevail I might wander from them and be un- 
 able to rejoin them. Being already half frozen, and feeling 
 rather faint at my stomach, it was clear to me that in that 
 case I should certainly be frozen to death.
 
 Featherstonhatjgh] WINTER ON THE PRAIRIES. 115 
 
 Getting on as well as I could, and ruminating very un- 
 satisfactorily upon these possible consequences, the storm 
 began to abate, and the wind veered to the northwest ; the 
 mare knew this, and gave immediate signs of it by im- 
 proving her pace. As we went on the weather began to 
 clear up, and as I was straining my eyes to look for the 
 charette, I heard the horse which drew it neigh several 
 times ; to this the mare immediately answered, and soon 
 after came a cheer from the men. Miler was soon seen 
 advancing to meet me, with the joyful intelligence that 
 the trees at Grosses Isles were in sight. He said the horse 
 in the charette was the first to see them and to announce 
 the discovery by neighing; so that, although horses have 
 not yet reached the art, as some asses have done, of making 
 long speeches, yet the epithet of dumb animals is not alto- 
 gether appropriate to them. 
 
 All our anxieties were now at an end, and we soon ter- 
 minated this distressing ride, and reached a spot near a 
 marsh, where three or four trees were standing. Fortu- 
 nately for us, there was some dead wood on the ground, 
 and some wild grass for the horses, which we immediately 
 proceeded to tether and turn loose, that they might choose 
 their own bite, for the night was too cold for them to stray 
 far. Whilst the men were collecting wood and pitching 
 the tent, I endeavored to produce a light, but my fingers 
 were so benumbed that, after breaking several matches, I 
 gave up the attempt, and began to run backward and for- 
 ward, and strike my hands together, to restoro my natural 
 warmth. The sickness at my stomach from exposure and 
 inanition now increased upon me, and I felt persuaded 
 that I should have perished if I had been obliged to lie out 
 on the prairie without a fire. At length, the men having 
 got a fire up, I gradually recovered from my indisposition, 
 and having eaten part of a biscuit felt much better. I
 
 H6 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Fjsathbrstonhaugh 
 
 was sorry, however, to receive bad accounts from the men 
 about the water, which we so much wanted to make soup 
 for themselves and for my tea. It appeared that the only 
 water that was to be obtained was from a hole in the swamp, 
 and that it was as black as ink. On inspecting it, it was 
 so thick and disgusting that I thought it impossible to use 
 it, but remembering the saying of an old French fellow- 
 traveller, « Que tout est bon, quand il n'y a pas de choix 
 and knowing that nothing but a cup of tea would thoroughly 
 revive me, and unwilling to send Miler a mile in the dark 
 to Big Stone Lake to obtain clear water, I determined to 
 make the best I could of it. m 
 
 I had a large pot therefore filled, and boiled it, skim- 
 ming it as the black scum came in immense quantities to 
 the top, and having exhausted it of everything of that 
 kind that it would yield, the very notable idea struck me 
 to put a quantity of it into my kettle with some black tea 
 and boil it over again, which I did, and really, when I 
 poured it out it looked so like strong black tea, and was so 
 good and refreshing, that I soon forgot everything about 
 it except that it had restored me to life and animation 
 How many dead newts and other animals that had perished 
 in the desiccation of the swamp that had attended the late 
 drought went to form this tea-broth would not be easily 
 calculated, but I forgave them and the sires that begot 
 
 ^Whilst we were at our meal, a half-perished Nahcotah 
 Indian came to our fire, whom I saw at the dance of the 
 braves the day before. I remembered him the moment ho 
 came up, from his having attracted my attention during 
 the dance by firing his gun over the heads of the dancers, 
 and then presenting it to one of the braves. Miler had in- 
 formed me that it was not unusual upon such occasions tor 
 eavages who look on to become so excited as to give every-
 
 Fkatherstonhaugh] WINTER ON THE PRAIRIES. 117 
 
 thing away that they have. This was what this poor devil 
 had done; he had parted with his gun and all his little prop- 
 erty, and was now going a journey of six or eight days to 
 the Cheyenne Kiver to kill buffalo, without any arms, and 
 without anything to eat by the way. Some one had given 
 him an old pistol without a lock to it, and seating himself 
 by the fire without saying a word, he after a while pulled 
 it out, and asked Miler if I would repair it, and give him 
 some powder and ball ? I told Miler to inform him that 
 people could not make locks for pistols when they were 
 travelling on the prairie in such stormy weather, but that 
 I would give him something to eat, and directed the men 
 to give him some of the pork and biscuit out of their pot, 
 which he seemed to enjoy very much. 
 
 Feeling once more comfortable after a hearty supper, I 
 entered my tent, and remained there to a late hour bring- 
 ing up my notes, which I had few opportunities of doing 
 at Lac qui Parle. Before I lay down I could not help con- 
 trasting the cheerless prospect before me at sunset and the 
 suffering I experienced with the cheerful state of mind and 
 body I had now returned to, and for which I trust I was 
 most sincerely grateful to God, who had preserved me in 
 continued health and safety. I felt completely wound up 
 again, and ready to go on for any length of time, especially 
 with the reasonable prospect of a good night's rest before 
 me. 
 
 Such aro the agreeable excitements attending this kind 
 of life, to those who can enter without prejudice into the 
 spirit of it. Certainly, whilst your progress is successful, 
 it is delightful. You have plenty to eat, and you enjoy 
 what you eat; } T ou are amused and instructed ; it is true it 
 is often cold, but then it is not always so. You encamp 
 when you please; you cut down as largo a tree as you 
 please, and you make as largo a fire of it as you please,
 
 118 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Feathkrstonhattgh 
 
 without fearing an action of trespass. You kill deer out of 
 any park you are passing through without being questioned, 
 and you have the rare privilege of leaving your night's 
 lodging without calling for the landlord's bill. All law 
 and government proceed from yourself; and the great 
 point upon which everything turns is the successful man- 
 agement of the party you are the head of. Prudence, i 
 consistency, firmness, and a little generosity now and then 
 by way of condiment, will carry such a traveller through 
 everything. 
 
 But there is a reverse to the picture. Days and nights 
 exposed to cold, soaking rains ; want of food and water ; 
 unavoidable exaggeration of danger ; painful solicitude for 
 those dear to and absent from you, and most anxious 
 moments when you occasionally feel that prudence is 
 scarcely sufficient to insure your safety. Even the intense 
 and curious impatience to push on in the face of apparent 
 danger makes you at times feel a remorse on account of 
 those you are leading into it. Such are the contrasts of 
 feeling by which the wanderer in these distant regions, 
 still unvisited by a ray of civilization, is frequently agi- 
 tated. 
 
 [Reaching Lake Travers, one of the sources of the Red River of 
 the North, he found quarters with Mr. Brown, the resident factor of 
 the American Fur Company.] 
 
 After breakfast Mr. Brown showed me some very rare 
 furs he possessed, — several very fine grizzly bear-skins ( Ur- 
 sas ferox), one of which was a bright yellow, a rare variety. 
 He had also an exceedingly large and rich otter-skin, 
 which, with many other things, I purchased of him. But 
 my most valuable acquisition here was made from an As- 
 siniboin chief, who came in about an hour before I departed. 
 This was a fine bow, made of bone and wood, with a cord
 
 Featherstonhaugh] WINTER ON THE PRAIRIES. 119 
 
 of very strong sinew. The chief had performed a feat with 
 it for which Wanetah, a Nahcotah chief, had been cele- 
 brated. He had killed two buffaloes that were galloping 
 on a parallel with his own horse at one draft of his arrow, 
 it having passed through the first and inflicted a mortal 
 wound upon the second. 
 
 The chief was very unwilling to part with it. We tried 
 him several times in vain, and at length I offered him five 
 gold-pieces, or twenty-five dollars. " Mdhzdzhee ! Heeyah /" 
 " Yellow iron ! No !" he replied. At last Mr. Brown pro- 
 duced some brilliant scarlet cloth. The sight of it over- 
 came his reluctance ; it would make such beautiful leggings, 
 and his squaws would be so delighted with it I So I gave 
 him three yards of the cloth, and he delivered me the bow, 
 a quiver of arrows, and a skin case, which contained it. 
 Mr. Brown, of course, got his share of the amount, though 
 he acted very fairly with me. Money is unknown to these 
 savages, and they place no value upon it. He would not 
 have taken twenty of these gold-pieces for his bow, but 
 thought he had made a good bargain with it for the cloth, 
 although I have no doubt Mr. Brown would have sold it to 
 any one for ten dollars. It was an affair of barter, where 
 both parties were satisfied, which, under similar circum- 
 stances, is perhaps the best definition of value.
 
 120 * HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Campiok 
 
 A HUNTER'S CHRISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 J. S. CAMPION. 
 
 [Campion's " On the Frontier : Eeminiscences ofWild Sports, Per- 
 sonal Adventure, and Strange Scenes," a work full of vitality, is the 
 source of our present selection. Some of the author's adventures with 
 hostile Indians are very interesting, hut the following account of how 
 the author won his Christmas dinner is likely to prove more attractive 
 reading.] 
 
 On the evening of December 23 word was brought into 
 camp by one of the hands, who had been looking up the 
 mules, that he had come across the tracks of some twenty- 
 five turkeys, within five or six miles of camp. This was 
 indeed great news. Hope dawned upon us. We should 
 have the fat turkey for Christmas, at all events. 
 
 At daylight the next day we started for the spot where 
 the turkey-tracks had been seen ; the snow was melted off 
 the low ground, but still lay thick on the cedar and piiion 
 ridges, and in patches on the bottoms. 
 
 On arriving at the place we took the trail, and soon ran 
 it to a ridge-top, covered with pifion-trees, on the nuts of 
 which the turkeys had been feeding. Here the tracks 
 spread in all directions, since the turkeys had wandered 
 about, each on his own hook, searching for nuts, and, to 
 double the chances of finding them, we also separated, one 
 going up, the other down, the ridge, — going, too, very care- 
 fully, for wild turkeys are the most wary of all birds, and 
 require to be hunted with, if possible, more caution than 
 do deer. And we knew not the moment when we might 
 come upon our game, as it was highly probable they were 
 close at hand ; for turkeys, if unmolested, daily frequent
 
 Campion] A HUNTER'S CHRISTMAS DINNER. 121 
 
 the same range of feeding-ground, until it is exhausted of 
 food. By and by I came to where eight of the straggling 
 birds had come together and started off again in company. 
 The drove had evidently separated into two or more lots, 
 and I followed the eight turkeys for many miles and for 
 many hours without seeing fresh sign, until at length I 
 came to the edge of a precipitous cliff overlooking a wide 
 part of the valley, the river flowing just below me, and a 
 large grove of big cottonwood-trees in a bottom not far 
 away. 
 
 Evidently I was at the place from which the turkeys had 
 flown off the night before to go to roost. I quickly de- 
 scended, and, going under the cottonwood-trees, searched 
 in the tangle and jungle for sign of their having roosted 
 above, and soon satisfied myself that they had done so. 
 The next step necessary was to discover where the turkeys 
 had alighted in the morning; but this might entail a long 
 search, and, as it was already past noon, I sat down to 
 rest, eat the luncheon I had provided myself with, and 
 come to some conclusion as to which direction I had best 
 choose to make my first cast in. 
 
 I had not proceeded far on my way again, when I came 
 suddenly upon a "sign" that arrested my attention and 
 raised hope in my breast, — the tracks of a big fat buck ! 
 He had crossed the river-bottom diagonally, and his trail 
 plainly told me all about him : the great width of and the 
 distance between his tracks proclaimed his sex and size, and 
 their depth in the ground his weight. He had been going 
 at an easy trot ; the glaze on them was bright, their edges 
 unbroken ; not a speck of drifted dust was on them ; they 
 were as fresh as new paint. They were not an hour old. 
 
 In imagination I smelt roasted venison, and instantly 
 started in pursuit. I followed on the tracks until within 
 an hour of sunset, but never got even a glimpse of the 
 p 11 "
 
 122 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Campion 
 
 deer; and by that time his trail bad brought me to the 
 bank of a stream flowing down one of the Bide val leys. 
 The buck browsing here and there, but never stopping long 
 in one place, had led me a wide circuit through and over 
 valley and ridges. He had not seen or smelted me how- 
 ever, since none of his movements showed that he had been 
 
 ^ Theitream, at the place where the deer's track led to 
 it was unusually wide, consequently slack in current, and 
 therefore frozen over. The snow still lay on the ice, and 
 the buck's track, where he had crossed, looked but just 
 made. The ice seemed firm, and I started to cross the 
 creek. About ten feet from shore, bang through I went 
 waist deep, into the cold water, and broke and scrambled 
 m y way back with great difficulty, and with noise enough 
 to frighten into a gallop any wild animal that might be 
 within a quarter of a mile of me. 
 
 It was very disagreeable, very annoying, and very cold ; 
 and my clothes beginning to freeze on me, I started for 
 camp at a brisk walk. 
 
 Just as the sun was going down I passed near to where 
 the turkeys had flown off to roost. It struck me that by 
 watching' there a short time 1 might see them return to 
 the same or a neighboring roost, knowing they often do 
 bo This, however, was very cold work, my clothes being 
 in'a half-dried, half-frozen condition ; and I was just going 
 to give it up, when I heard the faint distant report of a 
 rifle. The sound redoubled my attention, since I supposed 
 that game was stirring. 
 
 In a few minutes I heard the quick sharp alarm call of the 
 turkey, the unmistakable pit-pit, and saw four of them sail 
 off from the edge of the cliff, at about sixty yards distance 
 from me, into the top branches of the trees forming one of 
 the -roups in the valley below. Drawing gently back, and
 
 Campion] A HUNTER'S CHRISTMAS DINNER. 123 
 
 keeping as much as possible under cover, I made my way 
 down into the valley, and started in the direction of the 
 grove of trees in which the turkeys had settled. 
 
 It was getting dark, and I had gone but a short way, 
 when, at a distance of about two hundred yards in front, a 
 most extraordinary- looking object presented itself to my 
 view. It looked like a haycock on legs with the handle of 
 a pitchfork sticking out of it ; it was steadily advancing 
 through the gloom to where I stood, and arrived quite 
 close to me before I could quite make out what it was. It 
 proved to be my companion, with two turkeys tied together 
 by the legs and slung over his shoulder across his rifle. 
 The wind coming up the valley and blowing the feathers 
 out in all directions had given the turkej T s in the gloaming 
 the extraordinary appearance that had astonished me so 
 much. I gave a low whistle, and he joined me ; I pointed 
 to the turkeys in the trees. He dropped those he already 
 had, hung them up out of wolf reach, and together we 
 cautiously crept under the four roosting turkeys. 
 
 The light was very bad for rifle-shooting, but our front 
 sights were of ivory, and our birds were skyed; so draw- 
 ing the best beads we could, we fired simultaneously, and 
 with great success, two fine birds dropping dead at our feet, 
 — the others making off. 
 
 We congratulated each other, and started for camp with 
 four fat turkeys, — and fat indeed they were, for they had 
 been feeding all autumn on walnuts, hickory-nuts, grapes, 
 sweet acorns, and pirions, at — or rather I suspect without 
 — discretion. 
 
 We had a long trudge home, the turkeys getting ap- 
 parently heavier every mile. As wo tramped along my 
 companion related his day's experience. About noon ho 
 had come upon the fresh tracks of some turkeys feeding 
 along one of the ridges, and had followed the birds until
 
 124 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Campion 
 
 •within about three hours of sunset, when, on peeping 
 into an open glade, he saw fourteen of them scattered 
 over it, picking up seeds and strutting about. As the 
 turkeys seemed to be approaching him, he lay quite still, 
 watching them through the thicket which concealed him. 
 Ultimately they got quite close, giving many fair oppor- 
 tunities to shoot one. But he was determined not to fire 
 unless necessary, preferring to wait for an occasion to 
 present itself enabling him to kill two at one shot, — a very 
 rare chance to obtain. He said it was most interesting 
 to lie there at his ease and watch the motions and move- 
 ments of the birds as they fed about and spread themselves 
 in fancied security. At last his opportunity came, and 
 firing without a moment's delay, he floored his birds, 
 taking the head of the nearest clean off, and shooting the 
 farther one through the body at the butt of his wings. 
 This was the shot I had heard. I then told him what I 
 had seen, and what had befallen me, and we got home 
 quite done up, but rejoicing at our good luck. 
 
 Supper was waiting, and this meal, a blazing fire, and 
 the pipe of peace, recruited us after our fatigues. 
 
 We had been very careful and sparing in the use of our 
 spirits, not knowing how long it might be before we should 
 be able to get a fresh supply, or what necessity might arise 
 for their use ; but this was considered an occasion when 
 the flowing bowl ought to be indulged in, so grogs all 
 round were mixed and our success celebrated. When this 
 interesting ceremony had been concluded, my companion 
 remarked to me, " Our luck has evidently turned, and, as 
 gamblers always do, we ought to press our good fortune 
 while it lasts. We have got our Christmas turkeys ; no 
 doubt the buck you followed is destined to grace our 
 Christmas dinner. I am the man to kill it. Daylight 
 shall see me on his track. You will behold my face no
 
 Campion] A HUNTER'S CHRISTMAS DINNER. 125 
 
 more until I return with the haunches of the big buck." 
 Then he turned in and I quickly followed his example. At 
 the time I had not the remotest idea that my comrade 
 really intended to put his threat into execution ; I thought 
 he was "gassing," and put it down to the credit of the 
 flowing bowl. 
 
 Next morning I awoke at mj r usual time, — daybreak, — 
 got out of my blankets, arose, stirred the fire into a great 
 blaze and turned my back to it to get a good warm. I 
 looked for my companion, — his blankets were empty ; I 
 glanced towards the arms, — his rifle and belt were gone ; I 
 felt his blankets, — they were cold. He had consequently 
 been gone for some time. 
 
 I made a cast round, and struck his fresh tracks going 
 in the direction of our last day's tramp. He had "gone 
 for" the big buck. For my part, I was too tired to stir 
 that day. Though then as hard as nails, and in first-rate 
 condition and training, I was thoroughly done up and quite 
 stiff — " played out" — with the previous day's wetting and 
 walking, so remained in camp, and spent the time in help- 
 ing to make the plum-pudding, dress and stuff the turkeys, 
 and in resting, — principally in resting. 
 
 Night came, but not my comrade. I was not exactly 
 uneasy about him, for he was a first-rate hunter and moun- 
 taineer; but many are the unexpected accidents that may 
 happen to a lone wanderer in the wilderness. 
 
 I piled the wood on the fire and sat waiting for him until 
 near midnight. Then I began to think I was foolish to do 
 so, and had better go to sleep. Just as I was turning in 
 the dogs ran out, frisking and capering, into the darkness. 
 I heard the whistle of my comrade, and he strode into the 
 light of the camp-fire. On his back, in a sling extempo- 
 rized out of the skin of the deer, wero the hind-quarters of 
 a big buck. It was not yet twelvo, and though a closo 
 
 11*
 
 12 6 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Campiow 
 
 ghave on being Christmas-day, our bill of fare>as filled. 
 Some more flowing bowl. > 
 
 At breakfast the following day my companion narrated 
 to us the story of his late hunt, as nearly as may be, in the 
 
 following words : . 
 
 He said, « By daylight I was where you came to griet 
 by breaking through the ice, with this difference, that I 
 was upon the other side of the creek, having crossed it 
 higher up by means of a beaver dam. Being a cold trail, 1 
 pushed ahead sharply, keeping a good lookout, and in a 
 little over two hours came to where the buck had lain 
 down to pass the dark of the night. There being no 
 morning moon, I knew he had not stirred before sunrise, 
 and might, therefore, be browsing, or standing under some 
 tree quite near; so continued my way most cautiously, 
 never following the tracks when they crossed an open, un- 
 less obliged to do so on account of the ground being frozen 
 hard, so that it often took me a long time to get his trail 
 again after leaving it ; but I knew, if the buck once saw or 
 ff ot a sniff of me, he might run ten miles without stopping. 
 "About eleven o'clock I sighted him. 1 was peeping 
 cautiously out of a thicket, at whose edge I had just ar- 
 rived, into a large park-like glade, and saw him under a 
 big white oak-tree, eating the acorns. There was no cover 
 between me and where the buck stood, so I could not risk 
 trvin- to get nearer to him except by making a long de- 
 tour, °and the nearest edge of the timber I was in was too 
 far off him to risk a shot from. There was, therefore, 
 nothing for it but to sit down and wait until he pleased to 
 move on or lie down, and so give me a chance to get 
 nearer. Being hungry, I utilized the time by eating my 
 luncheon, and then fell to smoking. Well, he kept me 
 there over an hour, and then started off in a straight line 
 in a trot. As he took a bee-line for the river, I knew what
 
 Campion] A HUNTER'S CHRISTMAS DINNER. 127 
 
 he was after : he was going to take his ' little drink.' I, 
 too, should have liked to indulge in a little drink, to wash 
 down my luncheon. 
 
 " As soon as the buck was well under way I started at 
 the double, on a parallel course, hoping to get a shot at 
 him in the river's bottom. I crossed the open ground of a 
 valley in a bend that was above and out of sight of the 
 course he was taking, got into the cover along the river's 
 bank, and followed it down, but saw nothing of him. By 
 and by I came to where the buck had drunk. He had 
 there crossed the river and gone straight on at a long easy 
 trot towards the Sierra Verde. 
 
 "Should he intend going up the mountain my chance 
 of seeing him again that day was over; if he was going 
 to feed in the pinon ridges, then careful stalking and the 
 avoidance of all mistakes would make him my meat. I 
 could not afford to lose time by going to a beaver dam to 
 cross, so at once peeled and waded over. 
 
 " After going about two miles, the buck's tracks showed 
 he had subsided into a walk, and then almost immediately 
 turned, to my great satisfaction, into the pinon-ridge 
 country, in which, after about an hour's careful stalking, 1 
 sighted him again. He was strolling along, feeding; but 
 it was getting pretty well on towards sunset before I was 
 able to approach close enough to him to care to fire a shot, 
 for I had taken so much trouble that I was determined to 
 incur no risk I could avoid, but have patience until I had a 
 certainty of killing him in his tracks. At last ho stopped 
 to browse in a little open, oval table-land, on the summit 
 of a cedar ridge. 
 
 "The ridge-top was nowhere over a hundred yards 
 across, and was surrounded with a thick fringe of dwarf 
 cedars. Peeping through one of these dwarf cedars, I 
 could see the deer's broad fat quarters about forty yards
 
 128 EALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Campion 
 
 in front of me. The buck was slowly walking from where 
 I stood concealed. I put my cap in a fork of the cedar, 
 laid my rifle-barrel on it, brought its stock to my shoulder, 
 and bleated like a doe. 
 
 "The big buck stopped, turned his body half round, his 
 head wholly so, and looked straight towards me with his 
 
 head down. 
 
 « I drew a careful bead between his eyes, and dropped 
 
 him — stone-dead! 
 
 "I ran up to bleed him, feeling quite relieved and glad 
 at so successful a termination of ten hours' difficult hunt- 
 ing. I had not noticed it while engrossed by the interest 
 ofVrsuit, but now found I was very hungry, and so lit a 
 fire at once, that there might be roasting-coals ready by 
 the time I had skinned my deer. 
 
 » I was soon enjoying a jolly rib-roast, making a tremen- 
 dous meal, and recruiting myself for the tramp of from 
 twelve to fifteen miles lying between me and the camp." 
 
 So, after all, we had our Christmas dinner according to 
 programme, and a capital one it was, too. 
 
 The turkeys were d merveille, the venison delicious ; for 
 the big buck— he was nearly as big as a Mexican burro- 
 deer— was very fat indeed. It is only the man who has 
 eaten really fat wild venison who knows what good ven- 
 ison really is. The kidneys were completely covered with 
 tallow and my companion assured us that the buck cut 
 nearly an inch of fat on the brisket. The quarters had 
 been hung out to freeze all night, and were thawed m 
 melted snow-water before being cooked, and so were quite 
 
 tender. . , 
 
 The plum-pudding was over a foot in diameter; we could 
 hardly pull it out of the pot. It was as good as possible, 
 and followed by a bowl of punch, our punch-bowl being for 
 the nonce a tin bucket; not to mince matters, it was our
 
 Bacon] A COLORADO "ROUND UP." 129 
 
 horses' watering-bucket, which, though not elegant, was 
 capacious, and the only utensil we had capable of holding 
 the amount of punch the occasion called for. 
 
 No holly grew in the country, but the bright red berries 
 of the Indian arrow-wood and of the bearberry-bush made 
 beautiful substitutes, and there were more evergreens in 
 sight than entire Christendom could have made use of, so 
 our camp was profusely and gayly decorated. Altogether 
 the day was well and duly celebrated, and it is marked 
 with a white stone in the calendar of my memory. 
 
 A COLORADO "ROUND-UP." 
 
 ALFRED TERRY BACON. 
 
 [Among picturesque scenes of American life there are few to sur- 
 pa^.- those to be seen on the cattle ranges of the "West, the home of the 
 cow-boy, and of a mode of life widely removed from the quiet con- 
 ditions of ordinary civilization. We append a description of daily 
 scenes during a cattle " drive."] 
 
 By a fortunate circumstance I first saw that pastoral 
 pageant known in the West as a " round-up" among the 
 most picturesque surroundings that could have been chosen 
 for it even in Colorado. In the northern counties the 
 abrupt line of the Rocky Mountain foot-hills has nearly 
 a north-and-south direction. From their base the grass- 
 country rolls away in great brown undulations with a gen- 
 eral downward slope towards the east for twenty miles, 
 to the depression in the Plains through which the South 
 Platte flows northward. Beyond the river the land rises 
 again with an easy slope for several miles. It is from the 
 side of this rise of ground that the superb panoramic view 
 
 l.—i
 
 130 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bacon 
 
 of the Eocky Mountain range is seen in perfection. More 
 than two hundred miles it stretches in sight, from the 
 masses vaguely seen beyond the snowy shoulders of Pike's 
 Peak to the lower mountains across the border of Wyo- 
 ming. 
 
 At a considerable height on this slope runs a canal for 
 irrigation, led out from the swiftly-descending Platte some 
 miles above. One brilliant evening in July, a procession 
 of wagons, each with its arched covering of canvas tinted 
 by the sunset light, moved up the ascent to the bank of the 
 ditch. The wagons were drawn up in line, about a hun- 
 dred feet apart, and in five minutes each driver had un- 
 harnessed and "hobbled" his horses and a bright row of 
 camp-fires were dancing in the twilight. The wagons 
 were late in making a camp. Usually they precede the 
 herd by several hours ; but now close following is heard 
 the lowing of the cattle, a slowly swelling volume of sound, 
 as the drove approaches. At a spot a quarter of a mile 
 from camp, where a level interrupts the general slope, the 
 herd is massed together, or, in technical phrase, " bunched," 
 and with the approach of darkness gradually all lie down 
 for the night. One by one the herders drop away to camp 
 as the cattle grow quiet, till but two are left riding in 
 opposite directions about the sleeping herd, each singing 
 vigorously, for the double purpose of warding off sleep 
 and keeping the herd aware of their guard. The songs 
 are continued by the successive watches till dawn, each 
 singer pursuing his tune with a glorious independence of 
 harmony with his mate; yet in the distance, as we sit 
 beside the camp-fire or in waking moments at night, it is a 
 cheerful, vigilant sound. In the cow-boy's dialect, "sing- 
 ing to 'em" has become a synonymous expression for night- 
 herding. 
 
 Before the day's work is finished, there is a cry heard
 
 Bacon] A COLORADO "ROUND UP." 131 
 
 not far away, " Ropes ! ropes !" Two men start up from 
 the resting groups and form a sort of temporary corral 
 by stretching ropes from a wagon, and into it is driven 
 the great herd of saddle-horses, to be " hobbled" for the 
 night. Then the supper is served,— hastily cooked and 
 hastily eaten. There is little comfort about it. A kind of 
 lengthened tailboard is let down at the end of each wagon 
 and supported by props. All the men of an " outfit" — that 
 is, those banded to work together and share the use of one 
 wagon — gather about this rude table and devour the meal, 
 as they stand, with the lion's appetite which only a wholly 
 out-door life can give. 
 
 Each " outfit" carries its tent, for use in bad weather ; 
 but with a dewless night and a dry soil no one cares to 
 stake a tent after fourteen hours of hard riding. As soon 
 as darkness has fairly settled over the earth, we are all 
 rolled in our blankets side by side on the ground as peace- 
 ful as a row of mummies. Over us the heaven seems to 
 glitter with a million stars not seen in lower countries, and 
 sleep soon comes to the eyes turned upward towards its in- 
 finite calm. At intervals through the night the second, 
 third, and "cocktail" reliefs will be called to go on duty: 
 all hands must take their turns at night-herding. 
 
 With the first intimation of daylight the camp-fires are 
 again dancing in line. By each a cook begins his breakfast 
 preparations. Long before the appearance of the sun all 
 the camp is astir ; bedding is rolled and packed away ready 
 for transportation. In the universal freshness of dawn the 
 view westward from the hill is glorious. Through the 
 meadows just below us winds the Platte, shaded by noble 
 groves of cottonwood, the home of ten thousand meadow- 
 larks, and already in the starry twilight they have begun 
 a choral symphony of innumerable voices. . . . 
 
 But the light of the sun has hardly crept down the hill
 
 132 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bacon 
 
 to touch the tree-tops, still ringing with the morning song, 
 before the hurried standing breakfast at the camp is over 
 and each man has been appointed to his work by the 
 captain of the " round-up." Throe or four are named to 
 guard the herd already gathered ; some will have special 
 care of the horses ; all others, except the men in charge of 
 wagons, are appointed to go " out on circle." Then follows • 
 a general saddling of horses, and, while the shadows still 
 lie long across the plain, knots of horsemen, three or four 
 abreast, strike out across the prairie on lines radiating in 
 all directions from the camp. They will ride out on their 
 courses for about five miles, except where the space is 
 limited on the west by the river, and then, turning back, 
 will drive in towards the centre, or, as they say, will " circle 
 in," or " round up," all the cattle found in that district, a 
 space with a diameter of ten miles. It is this operation 
 carried on day after day over many thousand square miles 
 of country which gives the name " round-up" to the annual 
 gathering of the cattle on the Plains. . . . 
 
 The long, hot morning wastes away, unvaried by any 
 event but the changing phases of the mirage and the 
 gathering of cloud-puffs over the mountains. But when 
 the sun has climbed within an hour or two of the merid- 
 ian, some one less drowsy than the rest shouts, " They're 
 coming!" Across the prairie where he points there is no 
 living thing in sight, but beyond the most distant ridge 
 a great dust-column seems to touch the sky and stand 
 motionless. Then on the opposite horizon we catch sight 
 of another cloud of dust, then another, and another 
 appears, till the circle of approaching herds is complete. 
 Presently the leaders of a procession mount the ridge. 
 The long line of cattle comes steadily on. Half are lost to 
 sight in the hollows of the prairie, half are seen on the 
 crests of the swelling ground. Up and down the line
 
 Bacon] A COLORADO "ROUND UP." 133 
 
 gallop the horsemen, urging and guiding the cattle. When 
 the first sound from the herd reaches the ear, it is like a 
 long trumpet-blast. Among the multitudes that are ap- 
 proaching there is not one but utters some sound of protest 
 at this sudden infringement of the liberties of his wild life. 
 The bellowing of* the bulls, the lowing of the cows, the 
 bleating of the calves, all are blended into a musical 
 murmur in which no single voice can be distinguished. 
 
 With the advance of the cattle the deep note grows 
 louder by almost imperceptible degrees, but at last, when 
 the lines begin to be driven together at the centre, it has 
 increased to a deafening uproar. Conversation is im- 
 possible ; orders are shouted as in a storm at sea. When 
 the converging processions have come so near that the 
 animals can be distinguished, it is interesting to look 
 closely at the passing lines, in which every breed and size 
 and color of cattle is represented, from the small tawny 
 Texas cow, as wild as a deer, to the large high-bred Dur- 
 ham bull that paces heavily along nodding his head at every 
 step with an aristocratic air of self-satisfaction. The leaders 
 of a herd are always the strong, fat steers, walking with a 
 quick step, carrying their heads erect, and glancing about 
 with restless eyes, — powerful, swift animals, ready when 
 anything startles them to break into a stampede that will 
 try the mettle of the best horses in the effort to stop them. 
 
 To one who has only known cattle in the Eastern States 
 from watching working-oxen crawling along a road a mile 
 and a half in an hour, or mild old dairy-cows loafing home 
 from pasture at night, these spirited wild cattle seem a 
 different race of animals. A new-comer to the plains can 
 hardly believe that cattle are capable of great speed ; but 
 let him help in driving a herd for a few days, and his 
 opinion is changed. A small calf lagging in the roar of a 
 herd is sometimes seized with an insane notion that his 
 
 12
 
 13 4 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bacon 
 
 mother has been left behind if he loses sight of her for a 
 moment. He starts backward on the trail, " like a streak 
 of greased lightning," his pursuer would say. An accom- 
 plished cow-boy is often baffled for some time in such a 
 chase. His horse, of course, will outstrip a calf in a long 
 run ; but just when he has headed him off, the exasperating 
 little brute will dodge like a hare, and, while the horse is 
 carried on by his impetus, the calf is off again as fast as 
 ever in search of his forsaken parent. I have known a 
 « tender-foot" to disappear over the bluffs on such a chase in 
 the middle of the afternoon and return at night crestfallen, 
 to acknowledge himself vanquished by a most insignificant 
 
 little calf. 
 
 After the leaders of the herd generally follow the young 
 stock,— the yearlings and two year-olds,— with the fat dry 
 cows scattered along the line; then the multitude of cows 
 followed by calves ; and last the lagging new-born calves, 
 attended and coaxed along by fussy old mothers. 
 
 After the men have rushed into camp to swallow the 
 noonday meal and have hurried back to the herd, the hard- 
 est and most interesting part of the day's work begins — 
 that is, the "cutting out," or sorting, the cattle of those 
 brands which it is desired to separate from the promiscuous 
 multitude. In the " general round-up'' of the early summer 
 the branding of the young stock is the chief business; 
 but in this gathering the object is to separate certain cattle 
 to be driven awav to new grazing-grounds in the northern 
 Territories. As we are riding out with the herders return - 
 incr to their work, suddenly the body from head to. foot is 
 suffused with a sense of relief and refreshment, as when 
 water touches a parched throat; for, after eight hours of 
 scorching heat, a cloud has drifted across the sun as he 
 begins his descent. It is only in such an arid, shadeless 
 region that the scriptural metaphor of a "shadow in a
 
 Bacon] A COLORADO "ROUND UP." 135 
 
 weary land" can have the full force which it had to its 
 Asiatic author. 
 
 But now, as we came to the herd and turned to circle 
 about it, the westward view was wonderfully changed. 
 The background of mountains which in the morning had 
 been so shadeless was now almost wholly in shadow. The 
 cloud-puffs of an hour ago had spread and united into black 
 canopies of storm-cloud. The range had assumed its dark- 
 est and most sublime aspect. As the eye runs up and down 
 the long sweep of vision, here and there a white peak, 
 flooded with sunshine from an unseen space between the 
 storms, shines with an unearthly brightness amid the gen- 
 eral blackness. Here and there the snowy head of a 
 mountain looks out cold and wan through a transparent 
 veil of showers. Every moment at some point along the 
 rank of mountains a thunderbolt leaps across from cloud 
 to peak with a quick shiver. A portentous darkness settles 
 over the Great Divide. The pine-clad slopes are as black 
 as night ; the snowy summits leaden. 
 
 In contrast with the dark majesty of the background is 
 the intense animation of the scene close at hand. Back 
 and forth and round and round patrol the horsemen ap- 
 pointed to hold the cattle within certain boundaries. Men 
 representing the owners of brands ride into the crowd of 
 cattle, and, moving slowly about, observe the brand on 
 every animal they pass. Usually a rider represents several 
 owners. Catching sight of the brands. for which they are 
 looking, each man follows close at the heels of the cow ho 
 has selected, and, when she is near the edge of the herd, 
 with a quick jump of his horse he tries to drive her be} T ond 
 the boundaries. But commonly she detects his purpose, 
 her gregarious instinct rebels, and with a quicker jump 
 she is back again among her friends in the midst of the 
 herd.
 
 136 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bacon 
 
 Then follows a hard chase around among the frightened 
 cattle. Fifteen or twenty riders are soon in hot pursuit of 
 their several brands. The whole herd is in commotion, 
 with a general wheeling movement like a slow Maelstrom. 
 The cattle are "ginning around," they say. The din of a 
 thousand bellowing voices grows more thunderous as the 
 herd grows more uneasy. To watch this tossing sea of 
 animal life is exciting in the highest degree. The horses, 
 trained by long experience in the work, dash into it with 
 the fire of a war-horse going to battle. They take evident 
 pleasure in their superiority over the inferior intelligence 
 of the cattle. The showy, barbaric costumes of the cow- 
 boys, the exquisite feats of horsemanship, the excitement 
 of the horses warming to their work, the occasional dex- 
 terous use of the lasso in subduing some animal at bay, all 
 the rush and tumult, the roar and shouting, the grace of 
 muscular men and animals in swift motion, make up a 
 spectacle so stirring and picturesque that all other exhibi- 
 tions of equestrian skill seem tame in comparison. 
 
 As the cattle one by one are " cut out," they are taken 
 in charge by the outside riders and driven away to swell 
 the herd of those already gathered, which is grazing less 
 than a mile away. After two hours of work, while the 
 commotion seems still as violent as ever, the captain sud- 
 denly shouts the order, " Turn 'em loose !" The cry passes 
 along, the guards draw to one side, the liberated cattle 
 move quickly away, first in a body, then in a long scatter- 
 ing line, and the stillness of the desert succeeds the uproar. 
 In the mean time, the camp has been broken up and the 
 train of wagons has moved up the river eight or ten miles 
 to fix a centre for the next day's work. There is little 
 difference between one day and another. The same opera- 
 tion of "circling in" and "cutting out" will be repeated 
 till every acre of ground in the allotted district has been
 
 Bradford] AMONG THE COW-BOYS. 137 
 
 traversed. In the "general round-ups" of the spring each 
 district contains several thousand square miles, and the 
 work continues for six weeks or more. In this way a belt 
 of country equal in length to the distance from Portland 
 to Savannah is swept over by the "round-ups" every year. 
 Before this nomadic life of the Plains has been drained 
 of its picturesque elements by the advance of civilization, 
 I hope that some painter may arise who can grasp and 
 worthily fix on canvas this most picturesque scene of 
 American life, — one with the skill of a Church to paint the 
 mountains and the genius of a Bonheur to catch the beauty 
 of free animal existence. It should be a great picture, for 
 in its distance would stand the continent's mountainous 
 head crowned with its shining diadem, while in the nearer 
 view there would be every attitude of bold horsemanship, 
 every phase of intense muscular activity, brilliancy of cos- 
 tumes, the charm of wild life, the beauty of freedom. 
 
 AMONG THE COW-BOYS. 
 
 LOUIS C. BRADFORD. 
 
 [The preceding selection may be fitly followed by the following 
 description of life among the cow-boys, those wild and wilful cattle- 
 guards of the West, whose escapades form an interesting part of the 
 romance of modern times.] 
 
 There is a peculiar fascination in the wild life of the 
 cow-boys which tempts many young men of culture and 
 refinement, reared in the enjoyment of every luxury in the 
 East, but of adventurous dispositions, to come and live 
 with these rude spirits on the frontier. Often for thirty- 
 six hours continuously in the saddle, the hardships of their 
 
 12*
 
 138 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL.] [Bradford 
 
 lot are apparent. Cold black coffee, without sugar, drunk 
 whenever the opportunity offers, is the sole luxury of the 
 cow-boy. With a piece of bread in one hand and some 
 jerked beef in the other, he will ride around a stampeded 
 herd, eating as he goes, and as happy as a king on his 
 throne. When night comes, provided his cattle are quiet, 
 he will tie his horse to his leg, and, "covered with his hat," 
 with a hummock of grass for his pillow, will sleep peace- 
 fully on the broad prairie, and dream perchance of his 
 sweetheart far back in "God's country." 
 
 Perhaps his dreams will be rudely disturbed by the 
 thunder of a thousand hoofs, as his cattle, becoming fright- 
 ened at some noise, have stampeded, and the grass fairly 
 pops beneath their cloven feet. Then it is he does his 
 tallest riding, and, circling around his cows, brings them 
 back to where they started. If a wild bull becomes ob- 
 streperous and .unruly, a rider dashes past him, and, seizing 
 his tail as he goes by, gives it a twist around the horn of 
 his saddle, and in a trice the bull is fairly slung heels over 
 head on his back. Two or three applications of this dis- 
 cipline will generally reduce the stiffening in a bull's tail 
 to a minimum and render him as docile as a calf. An ex- 
 pert cow-boy can rope, throw down, and tie up a cow in 
 just one minute from the timo he rides up to her. 
 
 But a man knows nothing of "punching the heifers" 
 who has not been through on the "trail" to Kansas. Going 
 for days together without eating, never out of the saddle, 
 mounting a fresh horse as fast as one is broken down, the 
 limit of endurance is reached, and one who has stood the 
 test, and can boast of having " busted the Indian Nation 
 square open," attains respect in the cow-boy's eyes, and is 
 considered to have taken his degree. 
 
 In 1874 the largest drive to Kansas ever recorded took 
 place, when half a million beeves were driven through.
 
 Bradford] AMONG THE COW-BOYS. 139 
 
 The trail was beaten into a broad path a mile wide and 
 extending fifteen hundred miles in length. For miles and 
 miles the string of lowing herds stretched along, while the 
 keen riders darted hither and thither, keeping them well 
 on the trail. At night the voices of the men singing to 
 their sleeping cattle could be heard all along the line, while 
 the long string of camp fires, throwing their lurid glare 
 against the black vault overhead, called back to the minds 
 of many old gray-bearded cow-boys the stormy times when 
 similar lines of light glimmered along the Eappahannock, 
 and pierced tbe murky gloom of some Virginia night. 
 Sometimes the music of a violin, sounding strangely shrill 
 in the calm night air, would mingle with the deep tones of 
 voices singing "The Maid of Monterey," or "Shamus 
 O'Brien," the cow-boy's favorite tunes. 
 
 In passing through the Indian Nation it is no uncommon 
 thing for a band of Indians, all painted and varnished up, 
 to ride down on a beef-herd, and, singling out the finest 
 cattle in the bunch, compel the white owners of the stock 
 to cut them out in a separate flock, when the Indians will 
 gather around them and run them off". Some years ago a 
 party of five Indians came riding down on a herd which 
 was resting on the banks of a small creek, and demanded 
 of the boss herdsman ten of the fattest steers he had. The 
 boss was a bold man, and, looking around on his fifteen 
 stalwart cow-boys, swore that no five Indians should take 
 his beeves from him, and, using the polite phraseology of 
 the Plains, told his redskin visitors to "go to hell." The 
 baffled five retired into the forest, but soon returned with 
 an increased force of fifty men, who charged down on the 
 defiant herdsman, whom they nearly beat to death with 
 his own ramrod, stampeded his cattle, and ran off two 
 hundred of them into the woods. 
 
 It is a wild, rough set of men that camp around the
 
 140 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bradford 
 
 herds after they have been driven through the Nation and 
 are resting on the grassy plains of Kansas. Clad in the 
 soiled and dusty jeans of the trail, for weeks in succession 
 no water has touched their hands or faces, and, unshaven 
 and unshorn, they give free reign to their exuberant spirits, 
 taking some quiet Kansas village by storm, setting the tame 
 local laws at defiance, and compelling the authorities to 
 acknowledge the sovereignty of their native State. 
 
 The wages earned by these cow-boys are twenty-five 
 dollars a month while they are herding on Texan ranges ; 
 but, as the toil and hardship encountered on the trail are 
 so great, they are paid thirty-five dollars a month during 
 the drive, and each man furnished with eight ponies to 
 ride. Some of them return home by rail, visiting the cities 
 of St. Louis and New Orleans, and managing to be de- 
 spoiled of all their hard-earned money during their brief 
 sojourn in " God's country ;" but the greater number 
 straddle their wiry little ponies and ride back through the 
 Nation to Texas. 
 
 Not ever}* one that started out to go up the trail lives to 
 get back, and the nameless mounds that dot the sides of 
 that broad path bear mute but powerful testimony to the 
 danger that every hour surrounds the cow-boy. Whether 
 they fall by a shot from some hostile savage lurking in 
 a ravine near by, or are dropped by a six-shooter in the 
 hands of a fellow-herder, they are hastily buried and soon 
 forgotten. Entirely free from the restraining power of 
 the law, men give free rein to their passions, and the six- 
 shooter or Winchester rifle — the inseparable companions 
 of the stock-drivers — is freely resorted to to settle disputed 
 questions. It is very common for two bosses having charge 
 of different herds to jump down from their horses and pro- 
 ceed to crack away at each other until one has bitten the 
 dust.
 
 Bradford] AMONG THE COW-BOYS. 141 
 
 When a violent storm, accompanied by thunder and 
 lightning, stampedes the cattle, they will probably get, 
 mixed up with two or three other herds, and much labor 
 and confusion results, and a considerable amount of tall 
 swearing and fighting takes place before they can be sep- 
 arated and each herd gotten to itself. Every animal, be- 
 sides the regular brand of the owner, has his tail bobbed 
 and a "road-mark" put upon him during the drive, and in 
 a mixed herd the rider goes in and "cuts out" all the 
 cattle that bear his brand and runs them into a separate 
 flock. 
 
 When cattle are sleeping it requires very little to stam- 
 pede them. A loud breath, the clank of a chain tied to 
 the leg of a wagon-mule, or the galloping of a horse will 
 sometimes cause them to be up and gone in the twinkling 
 of an eye. They will run over whatever is in their path, 
 and the only way to stop them is to get them to "milling," 
 or travelling in a circle, when they will wind themselves 
 up like a ball and stop. It is instinctive with them to run 
 when anj T thing else is running, and away they go at the 
 slightest noise, with the cow-boys in wild pursuit after 
 them. 
 
 Living on Stinking Creek, in the Indian Territory, just 
 off the great trail, is an Irishman named Fitzpatrick, who 
 came to this country not many years ago, a common speci- 
 men of the bog-trotting Tipperary Paddy. Floating on 
 the tide of emigration westward, he finally went into the 
 Indian Nation, and, building a cabin in the timber where 
 the trail crossed Stinking Creek, he proceeded to gather 
 up the cattle that dropped from the great herds going 
 through or were lost in some big stampede. His business 
 throve, and in time he married a Choctaw wife and went 
 to housekeeping, and to day he is the owner of many thou- 
 sand beeves, and is regarded as a rising stock-man. Ho
 
 142 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bradford 
 
 still collects the stampeded cattle in the creek timber, — a 
 striking example of the strange ways in which men become 
 rich. More than one big s lock-man in Texas began his 
 career by branding the mavericks, or wild unbranded and 
 unclaimed heifers, found in the river timber. As an in- 
 stance of the manner in which they worked up a herd, it 
 is related of a successful stock-man that he started with a 
 solitary steer, which he turned loose on the prairie, and 
 the first year he branded forty calves ! . . . 
 
 It was with a feeling of sincere regret that the writer 
 of these lines, meeting with a severe accident, prepared to 
 return to where his home nestled in the Alleghanies, after 
 a sojourn of eighteen months with these wild riders of the 
 plains. Lest the impression be conveyed that these are 
 irreligious and godless men, let the reader fancy a group 
 of men, belted and spurred, seated in a rude arbor, listening 
 reverently to a tall cow-boy who has been selected by 
 unanimous choice to read the Scriptures, and he can form 
 an idea of the last Sunday I spent with the cow-boys. 
 With slow and deliberate utterance, Phil Claiborne read 
 out the words of the golden rule, " As ye would that men 
 should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." Then he 
 proceeded: "These, my hearers, were the words of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke as no man ever spoke ; and 
 I pledge you my word, gentlemen, the Bible is a good egg." 
 Profound attention greeted the speaker, and continuing, he 
 said, "Whatsoever is earthly can be soon replaced, but that 
 which is on yon side of the grave is eternal. If you lose 
 your property, you may acquire more ; if you lose your 
 wife, you may marry again ; if you lose your children, you 
 may have more ; but if you lose your immortal soul, then 
 up the spout you go."
 
 Irving] HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 143 
 
 HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 [Washington Irving's experiences were not confined to the banks 
 of the Hudson, the ruins of the Alhamhra, and the rural scenes of 
 English life, but were extended to embrace the far western resrion of 
 his own country, a region at that time still the domain of savage 
 nature. In 1832, the year embraced in his " Tour on the Prairies," the 
 buffalo, or bison, now nearly extinct, roamed in vast herds over the 
 treeless plains, and wild horses were little less abundant in the same 
 broad region. The work in question is principally devoted to incidents 
 of a hunter's life in pursuit of these two animals. The scene lies in 
 the vicinity of the upper waters of the Red liiver.] 
 
 After proceeding about two hours in a southerly- 
 direction, we emerged towards mid-day from the dreary 
 belt of the Cross Timber, and to our infinite delight beheld 
 " the great prairie," stretching to the right and left before 
 us. We could distinctly trace the meandering course of 
 the main Canadian and various smaller streams by the 
 strips of green forest that bordered them. The landscape 
 was vast and beautiful. There is always an expansion of 
 feeling in looking upon these boundless and fertile wastes ; 
 but I was doubly conscious of it after emerging from our 
 "close dungeon of innumerous boughs." 
 
 From a rising ground Beatte [an Indian member of the 
 party] pointed out to the place where he and his comrades 
 had killed the buffaloes; and wo beheld several black 
 objects moving in the distance which ho said wore part of 
 the herd. The captain determined to shape his course to 
 a woody bottom about a mile distant and to encamp there 
 for a day or two, by way of having a regular buffalo-hunt 
 and getting a supply of provisions.
 
 144 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Irving 
 
 As the troop defiled along the slope of the hill towards 
 the camping-ground, Beatte proposed to my messmates and 
 myself that we should put oui'selves under his guidance, 
 promising to take us where we should have plenty of sport. 
 Leaving the line of march, therefore, we diverged towards 
 the prairie, traversing a small valley and ascending a 
 gentle swell of land. As we reached the summit we 
 beheld a gang of wild horses about a mile off. Beatte was 
 immediately on the alert, and no longer thought of buffalo- 
 hunting. He was mounted on his powerful half-wild 
 horse, with a lariat coiled at the saddle bow, and set off in 
 pursuit, while we remained on a rising ground watching 
 his manoeuvres with great solicitude. 
 
 Taking advantage of a strip of woodland, he stole 
 quietly along, so as to get close to them before he was 
 perceived. The moment they caught sight of him a grand 
 scamper took place. We watched him skirting along the 
 horizon like a privateer in full chase of a merchantman ; 
 at length he passed over the brow of a ridge and down 
 into a shallow valley ; in a few moments he was on the 
 opposite hill, and close upon one of the horses. He was 
 soon head and head, and appeared to be trying to noose his 
 prey ; but they both disappeared again below the hill, and 
 we saw no more of them. It turned out afterwards that 
 he had noosed a powerful horse, but could not hold him, 
 and had lost his lariat in the attempt. 
 
 While we were waiting for his return, we perceived two 
 buffalo bulls descending a slope towards a stream which 
 wound through a ravine fringed with trees. The young 
 count and myself endeavored to get near them under covert 
 of the trees. They discovered us while we were yet three 
 or four hundred yards off, and, turning about, retreated up 
 the rising ground. We urged our horses across the ravine 
 and gave chase. The immense weight of head and
 
 Irving] HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 145 
 
 shoulders caused the buffalo to labor heavily up-hill ; but 
 it accelerates his descent. "We had the advantage, there- 
 fore, and gained rapidly upon the fugitives, though it was 
 difficult to get our horses to approach them, their very 
 scent inspired them with terror. The count, who had a 
 double barrelled gun loaded with ball, fired, but missed. 
 The bulls now altered their course, and galloped down-hill 
 with headlong rapidity. As they ran in different directions, 
 we each singled one and separated. 
 
 I was provided with a brace of veteran brass-barrelled 
 pistols which I had borrowed at Fort Gibson, and which 
 had evidently seen some service. Pistols are very effective 
 in buffalo-hunting, as the hunter can ride up close to the 
 animal, and fire at it while at full speed ; whereas the long 
 heavy rifles used on the frontier cannot be easily managed, 
 nor discharged with accurate aim from horseback. My 
 object, therefore, was to get within pistol-shot of the buffalo. 
 This was no very easy matter. I was well mounted on a 
 horse of excellent speed and bottom that seemed eager for 
 the chase, and soon overtook the game ; but the moment 
 he came nearly parallel, he would keep sheei'ing off with 
 ears forked and pricked forward, and every symptom of 
 aversion and alarm. It was no wonder. Of all animals, a 
 buffalo, when close pressed by the hunter, has an aspect the 
 most diabolical. His two short black horns curve out of a 
 huge frontlet of shaggy hair; his eyes glow like coals; his 
 mouth is open, his tongue parched and drawn up into a 
 half crescent; his tail is erect, and tufted and whisked 
 about in the air ; ho is a perfect picture of mingled rage and 
 terror. 
 
 It was with difficulty I urged my horse sufficiently near, 
 
 when, taking aim, to my chagrin, both pistols missed fire. 
 
 Unfortunately, the locks of these veteran weapons were so 
 
 much worn that in the gallop the priming had been shaken 
 
 i.— o k 13
 
 146 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. Living 
 
 out of the pans. At the snapping of the last pistol I was 
 close upon the buffalo, when, in his despair, he turned 
 round with a sudden snort and rushed upon me. My 
 horse wheeled about as if on a pivot, made a convulsive 
 spring, and, as I had been leaning on one side with pistol 
 extended, I came near being thrown at the feet of the 
 
 0U Thr°ee or four bounds of the horse carried us out of the 
 reach of the enemy ; who, having merely turned in des- 
 perate self-defence, quickly resumed his flight. As soon as 
 I could gather in my panic-stricken horse and prime the 
 pistols afresh, I again spurred in pursuit of the buffalo 
 who had slackened his speed to take breath On my 
 approach he again set off full tilt, heaving himself forward 
 with a heavy rolling gallop, dashing with headlong precipi- 
 tation through brakes and ravines, while several deer and 
 wolves, startled from their coverts by his thundering 
 career, ran helter-skelter to right and left across the waste 
 A gallop across the prairies in pursuit of game is by no 
 means so smooth a career as those may imagine who have 
 only the idea of an open level plain. It is true the prairies 
 of the hunting-ground are not so much entangled with 
 flowering plants and long herbage as the lower prairie 
 and are principally covered with short buffalo-grass; bu 
 they are diversified by hill and dale, and where most level 
 are apt to be cut up by deep rifts and ravines, made by 
 torrents after rains; and which, after yawning from an 
 even surface, are almost like pitfalls in the way of the 
 hunter, checking him suddenly when in full career or 
 subjecdng him fo the risk of limb and life The plains 
 too are beset by burrowing holes of smal animals, in 
 wSoh the horse is apt to sink to the fetlock and throw 
 both himself and his rider. The late rain had covered 
 some parts of the prairie, where the ground was hard, with
 
 Irving] HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 147 
 
 a thin sheet of water, through which the horse had to 
 splash his way. In other parts there were innumerable 
 shallow hollows, eight or ten feet in diameter, made by the 
 buffaloes, who wallow in sand and mud like swine. These 
 being filled with water, shone like mirrors, so that the 
 horse was continually leaping over them or springing on 
 one side. We had reached, too, a rough part of the prairie, 
 very much broken and cut up; the buffalo, who was 
 running for life, took no heed to his course, plunging down 
 break-neck ravines, where it was necessary to skirt the 
 borders in search of a safer descent. At length we came 
 to where a winter stream had torn a deep chasm across the 
 whole prairie, leaving open jagged rocks, and forming a 
 long glen bordered by steep crumbling cliffs of mingled 
 stone and clay. Down one of these the buffalo flung him- 
 self*, half tumbling, half leaping, and then scuttled along 
 the bottom ; while I, seeing all further pursuit useless, 
 pulled up, and gazed quietly after him from the border of 
 the cliff, until he disappeared amidst the windings of the 
 ravine. 
 
 Nothing now remained but to turn my steed and rejoin 
 my companions. Here at first was some little difficulty. 
 The ardor of the chase had betrayed me into a long, 
 heedless gallop. I now found myself in the midst of a 
 lonely waste, in which the prospect was bounded by undu- 
 lating swells of land, naked and uniform, where, from the 
 deficiency of landmarks and distinct features, an inex- 
 perienced man may become bewildered, and lose his way 
 as readily as in the wastes of the ocean. The day, loo, 
 was overcast, so that I could not guide myself by the sun ; 
 my only mode was to retrace the track my horse had made 
 in coming, though this I would often lose sight of, where 
 the ground was covered with parched herbage. 
 
 To one unaccustomed to it, there is something inex-
 
 14 8 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Irving 
 
 pressibly lonely in the solitude of a prairie. The loneliness 
 of a forest seems nothing to it. There the view is shut in 
 by trees, and the imagination is left free to picture some 
 livelier scene beyond. But here we have an immense 
 extent of landscape without a sign of human existence. 
 We have the consciousness of being far, far beyond tne 
 bounds of human habitation ; we feel as if moving in the 
 midst of a desert world. As my horse lagged slowly back 
 over the scenes of our late scamper, and the delirium of 
 the chase had passed away, I was peculiarly sensible to 
 these circumstances. The silence of the waste was now 
 and then broken by the cry of a distant flock of pelicans, 
 stalking like spectres about a shallow pool ; sometimes by 
 the sinister croaking of a raven in the air, while occasion- 
 ally a scoundrel wolf would scour off from before me, and 
 having attained a safe distance, would sit down and howl 
 and whine with tones that gave a dreariness to the sur- 
 rounding solitude. 
 
 After pursuing my way for some time, I descried a horse- 
 man on the edge of a distant hill, and soon recognized him 
 to be the count. He had been equally unsuccessful with 
 myself; we were shortly afterwards rejoined by our worthy 
 comrade, the Vertuoso, who, with spectacles on nose, had 
 made two or three ineffectual shots from horseback. 
 
 We determined not to seek the camp until we had made 
 one more effort. Casting our eyes about the surrounding 
 waste, we described a herd of buffalo about two miles dis- 
 tant, scattered apart, and quietly grazing near a small 
 strip of trees and bushes. It required but little stretch of 
 fancy to picture them as so many cattle grazing on the edge 
 of a common, and that the grove might shelter some lowly 
 
 farm-house. 
 
 We now formed our plan to circumvent the herd, and 
 by getting on the other side of thorn, to hunt them in the
 
 Irving] HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 149 
 
 direction where we knew our camp to be situated ; other- 
 wise, the pursuit might take us to such a distance as to 
 render it impossible for us to find our way back before 
 night-fall. Taking a wide circuit, therefore, we moved 
 slowly and cautiously, pausing occasionally when we saw 
 any of the herd desist from grazing. The wind fortunately 
 set from them, otherwise they might have scented us and 
 have taken the alarm. In this way we succeeded in 
 getting round the herd without disturbing it. It consisted 
 of about forty head, bulls, cows, and calves. 
 
 Separating to some distance from each other, we now 
 approached slowly in a parallel line, hoping by degrees to 
 steal near without exciting attention. They began, how- 
 ever, to move off quietly, stopping at every step or two to 
 graze, when suddenly a bull that, unobserved by us, had 
 been taking his siesta under a clump of trees to our left, 
 roused himself from his lair and hastened to join his 
 companions. We were still at a considerable distance, but 
 the game had taken the alarm. We quickened our pace, 
 they broke into a gallop, and now commenced a full chase. 
 
 As the ground was level, they shouldered along with 
 great speed, following each other in a line; two or three 
 bulls bringing up the rear, the last of whom, from his 
 enormous size and venerable frontlet, and beard of sun- 
 burnt hair, looked like the patriarch of the herd, and as 
 if he might long have reigned the monarch of the prairie. 
 
 There is a mixture of the awful and the comic in the 
 look of these huge animals, as they bear their great bulk 
 forward, with an up-and-down motion of the unwieldy 
 head and shoulders, their tail cocked up like the queue of 
 pantaloon in a pantomime, the end whisking about in a 
 fierce yet whimsical style, and their e^'es glaring venom- 
 ously with an expression of fright and fury. 
 
 For some time I kept parallel with the line without
 
 15 o HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Irving 
 
 bein<r able to force my horse within pistol-shot, so much 
 had lie been alarmed by the assault of the buffalo in the 
 preceding chase. At length I succeeded, but was again 
 balked by my pistols missing fire. My companions, whose 
 horses where less fleet and more way-worn, could not 
 
 overtake the herd ; at length Mr. L , who was m the 
 
 rear of the line and losing ground, levelled his double- 
 barrelled gun and fired a long raking shot. It struck a 
 buffalo just above the loins, broke its backbone, and 
 brought it to the ground. He stopped and alighted to 
 despatch his prey, when, borrowing his gun, which had yet 
 a charge remaining in it, I put my horse to his speed, and 
 again overtook the herd, which was thundering along, pur- 
 sued by the count. With my present weapon there was 
 no need of urging my horse to such close quarters ; gallop- 
 ing along parallel, therefore, I singled out a buffalo, and by 
 a fortunate shot brought it down on the spot. The ball 
 had struck a vital part ; it would not move from the place 
 where it fell, but lay there struggling in mortal agony, 
 while the rest of the herd kept on their headlong career 
 
 across the prairie. 
 
 Dismounting, I now fettered my horse to prevent his 
 straying, and advanced to contemplate my victim. I am 
 nothing of a sportsman : I had been prompted to this un- 
 wonted exploit by the magnitude of the game and the 
 excitement of an adventurous chase. Now that the ex- 
 citement was over, I could but look with commiseration 
 upon the poor animal that lay struggling and bleeding at 
 my feet. His very size and importance, which had before 
 inspired me with eagerness, now increased my compunction. 
 It seemed as if I had inflicted pain in proportion to the 
 bulk of my victim, and as if there were a hundred-fold 
 greater waste of life than there would have been in the 
 destruction of an animal of inferior size.
 
 Irving] HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 151 
 
 To add to these after-qualms of conscience, the poor 
 animal lingered in his agony. He had evidently received 
 a mortal wound, but death might be long in coming. It 
 would not do to leave him here to be torn piecemeal, while 
 yet alive, by the wolves that had alread}' snuffed his blood, 
 and were skulking and howling at a distance, and waiting 
 for my departure, and by the ravens that were flapping 
 about croaking dismally in the air. It became now an act 
 of mercy to give him his quietus and put him out of his 
 misery. I primed one of the pistols, therefore, and 
 advanced close up to the buffalo. To inflict a wound thus 
 in cool blood I found a totally different thing from firing 
 in the heat of the chase. Taking aim, however, just 
 behind the fore shoulder, my pistol for once proved true; 
 the ball must have passed through the heart, for the animal 
 gave one convulsive throe and expired. 
 
 While I stood meditating and moralizing over the wreck 
 I had so wantonly produced, with my horse grazing near 
 me, I was rejoined by my fellow-sportsman the Virtuoso ; 
 who, being a man of universal adroitness, and withal, more 
 experienced and hardened in the gentle art of "venerie," 
 soon managed to carve out the tongue of the buffalo, and 
 delivered it to me to bear back to the camp as a trophy. 
 
 Our solicitude was now awakened for the young count. 
 With his usual eagerness and impetuosity he had persisted 
 in urging his jaded horse in pursuit of the herd, unwilling 
 to return without having likewise killed a buffalo. In this 
 way he had kept on following them hither and thither, 
 and occasionally firing an ineffectual shot, until by degrees 
 horseman and herd became indistinct in the distance, and 
 at length swelling ground and strips of trees and thickets 
 hid them entirely from sight. 
 
 By the time my friend, the amateur, joined me, the 
 young count had been long lost to view. We held a con-
 
 15 2 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Irving 
 
 sultation on the matter. Evening was drawing on. Were 
 we to pursue him, it would be dark before we should over- 
 take him, granting we did not entirely lose trace of him in 
 the gloom. We should then be too much bewildered to 
 find our way back to the encampment; even now our 
 return would be difficult. We determined, therefore, to 
 hasten to the camp as speedily as possible, and send out 
 our half-breeds and some of the veteran hunters, skilled 
 in cruising about the prairies, to search for our companion. 
 We accordingly set forward in what we supposed to be 
 the direction of the camp. Our weary horses could hardly 
 be urged beyond a walk. The twilight thickened upon us ; 
 the landscape grew gradually indistinct ; we tried in vain 
 to recognize various landmarks which we had noted in the 
 morning. The features of a prairie are so similar as to 
 baffle the eye of any but an Indian or a practised woods- 
 man. At length night closed in. We hoped to see the 
 distant glare of camp-fires ; we listened to catch the sound 
 of the bells about the necks of the grazing horses. Once 
 or twice we thought we distinguished them : we were mis- 
 taken. Nothing was to be heard but a monotonous con- 
 cert of insects, with now and then the dismal howl of 
 wolves mingling with the night breeze. We began to 
 think of halting for the night and bivouacking under the 
 lee of some thicket. We had implements to strike a light ; 
 there was plenty of firewood at hand, and the tongues of 
 our buffaloes would furnish us with a repast. 
 
 Just as we were preparing to dismount we heard the 
 report of a rifle, and shortly after the notes of the bugle, 
 calling up the night guard. Pushing forward in that 
 direction, the camp-fires soon broke on our sight, gleaming 
 at a distance from among the thick groves of an alluvial 
 
 bottom. 
 
 As we entered the camp, we found it a scene of rude
 
 Lewis] IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SIOUX. 153 
 
 hunters' revelry and wassail. There had been a grand 
 day's sport in which all had taken a part. Eight buffaloes 
 had been killed ; roaring fires were blazing on every side ; 
 all hands were feasting upon roasted joints, broiled marrow 
 bones, and the juicy hump, far famed among the epicures 
 of the prairies. Right glad were we to dismount and par- 
 take of the sturdy cheer, for we had been on our weary 
 horses since morning without tasting food. 
 
 [It may be said in conclusion that the count — a young Swiss who 
 accompanied the party — failed to return, and the next day a search for 
 him had to be made, in which the Indians displayed strikingly their 
 surprising skill in following a trail. The missing adventurer was at 
 length found. He had spent the night in a tree for fear of wolves, and 
 was heartily glad to see the face of his fellow-man again.] 
 
 IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SIOUX. 
 
 MERIWETHER LEWIS. 
 
 [The following selection, here attributed to Captain M. Lewis, is 
 taken from McVickar's abridgment of the journals of Lewis and 
 Clarke, the leaders of the celebrated expedition of 1804-6, sent out 
 by President Jetferson to explore the country which he had obtained 
 by treaty from France as part of the Louisiana purchase. The ex- 
 plorers passed across the plains and the Rocky Mountains while their 
 pristine conditions were as yet undisturbed by the " white man's foot," 
 and their story is of particular value from this fact. We take up 
 their story in their journey through the Sioux country, on the Mis- 
 souri. They had just passed a village of the Poncara tribe.] 
 
 Twenty miles farther on [continues the narrative] we 
 reached and encamped at the foot of a round mountain on 
 .the south, having passed two small islands. This moun- 
 tain, which is about three hundred feet at the base, forms
 
 15 4 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Lewis 
 
 a cone at the top, resembling a dome at a distance, and 
 seventy feet or more above the surrounding highlands. 
 As we descended from this dome, we arrived at a spot on 
 the gradual descent of the hill, nearly four acres in extent, 
 and covered with small holes; these are the residence of a 
 little animal, called by the French petit chien (little dog), 
 which sit erect near the mouth, and make a whistling 
 noise, but, when alarmed, take refuge in their holes. In 
 order to bring them out, we poured into one of the holes 
 five barrels of water, without filling it, but we dislodged 
 and caught the owner. After digging down another of 
 the holes for six feet, we found, on running a pole into it, 
 that we had not yet dug half-way to the bottom ; we discov- 
 ered, however, two frogs in the hole, and near it we killed 
 a dark rattlesnake, which had swallowed a small praine- 
 do". We were also informed, though we never witnessed 
 the fact, that a sort of lizard and a snake live habitually 
 with these animals. The petit chien are justly named, as 
 they resemble a small dog in some particulars, although they 
 have also some points of similarity to the squirrel. The 
 head resembles the squirrel in every respect, except that the 
 ear is shorter ; the tail like that of the ground-squirrel ; the 
 toe-nails are long, the fur is fine, and the long hair is gray 
 The following days they saw large herds of buffalo, and 
 the copses of timber appeared to contain elk and deer. 
 Just below Cedar Island [adds the journal], on a hill to 
 the south, is the backbone of a fish, forty-five feet long, 
 tapering towards the tail, and in a perfect state of petri- 
 faction, fragments of which were collected and sent to 
 
 "Washington. ... 
 
 September 17.— While some of the party were engaged in 
 the same way as yesterday, others were employed in exam- 
 ining the surrounding country. About a quarter of a mile 
 beyond our camp, and at an elevation of twenty feet above
 
 
 Lewis] IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SIOUX. 155 
 
 it, a plain extends nearly three miles parallel to the river, 
 and about a mile back to the hills, towards which it grad- 
 ually ascends. Here we saw a grove of plum-trees, loaded 
 with fruit, now ripe, and differing in nothing from those 
 of the Atlantic States, except that the tree is smaller and 
 more thickly set. The ground of the plain is occupied by 
 the burrows of multitudes of barking squirrels, who entice 
 hither the wolves of a small kind, hawks, and polecats, all 
 of which animals we saw, and presumed that they fed on 
 the squirrel. This plain is intersected, nearly in its whole 
 extent, by deep ravines, and steep, irregular rising grounds, 
 from one to two hundred feet. On ascending the range of 
 hills which border the plain, we saw a second high level 
 plain, stretching to the south as far as the eye could reach. 
 To the westward a high range of hills, about twenty miles 
 distant, runs nearly north and south, but not to an}* great 
 extent, as their rise and termination is embraced by one 
 view, and they seemed covered with a verdure similar to 
 that of the plains. The same view extended over the 
 irregular hills which border the northern side of the Mis- 
 souri. 
 
 All around, the countrj* had been recently burned, and a 
 young green grass about four inches high covered the 
 ground, which was enlivened by herds of antelopes ami 
 buffalo, the last of which were in such multitudes that we 
 cannot exaggerate in saying that at a single glance we saw 
 three thousand of them before us. Of all the animals we 
 had seen, the antelope seems to possess the most wonderful 
 fleetness. Shy and timorous, they generally repose only on 
 the ridges, which command a view of all the approaches of 
 an enemy; the acutencss of their sight distinguishes the 
 most distant danger; the delicate sensibility of their smell 
 defeats the precautions of concealment ; and, when alarmed, 
 their rapid career seems more like the flight of birds than
 
 156 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Lewis 
 
 the movements of a quadruped. After many unsuccessful 
 attempts, Captain Lewis at last, by winding around the 
 ridges, approached a party of seven, which were on an 
 eminence towards which the wind was unfortunately 
 blowing. The only male of the party frequently encircled 
 the summit of the hill, as if to announce any danger to the 
 females, which formed a group at the top. Although they 
 did not see Captain Lewis, the smell alarmed them, and 
 they fled when he was at the distance of two hundred 
 yards ; he immediately ran to the spot where they had 
 been; a ravine concealed them from him; but the next 
 moment they appeared on a second ridge, at a distance of 
 three miles. He doubted whether they could be the same ; 
 but their number, and the extreme rapidity with which 
 they continued their course, convinced him that they must 
 have gone with a speed equal to that of the most distin- 
 guished racehorse. Among our acquisitions to-day were 
 a mule deer, a magpie, a common deer, and a buffalo. 
 Captain Lewis also saw a hare, and killed a rattlesnake 
 near the burrows of the barking squirrels. 
 
 September 18. — Having everything in readiness, we pro- 
 ceeded, with the boat much lightened, but the wind being 
 from the northwest, we made but little wa}'. At one mile 
 we reached an island in the middle of the river, nearly a 
 mile in length, and covered with red cedar ; at its extremity 
 a small creek comes in from the north. We then met 
 some sand-bars, and tho wind being very high and ahead, 
 we encamped on the south, having made only seven miles. 
 In addition to the common deer, which were in great abun- 
 dance, we saw goats, elk, buffalo, and the black-tailed deer; 
 the large wolves, too, are very numerous, and have long 
 hair with coarse fur, and are of a light color. A small 
 species of wolf, about the size of a gray fox, was also killed, 
 and proved to be the animal which wo had hitherto mis-
 
 Lkwis] IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SIOUX. 157 
 
 taken for a fox. There are also many porcupines, rabbits, 
 and barking squirrels in the neighborhood. . . . 
 
 On the 2Uth they arrived at the Grand Detour, or Great 
 Bend, and two men were despatched with the only horse 
 to hunt, and wait the arrival of the boats beyond it. After 
 proceeding twenty-seven and a half miles farther, they en- 
 camped on a sand-bar in the river. Captain Clarke, 
 [continues the narrative], who early this morning had 
 crossed the neck of the bend, joined us in the evening. At 
 the narrowest part the gorge is composed of high and ir- 
 regular hills of about one hundred and eighty or one hun- 
 dred and ninety feet in elevation ; from this descends an 
 unbroken plain over the whole of the bend, and the country 
 is separated from it by this ridge. Great numbers of buf- 
 falo, elk, and goats are wandering over these plains, accom- 
 panied by grouse and larks. Captain Clarke saw a hare, 
 also, on the Great Bend. 
 
 Of the goats killed to-day, one is a female, differing from 
 the male in being smaller in size ; its horns, too, are smaller 
 and straighter, having one short prong, and no black about 
 the neck. None of these goats have any beard, but are 
 delicately formed and very beautiful. 
 
 Shortly after midnight the sleepers were startled by the 
 sergeant on guard crying out that the sand-bar was sink- 
 ing, and the alarm was given ; for scarcely had they got 
 off with the boats before the bank under which they had 
 been lying fell in ; and by the time the opposite shore was 
 reached the ground on which they had been encamped 
 sunk also. A man who was sent to step off the distance 
 across the head of the bend made it but two thousand 
 yards, while its circuit is thirty miles. On the 22d they 
 passed a creek and two islands, known by the name of 
 the Three Sisters, where a beautiful plain extended on 
 both sides of the river. This is followed by an island on 
 
 14
 
 158 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Lewis 
 
 the north, called Cedar Island, about one mile and a half 
 in length, and the same distance in breadth, and deriving 
 its name from the quality of its timber. On the south side 
 of this island is a fort and a large trading house, built by a 
 Mr. Loisel in order to trade with the Sioux, the remains of 
 whose camps are in great numbers about this place. The 
 establishment is sixty or seventy feet square, built with 
 red cedar, and picketed in with the same materials. 
 
 The next day, in the evening, three boys of the Sioux 
 nation swam across the river, and informed them that two 
 parties of Sioux were encamped on the next river, one con- 
 sisting of eighty and the second of sixty lodges, at some dis- 
 tance above. After treating them kindly, they sent them 
 back with a present of two carrots of tobacco to their chiefs, 
 whom they invited to a conference in the morning. 
 
 September &£.— At an island a few miles above High- 
 water Creek they were joined by one of their hunters, 
 who [proceeds the narrative] procured four elk ; but while 
 he was in pursuit of the game the Indians had stolen his 
 horse. We left the island, and soon overtook five Indians 
 on the shore ; we anchored, and told them from the boat 
 we were friends, and wished to continue so, but were not 
 afraid of any Indians ; that some of their young men had 
 stolen the horse which their great father had sent for their 
 great chief, and that we could not treat with them until he 
 was restored. They said they knew nothing of the horse, 
 but if he had been taken he should be given up. We went 
 on, and at thirteen and a half miles we anchored one hun- 
 dred yards off the mouth of a river on the south side, where 
 we were joined by both the pirogues, and encamped ; two- 
 thirds of the party remained on board, and the rest went 
 as a guard on shore, with the cooks and one pirogue ; we 
 have seen along the sides of the hills on the north a great 
 deal of stone ; besides the elk, we also observed a hare ; the
 
 Lewis] IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SIOUX. 159 
 
 five Indians whom we had seen followed us, and slept with 
 the guard on shore. Finding one of them was a chief, we 
 smoked with him, and made him a present of tobacco. 
 This river is about seventy yards wide, and has a consider- 
 able current. As the tribe of the Sioux which inhabit it 
 are called Tetons, we gave it the name of Teton River. 
 
 [On the 25th they met a party of Indians who threatened violence, 
 and attempted to detain them by force, but were induced to desist by 
 a threatening attitude on the part of the whites.] 
 
 September 26. — Our conduct yesterday seemed to have 
 inspired the Indians with fear of us ; and as we were de- 
 sirous of cultivating their acquaintance, we complied with 
 their wish that we should give them an opportunity of 
 treating us well, and also suffer their squaws and children 
 to see us and our boat, which would be perfectly new to 
 them. Accordingly, after passing, at one and a half miles, 
 a small willow island and several sand-bars, we came to on 
 the south side, where a crowd of men, women, and children 
 were waiting to receive us. Captain Lewis went on shore, 
 and remained several hours ; and observing that their dis- 
 position was friendly, we resolved to remain during the 
 night to a dance, which they were preparing for us. Cap- 
 tains Lewis and Clarke, who went on shore one after the 
 other, were met on landing by ten well-dressed young men, 
 who took them up in a robe, highly decorated, and carried 
 them to a large council-house, where they were placed on a 
 dressed buffalo-skin by the side of the grand chief. The 
 hall, or council-room, was in the shape of three-quarters 
 of a circle, covered at the top and sides with skins well 
 dressed and sewed together. Under this shelter sat about 
 seventy men, forming a circle round the chief, before whom 
 were placed a Spanish flag and the one wo had given them 
 yesterday.
 
 160 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Lewis 
 
 This left a vacant circle of about six feet in diameter, in 
 which the pipe of peace was raised on two forked sticks, 
 about six or eight inches from the ground, and under it the 
 down of the swan was scattered ; a large fire, in which 
 they were cooking provisions, stood near, and in the centre 
 about four hundred pounds of excellent buffalo-meat, as a 
 
 present for us. 
 
 As soon as we were seated an old man got up, and after 
 approving what we had done, begged us to take pity on 
 their unfortunate situation. To this we replied with as- 
 surances of protection. After he had ceased, the great 
 chief rose and delivered an harangue to the same effect; 
 then, with great solemnity, took some of the most delicate 
 parts of the dog which was cooked for the festival, and 
 held it to the flag by way of sacrifice ; this done, he held 
 up the pipe of peace, and first pointed it towards the 
 heavens, then to the four quarters of the globe, and then 
 to the earth, made a short speech, lighted the pipe, and 
 presented it to us. We smoked, and he again harangued 
 his people, after which the repast was served up to us. It 
 consisted of the dog which they had just been cooking, 
 this being a great dish among the Sioux, and used on all 
 festivals; to this were added pemitigon, a dish made of 
 buffalo-meat, dried or jerked, and then pounded and mixed 
 raw with grease and a kind of ground potato, dressed like 
 the preparation of Indian corn called hommony, to which 
 it is little inferior. Of all these luxuries which were placed 
 before us in platters with horn spoons, we took the pemiti- 
 gon and the potato, which we found good, but we could as 
 yet partake but sparingly of the dog. 
 
 We ate and smoked for an hour, when it became dark; 
 everything was then cleared away for the dance, a large 
 fire being made in the centre of the house, giving at once 
 li-rht and warmth to the ball-room. The orchestra was
 
 Lewis] IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SIOUX. 161 
 
 composed of about ten men, who played on a sort of tam- 
 bourine, formed of skin stretched across a hoop, and made 
 a jingling noise with a long stick to which the hoofs of deer 
 and goats were hung; the third instrument was a small 
 skin bag with pebbles in it; these, with five or six young 
 men for the vocal part, made up the band. The women 
 then came forward, highly decorated ; some with poles in 
 their hands, on which were hung the scalps of their ene- 
 mies ; others with guns, spears, or different trophies taken 
 in war by their husbands, brothers, or connections. 
 
 Having arranged themselves in two columns, one on each 
 side of the fire, as soon as the music began they danced 
 towards each other till they met in the centre, when the 
 rattles were shaken, and they all shouted and returned 
 back to their places. They have no step, but shuffle along 
 the ground; nor does the music appear to be anything 
 more than a confusion of noises, distinguished only by 
 hard or gentle blows upon the buffalo-skin ; the song is 
 perfectly extemporaneous. In the pauses of the dance 
 some man of the company comes forward and recites, in a 
 sort of low guttural tone, some little story or incident, 
 which is either martial or ludicrous, or, as was the case 
 this evening, voluptuous and indecent ; this is taken up by 
 the orchestra and the dancers, who repeat it in a higher 
 strain and dance to it. Sometimes they alternate, the 
 orchestra first performing, and when it ceases the women 
 raise their voices, and make a music more agreeable, that 
 is, less intolerable, than that of the musicians. 
 
 The dances of the men, which are always separate from 
 those of the women, are conducted very nearly in the same 
 way, except that the men jump up and down instead of 
 shuffling; and in the war-dances the recitations are all of 
 a military cast. The harmony of the entertainment had 
 nearly been disturbed by one of the musicians, who, think- 
 i.—l 14*
 
 162 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Lewis 
 
 ins be had not received a due share of the tobacco we had 
 distributed during the evening, put himself into a passion, 
 broke one of the drums, threw two of them into the fare, 
 and left the band. They were taken out of the fire ; a buftalo 
 robe, held in one hand, and beaten with the other by sev- 
 eral of the company, supplied the place of the lost drum or 
 tambourine, and no notice was taken of the offensive con- 
 duct of the man. We stayed till twelve o'clock at night 
 when we informed the chiefs that they must be fatigued 
 with all these attempts to amuse us, and retired, accompa- 
 nied by four chiefs, two of whom spent the night with 
 
 us on board. ... 
 
 The tribe which we this day saw are a part of the great 
 Sioux nation, and are known by the name of the Teton 
 Okandandas : they are about two hundred men in number, 
 and their chief residence is on both sides of the Missouri, 
 between the Chayenne and Teton Eivers. In their persons 
 they are rather ugly and ill made, their legs and arms 
 being 'too small, their cheek-bones high, and their eyes 
 projecting. The females, with the same character of 
 form are more handsome ; and both sexes appear cheerful 
 and sprightly ; but in our intercourse with them we dis- 
 covered that they were cunning and vicious. ... 
 
 Their lodges are very neatly constructed, in the same 
 form as those of the Yanktons : they consist of about one 
 hundred cabins (made of white buffalo dressed h.de), with 
 a larger one in the centre for holding councils and dances. 
 They are built round with poles, about fifteen or twenty 
 feet high, covered with white skins. These lodges maybe 
 taken to pieces, packed up, and carried with the nation 
 wherever they go, by dogs which bear great burdens. 
 The women are chiefly employed in dressing buffalo-skins ; 
 they seem perfectly well disposed, but are addicted to 
 stealing anything which they can take without being ob-
 
 Lewis] IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SIOUX. 163 
 
 served. This nation, although it makes so many ravages 
 among its neighbors, is badly supplied with guns. The 
 water which they carry with them is contained chiefly in 
 the paunches of deer and other animals, and the} T make 
 use of wooden bowls. Some had their heads shaved, 
 which we found was a species of mourning for their 
 relations. Another usage on these occasions is to run 
 arrows through the flesh, both above and below the elbow. 
 While on shore to-day we witnessed a quarrel between 
 two squaws, which appeared to be growing every moment 
 more boisterous, when a man came forward, at whose 
 approach every one seemed terrified and ran. He took the 
 squaws, and without any ceremony whipped them severely. 
 On inquiring into the nature of such summary justice, 
 we learned that this man was an officer well known to this 
 and many other tribes. His duty is to keep the peace ; 
 and the whole interior police of the village is confided to 
 two or three of these officers, who are named by the chief, 
 and remain in power some days, at least till the chief 
 appoints a successor: they seem to be a sort of constable 
 or sentinel, since they are always on the watch to keep 
 tranquillity during the day, and guarding the camp in 
 the night. The short duration of their office is compen- 
 sated by its authority. Their power is supreme, and in the 
 suppression of any riot or disturbance no resistance to 
 them is suffered ; their persons are sacred ; and if, in the 
 execution of their duty, they strike even a chief of the 
 second class, they cannot be punished for this sal ut cry 
 insolence.
 
 16i HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clarkb 
 
 THE GREAT FALLS OF THE MISSOURI. 
 
 WILLIAM CLARKE. 
 
 TThe journal of Lewis and Clarke, descriptive of their observations 
 in the western United States, during their journey across the plain, 
 and mountains to the Pacific, are full of interesting incident They 
 were the first intelligent travellers through that vast region and the 
 IZ of their journe^ must always possess a high value for tins reason, 
 the aborigines and the animal life of that country being as yet undis- 
 
 u bed oy the presence of the whites. They had now reached the upper 
 Missouri and were within view of the Eocky Mountains. We quote 
 
 from McVickar's abridgment of their journal.] 
 
 On the north we passed a precipice about one hundred 
 and twenty feet high, under which lay scattered the remains 
 of at least one hundred carcasses of buffaloes, although the 
 water, which had washed away the lower part of the hill, 
 must have carried off many of the dead. 
 
 These buffaloes had been chased down the precipice in a 
 way very common on the Missouri, and by which vast herds 
 are destroyed in a moment. The mode of hunting is to 
 select one of the most active and fleet young men, who is 
 disguised by a buffalo-skin round his body ; the skin of the 
 head, with the ears and horns, being fastened on his own 
 in such a way as to deceive the animal. Thus dressed he 
 fixes himself at a convenient distance between a herd ot 
 buffaloes and any of the river precipices, which sometimes 
 extend for miles. His companions in the mean time get in 
 the rear and on the sides of the herd, and at a given 
 signal show themselves and advance towards them, lhe 
 buffaloes instantly take the alarm, and, Ending the hunters 
 beside them, they run towards the disguised Ind ia n or 
 decoy, who leads them on at full speed towards the river,
 
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 Clarke] THE GREAT FALLS OF THE MISSOURI. 165 
 
 when, suddenly securing himself in some crevice of the 
 cliff which he had previously fixed on, the herd is left on 
 the brink of the precipice. It is then impossible for the 
 foremost to retreat, or even to stop ; they are pressed on 
 by the hindmost rank, which, seeing no danger but from 
 the hunters, goad on those before them, till the whole are 
 precipitated over the cliff, and the shore is strewed with 
 their dead bodies. 
 
 Sometimes, in this perilous seduction, the Indian himself 
 is either trodden underfoot by the rapid movements of 
 the buffaloes, or, missing his footing in the cliff, is urged 
 down the precipice by the falling herd. The Indians then 
 select as much meat as they wish, and the rest is abandoned 
 to the wolves, and create a most dreadful stench. The 
 wolves which had been feasting on these carcasses were 
 very fat, and so gentle that one of them was killed with a 
 spontoon. 
 
 [They were now on the foot-hills of the mountains, in the country 
 of the Minnetarees. Their journey met with obstructions from pre- 
 cipitous cliffs.] 
 
 These hills and river cliffs exhibit a most extraordinary 
 and romantic appearance. They rise in most places nearly 
 perpendicular from the river to the height of between two 
 and three hundred feet, and are formed of very white 
 sandstone, so soft as to yield readily to the action of water, 
 but in the upper part of which lie embedded two or three 
 thin horizontal strata of white freestone unaffected by the 
 rain ; and on the top is a dark rich loam, which forms a 
 gradually ascending plain, from a mile to a mile and a half 
 in extent, when the hills again rise abruptly to the height 
 of about three hundred feet more. In trickling down the 
 cliffs the water has worn the soft sandstone into a thousand 
 grotesque figures, among which, with a little fancy, may
 
 166 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clarke 
 
 be discerned elegant ranges of freestone buildings, with 
 columns variously sculptured, and supporting long and 
 elegant galleries, while the parapets are adorned with 
 statuary. On a nearer approach they represent every 
 form of elegant ruins, columns, some with pedestals and 
 capitals entire, others mutilated and prostrate, and some 
 rising pyramidally over each other till they terminate in a 
 sharp point. These are varied by niches, alcoves, and the 
 customary appearances of desolated magnificence. The 
 delusion is increased by the number of martins which have 
 built their globular nest in the niches, and hover over these 
 columns as in our country they are accustomed to frequent 
 large stone structures. 
 
 As we advance there seems no end to the visionary en- 
 chantment that surrounds us. In the midst of this fan- 
 tastic scenery are vast ranges of walls, which seem the 
 productions of art, so regular is the workmanship. They 
 rise perpendicularly from the river, sometimes to the 
 height of one hundred feet, varying in thickness from one 
 to twelve feet, being equally broad at the top as below 
 The stones of which they are formed are black, thick, and 
 durable, composed of a large portion of earth, intermixed 
 and cemented with a small quantity of sand, and a consid- 
 erable proportion of talc or quartz. These stones are 
 almost invariably parallelepipeds of unequal sizes in the 
 wall, but equally deep, and laid regularly in ranges over 
 each other like bricks, each breaking and covering the in- 
 terstice of the two on which it rests. But, though the 
 perpendicular interstice be destroyed, the horizontal one 
 extends entirely through the whole work. The stones too 
 are proportioned to the thickness of the wall m which 
 they are employed, being largest in the thickest walls. The 
 thinner walls are composed of a single depth of the paral- 
 lelepiped, while the thicker ones consist of two or more
 
 Clarke] THE GREAT FALLS OF THE MISSOURI. 167 
 
 depths. These walls pass the river at several places, rising 
 from the water's edge much above the sandstone bluffs, 
 which they seem to penetrate ; thence they cross in a 
 straight line, on either side of the river, the plains, over 
 which they tower to the height of from ten to seventy 
 feet, until they lose themselves in the second range of 
 hills. Sometimes tbey run parallel in several ranges near 
 to each other, sometimes intersect each other at right 
 angles, and have the appearance of walls of ancient houses 
 or gardens. 
 
 [After advancing some distance farther, the proper course to pursue 
 hecame doubtful, and Captains Lewis and Clarke set out in different 
 directions with exploring parties. Lewis's journey proved an adven- 
 turous one.] 
 
 In passing along the side of a bluff at a narrow pass, 
 thirty }^ards in length, Captain Lewis slipped, and, but for 
 a fortunate recovery by means of his spontoon, would have 
 been precipitated into the river over a precipice of about 
 ninety feet. He had just reached a spot where, by the 
 assistance of his spontoon, he could stand with tolerable 
 safety, when he heard a voice behind him cry out, "Good 
 God, captain, what shall I do?" He turned instantly, and 
 found it was Windsor, who had lost his foothold about the 
 middle of the narrow pass, and had slipped down to the 
 very verge of the precipice, where he lay on his belly, 
 with his right arm and leg over it, while with the other 
 leg and arm he was with difficulty holding on, to keep him- 
 self from being dashed to pieces below. 
 
 His dreadful situation was instantly perceived by Cap- 
 tain Lewis, who, stifling his alarm, calmly told him that 
 he was in no danger; that he should take his knife out 
 of his belt with the right hand, and dig a hole in the side 
 of the bluff to receive his right foot. With great presence
 
 168 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clarke 
 
 of mind he did this, and then raised himself on his knees. 
 Captain Lewis then told him to take off his moccasins, and 
 come forward on his hands and knees, holding the knife 
 in one hand and his rifle in the other. He immediately 
 crawled in this way till he came to a secure spot. The 
 men who had not attempted this passage were ordered to 
 return, and wade the river at the foot of the bluff, where 
 they found the water breast-high. 
 
 This adventure taught them the danger of crossing the 
 slippery heights of the river; but, as the plains were inter- 
 sected by deep ravines almost as difficult to pass, they con- 
 tinued down the stream, sometimes in the mud of the low 
 grounds, sometimes up to their arms in water, and, when 
 it became too deep to wade, they cut footholds with their 
 knives in the sides of the banks. In this way they trav- 
 elled through the rain, mud, and water, and, having made 
 only eighteen miles during the whole day, encamped in an 
 old Indian lodge of sticks, which afforded them a dry shelter. 
 Here they cooked part of six deer they had killed in the 
 course of the route, and, having eaten the only morsel they 
 had tasted during the whole day, slept comfortably on 
 some willow-boughs. 
 
 [A few days afterwards, Captain Lewis reached the Falls of the 
 Missouri, which he eloquently describes.] 
 
 To the southwest [says the journalist] there arose from 
 this plain two mountains of a singular appearance, and 
 more like ramparts of high fortifications than works of 
 nature. They are square figures, with sides rising per- 
 pendicularly to the height of two hundred and fifty feet, 
 formed of yellow clay, and the tops seemed to be level 
 plains. Finding that the river here bore considerably to 
 the south, and fearful of passing the falls before reaching 
 the Eocky Mountains, they now changed their course to
 
 Clakke] THE GREAT FALLS OF THE MISSOURI. 169 
 
 the south, and, leaving those insulated hills to the right, 
 proceeded across the plain. 
 
 In this direction Captain Lewis had gone about two 
 miles, when his ears were saluted with the agreeable 
 sound of a fall of water; and, as he advanced, a spray, 
 which seemed driven by the southwest wind, arose above 
 the plain like a column of smoke, and vanished in an in- 
 stant. Towards this point he directed his steps, and the 
 noise, increasing as he approached, soon became too tre- 
 mendous to be mistaken for anything but the Great Falls 
 of the Missouri. 
 
 Having travelled seven miles after first hearing the 
 sound, he reached the Falls about twelve o'clock. The 
 hills, as he approached, were difficult of access, and two 
 hundred feet high; down these he hurried with impatience, 
 and, seating himself on some rocks under the centre of 
 the Falls, enjoyed the sublime spectacle of this stupendous 
 object, which since the creation had been lavishing its 
 magnificence upon the desert, unknown to civilization. 
 
 The river, immediately at its cascade, is three hundred 
 yards wide, and is pressed by a perpendicular cliff on the 
 left, which rises to about one hundred feet, and extends up 
 the stream for a mile ; on the right the bluff is also perpen- 
 dicular for three hundred yards above the fall. For ninety 
 or a hundred feet from the left cliff the water falls in one 
 smooth, even sheet over a precipice of at least eighty feet. 
 The remaining part of the river precipitates itself with a 
 more rapid current, and, being received as it falls by the 
 irregular and somewhat projecting rocks below, forms a 
 splendid spectacle of perfectly white foam, two hundred 
 yards in length and eighty in perpendicular elevation. 
 This spray is dissipated into a thousand shapes, sometimes 
 flying up in columns of fifteen or twenty feet, which are 
 then oppressed by larger masses of the white foam, on all 
 
 H 15
 
 17 () HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clarkb 
 
 which the sun impresses the brightest colors of the rain- 
 bow. 
 
 Below the fall the water beats with fury against a 
 leo>e of rocks, which extends across the river at one hun- 
 dred and fifty yards from the precipice. From the. per- 
 pendicular cliff on the north to the distance of one hundred 
 and twenty yards the rocks are only a few feet above the 
 water, and, when the river is high, the stream finds a 
 channel across them forty yards wide, and near the higher 
 parts of the ledge, which rise about twenty feet, and ter- 
 minate abruptly within eighty or ninety yards of the 
 southern side. Between them and the perpendicular cliff 
 on the south the whole body of water runs with great 
 
 swiftness. 
 
 A few small cedars grow near this ridge of rocks, which 
 serves as a barrier to defend a small plain of about three 
 acres, shaded with cottonwood; at the lower extremity of 
 which is a grove of the same trees, where are several 
 Indian cabins of sticks; below which the river is divided 
 by a large rock, several feet above the surface of the water, 
 and extending down the stream for twenty yards. At the 
 distance of three hundred yards from the same ridge is a 
 second abutment of solid perpendicular rock, about sixty 
 feet high, projecting at right angles from the small plain 
 on the north for one hundred and thirty-four yards into 
 the river. After leaving this the Missouri again spreads 
 itself to its previous breadth of three hundred yards, 
 though with more than its ordinary rapidity. . . . 
 
 June U-— This morning one of the men was sent to Cap- 
 tain Clarke with an account of the discovery of the Falls ; 
 and after employing the rest in preserving the meat which 
 bad' been killed yesterday, Captain Lewis proceeded to ex- 
 amine the rapids above. From the Falls he directed his 
 course southwest up the river. After passing one con-
 
 Clarke] THE GREAT FALLS OF THE MISSOURI. 171 
 
 tinued rapid and three cascades, each three or four feet 
 high, he reached, at a distance of five miles, a second fall. 
 The river is here about four hundred yards wide, and for 
 the distance of three hundred rushes down to the depth 
 of nineteen feet, and so irregularly that he gave it the 
 name of the Crooked Falls. From the southern shore it ex- 
 tends obliquely upward about one hundred and fifty yards, 
 and then forms an acute angle downward nearly to the 
 commencement of four small islands close to the northern 
 side. From the perpendicular pitch to these islands, a dis- 
 tance of more than one hundred yards, the water glides 
 down a sloping rock with a velocity almost equal to that 
 of its fall ; above this fall the river bends suddenly to the 
 northward. 
 
 "While viewing this place, Captain Lewis heard a loud 
 roar above him, and, crossing the point of a hill a few 
 hundred yards, he saw one of the most beautiful objects in 
 nature : the whole Missouri is suddenly stopped by one 
 shelving rock, which, without a single niche, and with an 
 edge as straight and regular as if formed by art, stretches 
 itself from one side of the river to the other for at least a 
 quarter of a mile. Over this it precipitates itself in an 
 even, uninterrupted sheet, to the perpendicular depth of 
 fifty feet, whence, dashing against the rocky bottom, it 
 rushes rapidly down, leaving behind it a sheet of purest 
 foam across the river. The scene which it presented was 
 indeed singularly beautiful ; since, without any of the wild, 
 irregular sublimity of the lower falls, it combined all the 
 regular elegancies which the fancy of a painter would 
 select to form a beautiful w r aterfall. 
 
 The eye had scarcely been regaled with this charming 
 prospect, when, at the distance of half a mile, Captain 
 Lewis observed another of a similar kind. To this he im- 
 mediately hastened, and found a cascade stretching across
 
 172 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Clarke 
 
 the whole river for a quarter of a mile, with a descent of 
 fourteen feet, though the perpendicular pitch was only six 
 feet. This, too, in any other neighborhood, would have 
 been an object of great magnificence ; but after what he 
 had just seen, it became of secondary interest ; his curi- 
 osity being, however, awakened, he determined to go on, 
 even should night overtake him, to the head of the falls. 
 He therefore pursued the southwest course of the river, 
 which was one constant succession of rapids and small cas- 
 cades, at every one of which the bluffs grew lower, or the 
 bed of the river became more on a level with the plains. 
 At the distance of two and a half miles he arrived at 
 another cataract of twenty-six feet. The river is here six 
 hundred yards wide, but the descent is not immediately 
 perpendicular, though the river falls generally in a regular 
 and smooth sheet ; for about one-third of the descent a rock 
 protrudes to a small distance, receives the water in its pas- 
 sage, and gives it a curve. 
 
 On the south side is a beautiful plain, a few feet above 
 the level of the falls ; on the north the country is more 
 broken, and there is a hill not far from the river. Just 
 below the falls is a little island in the middle of the river 
 well covered with timber. Here, on a cottonwood-tree, an 
 eagle had fixed her nest, and seemed the undisputed mis- 
 tress of a spot to contest whose dominion neither man nor 
 beast would venture across the gulfs that surround it, and 
 which is further secured by the mist rising from the Falls. 
 This solitary bird could not escape the observation of the 
 Indians, who made the eagle's nest a part of their descrip- 
 tion of the Falls, and which now proves to be correct in 
 almost every particular, except that they did not do justice 
 to their height. Just above this is a cascade of about five 
 feet, beyond which, as far as could be discerned, the velocity 
 of the water seemed to abate.
 
 Clarke] THE GREAT FALLS OF THE MISSOURI. 173 
 
 Captain Lewis now ascended the hill which was behind 
 him, and saw from its top a delightful plain, extending 
 from the river to the base of the Snowy Mountains to the 
 south and southwest. Along this wide, level country the 
 Missouri pursued its winding course, filled with water to 
 its smooth, grassy banks, while about four miles above it 
 was joined by a large river flowing from the northwest, 
 through a valley three miles in width, and distinguished by 
 the timber which adorned its shores. The Missouri itself 
 stretches to the south in one unruffled stream of water, 
 as if unconscious of the roughness it must soon encounter, 
 and bearing on its bosom vast flocks of geese, while numer- 
 ous herds of buffaloes are feeding on the plains which sur- 
 round it. 
 
 Captain Lewis then descended the hill, and directed his 
 course towards the river, falling in from the west. He 
 soon met a herd of at least a thousand buffaloes, and, being 
 desirous of providing for supper, shot one of them. The 
 animal immediately began to bleed, and Captain Lewis, 
 who had forgotten to reload his rifle, was intently watch- 
 ing to see him fall, when he beheld a large brown bear 
 which was stealing on him unperceived, and was already 
 within twenty steps. In the first moment of surprise he 
 lifted his rifle, but remembering instantly that it was not 
 charged, and that he had no time to reload, he felt there 
 was no safety but in flight. It was in the open, level 
 plain ; not a bush nor a tree within three hundred yards, 
 the bank of the river sloping, and not more than three 
 feet high, so that there was no possible mode of conceal- 
 ment. 
 
 Captain Lewis therefore thought of retreating with a 
 quick walk, as fast as the bear advanced, towards the near- 
 est tree ; but as soon as he turned, the bear rushed open- 
 mouthed and at full speed upon him. Captain Lewis ran 
 
 15*
 
 17 4 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Watson 
 
 about eighty yards, but finding that the animal gained on 
 him fast, it flashed on his mind that by getting into the 
 water to such a depth that the bear would be obliged to 
 attack him swimming, there was still some chance for 
 his life ; he therefore turned short, plunged into the river 
 about waist-deep, and, facing about, presented the point of 
 his spontoon. The bear arrived at the water's edge within 
 twenty feet of him ; but as soon as he put himself in this 
 posture of defence he seemed frightened, and, wheeling 
 about, retreated with as much precipitation as he had ad- 
 vanced. 
 
 Very glad to be released from his danger, Captain Lewis 
 returned to the shore, and observed him run with great 
 speed, sometimes looking back, as if he expected to be pur- 
 sued, till he reached the woods. He could not conceive 
 the cause of the sudden alarm of the bear, but congratu- 
 lated himself on his escape, when he saw his own track 
 torn to pieces by the furious animal ; and he learned from 
 the whole adventure never to suffer his rifle to be for a 
 moment unloaded. 
 
 HUNTING SCENES IN THE CANADIAN WOODS. 
 
 B. A. WATSON. 
 
 [As the literature of travel necessarily includes the deeds of the 
 hunter in the haunts of wild animals, we have included among our 
 selections a number of hunting scenes in different countries. The 
 following incidents from a hunter's experience are from a popular 
 work of sporting life, Watson's " The Sportsman's Paradise, or the 
 Lake Land of Canada. " The following is an exciting story of a deer- 
 hunt on a Canadian lake ] 
 
 The forenoon of the next day, October 7, was spent in 
 trout-fishing, grouse-shooting, and exploring the surround-
 
 Watson] HUNTING SCENES IN CANADIAN WOODS. 175 
 
 ing country. The captain conducted me about half a milo 
 up the side of a steep hill, which had its base on Long 
 Lake, to another lake situated at the top of this hill or 
 mountain. While I recognize the fact that all mountain 
 lakes occupy different planes or levels, some higher and 
 some lower, still it seemed very unusual to climb the face 
 of a steep hill, commencing at one lake, and find another 
 just where you had expected to reach the hill-top. This 
 lake was nearly round, and probably somewhat less than 
 one-half mile in diameter. We saw during our morning 
 peregrinations many old moose-tracks, and also many spots 
 in the woods where these animals had browsed ; while a 
 few of these moose indications were certainly of recent 
 origin. 
 
 The captain thought it wise to tarry in our present camp 
 several days, to kill deer and dry the venison, in order that 
 we might have a supply of meat while engaged in moose- 
 hunting, independent of that which we might be able to 
 kill during this period. 
 
 We had unanimously agreed that it was inexpedient to 
 take dogs with us on the moose-chase. In this particular 
 our experience fully confirmed the wisdom of our con- 
 clusion. The moose cannot be driven to water by deer- 
 hounds, or any other species of dog with which I am 
 familiar; and, therefore, had we taken these animals with 
 us, they could only have served to announce our presence 
 to the game which we sought, without being able to render 
 any assistance. These facts will become more apparent to 
 the reader when he has read other portions of this book, 
 where the story of the moose- hunt has been told from 
 beginning to end. We are now entering on Nature's 
 grandest preserve, — we find here the " King of the Canadian 
 Forest," alias moose, deer, beaver, black bear, black wolf, 
 speckled and lake trout, duck, ruffled grouse, etc. Here is
 
 176 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Watson 
 
 abundance of sport for the true sportsman. During the 
 morning stroll we saw several beaver-houses which were 
 occupied, and examined a large amount of their fresh work 
 These sights were highly interesting to me, but inasmuch 
 as they have been so frequently described by others I shall 
 
 omit them here. 
 
 It was already after twelve o'clock when we reached our 
 camp The guides prepared our dinner, which was speedily 
 partaken of, and then we got off on a deer-hunt. The 
 captain started into the woods with the dogs. George Boss 
 and I entered a canoe, the former paddling across the lake 
 to a point that commanded a view of a large portion of 
 this water. We then stepped on dry land and there 
 patiently awaited the coming developments. We carefully 
 scanned every visible portion of the lake. An hour passed 
 and still we were watching ; soon a grand splash was heard 
 near the shore on the opposite side of the lake ; the gu.de 
 caught sight of the water which was thrown high into the 
 air, but the head of the deer was scarcely visible to him 
 while the animal was swimming towards us. The deer, 
 which at first swam directly towards us, soon changed his 
 course, and headed towards the foot of the lake. This 
 change brought him plainly into view. A few minutes 
 later the dog was seen running from the woods where the 
 deer broke cover. The head and antlers of our game were 
 visible above the waters of the lake, while he was swimming 
 majestically without fear or even anxiety. We stood nearly 
 half an hour watching the movements of this deer, since 
 we could not safely move lest we should be discovered by 
 the game and give him an opportunity to return to his 
 
 forest home. , 
 
 The reader should remember that this animal took to the 
 water from the shore nearly opposite to the point on which 
 we were standing, that the deer swam almost directly
 
 Watson] HUNTING SCENES IN CANADIAN WOODS. 177 
 
 towards us until he reached the middle of the stream, then 
 turned downward, which gave us, in due time, an opportu- 
 nity to come in unperceived behind him. Patiently we 
 awaited this opportune moment. When it arrived the 
 canoe, which had been drawn up on the shore near us, was 
 quietly shoved out upon the water. Ross gently stepped 
 to the stern with his paddle in hand, steadied our little 
 bark while I entered its bow, where I seated myself and 
 placed my rifle by my right side. Ross carefully pushed 
 the little craft from its moorings, placed himself on his knees 
 in that part of the canoe which properly trimmed it, and 
 silently plied his paddle. 
 
 The little canoe moved noiselessly but rapidly forward, 
 every stroke of the paddle bringing us nearer to the game. 
 There was another paddle lying near my hand ; I seized it 
 and gave a helping hand, greatly increasing the speed. 
 Forward, forward we went! We were unperceived, al- 
 though within ten rods of a beautiful buck, which was 
 swimming in the middle of the lake directly before us. 
 My paddle was changed for my rifle. Nearer, still nearer 
 we approached. The rifle was raised ; the bead was drawn, 
 just below the base of the animal's skull. We were six 
 rods distant from the deer. A little puff of white smoke 
 covered the bow of our boat ; the crack of the rifle was 
 heard, and the lifeless body of the deer floated on the 
 water, which was slightly tinged with blood. 
 
 Thus ended this chase. The carcass was towed to shore 
 in front of our camp, and the captain met us there, hav- 
 ing returned from the woods, where he had gone to start 
 the dogs. The dog which followed the buck I had just 
 shot was also now in our camp, but the other was still 
 absent. 
 
 Nearly two hours had elapsed since the buck was shot. 
 There were now on the shore, in front of our camp, the cap- 
 i. — m
 
 178 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Watson 
 
 tain, George Boss, and myself, while Mildenberger had gone 
 back into the forest in search of ruffled grouse. Suddenly 
 the captain sprang from the rock on which he had been 
 seated, placed his right hand on his forehead in such a 
 position as to shade his eyes, while he leaned slightly for- 
 ward and gazed steadily out over the surface of the lake a 
 few seconds without uttering a single word. This position 
 was one I had frequently seen him assume. I therefore 
 recognized the fact that he had sighted game, or was at 
 least swayed by this thought, and now endeavored to solve 
 the question. 
 
 Thus he had stood for a few seconds, when he simply ex- 
 claimed, " A deer in the lake /" and instantly sprang forward 
 to the canoe. I had followed him closely with rifle in 
 hand, expecting to make the chase with him ; he quickly 
 pushed the frail bark into the water and hastily said, 
 " Doctor, let George go with me in the canoe ; it will be a 
 hard chase ; we will drive the deer to you." 
 
 A few seconds later the canoe was in the water, the cap- 
 tain in the bow, and George Ross in the stern, each on their 
 knees with a paddle in their hands. The little birch bark 
 was rushing rapidly forward, propelled by the power of 
 four strong muscular arms. The sight is a grand one, and 
 called to mind the impetuous charge of a squadron of cav- 
 alry in war times. The captain is most determined and 
 energetic when in the pursuit of game ; like the grandest 
 charger in the squadron, he is bound to take the lead, while 
 the others can only follow. 
 
 I had seated myself on a rock, soon after the departure 
 of the guides, to watch the deer, whose head was visible to 
 me in my position, although fully a mile away. I could 
 not, however, at so great a distance determine whether 
 the animal possessed antlers or not ; but the leisurely man- 
 ner in which it was swimming satisfied me its pursuers were
 
 Watson] HUNTING SCENES IN CANADIAN WOODS. 179 
 
 undiscovered until they had made at least three-fourths of 
 the whole distance. The animal, when first discovered, 
 was nearly opposite to our camp and within a few rods of 
 the farther shore. The guides, in order to succeed in the 
 accomplishment of their purpose, were compelled to make 
 a considerable detour to the rear of the animal, and finally 
 come up between it and the shore. Fortunately for us, 
 they had remained for a considerable time undiscovered, 
 and the animal, in the mean time, was gradually leaving the 
 shore while swimming down the lake. 
 
 The moment came, however, when the pursuers were 
 discovered, and the deer then made the most frantic efforts. 
 I could see it spring forward with all its power, raising its 
 head high in the air with each grand effort, but the guides 
 are pulling stronger than before on their paddles. They 
 seem, when viewed from my position, to be only a few rods 
 in the rear of the animal, but the deer is heading for the 
 shore, and seems about ready to bound into the forest. It 
 is now evident to me that the chase can only last a few 
 seconds. 
 
 I sprang from my seat ; I recalled the fact that the guides 
 had no gun in the boat ; I realized that if they had one they 
 could now easily kill the animal ; they were almost on it. 
 An instant later and the canoe is seen between the deer and the 
 shore. A loud shout is heard from the guides ; they wave 
 their hats; tbey are victorious, and the disappointed deer 
 now turns and swims towards the middle of the lake. Its 
 grandest effort has been made ; fatigue and disappointment 
 slow down its movements. 
 
 It was now an easy task for the guides to direct the ani- 
 mal to any point on the lake. The canoe was kept in the 
 rear, and when it was brought forward towards the right 
 of the deer it would cause the animal to oblique to the left 
 and vice versa. In this manner they proceeded to cross the
 
 18 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Watson 
 
 lake, bringing the doe in front of the rock on which I was 
 seated ; but while she was still about six hundred yards 
 away they called on me to take a shot. 1 demurred against 
 their request, inasmuch as the portion of the animal now 
 visible did not much exceed the dimensions of a pint cup. 
 The first ball fired fell short about fifty yards, and then 
 ricochetted nearly across the lake. Another shot was fired 
 with no better result, and thus I continued for several 
 minutes, but not without making some improvement. The 
 shots were pronounced by the guides to be accurate, so far 
 as the line of the target was concerned, but the balls stdl 
 fell short of the mark. 
 
 The photographer, who was absent in the woods when I 
 commenced firing, now made his appearance, and, seizing 
 the Winchester rifle, began to compete with me. He was 
 able to fire two shots with the repeater while I could fire 
 one from the breech-loading Ballard. The contest between 
 us was now very lively, and we succeeded in persuading 
 the guides to bring the game nearer to us, so that the ani- 
 mal was not more than one hundred yards from the muz- 
 zles of our rifles. The bullets now fell in very close prox- 
 ity to the doe's head ; none were more than four or five 
 inches from its centre. Six or eight shots have been fired 
 with this degree of accuracy, when I send in one that 
 breaks the skin over the base of the animal's skull. She 
 dodges her head downward, but quickly brings it up again, 
 whe°n a shot from Mildenberger ends this trial of skill. The 
 guides shout aloud and lustily cheer the photographer, 
 who proudly puts down his rifle and wipes the perspiration 
 from his brow. 
 
 [The author proceeds to give a series of interesting accounts of moose- 
 hunts, somewhat too extended for the space we can give him. We shall 
 therefore close with an amusing incident, in which " Jim," one of the 
 guides, and his dog were the acting characters.]
 
 Watson] HUNTING SCENES IN CANADIAN WOODS. 181 
 
 The clouds have begun to disappear, the bright rays of 
 sunshine are now lighting up our pathway, while the gen- 
 tle zephyrs are moving the foliage of the forest-trees. The 
 prospects of a fine day's sport are brightening at this mo- 
 ment. " Jim" exclaims, " We will have a good day of it 
 yet!" while at the same time a partridge rises at the road- 
 side, an event which is announced to us by the barking of 
 the cocker-spaniel. This dog had taken his position at the 
 foot of a small tree, the branches of which even overhung 
 the roadway, and here continued to bark lustily, thus 
 keeping the attention of the bird until the lad sent up his 
 compliments, which she promptly acknowledged by tum- 
 bling to the ground. 
 
 The killing of this bird gave rise to a highly ludicrous 
 scene, which I fully appreciated at the time, and which I 
 can never readily forget. Jim had previously told me that 
 the old cocker-spaniel had a very bad habit, and would 
 " mouth" the birds whenever he could get hold of them, 
 while he entirely disregarded the order to " bring dead 
 bird." The owner of this dog had, likewise, informed me 
 that the animal had never received any training, but natu- 
 rally hunted very well, and was a good " treer." The in- 
 stant the lad fired at this bird, Jim sprang into the woods 
 with the alacrity of a hound, in order to grab the falling 
 partridge before the old cocker could get hold of him. 
 
 The cocker, however, succeeded in getting the best of 
 Jim, grabbed the bird in his mouth, and started off at full 
 speed, while the guide followed hirn on the jump, as a fox- 
 hound might follow a hare, shouting, with every bound, 
 " Stop ! stop ! drop it ! drop it !" until the woods became 
 fairly resonant with these sounds. A few seconds later 
 the dog emerged from the woods, still clinging to the bird, 
 closely followed by the irate guide, who still yelled as 
 though his life depended on this effort. 
 
 10
 
 182 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Watson 
 
 Here the old dog made the fatal mistake which finally 
 cost him the prize he had attempted to steal. He started 
 down the road as rapidly as he could run, but Jim steadily 
 gained ground on him. Jim was wearing on this occasion 
 a pair of heavy leather brogans, which contained in the 
 soles about fifty steel spikes. These shoes, in fact, were 
 procured by him while he was engaged in that occupation 
 commonly designated as " river-driving," and these spikes 
 were intended to nail him firmly to the floating logs, and 
 thus prevent accident or injur}' from slipping. The road 
 on which this race between the old cocker and our guide 
 took place was nearly a mass of rocks, generally flat on the 
 upper surface, which formed the road-bed, although they 
 possessed many irregularities of surface, size, etc. The 
 moment the guide and dog emerged from the woods and 
 started off on this road, they were in full view of both my 
 son and myself. The sparks eliminated by the contact of 
 the spikes in Jim's brogans with the rocks in his pathway 
 lighted up his trail, and added greatly to the ludicrousness 
 of the scene. The race may be fairly said to have been nip 
 and tuck, but the guide was slowly gaining on the cocker. 
 
 They had run about ten rods when Jim's brogans were 
 in close proximity to the old dog's tail. It seemed highly 
 probable at this moment that the guide's spiked shoes 
 would be used as a petard for the destruction of the fugi- 
 tive thief; but no, he has determined to capture him alive. 
 
 Behold them at this moment ! Jim has dropped, with 
 the intention of seizing the old rascal with his hands. The 
 old dog — as if anticipating this movement — has suddenly 
 jumped to one side, and instantly turned to retrace his 
 steps. Jim struck the ground with a heavy thud, but was 
 neither killed nor severely injured by this manoeuvre. The 
 dog, however, in the mean time, had been rapidly gaining 
 on the guide, and was well started on the homeward
 
 Watson] HUNTING SCENES IN CANADIAN WOODS. 183 
 
 stretch. He occasionally turned his head, in order to 
 catch a glimpse of his pursuer, but he did not halt, nor 
 even slacken his pace. 
 
 Jim was soon on his feet again, but not until the dog had 
 secured a good start. The guide was maddened by failure, 
 and resumed the race with a fierce determination to win. 
 Every second shortened the distance between the contest- 
 ants when Jim had fairly succeeded in getting under way. 
 The old dog seemed to fully comprehend the gravity of the 
 situation, and occasionally turned his head for the purpose 
 of discovering and estimating his danger. He had passed 
 safely one-half of the home-stretch, but was at this moment 
 compelled to drop the bird from hrs mouth. Jim was at 
 this moment close upon the dog's heels, but he heeded not 
 the dead bird, and was evidently determined to punish the 
 thief. The old cocker showed at this time unmistakable 
 signs of exhaustion and fear, and was unquestionably re- 
 pentant. Jim's brogans were once more at the dog's caudal 
 extremity, when he suddenly dodged aside and endeavored 
 to reach the cover of the woods ; but he was too completely 
 exhausted to accomplish this object. He dropped to the 
 ground and looked imploringly into Jim's eyes for mercy ; 
 but Jim heeded not the imploring looks and cringing atti- 
 tude of the old rascal. He had him by the nape of the 
 neck, and promptly administered the well-merited punish- 
 ment. The old dog fairly yelled with pain, and Jim yelled 
 back to him, " Steal the boy's bird, will you ? I will teach 
 you honesty 1 I will, you old rascal !" 
 
 The whole scene had been watched by the boy and mj''- 
 self. The comical part played by the actors can be more 
 easily imagined than described. It caused peal after peal 
 of laughter from the boy and myself. The boy finally 
 dropped down upon the ground before the race ended, 
 having been so convulsed with laughter as to be unable to
 
 184 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Watson 
 
 stand erect, while I only remained standing until the race 
 ended, and then followed my son's example. Jim having 
 administered the necessary chastisement to the dog, like- 
 wise sought rest on the bosom of mother-earth, while the 
 old cocker, after having sulked a few moments in the 
 woods, came sneakingly out and cautiously approached 
 the contestant in the race, licked affectionately his hand, 
 and then looked imploringly up into his eyes. The dog 
 having thus humbly acknowledged the justice of the pun- 
 ishment which had been inflicted on him, was then freely 
 forgiven by Jim, who patted him affectionately on the head 
 
 and back. 
 
 Thus there was perfect harmony between the guide and 
 the spaniel. The dog immediately reclined at Jim's side, 
 placed his head affectionately on his master, having as- 
 sumed a position which enabled him to look wistfully into 
 the latter's face. Our little mongrel dog had not remained 
 entirely inactive during these exciting events. In the race 
 he participated, though falling far behind both actors; 
 nevertheless he barked and wagged his tail continuously, 
 thus showing the joy and interest which he felt in this part 
 of the proceedings, although when the chastisement com- 
 menced he drew his tail between his legs, suddenly disap- 
 peared in the woods, and only reappeared after the lapse 
 of an hour. 
 
 [Shortly after they started again the hoy hrought down another 
 hird, whose presence had heen announced by the cocker-spaniel.] 
 
 The old dog made no attempt on this occasion to secure 
 the bird when it fell to the ground, but, on the contrary, 
 did not move from the spot where he was standing, and 
 allowed the guide to approach quietly the dead bird and to 
 pocket the same. In fact, it may be stated that we had no 
 further trouble with this dog during the remainder of the
 
 Bryant] THE GRAND FALLS OF LABRADOR. 1S5 
 
 hunt. He had previously shown much affection for Jim ; 
 but after the chase and the chastisement which he received 
 he was certainly doubly affectionate towards his master. 
 He had always hunted faithfully for us, but during the 
 balance of the day he seemed to be more than usually 
 active, aud found many birds by the roadside. 
 
 THE GRAND FALLS OF LABRADOR. 
 
 HENRY G. BRYANT. 
 
 [The discovery of America has not yet heen completed. Certainly 
 that of its Canadian section has not been. There are wide districts of 
 that great area on which human foot has never been set, and as late 
 as 1895 we were advised of the discovery of a great river, with its 
 head-waters near those of the Ottawa, but previously unsuspected. 
 Labrador has been but little traversed, and the Grand Falls had only 
 been seen by two white men previously to Mr. Bryant's visit in the 
 summer of 1891. "What we know of it, and of the course of the 
 Grand, or Hamilton Kiver, we owe chiefly to him, since the only 
 earlier account is the imperfect one given by John McLean, describing 
 his visit in 1839. The enterprise was not an easy one, as will appear 
 from the description of the hardships of the journey. The party con- 
 sisted of Mr. Bryant, of Philadelphia, Professor Kenaston, of Wash- 
 ington, John Montague, a young Scotchman, and Geoffrey Ban, an 
 Eskimo, the last two hailing from Labrador. These four had to drag 
 a heavy boat against a swift current for many miles up the stream, in 
 the manner described below.] 
 
 The usual method employed was what is technically 
 known as "tracking." That is, a strong rope, about the 
 thickness of a clothes-line, was tied to the gunwale of the 
 boat just aft of the bow. To the shore end of this broad 
 leather straps were attached. With these across their 
 shoulders, three of the party tugged away along the rocky 
 bank, while number four of our crew, with an oar lashed 
 
 1G*
 
 186 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brtakt 
 
 in the stern, steered a devious course among the rocks and 
 shallows of the river. The "tow-path" in this instance 
 was of the roughest and most diversified character. Sandy 
 terraces and extended reaches covered with glacial boul- 
 ders characterized the lower portion of the river, while 
 farther up-stream great numbers of smaller boulders, in- 
 securely lodged on the precipitous sandy banks, would 
 baffle us by the precarious footing they afforded. Where 
 a combination of this "rubble" and a troublesome rapid 
 occurred, it was only by the most violent exertion and no 
 end of slipping and sliding that the tension of the tow-line 
 could be maintained on the treacherous ground. Then, 
 again, stretches of steep rocky bank, where no tracking 
 was possible, would often compel us to scale the rugged 
 cliffs and pass the line from one to another over various 
 obstacles. Wading through the water was frequently the 
 only resource. This was always the case when we reached 
 a place in the river where the spring freshets had under- 
 mined the banks, and where numbers of trees, stumps, and 
 underbrush littered the shore, forming chevaux-de-frise of 
 the most formidable character. 
 
 The long daylight of midsummer in this subarctic region 
 was a point in our favor, enabling us to work to the limit 
 of our strength. Here, indeed, we found that "Night and 
 day hold each other's hands upon the hill-tops. . . . No 
 sooner does the sun set north by west, than, like a giant 
 refreshed, it rises again north by east." 
 
 [At times they had to drag the hoat up rapids, at times to unload 
 and transport it and its contents around falls by difficult portages. 
 Through much of the course the stream ran at about eight miles an 
 hour, but many rapids added to this speed.] 
 
 Judged by ordinary standards of travel, our advance up 
 the river was slow indeed ; but to those who are familiar
 
 Bryant] THE GRAND FALLS OF LABRADOR. 187 
 
 with canoe transportation on Canadian rivers, I am sure 
 our progress will appear respectable, when the unwieldy- 
 character of our boat is taken into consideration. There 
 seems to be something positively personal and vindictive 
 in the resistance which rapids make to a traveller's ad- 
 vance into a wild and mountainous country. There was, 
 accordingly, a cumulative feeling of satisfaction as one 
 after another of these barriers of nature's making were 
 surmounted. In the swollen condition of the river, the 
 struggle with these wild rapids was often as savage and 
 exhilarating as one could desire. John and myself usually 
 took the lead on the tow-line, Geoffrey busying himself 
 with keeping the line clear of snags, while to Professor 
 Kenaston was assigned the steersman's part. Bending to 
 their work, the linemen would clamber along the bank, 
 dragging the slowly yielding mass up-stream. Ofttimes 
 the force of the current would carry out the boat far into 
 mid-stream, until the full length of line would be ex- 
 hausted. We could do nothing then but hang on like grim 
 death and watch our craft toss and roll amid the billows, 
 until, like a spirited horse, gradually yielding to the strain, 
 she would turn her head shoreward. Professor Kenaston, 
 meanwhile, with tense muscles, bending to the steering-oar, 
 skilfully guided his charge amid the encompassing rocks 
 and eddies, — the only quiet figure on the surging flood of 
 the river. . . . 
 
 Looking back on these days spent along the river, I 
 recall how each one was filled with incident and how all 
 were stimulated by the uncertainty of what lay before us. 
 It is the experience of many that, in recalling travels of 
 this kind, the pleasant features of the time are remembered 
 with more distinctness than the trying ones. So in the 
 retrospect of this journey, many of the incidents, unpleas- 
 ant at the time, are softened by time's perspective, while
 
 188 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bryant 
 
 the bright ones stand out in bolder relief and recur to the 
 memory with pleasure. One awkward adventure, however, 
 which occurred on the first day on the Mouni Eapids, I 
 have not yet succeeded in relegating to the realm of forget- 
 fulness. We were approaching a rocky point, similar to 
 many others we had encountered, past which the water 
 dashed with angry violence. It was our custom, on reach- 
 ing such a place, to first detach the canoe, and then to shove 
 out the boat obliquely from the still water, to allow her 
 bow to fairly meet the swifter current. On this occasion, 
 while Montague and I, facing up-stream, were waiting 
 on the bank above for the signal to advance, the boat, 
 through some carelessness, was pushed out from the quiet 
 eddy squarely into the swift water. The full force of the 
 torrent struck her abeam, and away she swept down- 
 stream like a thing possessed. Taken unawares, no time 
 was given to throw off the leather straps from our shoul- 
 ders, and instantly we were thrown from our feet and 
 dragged over the rocks into the river by the merciless 
 strength of the flood. Most fortunately for me, the circu- 
 lar strap slipped over my head as I was being dragged 
 through the water. Montague's also released itself, and 
 the runaway sped down-stream a quarter of a mile before 
 stopping. On clambering up the bank I found Montague 
 stunned and bleeding from a scalp wound. Aside from 
 some abrasions of the skin, I was none the worse for the 
 shaking up, and after a brief delay Montague revived, and 
 we resumed our " tow-path" exercise. 
 
 [The climate did not prove as severe as was expected, the tempera- 
 ture being just low enough to be exhilarating and bracing. Game and 
 fish were abundant, and two black bears were killed by the party.] 
 
 The declining sun of August 20 beheld our small craft 
 glide into the smooth waters of Lake Wanakopow. The
 
 Bryant] THE GRAND FALLS OF LABRADOR. 189 
 
 first view of the lake was beautiful, and most grateful to 
 our eyes after the long struggle with the rapids. Even 
 Geoffrey and John, usually indifferent to scenic effects, 
 could not conceal their admiration as we glided by tower- 
 ing cliffs and wooded headlands, and beheld at intervals 
 cascades leaping from the rocks into the lake, their silvery 
 outlines glistening in the sun and contrasting distinctly 
 with the environment of dark evergreen foliage. This 
 romantic sheet of water stretches in a northeasterly and 
 southwesterly direction a distance of about thirty-five 
 miles, and has an elevation above sea-level, according to 
 my aneroid observations, of four hundred and sixty-two 
 feet. Low mountains of granite and gneiss rise on both 
 sides, and the average width of the lake is less than one 
 mile. A sounding taken near the middle showed a depth 
 of four hundred and six feet. This narrow elevated basin 
 is probably of glacial origin, the presence of great numbers 
 of boulders and the rounded appearance of the hill sum- 
 mits pointing to a period of ice movement. 
 
 [They finally reached a point beyond the previously stated location 
 of the falls, and on August 27 attained the head of boat navigation 
 in a wide, shallow rapid.] 
 
 While at the Northwest River Post we had learned from 
 a reliable Indian that the old trail, long disused, led from 
 this point on the river to a chain of lakes on the table-land. 
 By following these lakes and crossing the intervening 
 "carries," the rapid water which extends for fifteen miles 
 below the Falls could be circumvented, and the traveller 
 brought finally to the waters of the Grand River, many 
 miles above the Grand Falls. Our plan was to follow this 
 old trail for several days, and then to leave the canoe 
 and strike across country in a direction which we hoped 
 would bring us again to the river in the vicinity of the Falls.
 
 190 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bryant 
 
 It was deemed best to follow this circuitous canoe route 
 rather than to attempt to follow the banks of the river on 
 foot, in which case everything would have to be carried on 
 our backs through dense forests for many miles. 
 
 After a long search the old trail was found, and, leaving 
 Geoffrey in charge of the main camp on the river, the other 
 members of the party took the canoe and a week's pro- 
 visions, and began the ascent of the steep path which led. 
 up to the edge of the elevated plateau, which here ap- 
 proaches the river. Making a " carry" of three miles to 
 the north along the old trail, we reached the first of the 
 chain of lakes, where we erected a rude shelter and camped 
 for the night. A violent storm arose during the night, and 
 next day we lost much time in seeking for the continua- 
 tion of the trail on the opposite side of the lake. Having 
 been disused for twenty-seven years, the path, where it 
 came out on the lake-shore, was distinguished by no 
 " blazes" on the trees, or recent choppings. This necessi- 
 tated a careful examination of the shores on all the lakes, 
 and caused considerable delay. 
 
 We were now on the great table-land of the Labrador 
 interior, and, wishing to get a good outlook, climbed a 
 conspicuous hill near by to scan the adjacent country. 
 A view truly strange and impressive was before us. As 
 far as the eye could reach extended an undulating country, 
 sparsely covered with stunted spruce-trees, among which 
 great weather-worn rocks gleamed, while on all sides 
 white patches of caribou moss gave a snowy effect to the 
 scene. A hundred shallow lakes reflected the fleeting 
 clouds above, their banks lined with boulders, and present- 
 ing a labyrinth of channels and island passages. Low 
 hills arose at intervals among the bogs and lakes, but the 
 general effect of the landscape was that of flatness and 
 bleak monotony.
 
 Bryant] THE GRAND FALLS OF LABRADOR. 191 
 
 The continuation of the old Nascopie trail remaining in- 
 visible, to escape the discomfort of another rainy night 
 on the plateau we returned to the shelter of the camp on 
 the river. On August 30 we returned to Geoffrey Lake, 
 where our patient search for the trail was at last suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 Next day we advanced along the trail, which led us over 
 four " carries" and across five lakes. For convenience of 
 reference, we applied names to some of these small sheets 
 of water. Thus, the third one of the chain was designated 
 " Gentian Lake," from finding the closed variety of the 
 blue gentian growing on its borders. The next day we 
 turned aside from the dim trail and paddled to the north- 
 western extremity of the sixth lake, where we drew the 
 canoe ashore and prepared for the tramp across country. 
 Arrayed in heavy marching order, and carrying nearly all 
 that remained of our provisions, we were soon advancing 
 westward on a course which we hoped would soon bring 
 us to the river in the vicinity of the Palls. The country 
 we were now passing through was of the most desolate 
 character, denuded of trees and the surface covered with 
 caribou moss, Labrador tea plants, blueberry-bushes, and 
 thousands of boulders. By keeping to the ridges fair 
 progress was made ; but when compelled to leave the higher 
 ground and skirt the borders of the lakes, dense thickets 
 of alders and willows were encountered, and these greatly 
 impeded our advance. Language seems inadequate to 
 describe the desolation of this upland landscape. No living 
 thing was encountered, and the silence of primordial time 
 reigned supreme. 
 
 Just before sunset we went into camp on a hill-side near 
 a large lake, and soon after, from the top of a high rock, 
 beheld a great column of mist rising like smoke against 
 the western sky. This we knew marked the position of
 
 192 
 
 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bryant 
 
 the Falls, and, needless to say, our spirits rose— oblivious 
 of our bleak surroundings— as we contemplated the near 
 attainment of our journey's end. During the night the 
 thermometer registered a minimum temperature of forty- 
 one degrees, and we were treated to a superb display of 
 Northern Lights. 
 
 September 2 was a day memorable as marking the date 
 of our arrival at the Grand Falls. A rough march over 
 the rocks and bogs intervened, however, before we reached 
 this goal. As we approached the river, spruce- forests of a 
 heavier growth appeared, and, pressing on through these, 
 although we could no longer see the overhanging mist, the 
 deep roar of falling waters was borne to our ears with 
 growing distinctness. After what seemed an intolerable 
 length of time— so great was our eagerness— a space of 
 light in the trees ahead made known the presence of the 
 river. Quickening our steps, we pushed on, and with beat- 
 ing hearts emerged from the forest near the spot where 
 the river plunged into the chasm with a deafening roar. 
 
 A single glance showed us that we had before us one of the 
 
 greatest waterfalls in the world. Standing at the rocky 
 
 brink of the chasm, a wild and tumultuous scene lay before 
 
 us, a scene possessing elements of sublimity and with 
 
 details not to be apprehended in the first moments of 
 
 wondering contemplation. Far up-stream one beheld the 
 
 surging, fleecy waters and tempestuous billows, dashing 
 
 high their crests of foam, all forced onward with resistless 
 
 power towards the steep rock, whence they took their wild 
 
 leap into the deep pool below. Turning to the very brink 
 
 and looking over, we gazed into a world of mists and mighty 
 
 reverberations. Here the exquisite colors of the rainbow 
 
 fascinated the eye, and majestic sounds of falling waters 
 
 continued the ptean of the ages. Below and beyond the 
 
 seething caldron the river appeared, pursuing its turbulent
 
 Bryant] THE GRAND FALLS OF LABRADOR. 193 
 
 career, past frowning cliffs and over miles of rapids, where 
 it heard "no sound save its own dashings." The babel of 
 waters made conversation a matter of difficulty, and after a 
 mute exchange of congratulations, we turned our attention 
 to examining the river in detail above and below the Falls. 
 
 A mile above the main leap the river is a noble stream 
 four hundred yards wide, already flowing at an accelerated 
 speed. Four rapids, marking successive depressions in the 
 river-bed, intervene between this point and the Falls. At 
 the first rapid the width of the stream is not more than one 
 hundred and seventy-five yards, and from thence rapidly 
 contracts until reaching a point above the escarpment 
 proper, where the entire column of fleecy water is com- 
 pressed within rocky banks not more than fifty yards apart. 
 
 Here the effect of resistless power is extremely fine. 
 The maddened waters, sweeping downward with terrific 
 force, rise in great surging billows high above the encom- 
 passing banks ere they finally hurl themselves into the gulf 
 below. A great pillar of mist rises from the spot, and 
 numerous rainbows span the watery abyss, constantly 
 forming and disappearing amid the clouds of spray. An 
 immense volume of water precipitates itself over the 
 rocky ledge, and under favorable conditions the roar of the 
 cataract can be heard for twenty miles. Below the Falls, 
 the river turning to the southeast, pursues its maddened 
 career for twenty-five miles shut in by vertical cliffs of 
 gneissic rock, which rises in places to a height of four hun- 
 dred feet. The rocky banks above and below the Falls aro 
 thickly wooded with firs and spruces, among which the 
 graceful form of the white birch appears in places. 
 
 [The Falls were photographed from several points of view, and care- 
 fully measured, the vertical descent proving to be over three hundred 
 feet, while the chute or rapid at their head made a farther descent of 
 thirty-two feet.] 
 
 I.— I n 17
 
 19 4 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bbyant 
 
 The deep, incessant roar of the cataract that night was 
 our lullaby as, stretched out under a rough " barricade," 
 we glided into that realm of forgetfulness where even sur- 
 roundings strange as ours counted as naught. 
 
 By the morning light we again viewed the wonders of 
 the place, and sought for some sign of the presence of bird 
 or animal in the vicinity ; but not a track or the glint of a 
 bird's wing rewarded our quest, and this avoidance of the 
 place by the wild creatures of the forest seemed to add a 
 new element of severity to the eternal loneliness of the 
 
 spot. 
 
 The Grand Falls of Labrador, with their grim environ- 
 ment of time-worn, archaic rocks, are one of the scenic 
 wonders of this Western world, and if nearer civilization, 
 would be visited by thousands of travellers every year. 
 They are nearly twice as high as Niagara, and are only 
 inferior to that marvellous cataract in breadth and volume 
 of water. One of their most striking characteristics is the 
 astonishing leap into space which the torrent makes in dis- 
 charging itself over its rocky barrier. From the descrip- 
 tion given of the rapid drop in the river-bed and concident 
 narrowing of the channel, one can easily understand that 
 the cumulative energy expended in this final leap of the 
 pent-up waters is truly titanic. 
 
 If a substratum of softer rock existed here, as at Ni- 
 agara, a similar " Cave of the Winds" would enable one to 
 penetrate a considerable distance beneath the fall. The 
 uniform structure of the rock, however, prevents any un- 
 equal disintegration, and thus the overarching sheet of 
 water covers a nearly perpendicular wall, the base of which 
 is washed by the waters of the lower river. In spite of 
 the fact that no creature, except one with wings, could 
 hope to penetrate this subaqueous chamber, the place is 
 inhabited, if we are to believe the traditions of the Lab-
 
 Brtant] THE GRAND FALLS OF LABRADOR. 195 
 
 rador Indians. Many years ago, so runs the tale, two 
 Indian maidens, gathering firewood near the Falls, were 
 enticed to the brink and drawn over by the evil spirit of 
 the place. During the long years since then, these unfor- 
 tunates have been condemned to dwell beneath the fall 
 and forced to toil daily dressing deer-skins ; until now, no 
 longer young and beautiful, they can be seen betimes 
 through the mist, trailing their white hair behind them 
 and stretching out shrivelled arms towards any mortal who 
 ventures to visit the confines of their mystic dwelling- 
 place. 
 
 The Indian name for the Grand Falls — Pat-ses-che-wan 
 — means 'The Narrow Place where the Water Falls." 
 Like the native word Niagara, — "Thunder of Waters," — 
 this Indian designation contains a poetic and descriptive 
 quality which it would be hard to improve. 
 
 From the point where the river leaves the plateau and 
 plunges into the deep pool below the Falls, its course for 
 fifteen miles is through one of the most remarkable cafions 
 in the world. From the appearance of the sides of this 
 gorge, and the zigzag line of the river, the indications are 
 that the stream has slowly forced its way through this 
 rocky chasm, cutting its way back, foot by foot, from the 
 edge of the plateau to the present position of the Falls. 
 Kecent investigators estimate that a period of six thousand 
 years was required to form the gorge below Niagara Falls ; 
 or, in other words, that it has taken that time for the Falls 
 to recede from their former position at Qucenstown Heights 
 to their present location. If it has taken this length of 
 time for the Niagara Falls to make their way back a dis- 
 tance of seven miles by the erosive power of the water 
 acting on a soft shale rock supporting a stratum of lime- 
 stone, the immensity of time involved by assuming that 
 the Grand River canon was formed in the same way is so
 
 19 6 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Parry 
 
 great that the mind falters in contemplating it, especially 
 when it is recognized that the escarpment of the Labrador 
 Falls is of hard gueissic rock. And yet no other explana- 
 tion of the origin of this gorge is acceptable, unless, indeed, 
 we can assume that at some former time a fissure occurred 
 in the earth's crust as a result of igneous agencies, and 
 that this fissure ran in a line identical with the present I 
 course of the river; in which case the drainage of the 
 table-land, collecting into the Grand Eiver, would follow 
 the line of least resistance, and in the course of time ex- 
 cavate the fissure into the present proportions of the gorge. 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY. 
 
 rThe attempt to find a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific, hy which commerce might make its way round the continent 
 of North America, occupied the attention of navigators from the voy- 
 age of Henry Hudson, in 1610, to that of McClure, in 1850 ; the lat- 
 ter proving that such a passage existed, hut that it was impracticable 
 for commerce. Among those engaged in this enterprise one of the 
 most notable was Captain Parry, from whose interesting journal of Ins 
 vovage (1821-25) the following selection is taken, descriptive of expe- 
 riences at Gore Bay, where the ships of the expedition had lam all 
 winter in the ice.] 
 
 On the 2d of April a thin sheet of bay-ice several miles 
 square had formed on the sea to the eastward and south- 
 ward, where for two or three days past there bad been a 
 space of open water. This was occasioned more by the 
 wind remaining very moderate and the neap tides occur- 
 ring about this time than from any great degree of cold, 
 the thermometer seldom falling below —6° or —7°. The
 
 Parry] LIFE AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. 197 
 
 wind, however, settling in the southeast to-day, the main 
 body of ice, which had been scarcely visible in the offing, 
 soon began to move inshore, forcing before it the young 
 floe and squeezing it up into innumerable hummocks, 
 which presently, being cemented together by a fresh for- 
 mation in their interstices, constituted an example of one of 
 the ways in which these " hummocky floes" are produced, 
 of which I have before so often had occasion to speak. 
 We were always glad to see this squeezing process take 
 place while the ice was still thin enough to admit of it, as 
 it thus became compressed perhaps into one-fiftieth part of 
 the compass that it would otherwise have occupied, and 
 of course left so much the more open space upon the surface 
 of the sea. The temperature of the water at the bottom 
 in eight fathoms was to-day 28°, being the same as that of 
 the surface. 
 
 Early in the morning tho Esquimaux had been observed 
 in motion at the huts, and several sledges drawn by dogs 
 and heavily laden went off to the westward. On going out 
 to the village, we found one-half of the people had quitted 
 their late habitations, taking with them every article of 
 their property, and had gone over the ice, we knew not 
 where, in quest of more abundant food. The wretched 
 appearance which the interior of the huts now presented 
 baffles all description. In each of the larger ones some of 
 the apartmonts were either wholly or in part deserted, the 
 very snow which composed the beds and fireplaces having 
 been turned up, so that no article might be left behind. 
 Even the bare walls, whoso original color was scarcely per- 
 ceptible for black, blood, and other filth, were not left per- 
 fect, large holes having been made in the sides and roofs 
 for the convenience of handing out the goods and chattels. 
 The sight of a deserted habitation is at all times calculated 
 to excite in the mind a sensation of dreariness and desola- 
 
 17*
 
 19 8 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Parky 
 
 tion, especially when we have lately seen it filled with 
 cheerful inhabitants ; but the feeling is even heightened 
 rather than diminished when a small portion of these in- 
 habitants remain behind to endure the wretchedness which 
 such a scene exhibits. This was now the case at the vil- 
 lage, where, though the remaining tenants of each hut had 
 combined to occupy one of the apartments, a great part 
 of the bed-places were still bare, with the wind and drift 
 blowing in through the holes which they had not yet taken 
 the trouble to stop up. The old man Hikkeeira and his 
 wife occupied a hut by themselves, without any lamp or a 
 single ounce of meat belonging to them, while three small 
 skins, on which the former was lying, were all that they 
 possessed in the way of blankets. Upon the whole, I 
 never beheld a more miserable spectacle, and it seemed 
 a charity to hope that a violent and constant cough with 
 which the old man was afflicted would speedily combine 
 with his age and infirmities to release him from his present 
 sufferings. Yet in the midst of all this he was even cheer- 
 ful, nor was there a gloomy countenance to be seen at the 
 
 village. 
 
 Almost all the men were out, and some of them had been 
 led so far to sea upon the floating and detached masses of 
 ice in pursuit of walruses that Captain Lyon, who observed 
 their situation from the ships, had it in contemplation, in 
 the course of the evening, to launch one of the small boats 
 to go to their assistance. They seemed, however, to enter- 
 tain no apprehension themselves, from confidence, perhaps, 
 that the southeast wind might be depended upon for keep- 
 ing the ice close home upon the shore. It is certain, not- 
 withstanding, that no degree of precaution, nor any knowl- 
 edge of the winds and tides, can render this otherwise than 
 a most perilous mode of obtaining subsistence; and it was 
 impossible, therefore, not to admire the fearlessness as well
 
 Parry] LIFE AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. 199 
 
 as dexterity with which the Esquimaux invariably pur- 
 sued it. 
 
 Having distributed some bread-dust among the women, 
 we told old Illumea and her daughter Togolat that we 
 proposed taking up our lodging in their hut for the night. 
 It is a remarkable trait in the character of these people tbat 
 they all always thank you heartily for this as well as for 
 eating any of their meat, but both board and lodging may 
 be given to them without receiving the slightest acknowl- 
 edgment either in word or deed. As it was late before the 
 men returned, I asked Togolat to get the rest of the women 
 to perform some of their games, with the hope of seeing 
 something that was new. I had scarcely time to make 
 the proposal when she darted out of the hut and quickly 
 brought every female that was left at the village, not ex- 
 cepting even the oldest of them, who joined in the per- 
 formance with the same alacrity as the rest. I could, how- 
 ever, only persuade them to go through a tedious song we 
 had often before heard, which was now indeed somewhat 
 modified by their insisting on our taking turns in the per- 
 formance, all which did not fail to create among them 
 never-ceasing merriment and laughter. Neither their want 
 of food and fuel, nor the uncertain prospect of obtaining 
 any that night, were sufficient to deprive these poor crea- 
 tures of that cheerfulness and good humor which it seems 
 at all times their peculiar happiness to enjoy. 
 
 The night proved very thick with small snow, and as 
 disagreeable and dangerous for people adrift upon floating 
 ice as can well be imagined. If the women, however, gave 
 their husbands a thought or spoke of them to us, it was 
 only to express a very sincere hope that some good news 
 might shortly arrive of their success. Our singing party 
 had not long been broken up when it was suddenly an- 
 nounced by one of the children, the usual heralds on such
 
 200 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Parry 
 
 occasions, that the men had killed something on the ice. 
 The only two men who were at home instantly scrambled 
 on their outer jackets, harnessed their dogs, and set off to 
 assist their companions in bringing home the game, while 
 the women remained for an hour in anxious suspense as to 
 the extent of their husbands' success. At length one of 
 the men arrived with the positive intelligence of two wal- 
 ruses having been taken, and brought with him a portion 
 of these huge animals as large as he could drag over the 
 snow. 
 
 If the women were only cheerful before, they were now 
 absolutely frantic. A general shout of joy instantly re- 
 echoed through the village; they ran into each other's 
 huts to communicate the welcome intelligence, and actually 
 hugged one another in an ecstasy of delight by way of 
 congratulation. One of them, Arnalooa, a pretty young 
 woman of nineteen or twenty, knowing that a dog belong- 
 ing to her husband was still at the huts, and that there was 
 no man to take him down on the ice, ran out instantly to 
 perform that office ; and, with a hardiness not to be sur- 
 passed by any of the men, returned after two hours' ab- 
 sence, with her load of walrus-flesh, and without even the 
 hood thrown over her head to protect her from the in- 
 clemency of the weather. 
 
 When the first burst of joy had at length subsided, the 
 women crept one by one into the apartment where the first 
 portion of the sea-horses had been conveyed, and which is 
 always that of one of the men immediately concerned in 
 the killing of them. Here they obtained blubber enough 
 to set all their lamps alight, besides a few scraps of meat 
 for their children and themselves. From this time, which 
 was nine o'clock, till past midnight fresh cargoes were con- 
 tinually arriving, the principal part being brought in by 
 the dogs, and the rest by the men, who, tying the thong
 
 Parry] LIFE AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. 201 
 
 which held it round their waist, dragged in each his sepa- 
 rate portion. Before the whole was brought in, however, 
 some of them went out three times to the scene of action, 
 though the distance was a mile and a half. 
 
 Every lamp now swimming with oil, the huts exhibited 
 a blaze of light, and never was there a scene of more joyous 
 festivity than while the operation of cutting up the Aval- 
 ruses continued. I took the opportunity which their pres- 
 ent good humor afforded to obtain a perfect head and tusks 
 of one of these animals, which we had not been able to do 
 before ; and indeed, so much were their hearts opened by 
 the scene of abundance before them, that I believe they 
 would have given us anything we asked for. This dispo- 
 sition was considerably increased, also, by their taking it 
 into their heads that their success was in some way or 
 other connected with, or even owing to, our having taken 
 up our night's lodging at the huts. 
 
 After viewing all this festivity for some time, I felt 
 disposed to rest, and wrapping myself up in my fur coat, 
 laid down on one of the beds which Illumea had given 
 up for our accommodation, as well as her keipik, or large 
 deer-skin blanket, which she had rolled up for my pillow. 
 The poor old woman herself sat up by her lamp, and in 
 that posture seemed perfectly well satisfied to doze away 
 the night. The singularity of my night's lodging made 
 me awake several times, when I always found some of the 
 Esquimaux eating, though after we lay down they kept 
 quiet for fear of disturbing us. Mr. Halse, who was still 
 more wakeful, told me that some of them were incessantly 
 employed in this manner for more than three hours. In- 
 deed, the quantity of meat that they thus contrive to get 
 rid of is almost beyond belief. 
 
 Having at length enjoyed a sound nap, I found on 
 awaking about five o'clock that the men were already up,
 
 202 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Parrt 
 
 and had gone out to resume their labors on the ice, so that 
 several of them could not have rested more than two or 
 three hours. This circumstance served to correct a notion 
 we had entertained, that when once abundantly supplied 
 with food they took no pains to obtain more till want 
 began again to stare them in the face. It was now more 
 pleasing to be assured that, even in the midst of plenty, 
 they did not indolently give themselves up to repose, but - 
 were willing to take advantage of every favorable oppor- 
 tunity of increasing their store. It is certain, indeed, that 
 were these people more provident (or, in other words, less 
 gluttonous, for they do not waste much), they might never 
 know what it is to want provisions, even during the most 
 inclement part of the year. The state of the ice was 
 to-day very unfavorable for their purpose, being broken 
 into pieces so small that they could scarcely venture to 
 
 walk upon it. . . . 
 
 The morning of the 5th proved favorable for a journey 
 I had in contemplation to the distant huts, to which Ilig- 
 liuk, who had come to Winter Island the day before, prom- 
 ised' to be my guide. At six o'clock I set out, accompa- 
 nied by Mr. Bushman and two of the men, carrying with 
 us a supply of bread-dust, besides our own provisions and 
 blankets. As the distance was too great for her son Siout- 
 kuk to walk, we were uncertain till the moment of setting 
 out how this was to be managed, there being no sledge at 
 hand for the purpose. We found, however, that a man, 
 whom we had observed for some time at work among the 
 hummocks of ice upon the beach, had been employed in 
 cutting out of that abundant material a neat and service- 
 able little sledge, hollowed like a bowl or tray out of a 
 solid block, and smoothly rounded at the bottom. The 
 thongs to which the dogs were attached were secured to a 
 groove cut around its upper edge; and the young seal-
 
 Pakrt] LIFE AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. 203 
 
 catcher, seated in this simple vehicle, was dragged along 
 with great convenience and comfort. 
 
 The ice over which we travelled was a level floe that had 
 never suffered disturbance since its first formation in the 
 autumn, and with not more than an inch and a half of 
 snow upon it. The path being distinctly marked out by 
 the people, sledges, and dogs that had before travelled upon 
 it, one might, without any great stretch of the imagina- 
 tion, have almost fancied it a road leading over a level and 
 extensive heath towards a more civilized and substantial 
 village than that which we were now approaching. Ilig- 
 liuk walked as nimbly as the best of us ; and after two 
 hours and a half brisk travelling we arrived at the huts, 
 and were received by the women (for all the men were 
 absent) with every expression of kindness and welcome. 
 Each was desirous of affording us lodging, and we had 
 speedily arranged matters so as to put them to the least 
 possible inconvenience. 
 
 These huts, four in number, were in the mode of their 
 construction exact counterparts of those at Winter Island 
 on our first visit, but, being now new and clean, presented 
 a striking contrast with the latter, in their present disor- 
 dered and filthy state. What gave a peculiarity, as well 
 as beauty also, to the interior appearance of these habita- 
 tions, was their being situated on the ice, which, being 
 cleared of the snow, presented a flooring of that splondid 
 blue which is, perhaps, one of the richest colors that nature 
 affords. A seal or two having been lately procured, every 
 lamp was now blazing, and every ootkooseth smoking with 
 a hot mess which, together with the friendly reception we 
 experienced and a little warmth and fatigue from travel- 
 ling, combined in conveying to our minds an idea of com- 
 fort which we could scarcely believe an Esquimaux hut 
 capable of exciting.
 
 204 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Parry 
 
 On the arrival of the men, who came in towards even- 
 ing, with two seals as the reward of their labor, we were 
 once more greeted and welcomed. Arnaneelia in particular, 
 who was a quiet, obliging, and even amiable, man, was de- 
 lighted to find that my quarters were to be in his apart- 
 ment, where Aneetka, his wife, a young woman of about 
 twenty-three, had already arranged everything for my ac- 
 commodation ; and both these poor people now vied with 
 each other in their attention to my comfort. The other 
 two apartments of the same hut were occupied by Kaoon- 
 gut and Okotook, with their respective wives and families, 
 it being the constant custom of these people thus to unite 
 in family groups whenever the nature of their habitations 
 will allow it. Mr. Bushman being established with Oko- 
 took, and the two men with Kaoongut, we were thus all 
 comfortably lodged under the same roof. . . . 
 
 On the 22d a number of the Esquimaux came to the 
 ships with a sledge, and among the rest my late host Arna- 
 neelia and his wife, the latter having the front of her jacket 
 adorned with numberless strings of beads that we had 
 given ber, arranged with exact uniformity, to which, in 
 the fashion of their dresses and the disposition of their or- 
 naments, these people always rigidly adhere. Aneetka had 
 scarcely reached the cabin when she produced a little ivory 
 comb and a pair of handsome mittens, which she presented 
 to Mr. Edwards, at the same time thanking him for the 
 attention he had shown her on an occasion when she had 
 been taken in a fit alongside the " Fury," from which she 
 was recovered by bleeding. This expression of gratitude, 
 in which she was heartily joined by her husband, was ex- 
 tremely gratifying to us, as it served in some degree to 
 redeem these people in our estimation from the imputa- 
 tion of ingratitude which is indeed one of their greatest 
 failings.
 
 Parry] LIFE AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX. 205 
 
 They stated having seen two reindeer the preceding day 
 going over the ice to the mainland. They spoke of this 
 with great pleasure, and we were ourselves not displeased 
 with the prospect of changing our diet for a little venison. 
 They now became extremely urgent with us for wood to 
 make bows and arrows, most of their own having, with 
 the childishness that accompanied their first barterings, 
 been parted with to our officers and men. Having several 
 broken oars which could be turned to little or no account 
 on board, we were enabled, at a small expense of useful 
 siores, to furnish them very abundantly with wood for this 
 purpose. Arnaneelia also informed us that Okotook, who 
 had been unwell for some days, was now much worse, and 
 heemed, as he described it, to be laboring under a violent 
 pulmonary complaint. On the circumstance being men- 
 tioned to Mr. Skeoch, he kindly volunteered to go to the 
 village, and accordingly took his seat on the sledge, accom- 
 panied also by Mr. Sherer. They carried with them a 
 quantity of bread-dust to be distributed among the Esqui- 
 maux at the huts, their success in seal-catching having 
 lately been indifferent. . . . 
 
 In digging up the piece of ground for our garden, we 
 found an incredible quantity of bones scattered about and 
 concealed under the little soil there was. They were prin- 
 cipally those of walruses and seals, and had evidently been 
 left a long time before by Esquimaux, in the course of 
 their wandering visits to the island, being gradually cov- 
 ered by the vegetable mould formed upon the spot which 
 they helped to fertilize. Afterwards, when the land becamo 
 more clear of snow, this was found to be tho case to a 
 much greater extent, every spot of ground upon the south- 
 east point, which was not absolutely a rock, being covered 
 with these relics. Some graves were also discovered, in 
 one of which were a human skull, apparently a hundred 
 
 18
 
 206 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kane: 
 
 years buried, and some pieces of wood that had probably 
 been parts of spears or arrows almost mouldered to dust. 
 Knowing as we do the antiseptic properties of this climate, 
 animal or vegetable substances in this state of decay convey 
 to the mind an idea of much greater age than they would 
 in any other part of the world. 
 
 [Escape from their winter quarters was not accomplished till the 
 1st of July, they having been for nine months frozen in the ice.] 
 
 FUGITIVES FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS. 
 
 ELISHA KENT KANE. 
 
 [Of all works of travel in the Arctic seas, none have attracted more 
 attention than Dr. Kane's "Arctic Explorations," an attractively 
 written journal of hardship and adventure that had the interest of a 
 romance to most readers. The expedition ended in the enforced aban- 
 donment of the ship and a long boat journey over the ice, in which 
 the adventurers experienced many perils and suffered much from 
 hunger. "We give the concluding incidents of this journey. J 
 
 It was the 18th of July before the aspects of the ice 
 about us gave me hope of progress. We had prepared 
 ourselves for the new encounter with the sea and its trials 
 by laying in a store of lumme [an Arctic bird], two hundred 
 and fifty of which had been duly skinned, spread open, and 
 dried on the rocks as the entremets of our bread-dust and 
 tallow. 
 
 My journal tells of disaster in its record of our setting 
 out. In launching the " Hope" from the frail and perishing 
 ice- wharf on which we found our first refuge from the gale, 
 she was precipitated into the sludge below, carrying away 
 rail and bulwark, losing overboard our best shot-gun, Bon-
 
 Kane] FUGITIVES FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS. 207 
 
 sail's favorite, and, worst of all, that universal favorite, our 
 kettle, — soup-kettle, paste-kettle, tea-kettle, water-kettle, in 
 one. I may mention before I pass that the kettle found its 
 substitute and successor in the remains of a tin can which a 
 good aunt of mine had filled with ginger-nuts two years 
 before, and which had long survived the condiments that 
 once gave it dignity. " Such are the uses of adversity." 
 
 Our descent to the coast followed the margin of the fast 
 ice. After passing the Crimson Cliffs of Sir John Ross it 
 wore almost the dress of a holiday excursion, — a rude one, 
 perhaps, yet truly one in feeling. Our course, except 
 where a protruding glacier interfered with it, was nearly 
 parallel to the shore. The birds along it were rejoicing in 
 the young summer, and when we halted it was upon some 
 green-clothed cape near a stream of water from the ice- 
 fields above. Our sportsman would clamber up the cliffs 
 and come back laden with little auks ; great generous fires 
 of turf, that cost nothing but the toil of gathering, blazed 
 merrily ; and our happy oarsmen, after a long day's work, 
 made easy by the promise ahead, would stretch themselves 
 in the sunshine and dream happily away till called to the 
 morning wash and prayers. We enjoyed it the more, for 
 we all of us knew that it could not last. 
 
 This coast must have been a favorite region at one time 
 with the natives, — a sort of Esquimaux Eden. We seldom 
 encamped without finding the ruins of their habitations, 
 for the most part overgrown with lichens, and exhibiting 
 every mark of antiquity. One of these, in latitude 7G° 
 20', was once, no doubt, an extensive village. Cairns for 
 the safe deposit of meat stood in long lines, six or eight in 
 a group; and the huts, built of large rocks, faced each 
 other, as if disposed on a street or avenue. 
 
 The same reasoning which deduces the subsidence of the 
 coast from the actual base of the Temple of Serapis, proves
 
 208 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kane 
 
 that the depression of the Greenland coast, which I had 
 detected as far north as Upernavik, is also going on up 
 here. Some of these huts were washed by the sea or torn 
 away by the ice that had descended with the tides. The 
 turf, too, a representative of very ancient growth, was cut 
 even with the water's edge, giving sections two feet thick. 
 I had not noticed before such unmistakable evidence of the 
 depression of this coast : its converse elevation I had ob- 
 served to the north of Wostenholme Sound. The axis of 
 oscillation must be somewhere in the neighborhood of 
 latitude 77°. 
 
 We reached Cape York on the 21st, after a tortuous but 
 romantic travel through a misty atmosphere. Here the 
 land-leads ceased, with the exception of some small and 
 scarcely practicable openings near the shore, which were 
 evidently owing to the wind that prevailed for the time. 
 Everything bore proof of the late development of the 
 season. The red snow was a fortnight behind its time. A 
 fast floe extended with numerous tongues far out to the 
 south and east. The only question was between a new 
 rest, for the shore-ices to open, or a desertion of the coast 
 and a trial of the open water to the west. 
 
 [They had at this time hut thirty-six pounds of food per man and 
 fuel enough to last them three weeks.] 
 
 I climbed the rocks a second time with Mr. McGary, 
 and took a careful survey of the ice with my glass. The 
 " fast," as the whalers call the immovable shore-ice, could 
 be seen in a nearly unbroken sweep, passing by Bushnell's 
 Island, and joining the coast not far from where I stood. 
 The outside floes were large, and had evidently been not 
 long broken ; but it cheered my heart to see that there was 
 one well defined lead which followed the main floe until it 
 lost itself to seaward.
 
 Kane] FUGITIVES FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS. 209 
 
 I called my officers together, explained to them the 
 motives which governed me, and prepared to re-embark. 
 The boats were hauled up, examined carefully, and, as far 
 as our means permitted, repaired. The " Red Eric" was 
 stripped of her outfit and cargo, to be broken up for fuel 
 when the occasion should come. A large beacon-cairn was 
 built on an eminence, open to view from the south and west, 
 and a red flannel shirt, spared with some reluctance, was 
 hoisted as a pennant to draw attention to the spot. Here 
 I deposited a succinct record of our condition and purposes, 
 and then directed our course south by west into the ice- 
 fields. 
 
 By degrees the ice through which we were moving be- 
 came more and more impacted, and it sometimes required 
 all our ice-knowledge to determine whether a particular 
 lead was practicable or not. The irregularities of the sur- 
 face, broken by hummocks, and occasionally by larger 
 masses, made it difficult to see far ahead, besides which 
 we were often embarrassed bj r the fogs. I was awakened 
 one evening from a weary sleep in my fox-skins to dis- 
 cover that we had fairly lost our way. The officer at the 
 helm of the leading boat, misled by the irregular shape of 
 a large iceberg that crossed his track, had lost the main 
 lead some time before, and was steering shoreward, far out 
 of the true course. The little canal in which he had locked 
 us was hardly two boats' -lengths across, and lost itself not 
 far off in a feeble zigzag both behind and before us ; it was 
 evidently closing, and we could not retreat. 
 
 Without apprising the men of our misadventure, I or- 
 dered the boats hauled up, and, under pretence of drying 
 the clothing and stores, made a camp on the ice. A few 
 hours after the weather cleared enough for the first time 
 to allow a view of the distance, and McGary and myself 
 climbed a berg some three hundred feet high for the pur- 
 i.— o 18*
 
 210 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kanb 
 
 pose. It was truly fearful ; we were deep in the recesses 
 of the bay, surrounded on all sides by stupendous icebergs 
 and tangled floe-pieces. My sturdy second officer, not nat- 
 urally impressible, and long accustomed to the vicissitudes 
 of whaling life, shed tears at the prospect. 
 
 There was one thing to be done : cost what it might, we 
 must harness our sledges again and retrace our way to the 
 westward. One sledge had been already used for firewood; 
 the " Red Eric," to which it had belonged, was now cut up, 
 and her light cedar planking laid upon the floor of the 
 other boats, and we went to work with the rue-raddies as 
 in the olden time. It was not till the third toilsome day 
 was well spent that we reached the berg that had bewil- 
 dered our helmsman. We hauled over its tongue and joy- 
 ously embarked again upon a free lead, with a fine breeze 
 from the north. 
 
 Our little squadron was now reduced to two boats. The 
 land to the northward was no longer visible, and whenever 
 I left the margin of the fast to avoid its deep sinuosities, I 
 was obliged to trust entirely to the compass. We had at 
 least eight days' allowance of fuel on board ; but our pro- 
 visions were running very low, and we met few birds, and 
 failed to secure any larger game. We saw several large 
 seals upon the ice, but they were too watchful for us; and 
 on two occasions we came upon the walrus sleoping, once 
 within actual lance-thrust; but the animal charged in the 
 teeth of his assailant and made good his retreat. 
 
 On the 28th I instituted a quiet review of the state of 
 things before us. Our draft on the stores we had laid in 
 at Providence Halt had been limited for some days to three 
 raw eggs and two breasts of birds a day, but we had a 
 small ration of bread-dust besides ; and when we halted, as 
 we did regularly for meals, our fuel allowed us to indulge 
 lavishly in the great panacea of Arctic travel, tea. The
 
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 Kane] FUGITIVES FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS. 211 
 
 men's strength was waning under this restricted diet, but 
 a careful reckoning up of our remaining supplies proved 
 to me now that even this was more than we could afford 
 ourselves without an undue reliance on the fortunes of the 
 hunt. Our next land was to be Cape Shackleton, one of 
 the most prolific bird-colonies of the coast, which we were 
 all looking to, much as sailors nearing home in their boats 
 after disaster and short allowance at sea. But, meting out 
 our stores through the number of days that must elapse 
 before we could expect to share its hospitable welcome, I 
 found that five ounces of bread-dust, four of tallow, and 
 three of bird-meat must from this time form our daily 
 ration. 
 
 So far we had generally coasted the fast ice ; it had given 
 us an occasional resting-place and refuge, and we were able 
 sometimes to reinforce our stores of provisions by our guns. 
 But it made our progress tediously slow, and our stock of 
 small shot was so nearly exhausted that I was convinced 
 our safety depended on increase of speed. I determined 
 to try the more open sea. 
 
 For the first two days the experiment was a failure. We 
 were surrounded by heavy fogs; a southwest wind brought 
 the outside pack upon us, and obliged us to haul up on the 
 drifting ice. We were thus carried to the northward, and 
 lost about twenty miles. My party, much overworked, felt 
 despondingly the want of the protection of the land-floes. 
 
 Nevertheless, I held to my purpose, steering south-south- 
 west as nearly as the leads would admit, and looking con- 
 stantly for the thinning out of the pack that hangs around 
 the western water. 
 
 Although the low diet and exposure to wet had again 
 reduced our party, there was no apparent relaxation of 
 energy, and it was not until some days later that I found 
 their strength seriously giving way.
 
 212 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kane 
 
 It is a little curious that the effect of a short allowance 
 of food does not show itself in hunger. The first symp- 
 tom is a loss of power, often so imperceptibly brought on 
 that it becomes evident only by an accident. I well re- 
 member our look of blank amazement as, one day, the 
 order being given to haul the » Hope" over a tongue of ice, 
 we found she would not budge. At first I thought it was 
 owing to the wetness of the snow-covered surface in which 
 her runners were ; but, as there was a heavy gale blowing 
 outside, and I was extremely anxious to get her onto a 
 lai-er floe to prevent being drifted off, I lightened her 
 cargo and set both crews upon her. In the land of prom- 
 ise off Crimson Cliffs such a force would have trundled 
 her like a wheelbarrow: we could almost have borne her 
 upon our backs. Now with incessant labor and standing 
 hauls she moved at a snail's pace. 
 
 The " Faith" was left behind and barely escaped destruc- 
 tion The outside pressure cleft the floe asunder, and we 
 saw our best boat with all our stores drifting rapidly away 
 from us The sight produced an almost hysterical im- 
 pression upon our party. Two days of want of bread, I 
 am sure, would have destroyed us ; and we had now left 
 us but eight pounds of shot in all. To launch the « Hope 
 a-ain, and rescue her comrade or share her fortunes, would 
 have been the instinct of other circumstances ; but it was 
 out of the question now. Happily, before we had time to 
 ponder our loss a flat cake of ice eddied round near the 
 floe we were upon; McGary and myself sprang to it at 
 the moment, and succeeded in floating it across the chasm 
 in time to secure her. The rest of the crew rejoined her 
 only by scrambling over the crushed ice as we brought her 
 in at the hummock-lines. 
 
 Things grew worse and worse with us ; the old difficulty 
 of breathing came back again, and our feet swelled to such
 
 Kane] FUGITIVES FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS. 213 
 
 an extent that we were obliged to cut open our canvas 
 boots. But the symptom which gave me most uneasiness 
 was our inability to sleep. A form of low fever which 
 hung by us when at work had been kept down by the 
 thoroughness of our daily rest; all my hopes of escape 
 were in the refreshing influences of the halt. 
 
 It must be remembered that we were now in the open 
 bay, in the full line of the great ice-drift to the Atlantic, 
 and in boats so frail and unseaworthy as to require con- 
 stant baling to keep them afloat. 
 
 It was at this crisis of our fortunes that we saw a large 
 seal floating — as is the custom of these animals — on a 
 small patch of ice, and seemingly asleep. It was an ussuk, 
 and so large that I at first mistook it for a walrus. Signal 
 was made for the " Hope" to follow astern, and, trembling 
 with anxiety, we prepared to crawl down upon him. 
 
 Petersen, with the large English rifle, was stationed in 
 the bow, and stockings were drawn over the oars as 
 mufflers. As we neared the animal our excitement became 
 so intense that the men could hardry keep stroke. I had 
 a set of signals for such occasions which spared us the 
 noise of the voice ; and when about three hundred yards 
 off the oars were taken in, and we moved in deep silence 
 with a single scull astern. 
 
 He was not asleep, for he reared his head Avhen we were 
 almost within rifle-shot ; and to this day I can remember 
 the hard, careworn, almost despairing expression of the 
 men's thin faces as they saw him move; their lives 
 depended on his capture. 
 
 I depressed my hand nervously, as a signal for Petersen 
 to fire. McGary hung upon his oar, and the boat, slowly 
 but noiselessly sagging ahead, seemed to me within certain 
 range. Looking at Petersen, I saw that the poor fellow 
 was paralyzed by his anxiety, trying vainly to obtain a
 
 214 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kane 
 
 rest for his gun against the cut- water of the boat. The 
 seal rose on his fore-flippers, gazed at us for a moment with 
 frightened curiosity, and coiled himself for a plunge. At 
 that instant, simultaneously with the crack of our rifle, he 
 relaxed his long length on the ice, and, at the very brink 
 of the water, his head fell helpless to one side. 
 
 I would have ordered another shot, but no discipline 
 could have controlled the men. With a wild yell, each 
 vociferating according to his own impulse, the} 7- urged both 
 boats upon the floes. A crowd of hands seized the seal 
 and bore him up to safer ice. The men seemed half crazy ; 
 I had not realized how much we were reduced by absolute 
 famine. They ran over the floe crying and laughing and 
 brandishing their knives. It was not five minutes before 
 every man was sucking his bloody fingers or mouthing 
 long strips of raw blubber. 
 
 Not an ounce of this seal was lost. The intestines found 
 their way into the soup-kettles without any observances of 
 the preliminary home processes. The cartilaginous parts 
 of the fore-flippers were cut of in the melee and passed 
 round to be chewed upon ; and even the liver, warm and 
 raw as it was, bade fair to be eaten before it had seen the 
 pot. That night, on the large halting floe, to which, in 
 contempt of the dangers of drifting, we happy men had 
 hauled our boats, two entire planks of the " Red Eric" were 
 devoted to a grand cooking-fire, and we enjoyed a rare and 
 savage feast. 
 
 This was our last experience of the disagreeable effects 
 of hunger. In the words of George Stephenson, "The 
 charm was broken, and the dogs were safe." The dogs I 
 have said little about, for none of us liked to think of them. 
 The poor creatures Toodla and Whitey had been taken 
 with us as last resources against starvation. They were, 
 as McGary worded it, " meat on the hoof," and " able to
 
 Kane] FUGITIVES FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS. 215 
 
 carry their own fat over the floes." Once, near Weary 
 Man's Rest, I had been on the point of killing them ; but 
 they had been the leaders of our winter's team, and we 
 could not bear the sacrifice. 
 
 I need not detail our journey any farther. Within a day 
 or two we shot another seal, and from that time forward 
 had a full supply of food. . . . Two days after this, a mist 
 had settled down upon the islands which embayed us, and 
 when it lifted we found ourselves rowing in lazy time, 
 under the shadow of Karkamoot. Just then a familiar 
 sound came to us over the water. We had often listened 
 to the screeching of the gulls or the bark of the fox and 
 mistaken it for the "Huk" of the Esquimaux, but this had 
 about it an inflection not to be mistaken, for it died away 
 in the familiar cadence of an "halloo." 
 
 " Listen, Petersen ! Oars, men !" " What is it ?" and he 
 listened quietly at first, and then, trembling, said in a half- 
 whisper, "Dannemarkers!" 
 
 I remember this, the first tone of Christian voice which 
 had greeted our return to the world. How we all stood 
 up and peered into the distant nooks ; and how the cry 
 came to us again, just as, having seen nothing, we were 
 doubting whether the whole was not a dream ; and then 
 how, with long sweeps, the white ash cracking under the 
 spring of the rowers, we stood for the cape that the sound 
 proceeded from, and how nervously we scanned the green 
 spots which our experience, grown now into instinct, told 
 us would be the likely camping-ground of wayfarers. 
 
 By and by — for we must have been pulling a good half- 
 hour — the single mast of a small shallop showed itself; 
 and Petersen, who had been very quiet and grave, burst 
 into an incoherent fit of crying, only relieved by broken 
 exclamations of mingled Danish and English. "'Tis the 
 Upernavik oil-boat! The 'Fraulein Flaischer!' Carlie
 
 216 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Schley 
 
 Mossyn, tbe assistant cooper, must be on his road to Kin- 
 gatok for blubber. The ' Mariane' (the one annual ship) 
 
 has come, and Carlie Mossyn " and here he did it all 
 
 over again, gulping down his words and wringing his 
 
 hands. 
 
 It was Carlie Mossyn, sure enough. The quiet routine 
 of a Danish settlement is the same year after year, and 
 Petersen had hit upon the exact state of things. The 
 " Mariane" was at Proven, and Carlie Mossyn had come 
 up in the " Fraulein Flaischer" to get the year's supply of 
 blubber from Kingatok. 
 
 RESCUED FROM DEATH. 
 
 W. S. SCHLEY. 
 
 [In the whole history of Arctic exploration there is no story more 
 replete with the elements of tragedy than that of Lieutenant A. W. 
 Greely and his hrave companions. Sailing to the far north in 1881 on 
 a scientific expedition, misfortune overtook the party, largely due to 
 the failure of the relief expeditions of 1882 and 1883 to reach them. 
 The imperilled navigators left their vessel and made their way down 
 the coast, suffering terribly from cold and hunger, and were in the 
 throes of starvation when finally rescued by the relief expedition of 
 1884. Many of them had already died, and but a perishing remnant 
 was left when they were at length discovered in their final place of 
 refuge. The story of their discovery and rescue, as told by Commander 
 W. S. Schley and Professor J. R. Soley, in their " Rescue of Greely," 
 is tragically dramatic, and we make it the subject of our present selec- 
 tion. The relief vessels, the " Thetis" and the " Bear," examining the 
 coast in the vicinity of Cape York, found that there was no trace of 
 the sufferers at Littleton Island. Thence they made their way to 
 Brevoprt Island, near Cape Sabine, and from there sent out four 
 parties to examine the coast in different directions.] 
 
 It was intended that, as soon as a satisfactory exam- 
 ination had been made and a depot landed, the ships should
 
 Schley] RESCUED FROM DEATH. 217 
 
 advance without delay into Kane Sea. There was no ex- 
 pectation of finding that any one had been at the cape, or 
 that the cairns or caches had been disturbed, as it was clear 
 that if Greely had arrived he would have been short of pro- 
 visions, and would therefore have sought to obtain those at 
 Littleton Island ; and nobody could have imagined for a 
 moment that with prospective starvation on one side of the 
 strait, and a provision depot (although a small one) twenty- 
 three miles off on the other, a party supplied with a boat 
 and oars would have preferred the former alternative. In 
 fact, at the time the cutter started, the crew of the " Bear" 
 were getting provisions on deck, to be in readiness for the 
 sledge journey that was to be made northward, after the 
 ships were stopped by the fast ice. As the cutter left the 
 ship, Colwell picked up a can of hard-tack and two one- 
 pound cans of pemmican, as he thought that his party 
 might be out all night, and a little of something to eat 
 would not go amiss. 
 
 Within half an hour after the first parties had left the 
 ship cheers were heard above the roaring of the wind. 
 At first it was impossible to tell from what quarter the 
 sound proceeded, but soon the cheering was heard a second 
 time more distinctly, in the direction of Brevoort Island. 
 Almost immediately after, Ensign Harlow was observed 
 signalling from Stalknecht Island. His message read, 
 " Have found Greely's record ; send five men." 
 
 Before this request could be carried out, Yewell was seen 
 running over the ice towards the ships, and a few minutes 
 later he came on board, almost out of breath, with the in- 
 formation that Lieutenant Taunt had found a message 
 from Greely in the cairn on Brevoort Island. Yewell 
 brought the papers with him, and called out, as he gave 
 them to the officer of the deck, that Greely's party were at 
 Cape Sabine, all well. The excitement of the moment was 
 k 19
 
 218 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Schley 
 
 intense, and it spread with the rapidity of lightning through 
 both the ships. It was decided instantly to go on to the 
 Cape, and a general recall was sounded by three long blasts 
 from the steam- whistle of the " Thetis." 
 
 The first thing to be done before taking definite action 
 was to go carefully over the papers that Taunt had found. 
 All the officers who had remained behind in the two ships 
 gathered around the wardroom table of the "Thetis," and 
 the records were hurriedly read aloud. As one paper after 
 another was quickly turned over, until the last was reached, 
 it was discovered with horror that the latest date borne by 
 any of them was October 21, 1883, and that but forty days' 
 complete rations were left to live upon. Eight months had 
 elapsed since then, and the belief was almost irresistible 
 that the whole party must have perished during this ter- 
 rible period of waiting and watching for relief. . . . 
 
 It was a wonderful story. It told how the expedition, 
 during its two years at Lady Franklin Bay, had marked 
 out the interior of Grinnell Land, and how Lockwood had 
 followed the northern shore of Greenland, and had re- 
 claimed for America the honor of " the farthest north." 
 But there was no time now to think of what the expe- 
 dition had accomplished; that was already a matter of 
 history. The pressing question was, Where was Greely'a 
 party now? and to that question it was too probable that 
 there was but one answer. 
 
 The records had named the wreck-cache as the site of 
 Greely's camp, and preparations were made at once to go 
 there. The cutter, with Colwell and his party on board, 
 had not yet got away, having been stopped by the cries 
 from the shore, and she now steamed back under the stern 
 of the " Thetis." Colwell was directed to go to the site of 
 the cache and look for the explorers ; and if any were alive, 
 —of which the record gave little hope— to tell them that
 
 Schley] RESCUED FROM DEATH. 219 
 
 relief was close at hand. As he "was about to leave, he 
 called out for a boat-flag, and one was thrown to him from 
 the ship. This was bent on a boat-hook and set up in the 
 stern of the boat. 
 
 Before the cutter had disappeared to the northward the 
 commander of the expedition had gone on board the 
 " Bear," and the ship was under wa} 7 , following the track 
 of the cutter around the cape. The detachment under 
 Harlow, which had found Greely's scientific recoi'ds and 
 instruments on Stalknecht Island, and the other party 
 under Melville, some of whom had not yet returned, were 
 to come after in the " Thetis," w T hich was left behind to 
 pick them up. The passage which the ships and the cut- 
 ter were to make was about six miles, although from Payer 
 Harbor to the wreck-cache, in a straight line, across the 
 rugged neck of intervening land, it was less than half that 
 distance. Fortunately, the southerly gale had set the ice 
 off shore into Kane Sea, leaving a clear passage around for 
 the vessels. 
 
 It was half-past eight o'clock in the evening as the cut- 
 ter steamed around the rocky bluff of Cape Sabine and 
 made her way to the cove, four miles farther on, which 
 Colwell remembered so well from his hurried landing with 
 the stores on the terrible night following the wreck of the 
 " Proteus." The storm, which had been raging with only 
 slight intervals since earby the day before, still kept up, 
 and the wind was driving in bitter gusts through the open- 
 ings in the ridge that followed the coast to the westward. 
 Although the sky was overcast, it was broad daylight, — 
 the daylight of a dull winter afternoon, — and as the cutter 
 passed along, Colwell could recognize the familiar land- 
 marks of the year before ; the long sweep of the rocky 
 coast, with its ice-foot spanning every cove, the snow gath- 
 ered in the crevices, the projecting headlands, and the line
 
 220 
 
 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Schley 
 
 of the ice-pack which had ground up the "Proteus," dimly 
 seen in the mists to the north, across the tossing waters of 
 Kane Sea. At last the boat arrived at the site of the 
 wreck-cache, and the shore was eagerly scanned, but noth- 
 ing could be seen. Bounding the next point, the cutter 
 opened out the cove beyond. There, on the top of a little 
 ridge, fifty or sixty yards above the ice-foot, was plainly 
 outlined the figure of a man. Instantly the coxswain 
 caught up the boat-hook and waved his flag. The man on 
 the ridge had seen them, for he stooped, picked up a signal- 
 flag from the rock, and waved it in reply. Then he was 
 seen coming slowly and cautiously down the steep rocky 
 slope. Twice he fell down before he reached the foot. As 
 he approached, still walking feebly and with difficulty, 
 Colwell hailed him from the bow of the boat. 
 " Who all are there left ?" 
 " Seven left." 
 
 As the cutter struck the ice, Colwell jumped off and went 
 up to him. He was a ghastly sight. His cheeks were hol- 
 low, his eyes wild, his hair and beard long and matted. 
 His army blouse, covering several thicknesses of shirts and 
 jackets, was ragged and dirty. He wore a little fur cap 
 and rough moccasins of untanned leather tied around the 
 leg. As he spoke, his utterance was thick and mumbling, 
 and in his agitation his jaws worked in convulsive twitches. 
 As the two met, the man, with a sudden impulse, took off 
 his glove and shook Colwell's hand. 
 
 " Where are they ?" asked Colwell, briefly. 
 "In the tent," said the man, pointing over his shoulder; 
 " over the hill ; the tent is down." 
 "Is Mr. Greely alive?" 
 " Yes, Greely's alive." 
 " Any other officers ?" 
 " No." Then he repeated, absently, " The tent is down."
 
 Schley] RESCUED FROM DEATH. 221 
 
 " Who are you ?" 
 
 "Long." 
 
 Before this colloquy was over Lowe and Norman had 
 started up the hill. Hastily filling his pockets with bread, 
 and taking the two cans of pemmican, Colwell told the cox- 
 swain to take Long into the cutter, and started after the 
 others with Ash. Beaching the crest of the ridge, and 
 looking southward, they saw spread out before them a des- 
 olate expanse of rocky ground, sloping gradually from a 
 ridge on the east to the ice-covered shore, which at the 
 west made in and formed a cove. Back of the level space 
 was a range of hills rising up eight hundred feet, with a 
 precipitous face, broken in two by a gorge, through which 
 the wind was blowing furiously. On a little elevation 
 directly in front was the tent. Hurrying on across the in- 
 tervening hollow, Colwell came up with Lowe and Norman 
 just as they were greeting a soldierly-looking man who 
 had come out from the tent. 
 
 As Colwell approached, Norman was saying to the man, — 
 
 "There is the lieutenant." 
 
 And he added to Colwell, — 
 
 " This is Sergeant Brainard." 
 
 Brainard immediately drew himself up to the position 
 of the soldier, and was about to salute when Colwell took 
 his hand. 
 
 At this moment there was a confused murmur within the 
 tent, and a voice said, — 
 
 "Who's there?" 
 
 Norman answered, " It's Norman, — Norman who was 
 in the < Proteus.' " 
 
 This was followed by cries of " Oh, it's Norman !" and a 
 sound like a feeble cheer. 
 
 Meanwhile, one of the relief party, who in his agitation 
 and excitement was crying like a child, was down on his 
 
 19*
 
 222 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Schley 
 
 hands and knees trying to roll away the stones that held 
 down the flapping tent cloth. The tent was a " tepik," or 
 wigwam tent, with a fly attached. The fly, with its posts 
 and ridge-pole, had been wrecked by the gale which had 
 been blowing for thirty-six hours, and the pole of the tepik 
 was toppling over, and only kept in place by the guy-ropes. 
 There was no entrance except under the flap opening, 
 which was held down by stones. Colwell called for a knife, 
 cut a slit in the tent-cover, and looked in. 
 
 It was a sight of horror. On one side, close to the open- 
 ing, with his head towards the outside, lay what was 
 apparently a dead man. His jaw had dropped, his eyes 
 were open, but fixed and glassy, his limbs were motionless. 
 On the opposite was a poor fellow, alive to be sure, but 
 without hands or feet, and with a spoon tied to the stump 
 of his right arm. Two others seated on the ground, in the 
 middle, had just got down a rubber bottle that hung on the 
 tent-pole, and were pouring from it into a tin can. Directly 
 opposite, on his hands and knees, was a dark man with a 
 long matted beard, in a dirty and tattered dressing-gown, 
 with a little red skull cap on his head, and brilliant staring 
 eyes. As Colwell appeared, he raised himself a little, and 
 put on a pair of eye-glasses. 
 
 " Who are you ?" asked Colwell. 
 
 The man made no answer, staring at him vacantly. 
 
 " Who are you ?" again. 
 
 One of the men spoke up : " That's the major, — Major 
 Greely." 
 
 Colwell crawled in and took him by the hand, saying to 
 him, " Greely, is this you?" 
 
 " Yes," said Greely in a faint broken voice, hesitating 
 and shuffling with his words, "yes — seven of us left — here 
 we are — dying — like men. Did what I came to do — beat 
 the best record."
 
 Schley] RESCUED FROM DEATH. 223 
 
 Then he fell back exhausted. 
 
 The four men in the tent with Greely were two sergeants, 
 Elison and Fredericks ; Bierderbick, the hospital steward ; 
 and Private Connell, who, with Brainard and Long, were 
 all that remained of the twenty-five members of the Lady 
 Franklin Bay Expedition. The scene, as Colwell looked 
 around, was one of misery and squalor. The rocky floor 
 was covered with cast-off clothes, and among them were 
 huddled together the sleeping-bags in which the party had 
 spent most of their time during the last few months. 
 There was no food left in the tent but two or three cans 
 of a thin, repulsive-looking jelly, made by boiling strips cut 
 from the seal-skin clothing. The bottle on the tent-pole 
 still held a few teaspoonfuls of brandy, but it was their 
 last, and they were sharing it as Colwell entered; it was 
 evident that most of them had not long to live. . . . 
 
 As soon as Colwell understood the condition of affairs, he 
 sent Chief-Engineer Lowe back to the cutter to put off to 
 the " Bear" with Long, to report what had happened, and 
 bring off the others with the surgeon and stimulants. 
 Fredericks and Bierderbick presently got up and came out. 
 Colwell gave them, as well as Greely and Elison, a little of 
 the biscuit he had in his pocket, which they munched 
 slowly and deliberately. Then he gave them another bit, 
 while Norman opened one of the cans of pemmican. 
 Scraping off a little with a knife, Colwell fed them slowly 
 by turns. It was a pitiable sight. They could not stand 
 up and had dropped down on their knees, and held out 
 their hands begging for more. After they had each been 
 fed twice, they were told that they had had enough, that 
 they could not eat more then without danger; but their 
 hunger bad now come back with full force, and they begged 
 piteously to be helped again, protesting that it could do 
 them no harm. Colwell was wisely deaf to their entreaties
 
 224 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Schley 
 
 and threw away the can. When Greely found that he was 
 refused he took out a can of the boiled seal-skin, which had 
 been carefully husbanded, and which he said he had a 
 right to eat, as it was his own. This was taken away 
 from him, but while Colwell was at work trying to raise 
 the tent, some one got the half-emptied can of pemmican, 
 and by the time it was discovered had eaten its contents. 
 
 The weaker ones were like children, petulant, rambling 
 and fitful in their talk, absent, and sometimes a little in- 
 coherent. While they were waiting for the return of the 
 boat, Colwell and the ice-masters did their best to cheer 
 them up by telling them that relief was at hand, and that 
 the others would soon arrive. They could not realize it, 
 and refused to believe it. So they were humored, and by 
 way of taking up their thoughts, Colwell told them some- 
 thing of what had been going on in the world during their 
 three years of exile. Curiously enough, there was much 
 that they knew already. It turned out that among the 
 stores from the « Proteus" were two boxes of lemons, and the 
 fruit had been wrapped up in scraps of English newspapers, 
 —"those lemons which your dear wife put up for us, as 
 one of them said to Colwell in a moment of wandering 
 fancy The latter could only disclaim the imaginary ob- 
 ligation to an imaginary person, but the impression had 
 
 already faded. , . 
 
 As Greely complained of cold, Colwell gave him his 
 gloves, and persuaded him to go back to his sleeping-bag. 
 This was lying under the fallen tent-cloth, which the party 
 had been too weak or too discouraged to raise up and dis- 
 engage. Where the single remaining pole supported the 
 tent there was a clear space of perhaps six feet, just 
 enough for a man to stand upright, but around it the can- 
 vas was lying on the ground. The bag, from ^^ 
 had hardly moved for a month, was found under the
 
 
 Schley] RESCUED FROM DEATH. 225 
 
 canvas, and by the united efforts of the three men the tent 
 was partly raised. 
 
 Meanwhile, the " Bear" had arrived and Lowe had gone 
 off in the cutter, taking with him Sergeant Long. Long was 
 too weak to get on board without assistance, and was lifted 
 over the side by some of the crew and taken to a chair in 
 the wardroom. In reply to questions about the party and 
 their condition, Long, in a husky voice, told his story : that 
 all were dead except Greely and five others, who were on 
 shore in " sore distress — sore distress ;" that they had had 
 a hard winter, and " the wonder was how in God's name 
 they had pulled through." No words can describe the 
 pathos of this man's broken and enfeebled utterance as he 
 said, over and over, "a hard winter— a hard winter;" and 
 the officers who were gathered about him in the wai'droom 
 felt an emotion which most of them were at little pains to 
 conceal. The first sign of the relief expedition which had 
 reached the camp was the sound from the steam whistle of 
 the " Thetis," recalling the shore parties at Payer Harbor. 
 Lieutenant Greely, lying on the ground in his tent, had 
 heard it, as it was borne faintly over the neck of land, but 
 the others had not noticed it in the roaring wind, and 
 when he told them he had heard a steamer's whistle, they 
 thought it only the impression of his disturbed imagination. 
 Long crawled out of the tent and, bracing himself against 
 the wind, struggled up to the ridge ; but nothing could 
 be seen but the rocky coast, and the ice-foot, and the 
 chopping sea with the pack stretching off in the distance. 
 It was a bitter disappointment. Long went back dis- 
 heartened, but after waiting uneasily awhile longer, he 
 mounted the ridge a second time. Still there was nothing 
 to be seen but the same hopeless prospect, and ho was 
 about to return again when the cuttor came into view 
 
 around the point above. After all these months of waiting 
 i.—p
 
 226 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Collis 
 
 it was hard to believe that he was not dreaming, but when 
 he saw the coxswain wave the familiar flag, he knew that 
 relief had come at last. 
 
 [The conclusion of the story is longer than we have space to give. 
 It will suffice to say that the survivors were gradually brought back to 
 life and health, and that the living and the bodies of the dead alike 
 were brought back to the United States ; and that in the robust- 
 appearing General Greely of to-day there is nothing to indicate the 
 terrible strain of that dread winter in the realm of ice. J 
 
 THE MUIR GLACIER. 
 
 SEPTIMA M. COLLIS. 
 
 ["No other country in the world possesses so many unique wonders 
 of nature as the United States. The Yosemite Valley, Yellowstone 
 Park, Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, and Sequoia Groves each stands 
 alone in its peculiar beauty or grandeur ; and to these we may add the 
 Muir Glacier in Alaska, before which the famous glaciers of the Alps 
 shrink into insignificance, and which has no rival outside the Arctic 
 zone. "A Woman's Trip to Alaska," by Mrs. Collis, gives a vivid 
 and picturesque description of this glacial wonder, which we here ap- 
 pend. The sketch given is preceded by a statistical one, in which we 
 are told that this glacier sheds from its front " one hundred and sixty 
 million cubic feet of ice every twenty-four hours."] 
 
 The previous chapter has briefly outlined the main facts 
 within my knowledge concerning the Muir Glacier which 
 I had gathered from my reading, and upon which I had 
 to create the image of what I expected to see. True, I 
 had seen photographs of it; yes, and I had photographs 
 of the Ciifton of the Yellowstone, and of the Nevada 
 Palls, and of Niagara, just as I have seen paste diamonds; 
 I knew their shapes, and that is all I ever gathered from
 
 Collis] THE MUIR GLACIER. 227 
 
 their portraits. Neither the expression, nor the complexion, 
 nor the sound of the voice of nature are to be found upon 
 the dull surface of the photograph ; you simply get the 
 general lines, some of the shadows, very erroneous perspec- 
 tive, and that is all. We had come to a stand-still while we 
 were at lunch. I had observed the slackening of speed ; 
 next the stoppage of the machinery ; then the absolute 
 stillness of the ship ; and finally a darkening of the saloon. 
 AVe were evidently at a halt under the shadow of some im- 
 mense elevation. A passenger on tiptoe looked through 
 the port-hole, and uttered an exclamation of amazement ; 
 then we all rushed to similar apertures; climbed on the 
 chairs ; looked over the men's shoulders ; in fact, did all 
 kinds of unreasonable things, and at last stampeded up the 
 companion-way to the deck. 
 
 I pray heaven that neither age nor infirmity may ever 
 efface from my memory the sight and the sensation of that 
 moment. To say that I was transfixed, speechless, fasci- 
 nated to intoxication by the spell of this marvellous devel- 
 opment is no exaggeration. Those who reached the deck 
 first seemed paralyzed, halted, and thus blockaded the way 
 for those who were to follow; others kept within the saloon 
 from choice, as though they dreaded some phenomenal 
 convulsion. I wedged my way as best I could, after the 
 first shock of amazement had subsided, up to the very bow 
 of the ship. 
 
 Upon each side of me, half a mile away, rose the same 
 old mountains which I had seen everywhere from Tacoma 
 north ; at my feet the same Pacific Ocean, but in front of 
 me, apparently so close that I could almost reach it with 
 my fingers, the perpendicular wall of a cafion, not of 
 rock, nor clay, nor grass, nor forest, but of ice, — a wall of 
 ice a mile in length ; and when I say a mile, I mean over 
 eighteen hundred yards of it ; and when I speak of ice, I do
 
 228 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Collis 
 
 not mean the sooty, porous stuff that lodges in the valleys 
 of the Alps; I mean the veritable, pure, clear, crystal ice 
 of the ice-pitcher. A wall a hundred yards high, and in 
 some places towering up an additional fifty; a wall ex- 
 tending down deeper in the ocean than it reaches from the 
 ocean to the sky; hard as adamant, sharp and edged like 
 flint, aqua-marine in color, deepening towards the water' 
 into indigo, tipped on the summits and projections with a 
 froth of snow. If I did not know that it was ice, I should 
 believe that it was glass. If I did not know that it was 
 the work of the Creator, I should believe that here had 
 assembled a convocation of architects, who in their collec- 
 tive ingenuity had reproduced a combination of the chefs- 
 d'oeuvre of their art; for here were the buttresses of the 
 English abbeys, and flying buttresses of Notre Dame, tur- 
 rets of the Normans, towers of the early English, spires 
 of the cathedral in Cologne, wonderful unoccupied niches, 
 pilasters of the purest white marble and green malachite, 
 and decorative carving and high polish worthy of Cellini. 
 
 It was a cloudy day, yet the front glistened with pris- 
 matic splendor. What will it be, I asked myself, if in the 
 afternoon the setting sun shall light it up? But we are 
 too close to it for our own safety, we learn, and are slowly 
 moved back half a mile, where our anchor is dropped and 
 preparations are made to row us on shore to climb to the 
 top of the glacier. While we are moving a sharp detona- 
 tion rings out like the firing of a rifle, and one of the 
 beautiful spires on the crest of the very centre of the wall 
 is shivered into atoms, and its fragments fall with a splash 
 four hundred feet. Later there is a report as of a cannon, 
 but without result ; this, we are told, is the parting of the 
 *ea of ice somewhere far back in its mountain home. 
 Presently two similar explosions, evidently right close to 
 us, followed by rumbling echoes, and over topples a huge
 
 Collis] THE MVIR GLACIER. 229 
 
 mass weighing tons, which sinks so far that several seconds 
 elapse before it rises to the surface, swaying to and fro 
 until it finds its equilibrium, and then floats down the cur- 
 rent, one more turquoise gem added to the chain which 
 precedes it. 
 
 And this continued all day, sometimes at intervals of 
 seconds only, sometimes of half an hour, and when we re- 
 tired at night the explosion and the splash became as 
 monotonous and periodical as the tinkling of the street-car 
 bell or the footstep of the passer-by does at home. There 
 was one tremendous breaking-off towards evening; the 
 sun, as we had hoped, was out in full glory, and at the 
 distance from which we now viewed the glacier it was a 
 mountain of snow-covered ice chopped off in front. For 
 many miles we could see over and beyond the facade, as 
 though looking at a great river of snow ; yet the facade 
 itself was a face of corrugated emerald, reflecting the sun's 
 rays at every imaginable angle, and changing and scintil- 
 lating with every movement of the ship. 
 
 Suddenly, near the centre, the top began to incline for- 
 ward, and the whole face of probably twenty yards in 
 width, from the top of the glacier to the bottom of the 
 bay, fell outward as a ladder would fall, without a break 
 anywhere. There was a tremendous upheaving of the 
 water, of course; then the report of the invariable explo- 
 sion reached us, but no trace remained of the fallen ice, 
 save the swell in the water, which had almost reached and 
 rocked the steamer. I do not know how much time 
 elapsed before the lovely thing rose to the surface, but it 
 seemed an age, and then it came in a dozen pieces, each of 
 the same exquisite diaphanous blue, which, as they ap- 
 proached us gradually, changed to a clear transparent 
 sapphire. 
 
 If it will help to serve the purpose of giving a just idea 
 
 20
 
 230 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Collts 
 
 of the colossal proportions of the scene I endeavor to de- 
 scribe, let me say that the Capitol at Washington, the City- 
 Hall in Philadelphia, the Cathedral, the Equitable, and the 
 Mills Buildings in New York, and all the mammoth news- 
 paper offices in the same city might be floated in front of 
 the Muir Glacier, and yet its emerald walls would overtop 
 and engulf them all. As a contrast to all that is pure and 
 chaste in the scene before us, there rushes out from the 
 eastern end of the glacier a subglacial stream of thick, 
 dirty water, much resembling, as it boils up from its cav- 
 ernous outlet, the mud geyser of the Yellowstone. This is 
 a perpetually flowing river, charged with sediment and 
 debris from the scouring process produced by the friction 
 of the moving ice along its bed of rock ; it gives the water 
 in the inlet a thick, gray color, utterly destroying the 
 charm of its otherwise transparent character. 
 
 If you are amiable enough to say that what I have 
 written gives a sufficiently correct idea of what you expect 
 to see, I beg to differ from you. No camera, no pencil, no 
 vocabulary, can do more than produce a desire to see for 
 one's self. I can only say that it has been my fortune to 
 behold much that is grand in nature and in art at home 
 and abroad, but the hours spent at Muir Glacier made tho 
 great event of my life. If God spares me, I hope to see it 
 often. And fearing I might be accused of exaggeration, 
 which is far from my desire, for I am searching in vain for 
 superlatives which would do the subject justice, let me 
 quote from others who preceded me, and all of whom have 
 established their reputation as authorities. 
 
 Miss Kate Field says, " In Switzerland a glacier is a 
 vast bed of dirty, air-holed ice that has fastened itself, like 
 a cold porous plaster, to the side of an Alp. Distance alone 
 lends enchantment to the view. In Alaska a glacier is a 
 wonderful torrent that seems to have been suddenly frozen
 
 Collis] THE MUIR GLACIER. 231 
 
 when about to plunge into the sea. . . . Think of Niagara 
 Falls frozen stiff, add thirty-six feet to its height, and you 
 have a slight idea of the terminus of Muir Glacier, in front 
 of which your steamer anchors ; picture a background of 
 mountains fifteen thousand feet high, all snow-clad, and 
 then imagine a gorgeous sun lighting up the ice-crystals 
 with rainbow coloring. The face of the glacier takes on 
 the hue of aqua-marine, the hue of every bit of floating 
 ice, big and little, that surround the steamer and make 
 navigation serious. These dazzling serpents move at the 
 rate of sixty-four feet a day, tumbling headlong into the 
 sea, and, as they fall, the ear is startled by submarine 
 thunder, the echoes of which resound far and near. Down, 
 down, down goes the berg, and woe to the boat in its way 
 when it rises again to the surface." 
 
 Charles Hallock in " Our New Alaska," pp. 172-733 : " The 
 glacier wall overhung us with its mighty majesty, three 
 times the height of the steamer's mast or more, and we 
 seemed none too far away to escape the constantly cleaving 
 masses which dropped from its face with deafening deto- 
 nations. The foam which gathered from the impetus of 
 the plunges surged upward fully two-thirds of the height 
 of the cliff, and the resulting swell tossed the large steamer 
 like a toy, and rolled up in breakers of surf upon the beach. 
 . . . The glacier is by no means smooth, but is seamed and 
 riven in every part by clefts and fissures. It is hollowed 
 into caverns and grottos, hung with massive stalactites, 
 and fashioned into pinnacles and domes. Every section 
 and configuration has its heart of translucent blue or green, 
 interlaced or bordered by fretted frostwork of intensest 
 white, so that the appearance is at all times gnome-like 
 and supernatural. . . . 
 
 " I cannot conceive how any one can sit by and contem- 
 plate without emotion the stupendous throes which give
 
 232 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Collis 
 
 birth to the icebergs, attended with detonations like explo- 
 sions of artillery, and reverberations of thunder across the 
 sky, and the mighty wreckage which follows each convul- 
 sion. Nevertheless, I have seen a lady loll with com- 
 plaisance in her steamer chair comfortably wrapped for 
 the chilly air, and observe the astounding scene with the 
 same languid contemplation that she would discuss her 
 social fixtures and appointments. Zounds ! I believe that 
 such a human negation would calmly view the wrecks of 
 worlds and hear the crack of doom at the final rendering, 
 if it did not affect her set. She could watch, at a suitable 
 distance, the agony of Christian martyrs, the carnage of 
 great battles, the sweep of cyclones, the diluvial sub- 
 mergence. Dynamite would not appall her, but to me it 
 would be the acme of satisfaction, ineffably supreme, to 
 startle such clods of inanition by a cry of mouse, and elec- 
 trify them into momentary emotion. No vinaigrette would 
 ever mitigate the shock." . . . 
 
 Mrs. E. E. Scidmore, in " Journeys in Alaska," says, " Ava- 
 lanches of crumbling snow and great pieces of the front 
 were continually falling with the roar and crash of artil- 
 lery, revealing new caverns and rifts of deeper blue light, 
 while the spray dashed high and the great waves rolled 
 along the icy wall, and, widening in their sweep, washed 
 the blocks of floating ice up on the beaches on either side. 
 . . . The nearer one approached the higher the ice-walls 
 seemed, and all along the front there were pinnacles and 
 spires weighing several tons, that seemed on the point of 
 toppling every moment. The great buttresses of ice that 
 rose first from the water and touched the moraine were as 
 solidly white as marble, veined and streaked with rocks 
 and mud, but farther on, as the pressure was greater, the 
 color slowly deepened to turquoise and sapphire blues." 
 
 Alexander Badlam, in his " Wonders of Alaska," p. 42,
 
 Collis] THE MUIR GLACIER. 233 
 
 quotes Professor Muir himself as saying that the front 
 and brow of the glacier were " dashed and sculptured into 
 a maze of yawning chasm, ravines, canons, crevasses, and 
 a bewildering chaos of architectural forms, beautiful be- 
 yond the measure of description, and so bewildering in 
 their beauty as to almost make the spectator believe he 
 was revelling in a dream." " There were," he said, " great 
 clusters of glistening spires, gables, obelisks, monoliths, and 
 castles, standing out boldly against the sky, with bastion 
 and mural, surmounted by fretted cornice, and every inter- 
 stice and chasm reflecting a sheen of scintillating light and 
 deep-blue shadow, making a combination of color, dazzling, 
 startling, and enchanting." 
 
 The next sensation in store for the tourist is the climb to 
 the top of the glacier. All the row-boats were lowered, and 
 about a dozen passengers in each, armed with alpenstocks, 
 were ferried in successive groups from the ship to the east- 
 ern beach, a distance of perhaps half a mile, instructions 
 being given to each steersman to keep a sharp lookout for 
 falling icebergs. And here your trouble commences unless 
 you are well advised. The ascent is exceedingly difficult ; 
 what looks like a mountain of rock over which you must 
 wend your way to the ice-fields, is really a mountain of ice 
 covered by a layer of slimy mud, crusted with pieces of 
 flinty granite, standing up on end like broken bottle glass 
 on top of a wall. I wore India-rubber high boots when I 
 started, and I needed crutches before I finished. It may 
 be chilly as you leave the ship, according as the sun may 
 be out or in ; if chilly, get your escort to carry an extra 
 shawl for you to wrap yourself in when you row back to 
 the ship ; if the weather is bright and warm, clothe your- 
 self lightly, for it grows warmer with the glare from the ice 
 and the physical exertion. Be very careful where you step, 
 and if you are wise follow in the footsteps of others ; do not 
 
 20*
 
 234 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Collis 
 
 undertake to lead, else one foot may be trying to ascertain 
 the depth of a quagmire and the other exploring a fissure. 
 
 After an ascent of perhaps two and a half miles, which 
 seem more like ten, you will find yourself on the edge of 
 a frozen sea, frozen, as it were, while in the throes of a 
 tempest, a bay of storm-tossed waves solidified as by a 
 signal ; and this extends as far as the eye can reach up 
 into the mountains towards the north, and several miles 
 across to the hills upon the opposite shore. The ice is by 
 no means clear or brilliant, on the contrary, its color is 
 milky and its formation honey-combed, plastic, porous, and 
 yielding to the tread ; besides which it is besmeared with 
 sediment from mountain thaws which have traversed its 
 rifts, and disfigured by fallen logs and drift-wood. 
 
 I confess if I visited Muir Glacier a hundred times I 
 should always remain on deck and watch the pyrotechnics 
 of the facade rather than undergo the thankless fatigue of 
 climbing to the top, which is infinitely more laborious than 
 the ascent of Vesuvius on foot through the lava, or any 
 work to be done on the trails of the Yosemite. To those 
 who are willing to undertake it, however, I suggest that 
 when they have ascended the first mile, which will bring 
 them on a line with the top of the wall of the glacier, they 
 should look back at their little tiny ship, floating like the 
 " Maid of the Mist" beneath Niagara, to fully realize the 
 immense proportions of the glacier. 
 
 It is said that persons have been missed and never again 
 found who made this ascent, and I know that at least one 
 case is authentic, that of a young clergyman, who, straying 
 away from his companions, was never again seen, though 
 the most diligent search was made for him by his friends 
 and the ship's crew. A slip into one of those crevasses 
 which is covered by a thin coat of ice, means to be precip- 
 itated in an instant to a depth where no human aid can
 
 Harrison] A SUMMER TRIP TO ALASKA. 235 
 
 reach you. In fact, I would advise all who wish to preserve 
 the impression of Muir Glacier in its pure, idealized, un- 
 sullied grandeur, to stay aboard and gaze on its beautiful 
 face. 
 
 It is a Persian custom, after plucking the fruit, to tear it 
 asunder in the middle, hand the sunny side to the friend 
 and throw the other half away, the best portion being the 
 only part good enough for those they love. It is my duty 
 to present to you the better half of the glacier and to cast 
 away the other. Tired, footsore, and muddy, we were all 
 early in bed, and while dozing to sleep I was much im- 
 pressed with the awful stillness of the hour; everybody 
 had retired, not even the tread of the man on watch was 
 heard, the very machinery was sleeping, but every now 
 and then there was a splash and a report and an echo that 
 brought with them the proof that the forces of nature 
 were ever awake, and that what was, " is, and ever shall be, 
 world without end." 
 
 A SUMMER TRIP TO ALASKA. 
 
 JAMES A. HARRISON. 
 
 [Nature possesses no scenery more beautiful than that to be found 
 on the Pacific coast of Washington and in the island region leading to 
 north Alaska. And the description of it given below is well worth re- 
 production, for its poetic appreciation of this rich scenic route.] 
 
 The whole fourteen hundred — one might say two thou- 
 sand — miles of coast extending from Puget's Sound to 
 Behring's Strait is a succession of beautiful and picturesque 
 archipelagoes, consisting of hundreds, if not thousands, of 
 islands, through which thero are countless water-caves, 
 lakes, bays, inlets, as smooth as Lake George and the Hud-
 
 236 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Harrisok 
 
 son, and far more lovely. The smoothness of the water is 
 such that life on the steamer is a luxurious rest, and the 
 stimulating coolness of the air in summer contributes to 
 pleasant days and delightful nights. Our summer trip 
 covered about two thousand five hundred miles from Port- 
 land and back, and we had ample opportunities to stop at 
 the various settlements, talk with the Indians, and collect 
 curiosities. 
 
 On leaving Port Townsend early in August, our ship 
 made for the Straits of Georgia, and for a long time fol- 
 lowed the aqueous boundary-line between the British and 
 American possessions. The fog dissolved, and we caught 
 views of Smith's Island, Bellingham Bay, and other points. 
 The scenery became river-like, the strait now opening into 
 waveless lakes, now contracting, like the neck of a bottle, 
 into channels where there were counter-currents and 
 chopped seas. 
 
 At Active Bay we could not tell which way we were 
 going, the passage seemed closed by lofty mountains, and 
 the sea appeared to flow against their bases ; but presently 
 the wall of rock split into a wooded gorge, through which 
 we shot with a graceful curve. 
 
 The long meandering line of Vancouver Island followed 
 for three hundred miles on the left, and we crossed the 
 Gulf of Georgia in water of enchanting tranquillity. 
 
 Our first days were spent in threading the wilderness of 
 islands off Vancouver, and we were close enough to the 
 coast on the right to see it distinctly. There was the 
 continental coast range of Cascade Mountains, vanishing 
 streaks of snow and silver on our eastern horizon, rising 
 from five hundred to two thousand five hundred feet above 
 the sea-level. Its peaks lay in every imaginable shape, 
 twisted, coiled, convoluted against the horizon-bar, now 
 running up into a perfect cone, like the Silberhorn of
 
 Harrison] A SUMMER TRIP TO ALASKA. 237 
 
 Switzerland, now elongating in rippling lines along the 
 east, now staining the sky with deep-blue masses of ultra- 
 marine necked with pearly lines. 
 
 The smoke of the burning forests of Washington Terri- 
 tory and British Columbia had filled the air for days, and 
 worried us not a little ; but one morning we awoke in per- 
 fect sunshine, and found an atmosphere impregnated with 
 frosty sparkles from the distant snow-peaks. Just before 
 nightfall, when we were about to cross Queen Charlotte's 
 Sound, a fog came up, and the pilot thought it advisable to 
 lie by for the night, more particularly as the coast is a dan- 
 gerous one and is strewn with reefs and rocks ; so, while we 
 were at dinner, the ship wheeled around, and we reversed 
 our course, going south until we reached Port Alexandria, 
 one of the most perfect little harbors conceivable. It is 
 a cove just like the foot of a stocking ; a tiny, circle-shaped 
 island lies in its mouth, and richly-wooded heights throw 
 their green shimmer on the placid water. 
 
 Here we lay till morning, as " snug as a bug in a rug." 
 Just before entering the cove, which is only about two 
 hundred yards wide, we saw in the distance an Indian sea- 
 canoe, with its wet paddles flashing in the sun, and the 
 agreeable thought was suggested, Suppose we should be 
 surrounded and scalped in the night ! Nothing could have 
 been easier in this lonely neighborhood. 
 
 The perpetual wheeling of the vessel in her nautical 
 evolutions as she steamed through each successive archi- 
 pelago gave rise to ever-new comment on the new vistas 
 and island-combinations before us. The coast of Maine is 
 not to be mentioned in comparison with this, nor the island- 
 dusted Caribbean Sea. These inland-sweeping seas open 
 in long river reaches, beyond which, in sharp sunshine, 
 rise the everlasting peaks, burnished with ice. The shores 
 of British Columbia are densely clothed with diminutive
 
 238 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Harrison 
 
 needle-wood, much of which is dead, so that the pale yellow- 
 green is toned with brown-gray. The water is intensely 
 salt, and is skimmed by wild duck and by low-flying, tufted 
 water-fowl. 
 
 As we were passing along one morning, an Indian crew 
 came dashing out in a canoe, with a deer for sale. Thero 
 were stunted-looking squaws in the boat, and all quacked 
 and gesticulated and grunted after the peculiar linguistic 
 fashion of the neighborhood. These Indians are wonder- 
 fully deft with their fingers, and weave bottle-cases, satchels, 
 baskets, and table-mats out of split and dyed grasses with 
 curious delicacy and skill. Their face-type is the homeliest 
 I have seen : enormous skulls, high-angled cheek-bones, 
 blinking black eyes, flattish noses, and shocks of horse- 
 hair. Evidently they are expert huntsmen and sportsmen: 
 often we saw their camp-fires, or a canoe stealing along 
 the silent water, filled with crouching forms. 
 
 Day after day there was a never-ending succession of 
 lake-scenery, — long, winding lanes of green water between 
 steep snow-streaked domes and precipices. The evenings 
 softened into singularly lovely nights, with close-hugging 
 shores, volumes of dark, iodine-hued water, lingering stars, 
 and phosphorescence. The light hung over the hyper- 
 borean landscape as if loath to leave. At ten o'clock one 
 evening we went out and found the ship steaming up a 
 lane of purple glass, — the water magically still, the air full 
 of soft, plaintive cries from the breeding gulls, the tinkle 
 of the parted sea around our bows, and the dim, spectral 
 water lighted up at the end of the long avenue by a haunt- 
 ing aurora. 
 
 Many a time the cabin door formed a delightful frame 
 for a forest-picture, — gliding water, pale-blue sky, a broken 
 shore, and, behind, long lines of brilliant snow-peaks, with 
 their chased and frozen silver. "We would lie asleep for a
 
 Harrison] A SUMMER TRIP TO ALASKA. 239 
 
 few moments in the cool dark of the cabin-interior, and then 
 wake up with one of these perfect, swiftly-moving views in 
 the foreground. Before we caught it, often it had gone, — 
 the pale, plenteous beauty of the fir-crowned shore, the 
 dancing islets, the sedgy strand-line, the many-colored 
 rocks, with their pools and fountain-basins of transparent 
 water caught from the deep and held in by their rocky 
 framework in a lightness and purity of crystal dew. 
 
 Then the ship ran dangerously near to the coast, or again 
 out into the open sound, with its mediterranean sprinkle 
 of islets, serrated walls of rocks, coves and island-mounds, 
 wherein nested shadows of amethyst or indigo. 
 
 The flow of life in some of these coves and estuary-like 
 indentations is marvellous, the fish coming in egg-laden, 
 and looking for streams of fresh water in which to deposit 
 their ova. We anchored in one of these inlets, and found 
 on the land luxuriant ferns and splendid clumps of yellow 
 cedar and hemlock, with snow-banks behind. Haifa dozen 
 little bucks and half-breeds were tumbling about in the 
 water through the long afternoon light, which seemed to 
 have an amaranthine quality and to be unfading. The sun 
 did not set till after eight o'clock, and there was cold, 
 ghostly, green light up in the north till nearly midnight. 
 When darkness did come, it was of the genuine cuttle-fish 
 kind, — inky, — splashed with stars. There was now and 
 then a delicate shell of a moon incising the sky against a 
 mountain-side and lending the most fragile transfiguration 
 to its top. 
 
 As we approached Fort Wrangel, the ship's company 
 turned out in the sweet evening sunshine and found a glo- 
 rious panorama awaiting them. The sheen of a mighty 
 mass of embattled peaks and pinnacles and feathery float- 
 ing snow-points shone high up in the evening air, just mel- 
 lowing under a magnificent sunset. These mountains guard
 
 240 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Harrison 
 
 the entrance to the Stickeen Eiver and mount up the hori- 
 zon after the Duke of Clarence Strait has been traversed. 
 
 Wrangel itself is most memorably situated just on one 
 side of these sheeny peaks and glaciers, almost in the 
 shadow of the Devil's Thumb, which rises about four hun- 
 dred feet above its own mountain-cluster and forms one of 
 a throng of confused and radiant aiguilles overlooking the 
 Stickeen. The sunset had not entirely faded at nine 
 o'clock, when we touched shore and rejoiced our eyes with 
 a series of wonderful semi-arctic color-pictures, — coal black 
 islands, purple islands, lilac islands, islands in india-ink and 
 amber, lying in glacier-water of pale green, and above and 
 beyond all the glorious flush of the sun stealing in be- 
 tween the white snow-needles and throwing them out and 
 up into luminous relief. 
 
 Opposite the town is an island shaped like the cocked hat 
 of a gendarme, where it was said that the curious polygo- 
 nal garnets embedded in schist and peculiar to this region 
 are found. There were plenty of them as large as walnuts 
 for sale at twenty five cents a dozen. Odd carved boxes, 
 too, made of an unknown wood and inlaid with shells, were 
 here in plenty; cases of buckskin, containing the conjuring- 
 sticks or gambling-kits of the Thlinkit medicine-men ; loin- 
 cloths, ornamented with multitudes of rattling puffin-beaks; 
 head-dresses of defunct warriors; fantastic and horrible 
 masks ; huge spoons carved out of the horns of the moun- 
 tain-ibex ; bead-work on leather ; robes of many-colored 
 skins quilted together ; images carved to resemble otters ; 
 fleecy robes of wild sheep and goat ; pipes cut with nude 
 figures ; antlers ; stuffed animals ; white-breasted loons, and 
 the like. 
 
 After a short stop for landing the mails, the vessel was 
 soon traversing Wrangel Strait, just under some splendid 
 glaciers and snowy mountains, the water perfectly smooth,
 
 Harrison] A SUMMER TRIP TO ALASKA. 241 
 
 though full of small icebergs, which glittered in the sun- 
 shine and had broken off from the descending ice-mass. 
 Enormous rivers of ice flow down between these moun- 
 tains and debouch in the sea, their current mysteriously 
 stayed by the low temperature. We were particularly for- 
 tunate in having fine, clear weather early in the morning, 
 especially at this point, where we could see the great Pat- 
 tison Glacier. The ship entered the enchanted region 
 through a narrow passage, which one of us christened the 
 " Silver Gates," the Beulah Mountains edging our Pilgrim's 
 Progress in passionless white as we zigzagged along the 
 course. 
 
 A little later, the scenery on Frederic Sound became 
 truly transcendent : grand mountains, forms that would be 
 awful but for the sunshine resting on their heads, the lake- 
 like sound, with its blue spits of land and cameo-like prom- 
 ontories profiled against the sky, motionless glace-de- Venise 
 water reflecting a thousand shades of azure and gray and 
 white, gulls resting on the watei', with white bodies and 
 black tips, almost a complete circle of brilliant snow-banks 
 peeping above the clouds that hung to them amorously, 
 and far-away vistas of blue- white glaciers coming down to 
 meet the water-margin. 
 
 Schools of spouting whales played in the distance, and 
 the passengers sent balls out of their pistols hissing on the 
 water, but happily hitting nothing. During the last trip 
 two lovely antlered creatures came swimming along in 
 the water, trying to cross one of the channels to another 
 grazing-ground. They were taken on board, but one of 
 them died. 
 
 The next landing-place was Killimoo, a little Indian 
 village on an island surrounded by dim-green heights and 
 flickering, ever-changing mountain-views. It is a great 
 station for drying codfish, long lines of which lay spread 
 
 I.— L q 21
 
 242 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Harrison 
 
 out on the wharf in the sun to dry. As night fell the 
 squaws and Indian maidens gathered the rattling fish- 
 carcasses under little ark-like receptacles, where they lay 
 till morning out of the dew. 
 
 At Juneau some of the passengers walked or rowed off 
 to the gold-mines in the mountains, where they picked up 
 specimens of gold-quartz and some teacupfuls of sifted 
 gold-dust. One of these was said to be worth six hundred 
 dollars, another over twelve hundred dollars. One was re- 
 minded of the gold-dust story of Alkmaion in Herodotus. 
 
 Shortly after this the ship cast anchor at Chilkat and 
 Pyramid Harbor, our two highest points in Alaska waters, 
 about latitude 59° 12' north. We had but a poor glimpse of 
 the glaciers on the Chilkat side, — one a magnificent down- 
 flow of pale-blue ice, the other a frozen river caught and 
 compressed in between strangling hills. 
 
 The location of Pj-ramid Harbor is very beautiful, — a 
 wind-sheltered nook, a curving shore, covered with pebbles, 
 alder-clad heights just behind, and dimly-flashing ice-peaks 
 peeping out of the mist just over the shoulder of a huge 
 green rock-slope. A salmon-cannery in the foreground, 
 flanked by an Indian village, a semilune of pure green 
 water, nearly fresh, and a curious pyramid-shaped knoll 
 rising from it, constituted other features of the environ- 
 ment. The lifting mists drew aside for a while, and re- 
 freshed the sight with views of the great sculpture-lines 
 of the surrounding mountains. 
 
 [We may pass the description of Sitka, and proceed.] 
 
 We were greatly favored when we left Sitka. Starting 
 off in a rain, in which everything lay in muddy eclipse, we 
 woke up next morning and found ourselves tracing the 
 outside route to the Muir Glacier in sparkling sunshine. 
 The transition was delightful, and, though most of the
 
 Harrison] A SUMMER TRIP TO ALASKA. 243 
 
 passengers were sick from the tossing of the ship on the 
 long outside ocean-swell, I believe they all enjoj'ed the 
 sunshine as it flashed into their cabin windows, played on 
 the walls, and pricked and scattered the enormous vapor 
 masses that hung over the mountains on our right. There 
 were no longer the vaulted vapors of the preceding days, 
 the dense counterpane of nebulous gray that covered the 
 whole sky with its monotony. The heavy cloud-banks 
 clung to the mountains, leaving an exquisite arc of sky, 
 almost Italian in its sunny azure. 
 
 Nothing could be more superb than the deep, dark, 
 velvety tints of the crinkled and crumpled mountains as 
 they shelved to the sea and came in contact there with an 
 edging of foam from the blue Pacific. Huge jelly-fish 
 flapped about in the clear water, nebular patches of proto- 
 plasmic existence, capable, apparently, of no other func- 
 tions than sensation, motion, and self-propagation. Some 
 of them were richly streaked, long-tailed, delicately mar- 
 gined, with comet-like streamers, jelly-frills, and nuclei like 
 a wide-open sunflower. Their motion was so indolently 
 graceful that I could not help gazing at them. 
 
 Mount St. Elias ! Yes, there it was, they affirmed, on the 
 northeastern horizon, a vapory, unsubstantial cone, dancing 
 up and down in the refracting light. I looked and looked, 
 persuading myself that I saw the glorious vision nineteen 
 thousand five hundred feet high. Others persuaded them- 
 selves of the same fact, being naturally ambitious of car- 
 rying away remembrances of the tallest mountain in all 
 America. But, after all, I fancy that nobody had a very 
 strong faith in his discovery, particularly as the reputed 
 mountain seemed to change its place, flit hither and thither 
 on the curve of the sky, and finally disappear. 
 
 But yonder! "What is that? Clouds? Apparently. 
 But look again. What, that small speck just on the edge
 
 244 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Harrison 
 
 of the water? No, higher up — up — up. What a sight! 
 Certainly the grandest view we have had yet. A huge, 
 white, snow-tipped back, like a camel's hump, now loomed 
 apparently right out of the water's edge, — the mighty 
 range of Mount Fairweather, Mount Crillon, and eight or 
 ten other domes and peaks, the highest fifteen thousand 
 five hundred feet high, according to the measurement of 
 the United States Coast Survey. This is the finest moun- 
 tain-landscape we have ever seen, not even excepting the 
 Alps from Neufchatol. The peaks looked enormously high 
 as they shot up just behind the sea-edge, far above the 
 first stratum of cloud which ran along midway of the 
 mountain in deep slate-colored belts. Now and then the 
 vapor thinned to the fineness of tulle and Brousa gauze, 
 behind which the mountain-colors loomed in vague and yet 
 radiant purity. Gradually the ardent sun melted away the 
 misty striated belts of cloud, and the great peaks stood 
 out calmly and gloriously effulgent in the crystal August 
 air, a scene of exquisite loveliness and sublimity. At one 
 end a mighty glacier ran down to the sea, and at the other 
 the pygmy mountains (two or three thousand feet high) 
 we had been coasting lay like ebon carvings against the 
 white, a ripple of dark velvet against ermine. 
 
 For hours we steamed towards this splendid picture, 
 which, while growing more and more distinct, did not ap- 
 pear to be any nearer than when we first saw it. In the 
 afternoon we turned to the right of this range into icy 
 straits, and soon we were in the midst of a scene more 
 wonderful, perhaps, than that through which we had just 
 passed. On the light-green water lay literally hundreds 
 of icebergs, of all shapes and sizes, some a deep translucent 
 blue, the blue of cobalt, others green, others a pure white, 
 — serrated, castellated, crenellated, glittering, — from the 
 size of a tureen to that of a small church. We seemed on
 
 Butlkr] WINNIPEG LAKE AND RIVER. 245 
 
 the point of entering that ancient palseocrystic sea of 
 which the geologists speak, — ice everywhere, our ship cut- 
 ting its way through impinging ice. 
 
 WINNIPEG LAKE AND RIVER. 
 
 W. F. BUTLER. 
 
 [Colonel W. F. Butler, in " The Great Lone Land," gives us some 
 very interesting information about the life and scenery of the great 
 American Northwest, from which we select the following description 
 of a picturesque lake and river. His journey was made during the 
 Riel rebellion, and the traveller was on his way to the Lake of the 
 Woods, where he expected to meet an expedition sent for the suppres- 
 sion of the rebellion. The Red River Indians gave him a hearty 
 send-off.] 
 
 The chief gave a signal, and a hundred trading guns 
 were held aloft, and a hundred shots rang out on the 
 morning air. Again and again the salutes were repeated, 
 the whole tribe moving down to the water's edge to see me 
 off. Putting out to the middle of the river, I discharged 
 my fourteen-shooter into the air in rapid succession ; a 
 prolonged war-whoop answered my salute, and, paddling 
 their very best, for the eyes of the finest canoers were 
 upon them, my men drove the little craft flying over the 
 water until the Indian village and its still firing braves 
 were hidden behind a river bend. Through many marsh- 
 lined channels, and amidst a vast sea of reeds and rushes, 
 the Eed Eiver of the North seeks the water of Lake Win- 
 nipeg. A mixture of land and water, of mud, and of the 
 varied vegetation which grows thereon, this delta of the 
 Eed Eiver is, like other spots of a similar description, in- 
 explicably lonely. 
 
 21*
 
 246 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Butler 
 
 The wind sighs over it, bending the tall weeds with 
 mournful rustle, and the wild bird passes and repasses 
 with plaintive cry over the rushes which form his summer 
 home. 
 
 Emerging from the sedges of the Red River, we shot 
 out into the waters of an immense lake, — a lake which 
 stretched away into unseen spaces, and over whose waters 
 the fervid July sun was playing strange freaks of mirage 
 and inverted shore-land. 
 
 This was Lake Winnipeg, — a great lake, even on a conti- 
 nent where lakes are inland seas. But vast as it is now, it 
 is only a tithe of what it must have been in the earlier ages 
 of the earth. 
 
 The capes and headlands of what once was a vast inland 
 sea now stand far away from the shores of Winnipeg. 
 Hundreds of miles from its present limits these great land- 
 marks still look down on the ocean, but it is an ocean of 
 grass. The waters of Winnipeg have retired from their 
 feet, and they are now mountain-ridges, rising over seas 
 of verdure. At the bottom of this by-gone lake lay the 
 whole valley of the Red River, the present Lake Winne- 
 pegoos and Manitoba, and the prairie islands of the Lower 
 Assiniboine, — one hundred thousand square miles of water. 
 The water has long since been drained off by the lowering 
 of the rocky channels leading to Hudson Bay, and the bed 
 of the extinct lake now forms the richest prairie-land in 
 the world. 
 
 But although Winnipeg has shrunken to a tenth of its 
 original size, its rivers still remain worthy of the great 
 basin into which they once flowed. The Saskatchewan is 
 longer than the Danube, the Winnipeg has twice the 
 volume of the Rhine. Four hundred thousand square 
 miles of continent shed their waters into Lake Winnipeg ; 
 a lake as changeful as the ocean, but, fortunately for us, in
 
 Butler] WINNIPEG LAKE AND RIVER. 247 
 
 its very calmest mood to-day. Not a wave, not a ripple 
 on its surface, not a breath of breeze to aid the untiring 
 paddles. The little canoe, weighed down by men and pro- 
 visions, had scarcely three inches of its gunwale over the 
 water, and yet the steersman held his course far out into 
 the glassy waste, leaving behind the marshy headlands 
 which marked the river's mouth. 
 
 A long low point stretching from the south shore of the 
 lake was faintly visible on the horizon. It was past mid- 
 day when we reached it ; so, putting in among the rocky 
 boulders which lined the shore, we lighted our fire and 
 cooked our dinner. Then, resuming our way, the Grand 
 Traverse was entered upon. Far away over the lake arose 
 the point of the Big Stone, a lonely cape whose perpen- 
 dicular front was raised high above the water. The sun 
 began to sink towards the west; but still not a breath 
 rippled the surface of the lake, not a sail moved over the 
 wide expanse, all was as lonely as though our tiny craft 
 had been the sole speck of life on the waters of the world. 
 The red sun sank into the lake, warning us that it was 
 time to seek the shore and make our beds for the night. 
 A deep sandy bay, with a high backing of woods and 
 rocks, seemed to invite us to its solitudes. Steering in with 
 great caution among the rocks, we landed in this sheltered 
 spot, and drew our boat upon the sandy beach. The shore 
 yielded large store of drift-wood, the relics of many a 
 northern gale. Behind us lay a trackless forest, in front 
 the golden glory of the western sky. As the night shades 
 deepened around us and the red glare of our drift-wood 
 fire cast its light upon the woods and rocks, the scene be- 
 came one of rare beauty. 
 
 As I sat watching from a little distance this picture so 
 full of all the charms of the wild life of the voyageur and 
 the Indian, I little marvelled that the red child of the lakes
 
 248 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Butleb 
 
 and the woods should be loath to quit such scenes for all 
 the luxuries of our civilization. Almost as I thought with 
 pity over his fate, seeing here the treasures of nature 
 which were his, there suddenly emerged from the forest 
 two dusky forms. They were Ojibbeways, who came to 
 share our fire and our evening meal. The land was still 
 their own. When I lay down to rest that night on the 
 dry sandy shore, I long watched the stars above me. As 
 children sleep after a day of toil and pla} r , so slept the 
 dusky men who lay around me. It was my first night 
 with these poor wild sons of the lone spaces ; it was strange 
 and weird, and the lapping of the mimic wave against the 
 rocks close by failed to bring sleep to my thinking eyes. 
 
 [The next day an early start was made.] 
 
 We entered the mouth of the Winnipeg Eiver at mid- 
 day and paddled up to Fort Alexander, which stands about 
 a mile from the river's entrance. Here I made my final 
 preparations for the ascent of the Winnipeg, getting a fresh 
 canoe better adapted for forcing the rapids, and at five 
 o'clock in the evening started on my journey up the river. 
 Eight miles above the fort the roar of a great fall of water 
 sounded through the twilight. In surge and spray and 
 foaming torrent the enormous volume of the Winnipeg 
 was making its last grand leap on its waj 7 to mingle its 
 waters with the lake. On the flat surface of an enormous 
 rock which stood well out into the boiling water we made 
 our fire and our camp. 
 
 The pine-trees which gave the fall its name stood round 
 us dark and solemn, waving their long arms to and fro in 
 the gusty winds that swept the valley. It was a wild 
 picture. The pine-trees standing in inky blackness ; the 
 rushing water, white with foam ; above, the rifted thunder- 
 clouds. Soon the lightning began to flash and the voice of
 
 Butlkr] WINNIPEG LAKE AND RIVER. 249 
 
 the thunder to sound above the roar of the cataract. My 
 Indians made me a rough shelter with cross poles and a 
 sail-cloth, and, huddling themselves together under the 
 upturned canoe, we slept regardless of the storm. . . . 
 
 A man may journey very far through the lone spaces 
 of the earth without meeting with another Winnipeg River. 
 In it nature has contrived to place her two great units of 
 earth and water in strange and wild combinations. To say 
 that the Winnipeg River has an immense volume of water, 
 that it descends three hundred and sixty feet in a distance 
 of one hundred and sixty miles, that it is full of eddies and 
 whirlpools, of every variation of waterfall from chutes to 
 cataracts, that it expands into lonely pine-cliffed lakes and 
 far-reaching island-studded bays, that its bed is cumbered 
 with immense wave-polished rocks, that its vast solitudes 
 are silent and its cascades ceaselessly active, — to say all this 
 is but to tell in bare items of fact the narrative of its beauty. 
 For the Winnipeg by the multiplicity of its perils and the 
 ever-changing beauty of its character, denes the descrip- 
 tion of civilized men as it defies the puny efforts of civilized 
 travel. It seems part of the savage, — fitted alone for him 
 and for his ways, useless to carry the burden's of man's 
 labor, but useful to shelter the wild things of wood and 
 water which dwell in its waves and along its shores. And 
 the red man who steers his little birch-bark canoe through 
 the foaming rapids of the Winnipeg, how well he knows its 
 various ways ! To him it seems to possess life and instinct, 
 he speaks of it as one would of a high-mettled charger 
 which will do anything if he be rightly handled. It gives 
 him his test of superiority, his proof of courage. To shoot 
 the Otter Falls or- the Rapids of Barriere, to carry his 
 canoe down the whirling of Portage-de-1'Isle, to lift her 
 from the rush of water at the Seven Portages, or launch 
 her by the edge of the whirlpool below the Chute-a-Jocko,
 
 250 HALF HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Butler 
 
 all this is to be a brave and a skilful Indian, for the man 
 who can do all this must possess a power in the sweep of 
 his paddle, a quickness of glance, and a quiet consciousness 
 of skill, not to be found except after generations of practice. 
 For hundreds of years the Indian has lived amidst these 
 rapids, they have been the playthings of his boyhood, the 
 realities of his life, the instinctive habit of his old age. 
 What the horse is to the Arab, what the dog is to the 
 Esquimaux, what the camel is to those who journey across 
 Arabian deserts, so is the canoe to the Ojibbeway. Yonder 
 wooded shore yields him from first to last the materials 
 he requires for its construction : cedar for the slender ribs, 
 birch bark to cover them, juniper to stitch together the sepa- 
 rate pieces, red pine to give resin for the seams and crevices. 
 By the lake or river shore, close to his wigwam, the boat is 
 
 built ; 
 
 "And the forest life is in it, — 
 All its mystery and its magic, 
 All the tightness of the birch-tree, 
 All the toughness of the cedar, 
 All the larch's supple sinews. 
 And it floated on the river 
 Like a yellow leaf in autumn, 
 Like a yellow water-lily." 
 
 It is not a boat, it is a house ; it can be carried long 
 distances overland from lake to lake. It is frail beyond 
 words, yet you can load it down to the water's edge ; it 
 carries the Indian by day, it shelters him by night ; in it 
 he will steer boldly out into a vast lake where land is un- 
 seen, or paddle through mud and swamp or reedy shallows ; 
 sitting in it, he gathers his harvest of wild rice, or catches 
 his fish or shoots his game ; it will dash down a foaming 
 rapid, brave a fiercely running torrent, or lie like a sea 
 bird on the placid water. 
 
 For six months the canoe is the home of the Ojibbeway.
 
 
 Butler] WINNIPEG LAKE AND RIVER. 251 
 
 While the trees are green, while the waters dance and 
 sparkle, while the wild rice bends its graceful head in the 
 lake, and the wild duck dwells amidst the rush-covered 
 mere, the Ojibbeway's home is the birch-bark canoe. 
 When the winter comes and the lake and rivers harden 
 beneath the icy breath of the north wind, the canoe is put 
 carefully away ; covered with branches and with snow, it 
 lies through the long dreary winter until the wild swan 
 and the wavey, passing northward to the polar seas, call it 
 again from its long icy sleep. 
 
 Such is the life of the canoe, and such the river along 
 which it rushes like an arrow. 
 
 The days that now commenced to pass were filled from 
 dawn to dark with moments of keenest enjoyment, every- 
 thing was new and strange, and each hour brought with it 
 some fresh surprise of Indian skill or Indian scenery. 
 
 The sun would be just tipping the western shores with 
 his first rays when the canoe would be lifted from its ledge 
 of rock and laid gently on the Avater ; then the blankets 
 and kettles, the provisions and the guns, would be placed 
 in it, and four Indians would take their seats, while one 
 remained on the shore to steady the bark upon the water 
 and keep its sides from contact with the rock ; then when 
 I had taken my place in the centre, the outside man would 
 spring gently in, and we would glide away from the rocky 
 resting-place. To tell the mere work of each day is no 
 difficult matter : start at five o'clock a.m., halt for break- 
 fast at seven o'clock, off again at eight, halt at one o'clock 
 for dinner, away at two o'clock, paddle until sunset at 
 seven-thirty; that was the work of each day. But how 
 shall I attempt to fill in the details of scene and cir- 
 cumstance between these rough outlines of time and toil, 
 for almost every hour of the long summer day the great 
 Winnipeg revealed some new phase of beauty and of peril,
 
 252 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Butler 
 
 some changing scene of lonely grandeur? I have already- 
 stated that the river in its course from the Lake of the 
 Woods to Lake Winnipeg, one hundred and sixty miles, 
 makes a descent of three hundred and sixty feet. 
 
 This descent is effected not by a continuous decline, but 
 by a series of terraces at various distances from each other ; 
 in other words, the river forms innumerable lakes and wide 
 expanding reaches bound together by rapids and perpen- 
 dicular falls of varying altitude; thus when the voyageur 
 has lifted his canoe from the foot of the Silver Falls and 
 launched it again above the head of that rapid, he will 
 have surmounted two-and-twenty feet of the ascent ; again, 
 the dreaded Seven Portages will give him a total rise of 
 sixty feet in a distance of three miles. (How cold does the 
 bare narration of these facts appear beside their actual 
 realization in a small canoe manned by Indians !) Let us 
 see if we can picture one of these many scenes. There 
 sounds ahead a roar of falling water, and we see, upon 
 rounding some pine-clad island or ledge of rock, a tumbling 
 mass of foam and spray studded with projecting rocks and 
 flanked by dark wooded shores ; above we can see nothing, 
 but below, the waters, maddened by their wild rush amidst 
 the rocks, surge and leap in angry whirlpools. It is as 
 wild a scene of crag and wood and water as the eye can 
 gaze upon, but we look upon it not for its beauty, because 
 there is no time for that, but because it is an enemy that 
 must be conquered. 
 
 Now mark how these Indians steal upon this enemy be- 
 fore he is aware of it. The immense volume of water, es- 
 caping from the eddies and whirlpools at the foot of the 
 tall, rushes on in a majestic sweep into calmer water; this 
 i ish produces along the shores of the river a counter- or 
 I ack-current which flows up sometimes close to the foot 
 ©f the fall; along this back-water the canoe is carefully
 
 Butler] WINNIPEG LAKE AND RIVER. 253 
 
 steered, being often not six feet from the opposing rush in 
 the central river; but the back-current in turn ends in a 
 whirlpool, and the canoe, if it followed this back-current, 
 would inevitably end in the same place. For a minute 
 there is no paddling, the bow-paddle and the steersman 
 alone keeping the boat in her proper direction as she drifts 
 rapidly up the current. Among the crew not a word is 
 spoken, but every man knows what he has to do, and will 
 be ready when the moment comes ; and now the moment 
 has come, for on one side there foams along a mad surge 
 of water, and on the other the angry whirlpool twists and 
 turns in smooth hollowing curves round an .axis of air, 
 whirling round it with a strength that would snap our 
 birch bark into fragments, and suck us down into the great 
 depths below. All that can be gained by the back current 
 has been gained, and now it is time to quit it ; but where ? 
 for there is often only the choice of the whirlpool or the 
 central river. Just on the very edge of the eddy there is 
 one loud shout given by the bow-paddle, and the canoe 
 shoots full into the centre of the boiling flood, driven by 
 the united strength of the entire crew ; the men work for 
 their very lives, and the boat breasts across the river, with 
 her head turned full towards the falls; the waters foam 
 and dash about her, the waves leap high over the gunwale, 
 the Indians shout as they dip their paddles like lightning 
 into the foam, and the stranger to such a scene holds his 
 breath amidst this war of man against natui-e. Ha ! the 
 struggle is useless ; they cannot force her against such a 
 torrent; we are close to the rocks and foam; but see, she 
 is driven down by the current, in spite of those wild fast 
 strokes. The dead strength of such a rushing flood must 
 prevail. Yes, it is true, the canoe has been driven back ; 
 but behold, almost in a second the whole thing is done, — we 
 float suddenly beneath a little rocky isle on the foot of the 
 
 22
 
 254 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Butler 
 
 cataract. We have crossed the river in the face of the fall, 
 and the portage landing is over this rock, while three yards 
 out on either side the torrent foams its headlong course. 
 
 Of the skill necessary to perform such things it is useless 
 to speak. A single false stroke and the whole thing would 
 have failed ; driven headlong down the torrent, another 
 attempt would have to be made to gain this rock -protected 
 spot, but now we lie secure here ; spray all around us, for 
 the rush of the river is on either side, and you can touch 
 it with an outstretched paddle. The Indians rest on their 
 paddles and laugh ; their long hair has escaped from its 
 fastening through their exertion, and they retie it while 
 they rest. One is already standing upon the wet, slippery 
 rock, holding the canoe in its place ; then the others get 
 out. The freight is carried up, piece by piece, and de- 
 posited on the flat surface some ten feet above ; that done, 
 the canoe is lifted out very gently, for a single blow against 
 this hard granite boulder would shiver and splinter the 
 frail birch-bark covering; they raise her very carefully up 
 the steep face of the cliff and rest again on the top. What 
 a view there is from coigne of vantage ! We are on the lip 
 of the fall ; on each side it makes its plunge, and below wo 
 mark at leisure the torrent we have just braved ; above, it 
 is smooth water, and away ahead we see the foam of an- 
 other rapid. The rock on which we stand has been worn 
 smooth by the washing of the water during countless ages, 
 and from a cleft or fissure there springs a pine-tree or a 
 rustling aspen. We have crossed the Petit Eoches, and 
 our course is onward still. 
 
 Through many scenes like this we held our way during 
 the last days of July. The weather was beautiful; now 
 and then a thunder-storm would roll along during the 
 night, but the morning sun, rising clear and bright, would 
 almost tempt one to believe that it had been a dream, if
 
 Finck] A FINE SCENICT ROUTE. 255 
 
 the pools of water in the hollows of the rocks and the 
 dampness of blanket or oil-cloth had not proved the sun a 
 humbug. Our general distance each day would be about 
 thirty-two miles, with an average of six portages. At sun- 
 set we made our camp on some rocky isle or shelving 
 shore : one or two cut wood, another got the cooking 
 things ready, a fourth gummed the seams of the canoe, 
 a fifth cut shavings from a dry stick for the fire; for my- 
 self, I generally took a plunge in the cool, delicious water; 
 and soon the supper hissed in the pans, the kettle steamed 
 from its suspending stick, and the evening meal was eaten 
 with appetites such as only the voyageur can understand. 
 
 Then when the shadows of the night had fallen around 
 and all was silent, save the river's tide against the rocks, 
 we would stretch our blankets on the springy moss of the 
 crag, and lie down to sleep with only the stars for a roof. 
 
 Happy, happy days were these, — days the memory of 
 which goes very far into the future, growing brighter as 
 we journey farther away from them; for the scenes through 
 which our course was laid were such as speak in whispers, 
 only when we have left them, — the whispers of the pine- 
 tree, the music of running water, the stillness of great 
 lonely lakes. 
 
 A FINE SCENIC ROUTE. 
 
 HENRY T. FINCK. 
 
 [From Henry T. Finck's "The Pacific Coast Scenic Tour" we 
 6elect the following description of the Canadian Pacific Railway route, 
 which is acknowledged to possess a long succession of grand and 
 beautiful scenery, unequalled by any other railroad route in America. 
 The description is too long a one to be given in full, and for further 
 acquaintance with it the reader must be referred to the book itself.]
 
 256 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Finck 
 
 After leaving Vancouver, and before reaching West- 
 minster, the train for some time runs along Burrard Inlet, 
 on which is situated Fort Moody, another town which had 
 hoped to be chosen as terminus, and actually did enjoy 
 that privilege for a short time. The shores of the inlet are 
 beautifully wooded, and some of the trees are of enormous 
 size. At the crossing of Stave River a fine view is ob- 
 tained of Mount Baker, looking forward to the right ; and 
 the bridge over the Harrison River, where it meets the 
 Frazer, also affords a picturesque view. For the next fif- 
 teen or sixteen hours the train follows the banks of the 
 Frazer River and its tributaries, and this is one of the 
 grandest sections of the route. 
 
 At the first the Frazer is a muddy, yellow river, about 
 the size of the Willamette above Oregon City, but more 
 rapid and winding, and an occasional steamer may be seen 
 floating along with the current, or slowly making headway 
 against it. In some places the railway runs so close to the 
 precipitous bank of the river that a handkerchief might 
 be dropped from a car window into the swirling eddies, 
 fifty feet below. At other places it leaves room — and just 
 room enough — for the old wagon-road between the track 
 and the river ; but it would take a cool driver, with much 
 confidence in his horses, to remain on his wagon here when 
 a train passes. At last the road itself becomes frightened 
 and crosses the river on a bridge, whereupon it winds along 
 the hill-side above the opposite bank, at a safe distance. 
 
 This road was made during the Frazer River gold ex- 
 citement in 1858, when twenty-five thousand miners flocked 
 into this region, and wages for any kind of work were ten 
 to eighteen dollars a day. To-day the metal no longer 
 oxists in what white men consider paying quantity; but 
 Chinamen may still be seen along the river, washing for 
 remnants, their earnings being about fifty cents a day.
 
 Finck] A FINE SCENIC ROUTE. 257 
 
 There is also a " Euby Creek" in this neighborhood, and 
 some Indian habitations and salmon-fishing places. Shortly 
 before reaching Yale, which for a long time was the west- 
 ern end of the road, there is a slight intermission in the 
 scenic drama, represented by some rich, level, agricultural 
 lands, as if to give the passengers a moment's rest before 
 the wonders of the Frazer Canon begin to monopolize their 
 bewildered attention till darkness sets in and drops the 
 curtain on the superb panorama. 
 
 Yale, which is so completely shut in by high, frowning 
 mountain walls on every side that the sun touches the 
 village only during part of the day, has lost its impor- 
 tance since it ceased to be a terminus, and seems at present 
 to be inhabited chiefly by Indians and half-breeds. The 
 train is invaded by a bevy of half-breed girls with baskets 
 of splendid apples and pears, which could not beaten for 
 size and flavor in any of our States, and indicate a possible 
 use for these mountain regions in the future. And now 
 the train plunges into the midst of the series of terrific 
 gorges which constitute the Frazer Canon, and which 
 makes this railway literally the most gorge-ous in the 
 world. Here were appalling engineering difficulties to 
 overcome, which no private corporation without the most 
 liberal government support could have undertaken. Yet 
 the builders had to be thankful even for this wild and 
 rugged canon dug out by the Frazer River, without which 
 the Cascade range would have been impassable. 
 
 The palace cars of the Canadian Pacific, which contain 
 all the best features of the Pullman cars, with home im- 
 provements, have a special observatory, with largo win- 
 dows, at the end of the train, whence the caiion should be 
 viewed ; but to see it at its best one must sit on the rear 
 platform, so as to see at the same time both of the wild 
 and precipitous canon walls, between which the river 
 i.— r 22*
 
 258 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Finck 
 
 rushes along as if pursued by demons. At every curve 
 you think the gorge must come to an end, but it only 
 grows more stupendous, and the river, lashed into foam 
 and fury, dashes blindly against the rocks which try to 
 arrest its course. These rocks, ten to thirty feet wide and 
 sometimes twice as long, form many pretty little stone 
 islands in the middle of the torrent, and are a character- 
 istic feature of the canon scenery. Numerous tunnels, 
 resembling those on the Columbia Eiver, are built through 
 arches seemingly projecting over the river. The train 
 plunges into them recklessly, but always comes out fresh 
 and smiling on the other side, although it seems that if the 
 bottom of the tunnel should by any chance drop out, the 
 train would be precipitated into the river below. 
 
 Once in a while the river takes a short rest, and in these 
 comparatively calm stretches hundreds of beautiful large 
 red fish can be seen from the train, in the clear water, strug- 
 gling up-stream. With their dark backs and bright red 
 sides they form a sight which is none the less interesting 
 when you are told that they are " only dog salmon," which 
 are not relished by whites, though the Indians eat them. 
 
 [A night now passes, during which much fine scenery is missed. 
 But the best is reserved for the next day.] 
 
 Scenic wonders now succeed one another with bewilder- 
 ing rapidity throughout the day. This second day, in fact, 
 represents the climax of the trip, and the attention is not 
 allowed to flag for a second. However much such a con- 
 fession may go against the grain of patriotism, every can- 
 did traveller must admit that there is nothing in the United 
 States in the way of massive mountain scenery (except, 
 perhaps, in Alaska) to compare with the glorious pano- 
 rama which is unfolded on this route. AVithin thirty-six 
 hours after leaving Vancouver we traverse three of the
 
 Finck] A FINE SCENIC ROUTE. 259 
 
 grandest mountain ranges in America, — the Cascades, Sel- 
 kirks, and Rockies, — all of them the abode of eternal snow 
 and glaciers, and all of them traversed through by cafions 
 which vie with each other in terrific grandeur. 
 
 Before the Selkirks are reached the train passes the Co- 
 lumbia or Gold range, through the Eagle Pass, so called 
 because it was discovered by watching an eagle's flight. 
 Eagle's Pass is a poetic and appropriate name, and yet I 
 think it would be well to rename this mountain pass and 
 call it Mirror Lake Canon, because that would call the at- 
 tention of tourists to what is its most characteristic feature, 
 which may otherwise be overlooked. There are four lakes 
 and many smaller bodies of water in this valley, in whose 
 placid surface the finely-sloped mountain ridges and sum- 
 mits of the pass are reflected with marvellous distinctness, 
 so that here, as in the Yosemite Mirror Lake, the copy is 
 more lovely than the original. Some of the mountain-sides 
 reflected in these mirrors are naked rocks, others are cov- 
 vered with living evergreen trees, and others still with dead 
 trees. In the mirror these dead forests look hardly less 
 beautiful than the living ones ; but in the original the eye 
 dwells with more pleasure on the green forests which here, 
 and almost everywhere in British Columbia, grow with 
 the rank luxuriance of a Ceylon jungle. The soil under 
 these dense tree-masses, consisting of decayed pine- and fir- 
 needles, a foot deep, and always moist, makes a paradise for 
 lovely mosses and ferns. Here, also, is the home of the 
 bear, and one would not have to walk far in this thicket 
 to encounter a grizzly, black, or cinnamon bruin. 
 
 On emerging from the Mirror Lake Canon, a great sur- 
 prise awaits the passengers. The Columbia River — to 
 which they had fancied they had said a final farewell when 
 they were ferried across it on the way from Portland to 
 Tacoma — suddenly comes upon the scene again, as clear
 
 260 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Finck 
 
 and as picturesque as ever ; and even at this immense dis- 
 tance from its mouth still large enough to require a bridge 
 half a mile long to cross it. A few hours later the train 
 again crosses the Columbia, at Donald, where the river has 
 become much smaller than it seems that it should in such 
 a short distance. 
 
 To get an explanation of this circumstance, it is interest- 
 ing to glance at the map and notice what an immense 
 curve northward the Columbia has made in this interval 
 in order to find a passage through the Selkirk range ; and 
 in thus encircling the snowy Selkirks it has, of course, 
 added to its volume the contents of innumerable glacier 
 streams and mountain brooks. Its real sources are south- 
 east of Donald, on the summit of the Rockies, separated 
 by but a short distance from springs which run down on 
 the eastern side and find their way through the Mississippi 
 into the Gulf of Mexico. Thus do extremes meet. It 
 would be difficult to find anything so curious in the course 
 of any other river as this immense, irregular parallelogram 
 which the Columbia here describes from its sources to 
 Arrow Lake. . . . 
 
 The snow-peaks of the Selkirks are now looming up on 
 all sides, and the atmosphere becomes more bracing and 
 Alpine as the train slowly creeps up the mountain-side, 
 doubling up on itself in a loop. The Glacier House is 
 reached before long, and here every tourist who has time 
 to spare should get off and spend a day or two, since next 
 to Banff, in the National Park, this is the finest point 
 along the whole route, scenically speaking, while the air is 
 even more salubrious, cool, and intoxicating than at Banff, 
 owing to the nearness of the glacier. It would be difficult, 
 even in Switzerland, to find a more romantic spot for a 
 hotel than the location of the Glacier House. High peaks 
 rise up on every side, so finely moulded, so deeply mantled
 
 Finck] A FINE SCENIC ROUTE. 261 
 
 with snow, and presenting such various aspects from 
 different points of view, that we forget our disgust at the 
 fact that, as usual in the West, these grand eternal peaks 
 have been named after ephemeral mortals, — Browns, 
 Smiths, and Joneses. The Grizzly and Cougar Mountains 
 are more aptly named, as these animals will long continue 
 to abound in the impenetrable forests which adorn these 
 peaks below the snow-line. Looking from the hotel to- 
 wards the glacier, to the left is a peak which looks like the 
 Matterhorn, the most unique mountain in Switzerland, and, 
 what is still more striking, at its side is another smaller 
 peak, which is an exact copy of the Little Matterhorn. . . . 
 
 The principal difference between the Swiss Alps and the 
 Selkirk range lies in the aspect of the mountain-sides 
 below the snow-line. These, in Switzerland, are green 
 meadows dotted with browsing cows, and presenting one 
 unbroken mass of dark green, except where an avalanche 
 has tobogganed down and opened what seems at a distance 
 like a roadway, but is found to be a battle-field strewn 
 with the corpses of cedars three and four feet in diameter. 
 
 The most imposing view of such a mountain forest un- 
 broken by a single avalanche path is obtained from the 
 snow-sheds just ahove the hotel. Sitting outside these 
 sheds and looking towards the left, you see a vast mountain 
 slope covered with literally millions of dark-green trees. 
 Why has none of the world's greatest poets ever been 
 permitted to gaze on such a Selkirk forest, that he mi<^ht 
 have aroused in his unfortunate readers who are not 
 privileged to see one emotions similar to those inspired 
 by it? But I fear that neither verse nor photographs, nor 
 even the painter's brush, can ever more than suggest the 
 real grandeur of such a forest scene. This mountain is 
 not snow-crowned in September, but its wooded summit 
 makes a sharp green line against the snow-peaks beyond
 
 262 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Finck 
 
 and above. From this summit down to the foot stand the 
 giant cedars, as crowded as the yellow stalks in a Minnesota 
 wheatfield. But in place of the flat monochrome of a 
 wheatfield, our sloping forest presents a most fascinating 
 color spectacle. The slanting rays of the sun tinge the 
 waving tree-tops with a deeply saturated yellowish-green, 
 curiously interspersed with a mosaic of dark, almost black 
 streaks and patches of shade, due to clouds and other causes, 
 and the whole edged by the dazzling snow. 
 
 If we descend and enter this forest, a cathedral-like awe 
 thrills the nerves. Daylight has not the power to pene- 
 trate to the ground hidden by this dense mass of tree-tops 
 rising two hundred to three hundred feet into the air, — 
 except that an occasional ray of sunlight may steal in for 
 a second, like a flash of lightning. And the carpet on 
 which this forest stands! In America we rarely see a 
 house, even of a day-laborer, without a carpet ; why, then, 
 should these royal trees do without one ? The carpet is 
 itself a minature forest of ferns and mosses, luxuriating 
 in riotous profusion on an ever-moist soil, the product of 
 thousands of generations of pine-needles. !Nor is this 
 carpet a monochrome, for the green is varied by numerous 
 berries of various kinds, most of which are red, as they 
 should be, — the complementary color of green. But there 
 are also acres of blueberries as large as cherries ; and if 
 you will tear off a few branches of these and bring them 
 to the young bear chained up near the Glacier Hotel, he 
 will be very grateful, and you will find it amusing to watch 
 him eating them. 
 
 There is music, too, in this Forest Cathedral, which is 
 heard to best advantage from the elevated gallery occupied 
 by the snow-sheds. It takes a trained ear to distinguish 
 the steady, rippling staccato sound of a snow- fed moun- 
 tain brook from the prolonged legato sigh of a pine
 
 
 Pinck] A FINE SCENIC ROUTE. 263 
 
 forest, swelling to fortissimo, and dying away by turns. 
 In the romantic spot we have chosen these sounds are 
 blended, the music of the torrents being caught up by the 
 sloping forest as by a huge sounding-board, and increased 
 in loudness by being mingled with the mournful strains 
 of the tree-tops, as orchestral colors are blended by 
 modern masters. Those err who say there is no music in 
 nature. It is not in " Siegfried" alone that the Waldweben 
 is musical, that leaves sing as well as birds, while the 
 thunder occasionally adds its loud basso prof undo. The 
 aesthetic exhilaration which we owe to these poetic sights 
 and sounds is intensified by the salubrious breezes which 
 waft this music to our ears. Born among the clouds and 
 glaciers, they are perfumed in passing across the forests, 
 warmed by the sun's rays in passing over the valley; and 
 every breath of this elixir adds a day to one's life. It is 
 not surprising that mountains should make the best health- 
 resorts ; for do they not themselves understand and obey 
 the laws of health ? They keep their heads cool under a 
 snow-cap, their feet warm in a mossy blanket, and their 
 sides covered with a dense fir overcoat. . . . 
 
 For the greater part of the two hours which the train 
 requires to go from Donald to Golden City it passes along 
 the bank of the Columbia River; and there is, perhaps, no 
 part of the whole route where grandeur and beauty are so 
 admirably united as here, especially in the autumn. Tho 
 grandeur lies in the snowy summits which frame in this 
 Columbia valley — the Selkirks on one side, the Rockies on 
 the other. The beauty lies in tho river itself and in the 
 young trees and bushes along its banks, dressed in fall 
 styles and colors, some as richly yellow as a golden-rod, 
 others as deeply purple or crimson as fuchsias or begonias, 
 the yellow predominating. These colored trees occur in 
 groups and streaks along the river, and in isolated patches
 
 264 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Finck 
 
 on the mountain-sides, where they might be mistaken for 
 brown mosses or lichen-colored rocks. There may be as 
 beautifully colored trees in our Eastern forests, but they 
 are not mixed, as here, with young evergreen pines, nor 
 have they a framework of snow mountains, like these, to 
 enhance their beauty. 
 
 High up on the ridges there is another variety of trees 
 of a beautiful russet color set off by a deep-blue sky. 
 Talk of color symphonies. Here they are— miles of them 
 — long as a Wagner trilogy, and as richly orchestrated. 
 Even the masses of blackened logs and stumps— if one can 
 set aside for the moment all thought of pity for the poor 
 charred trees, so happy before the fire in their green luxu- 
 riance, and of the sad waste of useful timber— enhance the 
 charm of this scene by contrast. 
 
 I have said that the time-table of the Canadian Pacific 
 Eailway is so arranged that the finest scenery is passed in 
 daylight, in both directions ; but of course there must be 
 exceptions, and, as a matter of fact, as long as the road 
 crosses the three great mountain ranges of the Cascades, Sel- 
 kirks, and Rockies, there is hardly a mile that does not offer 
 something worth seeing. Consequently, as darkness again 
 closes in soon after leaving Golden, east-bound passengers 
 must resign themselves to lose sight of the Kicking Horse 
 Canon, the Beaverfoot and Ottertail Mountains, the large 
 glacier on Mount Stephen, etc.,— which is all the more pro- 
 voking as they have to sit up anyway till midnight, when 
 Banff is reached ; for, of course, every tourist who is in his 
 riirht senses and not a slave to duty gets off here to spend 
 a few days in the Canadian National Park. 
 
 [The description of this park we can give only in summary.] 
 
 Summing up on the Canadian National Park, we may 
 say it has not so many natural wonders as the Yellowstone
 
 
 Finck] A FINE SCENIC ROUTE. 265 
 
 Park, — no geysers, steam-holes, gold-bottomed rivulets, 
 paint-pots, nor anything to place beside the Yellowstone 
 Canon and Falls. But the Minnewonka Lake may fairly 
 challenge comparison with the Yellowstone Lake, and the 
 mountain scenery is grander in the Canadian Park, and 
 the snow and glaciers are nearer, though not so near as at 
 the Glacier House, where the air is in consequence cooler 
 and more bracing in summer than even at Banff. As the 
 Canadian Park is only twenty-six miles long and ten 
 wide, while the Yellowstone Park is about sixty-two by 
 fifty-four miles, the former can be seen in much less time 
 than it takes to do justice to the latter. 
 
 When we get ready to leave Banff we have to take the 
 midnight train, so there is no chance to say good-by to the 
 mountains. But' we have seen so much of them since 
 leaving Vancouver, that we have felt almost tempted to 
 cry out to Nature, " Hold, enough ; less would be more !" 
 Now we get ample opportunity to ruminate in peace over 
 our crowded impressions. When we get up we are on the 
 prairie ; we go to bed in the prairie, after traversing a ter- 
 ritory larger than a European kingdom ; again we rise on 
 the prairie, and again go to bed on it; and not till Lake 
 Superior is approached does the scenery once more become 
 interesting. . . . 
 
 As a general thing, it is no doubt wiser to take the 
 Canadian Pacific Railway westward than eastward, as the 
 scenic climax is on the western side. However, it is quite 
 possible to avoid the feeling of anti-climax on going east, 
 if we conclude the trip with the Thousand Islands and the 
 Rapids of the St. Lawrence, together with Montreal; or 
 with Niagara Falls and the Hudson River. The Pacific 
 slope, no doubt, is scenically far more attractive than the 
 Atlantic ; still, there are some things in the East which 
 even California would be proud to add to her attractions. 
 m 23
 
 2G6 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Fremont 
 
 SOUTH PASS AND FREMONT'S PEAK. 
 
 JOHN C. FREMONT. 
 
 [Captain John Charles Fremont, one of the earliest government 
 explorers of the Rocky Mountain region and the Pacific slope, was 
 born at Savannah, Georgia, in 1813. Becoming a civil engineer in the 
 government service, in 1842 he explored the South Pass of the Rocky- 
 Mountains, ascending in August the highest peak in the Wind River 
 ran>j;e. This has since been known as Fremont's Peak. In the fol- 
 lowing year he explored Great Salt Lake. In 1845 he led a third 
 expedition to the Pacific, and during the Mexican war was instru- 
 mental in securing California for the United States. He led subse- 
 quent expeditions westward, was Republican candidate for the Presi- 
 dency in 1856, served during the war, and in 1878-82 was governor 
 of Arizona. He died in 1890. "We subjoin his account of the crossing 
 of the South Pass and discovery and ascent of Fremont's Peak.] 
 
 The view [of the Wind Eiver Mountains] dissipated in 
 a moment the pictures which had been created in our 
 minds by many travellers who have compared these moun- 
 tains with the Alps in Switzerland, and speak of the glit- 
 tering peaks which rise in icy majesty amidst the eternal 
 glaciers nine or ten thousand feet into the region of eternal 
 snows. 
 
 [Continuing their course, they encamped on August 7 near the South 
 Pass, and the next morning set out for the dividing ridge.] 
 
 About six miles from our encampment brought us to 
 the summit. The ascent had been so gradual that, with 
 all the intimate knowledge possessed by Carson, who had 
 made the country his home for seventeen years, we were 
 obliged to watch very closely to find the place at which we 
 reached the culminating point. This was between two low
 
 Fremont] SOUTH PASS AND FREMONT'S PEAK. 267 
 
 hills, rising on either hand fifty or sixty feet. When I 
 looked hack at them, from the foot of the immediate slope 
 on the western plain, their summits appeared to be about 
 one hundred and twenty feet above. From the impression 
 on my mind at this time, and subsequently on our return, 
 I should compare the elevation which we mounted imme- 
 diately at the Pass to the ascent of the Capitol hill from 
 the avenue at Washington. It is difficult for me to fix 
 positively the breadth of this pass. From the broken 
 ground where it commences, at the foot of the White 
 River chain, the view to the southeast is over a champaign 
 country, broken, at the distance of nineteen miles, by the 
 Table Rock, which, with the other isolated hills in its 
 vicinity, seem to stand in a comparative plain. This I 
 judged to be its termination, the ridge recovering its 
 rugged character with the Table Rock. 
 
 It will be seen that it in no manner resembles the places 
 to which the term is commonly applied, — nothing of the 
 gorge-like character and winding ascents of the Alleghany 
 passes in America; nothing of the Great St. Bernard and 
 Simplon passes in Europe. Approaching it from the mouth 
 of the Sweet Water, a sandy plain, one hundred and twenty 
 miles long, conducts, by a gradual and regular ascent, to 
 the summit, about seven thousand feet above the sea ; and 
 the traveller, without being reminded of any change by 
 toilsome ascents, suddenly finds himself on the waters 
 which flow to the Pacific Ocean. By the route we had 
 travelled, the distance from Fort Laramie is three hundred 
 and twenty miles, or niue hundred and fifty from the 
 mouth of the Kansas. 
 
 [They continued their course westward, crossing several tributaries 
 of the Colorado River, and on the 10th reached unexpectedly a beautiful 
 
 lake.]
 
 268 BALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Fremont 
 
 Here a view of the intensest magnificence and grandeur 
 burst upon our eyes. With nothing between us and their 
 feet to lessen the effect of the whole height, a grand bed 
 of snow-capped mountains rose before us, pile upon piie, 
 glowing in the bright light of an August day. Immediately 
 below them lay the lake, between two ridges, covered with 
 dark pines, which swept down from the main chain to the 
 spot where we stood. " Never before," said Mr. Preuss, 
 " in this country or in Europe, have I seen such grand, 
 magnificent rocks." I was so much pleased with the 
 beauty of the place that I determined to make the main 
 camp here, where our animals would find good pasturage, 
 and explore the mountains with a small party of men. 
 
 [On the 12th this party set out, crossing intervening hills, and 
 ascending through dense forests to the summit of the ridge.] 
 
 We had reached a very elevated point, and in the valley 
 below, and among the hills, were a number of lakes of dif- 
 ferent levels, some two or three hundred feet above others, 
 with which they communicated by foaming torrents. Even 
 to our great height the roar of the cataracts came up, and 
 we could see them leaping down in lines of snowy foam. 
 From this scene of busy waters we turned abruptly into 
 the stillness of a forest, where we rode among the open bolls 
 of the pines, over a lawn of verdant grass, having strikingly 
 the air of cultivated grounds. This led us, after a time, 
 among masses of rock, which had no vegetable earth but in 
 hollows and crevices, though still the pine-forest continued. 
 Towards evening we reached a defile, or rather a hole in 
 the mountains, entirely shut in by dark pine-covered rocks. 
 
 [In the morning they ascended a mountain stream, to its source in 
 a small lake surrounded by a lawn-like expanse.] 
 
 Hero I determined to leave our animals, and make the 
 rest of our way on foot. The peak appeared so near that
 
 Fremont] SOUTH PASS AND FREMONT'S PEAK. 2G9 
 
 there was no doubt of our returning before night; and a 
 few men were left in charge of the muies, with our pro- 
 visions and blankets. We took with us nothing but our 
 arms and instruments, and, as the day had become warm, 
 the greater part left our coats. Having made an early 
 dinner, we started again. We were soon involved in the 
 most rugged precipices, nearing the central chain very 
 slowly, and rising but little. The first ridge hid a succes- 
 sion of others ; and when, with great fatigue and diffi- 
 culty, we had climbed up five hundred feet, it was but to 
 make an equal descent on the other side ; all these inter- 
 vening places were filled with small deep lakes, which met 
 the eye in every direction, descending from one level to 
 another, sometimes under bridges formed by huge frag- 
 ments of granite, beneath which was heard the roar of the 
 water. These constantly obstructed our path, forcing us 
 to make long detours; frequently obliged to retrace our 
 steps, and frequently falling among the rocks. Maxwell 
 was precipitated towards the face of a precipice, and saved 
 himself from going over by throwing himself flat on the 
 ground. We clambered on, always expecting, with every 
 ridge that we crossed, to reach the foot of the peaks, and 
 always disappointed, until about four o'clock, when, pretty 
 well worn out, we reached the shore of a little lake, in 
 which was a rocky island. 
 
 By the time we had reached the farther side of the lake 
 we found ourselves all exceedingly fatigued, and, much to 
 the satisfaction of the whole party, we encamped. The 
 spot we had chosen was a broad, flat rock, in some meas- 
 ure protected from the winds by the surrounding crags, 
 and the trunks of fallen pines afforded us bright fires. 
 Near by was a foaming torrent, which tumbled into the 
 little lake about one hundred and fifty feet below us, and 
 which, by way of distinction, we have called Island Lake.
 
 270 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Fremont 
 
 We had reached the upper limit of the piney region ; as, 
 above this point, no tree was to be seen, and patches of 
 snow lay everywhere around us, on the cold sides of the 
 rock. From barometrical observations made during our 
 three days' sojourn at this place, its elevation above the 
 Gulf of Mexico is ten thousand feet. . . . 
 
 [They set out early the next morning.] On every side, 
 as we advanced, was heard the roar of waters, and of a 
 torrent, which we followed up a short distance, until it ex- 
 panded into a lake about one mile in length. On the 
 northern side of the lake was a bank of ice, or rather of 
 snow covered with a crust of ice. Carson had been our 
 guide into the mountains, and, agreeably to his advice, we 
 left this little valley and took to the ridges again, which 
 we found extremely broken, and where we were again 
 involved among precipices. Here were ice-fields, among 
 which we were all dispersed, seeking each the best way to 
 ascend the peak. Mr. Preuss attempted to walk along the 
 upper edge of one of these fields, which sloped away at an 
 angle of about twenty degrees; but his feet slipped from 
 under him, and he went plunging down the plain. A few 
 hundred feet below, at the bottom, were some fragments 
 of sharp rock, on which he landed ; and, though he turned 
 a couple of somersets, fortunately received no injury be- 
 yond a few bruises. 
 
 [That day's work failed, and they returned at evening to the camp. 
 The next day they ascended a long defile on mule-back, and soon had 
 the satisfaction to find that they had taken the right course. Finally, 
 leaving their mules they continued on foot, eventually reaching a 
 point near the summit. Here was an overhanging buttress of rock, 
 which could be surmounted only by passing around one side of it, 
 which was the face of a precipice of several hundred feet in depth.] 
 
 Putting hands and feet in the crevices between the 
 blocks I succeeded in getting over it, and when I reached
 
 Fremont] SOUTH PASS AND FREMONT'S PEAK. 271 
 
 the top, found my companions in a small valley below. 
 Descending to them, we continued climbing, and in a short 
 time reached the crest. I sprang upon the summit, and 
 another step would have precipitated me into an im- 
 mense snow-field five hundred feet below. To the edge 
 of this field was a sheer icy precipice ; and then, with a 
 gradual fall, the field sloped off for about a mile, until it 
 struck the foot of another lower ridge. I stood on a nar- 
 row crest, about three feet in width, with an inclination of 
 about 20° north, 51° east. 
 
 As soon as I had gratified the first feeling of curiosity I 
 descended, and each man ascended in his turn ; for I would 
 only allow one at a time to mount the unstable and pre- 
 carious slab, which it seemed a breath would precipitate 
 into the abyss below. We mounted the barometer in the 
 snow of the summit, and, fixing a ramrod in a crevice, un- 
 furled the national flag to wave in the breeze where never 
 flag waved before. During our morning's ascent we had 
 met no sign of animal life, except a small sparrow-like 
 bird. A stillness the most profound and a terrible solitude 
 forced themselves constantly on the mind as the great 
 features of the place. Here, on the summit, where the 
 stillness was absolute, unbroken by any sound, and solitude 
 complete, we thought ourselves beyond the region of 
 animated life; but while we were sitting on the rock, a 
 solitary bee (Bombus, the humble-bee) came winging his 
 flight from the eastern valley, and lit on the knee of one 
 of the men. 
 
 It was a strange place, the icy rock and the highest peak 
 of the Rocky Mountains, for a lover of warm sunshine and 
 flowers; and we pleased ourselves with the idea that he 
 was the first of his species to cross the mountain barrier, — 
 a solitary pioneer to foretell the advance of civilization. I 
 believe that a moment's thought would have made us let
 
 272 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Fremont 
 
 him continue his way unharmed ; but we carried out the 
 law of this county, where all animated nature seems at 
 war ; and seizing him immediately, put him in at least a 
 fit place, — in the leaves of a large book, among the flowers 
 we had collected on our way. The barometer stood at 
 18.293, the attached thermometer 44° ; giving for the 
 elevation of this summit thirteen thousand five hundred 
 and seventy feet above the Gulf of Mexico, which may be 
 called the highest flight of the bee. It is certainly the 
 highest known flight of that insect. 
 
 From the description given by Mackenzie of the moun- 
 tains where he crossed them, with that of the French 
 officer still farther to the north, and Colonel Long's 
 measurements to the south, joined to the opinion of the 
 oldest traders of the country, it is presumed that this is 
 the highest peak in the Eocky Mountains. [Fremont's 
 Peak is now estimated at thirteen thousand seven hundred 
 and ninety feet. There are many peaks now known over 
 fourteen thousand feet. The highest point is Blanca Peak, 
 fourteen thousand four hundred and sixty-three feet high.] 
 
 The day was sunny and bright, but a slight shining mist 
 hung over the lower plains, which interfered with our view 
 of the surrounding country. On one side we overlooked in- 
 numerable lakes and streams, the spring of the Colorado 
 of the Gulf of California; and on the other was the Wind 
 River Valley, where were the heads of the Yellowstone 
 branch of the Missouri; far to the north we could just dis- 
 cover the snowy heads of the Trois Tetons, where were the 
 sources of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers ; and at the 
 southern extremity of the ridge the peaks were plainly 
 visible among which were some of the springs of the 
 Nebraska or Platte River. Around us the whole scene 
 had one main, striking feature, which was that of terrible 
 convulsion. Parallel to its length, the ridge was split
 
 Hatden] IN THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 273 
 
 into chasms and fissures ; between which rose the thin lofty 
 walls, terminated with slender minarets and columns. 
 
 [The party reached camp the next day, and on the 17th turned 
 their faces homewurd, the purpose of the expedition having been 
 accomplished. ] 
 
 IN THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
 
 FERDINAND V. HAYDEN. 
 
 [About the middle of this century reports began to be heard of a 
 veritable wonderland in the far West, as yet seen only by trappers and 
 other adventurers, whose stories of the marvels they had beheld whetted 
 the appetite of scientific explorers. The first attempt to reach the 
 region of the Yellowstone was made in 1856, but failed, and it was 
 not until 18G9 that an exploring party entered this marvellous valley. 
 A second party reached the Yellowstone region in 1870, and Mr. N. P. 
 Langford wrote a glowing account of the wonders observed. The first 
 detailed description of the locality was made by Dr. Hayden, chief of 
 the Geological Survey of the Territories, in 1871. From this extended 
 and highly interesting account we can only quote a few passages, 
 selecting those which relate to the hot springs and geysers of the won- 
 derful Fire Hole Kiver region.] 
 
 Early in the morning of August 30 the valley was 
 literally filled with columns of steam, ascending from more 
 than a thousand vents. I can compare the view to nothing 
 but that of some manufacturing city like Pittsburg, as 
 seen from a high point, except that instead of the black 
 coal smoke there are here the white delicate clouds of steam. 
 Small groups or solitary springs that are scattered every- 
 where in the woods upon the mountain-sides, and which 
 would otherwise have escaped observation, are detected by 
 the columns of steam. It is evident that some of these groups 
 I. — a
 
 274 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Hatdejt 
 
 of springs have changed their base of operations within a 
 comparatively recent period ; for about midway on the east 
 side of the lower basin there is a large area covered with 
 a thick, apparently modern, deposit of the silica, as white as 
 snow, while standing quite thickly all around are the dead 
 pines, which appear to have been destroyed by the excessive 
 overflow of the water and the increased deposition. These 
 dry trees have a most desolate look ; many of them have 
 fallen down and are incrusted with the silica, while portions 
 that have fallen into the boiling springs have been reduced 
 to a pulp. 
 
 This seems to be one of the conditions of silicification, 
 for when these pulpy masses of wood are permitted to dry 
 by the cessation of the springs, the most perfect specimens 
 of petrified wood are the result. In one instance a green 
 pine-tree had fallen so as to immerse its thick top in a largo 
 hot basin, and leaves, twigs, and cones had become com- 
 pletely incrusted with the white silica, and a portion had 
 entered into the cellular structure, so that when removed 
 from the water and dried in the sun, very fair specimens 
 were obtained. Members of my party obtained specimens 
 of pine-cones that were sufficiently silicified to be packed 
 away among the collections. 
 
 In order that we might get a complete view of the Lower 
 Geyser Basin from some high point, we made a trip to the 
 summit of Twin Buttes, on the west side of the basin. 
 From the top of one of these buttes, which is six hundred 
 and thirty feet above the Fire-Hole Eiver, wo obtained a 
 bird's-eye view of the entire lower portion of the valley, 
 which was estimated to be about twenty miles long and 
 five miles wide. To the westward, among the mountains, 
 were a number of little lakes, which were covered with 
 a huge species of water-lily, Nuphar advena. The little 
 streams precipitated their waters in the most picturesque
 
 Hayden] IN THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 275 
 
 cascades or falls. One of them was named by Colonel Bar- 
 low the " Fairy Fall," from the graceful beauty with which 
 the little stream dropped down a clear descent of two hun- 
 dred and fifty feet. It is only from a high point that it can 
 be seen, for the water falls gently down from the lofty over- 
 hanging cliff into a basin at the foot, which is surrounded 
 by a line of tall pines one hundred to one hundred and fifty 
 feet in height. The continual flow of the waters of this 
 little fountain has worn a deep channel or furrow into 
 the vertical sides of the mountain. As far as the eye can 
 reach can be seen the peculiar plateau mountain ranges, 
 black with the dense forests of pine, averaging from nine 
 thousand to ten thousand feet above sea-level. . . . 
 
 A spring on a level with the river has an enormous 
 square basin thirty feet across, of unknown depth. We 
 called this the " Bath Spring." A little below is another 
 singular form of wonderful beauty. The water issues from 
 beneath the crust near the margin of the river from several 
 apertures. The basin itself is fifteen by twenty feet and 
 twenty feet deep. It seemed to me that nothing could ex- 
 ceed the transparent clearness of the water. The slightest 
 object was reflected in its clear depths, and the bright blue 
 tints were indescribable. We called this the "Cavern." 
 The mud springs are also numerous and important in this 
 group. As usual, they are of all sizes, from an inch or two 
 to twenty or thirty feet in diameter, with contents varying 
 from mere turbid water to stiff mud. They seldom have 
 any visible outlet, but are in a constant state of agitation, 
 with a sound that varies with the consistency of the con- 
 tents. There are several of the mud-pots that give off a 
 suppressed thud as the gases burst their way through the 
 stiff mortar. Sometimes the mortar is as white as snow, 
 or brown, or tinged with a variety of vivid colors. . . . 
 
 On the west side of the Firo-IIole, and along the little
 
 276 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Hatden 
 
 branch that flows into it from the west, are numbers of 
 springs of all grades, and the broad bottom is covered with 
 a snow-white silicious crust. Near the base of the moun- 
 tains there is a massive first-class boiling spring, in a con- 
 stant state of violent agitation, sending forth great columns 
 of steam, with a singular toadstool rim. . . . About three 
 miles up the Fire-Hole we meet with a small but quite 
 interesting group of springs on both sides of the stream. 
 There is a vast accumulation of silica, forming a hill fatty 
 feet along the level of the river ; upon the summit one of 
 the largest springs yet seen, nearly circular, one hundred 
 and fifty feet in diameter, boils up in the centre, but 
 overflows with such uniformity on all sides as to admit of 
 the formation of no real rim, but forming a succession of 
 little ornamental steps, from one to three inches in height, 
 just as water would congeal from cold in flowing down a 
 gentle declivity. There was the same transparent clear- 
 ness, the same brilliancy of coloring to the waters, but the 
 hot steam and the thinness of the rim prevented me from 
 approaching it near enough to ascertain its temperature or 
 observe its depth. It is certainly one of the grandest hot 
 springs ever seen by human eye. 
 
 But the most formidable one of all is near the margin of 
 the river. It seems to have broken out close by the river, 
 and to have continually enlarged its orifice by the breaking 
 down of its sides. It evidently commenced on the east 
 side and the continual wear of the under side of the crust 
 on the west side has caused the margin to fall in, until an 
 aperture at least two hundred and fifty feet in diameter has 
 been formed, with walls or sides twenty to thirty feet high, 
 nhowing the lamina, of deposition perfectly. The water is 
 intensely agitated all the time, boiling like a caldron, from 
 which a vast column of steam is ever rising, filling the 
 orifice. As the passing breeze sweeps it away for a mo-
 
 Hayden] IN THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 277 
 
 ment, one looks down into this terrible seething pit with 
 terror. All around the sides are large masses of the 
 silicious crust that have fallen from the rim. An immense 
 column of water flows out of this caldron into the river. 
 As it pours over the marginal slope it descends by numer- 
 ous small channels, with a large number of smaller ones 
 spreading over a broad surface, and the marvellous beauty 
 of the strikingly vivid coloring far surpasses anything of 
 the kind we have seen in this land of wondrous beauty, — 
 every possible shade of color, from vivid scarlet to a bright 
 rose, and every shade of yellow to a delicate cream, mingled 
 with vivid green from minute vegetation. Some of the 
 channels were lined with a very fine, delicate yellow, silky 
 material, which vibrates at every movement of the waters. 
 There was one most beautiful funnel-shaped spring, twenty 
 feet in diameter at the top, but tapering down, lined inside 
 and outside with the most delicate decorations. Indeed, to 
 one looking down into its clear depths, it seemed like a 
 fairy palace. The same jelly-like substance or pulp to 
 which I have before alluded covers a large area with the 
 various shades of light red and green. The surface yields 
 to the tread like a cushion. It is about two inches in 
 thickness, and although seldom so tenacious as to hold to- 
 gether, yet it may be taken up in quite large masses, and 
 when it becomes dry it is blown about by the wind, like 
 fragments of variegated lichens. 
 
 [From this description of the hot springs of the region we proceed 
 to an account of its marvellous geyser phenomena.] 
 
 "We camped the evening of August 5 in the middle of 
 the Upper Geyser Basin, in the midst of some of the 
 grandest geysers in the world. Colonel Barlow and Cap- 
 tain Heap, of the United States Engineers, were camped 
 on the opposite side of the Fire-Hole. Soon after reaching 
 
 24
 
 278 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Haydkn 
 
 camp a tremendous rumbling was heard, shaking the 
 ground in every direction, and soon a column of steam 
 burst forth from a crater near the edge of the east side of 
 the river. Following the steam, arose, by a succession of 
 impulses, a volume of water, apparently six feet in diameter, 
 to the height of two hundred feet, while the steam ascended 
 a thousand feet or more. It would be difficult to describe 
 the excitement which attended such a display. It is prob- 
 able that if we could have remained in the valley several 
 days, and become accustomed to all the preliminary warn- 
 ings, the excitement would have ceased, and we could have 
 admired calmly the marvellous ease and beauty with which 
 this column of hot water was held up to that great height 
 for the space of twenty minutes. After the display is over 
 the water settles down in the basin several inches, and the 
 temperature slowly falls to 150°. We called this the " Grand 
 Geyser," for its power seemed greater than any other of 
 which we obtained any knowledge in the valley. 
 
 [After describing more particularly the peculiarities of the Grand 
 Geyser and the smaller neighboring geysers, Dr. Hayden gives us an 
 enthusiastic pen-picture of a beautiful type of springs.] 
 
 On the summit of the great mound is one of a class I 
 have called central springs; it is located on the highest 
 point of the mound on which this great group belongs; has 
 a crater twenty feet in diameter, very nearly quiescent, 
 slightly bubbling, or boils near the centre, with a thin, ele- 
 gant rim projecting over the spring, with the water rising 
 within a few inches of the top. The continual but very 
 moderate overflow of this spring, uniformly on every side, 
 builds up slowly a broad-based mound, layer by layer, one- 
 eighth to one-sixteenth of an inch thick. Looking down 
 into these springs, you seem to be gazing into fathomless 
 depths, while the bright blue of the water is unequalled
 
 Hayden] IN THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 279 
 
 even by the sea. There are a number of these marvellous 
 central springs, with projecting rims carved with an intri- 
 cate delicacy which of itself is a marvel ; and as one as- 
 cends the mound and looks down into the wonderfully 
 clear depths, the vision is unique. The great beauty of 
 the prismatic colors depends much on the sunlight, but 
 about the middle of the day, when the bright rays descend 
 nearly vertically, and a slight breeze just makes a ripple 
 on the surface, the colors exceed comparison ; when the 
 surface is calm there is one vast chaos of colors, dancing, 
 as it were, like the colors of a kaleidoscope. 
 
 As seen through this marvellous play of colors, the dee- 
 orations on the sides of the basin are lighted up with a 
 wild, weird beauty which wafts one at once into the land 
 of enchantment; all the brilliant feats of fairies and genii in 
 the "Arabian Nights" entertainments are forgotten in the 
 actual presence of such marvellous beauty ; life becomes a 
 privilege and a blessing after one has seen and thoroughly 
 felt these incomparable types of nature's cunning skill. . . . 
 
 Our search for new wonders leading us across the Fire- 
 Hole River, we ascended a gently incrusted slope, and 
 came suddenly upon a large oval aperture with scalloped 
 edges, the diameters of which were eighteen and twenty- 
 five feet, the sides corrugated and covered with a grayish- 
 white silicious deposit, which was distinctly visible at the 
 depth of a hundred feet below the surface. No water 
 could be discovered, but we could distinctly hear it gur- 
 gling and boiling at a great distance below. Suddenly it 
 began to rise, boiling and spluttering, and sending out huge 
 masses of steam, causing a general stampede of our com- 
 pany, driving us to some distance from our point of obser- 
 vation. When within about forty feet of the surface it 
 became stationary, and we returned to look down upon it. 
 It was foaming and surging at a terrible rate, occasionally
 
 280 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Hatden 
 
 emitting small jets of hot water nearly to the mouth of 
 the orifice. 
 
 All at once it seemed seized with a fearful spasm, and 
 rose with incredible rapidity, hardly affording us time to 
 withdraw to a safe distance, when it burst from the orifice 
 with terrific momentum, rising in a column the full size of 
 this immense aperture to the height of sixty feet ; and 
 through and out of the apex of this vast aqueous mass five 
 or six lesser jets or round columns of water, varying in 
 size from six to fifteen inches in diameter, were projected 
 to the marvellous height of two hundred and fifty feet. 
 These lesser jets, so much higher than the main column, 
 and shooting through it, doubtless proceed from auxiliary 
 pipes leading into the principal orifice near the bottom, 
 where the explosive force is greater. If the theory that 
 water by constant boiling becomes explosive when freed 
 from air be true, this theory rationally accounts for all 
 irregularities in the eruptions of the geysers. 
 
 This grand eruption continued for twenty minutes, and 
 was the most magnificent sight we ever witnessed. We 
 were standing on the side of the geyser nearest the sun, 
 the gleams of which filled the sparkling column of water 
 and spray with myriads of rainbows, whose arches were 
 constantly changing, dipping and fluttering hither and 
 thither, and disappearing only to be succeeded by others, 
 again and again, amid the aqueous columns, while the 
 minute globules into which the spent jets were diffused 
 when falling spai'kled like a shower of diamonds, and around 
 every shadow which the denser clouds of vapor, interrupt- 
 ing the sun's rays, cast upon the column, could be seen a 
 luminous circle, radiant with all the colors of the prism, 
 and resembling the halo of glory represented in paintings 
 as encircling the head of Divinity. All that we had pre- 
 viously witnessed seemed tame in comparison with the per-
 
 Haydkn] IN THE YELLOWSTONE PARK. 281 
 
 feet grandeur and beauty of this display. Two of these 
 wonderful eruptions occurred during the twenty-two hours 
 we remained in the valley. This geyser we named the 
 " Giantess." 
 
 A hundred yards distant from the Giantess was a silicious 
 cone, very symmetrical, but slightly corrugated upon its 
 exterior surface, three feet in height and five feet in diam- 
 eter at its base, and having an oval orifice twenty-four by 
 thirty-six and a half inches in diameter, with scalloped 
 edges. Not one of our company supposed that it was a 
 geyser; and among so many wonders it had almost escaped 
 notice. While we were at breakfast upon the morning of 
 our departure, a column of water, entirely filling the crater, 
 shot from it, which, by accurate triangular measurement, 
 we found to be two hundred and nineteen feet in height. 
 The stream did not deflect more than four or five degrees 
 from a vertical line, and the eruption lasted eighteen 
 minutes. We named it the " Beehive." . . 1 
 
 On our return to the lake from this basin we passed up the 
 Fire-Hole River to its source in the divide. Early in the 
 morning, as we were leaving the valley, the grand old 
 geyser which stands sentinel at the head of the valley gave 
 us a magnificent parting display, and with little or no pre- 
 liminary warning it shot up a column of water about six 
 feet in diameter to the height of a hundred to a hundred 
 and fifty feet, and by a succession of impulses seemed to 
 hold it up steadily for the space of fifteen minutes, the 
 great mass of water falling directly back into the basin, 
 and flowing over the edges and down the sides in large 
 streams. When the action ceases, the water recedes be- 
 yond sight, and nothing is heard but the occasional escape 
 of steam until another exhibition occurs. This is one of the 
 most accommodating geysers in the basin, and during our 
 stay played once an hour quite regularly. On account of 
 
 24*
 
 282 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bacon 
 
 its apparent regularity, and its position overlooking the 
 valley, it was called by Messrs. Langford and Doane " Old 
 Faithful." It has built up a crater about twent}" feet high 
 around its base, and all about it are decorations similar to 
 those previously described. 
 
 On the morning of August 6 we ascended the mountains 
 at the head of the Fire-Hole River, on our return to the 
 hot-spring camp on the Yellowstone Lake. We had merely 
 caught a glimpse of the wonderful physical phenomena of 
 this remarkable valley. We had just barely gleaned a few 
 of the surface observations, which only sharpened our 
 desire for a larger knowledge. There is no doubt in my 
 mind that these geysers are more active at certain seasons 
 of the year than at others. We saw them in midsummer, 
 when the surface waters are greatly diminished. In the 
 spring, at the time of the melting of the snows, the display 
 of the first-class geysers must be more frequent and power- 
 ful. We left this valley, with its beautiful scenery, its hot 
 springs and gej-sers, with great regret. 
 
 THE COUNTRY OF THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 
 
 ALFRED TERRY BACON. 
 
 [Buskin, among his reasons for not visiting the United States, 
 declared that it would be impossible for him to exist, even for a 6hort 
 interval, in a country that had no old castles. Had he known it, he 
 might have found here old castles in abundance, older perhaps, and 
 grander in situation, than any to be found in his own land. These 
 are the ruined dwellings of the ancient inhabitants of the western 
 canons and of the pueblo-builders of Arizona and New Mexico. "We 
 give a traveller's account of the Cliff-dwellers' habitations.] 
 
 The attraction which drew the conquerors of Mexico 
 forty-five days' journey away into the North was the fame
 
 Bacon] THE COUNTRY OF CLIFF-DWELLERS. 283 
 
 which had reached them of the Seven Cities of Cibola (the 
 buffalo), great in wealth and population, lying in tbe valley 
 of the Eio de Zufii. To the grief of the invaders, they found 
 not cities, but rather villages of peaceful agricultural people 
 dwelling in great pueblos three and four stories high, and 
 they searched in vain for the rumored stores of gold. At 
 that time the pueblos held a large population skilled in 
 many arts of civilization. They cultivated large tracts of 
 ground, wove fabrics of cotton, and produced ornate pottery. 
 Their stone-masonry was admirable. But even three hun- 
 dred years ago it seems that the people were but a remnant 
 of what they had once been. Even then the conquerors 
 wondered at the many ruins which indicated a decline 
 from former greatness. The people have not now the same 
 degree of skill in their native arts which the race once had, 
 and it is probable that when the Spaniards came and found 
 them declining in numbers the old handicrafts were already 
 on the wane. 
 
 In a remote age the ancestors of these Pueblo tribes, or 
 a race of kindred habits, filled most of that vast region 
 which is drained by the Colorado Eiver and its affluents, 
 and spread beyond into the valley of the Eio Grande. The 
 explorers of a great extent of country in Utah, Arizona, 
 New Mexico, and Colorado have found everywhere evi- 
 dences of the wide distribution and wonderful industry of 
 that ancient people. On the low land which they used to till 
 lie the remains of their villages, — rectangular buildings of 
 enormous dimensions and large circular estufas, or halls for 
 council and worship. On the sides of the savage cliffs that 
 wall in or overarch the cafions are scattered in every crevice 
 and wrinkle those strange and picturesque ruins which give 
 us the name "Cliff-dwellers" to distinguish this long-for- 
 gotten people. And on commanding points, seen far away 
 down the cafions or across the mesas, stand the solitary
 
 284 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bacon 
 
 watch-towers where sentinels might signal to the villagers 
 below on the approach of Northern barbarians. . . . 
 
 There is no other district which embraces in so small a 
 compass so great a number and variety of the Cliff-dwellers' 
 ruined works as the canon of the Little Eio Mancos in 
 Southwestern Colorado. The stream rises in a spur of the 
 San Juan Mountains, near the remote mining-camp called 
 Parrott City. Flowing southward for a few miles through 
 an open valley, it is soon enclosed between the walls of a 
 profound canon which cuts for nearly thirty miles through 
 a table-land called the Mesa Verde. The cafion is wide 
 enough to have permitted the old inhabitants to plant their 
 crops along the stream, and the cliffs rising on either side 
 to a height of two thousand feet are so curiously broken 
 and grooved and shelving, from the decay of the soft hori- 
 zontal strata and the projection of the harder, as to offer 
 remarkable facilities for building fortified houses hard of 
 approach and easy of defence. Therefore the whole length 
 of the cafion is filled with ruins, and for fifteen miles 
 beyond it to the borders of New Mexico, where the river 
 meets the Eio San Juan, the valley bears many traces of 
 the ancient occupation. 
 
 The scenery of the cafion is wild and imposing in the 
 highest degree. In the dry Colorado air there are few 
 lichens or weather-stains to dull the brightness of the 
 strata to the universal hoariness of moister climates: the 
 vertical cliffs, standing above long slopes of debris, are 
 colored with the brilliant tints of freshly-quarried stone. 
 A gay ribbon of green follows the course of the rivulet 
 winding down through the cafion till it is lost to sight in 
 the vista of crags. The utter silence and solitude of the 
 wilderness reigns through the valley. It is not occupied 
 by any savage tribe, and only a few white men within the 
 last few years have passed through it and told of its won-
 
 Bacon] THE COUNTRY OF CLIFF-DWELLERS. 285 
 
 ders ; and yet its whole length is but one series of houses 
 and temples that were forsaken centuries ago. I can 
 hardly imagine a more exciting tour of exploration than 
 that which Mr. Jackson's party made on first entering this 
 canon in 1874. 
 
 Above the entrance of the cafion the evidences of pre- 
 historic life begin. On the bottom-land, concealed by 
 shrubbery, are the half-obliterated outlines of square and 
 circular buildings. The houses were of large size, and 
 were plainly no temporary dwelling-places, for an accumu- 
 lation of decorated pottery fills the ground about them, in- 
 dicating long occupation. No doubt they were built of 
 adobe, — masses of hard clay dried in the sun, — which the 
 wear of ages has reduced to smoothly-rounded mounds. 
 For some miles down the canon remains of this sort occur 
 at short intervals, and at one point there stands a wall 
 built of squared sandstone blocks. Along the ledges of the 
 cliffs on the right bits of ruinous masonry are detected 
 here and there, but for a time there is nothing to excite 
 close attention. At last a watchful eye is arrested by a 
 more interesting object perched at a tremendous height on 
 the western wall of the carlon. It is a house built upon a 
 Bhelf of rock between the precipices, but, standing seven 
 hundred feet above the stream and differing not at all in 
 color from the crags about it, only the sharpest eyesight 
 can detect the unusual form of the building and the win- 
 dows marking the two stories. 
 
 The climb up to the house-platform is slow and fatiguing, 
 but the trouble is repaid by a sight of one of the most 
 curious ruins on this continent. Before the door of the 
 house, part of the ledge has been reserved for a little 
 esplanade, and to make it broader three small abutments 
 of stone, which once supported a floor, are built on the 
 bloping edge of the rock. Beyond this the house is
 
 286 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bacon 
 
 entered by a small aperture which served as a door. It is 
 the best specimen of a Cliff-dweller's house that remains to 
 our time. The walls are admirably built of squared stones 
 laid in a hard white mortar. The house is divided into two 
 stories of three rooms each. Behind it a semicircular cis- 
 tern nearly as high as the house is built against the side of 
 it, and a ladder is arranged for descending from an upper 
 window to the water-level. The floor of the second story 
 was supported by substantial cedar timbers, but only frag- 
 ments of them remain. The roof, too, has entirely disap- 
 peared, but the canopy of natural rock overhanging serves 
 to keep out the weather. The front rooms in both stories 
 are the largest and are most carefully finished. Perhaps 
 they were the parlor and " best bedroom" of some pre- 
 historic housewife. They are plastered throughout with 
 fine smooth mortar, and even in that remote age the mania 
 for household decoration had a beginning: floor, walls, and 
 ceiling were colored a deep red, surrounded by a broad 
 border of white. 
 
 The same cliff on which this house stands has on its side 
 many other ruins ; some half destroyed by gradual decay, 
 some crushed by falling rocks, none so perfect as the one 
 described ; but all are crowded into the strangest un- 
 approachable crevices of the canon-wall, like the crannies 
 which swallows choose to hold their nests, far removed 
 from the possibility of depredation. Some are so utterly 
 inaccessible that the explorers, with all their enthusiasm 
 and activity, have never been able to reach them. How 
 any beings not endowed with wings could live at such 
 points it is hard to conceive : it makes one suspicious that 
 the Cliff-dwellers had not quite outgrown the habits of 
 monkey ancestors. 
 
 As the canon widens with the descent of the stream, the 
 ruins in the western wall increase in number. One fear-
 
 Bacon] THE COUNTRY OF CLIFF-DWELLERS. 287 
 
 ful cliff a thousand feet in height is chinked all over its 
 face with tiny houses of one room each, but only a few of 
 them can be detected with the naked eye. One, which was 
 reached by an explorer at the peril of his life, stands in- 
 tact: ceiling and floor are of the natural rock, and the 
 wall is built in a neat curve conforming to the shape of the 
 ledge. 
 
 A mile farther down the stream there is a most interesting 
 group of houses. Eight hundred feet above the valley there 
 is a shelf in the cliff sixty feet in length that is quite cov- 
 ered by a house. The building contains four large rooms, 
 a circular sacred apartment and smaller rooms of irregular 
 shape. It was called by its discoverers " The House of 
 the Sixteen Windows." Behind this house the cliff-side 
 rises smooth and perpendicular thirty feet, but it can be 
 scaled by an ancient stairway cut into it which ascends to 
 a still higher ledge. The stairs lead to the very door of 
 another house filling a niche a hundred and twenty feet 
 long. A great canopy of solid rock overarches the little 
 fortress, reaching far forward beyond the front wall, while 
 from below it is absolutely unapproachable except by the 
 one difficult stairway of niches cut in the rock. In time 
 of war it must have been impregnable. These dwellings 
 have given more ideas about their interior furnishing than 
 any of the others. Among the accumulated rubbish were 
 found corn and beans stored away. In the lower house 
 were two large water-jars of corrugated pottery standing 
 on a floor covered with neatly-woven rush matting. In a 
 house not far above were found a bin of charred corn, and 
 a polished hatchet of stone made with remarkable skill. 
 
 From this point onward both the valley and the cliffs 
 are filled with the traces of a numerous population, every 
 mile of travel bringing many fresh ones into sight. Among 
 the cliff-houses there is of necessity a variety in form and
 
 288 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bacon 
 
 size as great as the differences of the caves and crevices 
 that hold them; but among the buildings of the low 
 ground there is more uniformity, not only in this cafion, 
 but in all the valleys of the region. Most of them may be 
 classed as aggregated dwellings or pueblos with rectangu- 
 lar rooms, round watch-towers and large circular buildings. 
 To these must be added a few which seem to have been 
 built only for defence. The straight walls have generally 
 fallen, except the parts supported by an angle of a build- 
 ing; but, as usual in old masonry, the circular walls have 
 much better resisted decay. 
 
 About midway down the cafion the curved wall of a 
 large ruin rises above the thicket. It is a building of very 
 curious design. The outer wall was an exact circle of 
 heavy masonry a hundred and thirty feet in circumference. 
 Within, there is another circular wall, concentric with the 
 outer, enclosing one round room with a diameter of twenty 
 feet. The annular space between the two walls was di- 
 vided by partitions into ten small apartments. Other 
 buildings of the same type occur in this region, some of 
 much larger size and with triple walls. Even in this one, 
 which is comparatively well preserved, the original height 
 is uncertain, though the ruin still stands about fifteen feet 
 high. 
 
 The vast quantity of debris about some of them indi- 
 cates that they were of no significant height, and their 
 perfect symmetry of form, the careful finish of the ma- 
 sonry, the large dimensions and great solidity, made them 
 the most imposing architectural works of that ancient 
 people. I find no reason to doubt that they were their 
 temples, and the presumption is very strong that they 
 were temples for sun-worship. The occurrence of a circu- 
 lar room in connection with nearly every group of build- 
 ings is of special interest, as seeming to link the Cliff-
 
 Bacon] THE COUNTRY OF CLIFF-DWELLERS. 289 
 
 dwellers to the modern Pueblo tribes in their religious 
 customs. 
 
 Most striking and picturesque of all the ruins are the 
 round watch-towers. On commanding points in the val- 
 ley, and on the highest pinnacles of the cliffs overlooking 
 the surface of the mesa, they occur with a frequency which 
 is almost pathetic as an indication of the life of eternal 
 vigilance which was led by that old race through the years, 
 perhaps centuries, of exterminating warfare which the 
 savage red men from the North waged upon them. To 
 us the suffering of frontier families at the hands of the 
 same blood-thirsty savages is heartrending. What was it 
 to those who saw year by year their whole race's life 
 withering away, crushed by those wild tribes ? 
 
 Near the lower end of the canon stands one of the most 
 perfect of these towers, rising sixteen feet above the 
 mound on which it is built. It was once attached to an 
 oblong stone building which seems to have been a strongly- 
 fortified house. The rectangular walls, as usual, are pros- 
 trate, and have left the tower standing as solitary and 
 picturesque and as full of mystery as the round-towers of 
 Ireland. . . . 
 
 In the Montezuma Canon, just beyond the Colorado 
 State border, there are some remains built after an unusual 
 manner with stones of great size. One building of many 
 rooms, nearly covering a little solitary mesa, is constructed 
 of huge stone blocks not unlike the pre-historic masonry 
 of Southern Europe. In the same district there is a ruined 
 line of fortification from which the smaller stones have 
 fallen away and are crumbling to dust, leaving only certain 
 enormous upright stones standing. They rise to a height 
 of seven feet above the soil, and the lower part is buried 
 to a considerable depth. Their resemblance to the hoary 
 Druidical stones of Carnac and Stonehenge is striking, and 
 i.— n t 25
 
 290 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bacon 
 
 there is nothing in their appearance to indicate that they 
 belong to a much later age than those primeval monuments 
 of Europe. 
 
 All the certain knowledge that we have of the history 
 and manners of the Cliff-dwellers may be very briefly told, 
 for there is no written record of their existence, except 
 their own rude picture-writing, cut or painted on the caflon 
 walls, and it is not likely that those hieroglyphics will 
 ever be deciphered. But much may be inferred from their 
 evident kinship to the Moquis of our time ; and the resem- 
 blance of the ancient architecture and ceramics to the arts 
 as they are still practised in the degenerate pueblos of 
 Arizona gives us many intimations in regard to the habits 
 of the Cliff-dwellers. 
 
 It was centuries ago — how long a time no one will ever 
 know— when that old race was strong and numerous, 
 filling the great region from the Eio Grande to the Colo- 
 rado of the West, and from the San Juan Mountains far 
 down into Northern Mexico. They must have numbered 
 many hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions. It is not 
 probable that they were combined under one government, 
 or that they were even closely leagued together, but that 
 they were essentially one in blood and language is strongly 
 indicated by the similarity of their remains. That they 
 were sympathetic in a common hostility to the dangerous 
 savage tribes about them can hardly be doubted. They 
 were of peaceful habits and lived by agriculture, having 
 under cultivation many thousands of acres in the rich 
 river-bottoms, which they knew well how to irrigate from 
 streams swollen in summer by the melting snows of the 
 high mountain-ranges. We read of their dry canals in 
 Arizona, so deep that a mounted horseman can hide in 
 them. We know that they raised crops of corn and beans, 
 and in the south cotton, which they skilfully wove. That
 
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 Bacon] THE COUNTRY OF CLIFF-DWELLERS. 291 
 
 they had commercial dealing across their whole country is 
 shown by the quantity of shell-ornaments brought from the 
 Pacific coast, which are found in their Colorado dwellings. 
 They did not understand the working of metals, but their 
 implements of stone are of most excellent workmanship. 
 Their weapons indicate the practice of hunting, and while 
 the race was still numerous their forts and their sharp 
 obsidian arrows made easy their resistance to the wander- 
 ing savage hordes. 
 
 I believe that no instance can be cited of a people still in 
 their Stone Age who have surpassed that old race in the 
 mason's art : indeed, I doubt if any such people has even 
 approached their skill in that respect. The difficulty of 
 constructing a great work of well-squared, hammer-dressed 
 stones is enormously increased if the masons must work 
 only with stone implements. Imagine the infinite, toilsome 
 patience of a people who in such a way could rear the 
 ancient Pueblo Bonito of New Mexico, five hundred and 
 forty feet long, three hundred and fourteen feet wide, and 
 four stories high! In one wall of a neighboring build- 
 ing of stone less carefully dressed it is estimated that 
 there were originally no less than thirty million pieces, 
 which were transported, fashioned, and laid by men with- 
 out a beast of burden or a trowel, chisel, or hammer of 
 metal. . . . 
 
 At the time of the Spanish conquest the Pueblo trihes 
 were worshippers of the sun and fire, like all the races of 
 this continent which were above barbarism. To-day, even 
 in those pueblos where a corrupted form of the Roman 
 faith is accepted, there are traces of the old sun-worship 
 mingled with it, and in all pueblos there are large circular 
 rooms, called estufas, reserved for councils and for worship. 
 The invariable appearance of estufas among the ruined 
 towns, and even on the ledges of the cliffs, shows what
 
 292 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Tevis 
 
 Bacredne88 was attached to the circular room, which, per- 
 haps, was symbolic of the sun's orb : it indicates a unity of 
 religious faith between the ancients and moderns. 
 
 LAKE TAHOE AND THE BIG TREES. 
 
 A. H. TEVIS. 
 
 [To Rev. A. H. Tevis, author of " Beyond the Sierras; or, Obser- 
 vations on the Pacific Coast," we owe the following description of a 
 most charming example of American lake scenery, one of the varied 
 and striking regions of beauty which California oilers to the tourist.] 
 
 Of the many curiosities that nature has scattered over 
 the length and breadth of this coast, Lake Tahoe is one of 
 the most charming. 
 
 This is a land of wonders, certainly of curiosities. Prov- 
 idence has made this vast area, between the Kocky Moun- 
 tains and the sea, his chief receptacle of the wealth of the 
 country. And what folly to travel in foreign countries to 
 see the sights until you have at least seen some of the 
 wonders and treasures of our own great Commonwealth ! 
 You can spend your life in exploring these various won- 
 ders, and then not find an end, — petrified forests; lost 
 rivers, whose termini no one knows, and of whose source 
 there is great doubt ; brackish lakes, whose waters are 
 worse than the Dead Sea, and in which no living thing 
 can exist; bubbling, hissing, thundering geysers, whose 
 awfulness impresses the hardest heart; roaring cataracts, 
 that with a band of silver seem to bind together earth and 
 sky ; boiling springs, hither and yon in almost countless 
 profusion, that send their breath of steam as through the 
 throats of some great furnace from Vulcan's forge ; geo-
 
 Tbvis] LAKE TAHOE AND THE BIG TREES. 293 
 
 graphical and topographical features that are marvellous 
 in themselves ; the big trees, whose magnitude is a wonder, 
 and whose age links the present almost to the days of 
 Solomon ; Yosemite, unlike anything of the kind in the 
 known world, whose sublimity is beyond description ; and 
 charming, silvery, unique Tahoe, or Pearl of the Sierras. 
 
 There is no patent on the name, hence we have chosen 
 to christen it thus. And who will say it is a misnomer that 
 has seen its grandeur and enjoyed the beauty of its sur- 
 roundings ? Its name belongs to the Indian tongue, and 
 signifies clear water. 
 
 This lake in its greatest length is twenty-three miles, 
 and greatest width eleven miles; hence it has an area of 
 two hundred and fifty-three square miles. Its altitude is 
 six thousand two hundred and twenty feet above the level 
 of the sea. Here, spread out before me, like the finest of 
 burnished silver, is a lake unlike any other body of water 
 in the world, save one in Switzerland, and that has only a 
 few marks of similarity. 
 
 This lies nestled away, like a very jewel, in the summit 
 of the Sierras, — the Alps of America, — at an altitude of a 
 mile and a quarter above the level of the sea. Think of 
 it ! A body of water containing an area of more than two 
 hundred and fifty square miles, and deep enough to float 
 the largest vessel that ever traversed the sea, and then 
 have almost immeasurable depths below the keel ; think 
 of this being in the very summit of the greatest range of 
 mountains in America! 
 
 It has been sounded along the line between Nevada and 
 California, which runs through the lake, to the distance of 
 two hundred and fifty-three fathoms, or fifteen hundred 
 and eighteen feet. But other places have been sounded to 
 the great distance of nearly twenty-five hundred feet. The 
 character of the water is almost incredible to one who has 
 
 25*
 
 294 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Tevis 
 
 never looked upon it. Coming down from the springs that 
 burst from the canons, and the everlasting snowa that 
 crown the mountain-tops, where 
 
 11 'Tis the felt presence of the Deity," 
 
 the water is almost perfectly pure. 
 
 I have leaned over the side of the boat and watched the 
 play of the trout a hundred and fifty feet below the surface. I 
 have dropped a small, shining, metallic button, and watched 
 distinctly its oscillations in sinking for three or four minutes. 
 
 The transparent nature of the water is best seen in the 
 morning, when the lake is perfectly calm ; not even the 
 small surface ripples that nearly always exist on ordinary 
 streams and lakes are visible. 
 
 The various angles of vision present the most charming 
 scene. Yonder the lake looks like a quiet mass of molten 
 silver; yonder, where the rays of the sun meet you, is a 
 gorgeous array of crimson and gold ; then there is a range 
 of purest emerald, deepening into blue-black as the scene 
 stretches away from you, bespangled in the distance by 
 the rising white-caps. This, fringed with the green of the 
 deep pine-forests that skirt the mountains, and capped 
 with the everlasting snows, made radiant with the flood of 
 sunlight, furnishes a picture of incomparable beauty, and 
 worthy of a master's brush. 
 
 But here by you, right at your feet, is one of the most 
 pleasing features of all : so still in the morning quietness, 
 and such air-like purity withal. You think you can reach 
 down and pick up those shining pebbles, and yet they are 
 twenty, thirty, or forty feet beneath you. And that boat 
 or skiff seems to be poised in mid-air. You can count the 
 small indentures and nail-heads in the very keel. 
 
 You cringe with fear as your boat glides towards that 
 huge boulder, as large as a church, thinking surely your
 
 Tkvis] LAKE TAHOE AND THE BIO TREES. 295 
 
 vessel will be wrecked ; but there is no danger, as the rock 
 is many feet beneath you. The transparency of the water 
 makes the danger seem so near. 
 
 How often have I wished this place — mountains, lake, 
 and all — could be the place of one of the grand Eastern 
 camp-meetings! This bracing air, this unique spot, this 
 wonderful lake, this rich, healthful aroma of deep pine- 
 forests, this grand scenery, all combined, make it one of 
 the best of places for religious summer resort. 
 
 Yonder is a quaint spot, a veritable Gibraltar on a small 
 scale, a lonely, rocky island in the centre of Emerald Bay. 
 Some foolish man built a tomb in the solid rock on its 
 summit, intending to be buried there, where the marks of 
 decay would come slowly over his grave, and where he 
 might sleep undisturbed amid the incomparable grandeur 
 that would have surrounded him. His sarcophagus and 
 all were prepared, but the treacherous billows of the lake, 
 that occasionally foam and roar with fuiy, seized him, and 
 he lies buried at the bottom, — no man knows where, for 
 no one going down ever comes up again from these waters. 
 
 It was first an artless, genial party of three of us that 
 drank in the poetry of the scenery around Lake Tahoe. 
 The " elect lady," whose presence has ever been an inspira- 
 tion and encouragement in life's blackest, bitterest hours, 
 her best and dearest friend, Miss Torreyson, and the writer, 
 made up the trio. We were joined by and by with a party 
 of others kindred in spirit, who entered into all our schemes 
 and reconnoissances after pleasure. 
 
 Those were memorable six weeks; and now, at this dis- 
 tance of many months on the road of time, that period of 
 frolic and recuperation gleams as with the radiance of 
 youth's happiest sunset scene. How strange that happy 
 days even never look so charming as when they are mel- 
 lowed in the deep past ! . . .
 
 296 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Tevis 
 
 During the days we enlivened many a bright morning 
 hour with boat-riding, fishing, gathering wild-flowers, and 
 such other amusements as' this delightful place afforded. 
 On one of these fishing excursions one of our party 
 came very near falling into the treacherous waters of the 
 lake. 
 
 Our favorite resorts, and it is so with all tourists, were 
 Emerald and Carnelian Bays. The former is a beautiful, 
 land-locked arm of the lake, walled in. by rugged and 
 towering cliffs. The latter is a long, gravelly beach, 
 where by the hour we have searched for carnelian stones, 
 of which some of the purest quality are found. 
 
 The mountains and cafions are most delightful points 
 of interest as places of observation and rest, and often 
 charm by the echoes they throw back. We were given to 
 song ; and many a time summering here, and travelling 
 over the lake, we united in singing the " Evergreen Moun- 
 tains of Life" and " A Thousand Years," our favorite lake 
 airs; the former suggested, no doubt, by the towering 
 mountains that surrounded us. The effect is peculiarly 
 fascinating, as the song rings out over the waters, in the 
 pure mountain air, and echoing dies away, after many re- 
 verberations of " evergreen mountains of life" — " moun- 
 tains of life" — "life" — in some deep cafion. Or "a thou- 
 sand years, Columbia," — "years, Columbia," — " Columbia," 
 — the vowels of the last becoming beautifully distinct in 
 the echoes. 
 
 Nearly south of the head of Lake Tahoe, a distance of 
 perhaps a mile and a half, is a little lake that bears the 
 name of Fallen Leaf; and then to the west of this some 
 three miles is Cascade Lake, as charming a little body of 
 water as ever flashed back the sunlight. Of all the objects 
 of interest here, none of its kind is more interesting than 
 this delightful lake, that spreads itself out a half-mile by a
 
 Tbvis] LAKE TAHOE AND THE BIO TREES. 297 
 
 mile and a half, and that at an altitude of four or five hun- 
 dred feet above Tahoe. 
 
 Above this, from the summit of Tallac Mountain, it is 
 positively asserted seventeen lakes, varying in size, can be 
 seen at one glance nestled away like a cluster of diamonds 
 in the bosom of the Sierras. All these lakes abound with 
 the finest of trout, and are surrounded by the best of 
 game. 
 
 On the east side of Tahoe are Cave Rock and Shake- 
 speare Rock. The former is a bald precipitous peak, that 
 presses its perpendicular side almost to the water's edge, 
 leaving just room enough for the road of the old overland 
 stage-coach. Under this rock is a cave of small preten- 
 sions, but with the wild scenery, the bald, dizzy height of 
 the cliff, and the fine view of the lake, it is one of the 
 many frequented places. 
 
 Shakespeare Rock stands back perhaps full half a mile 
 from the landing at Pray's Buy, or Glenbrook. It is a 
 perpendicular cliff of well on towards a thousand feet 
 above the waters of the lake. It has its name from a well- 
 defined portrait of a man, moss-formed or wind-chiselled, 
 doubtless, that is seen plainly several hundred feet up the 
 rugged side. It is said to look very much like the old bard 
 of Stratford-upon-Avon. But of this we cannot say; we 
 never saw him. 
 
 It was on one of Nature's brightest days that our trio, 
 lunch-armed, toiled up its rugged side, the only accessible 
 point, and flung our handkerchief banners to the breeze 
 from the improvised flag-staff, while we grew enraptured 
 at the rich perspective from the dizzy height. It seemed 
 almost like being on " cloud's rest" as some cloud's shadow 
 fell upon us while there. 
 
 Below us lay the bustling, thriving village of Glenbrook, 
 having, perhaps, well on towards a thousand souls as the
 
 298 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Tbvis 
 
 number of its inhabitants ; increased by tourists, and, of 
 course, largely diminished in the winter months, when 
 business here " shuts down." The temperature, however, 
 is generally fine from the last of April to the first of No- 
 vember, or even later. It is not unpleasant now, as I 
 write, — the middle day of January, — to be out boat-riding 
 or rambling by the shore. 
 
 This is the outlet of the entire lake and its surround- 
 ings ; an immense traffic in lumber, etc., is carried on. 
 Five saw-mills give life and activity to the place, as they 
 cut nearly three hundred thousand feet per day, or more 
 than fifty millions during the business months of the year. 
 A hotel, store, post-office, with daily mail, and telegraph- 
 office, add to the convenience of the place. There are 
 six steamers on the lake that run for pleasure-parties and 
 traffic. 
 
 From the lake one of the most unique railroads ever 
 built runs to the summit, a distance of nine miles by the 
 route travelled, although the distance by an air line is but 
 three, while the elevation that it gains is eight hundred 
 and fifty feet. It climbs the mountain by zigzag move- 
 ments, like a letter Z, the engine sometimes hauling its 
 burden, and sometimes pushing the train. More than a 
 quarter of a million of dollars were required to build and 
 etock this novel short line. It is a rare evidence of engi- 
 neering skill, and certainly is a good illustration of Western 
 enterprise. It lacks at least a dozen miles of connecting 
 with any other railroad point, and its engines, rolling- 
 stock, etc., had to be hauled up the mountain eight thou- 
 sand feet high. 
 
 [To this description of the liquid marvel of California we add the 
 author's account of one of its land marvels, a grove of the " hig 
 trees," the vegetable giants of the world.]
 
 Tevib] LAKE TAHOE AND THE BIO TREES. 299 
 
 The Big Trees, as they are technically called, are of a 
 light, bright cinnamon color, and have a diameter at the 
 ground of from twenty-five to forty feet, a height of from 
 throe hundred to four hundred and fifty feet, and a bark 
 that will average one foot and a half in thickness where it 
 has not been molested. I have seen blocks of bark that 
 would measure thirty-two inches in thickness, and I have 
 no doubt but some trees have bark that would average 
 nearly three feet. The texture is loose and spongy, and 
 when cut transversely it is often worked into pincushions 
 and such like toys. The wood is light as the cedar, but is 
 susceptible of a very fine polish. I had a cane made from 
 a piece that I bought of the guide, and I found it would 
 polish equal to mahogany. The Mariposa grove is a State 
 park, together with Yosemite Valley, given by the United 
 States government. 
 
 This grove, " together with the Yosemite Valley with its 
 branches and spurs, an estimated length of fifteen miles, 
 and in average width one mile back from the edge of the 
 precipice on each side of the valley, with the stipulation, 
 nevertheless, that the State shall accept this grant on the 
 express condition that the premises shall be held for public 
 use and recreation, and shall be inalienable for all time." 
 So it is absolutely impossible to get a bit of bark or piece 
 of wood except from the guide, who is allowed to gather 
 them from the outskirts of the grove from a tree that has 
 fallen or one that stands outside of the prescribed limits. 
 
 There has but one fallen, however, since their discovery, 
 and that was felled by men's hands. It was done by im 
 mense augers. It took five men twenty-two days to fell 
 the tree, equal to the services of one man for one hundred 
 and ten days. Think of that, nearly four months' work, 
 not counting any time lost by Sundays, or rainy days, or 
 sickness, to fell one treel That tree would have yielded
 
 300 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Tevib 
 
 more than a thousand cords of four-foot wood and a hun- 
 dred cords of bark, more than eleven hundred cords alto- 
 gether. On the stump of this tree there is a house — 
 " whose foundation is sure" — thirty feet in diameter. This 
 house contains room enough in square feet, if it were the 
 right shape, for a parlor twelve by sixteen, a dining-room 
 ten by twelve, a kitchen ten by twelve, two bedrooms ten 
 feet square each, a pantry four by eight feet, two clothes- 
 presses one and a half feet deep and four feet wide, and 
 still have a little to spare. 
 
 The foliage of these trees resembles the cedar somewhat. 
 They bear a cone not more than two inches in length, and 
 a black pitch bitter as gall. The forests at present have a 
 gloomy appearance, as some time in the past, no one knows 
 when, the Indians, the better to facilitate their hunting, 
 burned off the chaparral and rubbish, and, as a matter of 
 course, disfigured the trees by burning off nearly all the bark. 
 
 The first sight of these monarchs is one of sore disap- 
 pointment. For you have travelled many miles where the 
 trees are all large, and here, surrounded as they are by im- 
 mense pines, their magnitude is not appreciated. But their 
 greatness grows very rapidly upon you, so that if there 
 was at first disappointment, there is now a greater awe. 
 Our first view of interest was the Fallen Monarch, a pon- 
 derous old trunk stretched out upon the ground for more 
 than two hundred feet, upon which a stage and four horses 
 could be driven with ease. We had to go a hundred feet 
 towards the top to climb upon the trunk. The diameter 
 of this tree, without bark, at the base is twenty -two feet; 
 one hundred feet from the root it is twelve feet. 
 
 How long this monarch has been sleeping no one pre- 
 tends to know. The guide says it is no more decayed now, 
 to all appearances, than it was when first discovered. The 
 tree of greatest interest is the Grizzlv Giant, which has
 
 Tkvis] LAKE TAHOE AND THE BIG TREES. 301 
 
 an altitude of more than three hundred feet. The first 
 thing we did to try its magnitude was to surround it on 
 horseback, passing around in single file, the head of one 
 horse to the tail of another. It called into requisition 
 twenty-five horses out of the twenty-eight in our party to 
 complete the measurement. This is not considered strictly 
 correct, mathematically speaking, but it indicates the size 
 of the tree by horse measurement. 
 
 I had prepared myself with a good-sized string, and, with 
 the help of a friend, made close calculation four feet from the 
 ground, and found it to be ninety-three feet, giving a diam- 
 eter of thirty-one feet. This tree has a limb one hundred 
 feet from the ground that is six feet in diameter. These 
 trees stand around us in quiet grandeur, but to write of 
 one is to write of many, hence the reader must not be 
 wearied with a notice of each. Pluto's Chimney is a hol- 
 low tree, standing upright, into which several of us rode 
 on horseback. Yonder is another that had fallen in some 
 past age, and sixty feet or more of it had burned from the 
 root upward, and then towards the top had burned in two, 
 leaving a barrel-shaped or hollow part of the trunk some 
 fifty feet in length. Through this we all rode without any 
 inconvenience. I have understood that several have ridden 
 abreast through it, which I do not think improbable. 
 
 This completed our tour among these forest giants. 
 There are two groves — and, properly speaking, but two — 
 of these Sequoia gigantea, the Mariposa and Calaveras 
 groves. The first is about twenty miles south of Yosemito 
 Valley, perhaps a little more, while the latter is somo fifty 
 miles northwest of the valley. Thus it will be seen that 
 they are not, as many suppose, in the great Yosemito 
 Valley. 
 
 The big trees of California, not of this species, however, 
 are not confined to these two groves. Many of the noted 
 
 20
 
 302 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Jackson 
 
 redwood species (Sequoia sempervirens) used to grow back 
 of Santa Cruz, many of which are standing yet that were 
 very great in size. We once upon a time, with five others, 
 rode into one of these during a storm. The butt was 
 hollow, and large enough to hold at least twelve men on 
 horseback, and was not less than two hundred and fifty 
 feet in height. 
 
 THE CHINESE QUARTER IN SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
 
 [We need not tell who Helen Hunt Jackson is. She is well known 
 to American readers both of verse and prose for her excellent ability 
 in both these fields of literature. Born in 1831, at Amherst, Massa- 
 chusetts, the daughter of Professor N. W. Fiske, she married first 
 Mr. Hunt, of the United States Engineer Corps, and after his death a 
 Mr. Jackson. She died in 1885. From her work entitled " Bits of 
 Travel at Home," a series of racy sketches of experience east and west, 
 we extract her narrative of the odd and amusing things she saw in the 
 Chinese quarter of San Francisco.] 
 
 Sing, Wo & Co. keep one of the most picturesque shops 
 on Jackson Street. It is neither grocer's, nor butcher's, 
 nor fishmonger's, nor druggist's ; but a little of all four. 
 It is like most of the shops on Jackson Street, part cellar, 
 part cellar-stairs, part sidewalk, and part back bedroom. 
 On the sidewalk are platters of innumerable sorts of little 
 fishes, — little silvery fishes; little yellow fishes, with 
 whiskers; little snaky fishes ; round flat fishes; little slices 
 of big fishes, — never too much or too many of any kind. 
 Sparing and thrifty dealers, as well as sparing and thrifty 
 consumers, are the Celestials. Round tubs of sprouted 
 beans ; platters of square cakes of something whose con- 
 sistency was like Dutch cheese, whose color was vivid
 
 Jackson] CHINESE QUARTER IN SAN FRANCISCO. 303 
 
 yellow, like baker's gingerbread, and whose tops were 
 stamped with mysterious letters; long roots, as long as the 
 longest parsnips, but glistening white, like polished tur- 
 nips ; cherries, tied up in stingy little bunches of ten or 
 twelve, and swung in all the nooks; small bunches of all 
 conceivable green things, from celery down to timothy 
 grass, tied tight and wedged into corners, or swung over- 
 head ; dried herbs, in dim recesses; pressed chickens, on 
 shelves (those were the most remarkable things. They 
 were semi-transparent, thin, skinny, and 3'ellow, and looked 
 almost more like huge, flattened grasshoppers than like 
 chickens ; but chickens they were, and no mistake), — all 
 these were on the trays, on the sidewalk, and on the cellar- 
 stairs. 
 
 In the back bedroom were Mrs. Sing and Mrs. Wo, with 
 several little Sings and Wos. It was too dark to see what 
 they were doing ; for the only light came from the open 
 front of the shop, which seemed to run back like a cave in 
 a hill. On shelves on the sides were teacups and teapots, 
 and plates of fantastic shapes and gay colors. Sing and 
 Wo were most courteous ; but their interest centred en- 
 tirely on sales ; and I could learn but one fact from them 
 in regard to any of their goods. It was either " Muchee 
 good. Englis man muchee like," or else, " China man like ; 
 Englis man no like." Why should I wish to know any- 
 thing further than that some articles would be agreeable to 
 "Englis man's" palate, and others would not? This must 
 be enough to regulate my purchases. But I shall always 
 wish I knew how those chickens were fattened and what 
 the vivid yellow cakes were made of. 
 
 [Next our traveller looks into the shop of Ty Wing & Co., where 
 nothing appears but darkness, dust and cobwebs, and two Chinese 
 women eating something unknown with chopsticks ; that of Chick 
 Kee, a druggist, with feathers and banners without and nothing but
 
 304 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Jackson 
 
 old dried roots visible within ; and of Tuck "Wo, a restaurant-keeper, 
 where nothing is visible that she has the courage to taste.] 
 
 Moo, On & Co. come next. Their shop is full, crowded 
 full, — bags, bundles, casks, shelves, piles, bunches of utterly 
 nondescript articles. It sounds like an absurd exaggera- 
 tion, but it is literally true, that the only articles in his 
 shop which I ever saw before are bottles. There are a few 
 of those ; -but the purpose, use, or meaning of every other 
 article is utterly unknown to me. There are things that 
 look like games, like toys, like lamps, like idols, like uten- 
 sils of lost trades, like relics of lost tribes, like — well, like a 
 pawnbroker's stock, just brought from some other world. 
 That comes nearest to it. 
 
 Moo, On & Co. have apparently gone back for more. 
 Nobody is in the shop ; the door is wide open. I wait and 
 wait, hoping that some one will come along who can speak 
 English, and of whom I may ask what this extraordinary 
 show means. Timidly I touch a fluttering bit, which hangs 
 outside. It is not paper; it is not cloth ; it is not woollen, 
 silk, nor straw ; it is not leather ; it is not cobweb ; it is 
 not alive ; it is not dead ; it crisps and curls at my touch ; 
 it waves backward, though no air blows it. A sort of 
 horror seizes me. It may be a piece of an ancestor of 
 Moo's doing ghostly duty at his shop door. I hasten on 
 and half fancy that it is behind me, as I halt before Dr. 
 Li Po Tai's door. His promises to cure, diplomas, and so 
 forth, are printed in gay-colored strips of labels on each 
 side. Six bright balloons swing overhead ; and peacocks' 
 feathers are stuck into the balloons. I have heard that Dr. 
 Li Po Tai is a learned man, and works cures. His balloons 
 are certainly very brilliant. . . . 
 
 Then comes a corner stand, with glass cases of candy. 
 Almond candy, with grains of rice thick on the top ; little 
 bowls of pickles, pears, and peppers; platters of odd-shaped
 
 Jackson] CHINESE QUARTER IN SAN FRANCISCO. 305 
 
 nuts ; and beans baked black as coffee. As I stand look- 
 ing curiously at these, a well-dressed Chinaman pauses be- 
 fore me, and making a gesture with his hand towards tho 
 stand, says, " All muchee good. Buy eat. Muchee good." 
 Hung Wung, the proprietor, is kindled to hospitality by 
 this, and repeats the words, " Yaas, muchee good. Take, 
 eat," offering me, with the word, the bowl of peppers. 
 
 Next comes a very gay restaurant, the best in the empire. 
 Hang Fee, Low & Co. keep it, and foreigners go there to 
 drink tea. There is a green railed balcony across the 
 front, swinging full of high-colored lanterns, round and 
 square; tablets with Chinese letters on bright grounds are 
 set in panels on the walls ; a huge rhinoceros stands in 
 the centre of the railing : a tree grows out of the rhi- 
 noceros's back, and an India rubber man sits at the foot of 
 the tree. China figures and green bushes in flower-pots 
 are ranged all along the railing. Nowhere except in the 
 Chinese Empire can there be seen such another gaud}', 
 grotesque house front. We make an appointment on the 
 spot to take some of Hang Fee's tea, on our way to the 
 Chinese Theatre, the next evening, and then we hurry 
 home. . . . 
 
 After all, we did not take tea at Hang Fee's on our way 
 to the theatre. There was not time. As it was, we were 
 late ; and when we entered the orchestra had begun to 
 play. Orchestra ! It is necessary to use that name, I sup- 
 pose, in speaking of a body of men with instruments, who 
 are seated on a stage, furnishing what is called music for a 
 theatrical performance. But it is a term calculated to 
 mislead in this instance. Fancy one frog-pond, one Sun- 
 day-school with pumpkin whistles, one militia training, and 
 two gongs for supper, on a Fall River boat, all at once, 
 and you will have some faint idea of the indescribable noise 
 which saluted our ears on entering that theatre. To say 
 I.— « 26*
 
 306 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Jackson 
 
 that we were deafened is nothing. The hideous hubbub 
 of din seemed to overlap and transcend all laws and 
 spheres of sound. It was so loud we could not see ; it was 
 so loud we could not breathe ; it was so loud there did not 
 seem to be any room to sit down ! The theatre was small 
 and low and dark. The pit and greater part of the gallery 
 were filled with Chinamen, all smoking. One corner of 
 the gallery was set aside for women. That was full, also, 
 with Chinese women. Every woman's hair was dressed 
 in the manner I have described [" drawn back from her 
 forehead, twisted tight from the nape of the neck to the 
 crown of the head, stiffened with glue, glistening with oil, 
 and made into four huge double wings, which stood out 
 beyond her ears on either side. It looked a little like two 
 gigantic black satin bats, pinned to the back of her head, 
 or still more like a windmill gone into mourning."] The 
 bat-like flaps projected so far on each side of each head 
 that each woman seemed almost to be joined to her neigh- 
 bors by a cartilaginous band ; and, as they sat almost 
 motionless, this effect was heightened. 
 
 The stage had no pretence of secrecy. It was hung 
 with gay banners and mysterious labels. Tall plumes of 
 peacock's feathers in the corners and some irregularly 
 placed chairs were all the furniture. The orchestra sat in 
 chairs at the back of the stage. Some of them smoked in 
 the intervals, some drank tea. A little boy who drummed 
 went out when he felt like it; and the fellow with the 
 biggest gong had evidently no plan of operations at all 
 except to gong as long as his arms could bear it, then rest 
 a minute, then gong again. 
 
 " Oh, well," said we, as we wedged and squeezed through 
 the narrow passage-way which led to our box, " it will only 
 last a few minutes. We shall not entirely lose our hearing." 
 Fatal delusion. It never stopped. The actors came out ;
 
 Jackson] CHINESE QUARTER IN SAN FRANCISCO. 307 
 
 the play began ; the play went on; still the hideous hub- 
 bub of din continued, and was made unspeakably more 
 hideous by the voices of the actors, which were raised to 
 the shrillest falsetto to surmount the noise, and which 
 sounded like nothing in nature except the voices of frantic 
 
 CillS. • • • 
 
 At first, in spite of the deafening loudness of the din, 
 it is ludicrous beyond conception. To see the superbly 
 dressed Chinese creatures, — every one of them as perfectly 
 and exquisitely dressed as the finest figures on their satin 
 fans or rice-paper pictures, and looking exactly like them, 
 — to see these creatures strutting and sailing and sweeping 
 and bowing and bending, beating their breasts and tearing 
 their beards, gesticulating and rushing about in an utterly 
 incomprehensible play, with caterwauling screams issuing 
 from their mouths, is for a few minutes so droll that you 
 laugh till tears run, and think you will go to the Chinese 
 Theatre every night as long as you stay in San Francisco. 
 I said so to the friend who had politely gone with me. He 
 had been to the performance before. He smiled pityingly, 
 and yawned behind his hand. At the end of half an hour, 
 I whispered, "Twice a week will do." In fifteen minutes 
 more, I said, "I think we will go out now. I can't endure 
 this racket another minute. But, nevertheless, I shall 
 come once more, with an interpreter. I must and will 
 know what all this mummery means." 
 
 The friend smiled again incredulously. But we did go 
 again, with an interpreter; and the drollest thing of all 
 was to find out how very little all the caterwauling and 
 rushing and bending and bawling and sweeping and strut- 
 ting really meant. The difficulty of getting an interpreter 
 was another interesting feature in the occasion. A lady, 
 who had formerly been a missionary in China, had 
 promised to go with us; and, as even she was not sure of
 
 308 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Jackson 
 
 being able to understand Chinese caterwauled, she proposed 
 to take one of the boys from the missionary school, to in- 
 terpret to her before she interpreted to us. So we drove 
 
 to the school. Mrs. went in. The time seemed very 
 
 long that we waited. At last she came back, looking both 
 amused and vexed, to report that not one of those intelli- 
 gent Christian Chinese would leave his studies that evening 
 to go to the theatre. 
 
 " I suppose it is an old story to them," said I. 
 
 " Not at all," said she. " On the contrary, hardly a boy 
 there has been inside the theatre. But they cannot bear 
 to lose a minute from their lessons. Mr. Loomis really 
 urged some of them ; but it was of no use." 
 
 In a grocery store on Kearney Street, however, we 
 found a clever young man, less absorbed in learning ; and 
 he went with us as interpreter. Again the same hideous 
 din ; the same clouds of smoke ; the same hubbub of cater- 
 wauling. But the dramatis personce were few. Luckily 
 for us, our first lesson in the Chinese drama was to be a 
 simple one. And here I pause, considering whether my 
 account of the play will be believed. This is the traveller's 
 great perplexity. The incredible things are always the 
 only things worth telling; but is it best to tell them? 
 
 The actors in this play were three, — a lady of rank, her 
 son, and her man cook. The play opened with a soliloquy 
 by the lady. She is sitting alone, sewing. Her husband 
 has gone to America ; he did not bid her farewell. Her 
 only son is at school. She is sad and lonely. She weeps. 
 
 Enter boy. He asks if dinner is ready. 
 
 Enter cook. Cook says it is not time. Boy says he 
 wants dinner. Cook says he shall not have it. This takes 
 fifteen minutes. 
 
 Mother examines boy on his lessons. Boy does not 
 know them ; tries to peep. Mother reproves ; makes boy
 
 Jackson] CHINESE QUARTER IN SAN FRANCISCO. 309 
 
 kneel ; prepares to whip ; whips. Mother weeps j hoy 
 catches flies on the floor ; bites her finger. 
 
 Enter cook to see what the noise means. Cook takes 
 boy to task. Boy stops his ears. Cook bawls. Cook 
 kneels to lady ; reproves her also ; tells her she must keep 
 her own temper, if she would train her boy. 
 
 Lady sulks, naturally. Boy slips behind and cuts her 
 work out of her embroidery frame. Cook attacks boy. 
 Cook sings a lament, and goes out to attend to dinner ; but 
 returns in frantic distress. During his absence everything 
 has boiled over; everything has been burned to a crisp. 
 Dinner is ruined. Cook now reconciles mother and son ; 
 drags son to his knees ; makes him repeat words of sup- 
 plication. While he does this cook turns his back to the 
 audience, takes off his beard carefully, lays it on the floor, 
 while he drinks a cupful of tea. 
 
 This is all, literally all. It took an hour and a half. The 
 audience listened with intensest interest. The gesticula- 
 tions, the expressions of face, the tones of the actors, all 
 conveyed the idea of the deepest tragedV. Except for our 
 interpreter, I should have taken the cook for a soothsayer, 
 priest, a highwayman and murderer, alternately. I should 
 have supposed that all the dangers, hopes, fears, delights 
 possible in the lives of three human beings were going on 
 on that stage. Now we saw how very far-fetched and pre- 
 posterous had probably been our theories of the play we 
 had seen before, we having constructed a most brilliant 
 plot from our interpretation of the pantomime. 
 
 After this domestic drama came a fierce spectacular 
 play, too absurd to be described, in which nations went to 
 war because a king's monkey had been killed. And the 
 kin^s and their armies marched in at one door and out 
 at the other, sat on gilt thrones, fought with gilt swords, 
 tumbled each other head over heels with as much vigor
 
 310 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Jacksow 
 
 and just as much art as small boys play the battle of 
 Bunker Hill with the nursery chairs on a rainy day. But 
 the dresses of these warlike monarchs were gorgeous and 
 fantastic beyond description. Long, gay-colored robes, 
 blazoned and blazing with gold and silver embroidery; 
 small flags, two on each side, stuck in at their shoulders, 
 and projecting behind ; helmets, square breastplates of 
 shining stones, and such decorations with feathers as pass 
 belief. Several of them had behind each ear a long, slender 
 bird-of-Paradise feather. These feathers reached out at 
 least three feet behind, and curved and swayed with each 
 step the man took. When three or four of these were on 
 the stage together, marching and countermarching, wrest- 
 ling, fighting, and tumbling, why these tail feathers did 
 not break, did not become entangled with each other, no 
 mortal can divine. Others had huge wings of silver 
 filigree-work behind their ears. These also swayed and 
 flapped at each step. 
 
 Sometimes there would be forty or fifty of these nonde- 
 script creatures on the stage at once, running, gesticulating, 
 attacking, retreating, howling, bowing, bending, tripping 
 each other up, stalking, strutting, and all the while cater- 
 wauling, and all the time the drums beating, the gongs 
 ringing, and the stringed instruments and the castanets 
 and the fifes playing. It was dazzling as a gigantic kalei- 
 doscope and deafening as a cotton-mill. After the plays 
 came wonderful tumbling and somersaulting. To see such 
 gymnastic feats performed by men in long damask night- 
 gowns and with wide trousers is uncommonly droll. This 
 is really the best thing at the Chinese Theatre, — the only 
 thing, in fact, which is not incomprehensibly childish. 
 
 My last glimpse at the Chinese Empire was in Mr. 
 Loomis's Sunday-school. I had curiosity to see the faces 
 of the boys who had refused our invitation to the theatre.
 
 Jackson] CHINESE QUARTER IN SAN FRANCISCO. 311 
 
 As soon as I entered the room I was asked to take charge 
 of a class. In vain I demurred and refused. 
 
 " You surely can hear them read a chapter in the New 
 Testament." 
 
 It seemed inhuman as well as unchristian to refuse, for 
 there were several classes without teachers, many good 
 San Franciscans having gone into the country. There 
 were the eager yellow faces watching for my reply. So I 
 sat down in a pew with three Chinese young men on my 
 right hand, two on my left, and four in the pew in front, 
 all with English and Chinese Testaments in their hands. 
 The lesson for the day was the fifteenth chapter of Matthew. 
 They read slowly, but with greater accuracy of emphasis 
 and pronunciation than I expected. Their patience and 
 eagerness in trying to correct a mispronunciation were 
 touching. At last came the end of the chapter. 
 
 "Now do you go on to the next chapter?" said I. 
 
 " No. Arx-play-in," said the brightest of the boys. 
 " You arx-play-in what we rade to you." 
 
 I wished the floor of that Sunday-school chapel would 
 open and swallow me up. To expound the fifteenth of 
 Matthew at all ; above all, to expound it in English which 
 those poor souls could understand! In despair I glanced 
 at the clock: it lacked thirty minutes of the end of school; 
 at the other teachers : they were all glibly responding. 
 Guiltily I said, " Very well. Begin and read the chapter 
 over again, very slowly ; and when you como to any word 
 you do not understand, tell me, and I will try to explain it 
 to you." 
 
 Their countenances fell. This was not the way they 
 had usually been taught. But with the meekness of a 
 down-trodden people they obeyed. It worked even better 
 than I had hoped. Poor souls 1 they probably did not un- 
 derstand enough to select the words which perplexed them.
 
 312 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brace 
 
 They trudged patiently through their verses again without 
 question. But my Charybdis was near. The sixth verse 
 came to the brightest boy. As he read, " Thus have ye 
 made the commandment of God of none effect by your 
 tradition," he paused after the word tradition. I trembled. 
 
 " Arx-play-in trardition," he said. 
 
 " What ?" said I, feebly, to gain a second's more of time. 
 " What word did you say ?" 
 
 "Trardition," he persisted. "What are trardition? 
 Arx-play-in." 
 
 What I said I do not know. Probably I should not tell 
 if I did. But I am very sure that never in all my life 
 have I found myself, and never in all the rest of my life 
 shall I find myself, in so utterly desperate a dilemma as I 
 was then, with those patient, earnest, oblique eyes fixed 
 on me, and the gentle Chinese voice reiterating, "What 
 are trardition ?" 
 
 MARIPOSA GROVE AND YOSEMITE VALLEY. 
 
 CHARLES LORING BRACE. 
 
 [Our sketches of travel in America will not be complete without 
 descriptive narratives relating to its great natural wonders, of which 
 the United States possesses more examples than any other country on 
 the globe. The present selection, therefore, from Brace's "The New 
 West, or California in 1867-68," is devoted to a brief account of the 
 monster trees of that State and the scenic marvels of the Yosemite 
 Valley.] 
 
 The great pleasure of the American continent will here- 
 after be the journey to the Yosemite. There is no one 
 object of nature in the world, except Niagara, to equal it 
 in attraction. Whenever the Pacific road brings the two
 
 Beack] MARIPOSA GROVE AND YOSEMITE VALLEY. 313 
 
 coasts within a fortnight of each oiher, innumerable parties 
 will be made up to visit it. I have been tolerably familiar, 
 by foot-journeys, with Switzerland, Tyrol, and Norway, 
 and I can truly say that no one scene in those grand re- 
 gions can compai'e equally, in all its combinations, with the 
 wonderful Canon of the Yosemite. It is a matter of con- 
 gratulation, also, to me, that I saw it before any road, or 
 coach, or rail-car had approached it. It ought not to be 
 visited otherwise than as our party journeyed to it,— on 
 horses winding in picturesque train over velvety trails, 
 beneath the gigantic pines of the Sierras. . . . 
 
 Among all my many travelling experiences in various 
 countries, I do not think I can ever forget the romance 
 and the delicious beauty of that first night's ride towards 
 the Yosemite. The trail was barely wide enough for two 
 to ride abreast, winding under majestic pines, over moun- 
 tains, and down wide, deep dells, each step of the horses 
 springing elastic from soft pine-leaves. The sun soon set, 
 and a magnificent moon arose, giving us at one time a broad 
 belt of light over the path, and then leaving us to descend 
 into a mysterious gulf of darkness, and then casting strange 
 shadows and half-lights through the pine-branches over our 
 procession of riders. As we penetrated farther into the 
 forest we began to wind about beneath trees such as lew 
 of us had ever seen, — the superb sugar-pine, perhaps the 
 most perfect tree in nature, here starting with a diameter 
 of from seven to twelve feet, and mounting up with most 
 symmetrical branches to the height say of Trinity Church 
 spire (two hundred and fifty to two hundred and sixty 
 feet); on the end of its branches cones hanging a foot long. 
 Sometimes we came forth from the forest for a few mo- 
 ments, and had grand glimpses of great mountain valleys, 
 only partly revealed in the glorious moonlight. Most of 
 the party were old travellers, and were rather impervious 
 o 27
 
 314 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brack 
 
 to sensations, but we all agreed that this was a new one, 
 and gave a most promising augury of the Yosemite excur- 
 sion. After fourteen miles — an easy ride — we all reached 
 Clark's Eanch at a late hour, ready lor supper and bed. 
 
 [The next morning] we started at not too early an hour 
 for a forest-ride to the Trees, Mr. Clark kindly guiding us. 
 What may be called the avenue to these hoary monuments 
 of antiquity lies through a gigantic forest of sugar-pines, 
 themselves some two hundred to two hundred and fifty 
 feet high ; so that when you reach the mighty towers of 
 vegetation you lose a little the sense of their vast height. 
 I searched curiously as we rode through the forest for the 
 conditions which should produce such monsters of growth. 
 It must be remembered that the Sequoia gigantea is not 
 found merely here, or at Calaveras and its neighborhood. 
 There appears to be a belt of them running along the slope 
 of the Sierras, about four thousand and five thousand feet 
 above the sea-level, and as far south as Visalia. They are 
 so plentiful near that place as to be sawed for lumber, 
 though what so light a wood could be used for I can 
 hardly think. In the neighborhood of the latter place the 
 Indians report a tree, far in the forest, surpassing in gran- 
 deur anything ever seen ; but thus far no white man has 
 ever cast eyes on it. It is a mistake, too, to suppose tho 
 race wearing out. I saw, both hero and in Calaveras, 
 young giant Sequoice, beginning patiently their thousand 
 years of growth with all the vigor of their grand ances- 
 tors ; some of but four hundred years, mere youths, were 
 growing splendidly. There are fewer young trees here 
 than in Calaveras, because fire or some other cause has 
 swept among the underbrush of all trees, and must have 
 destroyed many of these burly saplings. 
 
 The Sequoia grows on mountain-slopes, where the slow 
 wash of water, through ages, brings down minute particles
 
 Brace] MARIPOSA GROVE AND YOSEMITE VALLEY. 315 
 
 of fertilizing rocks, and the decayed vegetation of count- 
 less centuries, with the moisture of eternal springs, water 
 and feed its roots. It enjoys a sun of the tropics without 
 a cloud for six months, and has the balmy air of the Pa- 
 cific, with incessant and gentle moisture, and a warm cov- 
 ering of snow for its winter. Beneath its roots, the ground 
 never freezes. As has been well said, " It has nothing to 
 do but grow ;" and so with all the favorable conditions that 
 nature can offer — air and sun and moisture — it pumps up 
 its food from the everlasting hills, and builds up its slow, 
 vegetable-like substance during century after century into 
 a gigantic, symmetrical, and venerable pile, while nations 
 begin and pass away beneath its shadow. 
 
 Think of lying under a tree beneath which the contem- 
 porary of Attila or Constantine might have rested, and 
 which shall defy the storm, perhaps, when the present po- 
 litical divisions of the world are utterly passed away, and 
 the names of Washington and Lincoln are among the 
 heroes of a vague past. 
 
 But how to give an impression of its size ! If my read- 
 ers will imagine a Sequoia placed beside Trinity Church, 
 he must conceive it filling up one of our largest dwelling- 
 houses, say a diameter of thirty feet, with a circumference 
 of ninety feet ; the bark of this gigantic trunk will be light, 
 porous, and reddish in color, with many scars upon it of 
 fire (its great enemy) ; then, perhaps, at the height of the 
 Trinity belfry (say one hundred feet), two opposing huge 
 branches will protrude, it may be, themselves, of the size 
 of large trees (say eight feet in diameter) ; these will be 
 twisted and much broken ; above them will come forth 
 other heavy branches, which show the marks and blows of 
 the storms of a thousand years or more, for the giant, so 
 far above his fellows, meets a continual battering from the 
 gales of the mountains.
 
 316 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brace 
 
 There is no symmetry in his top, or delicacy and grace 
 in his outline ; he has battled and struggled with the storm 
 for too many centuries to preserve an artistic appear- 
 ance. He looks the giant of the forest, broad-rooted and 
 strong-limbed, rough und weather-beaten, but defying snow 
 and frost and hurricane for thousands of years, and still 
 sheltering bird and beast and cattle beneath his grand 
 shadow. . . . 
 
 We visited one big tree in Calaveras which had been 
 blown over two years before. The enormous weight which 
 each tree carries makes it more difficult to bear the gales, 
 as it overtops the forest. Perhaps any ordinary wood, 
 such as oak or maple, would increase the specific gravity, 
 so that at three hundred feet high the leverage on the roots 
 would be too great to bear any strain of a gale ; but this 
 wood is almost like cork, — lighter than any wood on the 
 Eastern coast. The fall of this mighty tower, they say, 
 was heard for miles around, and made the earth tremble. 
 Where it fell it has buried its top deep in the ground, so 
 that there is quite a ravine made by the blow in the earth. 
 You strike the trunk where it is still a large tree, and then 
 walk upon it some two hundred feet towards the roots. 
 When you reach the roots you are upon a height equal 
 to the roof of a moderate-sized house, and a fall from the 
 trunk would be dangerous. You descend by a ladder. 
 
 If I recollect rightly, there were three hundred and 
 sixty-five trees in this Mariposa Grove. I measured one 
 trunk, broken off at the top, where it was a foot in diame- 
 ter, which was about two hundred and ninety feet in length, 
 and estimating thirty feet as the length of the part broken 
 off, it must have been some three hundred and twenty feet 
 high. We lunched near a " camp" of the Geological Sur- 
 vey, in the heart of the grove, lying on our backs beneath 
 the gigantic canopies, and feeling like pigmies at the feet
 
 Brace] MARIPOSA GROVE AND YOSEMITE VALLEY. 317 
 
 of these giants. The younger trees were often wreathed 
 with a strange, yellow, hanging moss. Our ladies were 
 deeply interested in a remarkable flower which grew be- 
 neath the snow, a few patches of which still remained here 
 in June. It was a blood-red flower of a fleshy-like sub- 
 stance, like the Pyrola, or " Dutchman's pipe," growing 
 somewhat like a garden hyacinth. Its stems were clus- 
 tered, from six to ten inches high, with long, erect scales, 
 broader below and gradually narrower, and finally be- 
 coming bracts. The flowers were numerous, and occupied 
 the upper half of the stem. It is the Sarcodes sanguinea. 
 
 [Leaving the Big Tree grove, the travellers made a farther ride of 
 twenty-five miles through the Sierras to the Yosemite, the first view of 
 which impressed them deeply.] 
 
 No aspect of nature I have ever looked upon, no sight 
 of the desolate ocean, heaving and lashing in mighty surges 
 beneath wintry storm, or sudden view of Alpine snow- 
 peaks through rifts of black thunder-clouds, or glimpses 
 of Norwegian coast-glaciers through the lulls of an Arctic 
 gale, or even Niagara itself, was so full of the inspiration of 
 awe as this first opening view of the Yosemite Canon. All 
 other scenes of grandeur and beauty must fade away in my 
 memory when this vision is forgotten. Before the mighty 
 powers which had shaped this tremendous gorge, and in 
 presence of this scene of unspeakable and indescribable 
 beauty and majesty, man and his works seemed to sink 
 away to nothingness. ... I almost felt as if I had known 
 nothing of the canon before, so surprising were the effects 
 of coloring and shadow. It must be remembered we had 
 struck the gorge on one of its lateral walls, say about four 
 miles from its western end. There is no approach to it 
 from below up the stream. As we lay on the edge of the 
 cliff we gazed up a narrow green valley perfectly flat, from 
 
 21*
 
 318 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brace 
 
 a mile to half a mile wide, and winding, some six miles 
 above, between enormous cliffs and precipices, a small, 
 bright, sparkling stream in the middle, fringed with green 
 grass or forest-trees. The wall, over the edge of which we 
 were looking, was nearly three-quarters of a mile high, and 
 far below, the oaks and willows and poplars and pines in 
 the green intervale looked like little shrubs. On the other 
 side, a short distance beyond, was the grand bluff of El 
 Capitan, a sheer precipice of nearly four thousand feet, its 
 light granite pile, in the evening light, the most majestic 
 cliff that human eye has looked upon ; beyond were other 
 bluffs and precipices, pearly gray and purplish-white, with 
 green fringes below, and dark archways or fantastic fig- 
 ures traced by shadows on their surface. There were but- 
 tresses, as of gigantic cathedrals, and archways such as 
 might support hills of granite, and domes where a moun- 
 tain was the substructure, and half domes, and peaks whose 
 regular succession has given them the name of " Brothers," 
 — all varying in color and shadow, incessantly, with the 
 receding light; some with the delicious cool gray of the 
 rock color ; some white, with a reddish shade ; others faint 
 purple ; others resplendent in pink and brilliant purple ; 
 while over their edges, giving a joyous life to the scene, 
 rushed sparkling silver streams, in innumerable waterfalls, 
 dashing into the green valley below. . . . But the scene 
 was changing. Over the valley, the heavy shadow of El 
 Capitan continually increased its gigantic breadth of shade; 
 beyond him the " Arches," which, to be seen at that dis- 
 tance, must be a thousand feet in height, grew each in- 
 stant more strongly marked, but still farther beyond to 
 the east the North Dome and the Half Dome were golden 
 and purple in the evening light, and yet beyond the still 
 white peaks of the Sierras towered above in the pale 
 blue.
 
 Brace] MARIPOSA GROVE AND YOSEMITE VALLEY. 319 
 
 On our side of the vast gorge the foot of the various 
 precipices and cliffs was covered with detritus, making, 
 near the bottom, a considerable slope, on which grew many- 
 evergreen trees. 
 
 On the other side there was one line of massive rock, 
 which fell apparently plumb, without a break or curve, 
 for nearly four thousand feet, and at its base, so hard was 
 the material, there seemed no recent detritus at all. One 
 could evidently touch the very bottom of the immense 
 fall of rock. . . . 
 
 The form of the canon is unique, nothing in Europe 
 resembling it : the immense vertical walls rising so abruptly 
 from the green vale ; the peaks, too, which surround it, 
 being original, even in the Sierras; the immense, inacces- 
 sible, concentric masses of granite, — domes, or half-domes, 
 as if melted in some gigantic mould, and then, when cooled, 
 left standing in the air. 
 
 One of the grandest and most beautiful objects in the 
 valley was directly opposite our hotel, and its music never 
 ceased, day or night, — the Yosemite Fall. The stream 
 which bears this name heads about ten miles away, and 
 then flows down, almost directly over the mighty preci- 
 pice, into the valley below, — a depth of two thousand five 
 hundred and fifty feet. At this time it is about thirty-five 
 feet wide by two or three deep. The fall has almost the 
 appearance of one grand shoot of water, but it has, in 
 reality, three divisions: the first is a descent of fifteen 
 hundred feet on a led<re (as it seems), though it is, in fact, 
 a shelf of rock, a third of a mile broad ; then follow a 
 series of cascades for six hundred and twenty-five feet, and 
 a final leap of four hundred. There is water enough now 
 to give a bright, foaming, grand sweep of the whole cata- 
 ract. It is certainly one of the most beautiful objects the 
 human eye can ever gaze upon ! We never wearied of riding
 
 320 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brack 
 
 out over the green meadows and gay, wild flowers to get 
 some new aspect of it. 
 
 The only fall to compare it with, that I have ever seen, 
 is the Voring Foss, in Norway. This is a fall of nine hun- 
 dred and fifty feet, but the water is so scanty that it is all 
 resolved into wreaths of mist before it reaches the bottom ; 
 and it makes but little impression on the mind, compared 
 with the Yosemite Fall. It is, moreover, confined in a 
 narrow, dark gorge, and must be seen usually from above. 
 In seeing the Californian fall, I did not even think of the 
 Norwegian. 
 
 The amount of water, at this season, adds immensely to 
 the cheerfulness and life of the valley ; but it also occa- 
 sioned us a great deal of trouble in getting round. We 
 were mired several times, and twice one of our ladies was 
 thrown on the soft greensward. 
 
 But the scampering gallops through the groves under 
 these grand scenes, and the quiet amblings amid such 
 beauty and sublimity, were pleasures which nothing 
 marred. In our rides down the canon, we were struck by 
 the grand mass of the Sentinel Dome, four thousand one 
 hundred and fifty feet above the valley, and said to give 
 the finest point of view in the whole region round ; the 
 valley itself, it must be remembered, being over four thou- 
 sand feet above the sea-level. Then three-quarters of a 
 mile beyond is the majestic buttress of the Sentinel Rock, 
 three thousand feet high, of which a thousand feet is a 
 smooth obelisk ; opposite to this are the Three Brothers, 
 the highest three thousand eight hundred and thirty feet, 
 and each regularly lower than the next. 
 
 Then comes the Cathedral Rock, two thousand six hun- 
 dred and sixty feet, with two perfect spires, the most pic- 
 turesque object in the valley ; then the exquisite Pohono, 
 or Bridal Veil, a flashing fall of a thousand feet swaying
 
 Bback] MARIPOSA GROVE AND YOSEMITE VALLEY. 321 
 
 like a silvery plume in the mountain breezes, and the grand 
 feature of the gorge, of which I have so often spoken, El 
 Capitan, three thousand six hundred feet. 
 
 To the east of the hotel, about two miles above the 
 falls, the valley ends and divides into three canons, each 
 containing scenery as remarkable as those of the main 
 gorge. The northwest canon is the Tinaya Fork ; here 
 we have the Half Dome, a majestic inaccessible crest of 
 concentric granite, four thousand seven hundred and thirty- 
 seven feet above tho valley, with a vertical face where the 
 half sphere split off of two thousand feet in height ; the 
 North Dome, a rounded mass, three thousand five hundred 
 and sixty-eight feet, and easy to ascend from the north. 
 In this fork is the exquisite Tisayic Lake, on which the 
 morning reflections are so beautifully given. 
 
 The middle cafion, that of the Merced Eiver, is the most 
 important one of the thi*ee. No ravine scenery in Europe 
 equals this wild and extraordinary gorge. The river, 
 which at this season has a tremendous body of water, 
 descends through a wild ravine of two miles, nineteen hun- 
 dred and eighty feet. The path winds along over a series 
 of wild falls and rapids, till a cloud and gale of mist and 
 wet cover it, through which we reach a dry place at the 
 foot of a magnificent fall, four hundred and seventy-five 
 feet high, — the Vernal. Then ladders are ascended up 
 the face of the cliff, and we rest on the dry, sunny ledge 
 over the boiling and whirling cataract. Still another 
 scramble for a mile, and we find ourselves blinded, gasping, 
 in the breath of the furious cataract above. We are all 
 clad in India-rubber coats (furnished by a guide), and drip 
 with water, and work up, inch by inch, stooping, as against 
 a violent current. The gale takes away our breaths, and 
 we have every now and then to catch a breath ; there is 
 nothing visible ahead but clouds of mist and driving swirls 
 
 I.— V
 
 322 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brace 
 
 of rain, with a roar filling the air, which prevents all 
 voices from being heard. We are helping the ladies on 
 with the utmost difficulty, but at last all reluctantly give 
 out and turn back ; but I cannot bear to give up the view ; 
 and after groping in the furious storm and mist, I at length 
 find a side path through the chaparral, and soon reach a 
 dry ledge beneath the superb Nevada Fall, — a majestic 
 sweep of thundering water, six hundred and thirty-nine 
 feet in height, more grand than any waterfall in the valley, 
 because of the volume of water. There is a peculiar twist 
 in the upper portion of it, which adds to its picturesque 
 effect. On the other side rises a most remarkable peak of 
 granite, solitary and inaccessible, — Mount Broderick, some 
 two thousand feet. The scene as I stood there alone be- 
 neath this sublime sweep of waters, and amid those mighty 
 mountain-cliffs, can never be forgotten. 
 
 The South Fork I did not visit, but the photographs show 
 that it possesses scenery as romantic as the other branches 
 of the carion. It is interesting to notice that these enor- 
 mous waterfalls in the Merced Cafion have scarcely an in- 
 dentation on this most hard rock, — a fact probably indi- 
 cating that they have not existed a great length of time. 
 The comparative absence of detritus in the upper part of 
 the main valley would seem to show the action of water 
 and ice, pressing the debris into the lower portion where 
 more of it is found. There are, too (as was discovered by 
 Mr. King), something which may be called lateral mo- 
 raines, and perhaps a terminal moraine in the middle of the 
 caflon, so that it seems not improbable, though there is no 
 absolute evidence, that in a comparatively recent period 
 glaciers existed in the upper part, and a lake in the body 
 of the Yosemite Cafion, the descent of the whole valley, it 
 must be remembered, being only fifty feet during some, 
 eight miles.
 
 Price] A SPORTSMAN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEXICO. 323 
 
 A SPORTSMAN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEXICO. 
 
 SIR ROSE LAMBERT PRICE. 
 
 [Major Price, whose hunting adventures seem to have extended 
 from Terra del Fuego to the northern boundary of the United States, 
 gives us, in his "Sport and Travel; or, The Two Americas," a record 
 full of incident and observation. From his greatly varied hunting 
 experience we select a description of the pursuit of game in the vicinity 
 of Acupulco, Mexico, which is of interest as showing the conditions of 
 animal and vegetable life in that region.] 
 
 The day after our arrival, H and myself, getting 
 
 mules and a guide, started for Pira de la Questa, a small 
 Indian village about twelve miles from Acupulco, and situ- 
 ated near the extremity of a large lagoon, some thirty miles 
 in circumference, which we were informed was full of wild 
 fowl. Over many a rough road and in many lands have 
 I ridden, but never did I travel a highway like unto this. 
 The path ran over the mountains through a thick forest, 
 and more resembled the bed of a watercourse than an 
 actually connected route. Nothing but mules, whose cat- 
 like propensities enable them to overcome apparently in- 
 surmountable difficulties, could possibly have done the jour- 
 ney. In places the path was so narrow that two of theso 
 animals were unable to pass abreast, so that one would be 
 obliged to go back into a convenient corner, or scramble up 
 a bank, to permit the other to go by. 
 
 The forest was dense, but, as it was just prior to the rains, 
 almost leafless, everything being burned and parched up 
 except in the valleys and bottoms of ravines, where run- 
 ning water rendered the vegetation luxuriant and flourish- 
 ing. This absence of foliage, though detracting consider-
 
 324 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Price 
 
 ably from the beauty of the forest, permitted us to view 
 all the better its feathered denizens, and in few tropical 
 countries have I seen such lovely birds, or in such numbers 
 as out here. To classify or name them would require a 
 man to be a perambulating encyclopaedia of natural his- 
 tory ; but among them all I was most struck with the num- 
 ber of specimens of the woodpecker class, several of which 
 were very beautiful. One in particular with a blood red 
 topknot, which glittered vividly in the sun, I envied much 
 for my fishing-book, and regretted the guide had my gun 
 in his possession nearly a mile behind. 
 
 As the sun was setting we entered the village, which 
 consisted of a few mud huts with sideless roofs, and halt- 
 ing before one of them, was informed by the guide that it 
 was to be our quarters for the night. It was simply a roof 
 of palm-leaves over a mud floor, there being no kind of 
 wall or even screen, and it formed the universal dormitory 
 of men, women, and children, pigs and poultry, at the 
 principal hotel — the Claridge's, in fact — of Pira la Questa. 
 Leaving the proprietress and her numerous progeny en- 
 gaged in hunting down an active-looking fowl for our even- 
 ing repast, we rode to the lagoon, and giving the guide our 
 mules to hold, shot a few of the curious-looking aquatic 
 birds, which he pronounced to be " bueno," or good for eat- 
 ing, that were feeding round the banks. It was rapidly 
 getting dark, and seeing at a distance some birds that I took 
 to be duck, I noiselessly crept down on them. To do so I 
 had to pass over a small spot of white sand, concealed, until 
 I was on it, by a clump of bushes. 
 
 While still silently watching the birds I saw something 
 move a little to my right, and on turning round discovered 
 a huge alligator, whom I had almost cut off from the lake. 
 The bushes had hidden us until absolutely face to face, and 
 he came by me with his teeth grinning and tail half cocked,
 
 Price] A SPORTSMAN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEXICO. 325 
 
 in the most unamiable frame of mind I ever saw in one of 
 his tribe. Without intending it, I had very nearly cut him 
 off from his native element; and though naturally a cow- 
 ardly brute, feeling himself to a certain degree cornered, 
 he had evidently made up bis mind to fight. Not being 
 prepared, with only small shot in my gun, for a duel with 
 the reptile, I stopped short and gave him right of way, 
 and, as he cleared me at about two yards, let him have 
 both barrels behind the shoulder to expedite his move- 
 ments, and had the satisfaction of seeing him give a jump 
 into the water that would have done credit to a performer 
 for the Grand National. 
 
 They are cowardly brutes, and though I have been fre- 
 quently in parts of the world they inhabit, I have never 
 yet heard of an instance of a man being attacked by one 
 on land. In the water it is different. A boy had, while 
 bathing, been taken down some months since close to this 
 very spot, and from what I saw of the lagoon next morn- 
 ing, I would not have ventured a swim there for untold 
 gold. Had I been a little quicker, and unintentionally 
 barred this fellow's way to the lake, I am quite certain he 
 would have attacked me, as he must have passed some- 
 how. These creatures never take to the jungle, and, like 
 a rat driven into a corner, he would have been obliged to 
 fight. 
 
 On returning to the village we found our dinner nearly 
 ready ; bread and liquor we had brought with us, but the 
 hunted fowl, new-laid eggs, and hot tortillas formed no bad 
 meal for travellers sharp set by a mountain ride. After 
 feeding, we visited some of the principal bouses in the vil- 
 lage, chaffed some of the good-humored and pretty little 
 Indian girls, and arranged about a canoe for the follow- 
 ing morning. We then slung our grass hammocks among 
 the miscellaneous company and wooed the drowsy god of 
 
 28
 
 326 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Prick 
 
 slumber, our guide slinging his hammock up between us, 
 and sleeping with his machete buckled around him, ready 
 for attack or defence at a moment's notice. 
 
 The machete is the invariable companion of the poorer 
 and middle classes of Mexicans, and the multiplicity of uses 
 to which it is dedicated are something wonderful to the un- 
 initiated. With it he clears the tangled paths in the forest; 
 it helps to build his hut, to cut his firewood, and eat his 
 dinner; he uses it for purposes of warfare, and too fre- 
 quentby also for purposes of assassination. The blade is 
 broad, slightly curved, a little shorter than an infantry offi- 
 cer's regulation sword, and about twice as heavy. The 
 handle is generally made of wood, the scabbard leather, 
 and the edge invariably as keen as a razor. Occasionally 
 the blades are ornamented with gold or silver, but the ordi- 
 nary machete is perfectly plain. 
 
 Next morning we were up before daylight, and hastened 
 to the banks of the lagoon, where according to agreement 
 we should have found our canoe. None was forthcoming, 
 however, and not until the sun broke fiercely on our heads 
 and our patience was completely exhausted did our guide 
 prevail on the man who was to have provided it to go in 
 search of another. After a still further considerable delay, 
 at last he arrived, but with a rickety conveyance that 
 
 would only hold one gun besides the paddler; and H 
 
 taking the canoe, I walked along the edge, and our shoot- 
 ing commenced. 
 
 The place was full of all kinds of odd-looking water- 
 fowl. Geese, duck, teal, pelicans, flamingo, and spoonbills 
 were in hundreds, and many kinds of waders unknown to 
 me ; in fact, such an extraordinary variety of fresh- water 
 birds I had never seen together before. The ducks were 
 particularly handsome, having bright bronze breasts, which 
 shone like burnished metal in the sun. Of teal I shot
 
 Price] A SPORTSMAN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEXICO. 327 
 
 several varieties, many of them with exceedingly beautiful 
 and brilliant plumage ; but I think among the queer ones I 
 killed there were none more beautiful in plumage than the 
 spoonbill; for though his singular and uncouth beak did 
 not improve his countenance, he had the most lovely and 
 delicate tinge of rose-color through his white feathers it is 
 possible to conceive. We had him for dinner two days 
 afterwards, and found him excellent. 
 
 Not knowing a quarter of the birds that got up, and 
 many being fishy and unfit for food, whenever one rose the 
 guide would cry either "Bueno" or "No bueno," as it hap- 
 pened to be fit or unfit for culinary purposes ; and so on for 
 nine miles along the banks, sometimes through mud, at 
 others through sand, and at others through jungle or water, 
 did I plod along, taking whatever was termed " bueno," 
 and occasionally peppering an obtrusive alligator when he 
 came anything inside twelve yards. 
 
 The heat was intense, and, to add to the discomfort of 
 walking, the paths through the jungle and mangrove 
 swamps occasionally bordered the edges of the lake, and 
 were so thickly crossed by cobwebs that they were per- 
 petually knocking off my hat, getting in my mouth and 
 eyes, and at times almost impeded my progress. I never 
 saw anything like them. Occasionally large forest-trees 
 were entirely covered from top to bottom, and so thickly 
 shrouded that not a leaf or twig could be seen through 
 its unnatural-looking winding-sheet. The lagoon seemed 
 full of fish, which were jumping in shoals all over it ; but not 
 once during the day did we see a single bird settle on its 
 surface; and from the number of alligators swimming 
 about, I think they showed their wisdom. 
 
 It was capital sport, but precious hard work also, and I 
 was just about "played out," when we reached a "ranche," 
 where, after a pull of cold water that must have somewhat
 
 328 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Prick 
 
 alarmed my constitution, I tumbled into a grass hammock, 
 uncommonly glad to get out of the burning sun. 
 
 A pleasant-featured young Mexican woman, with a dark- 
 eyed, good-looking sister, soon despatched between them 
 one of the many chickens running about the house ; and 
 while the cazuela was preparing they very good-naturedly 
 washed out my shirt, lending me, ad interim, some embroid- 
 ered garment of their own. The rest of my clothes were 
 hung up to dry, every stitch on me being thoroughly satu- 
 rated. H and the canoe soon after arrived, and how 
 
 we did enjoy the homely but excellent fare our hostess put 
 before us ! Then came pipes and a siesta, and a couple 
 
 hours' rest saw us fit to return. Ii had got enough of 
 
 it, and, borrowing a horse, rode back to the village. I re- 
 turned in the canoe, and got a good many shots en route. 
 Our bag was a mixed one, and consisted of the birds I 
 have already mentioned, with several others whose names 
 we did not know, and four rabbits. Wild duck and teal 
 predominated, and the guides could hardly stagger from 
 the canoe to the houses with our united bag. 
 
 The sun was fast setting as we left Pira la Questa on our 
 return journey, and ere we reached the mountain-top it 
 was quite dark. Unable to see a yard before us, but 
 knowing we must go on, I threw the reins on my mule's 
 neck, and, lighting a pipe, resigned myself implicitly to his 
 sagacity, not only to find the path, but to avoid the ob- 
 stacles which at every step lay before him. My confidence 
 was not misplaced. With nose almost touching the ground, 
 he seemed to smell his way along, and not once during our 
 long ride did he deviate for a second from the proper track, 
 or make a single false step or stumble. The sounds and 
 strange cries during the dark stillness of the night were 
 very remarkable. Whether caused by bird or insect I 
 could not tell ; but one in particular, resembling the pro-
 
 Price] A SPORTSMAN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEXICO. 329 
 
 longed whistle of a locomotive steam-engine, was frequently 
 of more than a minute's duration without ceasing, and of 
 such volume and intensity that unless I had been aware 
 of the utter impossibility of a train being within hundreds 
 of miles, I would have almost sworn to so familiar a sound. 
 The lights of Acupulco at last came in sight, and our ani- 
 mals soon after deposited us safely, after a somewhat trying 
 but very agreeable trip. . . . 
 
 On the 10th of May we left Acupulco and steamed 
 quietly along the Mexican coast in sight of land until we 
 reached Manzinilla Bay, on the southeast part of which 
 are situated the few wretched huts that constitute the 
 village. The harbor is well protected from southerly 
 winds, but not from those directly from the westward. 
 Behind the village, and only a few hundred yards from the 
 sea-beach, is a large shallow lagoon which runs nearly 
 forty miles into the interior, and at the end of the dry 
 season becomes almost empty. The exhalations at this 
 time rising from the mud and stagnant water are most 
 dreadful, and even at our anchorage the stench during the 
 night was almost unbearable. . . . 
 
 Next morning, before daylight, we started with Mr. D 
 
 across the lagoon to a place about an hour's row from the 
 village, where he said he was in tho habit of getting wild 
 duck. The lake was so shallow that our boat often 
 grounded, and the oars at each stroke disturbed the black, 
 ink-like mud that constituted the bottom. The sides were 
 beautifully wooded, and surrounded by ranges of hills ex- 
 tending far into the interior, the edges of the water being 
 fringed with a belt of mangrove-trees, whose peculiarly 
 bright green foliage contrasted pleasingly with the sombre 
 coloring of the leafless trees behind them. The perfectly 
 stagnant water was of a light-yellow tint, and as full of 
 alligators as it could well bo. . . . 
 
 28*
 
 330 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Prick 
 
 After firing a good many shots, and gathering a some- 
 what miscellaneous bag, Mr. D saw a large alligator 
 
 asleep on some mud, lying half in and half out of the 
 water ; and as I was the only one of the party who had 
 brought any bullets, he sent one of the guides to show me 
 where it lay, in hope that I might get a shot. 
 
 Slowly, and with the greatest caution, I waded through 
 water until I got within twelve yards of where the brute 
 lay, and aiming about an inch behind the eye, drove a 
 bullet clean into his brain. He gave a convulsive kind of 
 shudder and lash with his tail, and was, I believe, dead ; 
 but to make certain I gave him the second barrel at about 
 four yards' distance behind the shoulder, and then felt 
 quite confident that I had indeed "wound him up." 
 
 It was some time before we could induce the natives to 
 assist in pulling him on dry land. Though they do not 
 mind them living and swimming about, they are particu- 
 larly careful of a wounded one, a single sweep of its pow- 
 erful tail, even when mortally stricken, being known to 
 break both legs of a man like a pipe-stem. Though dead 
 enough to all intents and purposes, an alligator, like either 
 a shark or a turtle, will continue possessed of a certain 
 amount of vitality and motion for a long period after life is 
 really extinct. This fellow was still gently swaying his tail 
 about while we bent on a rope to it, and, all five of us clap- 
 ping on, soon hauled him to the dry mud on the bank, 
 where we took his length, opened his jaws, and generally 
 examined the formidable-looking reptile at our leisure. He 
 was about fifteen feet long and inconceivably hideous. The 
 first bullet had smashed a large hole exactly where I aimed, 
 — namely, about one inch behind the eye ; the skull seemed 
 comparatively thin there, was unprotected by any thick 
 skin, and a large lump of his brain was oozing through the 
 wound. The second bullet went through his heart ; but I
 
 Price] A SPORTSMAN'S EXPERIENCE IN MEXICO. 331 
 
 am convinced that it was unnecessary, as the first shot had 
 done all that was needful. 
 
 Much as the people have written to the contrary, I am 
 quite satisfied now that an alligator is as easily slain as a 
 rabbit, if only hit in the right place ; and that place is not 
 in the eye, as is generally stated, but on the same level, 
 and from an inch to an inch and a half behind it. The 
 brain in all reptiles lies rather far back in the head, joining 
 almost to the neck. By striking one in the eye from many 
 positions it is quite possible that the brain may not be 
 touched at all; while, if the ball hits the slighest degree in 
 front of it, on the creature's long ugly snout, the bullet 
 might as well be chucked in the river for all the harm it 
 will do the alligator. Unsightly as these gentry are, the 
 Indians occasionally eat them. The skins are sometimes 
 tanned ; but they smell so strong, it is an awkward job to 
 handle them. During dry seasons they collect in vast 
 quantities in the small pools still left unevaporated, and are 
 then killed in large numbers for their hides, which when 
 tanned are found serviceable for many purposes. They 
 are tougher than ordinary leather, and resist water better. 
 Only the belly pieces are used. 
 
 Some few years ago during a very heavy rain, a number 
 of alligators got taken out of the lake by a small river 
 running into the sea, which was greatly flooded. They 
 were immediately attacked by the sharks, and a strange 
 battle ensued between these equally voracious monsters, 
 which all the people of the village flocked out to witness. 
 The battle lasted all day, and the noise of the combat 
 could be heard half a mile off. John Shark was, however, 
 more at home in his native element than his scaly antago- 
 nist, and eventually the alligators were all eaten up or 
 killed.
 
 332 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Oswald 
 
 THE SCENERY OF THE MEXICAN LOWLANDS. 
 
 FELIX L. OSWALD. 
 
 [Mexico is made up of two distinctively different regions; one, the 
 central plateau, temperate in climate, and marked by a great dearth of 
 rainfall ; the other, the lowland areas between the plateau and the 
 bordering oceans, tropical in climate and productions, and luxuriant 
 from abundant rains. Dr. Oswald, in the following selection, leads us 
 through the Valley of Oaxaca, a section of this Tierra Caliente, or 
 warm country, and makes us familiar with its interesting vegetable 
 and animal productions and its scenic features.] 
 
 We had a glimpse of the sun before we finished our 
 short breakfast, and when we plunged into the maze of the 
 forest the occasional vistas through the leafy vault revealed 
 larger and larger patches of bright blue sky. Our so- 
 called road, however, was worse than anything I had ever 
 seen or heard of Flemish or South Louisiana synonymes 
 of that word, — miry lagoons and spongy mud as black and 
 as sticky as pitch. I followed at the heels of my carrier, 
 who preferred the lagoons and seemed to find the shallow 
 places by a sort of instinct, and the Switzer managed to 
 propel his heavy boots through the toughest quagmire ; but 
 his boy, after losing his shoes five or six times, slung them 
 across his shoulder and splashed on barefoot. We kept 
 through a comparatively open forest of cottonwood- and 
 tulip-trees, with a dense jungle on our right-hand side, 
 while on our left the land sloped towards the bottom of the 
 Rio Verde, which is here about five hundred paces wide, 
 and during the rainy season fills its muddy banks to the 
 brink. These lower coast forests abound in gigantic trees, 
 whose fruits are only accessible to the winged and four- 
 handed denizens of the forest, but farther up the river-
 
 Oswald] SCENERY OF THE MEXICAN LOWLANDS. 333 
 
 shores are lined for miles with a dense growth of wild- 
 growing plantains, of which the natives distinguish four 
 varieties under as many different names. The fruit of the 
 largest, the cuernavacas (" cow-horns"), attains a weight of 
 seven pounds, and resembles in shape the crooked pod of 
 the tamarind rather than the cucumber-shaped little ba- 
 nanas which reach our Northern markets. They ripen 
 very slowly, and often rot on the tree before they become 
 eatable, but the Mexicans cure them over a slow fire of 
 embers and green brushwood, after which their taste can 
 hardly be distinguished from that of the finest yellow 
 bananas. Palm-trees mingle here with the massive stems 
 of the cottonwoods, talipot-palms, and the Palma prieta, 
 whose nut might become a profitable article of export, 
 having a close resemblance to a filbert. The plum-clusters 
 of the mango can onl}* be reached by a bold climber, as the 
 trunk rises like a mast, often perfectly free from branches 
 for eighty or ninety feet, and the chief beneficiaries of this 
 region are still the macaws and squirrel-monkeys; but 
 farther up Pomona becomes more condescending, and the 
 ancient G} r mno8ophists, whose religion restricted true 
 believers to a diet of wild-growing tree-fruits, would have 
 found their fittest home in the terrace-land between the 
 lower twenty miles of the Rio Verde and the foot-hills of 
 the Sierra de San Miguel. 
 
 Plum-bearing bushes abound from June to September 
 with red, yellow, and wax-colored fruit ; the morus, or wild 
 mulberry -tree, literally covers the ground with its dark, 
 honey-sweet berries ; the crown of the pino-palm is loaded 
 with grape-like clusters, which, struck b} r a cudgel, dis- 
 charge a shower of rich acorn-shaped nuts ; guavas, alli- 
 gator-pears, mamayos, chirimoyas, and wild oranges dis- 
 play flowers and fruit at the same time, and under the 
 alternate influence of heat and moisture produce their
 
 334 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Oswald 
 
 perennial crops with unfailing regularity; the algarobe 
 {Mimosa siliqua), a species of mezquite not larger than an 
 apple-tree, yields half a ton of the edible pods known as 
 carob-beans or St. John's bread ; the figs of the gigantic 
 banyan-tree furnish an aromatic syrup ; the trunks of the 
 Bobinia viridis exude an edible gum ; and from the vine- 
 tangle forming the vault of the forest hang the bunches 
 and clusters of forty or fifty varieties of wild grapes, many 
 of them superior to our scuppernongs and catawbas, while 
 the amber-colored Uva real rivals the flavor of the finest 
 Damascene raisin-grapes. A forced march of ten hours 
 through fens and silent virgin woods brought us at last 
 to the hummock region ; the plain swelled into mounds, 
 and the currents of the sluggish ba}'ous became more per- 
 ceptible. The higher levels showed vestiges of cultivation ; 
 we crossed dykes and ditches, a neglected fence here and 
 there, and where the larger trees had been felled grapes 
 and liana figs covered even the bushes and hedges in in- 
 credible profusion. A troop of capuchin monkeys leaped 
 from a low mango-tree, and two stumbling youngsters who 
 brought up the rear in the scramble for the high timber 
 would have tempted us to a chase if we had not been 
 anxious to reach less malarious quarters before night. The 
 neighborhood of the great swamps still betrayed itself by 
 that peculiar miasmatic odor which emanates from stag- 
 nant pools and decaying vegetable matter, and in the 
 recesses of the forest fluttered the slate-colored swamp- 
 moth, the ominous harbinger of the mosquito. The tipu- 
 lary pests were getting ready for action ; their skirmishers, 
 the sancudos and moscas negras, had already opened the 
 campaign, and became sensible as well as audible in spite 
 of the rapidity of our march. One of the twilight species, 
 the Mosca delgada, a straw-colored little midge, bites like 
 a fire-ant, — a mischievous and, it seems, unpractical freak
 
 Oswald] SCENERY OF THE MEXICAN LOWLANDS. 335 
 
 of nature, since the superfluous virulence of its sting must 
 certainly interfere with the business facilities of a sucto- 
 rial insect. 
 
 [As evening descended the travellers reached a cotton plantation, 
 and hastened to take refuge from the rising cloud of mosquitoes.] 
 
 The cotton-gin loomed at the farther end of the field, 
 and was taken by storm over piles of muck and scattered 
 fence rails. Seeing no ladder, we clambered through the 
 pivot-hole in the ceiling of a musty-smelling machine-shed, 
 but in the open loft above we found a delicious breeze, and 
 — St. Hubert be praised! — not a single mosquito. 
 
 The carrier threw himself upon his pack with a sigh of 
 relief, and we squatted around the hatch to cool off before 
 we opened our mess-bag. 
 
 From the hills on our right came the perfume of bloom- 
 ing tamarisks, and from the jungle below a cool lake-air ; 
 and at times strange voices of the wilderness, — the hoarse 
 bark of a cayman, answered by the shriek of swamp-geeso 
 in the canebrakes of the Eio Verde, and in the distance 
 now and then a queer rustling sound, like the shaking of a 
 tree butted by some heavy animal. Bats were circling 
 above our heads in the moonlight, and our advent seemed 
 to have excited the curiosity of a troop of flying-squirrels, 
 who uttered their chirping squeak now on the roof, now in 
 the branches of a neighboring live-oak-tree. 
 
 After removing a layer of seed-cotton that might harbor 
 scorpions or centipedes, I spread my blanket near the 
 hatch and made myself comfortable for the night. My 
 feet still smarted, though I had pulled off my stockings as 
 well as my boots ; yet I could not regret the hardships of 
 a march which had brought us to such an encampment. 
 The portador was taking his ease in the centre of the floor, 
 where the night-wind played with his long hair, while the
 
 336 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Oswald 
 
 Swiss boy had fallen asleep on the mantle of his country- 
 man, who was sitting in the open louvre, smoking his pipe 
 in measureless content. The air up here was delightfully 
 cool, and, with the buzz of the legions of Beelzebub still 
 ringing in our ears, the sense of security itself was more 
 than a negative comfort. 
 
 Baron Savarin, who wrote a treatise on the art of en- 
 joying life, should have added a chapter on the happiness 
 of contrast. A snug little cottage in a stormy November 
 night, a shade-tree on the Llano Estacado, the silence of 
 the Upper Alleghanies after a "revival-meeting" in the 
 valleys, a bath in the dog-days, would rank above all the 
 luxuries of Paris and Stamboul, if unbought enjoyments 
 could ever become fashionable. 
 
 The moon set soon after midnight, but we managed to 
 readjust our luggage by the light of greased paper spills, 
 and entered the gates of the foot-hills before the watch- 
 call of the night-hawk had been silenced by the reveille of 
 the iris-crows. A keen land-breeze, tumbling the mists 
 through the fens of the Tierra Caliente, gave promise of 
 a bright day. What wonderful perfumes the morning 
 wind brews from the atmosphere of u moist tropical forest- 
 land! — scents that haunt the memory more persistently 
 than the echo of a weird song. No latter-day nose could 
 analyze these odors and trace them to their several sources; 
 but with or without an attempt at further classification, 
 they might be primarily divided into sweet and pungent 
 aromatic smells, the latter prevailing in the coast jungles, 
 the former in the mountain forests. A few of the first 
 named — the spicy scents — are so peculiar that, once identi- 
 fied, they can be easily recognized : here, for instance, the 
 effluvium of the musk lianas, whose flowers diffuse a sort 
 of odorous diapason which predominates, even through the 
 bouquet-medley of the South Mexican flora.
 
 
 Oswald] SCENERY OF THE MEXICAN LOWLANDS. 337 
 
 As the white streaks in the east assumed a yellowish 
 tint, the paroquets in the crests of the pino-palms saluted 
 the morning with sudden screams; the multitudinous voices 
 of a crow-swarm approached from the coast forests ; two 
 and two, and in a series of pairs, the macaws came flying 
 across the sky ; and in our near neighborhood the startling 
 cry of the chachalaca or jungle-pheasant went up from an 
 hibiscus thicket. Softly first, then louder and louder, the 
 calanda, the mocking-bird of the tropics, intonated its 
 morning hymn, and the fluting curlew rose from the grass 
 like a skylark ; but a sweeter sound to our ears was the 
 murmuring of a little brook at the roadside. "We had 
 reached the region of rocks and swift-flowing waters. 
 
 Of reptiles, as of Red Eepublicans, it may be said that 
 they are least dreaded in the countries where they most 
 abound. While a New England boarding-school virgin 
 goes into epileptic spasms at the aspect of a blindvvorm, 
 the young Mexicanas surround themselves with a variety 
 of ophidian pets, and view a freckled tree-snake and a gay 
 butterfly with equal pleasure or equal unconcern. A little 
 barefoot girl that met us on her way to the spring put her 
 toes caressingly on the smooth hide of a green-and-white 
 speckled Vivora mansa that wriggled across the road ; and 
 our barelegged portador kicked dozens of good-sized bush- 
 snakes out of our path after noticing that they frightened 
 our young travelling companion. More than ninety per 
 cent, of all South American snakes are as harmless as liz- 
 ards, and the four or five venomous varieties are well 
 known and easily avoided. 
 
 I will here add a word on the dreaded venomous insects 
 of the tropics. The ant and mosquito plagues of the coast 
 jungles can hardly be over estimated, but the virulence of 
 their larger congeners is frequently and grossly exagger- 
 ated. The chief insect-ogres of sensation romancers and 
 i.— p w 29
 
 338 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Oswald 
 
 fireside travellers are three : the scorpion, the tarantula, 
 and the centipede, either of whom can rival the homicidal 
 prestige of Victor Hugo's octopus. But I may confidently 
 appeal to the verdict of any personal observer who has 
 passed a few years in the African or American tropics 
 when I assert that these supposed express-messengers of 
 Death are not more venomous and are far less aggressive 
 than our common North American hornet. I doubt if the 
 sting of twenty tarantulas could cause the death of a 
 healthy child, and I am quite sure that a poison-ivy blister 
 and the bite of a fire-ant are more painful than the sting 
 of a centipede. An hysterical lady may succumb to the 
 bite of a common gadfly, but I hold that only co-opera- 
 tive insects — termites, wasps, humble-bees, etc. — could ever 
 make away with a normally constituted human being. 
 
 A swarm of vociferous iris-crows appeared in the sky 
 overhead, and before they had passed, the woods were wide 
 awake all around. The humming-birds were on the wing, 
 the wood-pigeons repeated their murmuring call in the 
 taxus-groves, and from the lower depths of the forest came 
 the chattering scream of a squirrel- monkey. The rising 
 sun was hidden by the tree-tops of the eastern valleys 
 when we halted on the summit of a rocky bluff, but the 
 mountain mists had disappeared, and the vistas on our left 
 afforded a dazzling view of the sunlit foot-hills and the 
 valley of the Rio Verde. The river is here crossed by a 
 rope-ferry a little above its junction with a tributary that 
 drains the glorious valley of Morillo and an Alpine group 
 whose wooded heights stands in my memory like a vision 
 of a Ganadesha, the mountain park of Indra's Paradise. 
 
 The air of these woodlands is the antithesis of our 
 Northern workshop atmosphere. There is a feeling of 
 delight — our lost sixth sense, I am tempted to call it — 
 which gratifies the lungs rather than the olfactory organ
 
 Oswald] SCENERF OF THE MEXICAN LOWLANDS. 339 
 
 if you inhale the morning breezes, oxidated, and perhaps 
 ozonized, by the first influence of sunlight on the aromatic 
 vegetation of these hills, — a delight which, like the charm 
 of harmonious sounds, reacts on the soul, and awakens 
 emotions which have lain dormant in the human breast 
 since we exchanged the air of our Summer-land home for 
 the dust of our hyperborean tenement-prisons. 
 
 The hum of insects soon mingled with the bird-voices of 
 our forest. To and fro, in fitful flight, flashed the libellas, 
 the glitter-winged dragon-flies, and a few large papilios 
 flopped lazily through the dew-drenched foliage. No gnats 
 up here, but thousands of tiny, honey-seeking wasps and 
 midges, and bright-winged grasshoppers that rose with a 
 fluttering spring when the first sunbeams reached the 
 damp underbrush. Ants hurried about their daity toil, and 
 when we ascended the next ridge we saw various kinds of 
 lizards flitting across the road or basking on the wayside 
 rocks, one of them a sort of dwarf iguana of a moss-green 
 tint, on which protective color it seemed to rely for its 
 safety, as its movements were as sluggish as those of a 
 toad. 
 
 As we kept steadily up-hill, the sun seemed to mount very 
 rapidly, and, peak after peak, the summits of the upper 
 Sierra rose into view. Zempantepec, La Sirena, and the 
 Nevada de Colcoyan towered above the rest, the latter at 
 least four thousand feet above the snow-lino. Few pros- 
 pects on earth could efface the impression of that panorama. 
 In the Sierra de San Miguel our continent reproduces the 
 Syrian Lebanon on a grander scale. Septimus Severus, 
 who vacillated between his throne and the Elvsian valle} T s 
 of Daphne, would have renounced the empire of the world 
 for the mountain-gardens of the Val do Morillo. and the 
 giants of the cypress forests on the southeastern slope of 
 the Sierra dwarf all the cedars of Bashan and Hebron.
 
 340 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Oswald 
 
 The largest, though not the tallest, of these trees, the 
 cypress of Maria del Tule (twelve miles south of San 
 Miguel), which Humboldt calls the "oldest vegetable 
 monument of our globe," has a diameter of forty-two feet, 
 a circumference of one hundred and thirty-six feet near 
 the ground and of one hundred and four feet higher up, 
 and measures two hundred and eighty-two feet between 
 the extremities of two opposite branches. Yet this tree 
 has many rivals in the Val de Morillo and near the sources 
 of the Rio Verde, where groups of grayish-green mountain- 
 firs rise like hillocks above the surrounding vegetation. 
 
 On our right extended the orange-gardens of Casa 
 Blanca for two miles along the base of the hill to a deep 
 ravine, reappearing on the other side, where their white- 
 blooming tree-tops mingled with the copses of a banana- 
 plantation. Farther up, euphorbias and hibiscus prevailed, 
 and the upper limit of the foot-hills is marked by the paler 
 green of the cork-oak forests that cover the slopes of the 
 sierra proper. In the northeast this sierra becomes linked 
 with the ramifications of the central Cordilleras, and con- 
 nected with our ridge by one of the densely-wooded spurs 
 that flank the plateau of the Llanos Ventosos. The rocks 
 at our feet belonged, therefore, to a mountain-chain that 
 might be called a lineal continuation of the Gila range in 
 Arizona and Nueva Leon. But what a difference in the 
 climate and scenery ! There arid rocks and thorny ravines ; 
 hero dense mountain forests, deep rivers, a saturated at- 
 mosphere, and springs on almost every acre of ground. 
 The very brambles in the rock-clefts were fresh with dew, 
 and the sprouts of the broom-furze looked like wildering 
 asparagus. The ravines flamed with flowers of every size 
 und every hue. An agent of a London or Hamburg 
 curiosity-dealer might make his living here with a common 
 butterfly- net. On any sunny forenoon an active boy could
 
 Oswald] SCENERY OF THE MEXICAN LO WLANDS. 341 
 
 gather a stock of Lepidoptera that would create a bonanza 
 sensation among the collectors of a North European capital. 
 The rhododendron thickets of the upper Eio Verde are 
 frequented by gigantic varieties of nymphalis, vanessa, and 
 parnassius, which would retail in Brussels at from two to 
 ten dollars apiece. 
 
 The sun rose higher, but not the thermometer, and when 
 we clambered up through an orchard of scattered cherry- 
 trees I am sure that the maximum temperature in the 
 shade did not exceed sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit. We 
 had reached the Llanos Ventosos, the air-plains of San 
 Miguel, the playground of the four winds of heaven, 
 where sun-strokes are unknown, though the mists of the 
 rainy season never cloud their deep-blue sky. Down in 
 the coast jungles the Rain-fiend was at it again : dark-gray 
 showers swept visibly along the shore, while the foot-hills 
 simmered under the rays of a vertical sun. But up here 
 the air was dry as well as cool ; the edge of the plateau is 
 at least six thousand feet above the level of the Pacific, 
 which is in plain view from Punta Fiedra to the downs of 
 Tehuantepec. 
 
 We entered the village about two p.m., and my compan- 
 ions conducted me to a little frame house, where I was 
 hospitably received by the Indian gardener and the daugh- 
 ters of Pastor Wenck, the minister of the Protestant part 
 of the community, whose brother in Tehuantepec had in- 
 trusted me with different letters, with a note of introduc- 
 tion. The pastor had harnessed his mule an hour ago to 
 get a load of Spanish moss from the foot-hills, so I left my 
 carrier in charge of the Indian gardener and sauntered out 
 into the village. 
 
 Neubern (New Bern) de San Miguel — or Villa Cres- 
 ciente, as it was originally called, from its situation on 
 a crescent-shaped bluff — was founded in 18G5 undor the 
 
 29*
 
 342 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Oswald 
 
 happiest auspices, the charter of the colony including such 
 inducements as exemption from taxes for the first five 
 years, free roads and schools, gratuitous seed-corn, farming 
 implements, etc., to indigent immigrants, and attracted 
 a considerable number of the very best agriculturists from 
 Tyrol and Southern Switzerland. But after the collapse 
 of the imperial government a waning moon would have 
 been the fitter emblem of the Crescent Village : its privi- 
 leges were abrogated, and many of the disappointed Bauern 
 returned to their native countries. Still, the appointment 
 of a few half-Indian officials is the only positive grievance 
 of the colonists, and the advantages of their climate and 
 situation might well reconcile them to greater incon- 
 veniences. 
 
 At a distance of only sixteen degrees from the equator, 
 the average temperatures of the coldest and warmest 
 months differ less than spring and summer in the United 
 States, so that the September weather of Geneva or Inn- 
 spruck is here as perennial as a sea-fog in Newfoundland. 
 During a residence of seven years, Pastor Wenck has chron- 
 icled four thunder-storms, twenty-two common storms, 
 two hoar-frosts (both in November), one sultry day, and 
 two hundred and eight short showers, leaving a balance of 
 two thousand two hundred and ninety-two days of him- 
 melswetter, — heaven weather, — as he called it, alternating 
 with cool nights whose dew indemnifies the fields for the 
 scantiness of the annual rainfall. Yet the denizens of 
 this Himmel-land come in for a first-hand share of all the 
 luxuries which a compensating nature has lavished on the 
 inhabitants of the sweltering Tierra Caliente. 
 
 Forty or fifty varieties of tropical fruits come to their 
 tables in a freshness and sun-ripened sweetness quite un- 
 known to our Northern markets; their builders may se- 
 lect their material from groves of mahogany, iron-wood,
 
 Stephens] AMONG THE RUINS OF YUCATAN. 343 
 
 American ebony, green-heart, euphorbia, and other timber- 
 trees of the coast swamps ; cacao, vanilla, gums, and 
 frankincense can be bought at half trade prices, and an 
 excursion of ten miles will take them to a region where the 
 pot-hunter can fill his bag day after day without fear of 
 ever exhausting the meat-supply, where the adventurous 
 sportsman may try his luck and the mettle of his dogs, 
 and where the naturalist can revel in all the wonders of a 
 tropical terra incognita. 
 
 AMONG THE RUINS OF YUCATAN. 
 
 JOHN L. STEPHENS. 
 
 [The Egypt of America, as one may fairly call the Maya region of 
 Yucatan, was first brought prominently into notice by John L. Ste- 
 phens, who did yeoman service in exploring the massive monuments 
 of a past civilization there scattered, and in describing and picturing 
 their remarkable details. Since his period many travellers have visited 
 and studied these vast remains and described them in abundant detail. 
 But Stephens visited that region as a discoverer, and from his works 
 we select a description of the difficulties under which he labored in 
 his interesting work of exploration at Copan. He had taken quarters 
 in a hut near the ruins, and returned to his former quarters for his 
 luggage. The homeward journey was accomplished under stress of 
 opposing circumstances.] 
 
 In the mean time it began to rain ; and, settling my ac- 
 counts with the sefiora, thanking her for her kindness, 
 leaving an order to have some bread baked for the next 
 day, and taking with me an umbrella and a blue bag, con- 
 tents unknown, belonging to Mr. Catherwood, which he 
 had particularly requested me to bring, I set out on my 
 return. Augustin followed, with a tin teapot and some 
 other articles for immediate use. Entering the woods, the
 
 344 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Stephens 
 
 umbrella struck against the branches of the trees and 
 frightened the mule ; and, while I was endeavoring to close 
 it, she fairly ran away with me. Having only a halter, I 
 could not hold her, and, knocking me against the branches, 
 she ran through the woods, splashed into the river, missing 
 the fording-place, and never stopped till she was breast- 
 deep. The river was swollen and angry, and the rain 
 pouring down. Eapids were forming a short distance 
 below. In the effort to restrain her I lost Mr. Cather- 
 wood's blue bag, caught at it with the handle of the um- 
 brella, and would have saved it if the beast had stood still ; 
 but as it floated under her nose she snorted and started 
 back. I broke the umbrella in driving her across, and, 
 just as I touched the shore, saw the bag floating towards 
 the rapids, and Augustin, with his clothes in one hand and 
 the teapot in the other, both above his head, steering down 
 the river after it. Supposing it to contain some indispen- 
 sable drawing-materials, I dashed among the thickets on 
 the bank, in the hope of intercepting it, but became en- 
 tangled among branches and vines. 
 
 I dismounted and tied my mule, and was two or three 
 minutes working my way to the river, where I saw Au- 
 gustin's clothes and the teapot, but nothing of him, and, 
 with the rapids roaring below, had horrible apprehensions. 
 It was impossible to continue along the bank; so, with a 
 violent effort, I jumped across a rapid channel to a ragged 
 island of sand covered with scrub-bushes, and, running 
 down to the end of it, saw the whole face of the river and 
 the rapids, but nothing of Augustin. I shouted with all 
 my strength, and, to my inexpressible relief, heard an an- 
 swer, but, in the noise of the rapids, very faint ; presently 
 he appeared in the water, working himself round a point 
 and hauling upon the bushes. Eelieved about him, I now 
 found myself in a quandary. The jump back was to
 
 Stephens] AMONG THE RUINS OF YUCATAN. 345 
 
 higher ground, the stream a torrent, and, the excitement 
 over, I was afraid to attempt it. It would have been 
 exceedingly inconvenient for me if Augustin had been 
 drowned. Making his way through the bushes and down 
 to the bank opposite with his dripping body, he stretched a 
 pole across the stream, by springing upon which I touched 
 the edge of the opposite bank, slipped, but hauled myself 
 up by the bushes with the aid of a lift from Augustin. 
 
 All this time it was raining very hard, and now I had 
 forgotten where I tied my mule. "We were several minutes 
 looking for her, and, wishing everything but good luck to 
 the old bag, I mounted. Augustin, principally because he 
 could carry them more conveniently on his back, put on 
 his clothes. 
 
 [Reaching a village, he took shelter till the rain abated, but it began 
 worse than ever after he again took to the road.] 
 
 I rode on some distance, and again lost my way. It was 
 necessary to enter the woods on the right. I had come 
 out by a foot-path which I had not noticed particularly. 
 There were cattle-paths in every direction, and within the 
 line of a mile I kept going in and out, without hitting the 
 right one. Several times I saw the print of Augustin's 
 feet, but soon lost them in puddles of water, and they only 
 confused me more; at length I came to a complete stand- 
 still. It was nearly dark ; I did not know which way to 
 turn ; and as Mr. Henry Pelham did when in danger of 
 drowning in one of the gutters of Paris, I stood still and 
 halloed. To my great joy, I was answered by a roar from 
 Augustin, who had been lost longer than I, and was even 
 in greater tribulation. He had the teapot in his hand, the 
 stump of an unlighted cigar in his mouth, was plastered 
 with mud from his head to his heels, and altogether a most 
 distressful object.
 
 346 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Stephens 
 
 We compared notes, and, selecting a path, shouting as 
 we went, our united voices were answered by barking dogs 
 and Mr. Catherwood, who, alarmed at our absence, and ap- 
 prehending what had happened, was coming out with Don 
 Miguel to look for us. I had no change of clothes, and 
 therefore stripped and rolled myself in a blanket, in the 
 style of a North American Indian. All the evening peals 
 of thunder crashed over our heads, lightning illuminated 
 the dark forest and flashed through the open hut, the rain 
 fell in torrents, and Don Miguel said that there was a pros- 
 pect of being cut off for several days from all communica- 
 tion with the opposite side of the river and from our lug- 
 gage. Nevertheless, we passed the evening with great 
 satisfaction, smoking cigars of Copan tobacco, the most 
 famed in Central America, of Don Miguel's own growing 
 and his wife's own making. . . . 
 
 At daylight the clouds still hung over the forest ; as the 
 sun rose they cleared away ; our workmen made their ap- 
 pearance, and at nine o'clock we left the hut. The branches 
 of the trees were dripping wet, and the ground was very 
 muddy. Trudging once more over the district which con- 
 tained the principal monuments, we were startled by the 
 immensity of the work before us, and very soon concluded 
 that to explore the whole extent would be impossible. Our 
 guides knew only of this district ; but having seen columns 
 beyond the village, a league distant, we had reason to be- 
 lieve that others were strewed in different directions, com- 
 pletely buried in the woods and entirely unknown. The 
 woods were so dense that it was almost hopeless to think 
 of penetrating them. The only way to make a thorough 
 exploration would be to cut down the whole forest and 
 burn the trees. This was incompatible with our immediate 
 purposes, might be considered taking liberties, and could 
 only be done in the dry season.
 
 
 Stephens] AMONG THE RUINS OF YUCATAN. 347 
 
 After deliberation we resolved first to obtain drawings 
 of the sculptured columns. Even in this there was great 
 difficulty. The designs were very complicated, and so dif- 
 ferent from anything Mr. Catherwood had ever seen before 
 as to be perfectly unintelligible. The cutting was in very 
 high relief, and required a strong body of light to bring up 
 the figures, and the foliage was so thick and the shade so 
 deep that drawing was impossible. 
 
 After much consultation we selected one of the " idols," 
 and determined to cut down the trees around it, and thus 
 lay it open to the rays of the sun. Here again was diffi- 
 culty. There was no axe, and the only instrument which 
 the Indians possessed was the machete, or chopping-knile, 
 which varies in form in different sections of the country. 
 Wielded with one hand, it was useful in clearing away 
 shrubs and branches, but almost harmless upon large trees; 
 and the Indians, as in the days when the Spaniards discov- 
 ered them, applied to work without ardor, carried it on 
 with little activity, and, like children, were easily diverted 
 from it. One hacked into a tree, and when tired, which 
 happened very soon, sat down to rest, and another relieved 
 him. While one worked there were alwaj 7 s several looking 
 on. I remembered the ring of the woodman's axe in the 
 forest at home, and wished for a few long-sided Green 
 Mountain boys. 
 
 But we had been buffeted into patience, and watched 
 the Indians while they hacked with their machetes, and 
 even wondered that they succeeded so well. At length the 
 trees were felled and dragged aside, a space cleared around 
 the base, Mr. C.'s frame set up, and he set to work. I took 
 two Mestitzoes, Bruno and Francisco, and, offering them a 
 reward for every new discovery, with a compass in my 
 hand set out on a tour of exploration. Neither had seen 
 " the idols" until the morning of our first visit, when they
 
 348 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Stephens 
 
 followed in our train to laugh at los Ingleses; but very 
 soon they exhibited such an interest that I hired them. 
 Bruno attracted ray attention by his admiration, as I sup- 
 posed, of my person ; but I found it was of my coat, which 
 was a long shooting frock, with many pockets, and he said 
 that he could make one just like it except the skirts. He 
 was a tailor by profession, and in the intervals of a great 
 job upon a roundabout jacket worked with his machete. 
 But he had an inborn taste for the arts. As we passed 
 through the woods nothing escaped his eye, and he was 
 professionally curious touching the costumes of the sculp- 
 tured figures. I was struck with the first development of 
 their antiquarian taste. Francisco found the feet and legs 
 of a statue, and Bruno a part of the body to match, and 
 the effect was electric upon both. They searched and 
 raked up the ground with their machetes till they found 
 the shoulders, and set it up entire except the head; and 
 they were both eager for the possession of instruments 
 with which to dig and find this remaining fragment. 
 
 It is impossible to describe the interest with which I ex- 
 plored these ruins. The ground was entirely new ; there 
 were no guide-books or guides; the whole was a virgin 
 soil. We could not see ten yards before us, and never 
 knew what we should stumble upon next. At one time 
 we stopped to cut away branches and vines which concealed 
 the face of a monument, and then to dig round and bring 
 to light a fragment, a sculptured corner of which pro- 
 truded from the earth. I leaned over with breathless anx- 
 iety while the Indians worked, and an eye, an ear, a foot, 
 or a hand was disentombed ; and when the machete rang 
 against the chiselled stone, I pushed the Indians away and 
 cleared out the loose earth with my hands. The beauty 
 of the sculpture, the solemn stillness of the woods, dis- 
 turbed only by the scrambling of monkeys and the chat-
 
 Stephens] AMONG THE RUINS OF YUCATAN. 349 
 
 tering of parrots, the desolation of the city, and the 
 mystery that hung over it, all created an interest higher, 
 if possible, than I had ever felt among the ruins of the Old 
 World. After several hours' absence I returned to Mr. Cath- 
 erwood, and reported upward of fifty objects to be copied. 
 
 I found him not so well pleased as I expected with my 
 report. He was standing with his feet in the mud, and 
 was drawing with his gloves on, to protect his hands from 
 the mosquitoes. As we feared, the designs were so intri- 
 cate and complicated, the subjects so entirely new and un- 
 intelligible, that he had great difficulty in drawing. He 
 had made several attempts, both with the camera lucida 
 and without, but failed to satisfy himself or even me, who 
 was less severe in criticism. The " idol" seemed to defy 
 his art; two monkeys on a tree on one side appeared to be 
 laughing at him, and I felt discouraged and despondent. 
 In fact, I made up my mind, with a pang of regret, that 
 we must abandon the idea of carrying away any materials 
 for antiquarian speculation, and must be content with 
 having seen them ourselves. Of that satisfaction nothing 
 could deprive us. We returned to the hut with our in- 
 terest undiminished, but sadly out of heart as to the result 
 of our labors. 
 
 [Meanwhile, the blue bag which had caused so much trouble was 
 recovered, under the incitement of a dollar reward. It was found to 
 contain a pair of old, but water-proof, boots, whose recovery cheered 
 Mr. Catherwood's heart, enabling him the next day to defy the wet 
 mud.] 
 
 That day Mr. Catherwood was much more successful in 
 his drawings ; indeed, at the beginning the light fell exactly 
 as he wished, and he mastered the difficulty. His prepara- 
 tions, too, were much more comfortable, as he had his 
 water-proofs, and stood on a piece of oiled canvas used for 
 covering luggage on the road. I passed the morning in 
 
 30
 
 350 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Stephens 
 
 selecting another monument, clearing away the trees, and 
 preparing it for him to copy. At one o'clock Augustin 
 came to call us to dinner. Don Miguel had a patch of 
 beans, from which Augustin gathered as many as he 
 pleased, and, with the fruits of a standing order for all the 
 eggs in the village, being three or four a day, strings of 
 beef, and bread and milk from the hacienda, we did very 
 well. In the afternoon we were again called off by Au- 
 gustin, with the message that the alcalde had come to pay 
 us a visit. As it was growing late, we broke up for the 
 day, and went back to the hut. We shook hands with the 
 alcalde, and gave him and his attendants cigars, and were 
 disposed to be sociable ; but the dignitary was so tipsy he 
 could hardly speak. His attendants sat crouching on the 
 ground, swinging themselves on their knee-joints, and, 
 though the positions were different, reminding us of the 
 Arabs. In a few minutes the alcalde started up suddenly, 
 made a staggering bow, and left us. 
 
 [Yet trouble was brewing for tbem. They had made an enemy 
 of the great man of the district, and he stirred up the people to hos- 
 tility. The annoyance grew so great that Stephens found it necessary 
 to take some steps to restore amity.] 
 
 Mr. Catherwood went to the ruins to continue his draw- 
 ings, and I to the village, taking Augustin with me to fire 
 the Balize guns, and buy up eatables for a little more than 
 they were worth. My first visit was to Don Jose Maria. 
 After clearing up our character, I broached the subject of 
 a purchase of the ruins ; told him that, on account of my 
 public business, I could not remain as long as I desired, 
 but wished to return with spades, pickaxes, ladders, crow- 
 bars, and men, build a hut to live in, and make a thorough 
 exploration ; that I could not incur the expense at the risk 
 of being refused permission to do so ; and, in short, in
 
 
 Stephens] AMONG THE RUINS OF YUCATAN. 351 
 
 plain English, asked him, " What will you take for the 
 ruins?" I think he was not more surprised than if I had 
 asked him to buy his poor old wife, our rheumatic patient, 
 to practise medicine upon. He seemed to doubt which of 
 us was out of his senses. The property was so utterly 
 worthless that my wanting to buy it seemed very suspi- 
 cious. On examining the paper, I found that he did not 
 own the fee, but held under a lease from Don Bernardo de 
 Aguila, of which three j-ears were unexpired. The tract 
 consisted of about six thousand acres, for which he paid 
 eighty dollars a year; he was at a loss what to do, but 
 told me that he would reflect upon it, consult his wife, and 
 give me an answer at the hut the next day. 
 
 I then visited the alcalde, but he was too tipsy to be sus- 
 ceptible of any impression ; prescribed for several patients ; 
 and instead of going to Don Gregorio's sent him a polite re- 
 quest by Don Jose Maria to mind his own business and let 
 us alone ; returned and passed the rest of the day among the 
 ruins. It rained during the night, but again cleared off in 
 the morning, and we were on the ground early. My busi- 
 ness was to go around with the workmen to clear away trees 
 and bushes, dig, and excavate, and prepare monuments for 
 Mr. Catherwood to copy. While so engaged, I was called 
 off by a visit from Don Jose Maria, who was still undecided 
 what to do ; and not wishing to appear too anxious, told 
 him to take more time, and come again the next morning. 
 
 The next morning he came, and his condition was truly 
 pitiable. He was anxious to convert unproductive property 
 into money, but afraid, and said that I was a stranger, and 
 it might bring him into difficulty with the government. I 
 again went into proof of character, and engaged to save 
 him harmless with the government, or release him. Don 
 Miguel read my letters of recommendation, and re-read the 
 letter of General Cascara. He was convinced, but these
 
 352 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Stephens 
 
 papers did not give him a right to sell his land ; the shade 
 of suspicion still lingered ; for a finale, I opened my trunk, 
 put on a diplomatic coat, with a profusion of large eagle 
 buttons. I had on a Panama hat, soaked with rain and 
 spotted with mud, a check shirt, white pantaloons, yellow 
 up to the knees with mud, and was about as outre as the 
 negro king who received a company of British officers on 
 the coast of Africa in a cocked hat and military coat, 
 without any inexpressibles ; but Don Jose Maria could not 
 withstand the buttons on my coat ; the cloth was the finest 
 he had ever seen; and Don Miguel, and his wife, and 
 Bartale realized fully that they had in their hut an illus- 
 trious incognito. The only question was who should find 
 paper on which to draw the contract. I did not stand 
 upon trifles, and gave Don Miguel some paper, who took 
 our mutual instructions, and appointed the next day for 
 the execution of the deed. 
 
 The reader is perhaps curious to know how old cities sell 
 in Central America. Like other articles of trade, they are 
 regulated by the quantity in market and the demand ; but, 
 not being staple articles, like cotton and indigo, they were 
 held at fancy prices, and at that time were dull of sale. I 
 paid fifty dollars for Copan. There was never any difficulty 
 about price. I offered that sum, for which Don Jose Maria 
 thought me only a fool ; if I had offered more, he would 
 probably have considered me something worse. 
 
 We had regular communications with the hacienda by 
 means of Francisco, who brought thence every morning a 
 large waccal of milk, carrying it a distance of three miles 
 and fording the river twice. The ladies of the hacienda 
 had sent us word they intended paying us a visit, and this 
 morning Don Gregorio's wife appeared, leading a procession 
 of all the women of the house, servants, and children, with 
 two of her sons. We received them among the ruins,
 
 Stephens] AMONG THE RUINS OF YUCATAN. 353 
 
 seated them as well as we could, and, as the first act of 
 civility, gave them cigars all around. It can hardly be 
 believed, but not one of them, not even Don Gregorio's 
 sons, had ever seen the " idols" before, and now they were 
 much more curious to see Mr. C.'s drawings. In fact, I 
 believe it was the fame of these drawings that procured us 
 the honor of the visit. In his heart, Mr. C. was not much 
 happier to see them than the old Don was to see us, as his 
 work was stopped, and every day was precious. As I con- 
 sidered myself in a manner the proprietor of the city, I 
 was bound to do the honors ; and, to the distress of Mr. C, 
 brought them all back upon him. 
 
 Obliged to give up work, we invited them down to the 
 hut to see our accommodations ; some of them were our 
 patients and reminded us we had not sent the medicines 
 we promised. The fact is, we avoided giving medicines 
 when we could, among other reasons, from an apprehension 
 that if any one happened to die on our hands we should be 
 held responsible ; but our reputation was established ; 
 honors were buckled on our backs and we were obliged to 
 wear them. These ladies, in spite of Don Gregorio's crust- 
 iness, had always treated us kindly, and we would fain 
 have shown our sense of it in some other mode than by 
 giving them physic; but to gratify them in their own way, 
 we distributed among them powders and pills, with written 
 directions for use; and when they went away escorted 
 them some distance, and had the satisfaction of hearing 
 that they avenged us on Don Gregorio by praises of our 
 gallantry and attentions. 
 
 [As regards the wonderful discoveries which Mr. Stephens made in 
 his low-priced city, the story is much too extensive to be given here, 
 and those who would know more about these remarkable ruins must 
 refer to his " Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and 
 Yucatan," which will be found abundantly worth perusal.] 
 1.— x ' 30*
 
 354 
 
 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Froebkl 
 
 THE ROUTE OF THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 
 
 JULIUS FROEBEL. 
 
 fThe waters which it is proposed to utilize in the construction of the 
 Nicaragua Canal, mainly those of the San Juan Kiver and the Lake 
 of Nicaragua, are of sufficient interest to call for some description at 
 our hands! and we subjoin, from Froebel's « Seven Years of Travel m 
 Central America," an account of a journey on those waters.] 
 
 At that time [1850] steamboats were not yet P^gon 
 the San Juan Kiver and the Lake of Nicaragua, and I had 
 to content myself with the accommodations of one of the 
 large canoes of the natives called bongos, which were then 
 the principal means of transport between the coast and the 
 interior, for passengers as well as for merchandise. In 
 company with two Americans, who, like myself, were 
 anxious to proceed to Granada, I hired one of the largest 
 of these clumsy little crafts, manned with ten boatmen or 
 mariner -m, together with their captain or patron, all of them 
 colored people from the interior. We laid in provisions 
 for a fortnight, such being the full time of a passage 
 which is now performed by steamers in two days. 
 
 We left San Juan on the 23d of November, and arrived 
 at Granada on the 5th of the following month. In refer- 
 ence to the beauties of nature the trip is one of the most 
 interesting that can be made, though the state of my 
 health prevented my enjoying it. . . . An open shed, fur- 
 nished with a hammock and surrounded by a plantain 
 garden of half an acre, was the only improvement in an 
 extent of more than a hundred miles. With this single 
 exception, and with that of the site of the old castle of 
 San Juan, more generally known by the popular name of
 
 Froebel] ROUTE OF THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 355 
 
 Castillo Viejo, the banks were covered with trees to the 
 water's edge, their branches often bearing a vegetation of 
 vines, climbers, and parasites, so densely interwoven that 
 the whole appeared like a solid wall of leaves and flowers. 
 
 I shall never forget the impressions of one night and 
 morning on this river. Our boat had anchored in the 
 midst of the stream. Strange forms of trees, spectre-like 
 in the dark, stood before us, and seemed to move as the eye 
 strove in vain to make out their real shape. From time to 
 time a splash in the water, caused by the movement of an 
 alligator, the bellowing of a manatee, the screeching of a 
 night-bird, or the roar of some beast of the forest, broke 
 the silence, and mingled at last with my feverish dream. 
 
 In the morning a song our boatmen addressed to the 
 Virgin roused me from my sleep. It was a strain of plain- 
 tive notes in a few simple but most expressive modulations. 
 Several years later I heard them again, sung by the 
 Mexican miners in the subterraneous chapel of the quick- 
 silver mine of New Almaden in California, and I never 
 shall forget the deep emotion felt on both occasions, so 
 widely different in every other respect. In the latter the 
 scene passed in a narrow excavation before a little altar 
 cut out of the natural rock, on which, before a gilded 
 image of the Virgin, two thin tallow candles were casting 
 their scanty light over the forms of fifteen or twenty men 
 calling down the blessing of Heaven on their day of work 
 in the interior of the mountain. In the former, it was in 
 the brightness and splendor of a morning of which no 
 description can convey a full idea to one who has had no 
 experience in the most favored regions of a tropical climate. 
 The sun was just rising, and as the first rays, gilding the 
 glassy leaves of the forest, fell upon the bronze-colored 
 bodies of our men, letting the naked forms of their athletic 
 frames appear in all the contrast of light and shade, while
 
 356 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Froebbl 
 
 accents plaintive and imploring strained forth from their 
 lips, I thought to hear the sacred spell by which, uncon- 
 scious of its power, these men were subduing their own 
 half-savage natures. 
 
 At once the same song was repeated from behind a pro- 
 jecting corner of the bank, and other voices joined those 
 of our crew in the sacred notes. Two canoes, covered 
 from our view, had anchored near us during the night. 
 The song at last died away in the wilderness. A silent 
 prayer — our anchor was raised, and, with a wild shout of 
 the crew, twelve oars simultaneously struck the water. 
 The sun was glittering in the river. The tops of the trees 
 were steeped in light, monkeys were swinging in the 
 branches, splendid macaws flew in pairs from bank to 
 bank; all around exhibited the glory and brightness of 
 superabundant nature. 
 
 Near the mouth of the river, as far up as the higher end 
 of its delta, the banks are almost on the water's level, over- 
 grown with reeds, mangroves, and a low species of palm- 
 tree, the latter forming extensive thickets in the swamps. 
 After a distance of fourteen or fifteen miles the land grad- 
 ually becomes a little higher, and steep embankments of a 
 brown or reddish clay rise to some ten or twenty feet above 
 the water. The low palm thickets of the swampy region 
 disappear, and a vegetation of splendid trees, mostly ex- 
 ogenous, overhung with blooming vines, takes their place. 
 Flowery garlands, swung from branch to branch, hang over 
 the stream, while now and then the slender shafts of one 
 of the tallest species of the palm tribe wafts its little crown 
 of feathery leaves high over the gorgeous masses of the 
 heavier foliage. 
 
 Eight or ten miles higher up the region of the randales, 
 or rapids, begins. Here the river, locked in between 
 wooded hills, presents a new character of scenery. The
 
 Froebel] ROUTE OF THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 357 
 
 trees, covering the hill-sides with an almost impenetrable 
 forest, exhibit an extraordinary variety of forms in striking 
 contrast. The most interesting situation in this region is 
 that of the Castillo Viejo. Here, where the river foams 
 over a bed of rocks, stands the old Spanish castle of Don 
 Juan. Since 1780 it has remained a ruin, though Nicara- 
 gua has always kept a few soldiers here, occupying a shed 
 at the foot of the hill on which the remains of the fort are 
 seen. In the civil wars of the last years this place has 
 repeatedly been occupied and evacuated by the contending 
 powers. 
 
 Among the rapids, that of the Castillo Viejo is the only 
 one that forms a real impediment in the navigation of the 
 river. With the necessary caution canoes may descend, 
 and I myself have passed over it on my way back to the 
 coast in a bongo carrying forty passengers ; upward, 
 however, all boats must be towed, after having been un- 
 loaded. . . . 
 
 Above the region of the rapids the river is almost stag- 
 nant, and the designation of the aguas muertas, or dead 
 waters, is not inappropriately applied to it. It is a deep 
 and still water, full of fish, with low and swampy banks, 
 on which the palm thickets of the delta reappear. 
 
 Beyond this latter portion of the river the Lake of Nica- 
 ragua opens to the view. On the little promontory formed 
 by the lake and the inlet of the river the custom-house of 
 Nicaragua, designated by the high-sounding name of the 
 "fort of San Carlos," has been established. There area 
 few houses at this place, and a small military force is kept 
 up to protect the establishment and, in case of necessity, 
 enforce the payment of the dues. The ruins of an old 
 Spanish castle still exist here, but they are hidden among 
 the trees and shrubs with which they aro overgrown. 
 
 The view from this elevation has a peculiar character of
 
 35S HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Froebel 
 
 grandeur. At the foot of the hill a broad sheet of water 
 is spread, studded, in the immediate neighborhood, with 
 some green islands of diminutive dimensions, and extend- 
 ing, in a northwesterly direction, as far as the eye can 
 reach. To the left, a low wooded shore begins at the out- 
 let of the lake, and continues in that direction till it is lost 
 in the distance of the western horizon. A chain of high 
 mountains, cast in a shroud of dark forests, rises in the 
 rear, covering an unknown region of Costa Rica. It com- 
 prises several active volcanoes, which on late occasions 
 have illumined the surface of the lake by their flames and 
 red-hot streams of lava. To the right, the view does not 
 extend beyond the nearest hills ; but at a short distance 
 from the lake it ranges over a long line of bi'oken emi- 
 nences, with the mountain-chain of Chontales in the rear, 
 bordering like a wall the table-land of Upper Mosquitia. 
 Hill and dale, forests and savannas, appear in endless 
 variety in this direction. On the distant horizon in the 
 centre of the view the two cones of the island of Ometepe 
 are seen, faintly traced, and as their forms are lifted up- 
 ward by refraction, they seem to swim over the water. 
 
 At the very spot where the San Juan River leaves the 
 lake the Rio Frio enters it. This is a river coming down 
 from the mountains of Costa Rica, through an absolute 
 wilderness which, it is asserted, has never been trodden by 
 the foot of a civilized man. The dense forests of this 
 region are inhabited by a warlike tribe of Indians who re- 
 fuse to have any intercourse with the rest of the world. 
 They are said to be of very fair complexion, a statement 
 which has caused the appellation of Indios blancos or Gua- 
 tusos, — the latter name being that of an animal of reddish- 
 brown color, and intended to designate the color of their 
 hair. It is stated that not only do they not allow a for- 
 eigner to enter their territory, but that they are even in
 
 Fbokbkl] ROUTE OF THE NICARAGUA CANAL. 359 
 
 the habit of killing those of their own people who again 
 fall into their hands after having been away among the 
 civilized inhabitants of the neighboring settlements. . . . 
 
 While in California, I heard of a young German, living 
 in the neighborhood of San Francisco, who recounts a little 
 romance of adventures he met with among this people. 
 Though the story was not told to me by the man himself, 
 still, as it was repeated by a trustworthy friend who had 
 derived it from the original source, I may be allowed to 
 introduce it here. 
 
 The young man was on his way to California. When 
 at San Carlos he had some difference or quarrel with his 
 travelling companions, and, being afraid of a pistol-ball or 
 a bowie-knife, took the desperate resolution of swimming 
 to the opposite side of the river, where he soon fell into the 
 hands of a body of these Indians. He was tied to a tree, 
 and they then held a council as to the manner — so at least 
 he believed — of putting him to death. Suddenly, however, 
 as it has happened before in similar cases, a young girl, 
 the daughter of the chief, hurried forth, clasped her arms 
 round the neck of my blue-eyed countryman, and gave a 
 favorable turn to his fate. 
 
 Of course, he married the girl, and, as the consort of 
 this Indian pi'incess, he spent a few months in the forest, 
 till he was ungrateful enough to forsake his generous bride, 
 and avail himself of an opportunity to swim back to San 
 Carlos, continuing, after this romantic episode, his journey 
 to California. 
 
 According to his statements, he would have remained 
 with the Indians had he been able to endure the life in the 
 wilderness, which he found rather too ill-provided with 
 accommodations for enjoying his honeymoon. During the 
 rainy season the tribe lived almost exclusively on the 
 trees, and he speaks in very high terms of the dexterity
 
 360 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Froebel 
 
 with which they would leap from branch to branch, a mode 
 of travelling in which he often found it too difficult to 
 follow his nimble spouse. At the time of each full moon 
 the whole tribe met m council, for which the place was 
 designated from one meeting to the next by the chief, and 
 whatever was done by common agreement was regulated 
 according to the phases of the moon. 
 
 Some years before the period of my first arrival in Nic- 
 aragua, the officer then in command of the fort of San 
 Carlos fitted out an expedition for the purpose of exploring 
 the country on the Eio Frio, which is known to be rich in 
 gold. This little corps, having hit upon a deserted village 
 of the Indians on the bank of the river, and resting in the 
 shade of some trees in the outskirts of the forest, was sud- 
 denly assailed by a shower of arrows, and, with the excep- 
 tion of the commanding officer, who was severely wounded, 
 but succeeded in hiding himself between the reeds till a 
 boat from the fort came to his rescue, every man of the 
 expeditionary force was killed. . . . 
 
 Our passage up the river had taken us nine days, making 
 an average progress of about twelve miles per day. Three 
 days more were spent in crossing the lake. With the 
 native boatmen it seems to be a rule to abstain from using 
 oars even when they are becalmed. Before we left the 
 aguas muertas a small tree had been cut. This was now 
 erected as a mast, a sail was spread, and slowly we began 
 to move in the direction of Granada. Our navigation was 
 of a very primitive kind. At night, while every soul on 
 board slept soundly, our bongo was left to find its own way, 
 which, however, it refused to do ; for when we awoke at 
 dawn I saw we were heading to the place we had come 
 from. By and by, nevertheless, we drew nearer to our 
 point of destination. When we had left the two peaks of 
 Ometepe on one side, the summit of Mombacho, designating
 
 Scherzer] THE DESTRUCTION OF SAN SALVADOR. 361 
 
 the site of Granada, gradually rose from the water. We 
 passed the island of Zapotera, celebrated for its idols, which 
 have been discovered and described by my friend Mr. 
 Squier. It is uninhabited, and may be said to be a moun- 
 tain covered with a forest, here and there interrupted by a 
 savanna. Like other islands in this lake, it contains nu- 
 merous wild animals, such as deer, peccaries, monkeys, and 
 panthers. . . . 
 
 On the evening of the 5th of December we doubled the 
 outermost rock of the Corrales or Isletas, a cluster of more 
 than a hundred diminutive islands at the foot of the Mom- 
 bacho, and a few hours after dark landed on the playa, or 
 beach, of Grenada. 
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF SAN SALVADOR. 
 
 CARL SCHERZER. 
 
 [Dr. Carl Scherzer, in his " Travels in the Free States of Central 
 America," gives a graphic picture of the destruction, in 1854, of the 
 city of San Salvador by an earthquake, as witnessed by his friend Dr. 
 Wagner, whose description of the event is well worth repeating. This 
 city, which stands on a plateau about two thousand feet above the 
 Pacific, was built by the Spaniards in 1528, and, with the exception 
 of Guatemala, was the neatest and handsomest of Central American 
 cities, possessing several handsome churches, a new university, and 
 numerous attractive residences.] 
 
 On the 12th and 13th of April, 1854, there was heard in 
 the upper part of the city, towards the southwest, a hollow, 
 subterranean, rumbling noise, which recurred at short in- 
 tervals and continued for several minutes, appearing to 
 come from the mountains which form a kind of large semi- 
 circle at the foot of the volcano, but there was no shock 
 whatever. On the Good Friday, at half-past seven in the 
 <i 31 *
 
 362 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Scherzer 
 
 morning, two slight shocks, quickly succeeding each other, 
 were felt, and about ten minutes afterwards a rather 
 stronger one. The roof and walls of my cottage shook, 
 without my at first perceiving the cause ; but a young 
 Spaniard, who waited on me, said, quietly, "Esun temblor." 
 Being a native of the country, he was accustomed to the 
 phenomenon, and thought little of it. 
 
 These tremblings and rockings of the earth, that seem 
 so terrible to us Europeans, are such ordinary occurrences 
 in the environs of San Salvador that the district has ac- 
 quired the name of the "swinging mat;" but these shocks, 
 though frequent, had never been hitherto of the violent 
 and destructive character which they have assumed at Val- 
 paraiso and Lima, where about once in a century the 
 destruction of a town is reckoned on as a matter of course. 
 
 The volcano of Isalco, too, being in constant activity, 
 and only forty-eight miles south of the city of San Salvador, 
 had alwaj'S been regarded as a chimney and safety-valve, 
 affording a free vent for the steam and other dangerous 
 products of the subterranean furnace. 
 
 The shocks were repeated at tolerably regular intervals, 
 two or three in an hour, during the whole of the Good 
 Friday, and all had the same direction, — namely, from 
 west-southwest to east-northeast ; at which point, a league 
 from the town, lies the great crater of Cuscatlan, about five 
 hundred feet above San Salvador. 
 
 The ceremonies of the Good Friday proceeded with the 
 accustomed pomp, and people did not think of disturbing 
 their processions, or their visits to the cathedral, on account 
 of the earthquake ; though occasionally, when there came 
 a shock rather stronger than usual, some of the devout 
 crowd did turn pale and make a rush towards the doors. 
 
 At half-past nine in the evening there came a shock so 
 violent that the houses were shaken to the foundations, the
 
 Scherzer] THE DESTRUCTION OF SAN SALVADOR. 363 
 
 roofs cracked, plaster and tiles fell, and the walls in many 
 places were rent. The houses are all low and broad, with- 
 out upper stories, the walls mostly of clay, which is very 
 elastic, and the rafters made of pliable, closely-plaited cane, 
 admirably adapted to resist the most violent shocks; other- 
 wise the houses would have fallen in a mass with this one, 
 which lasted eight seconds, the ground undulating like the 
 ocean. Every one rushed out into the open air, but a full 
 hour passed without any further movement. We deter- 
 mined, nevertheless, not to sleep under a roof; but my 
 countryman, Mr. Kronmeier, the Prussian vice-consul, who 
 came home about eleven o'clock, laughed at our caution, 
 and went to bed as usual in his bedroom. He was used to 
 these unpleasant occurrences ; though he confessed that, 
 during a residence of sixteen years in Central America and 
 Mexico, he had never felt in one day so many shocks as 
 during the one just past. 
 
 The old volcano of Cuscatlan, from which the shocks 
 appeared to proceed, lies, as I have said, about three miles 
 from the city ; viewed from this direction, it forms a beau- 
 tiful cone, with a gently rounded summit, and its sides are 
 clothed from top to bottom with wood; its crater is still 
 quite perfect, a mile and a half in diameter, and filled with 
 water at the bottom. . . . There exists no certain record 
 of the former activity of this volcano ; but according to 
 tradition an eruption of lava from, a cleft in its side took 
 place in 1650, and overwhelmed the village of Neliopa ; 
 but according to others it was merely an eruption of mud 
 and not of fire. . . . 
 
 The morning of Easter Sunday was announced as usual 
 by the firing off of rockets and a joyous burst of military 
 music. The multitude betook themselves in festival pro- 
 cession to the Cathedral, to witness the celebration of high 
 mass ; the houses were gayly adorned with branches of
 
 364 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Scherzeb 
 
 palm and banana-leaves, and the " Sanctissimum" was borne 
 in triumph through the streets, followed by crowds of 
 senors and senoritas in their gayest attire. . . . On this 
 Easter Day, as on preceding ones, the people, after having 
 performed their devotions like good Catholics, gave them- 
 selves up to festivity and enjoyment, and the day closed 
 with music, feasting, and fireworks. 
 
 Immediately after nine o'clock, however, a shock occurred 
 more violent than the strongest felt on the Good Friday. 
 I was unwell with a slight feverish attack, and had gone to 
 bed, but was awakened by the noise. Some walls fell in, 
 many houses were rent, and a part of the ceiling of my 
 room fell, striking me on the head and face, and for some 
 minutes blinding me with the dust. I sprang from my 
 bed, and groped my way to the door, which unluckily I 
 had locked ; hut after a time I succeeded in getting it open, 
 and made my way to the court yard, where I found the rest 
 of the inhabitants of the house praying and screaming. 
 
 After a few moments had elasped, however, they had 
 quite got over their fright, and were laughing and joking at 
 their previous consternation and precipitate flight. Unless 
 the houses actually fall, people do not, after the first mo- 
 ment, think much of these shocks, but this time they did 
 take the precaution to put all their doors open, and had 
 their beds carried out into the court. Mine was placed 
 under the gallery of the corridor, and a great deal of com- 
 passion was expressed for me when they found I had been a 
 little hurt. A young doctor, who occupied the room next 
 to mine, thought there would be no strong " temblor" again 
 to-night, but an aged priest said that this house was old 
 and decayed, and it was very necessary to be careful. My 
 housemates then went back into their rooms, and, though 
 they kept the doors open, consumed with a good appetite 
 the remainder of the Easter feast, the conversation the
 
 Scherzer] THE DESTRUCTION OF SAN SALVADOR. 365 
 
 while turning, of course, almost exclusively on the 
 " temblor." 
 
 I lay gazing up into the night sky, not at all inclined to 
 sleep. The day had been, as usual, very warm, the ther- 
 mometer at noon showing 88° Fahrenheit ; a heavy mass 
 of clouds (stratocumulus) lay piled up about the waning 
 moon, but dispersed towards ten o'clock, and the moon 
 then shone brightly through a clear and tranquil atmos- 
 phere. A few light scattered clouds of the cirrus and 
 cirro-stratus lay motionless at a few points on the horizon, 
 but there was nothing to portend any unusual phenomenon. 
 
 At thirty minutes past ten, however, came the shock that 
 laid the city of San Salvador in ruins. It began with a 
 terrific noise, the earth heaving as if lifted by a subterra- 
 nean sea ; and this movement, and the thunder accompany- 
 ing it. continued for ten or twelve seconds, while the crash 
 and uproar of falling buildings were still more deafening 
 than the thunder. An immense and blinding cloud of dust 
 arose, through which were heard the shrieks and supplica- 
 tions of the flying people, calling on "Maria Santissima" 
 and all other saints; and at length a hymn, in thousand- 
 voiced chorus, which was heard plainly, through all the 
 other noises, at a distance of a mile and a half from the 
 town, by a family of German emigrants with whom I was 
 acquainted. 
 
 I had witnessed many terrible scenes of war and revo- 
 lution in the Old World, but there at least the}' were visi- 
 ble enemies of flesh and blood with whom people had to 
 contend ; but here were unknown, terrific, incalculable 
 forces at work, of whose nature they had only the vaguest 
 idea. The shocks went on, sometimes stronger, sometimes 
 weaker, and with very brief intervals, until, by the even- 
 ing of Easter Monday, one hundred and twenty had been 
 counted, and they were accompanied all the time by hollow 
 
 31*
 
 366 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Scherzer 
 
 thunder and detonations, as if a tremendous battle were 
 raging beneath the earth. People now abandoned all 
 thoughts of their property, and sought only to save their 
 lives, for, with the continual oscillations of the ground in all 
 directions, rents and chasms were opening on it, so that no 
 one knew whether it might not the next moment yawn 
 beneath their feet and engulf every living soul. After 
 every new shock I noticed that the people changed their 
 prayers and the names of the saints they were invoking ; 
 but whether the saints did not hear, or could not or would 
 not help them, the subterranean artillery continued to 
 bellow forth its fearful salvos with unmitigated fury. 
 
 Towards one in the morning, one of my acquaintances 
 came climbing over the ruined wall of our court-yard to in- 
 quire after me, as he knew I was unwell ; and he then pro- 
 posed to me to take a walk through the town by moonlight. 
 We took the direction of the market-place, where the 
 Cathedral stood ; and from what I saw I can truly say that 
 the whole city was destroyed, for I did not see a single house 
 uninjured. Those that were not lying in ruin had so many 
 rents, and damages of various kinds, as to be quite unin- 
 habitable. The Cathedral — an elegant rather than im- 
 posing building — had escaped with less damage than many 
 other churches ; but the clock-tower had fallen, the portal 
 was lying in fragments, and the walls were gaping open iu 
 two or three places. 
 
 The interior of the Franciscan convent, the door of 
 which stood wide open, presented a sad picture of desolation. 
 So many stones had fallen from the roof and such large 
 portions of the walls, that most of the altars lay scattered 
 in fragments, or were covered with rubbish ; several of the 
 colossal figures of saints had fallen from the niches, and 
 lay with their finery all covered with dust and stones; but 
 the people, who the day before had been carrying them
 
 Schebzer] THE DESTRUCTION OF SAN SALVADOR. 367 
 
 about in triumph, now did not trouble themselves any 
 more about them : everybody was occupied in saving his 
 life, or, if possible, his most valuable possessions. 
 
 Of the new university buildings only one wing was left 
 standing : it was the one containing the clock-tower, and 
 in this the clock was still going on, regularly striking the 
 hours. The roof of the Episcopal Palace had fallen in, 
 and some stones had struck the sacred head of the bishop 
 with no more ceremony than had been shown towards our 
 profane pates, though this bishop was Don Tomaso Saldana, 
 a man most justly held in high repute for the excellence of 
 his life. Much injury had also been sustained by the Presi- 
 dent of the Eepublic, Senor Duenas, who was originally a 
 monk, but afterwards a lawyer and statesman, and perhaps 
 the man of the greatest capacity in the whole country. 
 
 The streets were empty and desolate, and we had to 
 scramble over heaps of ruins to get through tbem : not a 
 creature was to be seen but a few sentinels, and in the in- 
 terior of the houses also there reigned the stillness of the 
 grave. Even in the broadest streets the people did not 
 think themselves safe, and rich and poor were huddled 
 together indiscriminately in the great square, praying, sing- 
 ing, and screaming whenever a new shock startled them 
 with its terrible explosion ; but fortunately, in the midst 
 of all this, the new President, Don Jose Maria San Martin, 
 showed much presence of mind, and gave his orders for the 
 preservation of property with much composure. 
 
 [Fortunately, the previous warning shock had driven most of the 
 people from their houses, a chance which saved most of their lives, 
 though several hundreds were found buried in the ruins.] 
 
 The rising sun of Easter Monday morning shone on a 
 mournful spectacle, and the few people who were left in 
 the town wandered about looking pale and worn, the
 
 368 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Schkrzer 
 
 women with a total disregard of their dress very unusual 
 with them. Among these I noticed the wife of the Presi- 
 dent, who was entreating him to fly, like so many others, 
 from the scene of danger; but he remained faithful to 
 duty, and was exerting himself vigorously to keep order. 
 He had established a kind of court-martial under a tent in 
 the University Square, before which every thief caught in 
 the act was brought, and, on the evidence of two witnesses 
 against him, immediately shot. 
 
 Since the ruins of San Salvador could now no longer 
 offer me a shelter, I set off on foot, at an early hour, to- 
 wards the hacienda of Mr. Kronmeier, and on the way felt 
 four more shocks, the strongest of which lasted six or 
 seven seconds, and was accompanied by violent oscillations 
 of the ground, and detonations like the salvos from Vesu- 
 vius, when, in the lesser eruptions, you stand near the 
 crater while stones are being thrown up. I was now more 
 than ever convinced that the centre of the subterranean 
 action was very near, and that the explosive steam and 
 glowing masses of the interior were seeking a new outlet. 
 
 The country-house of Mr. Kronmeier was still standing, 
 but its thick walls had been rent in so many places that it 
 offered only an uncomfortable and insecure shelter. From 
 the steep cliffs on the left of the river's bed masses of 
 rock and earth had fallen, and the hot springs at the foot 
 of the hill had ceased to flow ; the mill-stream was dry ; 
 one of the cocoa-palms was prostrate, and the whole land- 
 scape, so lovely before, had a dejected and melancholy as- 
 pect, increased, of course, by the general flight of the in- 
 habitants of the district. . . . The shocks still went on, 
 though they were not so frequent as on the two Easter 
 nights ; and, as the subterranean forces were evidently 
 struggling for a new vent, no one could feel himself safe 
 within the sphere of their operations.
 
 
 Frotjde] SCENES IN TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA. 369 
 
 Many of the people whom we met, however, were leaving 
 the place, though not so much for any reason of this kind 
 as on account of a prophecy of the worthy bishop, " that 
 before the new moon the whole district of San Salvador, 
 with the ruins of the city, would be swallowed up." But, 
 unluckily for the bishop's character as a prophet, the pre- 
 diction was not fulfilled. 
 
 SCENES IN TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA. 
 
 JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE. 
 
 [Froude is scarcely known as a traveller, his reputation being 
 founded in another field of literature, that of history. Yet he is the 
 author of two works of travel, — " Oceana," from which we have else- 
 where given a selection, and "The English in the West Indies," 
 from which our present selection is derived. He visited most of the 
 British West Indies, and has given picturesque descriptions of them 
 all. We append some extracts from his account of Trinidad.] 
 
 Trinidad is the largest, after Jamaica, of the British 
 West Indian Islands, and the hottest absolutely after none 
 of them. It is square-shaped, and, I suppose, was once a 
 part of South America. The Orinoco Eiver and the ocean- 
 currents between them have cut a channel between it and 
 the mainland, which has expanded into a vast shallow lake 
 known as the Gulf of Paria. The two entrances by which 
 the gulf is approached are narrow, and are called bocas, or 
 mouths, — one the Dragon's Mouth, the other the Serpent's. 
 When the Orinoco is in flood the water is brackish, and the 
 brilliant violet hue of the Caribbean Sea is changed to a 
 dirty yellow; but the harbor which is so formed would 
 hold all the commercial navies of the world, and seems 
 
 !•— y
 
 370 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Froudb 
 
 formed by nature to be the depot one day of an enormous 
 trade. 
 
 [Landing was made at Port of Spain, the capital, so called when 
 Trinidad was a Spanish possession, and Mr. Froude found pleasant 
 quarters in the house of a friend.] 
 
 The town has between thirty and forty thousand people 
 living in it, and the rain and the Johnny crows [a black 
 vulture that acts as scavenger] between them keep off pes- 
 tilence. Outside is a large savanna or park, where the 
 villas are of the successful men of business. One of these 
 belonged to my host, a cool, airy habitation, with open 
 doors and windows, overhanging portico, and rooms into 
 which all the winds might enter, but not the sun. A gar- 
 den in front was shut off from the savanna by a fence of 
 bananas. At the gate stood as sentinel a cabbage-palm a 
 hundred feet high ; on the lawn mangoes, oranges, papaws, 
 and bread-fruit-trees, strange to look at, but luxuriantly 
 shady. Before the door was a tree of good dimensions, 
 whose name I have forgotten, the stem and branches of 
 
 which were hung with orchids which G had collected 
 
 in the woods. 
 
 The borders were blazing with varieties of the single 
 hibiscus, crimson, pink, and fawn-color, the largest that I 
 had ever seen. The average diameter of each single flower 
 was from seven to eight inches. Wind streamed freely 
 through the long sitting-room, loaded with the perfume of 
 orange-trees ; on table and in bookcase the hand and mind 
 visible of a gifted and cultivated man. The particular 
 room assigned to myself would have been delightful, but 
 that my possession of it was disputed, even in daylight, 
 by mosquitoes, who for blood-thirsty ferocity had a bad 
 pre-eminence over the worst that I had ever met with 
 elsewhere. I killed one who was at work upon me, and
 
 Froude] SCENES IN TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA. 371 
 
 examined him through a glass. Bewick, with the inspira- 
 tion of genius, had drawn his exact likeness as the devil, — 
 a long black stroke for a body, a nick for a neck, horns on 
 the head, and a beak for a mouth, spindle arms, and longer 
 spindle legs, two pointed wings, and a tail. Line for line, 
 there the figure was before me, which in the unforge table 
 tail-piece is driving the thief under the gallows, and I had 
 a melancholy satisfaction in identifying him. I had been 
 warned to be on the lookout for scorpions, centipedes, 
 jiggers, and land -crabs, who would bite me if I walked 
 slipperless over the floor in the dark. Of these I met 
 with none, either there or anywhere, but the mosquito of 
 Trinidad is enough by himself. For malice, mockery, and 
 venom of tooth and trumpet he is without a match in the 
 world. 
 
 From mosquitoes, however, one could seek safety in to- 
 bacco-smoke, or hide behind the lace curtains with which 
 every bed is provided. Otherwise I found every provision 
 to make life pass deliciously. To walk is difficult in a 
 damp, steamy atmosphere, hotter during daylight than the 
 hottest forcing-house in Kew. . . . Beautiful, however, it 
 was beyond dispute. Before sunset a carriage took us 
 around the savanna. Tropical human beings, like trop- 
 ical birds, are fond of fine colors, especially black human 
 beings, and the park was as brilliant as Kensington Gar- 
 dens on a Sunday. At nightfall the scene became even 
 more wonderful, air, grass, and trees being alight with fire- 
 flies, each as brilliant as an English glow-worm. The 
 palm-tree at our own gate stood like a ghostly sentinel 
 clear against the starry sky, a single long dead frond 
 hanging from below the coronet of leaves and clashing 
 against the stem as it was blown to and fro by the night- 
 wind, while long-winged bats swept and whistled over our 
 heads.
 
 372 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Froude 
 
 [The governor's residence and the botanical gardens next call for 
 attention.] 
 
 The " Residence" stands in a fine situation, in large 
 grounds of its own, at the foot of the mountains. It has 
 been lately built, regardless of expense, for the colony is 
 rich, and likes to do things handsomely. On the lawn, 
 under the windows, stood a tree which was entirely new to 
 me, an enormous ceiba or silk-cotton-tree, umbrella-shaped, 
 fifty yards in diameter, the huge and buttressed trunk 
 throwing out branches so massive that one wondered how 
 any woody fibre could bear the strain of their weight, the 
 boughs twisting in and out till they made a roof over 
 one's head, which was hung with every fantastic variety 
 of parasites. 
 
 Vast as the ceibas were which I saw afterwards in other 
 parts of the West Indies, this was the largest. The ceiba 
 is the sacred tree of the negro, the temple of Jumbi, the 
 proper house of Obeah. To cut down one is impious. No 
 black in his right mind would wound even the bark. A 
 Jamaica police officer told me that if a ceiba had to be re- 
 moved, the men who used the axe were well dosed with 
 rum to give them courage to defy the devil. 
 
 From Government House we strolled into the adjoining 
 Botanical Gardens. I had long heard of the wonders of 
 these. The reality went beyond description. Plants with 
 which I was familiar as shrubs in English conservatories 
 were here expanded into forest giants, with hundreds of 
 others of which we cannot raise even Liliputian imitations. 
 Let man be what he will, nature in the tropics is always 
 grand. Palms were growing in the greatest luxuriance, of 
 every known species, from the cabbage towering up into 
 the sky to the fan-palm of the desert whose fronds are 
 reservoirs of water. 
 
 Of exogenous trees the majority were leguminous in
 
 Frottde] SCENES IN TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA. 373 
 
 some shape or other, forming flowers like a pea or vetch 
 and hanging their seeds in pods ; yet in shape and foliage 
 they distanced far the most splendid ornaments of an 
 English park. They had Old-World names with characters 
 wholly different: cedars which were not conifers, almonds 
 which were no relations of peaches, and gum-trees as un- 
 like eucalypti as one tree can be unlike another. 
 
 Again, you saw ferns which you seemed to recognize till 
 some unexpected anomaly startled you out of your mistake. 
 A gigantic Portugal laurel, or what I took for such, was 
 throwing out a flower direct from the stem like a cactus. 
 Grandest among them all, and happily in full bloom, was 
 the sacred tree of Burmah, the Amherslia nobilis, at a dis- 
 tance like a splendid horse-chestnut, with crimson blossoms 
 in pendant bunches, each separate flower in the convolution 
 of its parts exactly counterfeiting a large orchid, with 
 which it had not the faintest affinity, the Amherstia being 
 leguminous like the rest. 
 
 Underneath, and dispersed among the imperial beauties, 
 were spice-trees, orange-trees, coffee plants, and cocoa, or 
 again, shrubs with special virtues or vices. "We had to be 
 careful what we were about, for fruits of fairest appear- 
 ance were tempting us all round. My companion was pre- 
 paring to eat something to encourage me to do the same. 
 A gardener stopped him in time. It was nux vomica. I 
 was straying along a less frequented path, conscious of a 
 heavy vaporous odor, in which I might have fainted had I 
 remained exposed to it. I was close to a manchinoel-tree. 
 
 Prettiest and freshest were the nutmegs, which had a 
 glen all to themselves and perfumed the surrounding air. 
 In Trinidad and in Grenada I believe the nutmegs are the 
 largest that are known, being from thirty to forty feet 
 high ; leaves brilliant green, something like the leaves of 
 an orange, but extremely delicato and thin, folded one over 
 
 32
 
 374 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Froude 
 
 the other, the lowest branches sweeping to the ground till 
 the whole tree forms a natural bower, which is proof 
 against a tropical shower. The fragrance attracts moths 
 and flies ; not mosquitoes, who prefer a ranker atmosphere. 
 I saw a pair of butterflies the match of which I do not 
 remember even in any museum, dark blue shot with green 
 like a peacock's neck, and the size of English bats. I asked 
 a black boy to catch me one. " That sort no let catchee, 
 massa," he said ; and I was penitently glad to hear it. 
 
 Among the wonders of the garden are the vines, as they 
 call them, that is, the creepers of various kinds that climb 
 about the other trees. Standing in an open space there 
 was what once had been a mighty " cedar." It was now 
 dead, only the trunk and dead branches remaining, and 
 bad been murdered by a " fig" -vine which had started from 
 the root, twined itself like a python round the stem, 
 strangled out the natural life, and spreading out in all 
 directions, had covered boughs and twigs with a foliage not 
 its own. So far the "vine" had done no worse than ivy 
 does at home, but there was one feature about it which 
 puzzled me altogether. The lowest of the original branches 
 of the cedar were about twenty feet above our heads. 
 From these in four or five places the parasite had let fall 
 shoots, perhaps an inch in diameter, which descended to 
 within a foot of the ground and then suddenly, without 
 touching that or anything, formed a bight like a rope, 
 went straight up again, caught hold of the branch from 
 which they started, and so hung suspended exactly as an 
 ordinary swing. 
 
 In three distinctly perfect instances the "vine" had 
 executed this singular evolution, while at the extremity of 
 one of the longest and tallest branches high up in the air 
 it had made a clean leap of fifteen feet without visible 
 help and had caught hold of another tree adjoining on the
 
 Froude] SCENES IN TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA. 375 
 
 same level. These pei'formances were so inexplicable that 
 I conceived that they must have been a freak of the 
 gardener's. I was mistaken. He said that at particular 
 times in the year the fig-vine threw out fine tendrils which 
 hung downward like strings. The strongest among them 
 would lay hold of two or three others and climb up upon 
 them, the rest would die and drop off, while the successful 
 one, having found support for itself above, would remain 
 swinging in the air and thicken and prosper. The leap he 
 explained by the wind. I retained a suspicion that the 
 wind had been assisted by some aspiring energy in the 
 plant itself, so bold it was and so ambitious. 
 
 But the wonders of the garden were thrown into the 
 shade by the cottage at the extreme angle of it, where 
 Kingsley* had been the guest of Sir Arthur Gordon. It 
 is a long straggling wooden building with deep verandas 
 lying in a hollow overshadowed by trees, with views open- 
 ing out into the savanna through arches formed by clumps 
 of tall bamboos, the canes growing thick in circular masses 
 and shooting up a hundred feet into the air, where they 
 meet and form frames for the landscape, peculiar and even 
 picturesque when there are not too many of them. These 
 bamboos were Kingsley's special delight, as he had never 
 seen the like of them elsewhere. The room in which he 
 wrote is still shown, and the gallery where ho walked up 
 and down with his long pipe. His memory is cherished 
 in the island as of some singular and beautiful presence 
 which still hovers about the scenes which so delighted 
 him in the closing evening of his own life. 
 
 [Happiness makes its home with the negroes of Trinidad, whom 
 nature keeps in pristine idleness. They have little to do other than to 
 pull and eat.] 
 
 ♦Charles Kingsley, who wrote here his " At Last," descriptive of 
 tropical scenes.
 
 376 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Froudb 
 
 In Trinidad there are eighteen thousand freeholders, 
 most of them negroes and representatives of the old slaves. 
 Their cabins are spread along the road on either side, over- 
 hung with bread-fruit-trees, tamarinds, calabash-trees, out 
 of which they make their cups and water jugs ; the luscious 
 granadilla climbs among the branches; plantains throw 
 their cool shade over the doors; oranges and limes and 
 citrons perfume the air, and droop their boughs under the 
 weight of their golden burdens. There were yams in the 
 gardens and cows in the paddocks, and cocoa-bushes loaded 
 with purple or yellow pods. Children played about in 
 swarms in happy idleness and abundance, with schools, too, 
 at intervals, and an occasional Catholic chapel, for the 
 old religion prevails in Trinidad, never having been dis- 
 turbed. 
 
 What form could human life assume more charming than 
 that which we were now looking on? Once more, the 
 earth does not contain any peasantry so well off, so well 
 cared for, so happy, so sleek and contented as the sons and 
 daughters of the emancipated slaves in the English West 
 Indian Islands. Sugar may fail the planter, but cocoa, 
 which each peasant can grow with small effort for himself, 
 does not fail and will not. He may " better his condition," 
 if he has any such ambition, without stirring beyond his 
 own ground, and so far, perhaps, his ambition may extend, 
 if it is not turned off upon politics. 
 
 Even the necessary evils of the tropics are not many or 
 serious. His skin is proof against mosquitoes. There are 
 snakes in Trinidad as there were snakes in Eden. " Plenty 
 snakes," said one of them who was at work in his garden, 
 "plenty snakes, but no bitee." As to costume, he would 
 prefer the costume of innocence if he were allowed. Clothes 
 in such a climate are superfluous for warmth, and to the 
 minds of the negroes, unconscious as they are of shame,
 
 Froude] SCENES IN TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA. 377 
 
 superfluous for decency. European prejudice, however, 
 still passes for something; the women have a love for 
 finery, which would prevent a complete return to African 
 simplicity ; and in the islands which are still French, and 
 in those like Trinidad, which the French originally colo- 
 nized, they dress themselves with real taste. They hide 
 their wool in red or yellow handkerchiefs, gracefully 
 twisted; or perhaps it is not only to conceal the wool. 
 Columbus found the Carib women of the island dressing 
 their hair in the same fashion. 
 
 The water- works, when we reached them, were even 
 more beautiful than we had been taught to expect. A dam 
 has been driven across a perfectly limpid mountain stream ; 
 a wide open area has been cleared, levelled, strengthened 
 with masonry, and divided into deep basins or reservoirs, 
 through which the current continually flows. Hedges of 
 hibiscus shine with crimson blossoms. Innumerable hum- 
 ming-birds glance to and fro among the trees and shrubs, 
 and gardens and ponds are overhung by magnificent bam- 
 boos, which so astonished me by their size that I inquired if 
 their height had been measured. One of them, I was told, 
 had lately fallen, and was found to be one hundred and 
 thirty feet long. A single drawback only there was to 
 this enchanting spot, and it was again the snakes. There 
 are huge pythons in Trinidad which are supposed to have 
 crossed the straits from the continent. Some washer- 
 women at work in the stream had been disturbed a few 
 days before our visit by one of these monsters, who had 
 come down to see what they were about. They are harm- 
 less, but trying to the nerves. 
 
 [We shall conclude this selection with a leap from Trinidad to 
 Jamaica, and the relation of an adventure experienced by our author 
 in that island. He was on his way back from an excursion into the 
 island.] 
 
 32*
 
 378 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Frottdb 
 
 The train from Porus brought us back to Kingston an 
 hour before sunset. The evening was lovely, even for 
 Jamaica. The sea-breeze had fallen, the land-breeze had 
 not risen, and the dust lay harmless on road and hedge. 
 Cherry Garden, to which I was bound, was but seven miles 
 distant by the direct road, so 1 calculated on a delightful 
 drive which would bring me to my destination before dark. 
 
 So I calculated ; but alas ! for human expectation. I 
 engaged a " buggy" at the station, with a decent-looking 
 conductor, who assured me that he knew the way to 
 Cherry Garden as well as to his own door. His horse 
 looked starved and miserable. He insisted that there was 
 not another in Kingston that was more than a match for 
 it. We set out, and for the first two or three miles we 
 went on well enough, conversing amicably on things in 
 general. But it so happened that it was market day. The 
 road was thronged with women plodding along with their 
 baskets on their heads, a single male on a donkey to each 
 detachment of them, carrying nothing, like an officer with 
 a detachment of soldiers. 
 
 Foolish indignation rose in me, and I asked my friend if 
 he was not ashamed of seeing the poor creatures toiling so 
 cruelly, while their lords and masters amused themselves. 
 I appealed to his feelings as a man, as if it were likely that 
 he had got any. The wretch only laughed. " Ah, massa," 
 he said, with his tongue in his cheek, " women do women's 
 work, men do men's work, — all right." " And what is men's 
 work?" I asked. Instead of answering he went on, 
 " Look at they women, massa, — how they laugh, how happy 
 they be ! Nobody more happy than black woman, massa." 
 
 I would not let him off. I pricked into him, till he got 
 excited too, and we argued and contradicted each other, 
 till at last the horse, finding he was not attended to, went 
 his own way and that was a wrong one. Between Kings-
 
 Froudk] SCENES IN TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA. 379 
 
 ton and our destination there is a deep sandy flat, over- 
 grown with brush and penetrated in all directions with 
 labyrinthine lanes. Into this we had wandered in our 
 quarrels, and neither of us knew where we were. The sand 
 was loose ; our miserable beast was above his fetlocks in 
 it, and was visibly drooping under his efforts to drag us 
 along even at a walk. 
 
 The sun went down. The tropic twilight is short. The 
 evening star shone out in the west, and the crescent moon 
 over our heads. My man said this and said that ; every 
 word was a lie, for he had lost his way and would not 
 allow it. We saw a light through some trees. I sent him 
 to inquire. We were directed one way and another way, 
 every way except the right one. We emerged at last upon 
 a hard road of some kind. The stars told me the general 
 direction. We came to cottages where the name of Cherry 
 Garden was known, and we were told that it was two 
 miles off; but alas ! again there were two roads to it, — a 
 short and good one and a long and bad one, and they sent 
 us by the last. There was a steep hill to climb, for the 
 house is eight hundred feet above the sea. The horse 
 could hardly crawl, and my " nigger" went to work to 
 flog him to let off his own ill-humor. I had to stop that 
 by force, and at last, as it grew too dark to see the road 
 under the trees, I got out and walked, leaving him to 
 follow at a foot's pace. The night was lovely. I began 
 to think that we should have to camp out after all, and 
 that it would be no great hardship. 
 
 It was like the gloaming of a June night in England, the 
 daylight in the open spots not entirely gone, and mixing 
 softly with the light of moon and planet and the flashing 
 of the fireflies. I plodded on, mile after mile, and Cherry 
 Garden still receded to one mile farther. We came to a 
 gate of some consequence. The outline of a large mansion
 
 380 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Frottde 
 
 was visible, with gardens round it. I concluded that we 
 had arrived, and was feeling for the latch when the forms 
 of a lady and gentleman appeared against the sky who 
 were strolling in the grounds. They directed me still up- 
 ward, with the mile which never diminished still to be 
 travelled. 
 
 Like myself, our weary animal had gathered hopes from 
 the sight of the gate. He had again to drag on as he 
 could. His owner was subdued and silent, and obeyed 
 whatever order I gave him. The trees now closed over us 
 so thick that I could see nothing. Vainly I repented of 
 my unnecessary philanthropy, which had been the cause 
 of the mischief; what had I to do with black women, or 
 white either, for that matter ? I had to feel the way with 
 my feet and a stick. I came to a place where the lane 
 again divided. I tried the neai'est turn. I found a trench 
 across it three feet deep, which had been cut by a torrent. 
 This was altogether beyond the capacity of our unfortunate 
 animal, so I took the other boldly, prepared, if it proved 
 wrong, to bivouac till morning with my "nigger," and go 
 on with my argument. 
 
 Happily there was no need; we came again on a gate 
 which led into a field. There was a drive across it and 
 wire fences. Finally lights began to glimmer and dogs to 
 bark : we were at the real Cherry Garden at last, and 
 found the whole household alarmed for what had become 
 of us. 
 
 I could not punish my misleader by stinting his fare, 
 for I knew that I had only myself to blame. He was an 
 honest fellow after all. In the disturbance of my mind 
 I left a rather valuable umbrella in his buggy. He dis- 
 covered it after he had gone, and had grace enough to see 
 that it was returned to me. My entertainers were much 
 amused at the cause of the misadventure, perhaps unique
 
 Kinqsley] THE HIGH WOODS OF TRINIDAD. 381 
 
 of its kind: to address homilies to the black people on the 
 treatment of their wives not being the fashion in those 
 parts. 
 
 THE HIGH WOODS OF TRINIDAD. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
 [The skilled and popular novelist to whom we owe our present 
 selection seems to have entertained for years a vivid wish to see the 
 glory of the tropics, the achievement of which desire is put upon 
 record in "At Last," the work from which we quote. In his " West- 
 ward Ho" he had years before given a warmly-delineated imaginary 
 picture of the tropics, but waited for years afterwards to see these scenes 
 in their picturesque reality. He tells well the story of the tropical 
 "High Woods."] 
 
 And now we set ourselves to walk to the depot, where 
 the government timber was being felled, and the real "High 
 Woods" to be seen at last. Our path lay along the half- 
 finished tramway, through the first cacao plantation I had 
 ever seen, though, I am happy to say, not the last by many 
 a one. 
 
 Imagine an orchard of nut-trees, with very large, long 
 leaves. Each tree is trained to a single stem. Among 
 them, especially near the path, grow plants of the common 
 hot-house Datura, its long white flowers perfuming all tho 
 air. They have been planted as landmarks, to prevent the 
 3'oung cacao-trees being cut over when the weeds are 
 cleared. Among them, too, at some twenty yards apart, 
 are the stems of a tree looking much like an ash, save that 
 it is inclined to throw out broad spurs like a ceiba. You 
 look up and see that they are Bois immortelles, fifty or 
 sixty feet high, one blaze of vermilion against the blue sky.
 
 382 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kinoslkt 
 
 Those who have stood under a Lombardy poplar in early- 
 spring and looked up at its buds and twigs showing like 
 pink coral against the blue sky, and have felt the beauty 
 of the sight, can imagine faintly — but only faintly — the 
 beauty of these "madres de cacao," — cacao mothers, as they 
 call them here, — because their shade is supposed to shelter 
 the cacao-trees, while the dew collected by their leaves 
 keeps the ground below always damp. 
 
 I turned my dazzled eyes down again and looked into 
 the delicious darkness under the bushes. The ground was 
 brown with fallen leaves, or green with ferns; and here 
 and there a slant ray of sunlight pierced through the 
 shade, and flashed on the brown leaves, and on a gray 
 stem, and on a crimson jewel which hung on the stem, 
 and there, again, on a bright orange one ; and as my eye 
 became accustomed to the darkness, I saw that the stems 
 and larger boughs far away into the wood were dotted 
 with pods, crimson, or yellow, or green, of the size and 
 shape of a small hand closed with the fingers straight out. 
 They were the cacao-pods, full of what are called at home 
 cacao-nibs. And there lay ; heap of them, looking like a 
 heap of gay flowers ; and by them sat their brown owner, 
 picking them to pieces and laying the seeds to dry on a 
 cloth. I went up and told him that I came from England, 
 and never saw cacao before, though I had been eating and 
 drinking it all my life ; at which news he grinned amuse- 
 ment till his white teeth and eyeballs made a light in that 
 dark place, and offered me a fresh broken pod, that I might 
 taste the pink sour sweet pulp in which the rows of the 
 nibs lie packed, a pulp which I found very pleasant and 
 refreshing. 
 
 He dries his cacao-nibs in the sun, and, if he be a well- 
 to-do and careful man, on a stage with wheels, which can 
 be run into a little shed on the slightest shower of rain ;
 
 Kingsley] THE HIGH WOODS OF TRINIDAD. 383 
 
 picks them over and over, separating the better quality from 
 the worse; and at last sends them down on mule-back to 
 the sea, to be sold in London as Trinidad cocoa, or perhaps 
 in Paris to the chocolate-makers, who convert them into 
 chocolate, " Menier" or other, by mixing them with sugar 
 and vanilla — both, possibly— from this very island. This 
 latter fact once inspired an adventurous German with the 
 thought that he could make chocolate in Trinidad just as 
 well as in Paris. And (so goes the story) he succeeded ; 
 but the fair Creoles would not buy it. It could not be 
 good ; it could not be the real article, unless it had crossed 
 the Atlantic twice to and fro from that centre of fashion, 
 Paris. So the manufacture, which might have added 
 greatly to the wealth of Trinidad, was given up, and the 
 ladies of the island eat naught but French chocolate, cost- 
 ing, it is said, nearly four times as much as home-made 
 chocolate need cost. 
 
 As we walked on through the trace (for the tramway 
 here was still unfinished), one of my kind companions 
 pointed out a little plant, which bears in the islund the 
 ominous name of the Brinvilliers. It is one of those 
 deadly poisons too common in the bush, and too well 
 known to the negro Obi-men and Obi-women. And as I 
 looked at the insignificant weed, I wondered how the namo 
 of that wretched woman should have spread to this remote 
 island, and have become famous enough to be applied to a 
 plant. French negroes may have brought the name with 
 them ; but then arose another wonder. How were the 
 terrible properties of the plant discovered ? How eager 
 and ingenious must the human mind be about the devil's 
 work, and what long practice — considering its usual slow- 
 ness and dulness — must it have had at the said work, ever 
 to have picked out this paltry thing among the thousand 
 weeds of the forest as a tool for its jealousy and revenge !
 
 384 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kingslky 
 
 It may have taken ages to discover the Brinvilliers, and 
 ages more to make its poison generally known. Why not? 
 As the Spaniards say, " The devil knows many things, be- 
 cause he is old." Surely this is one of the many facts 
 which point towards some immensely ancient civilization 
 in the tropics, and a civilization which may have had its 
 ugly vices and have been destroyed thereby. 
 
 Now we left the cacao grove ; and I was aware on each 
 side of the trace of a wall of green, such as I had never 
 seen before on earth, not even in my dreams, — strange 
 colossal shapes towering up a hundred feet and more in 
 height, which, alas! it was impossible to reach, for on 
 either side of the trace were fifty yards of half-cleared 
 ground, fallen logs, withes, huge stumps ten feet high, 
 charred and crumbling, and among them and over them 
 a wilderness of creepers and shrubs, and all the luxuriant 
 young growth of the " rastrajo," which springs up at once 
 whenever the primeval forest is cleared, — all utterly im- 
 passable. These rastrajo forms, of course, were all new to 
 me. I might have spent weeks in botanizing merely at 
 them ; but all I could remark, or cai'ed to remark, there as 
 in other places, was the tendency in the rastrajo towards 
 growing enormous rounded leaves. Hoav to get at the 
 giants behind was the only question for one who for forty 
 years had been longing for one peep at Flora's fairy palace, 
 and saw its portals open at last. There was a deep gully 
 before us, where a gang of convicts was working at a 
 wooden bridge for the tramway, amid the usual abysmal 
 mud of the tropic wet season, and on the other side of it 
 there was no rastrajo right and left of the trace. I hurried 
 down it like any school-boy, dashing through mud and 
 water, hopping from log to log, regardless of warnings and 
 offers of help from good-natured negroes, who expected the 
 respectable elderly " buccra" to come to grief, struggled
 
 Kinqsley] THE HIGH WOODS OF TRINIDAD. 385 
 
 perspiring up the other side of the gully, and then dashed 
 away to the left, and stopped short, breathless with awe, in 
 the primeval forest at last. 
 
 In the primeval forest, looking upon that upon which my 
 teachers and masters, Humboldt, Spix, Martius, Schom- 
 burgk, Waterton, Bates, Wallace, Gosse, and the rest, had 
 looked already, with far wiser eyes than mine, compre- 
 hending somewhat at least of its wonders, while I could 
 only stare in ignorance. There was actually, then, such a 
 sight to be seen on earth, and it was not less, but far more, 
 wonderful than they had said. 
 
 My first feeling on entering the high woods was helpless- 
 ness, confusion, awe, all but terror. One is afraid at first 
 to venture in fifty yards. Without a compass, or the land- 
 mark of some opening to or from which he can look, a man 
 must be lost in the first ten minutes, such a sameness is 
 there in the infinite variety. That sameness and variety 
 make it impossible to give any general sketch of the 
 forest. Once inside "you cannot see the wood for the 
 trees." You can only wander on as far as you dare, 
 letting each object impress itself on your mind as it may, 
 and carrying away a confused recollection of innumerable 
 perpendicular lines all straining upward, in fierce com- 
 petition, towards the light-food far above ; and next of a 
 green cloud, or rather mist, which hovers round your head, 
 and rises thickening to an unknown height. The upward 
 lines are of every possible thickness, and of almost every 
 possible hue ; what leaves they bear, being for most part 
 on the tips of the twigs, give a scattered, mist-like appear- 
 ance to the under foliage. 
 
 For the first moment, therefore, the forest seems more 
 open than an English wood. But try to walk through it, 
 and ten steps undeceive you. Around your knees are prob- 
 ably Mamures, with creeping stems and fan-shaped leaves, 
 i.— r % 33
 
 386 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kingslkt 
 
 something like those of a young cocoa-nut-palm. You try 
 to brush through them, and are caught up instantly by a 
 string or wire belonging to some other plant. You look up 
 and round, and then you find that the air is full of wires, — ■ 
 that you are hung up in a net-work of fine branches belong- 
 ing to half a dozen different sorts of young trees, and inter- 
 twined with as many different species of slender creepers. 
 You thought at your first glance among the tree-stems 
 that you were looking through open air; you find that you 
 are looking through a labyrinth of wire rigging, and must 
 use the cutlass right and left at every five steps. 
 
 You push on into a bed of strong sedge-like Sclerias, 
 with cutting edges to their leaves. It is well for you they 
 are only three and not six feet high. In the midst of them 
 you run against a horizontal stick, triangular, rounded, 
 smooth, green. You take a glance along it right and left, 
 and see no end to it either way, but gradually discover 
 that it is the leaf-stalk of a young Cocorite palm. The 
 leaf is five-and-twenty feet long, and springs from a huge 
 ostrich plume, which is sprawling out of the ground and 
 up above your head a few yards off. You cut the leaf- 
 stalk through right and left and walk on, to be stopped 
 suddenly (for you get so confused by the multitude of 
 objects that you never see anything till you run against it) 
 by a gray lichen-covered bar as thick as your ankle. You 
 follow it up with your eye, and find it entwine itself with 
 three or four other bars, and roll over with them in great 
 knots, and festoons, and loops twenty feet high, and then 
 go up with them into the green cloud over your head, and 
 vanish, as if a giant had thrown a ship's cable into the tree- 
 tops. 
 
 One of them, so grand that its form strikes even the 
 negro and the Indian, is a Liantasso. You see that at 
 once by the form of its cable, — six or eight inches across in
 
 Kingsley] THE HIGH WOODS OF TRINIDAD. 387 
 
 one direction, and three or four in another, furbelowed all 
 down the middle into regular knots, and looking like a 
 chain cable between two flexible bars. At another of the 
 loops, about as thick as your arm, your companion, if 
 you have a forester with you, will spring joyfully. With a 
 few blows of his cutlass he will sever it as high up as he 
 can reach, and again below, some three feet down ; and, 
 while you are wondering at this seemingly wanton destruc- 
 tion, he lifts the bar on high, throws his head back, and 
 pours down his thirsty throat a pint or more of pure cold 
 water. This hidden treasure is, strange as it may seem, 
 the ascending sap, or rather the ascending pure rain-water 
 which has been taken up by the roots, and is hurrying 
 aloft, to be elaborated into sap, and leaf, and flower, and 
 fruit, and fresh tissue for the very stem up which it origi- 
 nally climbed, and therefore it is that the woodman cuts the 
 water-vine through first at the top of the piece which he 
 wants, and not at the bottom ; for so rapid is the ascent 
 of the sap, that if he cut the stem below, the water 
 would have all fled upward before he could cut it off 
 above. 
 
 Meanwhile, the old story of Jack and the Bean-stalk 
 comes into your mind. In such a forest was the old dame's 
 hut, and up such a bean-stalk Jack climbed, to fight a 
 giant and a castle high above. Why not ? What may 
 not be up there? You look up into the green cloud, and 
 long for a moment to be a monkey. There may be 
 monkeys up there over your head, — burly red Howler, or 
 tiny peevish Sapajou, peering down at you, but you cannot 
 peer up at them. The monkeys, and the parrots, and the 
 humming-birds, and the flowers, and all the beauty, are up- 
 stairs — up above the green cloud. You are in " the empty 
 nave of the cathedral," and the service is being celebrated 
 aloft in the blazing roof.
 
 388 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kinqblet 
 
 We will hope that, as you look up, you have not been 
 careless enough to walk on, for if you have you will be 
 tripped up at once ; nor to put your hand out incautiously 
 to rest it against a tree, or what not, for fear of sharp 
 thorns, ants, and wasp-nests. If you are all safe, your next 
 steps, probably, as you struggle through the bush between 
 tree- trunks of every possible size, will bring you face to face 
 with huge upright walls of seeming boards, whose rounded 
 edges slope upward till, as your eye follows them, you find 
 them enter an enormous stem, perhaps round, like one of 
 the Norman pillars of Durham nave, and just as huge; per- 
 haps fluted, like one of William of Wykeham's columns at 
 Winchester. 
 
 There is the stem, but where is the tree? Above the 
 green cloud. You struggle up to it between two of the 
 board walls, but find it not so easy to reach. Between you 
 and it are half a dozen tough strings which you had not 
 noticed at first, — the eye cannot focus itself rapidly enough 
 in this confusion of distances, — which have to be cut 
 through ere you can pass. Some of them are rooted in 
 the ground, straight and tense ; some of them dangle and 
 wave in the wind at every height. What are they? Air- 
 roots of wild pines, or of Matapalos, or of figs, or of 
 Seguines, or of some other parasito ? Probably ; but you 
 cannot see. All you can see is, as you put your chin 
 close against the trunk of the tree and look up, as if you 
 were looking up against the side of a great ship set on 
 end, that some sixty or eighty feet up in the green cloud 
 arms as big as English forest-trees branch off, and that out 
 of their forks a whole green garden of vegetation has 
 tumbled down twenty or thirty feet, and half climbed up 
 again. 
 
 You scramble round the tree to find whence this aerial 
 garden has sprung: you cannot tell. The tree-trunk is
 
 Kingslkt] THE HIGH WOODS OF TRINIDAD. 389 
 
 smooth and free from climbers, and that mass of verdure 
 may belong possibly to the very cables which you met as- 
 cending into the green cloud twenty or thirty yards back, 
 or to that impenetrable tangle a dozen yards on, which has 
 climbed a small tree, and then a taller one again, and then 
 a taller still, till it has climbed out of sight, and possibly 
 into the lower branches of the big tree. And what are 
 their species? What are their families? Who knows? 
 Not even the most experienced woodman or botanist can 
 tell you the names of plants of which he only sees the 
 stems. The leaves, the flowers, the fruit, can only be ex- 
 amined by felling the tree ; and not even always then, for 
 sometimes the tree, when cut, refuses to fall, linked as it is 
 by chains of liane to all the trees around. Even that won- 
 derful water-vine which we cut through just now may be 
 one of three or even four different plants. . . . 
 
 And where are the famous Orchids? They perch on 
 every bough and stem ; but they are not, with three or four 
 exceptions, in flower in the winter ; and if they were, I 
 know nothing about them ; at least I know enough to 
 know how little I know. Whosoever has i*ead Darwin's 
 "Fertilization of Orchids," and finds in his own reason that 
 the book is true, had best say nothing about the beautiful 
 monsters till he has seen with his own eyes more than his 
 master. 
 
 And yet even the three or four that are in flower are 
 worth going many a mile to see. In the hot-house they 
 seem almost artificial from their strangeness ; but to see 
 them " natural," on natural boughs, gives a sense of their 
 reality which no unnatural situation can give. Even to 
 look up at them perched on bough and stem, as one rides 
 by, and to guess what exquisite and fantastic form may 
 issue, in a few months or weeks, out of those fleshy, often 
 unsightly, leaves, is a strange pleasure, — a spur to tho 
 
 33*
 
 390 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kinoslet 
 
 fancy which is surely wholesome, if wo will but believe 
 that all these things were invented by a Fancy, which de- 
 sires to call out in us, by contemplating them, such small 
 fancy as we possess, and to make us poets, each according 
 to his power, by showing a world in which, if rightly 
 looked at, all is poetry. 
 
 Another fact will soon force itself on your attention, un- 
 less you wish to tumble down and get wet up to your 
 knees. The soil is furrowed everywhere by holes, by 
 graves some two or three feet wide and deep, and of un- 
 certain length and shape, often wandering about for thirty 
 or forty feet, and running confusedly into each other. 
 They are not the work of man, nor of an animal, for no 
 earth seems to have been thrown out of them. In the 
 bottom of the dry graves you sometimes see a decaying 
 root; but most of them just now are full of water, and of 
 tiny fish also, which burrow in the mud, and sleep during 
 the dry season, to come out and swim during the wet. 
 These graves are, some of them, plainly quite new. Some, 
 again, are very old, for trees of all sizes are growing in 
 them and over them. 
 
 What makes them? A question not easily answered. 
 But the shrewdest foresters say that they have held the 
 roots of trees now dead. Either the tree has fallen, and 
 torn its roots out of the ground, or the roots and stumps 
 have rotted in their place, and the soil above them has 
 fallen in. 
 
 But they must decay very quickly, these roots, to leave 
 their quiet fresh graves thus empty ; and — now one thinks 
 of it — how few fallen trees, or even dead sticks, there are 
 about. An English wood, if left to itself, would be cum- 
 bered with fallen timber ; and one has heard of forests in 
 North America through which it is all but impossible to 
 make way, so high are piled up, among the still growing
 
 Kingslky] THE HIGH WOODS OF TRINIDAD. 391 
 
 trees, dead logs in every stage of decay. Such a sight 
 may be seen in Europe among the high silver-fir forests of 
 the Pyrenees. How is it not so here? How, indeed? 
 And how comes it — if you will look again — that there are 
 few or no fallen leaves, and actually no leaf-mould ? In an 
 English wood there would be a foot — perhaps two feet — of 
 black soil, renewed by every autumn leaf-fall. Two feet ? 
 One has heard often enough of bison-hunting in Himalayan 
 forests among Deodaras one hundred and fifty feet high, 
 and scarlet rhododendrons thirty feet high, growing in 
 fifteen or twenty feet of leaf- and timber-mould. And here, 
 in a forest equally ancient, every plant is growing out of 
 the bare yellow loam as it might in a well-hoed garden-bed. 
 Is it not strange ? 
 
 Most strange, till you remember where you are, — in one 
 of Nature's hottest and dampest laboratories. Nearly 
 eighty inches of yearly rain and more than eighty degrees 
 of perpetual heat make swift work with vegetable fibre, 
 which, in our cold and sluggard clime, would curdle into 
 leaf-mould, perhaps into peat. Far to the north, in poor old 
 Ireland, and far to the south, in Patagonia, begin the zones 
 of peat, where dead vegetable fibre, its treasures of light 
 and heat locked up, lies all but useless age after age. But 
 this is the zone of illimitable sun force, which destroys as 
 swiftly as it generates, and generates again as swiftly as it 
 destroys. Here, when the forest giant falls, as some tell 
 me that they have heard him fall, on silent nights, when 
 the cracking of the roots below and the lianes aloft rattles 
 like musketry through the woods, till the great trunk 
 comes down, with a boom as of a heavy gun, re-echoing on 
 from mountain-side to mountain-side ; then 
 
 " Nothing in him that doth fade, 
 But doth suffer an air-change 
 Into something rich and strange."
 
 392 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kingsley 
 
 Under the genial rain and genial heat, the timber-tree 
 itself, all its tangled ruin of lianes and parasites, and the 
 boughs and leaves, snapped off not only by the blow, but by 
 the very wind of the falling tree, all melt away swiftly and 
 peacefully in a few months — say almost a few days — into 
 the water, and carbonic acid, and sunlight out of which 
 they were created at first, to be absorbed instantly by the 
 green leaves around, and, transmuted into fresh forms of 
 beauty, leave not a wrack behind. Explained thus, — and 
 this I believe to be the true explanation, — the absence of 
 leaf-mould is one of the grandest, as it is one of the most 
 startling, phenomena of the forest. 
 
 [And thus the writer rambles on, telling fresh marvels of the tropic 
 woods, from which a knowledge is attained that " defies all analysis."] 
 
 [It is that of] the causes and effects of their beauty ; 
 that " aesthetic" of plants, of which Schleiden has spoken 
 so well in that charming book of his, " The Plant," which 
 all should read who wish to know somewhat of " The Open 
 Secret." But when they read it let them read with open 
 hearts. For that same " Open Secret" is, I suspect, one of 
 those which God may hide from the wise and prudent, and 
 yet reveal to babes. 
 
 At least, so it seemed to me, the first day that I went, 
 awe-struck, into the High Woods ; and so it seemed to me, 
 the last day that I came, even more awe-struck, out of 
 them.
 
 Brown] ANIMALS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 393 
 
 ANIMALS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 
 
 C. BARRINGTON BROWN. 
 
 [British Guiana, the land which seems so strongly inclined to extend 
 its borders at the expense of Venezuela, is as yet very far from being 
 the active and well-developed settlement which might be imagined 
 from the aggressiveness of its rulers. Mr. Brown's story of it indicates 
 a land of which nature is still largely the lord, and which is so little 
 known that he, as late as twenty years ago, was able to discover a 
 river and a cataract not previously heard of. The selection we append, 
 descriptive of the wild animals of the country, is significant of an un- 
 developed land. Mr. Brown, in his " Canoe and Camp Life in 
 British Guiana," describes a number of unsuccessful efforts to shoot 
 jaguars, and continues:] 
 
 One of the men happened to go a few yards behind one 
 of our camping-places, when he heard a movement behind 
 him ; turning round he saw a jaguar leisurely surveying 
 him. He fled to the camp with his story, and I went in 
 search of the animal accompanied by one man armed with 
 a cutlass. We did not go far before we saw its tracks in 
 the sandy bed of a dry water-course, and concluded that 
 it had gone off. We gave up all hopes of seeing it, and, 
 turning round, were on the point of making our way back 
 to camp, when my companion suddenly exclaimed, " Look ! 
 look! the tiger!" Glancing at the spot indicated I saw it 
 crouching in a thicket with its head bent down, its body 
 swaying from side to side, glaring at us with eyes of a 
 greenish metallic hue. The brute had evidently been 
 following us whilst we were searching for it, and was 
 working itself into a rage. I took as good aim at its head 
 as I could, and fired ; but instead of seeing it lying dead, I
 
 394 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bkown 
 
 heard it bounding and crashing through the forest at a 
 fearful pace. 
 
 One of my men got a shot at a jaguar on a sand-beach, 
 where it passed within twenty feet of him, as he crouched 
 on some rocks. The only effect the shot had on the 
 animal was to make it gallop away a few yards, then turn 
 for an instant and look at him. The men whom I left in 
 charge on the New River cut open a hollow log contain- 
 ing young accouries, and took them out. Their squeals on 
 being seized attracted a puma, which ran close up to the 
 men, apparently wishing to get the accouries, when one of 
 them fired at it and it made off. 
 
 One evening, whilst returning to camp along the port- 
 age path that we were cutting at Wonobobo Falls, I 
 walked faster than the men, and got some two hundred 
 yards in advance. As I rose the slope of an uneven piece 
 of ground, I saw a large puma (Felis concolof) advancing 
 along the other side of the rise towards me, with its nose 
 down on the ground. The moment I saw it I stopped ; and 
 at the same instant it tossed up its head, and seeing me also 
 came to a stand. With its body half crouched, its head 
 erect, and its eyes round and black, from its pupils having 
 expanded in the dusky light, it looked at once a noble 
 and appalling sight. I glanced back along our wide path 
 to see if any of my men were coming, as at the moment I 
 felt that it was not well to be alone without some weapon 
 of defence, and I knew that one of them had a gun ; but 
 nothing could I see. As long as I did not move the puma 
 remained motionless also, and thus we stood some fifteen 
 yards apart, eying each other curiously. I had heard 
 that the human voice is potent in scaring most wild boasts, 
 and feeling that the time had arrived to do something des- 
 perate, I waved my arms in the air and shouted loudly. 
 The effect on the tiger was electrical ; it turned quickly on
 
 Brown] ANIMALS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 395 
 
 one side, and in two bounds was lost in the forest. I waited 
 until my men came up, however, before passing the place 
 at which it disappeared in case it might only be tying in 
 ambush there; but we saw nothing more of it. 
 
 When returning down the portage and dragging our 
 boats over, we saw a jaguar sitting on a log near the same 
 spot, watching our movements with evident curiosity, and 
 although the men were singing as they hauled the boats 
 along, it did not seem to mind the noise. As soon as it saw 
 that it was observed, it jumped off the log, and with a low 
 growl made off. From this I infer that the flight of my 
 puma must have been owing more to the windmill-like 
 motion of my arms than to my voice. 
 
 During our journey across from the New River to the 
 Essequebo, we were cooking breakfast one morning, when 
 we heard a tremendous rushing and crashing noise coming 
 towards us through the forest, and then caught a glimpse 
 of an accourie flying for dear life before a black tiger. 
 Just after they passed the accourie gave a heart-rending 
 scream as the tiger seized it, but on my men rushing up to 
 the spot, the tiger left its prey and fled. When picked up 
 the accourie was quite dead, but on examination showed no 
 marks whatever of the tiger's teeth. The tiger had 
 evidently killed it by springing upon it with its legs close 
 together, the weight of its body giving such a blow that 
 the accourie's life Avas fairly knocked out. The men found 
 its dead body just beyond a large log, slightly raised from 
 the gi*ound, under which it had bolted and lost some head- 
 way, while the cunning tiger took the log in its stride and 
 so came, as it intended, on the poor accourie's back, with 
 the result we have seen. 
 
 On returning to the head of the New River for provisions, 
 we were followed for many miles by a tiger, for on going back 
 we saw its huge tracks in the swampy places on our path.
 
 396 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brown 
 
 With good hunting-dogs fine jaguar- and puma-hunting 
 might be obtained on the banks of this river, where with- 
 out doubt they are exceedingly numerous. Many of the 
 Indian hunting-dogs trained for deer or tapir will huut 
 tigers. When on the track of either of these animals, 
 should they come across the scent of a tiger, their eager 
 and confident manner of pressing on after the game is im- 
 mediately changed, and with hair on their backs erect they 
 became cautious and nervous to a degree, jumping at even 
 the snapping of a twig. Abandoning the hunt they take 
 up the tiger's track and follow it. But should the hunts- 
 man call them from it, or not cheer them on with his voice 
 from time to time, they exhibit great fear, and keeping 
 close to his heels cannot be induced to hunt any more in 
 that district for the day. On the contrary, if allowed to 
 follow the tiger, they track it up with caution, being fully 
 aware of the cunning dodge practised by that animal, 
 which is, when the dog is close at hand, to spring to one 
 side and lie in ambush till it passes, when with one spring 
 the dog is seized. 
 
 Ordinary dogs would fall a prey to this trap, but not the 
 self-taught tiger dogs. Their fine powers of scent warn 
 them of their near approach to the quarry, when they 
 advance with great caution, never failing to detect the tiger 
 in time, and when once their eye is upon their enemy it 
 has no chance to escape. In its pride of strength, the 
 jaguar scorns the dogs, and with a rush like a ball from a 
 cannon springs madly at one of them, feeling sure that it 
 cannot escape. It has reckoned, however, without its host, 
 for the dog eludes the spring with ease, and with great 
 quickness flies on the tiger's flank, giving it a severe nip. 
 As the tiger turns with a growl of pain and disappoint- 
 ment, the dog is off to a little distance, yelping lustily and 
 never remaining still an instant, but darting first on one
 
 Brown] ANIMALS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 397 
 
 side and then on the other. After one or two ineffectual 
 charges the tiger gives it up, and on the approach of the 
 hunter, springs into the nearest suitable tree, which it 
 seldom leaves alive. 
 
 [The Indians describe several kinds of tigers and tiger-cats, each 
 of which hunts one kind of animal in particular, whose call it can 
 imitate. The deer-tiger is the puma. The wailah, or tapir-tiger, is 
 pure black and of great size.] 
 
 The Corentyne and its branches were literally teeming 
 with fish of various kinds, the greater number being hai- 
 mara and perai. The latter were so abundant and ferocious 
 that at times it was dangerous, when bathing, to go into 
 the water at a greater depth than up to one's knees. Even 
 then small bodies of these hungry creatures would swim 
 in and make a dash close up to our legs, and then retreat 
 to a short distance. They actually bit the steering paddles 
 as they were drawn through the water astern of the boats. 
 A tapir which I shot swimming across the river had its 
 nose eaten off by them whilst we were towing it to the 
 shore. 
 
 Of an evening the men used to catch some of them for 
 sport, and in taking the hook from their mouths produce a 
 wound from which the blood ran freely. On throwing 
 them back into the water in this injured condition they 
 were immediately set upon and devoured by their com- 
 panions. Even as one was being hauled in on the line, its 
 comrades, seeing that it was in difficulties, attacked it at 
 once. One day, when the boat was hauled into some rocks, 
 a few of the men were engaged shooting fish near by, and 
 in so doing wounded a large haimara. Having escaped 
 from its human tormentors, it made for the open river, but 
 was instantly attacked by perai attracted by the blood es- 
 caping from its wound, and was driven back to the shelter 
 of the rocks close to the boat, from which I had a good 
 
 34
 
 398 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brown 
 
 view of the chase. The large fish followed by its savage 
 enemies reminded me of a parallel case on land, — a stricken 
 deer pursued by wolves. 
 
 The perai, fortunately, lie only off sand-beaches and in 
 quiet pools, not frequenting the cataracts, where their 
 presence would be anything but acceptable to the men 
 when working in the water. I was fortunate enough to 
 find the spawning-place of some perai on the matted 
 clusters of fibrous roots of some lianes, which hung from 
 the branches of a tree into the water, among which much 
 earthy sediment had collected and many small aquatic 
 plants had grown. The sediment gave weight to the 
 roots, which kept the clusters under water, and the force 
 of the current made them buoyant, giving the lianes a 
 slope when the river was high, which kept them not far 
 from its surface. My attention was attracted to them by 
 two perai lying close to them, with their heads up-stream, 
 as the men said, engaged in watching their eggs. Pro- 
 curing one of the roots I examined it, and found among 
 it numbers of single eggs and clusters of small jelly-like 
 young, which had been already hatched. The eggs were 
 white and about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, with a 
 hard exterior. The young were very little larger, and had 
 a glutinous surface, which caused them to adhere together 
 on being taken from the water. They had not acquired 
 any powers of locomotion, but could just wriggle their tails 
 like tadpoles. Under a lens they resembled the egg de- 
 void of its covering, with a gelatinous ridge around three- 
 quarters of its circumference, one of which expanded into 
 a knob (probably the head), while the other termination 
 was flattened and tail-like. I could not detect any eyes 
 or mouth in them, but their bodies were speckled with gray 
 markings of coloring matter. . . . 
 
 Jn hauling the boats up the shallow rapids near the
 
 Brown] ANIMALS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 399 
 
 mouth of the Cutari the men, whilst wading, were fre- 
 quently struck by conger eels. Every now and then a man 
 would call out " Congler, congler," and jumping into the 
 boat rub his shins, which had been benumbed by a touch 
 from one of these fish. After half a minute or so the 
 numbness wore off and he took to the water again. The 
 boat being in a critical condition at the time, it was im- 
 possible for the men to leave the water. They had there- 
 fore to brave out the shocks from these batteries, which 
 must have been very slight, given probably by small eels, 
 or they could not have stood them. 
 
 Small long-bodied fish were very common, and one kind, 
 called courami, took the baited hook as long as the fisher- 
 man who threw the line was out of sight. 
 
 The lukenaine, or sunfish, was captured by my men in a 
 singular manner. They manufactured an exceedingly rude 
 fly out of a bunch of silk-grass (Bromelia karatas) fibre, 
 and attached it to a large hook with a short line and rod. 
 Drawing it rapidly over pools among the rocks it was 
 immediately taken by the lukenaine, as the artifical fly is 
 struck by the trout. 
 
 Sting-rays were frequently seen on the sandy bottom or 
 grovelling for worms in the muddy banks under water. 
 My interpreter, William, was unfortunate enough to step 
 upon one, which, being of the color of the bottom, was not 
 observed. It drove its spine or sting into the side of his 
 instep, producing a jagged wound which bled profusely. I 
 immediately put laudanum on the wound and gave him a 
 strong dose of ammonia. In a quarter of an hour after 
 he was writhing on the ground in great agony, actually 
 screaming at times with the pain he felt in the wounded 
 part, in his groin, and under one armpit. His foot and 
 leg were so cold that he got one man to light a fire and 
 support his foot over it, persisting in trying to put it in the
 
 400 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brown 
 
 flames. I gave him two doses of laudanum, one shortly 
 after the other, without relieving his sufferings in the 
 slightest degree. After three hours of intense pain he 
 became easier, but had returns of it at intervals during the 
 night. For a week he was unable to put his foot on the 
 ground, and the wound did not heal thoroughly for six 
 weeks. . . . 
 
 We did not see a single cayman during our stay on the 
 Corentyne. It may safely be inferred that there are none 
 on that river, a singular fact that cannot be accounted for. 
 Small alligators, of about four feet in length, are numer- 
 ous, however, and one of them one night carried off a 
 young cat which the men had brought from Georgetown. 
 Poor puss had gone to the water's edge to drink, when the 
 alligator with one blow of its tail swept it into the water 
 and carried it away. On the following morning we saw 
 the alligator with its snout resting on a rock near by, so I 
 shot it ; the men dragging it out of the water and leaving 
 it on the rocks. On returning, some months afterwards, 
 w T e camped at the same place, and there among the bones 
 of the alligator saw those of the cat bleaching in the sun. 
 
 Iguanas were numerous, and on one occasion, when one 
 in a tree overhead was shot at with an arrow, it jumped 
 down to gain the water, but not calculating its distance 
 accurately, landed on the back of one of the men, who, 
 seeing it coming, ducked his head and dropped his paddle 
 overboard. The paddle, being made of paruru, or paddle- 
 wood, was heavy, and sank, and the man was afraid to dive 
 for it among the numerous perai. 
 
 [The author proceeds to describe the birds and trees of the region, 
 ending with an interesting account of the Brazil-nut.] 
 
 Upon the borders of the New River and main Coren- 
 tyne, above the last-mentioned fall, we met with large
 
 Brown] ANIMALS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 401 
 
 groves of Brazil-nut-trees, and on the ground beneath them 
 obtained numbers of their nuts. I was fortunate to find 
 some of the nut-cases containing nuts that had commenced 
 to germinate, each nut sending out long roots from one end 
 and young plants from the other. The roots were all 
 twisted and matted together, quite filling up the cavities 
 in the case around the nuts ; yet the nut-case was hard and 
 showed no signs of decay, so that it is difficult to say how 
 the young plants free themselves. There is a small aper- 
 ture where the fruit-stalk was once attached, but in only 
 one instance did I find a case in which one of the young 
 plants had found its way out through this and sent forth 
 leaves. It seems to me that when this happens one plant 
 alone survives of the twelve or fifteen that commenced to 
 grow, and that its matted roots, gradually filling the nut- 
 case, eventually burst it, when the plant is free to take 
 root in the earth. The strong cover of the growing nut is 
 necessary protection to the young plant, for without such 
 it would be devoured by one of the host of animals that 
 are ready to eat it. 
 
 I planted some of the sprouting nuts, cut out of their 
 hard outer covering, on my way up the river, but on re- 
 turning found that they had all been dug up and eaten by 
 rats and other small vermin. I therefore had a lot plauted 
 in a box at our camp above King Frederick William IV. 
 Fall on my first return to that spot, and placed on the 
 stem of a small tree cut off some five feet from the ground. 
 In this position they were free from the attacks of small ani- 
 mals, and, being covered with a shelter of some palm-leaves, 
 thrived wonderfully. These plants were subsequently sent 
 to Kew, where they arrived in a fine healthy condition. 
 
 We found many nut-cases with holes cut in them by 
 accouries, the marks of the gnawing teeth of those animals 
 being plainly shown. My men used to open them by 
 
 I. — an 3-1*
 
 402 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Brown 
 
 chopping off their ends with a cutlass, which, owing to 
 their hardness, was no easy operation. The quatas, or 
 large black spider-monkeys, spent a good deal of their time 
 in trying to open them by beating them against the 
 branches of trees or on hard logs upon the ground ; and 
 as we passed a grove of Brazil-nut-trees it was amusing to 
 hear the hammering sounds produced by these fellows at 
 their self-imposed tasks. Where a single monkey was thus 
 employed the blows were most laughably "few and far 
 between," the creature showing its true indolent character 
 by the slow way in which it performed its work, resting 
 for a few minutes between every blow. It also showed an 
 amount of perseverance, however, that one would not look 
 for in a monkey, and a knowledge that it would eventually 
 reap a reward for its hard labor. 
 
 Groodness knows how long it takes one of these monkeys 
 to break a nut-case ; but the time must be great, for on one 
 occasion, during our journey from the New River to the 
 upper Essequebo, we got quietly among a lot of the nut- 
 breakers, and secured a nut-case which one in its hurry 
 had left upon a log, and which was worn smooth by the 
 friction of the monkey's hands. This had evidently been 
 pounded for a length of time, but showed no signs of 
 cracking. Its natural aperture was large enough to allow 
 the monkey's fingers to touch the ends of the nuts inside, 
 which were picked and worn by its nails. Near the same 
 place we saw a nut-case split in two, on the flat surface of 
 a large granite rock, that had evidently been broken by a 
 monkey, for there were no Brazil-nut-trees, from which it 
 could have fallen, overhanging the spot. 
 
 The blossoms of the Brazil-nut-tree are large and yellow, 
 having a delicate aromatic perfume. They are similar, but 
 larger than the caccarali, or monkey-pot-tree (Lecythis 
 ollaria), whose flowers are so powerfully scented.
 
 Von Humboldt] SCENERY IN VENEZUELA. 403 
 
 LIFE AND SCENERY IN VENEZUELA. 
 
 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 
 
 [The illustrious traveller and scientist from whose picturesque de- 
 scriptions of life and scenery in South America we here quote was horn 
 in Berlin, September 14, 1769. After a careful university education 
 and scientific labors in Europe, he set sail for America in 1799, and 
 during the succeeding five years explored a great extent of territory 
 within the areas of the present states of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, 
 Peru, and Mexico. For twenty-five years succeeding his return he 
 was employed in arranging his collections, publishing the results of 
 his observations, and in other scientific labors. In 1829 he again be- 
 came a traveller, and explored a wide district in Asia. He died, in his 
 ninetieth year, May 6, 1859. Few men have ever done so much for 
 the advancement of science, while his published works of travel con- 
 tain much that is of value from a literary point of view. We extract 
 a series of interesting passages relating to scenery and incidents in the 
 Orinoco region. The first is descriptive of the remarkable "cow- 
 tree."] 
 
 When incisions are made in the trunk of this tree, 
 it yields abundance of a glutinous milk, tolerably thick, 
 devoid of all acridity, and of an agreeable and balmy 
 smell. It was offered to us in the shell of a calabash. We 
 drank considerable quantities of it in the evening before 
 we went to bed, and very early in the morning, without 
 feeling the least injurious effect. The glutinous character 
 of this milk alone renders it a little disagreeable. The 
 negroes and the free people who work in the plantations 
 drink it, dipping into it their bread of maize or cassava. 
 The overseer of the farm told us that the negroes grow 
 sensibly fatter during the season when the palo de vaca 
 furnishes them with most milk. The juice, exposed to 
 the air, presents at its surface membranes of a strongly
 
 404 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Von Humboldt 
 
 animalized substance, yellowish, stringy, and resembling 
 cheese. 
 
 Amidst the great number of curious phenomena which I 
 have observed in the course of my travels, I confess there 
 are few that have made so powerful an impression on me 
 as the aspect of the cow-tree. Whatever relates to milk 
 or to corn inspires an interest which is not merely that of 
 the physical knowledge of things, but is connected with 
 another order of ideas and sentiments. We can scarcely 
 conceive how the human race could exist without farina- 
 ceous substances, and without that nourishing juice which 
 the breast of the mother contains, and which is appropri- 
 ated to the long feebleness of the infant. The amylaceous 
 matter of corn, the object of religious veneration among so 
 many nations, ancient and modern, is diffused in the seeds 
 and deposited in the roots of vegetables ; milk, which 
 serves as an aliment, appears to us exclusively the produce 
 of animal organization. Such are the impressions we have 
 received in our earliest infancy ; such is also the source of 
 that astonishment created by the aspect of the tree just 
 described. It is not here the solemn shades of forests, the 
 majestic course of rivers, the mountains wrapped in eternal 
 snow, that excite our emotion. A few drops of vegetable 
 juice recall to our minds all the powerfulness and the 
 fecundity of nature. On the barren flank of a rock grows 
 a tree with coriaceous and dry leaves. Its large woody 
 roots can scarcely penetrate into the stone. For several 
 months of the year not a single shower moistens its foliage. 
 Its branches appear dead and dried ; but when the trunk 
 is pierced there flows from it a sweet and nourishing milk. 
 It is at the rising of the sun that this vegetable fountain is 
 most abundant. The negroes and natives are then seen 
 hastening from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to 
 receive the milk, which grows yellow and thickens at its
 
 Von Humboldt] SCENERY IN VENEZUELA. 405 
 
 surface. Some empty their bowls under the tree itself, 
 others carry the juice home to their children. 
 
 [The great plains of Venezuela are thus described :] 
 
 The sun was almost at its zenith ; the earth, wherever 
 it appeared sterile and destitute of vegetation, was at the 
 temperature of 120°. Not a breath of air was felt at the 
 height at which we were on our mules ; yet, in the midst 
 of this apparent calm, whirls of dust incessantly arose, 
 driven on by those small currents of air which glide only 
 over the surface of the ground, and are occasioned by the 
 difference of temperature between the naked sand and the 
 spots covered with grass. All around us the plains seemed 
 to ascend to the sky, and the vast and profound solitude 
 appeared like an ocean covered with sea-weed. On the 
 horizon the earth was confounded with the sky. Through 
 the dry mist and strata of vapor the trunks of palm-trees 
 were seen from afar, stripped of their foliage and their 
 verdant summits, and looking like the masts of a ship de- 
 scried upon the horizon. There is something awful, as well 
 as sad and gloomy, in the uniform aspect of those steppes. 
 Everything seems motionless; scarcely does a small cloud, 
 passing across the zenith, and denoting the approach of 
 the rainy season, cast its shadow on the earth. I know not 
 whether the first aspect of the llanos excites less astonish- 
 ment than that of the chain of the Andes. 
 
 When, beneath the vertical rays of the bright and cloud- 
 less sun of the tropics, the parched sward crumbles into 
 dust, then the indurated soil cracks and bursts as if rent 
 asunder by some mighty earthquake. And if, at such a 
 time, two opposite currents of air, by conflict moving in 
 rapid gyrations, come in contact with the earth, a singular 
 spectacle presents itself. Like funnel-shaped clouds, their 
 apexes touching the earth, the sand rises in vapory form
 
 406 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Von Humboldt 
 
 through the rarefied air in the electrically-charged centre of 
 the whirling current, sweeping on like the rushing water- 
 spout, which strikes such terror into the heart of the 
 mariner. A dim and sallow light gleams from the lowering 
 sky over the dreary plain. The horizon suddenly contracts, 
 and the heart of the traveller sinks with dismay as the 
 wide steppe seems to close upon him on all sides. The 
 hot and dusty earth forms a cloudy veil which shrouds the 
 heavens from view, and increases the stifling oppression of 
 the atmosphere, while the east wind, when it blows over 
 the long-heated soil, instead of cooling, adds to the burning 
 glow. Gradually, too, the pools of water, which had been 
 protected from evaporation by the now seared foliage of 
 the fan-palm, disappear. As in the icy north animals 
 became torpid from cold, so here the crocodile and the 
 boa-constrictor lie wrapt in unbroken sleep, deeply buried 
 in the dried soil. Everywhere the drought announces 
 death, yet everywhere the thirsty wanderer is deluded by 
 the phantom of a moving, undulating, watery surface, 
 created by the deceptive play of the mirage. A narrow 
 stratum separates the ground from the distant palm-trees, 
 which seem to hover aloft, owing to the contact of currents 
 of air having different degrees of heat, and therefore of 
 density. Shrouded in dark clouds of dust, and tortured 
 by hunger and burning thirst, oxen and horses scour the 
 plain, the one bellowing dismally, the other with out- 
 stretched necks snuffing the wind, in the endeavor to 
 detect, by the moisture of the air, tho vicinity of some 
 pool of water not yet wholly evaporated. 
 
 The mule, more cautious and cunning, adopts another 
 method of allaying his thirst. There is a globular and 
 articulated plant, the Melo-cactus, which encloses under its 
 prickly integument an aqueous pulp. After carefully 
 striking away the prickles with its forefeet, the mule
 
 Von Humboldt] SCENERY IN VENEZUELA. 407 
 
 cautiously ventures to apply his lips to imbibe the cooling 
 thistle juice. But the draught from this living vegetable 
 spring is not always unattended by danger, and these 
 animals are often observed to have been lamed by the 
 puncture of the cactus thorn. Even if the burning heat 
 of day be succeeded by the cool freshness of the night, 
 here always of equal length, the wearied ox and horse 
 enjoy no repose. Huge bats now attack the animals 
 during sleep, and vampire-like suck their blood ; or, fasten- 
 ing on their backs, raise festering wounds, in which mos- 
 quitoes, hippobosces, and a host of other stinging insects 
 burrow and nestle. 
 
 When, after a long drought, the genial season of rain 
 arrives, the scene suddenl}' changes. The deep azure of 
 the hitherto cloudless sky assumes a lighter hue. Scarcely 
 can the dark space in the constellation of the Southern 
 Cross be distinguished at night. The mild phosphorescence 
 of the Magellenic clouds fades away. Like some distant 
 mountain, a single cloud is seen rising perpendicularly on 
 the southern horizon. Misty vapors collect and gradually 
 overspread the heavens, while distant thunder proclaims 
 the approach of the vivifying rain. Scarcely is the surface 
 of the earth moistened before the teeming steppe becomes 
 covered with a variety of grasses. Excited by the power 
 of light, the herbaceous mimosa unfolds its dormant, 
 drooping leaves, hailing, as it were, the rising sun in chorus 
 with the matin song of the birds and the opening flowers 
 of aquatic plants. Horses and oxen, buoyant with life and 
 enjoyment, roam over and crop the plains. The luxuriant 
 grass hides the beautifully spotted jaguar, who, lurking in 
 safe concealment, and carefully measuring the extent of 
 his leap, darts, like the Asiatic tiger, with a cat-like bound 
 upon his passing prey. At times, according to the accounts 
 of the natives, the humid clay on the banks of the morasses
 
 408 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Von Humboldt 
 
 is seen to rise slowly in broad flakes. Accompanied with 
 a violent noise, as on the eruption of a small mud-volcano, 
 the upheaved earth is hurled high into the air. Those who 
 are familiar with the phenomenon fly from it ; for a colossal 
 water-snake, or a mailed and scaly crocodile, awakened from 
 its trance by the first fall of rain, is about to burst from 
 its tomb. 
 
 When the rivers bounding the plain to the south, as 
 the Arauca, the Apure, and the Payara, gradually overflow 
 their banks, nature compels those creatures to live as am- 
 phibious animals, which, during the first half of the year, 
 were perishing with thirst on the waterless and dusty 
 plain. A part of the steppe now presents the appearance 
 of a vast inland sea. The mares retreat with their foals 
 to the higher banks, which project, like islands, above the 
 spreading waters. Day by day the dry surface diminishes 
 in extent. The cattle, crowded together, and deprived of 
 pasturage, swim for hours about the inundated plain, seek- 
 ing a scanty nourishment from the flowing panicles of the 
 grasses which rise above the lurid and bubbling waters. 
 Many foals are drowned, many are seized by crocodiles, 
 crushed by their serrated tails, and devoured. Horses and 
 oxen may not unfrequently be seen which have escaped 
 from the fury of this blood-thirsty and gigantic lizard, 
 bearing on their legs the marks of its pointed teeth. 
 
 [A widely different scene is that of the forest region, the nocturnal 
 noises of whose animal inhabitants are thus picturesquely described.] 
 
 Below the mission of Santa Barbara de Arichuna we 
 passed the night as usual in the open air, on a sandy flat, 
 on the bank of the Apure, skirted by the impenetrable 
 forest. We had some difficulty in finding dry wood to 
 kindle the fires with which it is here customary to surround 
 the bivouac, as a safeguard against the attacks of the
 
 Von Humboldt] SCENERY IN VENEZUELA. 409 
 
 jaguar. The air was bland and soft and the moon shone 
 brightly. Several crocodiles approached the bank ; and I 
 have observed that fire attracts these creatures as it does 
 our crabs and many other aquatic animals. The oars of 
 our boats were fixed upright in the ground, to support our 
 hammocks. Deep stillness prevailed, only broken at in- 
 tervals by the blowing of the fresh- water dolphins, which 
 are peculiar to the river net-work of the Orinoco. 
 
 After eleven o'clock such a noise began in the contiguous 
 forest, that for the remainder of the night all sleep was 
 impossible. The wild cries of animals rung through the 
 woods. Among the many voices which resounded together, 
 the Indians could only recognize those which, after short 
 pauses, were heard singly. There was the monotonous, 
 plaintive cry of the howling monkeys, the whining, flute- 
 like notes of the small Bapajous, the grunting murmur of 
 the striped nocturnal ape, the fitful roar of the great tiger, 
 the cougar, or maneless American lion, the peccary, the 
 sloth, and a host of parrots, parraquas, and other pheasant- 
 like birds. Whenever the tigers approached the edge of 
 the forest, our dog, who before had barked incessantly, 
 came howling to seek protection under the hammocks. 
 Sometimes the cry of the tiger resounded from the branches 
 of a tree, and was always then accompanied by the plain- 
 tive, piping tones of the apes, who were endeavoring to 
 escape from the unwonted pursuit. 
 
 If one asks the Indians why such a continuous noise is 
 heard on certain nights, they answer, with a smile, that 
 " the animals are rejoicing in the beautiful moonlight, and 
 celebrating the return of the full moon." To me the scene 
 appeared rather to be owing to an accidental, long-con- 
 tinued, and gradually increasing conflict among the ani- 
 mals. Thus, for instance, the jaguar will pursue the pecca- 
 ries and the tapirs, which, densely crowded together, burst 
 s 35
 
 410 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Von Humboldt 
 
 through the barrier of tree-like shrubs which opposes their 
 flight. Terrified at the confusion, the monkeys on the tops 
 of the trees join their cries with those of the larger animals. 
 This arouses the tribes of birds who built their nests in com- 
 munities, and suddenly the whole animal world is in a 
 state of commotion. Further experience taught us that it 
 was by no means always the festival of moonlight that 
 disturbed the stillness of the forest ; for we observed that 
 the voices were loudest during violent storms of rain, or 
 when the thunder echoed and the lightning flashed 
 through the depths of the wood. The good-natured 
 Franciscan monk who accompanied us through the cata- 
 racts of Apures and Maypures to San Carlos, on the Rio 
 Negro, and to the Brazilian frontier, used to say, when 
 apprehensive of a storm at night, " May heaven grant a 
 quiet night both to us and to the wild beasts of the 
 forest !" 
 
 [The unpleasant conditions of a canoe voyage on the Orinoco are 
 thus described :] 
 
 The new canoe intended for us was, like all Indian boats, 
 a trunk of a tree hollowed out partly by the hatchet and 
 partly by fire. It was forty feet long and three broad. 
 Three persons could not sit in it side by side. These canoes 
 are so crank, and they require, from their instability, a 
 cargo so equally distributed, that when you want to rise 
 for an instant, you must warn the rowers to lean to the 
 opposite side. Without this precaution the water would 
 necessarily enter the side pressed down. It is difficult to 
 form an idea of the inconveniences that are suffered in 
 such wretched vessels. To gain something in breadth, a 
 sort of lattice-work had been constructed on the stern with 
 branches of trees, that extended on each side beyond the 
 gunwale. Unfortunately, the toldo, or roof of leaves, that
 
 Von Humboldt] SCENERY IN VENEZUELA. 411 
 
 covered this lattice-work, was so low that we were obliged 
 to lie down, without seeing anything, or, if seated, to sit 
 nearly double. The necessity of carrying the canoe across 
 the rapids, and even from one river to another, and the 
 fear of giving too much hold to the wind, by making the 
 toldo higher, render this construction necessary for vessels 
 that go up towards the Eio Negro. The toldo was intended 
 to cover four persons, lying on the deck or lattice-work of 
 brush-wood ; but our legs reached far bej'ond it, and when 
 it rained half our bodies were wet. Our couches consisted 
 of ox-hides or tiger-skins spread upon branches of trees, 
 which were painfully felt through so thin a covering. The 
 fore part of the boat was filled with Indian rowers, fur- 
 nished with paddles, three feet long, in the form of spoons. 
 They were all naked, seated two by two, and they kept 
 time in rowing with a surprising uniformity, singing songs 
 of a sad and monotonous character. The small cages con- 
 taining our birds and our monkeys — the number of which 
 augmented as we advanced — were hung some to the toldo 
 and others to the bow of the boat. This was our travelling 
 menagerie. Every night, when we established our watch, 
 our collection of animals and our instruments occupied the 
 centre ; around these were placed, first, our hammocks, then 
 the hammocks of the Indians; and on the outside were 
 the fires, which are thought indispensable against the 
 attacks of the jaguar. About sunrise the monkeys in our 
 cages answered the cries of the monkeys of the forest. 
 
 In a canoe not three feet wide, and so encumbered, there 
 remained no other place for the dried plants, trunks, sex- 
 tant, a dipping needle, and the meteorological instruments, 
 than the space below the lattice-work of branches, on 
 which we were compelled to remain stretched the greater 
 part of the day. If we wished to take the least object out 
 of a trunk, or to use an instrument, it was necessary to
 
 412 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Von Humboldt 
 
 row ashore and land. To these inconveniences were joined 
 the torment of the mosquitoes which swarmed under the 
 toldo, and the heat radiated from the leaves of the palm- 
 trees, the upper surface of which was continually exposed 
 to the solar rays. We attempted every instant, but always 
 without success, to amend our situation. While one of us 
 hid himself under a sheet to ward off the insects, the other 
 insisted on having green wood lighted beneath the toldo, in 
 the hope of driving away the mosquitoes by the smoke. 
 The painful sensations of the eyes, and the increase of 
 heat, already stifling, rendered both these contrivances 
 alike impracticable. With some gayety of temper, with 
 feelings of mutual good-will, and with a vivid taste for the 
 majestic grandeur of these vast valleys of rivers, travel- 
 lers easily support evils that become habitual. 
 
 [The torment of insects — mosquitoes and venomous flies by day, and 
 the zancudos (large gnats) by night — became almost insupportable as 
 they advanced. On the upper Orinoco the mosquitoes form the prin- 
 cipal topic of conversation, the usual salutations being, " How did you 
 find the gnats during the night ?" or, " How are you off for mosquitoes 
 to-day?" Humboldt thus describes the situation :] 
 
 The lower strata of air, from the surface of the ground 
 to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, are absolutely filled 
 with venomous insects. If in an obscure spot, for instance, 
 in the grottos of the cataracts formed by superincumbent 
 blocks of granite, you direct your eyes towards the open- 
 ing enlightened by the sun, you see clouds of mosquitoes 
 more or less thick. I doubt whether there be a country 
 upon earth where man is exposed to more cruel torments 
 in the rainy season. Having passed the fifth degree of 
 latitude you are somewhat less stung ; but on the upper 
 Orinoco the stings are more painful, because the heat and 
 the absolute want of wind render the air more burning and 
 more irritating in its contact with the skin. "How com-
 
 Von Humboldt] SCENERY IN VENEZUELA. 413 
 
 fortable people must be in the moon !" said a Salive Indian 
 to Father Gumilla. " She looks so beautiful and so clear, 
 that she must be free from mosquitoes." These words, 
 which denote the infancy of a people, are very remarkable. 
 The satellite of the earth appears to all savage nations the 
 abode of the blessed, the country of abundance. The Esqui- 
 maux, who counts among his riches a plank or the trunk of 
 a tree, thrown by the currents on a coast destitute of vege- 
 tation, sees in the moon plains covered with forests; the 
 Indian of the forest of Orinoco there beholds open savannas, 
 where the inhabitants are never stung by mosquitoes. 
 
 [The story of the voyage closes as follows :] 
 
 It would bo difficult for me to express the satisfaction 
 we felt on landing at Angostura [the capital of Spanish 
 Guiana.] The inconveniences endured at sea in small 
 vessels are trivial in comparison with those that are suf- 
 fered under a burning sky, surrounded by swarms of mos- 
 quitoes, and lying stretched in a canoe, without the possi- 
 bility of taking the least bodily exercise. In seventy-five 
 days we had performed a passage of five hundred leagues 
 — twenty to a degree — on the five great rivers, Apure, 
 Orinoco, Atabapo, Rio Negro, and Cassiquiare ; and in this 
 vast extent we had found but a very small number of in- 
 habited places. Coming from an almost desert country, we 
 were struck with the bustle of the town, though it contained 
 only six thousand inhabitants. We admired the conven- 
 iences which industry and commerce furnish to civilized 
 man. Humble dwellings appeared to us magnificent ; and 
 every person with whom we conversed seemed to be en- 
 dowed with superior intelligence. Long privations give a 
 value to the smallest enjoyments ; and I cannot express 
 the pleasure we felt when we saw for the first time wheaten 
 bread on the governor's table. 
 
 35*
 
 414 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. TPaez 
 
 THE LLANEROS OF VENEZUELA. 
 
 RAMON PAEZ. 
 
 [Don Ramon Paez, in his "Wild Scenes in South America ; or, Life 
 in the Llanos of Venezuela," has given us some interesting pictures 
 of a region little known to travellers. These vast plains are inhabited 
 by a people many of whom bear a close resemblance in their habits to 
 the Argentine Gauchos. The following selection is devoted to a de- 
 scription of this people and their region of habitation.] 
 
 We left Ortiz as usual, very early the next morning, 
 stumbling here and there amidst the mass of loose stones 
 which paved the way along the winding bed of the quebrada. 
 In proportion as we advanced on our route the hills de- 
 creased in size, while the loose stones seemed to increase 
 in quantity. The splendid groves of hardy and balsamifer- 
 ous trees, which near Ortiz formed an almost impenetrable 
 forest, gradually became less imposing in appearance, until 
 they were replaced by thickets of thorny bushes, chiefly 
 composed of several species of mimosas, with a delicate 
 and feathery foliage. The traveller accustomed to the 
 shade of a luxuriant vegetation, and to the sight of culti- 
 vated valleys, is struck by the rapid diminution of the 
 former, and the total disappearance of the latter, as he 
 emerges from the Galeras of Ortiz; yet he is somewhat 
 compensated by the almost overpowering perfume shed by 
 masses of the canary-colored blossoms with which these 
 shrubs are loaded, from the summits down to the bending 
 branches that trail the ground at every passing breeze. 
 
 Suddenly we entered a widely-extended tract of level 
 land almost destitute of vegetation. With the exception 
 of a few clumps of palm-trees with fan-like leaves, nothing
 
 Pakz] THE LLANEROS OF VENEZUELA. 415 
 
 but short grass covered its entire surface, almost realizing 
 the idea of an " ocean covered with sea-weed." A dense 
 mass of vapor pervading the atmosphere obscured the 
 horizon, while the fan-palms, seen from afar, appeared like 
 ships enveloped in a fog. Gradually the circle of the 
 heavens seemed to close around us, until we became, as it 
 were, encompassed by the sky. We were, in fact, treading 
 the shores of the great basin of the Llanos, over one of 
 the ancient shoals or mesas, which, like successive terraces, 
 now form the border of those grassy oceans known as the 
 Pampas. This was the Mesa de Paya, the seat of one of 
 the cattle-farms to which we were bound. 
 
 After wandering for nearly three hours over this monot- 
 onous landscape without compass, and guided only by cer- 
 tain landmarks known to the vaqueanos, we came unexpect- 
 edly upon the borders of the Mesa, which commands an 
 extensive view of the lower savannas. As if by magic, the 
 dreary scene changed to one of the most glorious pano- 
 ramas in existence. At our feet lay a beautiful expanse of 
 meadow, fresh and smooth as the best cultivated lawn, 
 with troops of horses and countless herds of cattle dis- 
 persed all over the plain. Several glittering ponds, alive 
 with all varieties of aquatic birds, reflected upon their 
 limpid surface the broad-leaved crowns of the fan-palms, 
 towering above verdant groves of laurel, amyris, and elm- 
 like robles. Farther beyond, and as far as the eye could 
 reach, the undulating plain appeared like a petrified ocean 
 after the sweeping tempest. 
 
 But I feel that my descriptions fall short of the reality, 
 and that I am unable to depict the harmonious effects of 
 light and shade, and the blending of the various tints of 
 green, blue, and purple, dispersed over this extensive pano- 
 rama; the towering palms gracefully fanning the glowing 
 atmosphere with their majestic crowns of broad and
 
 416 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Paez 
 
 shining leaves, and myriad other beauties difficult to enu- 
 merate. 
 
 I could scarcely tear myself away from the spot, so fas- 
 cinated was I with the novelty of the scene. My com- 
 panions, more concerned for the speedy termination of the 
 journey than the beautiful in nature, set off at a brisk 
 trot towards the house, which was at no great distance. 
 Fearing to lose my way among the intricate paths lead- 
 ing to it, I was compelled to follow in their wake, stop- 
 ping occasionally to gaze once more upon those enchant- 
 ing groves, which seemed to return me to the highly 
 cultivated fields and green meadows of glorious "Old 
 England," from whence I had just returned. 
 
 On descending to the plain below, my attention was 
 attracted to an unsightly group of palm-thatched huts, 
 looking more like huge beehives than the abode of human 
 beings. A formidable fence of palm-trunks surrounded the 
 premises and several acres of ground beyond. These were 
 the corrals, or enclosures where the training of the fierce 
 herds was practised by the hardy dwellers of the Llanos ; 
 but no signs of cultivation, or aught else connected with 
 the rural occupations of the farmer, were visible in the 
 neighborhood. Presently the cavalcade stopped before the 
 gate, and all the individuals composing it dismounted and 
 began to unsaddle their horses, amidst the barking of a 
 legion of dogs and the braying of all the donkeys in the 
 vicinity. 
 
 This was the hato, or cattle-farm, of San Pablo we were 
 in quest of, famous in the annals of the civil wars in Vene- 
 zuela as the occasional head-quarters of the constitutional 
 armies, commanded by the owner of this farm. Our leader 
 was received at the entrance of his estate by a grave and 
 elderly negro slave, who acted as overseer, and had under 
 his control all the men and property attached to it.
 
 Paez] THE LLANEROS OF VENEZUELA. 417 
 
 Kneeling upon the stony court-yard, he kissed the hand 
 extended to him in friendly greeting, after which he pro- 
 ceeded to unsaddle his master's horse, which he led to a 
 pond within the enclosure, where the horses were watered. 
 We purposed remaining a few days at San Pablo, with 
 the object of incorporating some fresh relaj-s of mules and 
 horses from the abundant stock of this estate ; so we of 
 the staff installed ourselves under the palm-roof of our 
 rustic mansion, while the rank and file of the expedition 
 found accommodation in the open barracoons adjoining it, 
 although none of the party had reason to boast of being 
 better off than his neighbor. 
 
 " It is sad when pleasing first impressions are obliter- 
 ated," remarks a sentimental writer; "always painful to 
 become desenchante on a more intimate acquaintance with 
 either people or places." I soon found that I was not in 
 the fairy -land I had imagined, abounding in grottos and 
 refreshed by sparkling fountains, but in the region of the 
 Llanos, where the French adage, Chacun pour soi et Dieu 
 pour tous, is verified to its fullest extent. San Pablo, with 
 its vaunted prestige, and in spite of its proximity to several 
 important marts, was no better provided with accommoda- 
 tions than the untidy douar of the wandering Arab of the 
 desert. A rickety table standing against the wall for fear 
 of tumbling down, two or three clumsy cedar chairs cov- 
 ered with raw hide, and a couple of grass hammocks, 
 serving the double purpose of beds and lounges, constituted 
 all the furniture of the great farm. As a substitute for 
 wardrobes and hat-stands, we were shown a number of 
 deer-antlers and bull-horns embedded in the walls of reeds 
 and mud, on which to hang our pouches, bridles, etc. 
 
 I searched in vain on our arrival for something like a 
 bowl in which to lave my hands and face, covered with 
 dust and parched by the broiling sun of the savannas. 
 i.—bb 
 S
 
 418 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Paez 
 
 Even water was so scarce that it was served to us sparingly 
 from a large calabash gourd used in bringing it from the 
 river, nearly a mile distant. It is true there was, within 
 the enclosure of the houses, a pond or excavation, made 
 while searching for the remains of a brave officer who fell 
 fighting for his country's freedom. Sufficient water had 
 accumulated there during the rainy season to entitle it to 
 the name of Laguna or Lake of Genaro Vazquez, the name 
 of the aforementioned hero ; but it was so filled with bavas, 
 — a small species of alligator, — terrapins, and toads, as to 
 render the water undrinkable. 
 
 But to return to our head-quarters, the structure of which 
 struck me so forcibly at first as a beehive of vast propor- 
 tions, naturally suggesting the idea of a " land of milk and 
 honey." Unfortunately, neither of these could bo obtained 
 for love or money, although the woods and pastures of the 
 estate abounded in both the creatures that produced them. 
 So we were compelled to resort to our reserved stock ofpa- 
 pelon to sweeten our coffee, and to its own delicious natural 
 aroma in the place of milk. As to the house itself, it only 
 differed from the rest in that region in being larger, and 
 perhaps in better order, than are the generality. Imagine 
 a pyramidal structure, thatched with palm-leaves, the roof 
 slanting to within a few feet of the ground, and supported 
 on stout posts of live timber, which served also as frame- 
 work for the walls, and you will have some idea of the style 
 of architecture peculiar to the country. Doors and windows 
 are of no account in a country uniformly warm throughout 
 the year, and where the inhabitants possess few articles 
 capable of tempting the cupidity of light-fingered gentry. 
 Therefore an ox-hide stretched across the openings left in 
 the walls to admit light and the inmates is all that is re- 
 quired to keep off uninvited guests. As an exception to 
 this rule, our mansion of San Pablo had one or two rooms
 
 Pakz] THE LLANEROS OF VENEZUELA. 419 
 
 set apart for invalids, provided with doors and windows of 
 solid planks of timber in the rough ; the other apartments 
 had the upper half of the walls purposely left open, to 
 admit full and free entrance of light and air. A narrow 
 piazza or corridor, formed by the slanting of the roof to 
 within five feet of the ground, ran along the entire length 
 of the main building, and was intended more as a protec- 
 tion to the rooms against the sun and rains than as a resort 
 for the inmates. 
 
 The first step, on arriving, was to secure a place in the 
 open reception-room for my own chattels and hammock, 
 before all the spare posts and hooks had been appropriated 
 by my companions. This accomplished, I proceeded to a 
 thorough examination of my saddle and its accoutrements, 
 so as to have them adapted to the peculiar mode of travel- 
 ling in the Llanos. This care I left to the good judgment 
 of our attendants, not being myself sufficiently skilled in 
 the art of mending, greasing, and putting in order the com- 
 plicated gear of our riding equipment. In the same pre- 
 dicament were also my two English companions, and our 
 worthy doctor; a kind word, however, addressed to the 
 good-natured Llaneros — especially if accompanied with a 
 drop of aguardiente — never failed of enlisting their services 
 in our favor. 
 
 Habit, as well as necessity, is sometimes the mother of 
 invention, as my experience soon taught me that, to get 
 along in my new quarters, it would be requisite to set aside 
 the airs and insignia of civilization. Divesting myself, 
 therefore, of all such superfluities as coat, cravat, pants, 
 and shoes, I adopted the less cumbrous attire of the 
 Llaneros, consisting mainly of breeches tightly buttoned 
 at the knee, and a loose shirt, usually of a bright checkered 
 pattern. Shoes are altogether dispensed with in a country 
 like the Llanos, subject to drenching rains, and covered
 
 420 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Paez 
 
 with mud during a great portion of the year, besides the 
 inconvenience they offer to the rider in holding the stirrup 
 securely when in chase of wild animals. The leg, however, 
 is well protected from the thorns and cutting grass of the 
 savannas by a neat legging or botin, made of buff-skin, 
 tightly buttoned down the calf by knobs or studs of highly 
 polished silver. Another characteristic article of dress, 
 and one in which the wearers take great pride, is the linen 
 checkered handkerchief loosely worn around the head. 
 Its object is ostensibly to protect it from the intensity of 
 the sun's rays; but the constant habit of wearing it has 
 rendered the handkerchief as indispensable a head-dress to 
 the Llaneros as is the cravat to the neck of the city 
 gentleman. 
 
 [The traveller proceeds with further details of the life of these people, 
 and with an account of their half-savage method of slaughtering their 
 cattle ; which we can well omit for a more general descriptive passage.] 
 
 The people inhabiting the vast region of the Llanos, 
 although claiming descent from the old Castilian race, once 
 the rulers of the land, are, in fact, an amalgamation of the 
 various castes composing the present population of the 
 republic. These are the whites, or the descendants of 
 the European settlers of the country; the aboriginals or 
 Indians, and a great portion of blacks. In most of the 
 towns the native whites preponderate over all others, and 
 represent the wealth as well as the most respectable por- 
 tion of the community ; in the villages and thinly populated 
 districts of the plains a mongrel breed, resulting from the 
 admixture of these three, constitute the majority of the 
 inhabitants. These are dispersed over an area of twenty- 
 seven thousand square miles, making a proportion of only 
 fourteen individuals, out of a population of three hundred 
 and ninety thousand, to every square mile.
 
 Pabz] THE LLANEROS OF VENEZUELA. 421 
 
 This race, although vastly inferior to the first in mental 
 capacity and moral worth, is endowed with a physique 
 admirably adapted to endure the fatigues of a life beset 
 with dangers and hardships. Cast upon a wild and 
 apparently interminable plain, the domain of savage beasts 
 and poisonous reptiles, their lot has been to pass all their 
 life in a perpetual struggle, not only with the primitive 
 possessors of the land, but with the elements themselves, 
 often as fierce as they are grand. When it is not the 
 alarm of the dreaded viper or the spotted jaguar, it is the 
 sudden inroad of vast inundations, which, spreading with 
 fearful rapidity over the land, sweep off in one moment 
 their frail habitations and their herds. Nevertheless this 
 insecure existence, this continual struggle between life and 
 death, between rude intellect and matter, has for the 
 Llanero a sort of fascination, perhaps not so well under- 
 stood by people possessing the blessings and ideas of civili- 
 zation, but without which he could not exist, especially if 
 deprived of his horse and cast among the mountain region 
 north of his cherished plains. 
 
 The modern Centaur of the desolate regions of the New 
 World, the Llanero spends his life on horseback ; all his 
 actions and exertions must be assisted by his horse ; for 
 him the noblest effort of man is when, gliding swiftly over 
 the boundless plain and bending over his spirited charger, 
 he overturns an enemy or masters a wild bull. The follow- 
 ing lines of Victor Hugo seem as though copied from this 
 model : " He would not fight but on horseback ; he forms but 
 one person with his horse ; he lives on horseback ; trades, 
 buys, and sells on horseback ; eats, drinks, sleeps, and dreams 
 on horseback." Like the Arab he considers his horse his 
 best and most reliable friend on earth, often depriving him- 
 self of rest and comfort after a hard day's journey to afford 
 his faithful companion abundance of food and water. 
 
 36
 
 422 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Paez 
 
 Few people in the world are better riders than the 
 Llaneros of Venezuela, if we except perhaps the Gauchos 
 of Buenos Ayres, or equal to either in the dexterity they 
 display in the wonderful feats of horsemanship to which 
 their occupations in the field inure them from childhood. 
 Their horses, moreover, are so well trained to the various 
 evolutions of their profession, that animal and rider seem 
 to possess but one existence. 
 
 The life of the Llanero, like that of the Gaucho his pro- 
 totype, is singularly interesting, and resembles in many 
 respects that of others who, like them, have their abode 
 in the midst of extensive plains. Thus they have been 
 aptly styled the Cossacks and the Arabs of the New World, 
 with both of whom they have many points in common, 
 but more especially do they resemble the last named. 
 When visiting the famous Constantino Gallery of paintings 
 at Versailles, I was struck with the resemblance of the 
 Algerine heroes of Horace Vernet to our own, revealing 
 at once the Moorish descent of the latter, independently 
 of other characteristic peculiarities. 
 
 [Sir Francis Head, in his " Journeys across the Pampas," gives the 
 following description of the infancy of a closely similar race.] 
 
 11 Born in the rude hut, the infant Gaucho receives little 
 attention, but is left to swing from the roof in a bullock's 
 hide, the corners of which aro drawn towards each other 
 by four strips of hide. In the first year of his life he 
 crawls about without clothes, and I have more than once 
 seen a mother give a child of this age a sharp knife, a foot 
 long, to play with. As soon as he walks, his infantine 
 amusements are those which prepare him for the occupa- 
 tions of his future life ; with a lazo made of twine he tries 
 to catch little birds, or the dogs, as they walk in and out 
 of the hut. By the time he is four years old he is on
 
 Paez] THE LLANEROS OF VENEZUELA. 423 
 
 horseback, and immediately becomes useful by assisting to 
 drive the cattle into the corral." 
 
 When sufficiently strong to cope with a wild animal, the 
 young Llanero is taken to the majada or great cattle-pen, 
 and there hoisted upon the bare back of a fierce young 
 bull. "With his face turned towards the animal's tail, which 
 he holds in lieu of bridle, and his little legs twisted round 
 the neck of his antagonist, he is whirled round and round 
 at a furious rate. His position, as may be imagined, is 
 anything but equestrian ; yet, the fear of coming in con. 
 tact with the bull's horns compels the rider to hold on until, 
 by a dexterous twist of the animal's tail while he jumps 
 off its back, he succeeds in overturning his antagonist. 
 
 In proportion as he grows older and stronger, a more 
 manly amusement is afforded him with the breaking in of 
 a wild colt. This being, however, a more dangerous ex- 
 periment, in which many a young eagle "is rendered a 
 lame duck," he is provided with the necessary accoutre- 
 ments to withstand the terrible struggle with the animal. 
 Firmly seated upon his back and brandishing overhead a 
 chaparro vine for a whip, the apprentice is thus installed in 
 his new office, from which he must not descend until the 
 brute is perfectly subdued; the coil of lazo in the hands of 
 his merciless instructor would be the least evil awaiting 
 him should he otherwise escape safe and sound from the 
 desperate kicks and plunges of the horse. 
 
 Here commences what we may term the public life of 
 the Llanero ; his education is now considered complete. 
 From this moment all his endeavors and ambition will be 
 to rival his companions in the display of physical force, 
 which he shows to an admirable decrree when, armed with 
 his tough lazo, he pursues the wild animals of his domain. 
 If a powerful bull or wild horse tries to escape into the 
 open plain, the cavulier unfurls the noose which is always
 
 424 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Keller 
 
 ready by his side, and the fugitive is quickly brought back 
 to the corral. Should the thong give way under the im- 
 petuous flight of the animal, the rider seizes him by the 
 tail, and whirling round suddenly, pulls towards him with 
 so much force as to cause his immediate overthrow. 
 
 In all these exercises the roving cavalier of the Llanos 
 acquires that feeling of security and enduring disposition 
 for which he is famous. Unfortunately, it is often turned 
 to account in disturbing the balance of power among his 
 more enlightened countrymen ; for he is always ready to 
 join the first revolutionary movement offering him the 
 best chance for equipping himself with arms of all descrip- 
 tions. Next to the horse, the Llanero esteems those 
 weapons which give him a superiority over his fellow- 
 creatures, — viz., a lance, a blunderbuss, and a fine sword. 
 If he is unprovided with either of these, he considers him- 
 self a miserable and degraded being, and all his efforts will 
 tend to gratify this favorite vanity even at the risk of his 
 own life. Therefore he goes to war, because he is sure, if 
 victorious, of finding the battle-field covered with these 
 tempting trophies of his ambition. In this, unfortunately, 
 he is too often encouraged by a host of unprincipled poli- 
 ticians, who, not wishing to earn a livelihood by fair means, 
 are eternally plotting against the powers that be. 
 
 THE FORESTS OF THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS. 
 
 FRANZ KELLER. 
 
 [The author of the following selection, with his father, was sent in 
 1867, by the Minister of Public Works at Kio Janeiro, to explore the 
 Madeira, and to project a railroad along its banks where the rapids 
 rendered navigation impossible. His observations during this journey 
 are given in " The Amazon and Madeira Rivers," from which we ex- 
 tract his remarks concerning the Brazilian forests.]
 
 Keller] FORESTS OF THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA. 425 
 
 Everywhere the decomposing organisms serve as bases 
 for new formations. No particle, however small, is ever 
 lost in the great household of Nature ; but nowhere is her 
 restless activity so conspicuous as in the tropics, where the 
 succession of vegetable decay and life is so much more 
 rapid than it is in colder climes ; and which will strike the 
 reflecting student more especially in the wide, forest-clad 
 valleys of tropical America, and on the Amazon and its 
 affluents. 
 
 On the heights of the Cordillera the process is already 
 at work. The waste of the mountain-slopes, broken off by 
 rills and torrents, and carried by them into the main river, 
 slowly drifts down-stream in the form of gravel-banks, 
 until, scattered and rent asunder in a thousand ways, it 
 finally takes permanent form as light-green islands, which 
 are soon covered and protected with a dense coat of vege- 
 tation. 
 
 As every zone of geologic formation in the extensive 
 valley adds its tribute, these banks are a kind of mineral- 
 ogical collection, which shows samples of all the rocks on 
 the river-banks, with the exception, perhaps, of light 
 pumice-stone, the produce of the volcanoes of the Andes, 
 which drifts down-stream in large pieces, and is highly 
 prized by the Tapuia population (on the lower course) for 
 sharpening and cleaning their weapons and tools. Even 
 when not picked up by hunter or fisher, it is not lost. It 
 will be arrested by some snag or projection of the shore, it 
 will so get embedded in the newly-forming sediment, and 
 thousands of years hence its silicic acid will afford the 
 necessary material for the hard glassy bark of a bambu- 
 sacea, or the sharp edge of a reed. When the currents are 
 not strong enough to move the larger banks, they at least 
 carry sand and earth with them, and deposit them as 
 shoals or new alluvion at less exposed spots. . . . 
 
 30*
 
 426 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Keller 
 
 The undermined concave shores are sometimes a serious 
 danger to the passing barque, as even the slight ripple of 
 a canoe is sufficient to bring down the loosely overhanging 
 earth, often covered with gigantic trunks. These concave 
 sides, with their fallen trees and their clusters of sinking 
 javary-palms, supported sometimes by only a tangled net- 
 work of tough lianas, give to the scenery that peculiar 
 character of primeval wildness which is so charming to 
 foreigners. 
 
 When one has climbed up the steep shore, often forming 
 huge terrace-like elevations, and has safely passed through 
 a labyrinth of interwoven roots and creepers into the in- 
 terior of the forest, which is getting freer from underwood 
 at some distance from the river, he is oppressed with the 
 sensation of awe and wonder felt by man on entering one 
 of the venerable edifices of antiquity. 
 
 A mysterious twilight encompasses us, which serves to 
 intensify the radiance of the occasional sunbeam as it falls 
 on a glossy palm-leaf, or on a large bunch of purple orchid- 
 flowers. Splendid trunks, some of them from twenty to 
 thirty feet in diameter, rise like so many pillars supporting 
 the dense green vault of foliage ; and every variety of tall, 
 graceful palms, spare and bushy, and bearing heavy berries 
 of bright yellow or red, struggle to catch a glimpse of the 
 light, from which they are shut out by the neighboring 
 giants, of which the figueira (or wild fig-tree) is one of the 
 most striking, in the dimensions of its crown and stem, 
 and in the strange shape of its roots, which project like 
 huge outworks. These seem to grow in all directions, 
 forming props, stays, and cross-bars wherever they are 
 wanted, just as if the whole were a soft plastic mass, the 
 sole purpose of which was to supply, with a minimum of* 
 material, as much stability as possible to the trunk, whose 
 wood is of extreme softness and whose roots are not deep.
 
 Keller] FORESTS OF THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA. 427 
 
 The pachiuba-palm (Iriartea exorhiza) and some species of 
 Cecropiae exhibit other extravagances in their roots. They 
 appear as if standing on stilts, the real trunks only begin- 
 ning at eight or ten feet above ground. 
 
 But, more than all, it is the profusion of orchids and 
 Bromeliae that excites our admiration. These bright chil- 
 dren of the tropics envelop with dense foliage as well the 
 fallen and mouldering trunks as those yet upstanding in 
 full vigor and bloom, thus forming hanging gardens of 
 astounding magnificence, which reveal leaves and flowers 
 of the most irregular shapes and colors. Everywhere, on 
 the branches and on the ground, and even from out the 
 fissures of the bare rock, light ferns and rich moss spring 
 up and clothe the decaying trunks with fresh green. Of 
 mosses and ferns, especially tree-ferns, we found a greater 
 exuberance and a larger variety, in species as well as in 
 individuals, in the Southern provinces of the empire, Sao 
 Paulo and Parana ; but for splendid palms and gigantic 
 dicotyledons the North is decidedly the richer of the two. 
 
 Without the aid of the pencil it is indeed scarcely pos- 
 sible to give an adequate idea of the magnificence of this 
 vegetation, especially of the manner in which the different 
 forms are grouped. We may see, it is true, in our own 
 hot-houses, well-trimmed palms, beautiful orchids with their 
 abnormal blossoms, and Aroidea> with their bright, sappy, 
 sometimes regularly perforated, leaves; but how different 
 is this from the virgin forest, wherein Nature, undisturbed 
 by man, has created her own prodigies, and where no 
 narrow pots separate her children from the maternal soil, 
 and where no dim roof of glass intervenes between them 
 and the blue ether! Nor, in our carefully tended hot- 
 houses, is the e}-e ever gratified with such agreeable con- 
 trasts as are afforded by the silver-gray and rust-brown 
 tints of the decayed leaf of the palm or the fern -tree, or
 
 428 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Keller 
 
 the black bark of the rotting trunk, with the blazing 
 scarlet of some heliconia blossom. How difficult it must 
 be to give to every plant, especially to orchids, the exact 
 quantity of light, warmth, and moisture it requires, can be 
 understood only by those who have seen clusters of them 
 hidden in the deep shade of the tree-crowns, while others 
 are exposed to the scorching rays of the sun in the vicinity 
 of a river or in some clearer part of the forest ; some species 
 thriving on the bare rock almost, and others clinging fast 
 with their white rootlets to the moist rotting bark of a 
 tree. . . . 
 
 But of far greater importance to the half-civilized river- 
 ines than either palms or orchids, for whose beauties they 
 have no eye, are the cacao and the caoutchouc-tree (Siphonia 
 elastica), products of the virgin forest essential to the 
 future prosperity of the whole country. 
 
 Although India contributes to the supply of caoutchouc, 
 the precious resin which is transformed into a thousand 
 different shapes every year in the factories of Europe and 
 North America, and sent to the ends of the earth, it cannot 
 compete with Brazil, which takes the first place among 
 the rubber-producing countries, in respect as well of the 
 vastness of its export of the material as of its superior 
 quality. 
 
 On the shores of the Amazon its production, it is true, 
 has already been diminished by unreasonable treatment of 
 the trees ; the idea of replacing the old ones by young sap- 
 lings never having presented itself, apparently, to the mind 
 of the indolent population ; but the seringaes, or woods of 
 rubber-trees, on the banks of the Madeira, the Puriis, and 
 other tributaries of the main river, still continue to furnish 
 extraordinary quantities of it. The province of Amazon 
 alone exports more than fifty thousand arrobus (one mil- 
 lion six hundred thousand pounds) yearly, while the total
 
 Keller] FORESTS OF THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA. 429 
 
 of the exports of the whole basin slightly exceeds four 
 hundred thousand arrobas, or twelve million eight hundred 
 thousand pounds, per annum. . . . 
 
 Unfortunately, there has not been until now the slightest 
 attempt made to cultivate this useful tree; and all the 
 caoutchouc exported from Para is still obtained from the 
 original seringa groves. The trees of course suffer, as they 
 naturally would under the best of treatment, from the 
 repeated tapping and drawing-off of their sap, and the 
 rubber collectors, therefore, must look about for new 
 groves of the tree in the unexplored valleys of the more 
 distant interior. 
 
 The planting of the Siphonia elastica would be a more 
 profitable investment, as it yields the precious milk in the 
 comparatively short space of twenty or twenty-five years ; 
 but, under the combined influence of the indolence of the 
 mestizoes and the shortsightedness of the government, 
 measures to that end will be adopted and carried into effect 
 only when the rubber exportation shall have diminished 
 with the destruction of the trees, and when European and 
 North American manufacturers shall have found out a 
 more or less appropriate substitute for the too costly resin. 
 
 Near the Praia de Tamandua we acquainted ourselves 
 with all the particulars respecting the collection and 
 preparation of the caoutchouc at the cottage of a Bolivian 
 serin^ueiro, Don Domingo Leigue. As I have already 
 stated, the Siphonia grows, or at least thrives, only on a 
 soil wherein its stem is annually submerged by the floods to 
 the height of three feet or more. The best ground for it, 
 therefore, is the iyapo, the lowest and most recent deposit 
 of the river; and there, in the immediate vicinity of the 
 seringaes, may be seen the low thatches of the gatherer's 
 huts, wretched hovels mostly, rendered tenan table during 
 the inundations by the device of raising the floors on
 
 430 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Keller 
 
 wooden piles of seven feet height, in which the canoe, the 
 seringueiro's indispensable horse, also finds a protected 
 harbor. Unenviable truly must bo the life of the happy 
 proprietor, who has nothing to do in the seringa! during 
 the wet season, and who then has ample leisure to calculate 
 exactly the intervals between his fits of ague, and to let 
 himself be devoured by carapands, piums, motucas, and 
 mucuims ; under which euphonious names are known some 
 of the most terrible of insect pests. 
 
 Narrow paths lead from the cottage, through the dense 
 underwood, to each separate tree ; and, as soon as the dry 
 season sets in, the inmate of the palace just described be- 
 takes himself with his hatchet into the seringa!, to cut 
 little holes in the bark. The milk-white sap immediately 
 begins to exude into pieces of bamboo tied below, over 
 little clay cups set under the gashes to prevent their trick- 
 ling: down the stems. The collector travels thus from 
 trunk to trunk; and, to facilitate operations, on his re- 
 turn visit he pours the contents of the bamboos into a 
 large calabash provided with liana straps, which he empties 
 at home into one of those large turtle-shells so auxiliary 
 to housekeeping in these regions, serving as they do for 
 troughs, basins, etc. 
 
 Without any delay he sets about the smoking process, as 
 the resinous parts will separate after a while, and the 
 quality of the rubber so become inferior. An earthen jar, 
 without bottom and with a narrow neck, is set by way of 
 chimney over a fire of dry urucury, or uauassu palm-nuts, 
 whose smoke alone, strange to say, has the effect of in- 
 stantly coagulating the caoutchouc sap, which, in this 
 state, greatly resembles rich cow's milk. The workman, 
 sitting beside this " chimney," through which roll dense 
 clouds of a smothering white smoke, from a small calabash 
 pours a little of the milk on a sort of light wooden shovel,
 
 Keller] FORESTS OF THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA. 431 
 
 always careful, by proper management of the latter, to 
 distribute it evenly over the surface. Thrusting the shovel 
 into the thick smoke over the opening of the jar, he turns 
 it several times to and fro with great rapidity, when the 
 milk is seen to consolidate and to take a grayish-yellow 
 tinge. 
 
 Thus he puts layer upon layer, until at last the caout- 
 chouc on both sides of the wood has reached about an inch 
 in thickness, when he thinks the " plancha" ready. Cutting 
 it on one side, he takes it off the shovel and suspends it in 
 the sun to dry, as there is always some water between the 
 several layers, which should, if possible, evaporate. A good 
 workman is thus able to prepare five or six pounds of solid 
 seringa in an hour. The plancha, from its initial color of a 
 clear silver-gray, turns shortly into a yellow, and finally 
 becomes the well-known dark brown of the rubber, such as 
 it is exported. 
 
 The more uniform, the denser and freer of bubbles, the 
 whole mass is found to be, the better is its quality and the 
 higher the price it fetches. Almost double the value is 
 obtained for the first-rate article over that of the most in- 
 ferior quality, the so-called sernamby or cabe<ja de negro 
 (negro's head) ; which is nothing but the drops collected at 
 the foot of the trees, with the remains of the milk scraped 
 out of the bottoms of the calabashes. The rubber of India 
 is said to be much like this sernamby, and, like it, to be 
 mixed with sand and small pieces of bark. By way of 
 testing the quality, every plancha is cut through again at 
 Para; by which means discovery is made, not only of the 
 bubbles, but also of any adulteration that might be effected 
 with the milk of the mangaba, that fine plant with dark 
 glossy leaves, now found so often in European saloons 
 under the erroneous name of rubber-plant. . . . 
 
 The wild cacao, with its large lancet-shaped hanging
 
 432 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Keller 
 
 leaves, and its cucumber-like fruit springing directly from 
 the stem, is one of the characteristic features of the virgem 
 [or solid soil], on which it often forms dense thickets, which 
 are all the more impenetrable that the boughs — exhibiting 
 frequently at the same time the small reddish flowers and 
 the ripe golden fruit, in which the seeds lie embedded in a 
 sweet white marrow — bend to the ground and there take 
 root again. 
 
 But the india-rubber and the cacao are not the only 
 treasures worth collecting in these forests. Even now the 
 export of the Para nuts, the fruit of the Bertholletia 
 excelsa, yields an annual revenue of two hundred thousand 
 dollars ; and the copaiba oil and the urucu, the seeds of the 
 Bixa orellana, used for dyeing, about one hundred thou- 
 sand dollars. These sums seem small enough, it is true, 
 but there are perhaps a hundred times those values of the 
 rich-flavored nuts rotting unheeded in the forests, and 
 above a score of other rich oily seeds, at present collected 
 only for the use of the natives, not to mention several 
 resins which yield the finest varnishes, plants giving the 
 most brilliant hues, and others with fibres that would serve 
 not only for the finest weavings, but also for the strongest 
 ropes ; besides about forty of the most indispensable drugs, 
 all which might become most valuable articles of export. . . . 
 
 Notwithstanding the fertility of tropical vegetation, I 
 doubt whether any other part of the world, in the same 
 latitude, can offer as great a number of useful plants as 
 does the Amazon Valley ; and now, when all-transforming 
 steam is about to open up to us this rich emporium, Eu- 
 ropean industry should take advantage of the hitherto 
 neglected treasures. AVhat might not be done with the 
 fibres, some of which surpass our hemp and flax in all re- 
 spects? The curaua, for example, a sort of wild pine-apple, 
 gives a delicate transparent flax of a silky lustre, such as
 
 Keller] FORESTS OF THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA. 433 
 
 is used in the Philippine Islands, on a large scale, it appears. 
 It is sold under the name of palha at Rio de Janeiro. The 
 tucum and the j a vary would make excellent ropes, cords, 
 nets, etc., well calculated to resist moisture and rot ; and 
 the piassaba, the murity, etc., would readily supply solid 
 brushes, brooms, hammocks, hats, baskets, mats; while the 
 snow-white bast of others would give excellent paper. 
 
 The lianas or cipos of these countries are, besides their 
 minor uses, quite indispensable to the half-civilized natives 
 for the construction of their light cottages, taking the 
 place (as they do) of our nails and cramp-irons, beams, 
 posts, and rafters. The whole palm-leaf roof is fastened, 
 and artificially interwoven and intertwined, with tough 
 creepers of nearly an inch thickness. . . . 
 
 In the hot lowlands of the Amazon, in the shade of end- 
 less forest, there is many an herb of mj-sterious virtue, as 
 yet known only to wild Indian tribes, while the fame of 
 others has already spread over the ocean. Who has not 
 heard of the urary, or curare, the quick arrow-poison which, 
 in the hands of clever physiologists and physicians, promises 
 not only to become a valuable drug, but to give us inter- 
 esting disclosures on the activit}- of the nerves ? 
 
 The wondrous tales of former travellers regarding the 
 preparation of this urary have been rectified long ago. 
 The venom of snakes is not used for it, but the juice of 
 the bruised stems and leaves of several kinds of strychnos 
 and apocyneas is simply boiled over a coal fire, mixed with 
 tobacco-juice and capsicum (Spanish pepper), and thickened 
 with the stick} 7 milk of some Euphorbiacea to a hard mass. 
 This manipulation, moreover, is not undertaken by the old 
 squaws of the tribe, devoting themselves to a painful death 
 thereby, as the old stories ran, but, as there is no danger 
 whatever, by the young wives of the warriors, who look 
 upon it as part of their household duties, or by the men 
 i. — t cc 37
 
 434 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Keller 
 
 themselves. There are about eight or ten different poisons 
 of similar, but not identical, composition and preparation, 
 of which the urary of the Macusi Indians, and the curare, 
 from Venezuela and New Granada, are considered the 
 most powerful. 
 
 This dark-brown, pitchy substance, usually kept in little 
 earthen pots, is lightly spread over the points of the 
 weapons, — their long arrows, their light spears, and the 
 thin wooden shafts, of about a foot long, which they shoot 
 through immense blow-tubes (sarabacanas). Immediately 
 upon the diffusion in the blood of the slightest portion of 
 the poison, the limbs, one by one, refuse to work, as if 
 overcome with torpor, while the mind apparently retains 
 its activity until death ensues, which it does in a few 
 minutes' time, from palsy of the lungs. It is strange that 
 only those nerves are affected which regulate the move- 
 ments depending on our own will, whereas those movements 
 we cannot control — the beating of the heart, for example 
 — continue unaltered to the very last. Experiments made 
 by French physicians upon animals have shown that, if 
 the lungs are artificially kept in activity for several hours, 
 the poison will be rejected by natural means, and no bad 
 consequences will ensue. Of late the principal objection 
 to the employment of the urary in medicine — its unequal 
 strength — has been completely overcome by the effective 
 alkaloid — the curarin — being extracted. This is about 
 twenty times as powerful as the urary, and has been used 
 successfully in the treatment of tetanus. The Indians 
 shoot birds and monkeys, which they wish to tame, with 
 very weak curare, rousing them from the lethargy which 
 overpowers them with large doses of salt or sugar-juice ; 
 and this treatment is said to be very effective, also, in the 
 reduction of their wildness. . . . 
 
 The gurana, prepared from the fruit of the Paullinia sor-
 
 Keller] FORESTS OF THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA. 435 
 
 bills, is a hard, chocolate-brown mass, of a slightly bitter taste, 
 and of no smell whatever. It is usually sold in cylindric 
 pieces of from ten inches to a foot in length, in which the 
 half-bruised almond-like seeds are still distinguishable; the 
 more homogeneous and the harder the mass, the better is 
 its quality. To render it eatable, or rather drinkable, it is 
 rasped as fine as possible on the rough, bony roof of the 
 mouth of the sudis gigas (pira-rucu), and mixed with a 
 little sugar and water. A teaspoonful in a cup of warm 
 water is said to be an excellent remedy in slight attacks of 
 ague. 
 
 The taste of this beverage, reminding one slightly of 
 almonds, is very palatable ; still, it scarcely accounts for 
 the passionate liking entertained for it by the inhabitants 
 of the greater part of South America. It must be the 
 stimulating effects of the paullinin it contains (an alkaloid 
 like caffeine and the'ine) that render it so indispensable to 
 those who have been accustomed to it. All the boats that 
 come lightly freighted with ipecacuanha and deer- or tiger- 
 hides, from Mato Grosso down the Arinos and the Tapnjoz, 
 in face of the considerable cataracts and rapids of the 
 latter, take their full loads of guarana at Santarem; and 
 the heavy boats of the Madeira also convey large quantities 
 of it to Bolivia ; for at Cuyaba, as well as at Santa Cruz 
 de la Sierra and Cochabamba, there are many who cannot 
 do without their guarana, for which they often have to 
 pay thirty francs the pound, and who prefer all the rigors 
 of fasting to abstinence from their favorite beverage. On 
 the other hand, the mestizo population on the Amazon, 
 where it is prepared on a large scale by the half-civilized 
 tribes of the Mauhes and Munduruciis and sold at about 
 three francs the pound, are not so passionately attached to 
 it ; they rather take coffee and a sort of coarse chocolate, 
 which they manufacture for themselves.
 
 436 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Keller 
 
 CANOE- AND CAMP-LIFE ON THE MADEIRA. 
 
 FRANZ KELLER. 
 
 [To the extract just made from Keller's " Amazon and Madeira 
 Rivers," we add the following, in which an interesting account of 
 camp-life in the forest and river regions of Brazil is given.] 
 
 The lower course of the Madeira presents, for more than 
 four hundred and sixty miles, a picture of grand simplicity, 
 and, it must be owned, monotony, which, magnificent as it 
 appears at first, wearies the eye and sickens the heart at 
 last, — a dead calm on an unruffled, mirror-like sheet of 
 water glaring in the sun, and, as far as the eye can reach, 
 two walls of dark green forest, with the dark- blue firma- 
 ment above them; in the foreground, slender palms and 
 gigantic orchid-covered trunks, with blooming creepers 
 hanging from the wave-worn shore, with its red earthslips, 
 down into the turbid floods. No hill breaks the finely- 
 indented line of the foliage, which everywhere bounds the 
 horizon, only here and there a few palm-covered sheds 
 peep out of the green ; and still more rarely do we sight 
 one of their quiet dark inmates. Stately kingfishers look- 
 ing thoughtfully into the river, white herons standing for 
 hours on one leg, and alligators lying so motionless at the 
 mouth of some rivulet that their jaggy tails and scarcely 
 protruding skulls might easily be taken for some half- 
 sunken trunks, are the only animals to be seen, and cer- 
 tainly they do not increase the liveliness of the scene. 
 Dreary and monotonous as the landscape, the days, too, 
 pass in unvaried succession. 
 
 With the first dawn of day, before the white mist that 
 hides the smooth surface of the river has disappeared with
 
 » 
 
 Keller] CANOE- AND CAMP-LIFE. 437 
 
 the rays of the rising sun, the day's work begins. The 
 boatswains call their respective crews ; the tents are broken 
 up as quickly as possible ; the cooking apparatus, the ham- 
 mocks and hides that served as beds, are taken on board, 
 together with our arms and mathematical instruments, and 
 every one betakes himself to his post. The pagaias (pad- 
 dles) are dipped into the water, and the prows of our 
 heavy boats turn slowly from the shore to the middle of 
 the stream. Without the loss of a minute, the oars are 
 plied for three or four hours at a steady but rather quick 
 rate, until a spot on shore is discovered easy of access and 
 offering a dry fire-place and some fuel for the preparation 
 of breakfast. If it be on one of the long sand-banks, a 
 roof is made of one of the sails, that rarely serve for any- 
 thing else ; if in the wood, the undergrowth, in the shade 
 of some large tree, is cleared for the reception of our little 
 table and tent-chairs. 
 
 The functions of the culinary chef for the white faces, 
 limited to the preparation of a dish of black beans, with 
 some fish or turtle, are simple enough, but, to be appre- 
 ciated, certainly require the hearty appetite acquired by 
 active life in the open air. The Indians have to cook by 
 turns for their respective boats' crews ; their unalterable 
 bill of fare being a pap of flour of Indian corn or mandioca, 
 with fresh or dried fish, or a piece of jacare (alligator). 
 
 Most of those who are not busy cooking spend their 
 time preparing new bast shirts, the material for which is 
 found almost everywhere in the neighborhood of our 
 halting-places. Soon the wood is alive with the sound of 
 hatchets and the crack of falling trees; and, even before 
 they are summoned to breakfast, they return with pieces 
 of a silky bast of about four and a half yards long and 
 somewhat less than one and a quarter yard wide. Their 
 implements for shirt-making are of primitive simplicity, — 
 
 37*
 
 438 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kkller 
 
 a heavy wooden hammer with notches, called maceta, and 
 a round piece of wood to work upon. Continuously beaten 
 with the maceta, the fibres of the bast become loosened, 
 until the originally hard piece of wood gets soft and 
 flexible, and about double its former breadth. After it has 
 been washed, wrung out to remove the sap, and dried in 
 the sun, it has the appearance of a coarse woollen stuff of 
 a bright whitish-yellow or light brown, disclosing two main 
 layers of wavy fibres held together by smaller filaments. 
 A more easily prepared and better working-garment for a 
 tropical climate is hardly to be found than this, called 
 cascara by the Indians of Bolivia, and turury by those of 
 the Amazon. Its cut is as simple and classical as its 
 material. A hole is cut in the middle of a piece about ten 
 feet long, to pass the head through, and the depending 
 skirt is sewn together on both sides, from below up to the 
 height of the girdle, which usually is a piece of cotton 
 string or liana. 
 
 Another branch of industrj- our Indians were busy at, in 
 their hours of leisure, was the fabrication of straw hats, 
 with the young leaves of a kind of little palm, the same 
 which supplies the excellent hats imported from Ecuador 
 and Peru, and known in Europe under the name of Chile 
 or Panama hats. Dexterity at all sorts of wicker-work 
 seems to be innate to this race ; and the prettiest little bas- 
 kets and the finest mats of colored palm-leaves are to be 
 bought on the Missions of the Mamore at the lowest 
 prices. 
 
 But all these occupations are left at the call of the first 
 mate, who has the proud title of Capitano. The boats' 
 crews crowd round their pots, each one receives his allotted 
 portion in a calabash or a basin of horn, and their spoons 
 of the same material are soon in full activity. If a jacare 
 has lately been shot, or caught in a lago (sling), every one,
 
 
 Keller] CANOE- AND CAMP-LIFE. 430 
 
 after roasting his own piece of it on the spit, proceeds to 
 cut at the large slices of the white meat (which, though in 
 appearance like fish, is as tough as india-rubber) with the 
 satisfaction usually produced by three or four hours of 
 hard rowing on view of anything eatable. One tribe es- 
 pecially, the Canichanas, from the former Mission of San 
 Pedro at the Mamore, think roast caiman the finest eating 
 in the world ; while others, the Cayuabas from Exaltacion, 
 and the Mojos from Trinidad, whose palates are somewhat 
 more refined, prefer beef, fish, or turtle to the musk-exhaling 
 saurian. Notably the turtles, which are not found on the 
 Guapore and Mamore (they arc not met with above the 
 rapids of the Madeira), are prized by them, though we grew 
 rather tired of them, and no wonder. On the lower Ma- 
 deira, at our fires, there was almost daily going on the 
 cooking of turtles, of all sizes, from the full-grown one of 
 a yard in length to the smallest of the size of a hand ; and 
 in every variety of preparation, too, — whole, and chopped 
 up as for soup; stewed; and roasted in their own shell or 
 on the spit. 
 
 Bathing in the river, immediately after meals, is a luxury 
 invariably indulged in by all the Indians ; and I never 
 remarked that it was attended by any evil consequences 
 to them. 
 
 After a rest of two hours' duration, the cooking utensils, 
 the hammocks, and improvised tents were carried on board 
 again, and the voyage continued. A second halt was made 
 after rowing for two or three hours, when we came in 
 sight of a good place for fishing, such as the mouth of 
 some smaller river, or an extensive mud-bank. Such places 
 were usually recognizable from afar, by the multitude of 
 snow-white herons and of long caimans, which, finding it 
 out before us, crowded there in peaceful unity, and with 
 similar intentions. The vicinity of the scaly monsters is
 
 440 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Kellkr 
 
 scarcely heeded by the Indians, who fish and take their 
 bath, laughing and jesting, though somewhat hugging the 
 shore, just as if there were no such thing as the tail or the 
 tooth of the jacare in the world ; and, indeed, these crea- 
 tures are themselves in much greater danger than the red- 
 skins. When the last steak of alligator has been consumed, 
 one of the Canichanas is sure to ask leave to have some 
 fun, and to provide at the same time for their next dinner. 
 Of course the permission is always granted, as the sport 
 keeps up their spirits and spares our provisions. Without 
 loss of time, then, one of them, having carefully fastened 
 a strong loop of raw hide at the end of a long pole, and 
 having dexterously slipped off his bast shirt, creeps slowly 
 through the shallow water, pole and sling in hand, as near 
 as possible to the alligator, which looks on at these prepa- 
 rations with perfect apathy, only now and then betraying 
 a sign of life by a lazy movement of its powerful tail. 
 But it does not take its eyes off the Indian as he crawls 
 nearer and nearer. The fatal sling is at arm's length from 
 its muzzle, and yet it does not see it. As if under the in- 
 fluence of witchcraft, it continues to stare with its large 
 protruding eyes at the bold hunter, who in the next mo- 
 ment has thrown the loop over its head, and suddenly 
 drawn it to with a strong pull. The other Indians, who 
 the while have been cowering motionless on shore, now 
 rush into the water to the help of their companion, and 
 fqur or. five of them land the ugly creature that with all 
 its might struggles to get back into the water, lashing the 
 sand with its tail and showing its long teeth ; but a few 
 vigorous blows with an axe on the tail and skull soon render 
 it tame enough. If, instead of dragging back, the alliga- 
 tor were only to rush forward boldly to the attack of the 
 Indians, they would, of a certainty, leave pole and sling 
 and run for their lives; but this brjght idea never seems
 
 
 Keller] CANOE- AND CAMP-LIFE. 441 
 
 to occur to the uncouth animal, and the strife always ends 
 with its death. Though there were more than a dozen of 
 them killed during the voyage, I never thought of sending 
 a rifle-bullet through the thick skull of one, except on one 
 occasion, when I was afraid that one of our Canichanas 
 was about to make too close an acquaintance with the hard, 
 jagged tail of an extraordinarily strong monster, which 
 measured full sixteen and a half feet. 
 
 Even before the huge spoil is cut up, four musk-glands, 
 placed by two3 under its jaw, and on its belly, near the be- 
 ginning of the tail, must be carefully taken out, to prevent 
 the diffusion, over the whole body, of the penetrating odor 
 of the greasy, brown liquid they contain. These glands, 
 which are about an inch and a half long and as thick as a 
 finger, are carefully tied up and suspended in the sun to dry. 
 Mixed with a little rose-water, their contents serve, as we 
 were told, to perfume the raven-black tresses of the elegant 
 Bolivian ladies at Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba, 
 in spite of, or rather by reason of, their strong scent, which 
 gives the headache to all save these strong-nerved seRoritas, 
 who love a bull-fight above everything, who know how to 
 roll the cigarito, and to dance the fandango with matchless 
 grace, but who scarcely are able to write their own names. 
 
 After such a pleasant interlude of fishing or hunting, the 
 paddles are plied with renewed vigor until the evening, 
 when sleeping quarters are selected, either on a sand-bank 
 or in the forest. The canoes are moored by strong pias- 
 saba ropes in some recess of the bank, where they are pro- 
 tected against drifting trunks ; the tents are erected, and 
 preparations ensue for the principal meal. Meanwhile, 
 after the very short interval of twilight usual in the 
 tropics, night almost suddenly throws her dark veil over 
 the valley, and the bright constellations of the southern 
 sky in quiet majesty adorn the firmament.
 
 442 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Keller 
 
 While we prepare to take astronomical observations, 
 half a dozen large fires are lighted round about, in whose 
 fitful blaze the neighboring forest-trees appear like huge 
 phantoms, looking contemptuously down on us, poor tiny 
 mortals. Our Indians warm themselves in the cheerful 
 glow, smoking, and chatting of the day's adventures, or 
 rather of what are regarded as such, — unusual good or ill 
 luck at fishing and hunting ; the casual meeting of some 
 canoe ; or the sight of a seringueiro's poor cottage. "Work 
 over, they take off the rough cascara, and put on the cami- 
 seta, a cotton garment without sleeves, resembling a wide 
 poncho sewn together at the sides, and whose dazzling 
 whiteness is set off by two scarlet stripes along the seams. 
 The ample folds and the simple cut of the garment, which 
 is made by the Indian women of the Missions on very 
 primitive looms, give quite a stately, classical appearance 
 to the numerous groups round the fires. Such must have 
 been the aspect presented by the halting-places of those 
 daring seafarers, the Phoenicians, who were the first to 
 call into life an international commerce, and whose light- 
 rigged barques first ventured to distant shores, to bring 
 home the precious amber and the useful tin. Only the 
 dense swarms of mosquitoes, which set in immediately 
 after sunset, remind us rather unpleasantly that we are far 
 off from those happy northern regions, where such a nui- 
 sance can hardly be well imagined. Especially in the 
 dense forest beneath cacao-bushes, or under the close leaf- 
 age of the large figueiras, where no breath of air incom- 
 modes those light-winged tormentors, it is quite impossible, 
 for the European at least, to close an eye without the 
 shelter of a mosquiteiro (mosquito-net) ; and we could 
 but wonder at our Indians, most of whom did without it. 
 After supper they simply spread a hide on the ground, on 
 which, with no covering other than the starry firmament
 
 Wells] BESIEGED BY PECCARIES. 443 
 
 above them, they slept undisturbed till the dawn, only oc- 
 casionally brushing away, as if by way of diversion, the 
 most obtrusive of the little fiends. The capitanos only, and 
 one or other of the older rowers, allow themselves the 
 luxury of good cotton hammocks, which are also made by 
 their wives in the Missions. 
 
 Such, with few variations, was the course of our daily 
 life, until we reached the regions of the rapids, when, of 
 course, the hundred little incidents connected with the 
 dragging of the canoes through narrow, foaming channels, 
 and with carrying the goods and the vessels themselves 
 overland, disturbed the monotony of this rude forest life. 
 
 BESIEGED BY PECCARIES. 
 
 JAMES W. WELLS. 
 
 [It is to " Three Thousand Miles through Brazil, from Rio de 
 Janeiro to Maranhao," hy James W. Wells, F.R.G.S., that we owe 
 the following exciting example of the perils of a hunter's life in the 
 wilds of the tropics. Mr. Wells and his fellow-travellers, while 
 journeying up the valley of the Sapao, far in interior Brazil, came 
 upon traces of the peccary, an animal which, from its fearlessness, and 
 its habit of moving in troops, is occasionally a very unsafe creature to 
 meet. What followed we shall leave the author to tell.] 
 
 We were down in the deep, narrow valley, where the 
 slopes of the table-land surrounded us like a wall, up which 
 there was no visible ascent. The tall, rank grass was also 
 littered with boulders of sandstone and short, gnarled, and 
 distorted cork-trees; it was a toilsome march for both men 
 and animals, but there, certainly, must be the head-quarters 
 of all the peccaries of the region, for everywhere the ground 
 was furrowed and rooted up, the grass trodden down in
 
 444 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Wells 
 
 long lanes, the pools of water turbid, from their wallowing, 
 and the place odorous as a rank pigsty ; and yet, strange 
 to say, not a pig was to be seen, fortunately for us ; for in 
 such an inconvenient place an attack from these vicious 
 animate in the numbers they could evidently collect would 
 have enabled them to take us at great disadvantage. 
 
 We pushed on the animals to get out of this pig-set man' 
 trap, and eventually got clear of the labyrinth on the 
 farther side of the last feeder of the main morass, and, 
 after some difficulty, found an ascent on to the geraes, where 
 we made a bee-line to the Sapac across the flats. 
 
 During the passage of the swamps the Don said, — 
 
 " Ah ! Senhor Doctor, what a shame to leave such a 
 lovely place ; if you and I were only here to-night, what 
 fun we would have with the peccaries ; but, patience, they 
 will make us a visit to-night, because of the trail of the 
 dogs." 
 
 But neither time nor place would permit of carrying out 
 the Don's desires, as there was neither water nor pasture 
 for the animals. The Don's remark about the peccaries 
 paying us a visit is owing to a popular belief that these 
 animals, when in considerable numbers, will follow a dog's 
 trail for many miles, and attack and kill him. In fact, it 
 is customary with the hunters to imitate the barking of a 
 dog to attract the attention of the pigs, and induce them 
 to collect together and make an attack ; when, the hunters 
 being safely ensconced in trees, the game is perfectly safe, 
 as the men have only to shoot what they require. 
 
 The ground traversed that afternoon was not so free 
 from bush as we had hitherto found, being in many places 
 thickly covered with dense cerrado (abounding in immense 
 quantities of the india-rubber-producing Mangaba-tree), 
 where progress was very slow and difficult, and required 
 the free use of our wood knives. After a long and weari-
 
 Wells] BESIEGED BY PECCARIES. 445 
 
 some march, we reached the valley of the Sapao again, 
 quite eight miles from the peccaries' haunt. 
 
 I found the river valley presented much the same charac- 
 teristics as we had found lower down. For the purposes 
 of a railway it is admirable; the gradients are practically 
 level, and the only works of art required would be in 
 crossing the many burity swamps that intersect the route, 
 and these, although numerous, are narrow. 
 
 Even the Eio Sapao itself could doubtless be made into a 
 good canal, in the absence of a railway, for there is plenty 
 of water, and the ground offers great facilities for straight- 
 ening its course. 
 
 Especial care was taken in preparing the camp that 
 night. The Don and Jose superintended the operation of 
 constructing the fort, the sides of which were further pro- 
 tected by spreading over them the hides used for covering 
 the packs of the mules. Bush was also cut to make up 
 and enlarge the defences, and a strong stake was driven 
 into the ground inside the fort for the purpose of securing 
 the dogs in case the peccaries arrived. The camp was 
 made on the borders of a clump of trees, to which we 
 were enabled to sling the hammocks, no one caring to 
 sleep on terra firraa that night, but two of the men who 
 were unprovided with hammocks spread their hides on the 
 ground inside the fort. 
 
 After dinner, of course, peccaries formed the sole subject 
 of conversation, but hour after hour went by, yet no signs 
 of their presence appeared ; and, after arranging the 
 watches for the night, wo turned in, and with the fatigues 
 of the day I was soon asleep. 
 
 It appeared to me, however, that I had barely closed my 
 eyes, when I felt my hammock violently shaken. It was 
 the Don awakening me, saying, " Wake up, here are the 
 porcos, wc arc going to have some fun." The first peculiar- 
 
 38
 
 446 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Wells 
 
 ity that struck me was the prevalence of the odor of old 
 pigsties. I sat up, looked around, and listened. The pitchy- 
 blackness of night surrounded us, but the fire, burning 
 brightly, sent its flickering light upon the tree-trunks, the 
 foliage, and the hammocks ; two men were in the fort with 
 gun and knife in hand, and the dogs tied to their stake 
 were with difficulty kept quiet, and vented their excite- 
 ment in deep growls. As I listened it became evident that 
 we were surrounded by some animals, for in many direc- 
 tions was heard, in the stillness of night, the sound of 
 bodies moving through the bush, twigs snapping, grass 
 rustling, etc. It was a moment of suspense, but not for 
 long ; for suddenly, from all around us, came a blood cur- 
 dling sound of the simultaneous snapping of teeth from vast 
 numbers of the enemy, followed by the appearance of a 
 crowd of charging black animals, rushing with wonderful 
 speed towards a common centre, the fort. We in the 
 hammocks each lighted a coil of wax tapers that were pre- 
 pared ready for the occasion. 
 
 And what a scene ensued ! the fire was rapidly scattered, 
 and partly extinguished ; under and around us was a seeth- 
 ing mass of black peccaries, barely distinguishable in the 
 dim light, but all pushing and struggling to the front; the 
 men in the fort had discharged their weapons, and were 
 hard at work, hacking and thrusting at the peccaries as 
 they endeavored to swarm up the smooth surface of the 
 hides that covered the sides of the fort. The men in the 
 hammocks, after discharging their guns, reached down and 
 slashed with their knives at the swarming animals below 
 them. 
 
 The attack was more like the wild, reckless bravery of 
 the Arabs of the Soudan, for as pig after pig fell squealing 
 and disabled, scores more struggled for his place. The 
 faint light of the tapers and the partly extinguished firo
 
 Wells] BESIEGED BY PECCARIES. 447 
 
 served but to dimly illuminate the elements of the strange, 
 noisy, wildly weird scene; the trunks of the surrounding 
 trees and their foliage ; the swinging hammocks with their 
 occupants reaching downward, cutting and thrusting with 
 their long, gleaming knives; the dim figures of the men 
 in the trineheria, repelling with shouts and thrusts the 
 swarming enemy; the wild, rushing, charging forms of the 
 black bodies of the peccaries, as in great numbers they 
 threw themselves against the fort, regardless of being 
 struck down one after the other, and always impelled for- 
 ward by those in the rear struggling to the front; others 
 made ineffectual attempts to reach our hammocks or 
 viciously gashed the trees that gave us support; the ex- 
 tremely disagreeable and nauseous odors of the animals, 
 their snapping of teeth, like musketry file-firing, the 
 reports of the firearms, the shouts of the men, the howling 
 and barking of the dogs, and the dim light, created an in- 
 describably strange and exciting scene. Eveiy bullet of 
 my revolver took effect. I shouted to the men to reserve 
 their fire, and fire volleys, but it was like talking in a gale 
 of wind at sea. 
 
 In spite of all efforts, still the battle raged. The animals 
 appeared to be in immense numbers, for, as far as the faint 
 light would permit, the ground was seen covered with 
 their moving bodies, rushing, struggling, the strongest 
 beating down the weakest, grunting, squealing, and snap- 
 ping their teeth ; and noticeable above everything was the 
 abominable exhalations from their bodies, an odor like a 
 combination of rank butter and garlic. 
 
 I was getting anxious not only for my baggage, but for 
 the men behind the fort, who had to cut and thrust like 
 madmen ; the excitement was intense. The strong raw 
 hides were ripped up as though slashed with a sharp knife, 
 and the bags of beans and farinha were freely streaming
 
 448 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Wells 
 
 their contents on the ground from innumerable rippings 
 from the keen sharp tusks. 
 
 Although we in the hammocks were quite safe, the fort 
 was trembling; many of the saddles and bags had been 
 displaced by the sheer pressure of the enemy. Our few 
 miserable firearms appeared to have no more effect than so 
 many pop-guns, although the ground was becoming strewn 
 with the bodies of the slain and disabled. At last I 
 succeeded in getting the men in the hammocks to fire 
 volleys at a given place, and afier a time this appeared to 
 have an effect, for as suddenly as the attack commenced, 
 so it ceased ; and the animals withdrew simultaneously 
 and in silence. 
 
 The Don (his voice chuckling with glee) called to us to 
 get ready again as they would probably return. " Ah !" 
 said he to me, in a low voice, " what a splendid time we are 
 having!" I thought, however, of the men in the fort, one 
 of whom was stanching blood from his wrist. I told the 
 Don to go and reinforce them; but suddenly the Don 
 became very deaf; he was very snug in his hammock and 
 really could not hear me ; but Jose, like a good fellow, got 
 out, ran for the fort, jumped in, and helped the men to 
 make good the damages. We could still hear the pigs in 
 the bush, and presently, without a moment's warning, we 
 again heard that diabolical crash of teeth from a complete 
 circle around us, followed immediately by another wild 
 charge, and the battle was again renewed with all its ex- 
 citement ; but then, after the first flush of excitement, we 
 became cooler, and Jose in the fort was a host in him- 
 self; this attack was of much shorter duration, and the 
 enemy once more suddenly retreated. In the pause that 
 then ensued I thought of Kodrigues, as it then occurred to 
 me that I had not hitherto noticed him; his hammock was 
 quite still, and its edges drawn together over his body that
 
 Wells] BESIEGED BY PECCARIES. 449 
 
 formed a round, ball-like protuberance in the centre. I 
 saw it all, and could picture the poor terror-stricken man, 
 coiled up, with blanched face and bated breath and making 
 himself as small as possible. The men in the fort had 
 behaved very pluckily. 
 
 Six or seven other attacks eventually followed, but each 
 one became weaker, and at intervals between of longer 
 duration. The eventful night seemed interminable, and 
 finally it was not until near daybreak that we heard the 
 last grunt. 
 
 At the first lights of gray dawn Jose proposed to recon- 
 noitre, and went off for the purpose. At first he proceeded 
 very gingerly from tree to tree. I proposed to myself to 
 go also, but just at that moment I had a fellow-feeling for 
 the Don's deafness, and thought what a comfortable place 
 a hammock was, and that really I could do no good ; and 
 fui-ther I remembered that generals should always occupy 
 high, commanding positions ; every one was chary of moving 
 from their places of security. 
 
 Jose soon afterwards returned, and reported that the 
 enemy had finally withdrawn. 
 
 Thoughts of the horses and mules then occurred to us, 
 and we anxiously awaited their arrival, for they had ac- 
 quired the habit of appearing in camp of their own accord 
 in the early morning for their matutinal feed of corn. 
 Thankfully I saw three or four soon after arrive, but two 
 men had to go for the others, that were fortunately found 
 browsing on a plentiful supply of the shoots of young 
 bamboos. Happily the animals had been pasturing in a 
 direction opposite to that from whence the peccaries came, 
 otherwise there would have been a stampede. 
 
 Almost the first thing the men did after the final retreat 
 of the peccaries was to slash the skin on the top of the 
 loins of the defunct enemy, and extract the gland that 
 I.— dd 38*
 
 450 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Wells 
 
 creates the disgusting odor peculiar to these animals; for 
 if not extracted soon after death, it taints the flesh to such 
 an extent as to render it uneatable except by Indians, who 
 do not object to any flavor, and eat all their animal food 
 cooked on the same principle as a European cook prepares 
 a woodcock. There were twenty-seven dead pigs found 
 in and about the camp, and also several wounded, to whom 
 it was necessary to give the coup de grace. The wounds 
 were mostly from the knives and small axes, but a very 
 considerable number of the wounded must have got away 
 to recover, or linger unfortunately in pain. 
 
 Six of the plumpest were selected for drying and salt- 
 ing, the preparations for which, and also to repair the 
 damages done to the bags of provisions, delayed our de- 
 parture for some time. 
 
 An examination of these animals showed them to be a 
 species of peccary resembling that known as the Dicotyles 
 labiatus, but an essential difference was noticeable in the 
 absence of the white lips that give the name to that 
 species ; our enemies had black snouts and dark lips, other- 
 wise they corresponded in other points. 
 
 They had four incisors on the upper jaw, and six molars 
 on each side above and below ; while the tusks, although 
 smaller than a pig's, are much finer and sharper, inclined 
 slightly backward, and closely overlap each other. Some 
 of the bodies of the animals measured thirty-six inches in 
 length. They are more slender in build than the common 
 pig, and covered with long, stiff bristles, colored with alter- 
 nate rings of grey, light-brown, and black. These colors 
 vary with the size and age of the animals, and as either one 
 predominates, they cause the animal to appear either brown, 
 gray, or black ; the largest we found was almost entirely 
 black, whereas the smallest had quite a brown appearance. 
 
 During the battle I could not help noticing the apparent
 
 Wells] BESIEGED BY PECCARIES. 451 
 
 method of their movements, as though they were led by 
 chiefs. It appears that their mode of attack on such an 
 occasion as they favored us with is to surround in silence, 
 by a complete circle, the object to be stormed ; when, at a 
 given signal, a simultaneous snapping of teeth takes place, 
 followed by a general converging rush to the centre, where- 
 by the largest and strongest reach the front first, and the 
 smallest bring up the rear ; their retreat is carried out on 
 an equally methodical system. There is a small, red 
 species known by the Guarany name of caeitatu ;* our 
 friends are known by the Brazilian cognomen of guei- 
 xadas, or porcos de motto. 
 
 From what I had witnessed during the past night, I can 
 quite understand how these courageous animals in large 
 numbers are capable of surrounding and destroying a 
 powerful jaguar ; and if my dog Feroz had fallen among 
 them, he would doubtless have made a brave fight, but he 
 would not have had the slightest chance of escape, and for- 
 tunately for us the ropes of the hammocks did not break, as 
 hammock-strings will sometimes do at untoward moments, 
 otherwise 1 should not be here now to tell this tale. 
 
 But now, from the camp-fire, comes the odor of roast 
 peccary, for parts of them were already roasting for break- 
 fast, and emitting a vastly more acceptable odor to what 
 they did when alive. When ready, it is needless to say 
 that, after the long night and in the keen, dewy morning 
 air, how appreciated were our visitors when cooked, and 
 there was not the slightest trace of the objectionable odor. 
 
 [Shortly afterwards the hunters met another tenant of the Brazilian 
 wilds.] 
 
 As several peccaries had crossed our path lately, Jose 
 and the Don cut three long straight bamboos; to the ends 
 
 * Dicotyles torquatos.
 
 452 HALFHOIRS OF TRAVEL. [Wells 
 
 of each we fastened our sharp-pointed knives, for the pur- 
 pose of pig-sticking. But the first use we had for our 
 lances was for a different animal ; our dogs had suddenly- 
 disappeared into the tall grass, barking loudly, and a few 
 moments afterwards a huge ant-bear came rolling out into 
 the open semi-marsh land, followed by the dogs ; it went at 
 a good pace, but with most extraordinary and ludicrous 
 movements. It became then very interesting to watch the 
 sagacity of the dogs, as they hung well on to his rear, 
 trying to seize only the tail of the animal, and keeping 
 well out of reach of his powerful fore-legs armed with 
 tremendous claws. The dogs, however, were evidently 
 losing their caution and getting closer, and the cumber- 
 some beast had already made some particularly rapid 
 blows in attempting to rip the dogs. Fearing a possible 
 disaster to my faithful Feroz, we galloped on, but it is 
 amazing the speed these cumbersome ant-bears can develop. 
 We had to put our animals to their sharpest paces to come 
 up with the quarry, when we had the opportunity of flesh- 
 ing our lances. The bear died hard, lying on its back and 
 striking out with its forelegs. The men cut portions of 
 the flesh to eat, but when afterwards prepared, I found it 
 too strongly flavored with formic acid to be agreeable, and 
 the dogs refused it. 
 
 It then occurred to me that the incident of the discovery 
 by the Don of the robbery of a bees'-nest some days ago 
 might possibly be explained by it having been taken by 
 an ant-bear, and not by a prowling stranger as he sup- 
 posed. 
 
 [The hunt of the ant-bear was followed a few days afterwards by a 
 peccary-hunt, which proved a much less safe occupation.] 
 
 A little farther on, in a wide shallow depression, was our 
 host's favorite hunting-ground (where he had often found
 
 Wells] BESIEGED BY PECCARIES. 453 
 
 considerable quantities of peccaries), an immense burityzal 
 that extended apparently from the Chapadas to the Rio 
 Preto. 
 
 We halted at Jose's request and listened, and soon dis- 
 tinctly heard the grunt of the porcos among the buritys, 
 where they feed on the fruits of the palms that form their 
 favorite food. 
 
 Leaving the horses fastened to the trees of a thin cerrado 
 that covered the sloping ground of the borders of the 
 swamps, and haversacks, ponchos, and other impedimenta 
 suspended to the branches, we advanced to the attack. 
 
 I confessed to a feeling of trepidation and a certain 
 bumping of the heart as we were about to leave the bor- 
 ders of the convenient trees so easy and apparently pur- 
 posely constructed for a human retreat from the peccaries, 
 but at that moment a troop of some dozen of them emerged 
 from the jungle of the swamp out into the open marshy 
 land, and disappeared into the adjoining tall grass. 
 
 Three of the sons of Jose, with Antonio, Bob, and Jose 
 Grosso, started at a run to cut off their retreat, and soon 
 disappeared amidst the tall grass a little lower down the 
 hill. After a few moments of suspense, we heard reports 
 of guns, and shouts to us to look out; at the same time 
 another troop of peccaries appeared on the open marshes, 
 and followed the tracks of the others. The grass became 
 agitated by the movements of the animals, and they soon 
 afterwards entered the more open ground of the cerrado 
 where we were waiting, pursued by the five men ; we all 
 fired, but as the range was long, there was not much exe- 
 cution. The animals, about forty in number, now suddenly 
 halted and faced their pursuers with vicious little stampings 
 of feet and snapping of teeth, and suddenly charged down 
 upon the men and upon ourselves. Never was such gym- 
 nastic agility display as in the way that each of us rushed
 
 454 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Wells 
 
 for, and scurried up, the nearest trees, many dropping their 
 guns or knives in their hurry. 
 
 Jose and his sons were the coolest, epecially the old man, 
 who, perhaps a little too stiff for climbing, calmly placed 
 his back against a tree, clasped it with his left hand, and 
 leaning forward in a semi-stooping posture, with his long 
 facao at the ready, awaited the furious charge. 
 
 How gallantly they come sweeping along with their 
 muzzles well down, but within a few feet of our trees 
 they suddenly halt, and, snapping their tusks, make short 
 plunging charges. I had found a comfortable perch up a 
 short gnarled tree, and taking careful aim at the peccaries 
 near me, I knocked over three of them in five shots from 
 my revolver. 
 
 They were charging Jose's legs at close quarters, but his 
 long, keen, sharp pointed knife flashes quickly as he rapidly 
 delivers cuts and thrusts with telling effect. The other 
 men, safely ensconced in the trees, have made good shots, 
 but before any of us can reload the peccaries scamper 
 away. All of us quickly descend from our perches and 
 rush after the retreating animals, loading our guns as wo 
 run, but our brave foes suddenly halt and face us with a 
 look of defiance, and again make a gallant charge. How 
 ignominious we appeared as we in our turn beat a hurried 
 retreat to the nearest trees, where, not having time or 
 finaing conveniences for a climb, we were forced to imitate 
 Jose's example and face the enemy with knives ; but the 
 peccaries after a momentary pause, dashed onward and 
 disappeared amidst the tall grass of the borders of the 
 swamps, crossed the marshes, and entered the jungle of the 
 buritys. 
 
 Although the whole thing happened within a few mo- 
 ments, there were quite enough elements of danger to spice 
 the sport, for, if in making our retreat any of us had
 
 Wells] BESIEGED BY PECCARIES. 455 
 
 stumbled and fallen, the consequences must have been 
 serious, if not fatal. I prefer the pig-sticking on mule- 
 back with our extemporized spears. We gave the coup dc 
 grace to the wounded, but many got away only partially 
 damaged. We found our bag amounted to ten pigs, all in 
 excellent condition. 
 
 As Jose and his sons were anxious for another tussle, we 
 proceeded up the valley, and soon saw here and there a 
 solitary grunter outside the growth of palms and aquatic 
 vegetation of the swamps ; and frequent grunts, heard 
 amidst the groves, indicated the presence of considerable 
 numbers of our foes. 
 
 A little farther on, a spit of firm land, only covered with 
 short grass, extended to near the groves, but no one cared 
 to venture so far from the friendly sanctuary of the trees 
 and possibly meet a huge anaconda coiled up in the 
 swamp. 
 
 Jose Grosso and one of our host's sons now returned to 
 remain with the animals, whilst we proceeded a little far- 
 ther on in quest of a stray peccary. We walked about a 
 mile, but found not what we hoped for; but on returning 
 some peccaries were seen straying towards the hills in twos 
 or threes, homeward-bound to their lairs in the dells and 
 grottos of the sources of streams at the foot of the bluffs 
 of the Chapadas. We worked our way amidst the trees, 
 and eventually obtained a few long shots, and succeeded in 
 bagging two more. 
 
 It became a question whether we should pursue our 
 journey to enable me to take my notes, and camp out and 
 have another probable night-attack of peccaries, or return 
 to Matto Grande. I thought a night of peace and quiet- 
 ness preferable, although perhaps very unsportsmanlike, 
 and so we wended our way homeward. 
 
 It is rather unusual that these peccaries make such a
 
 456 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Pfeiffer 
 
 brave fight in daylight, but it was chiefly owing to their 
 accidentally finding themselves in such considerable num- 
 bers on this occasion, as they are commonly scattered over 
 their feeding-grounds in very small parties during the day, 
 and return to a common haunt at night, whence they sally 
 out in immense numbers upon any foe that trespasses upon 
 their neighborhood, like when they tracked our dogs in the 
 Sapao. 
 
 THE PERILS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 IDA PFEIFFER. 
 
 [Among travellers there have been few more ardent and enter- 
 prising than the woman from whose writings our present selection is 
 made. Ida Pfeiffer was born in Vienna about 1795, married, brought 
 up and educated her two sons, and in 1842, when nearly fifty years of 
 age, set out on a series of travels which she had long contemplated, 
 and in which she spent the succeeding ten years. After a series of 
 travels in Asia Minor, Scandinavia, and Iceland, she set out in 1846 
 on a tour of the world, which was not accomplished without great 
 hardships and dangers. In 1851 she entered on a second journey 
 around the world, visiting various new countries. She died in 1858. 
 From her " A "Woman's Journey round the World" we select the fol- 
 lowing thrilling experience. She had set out from Kio Janeiro, in 
 company with Count Berchthold, on an excursion to Petropolis, a 
 German colony in the vicinity. Suddenly, in a lonely spot, a negro 
 sprang out upon them, knife and lasso in hand, indicating by gestures 
 that he intended to murder them and drag their bodies into the forest. 
 She gives a vivid description of what followed.] 
 
 We had no arms, as we had been told that the road was 
 perfectly safe, and the only weapons of defence which we 
 possessed were our parasols, if I except a clasped knife, 
 which I instantly drew out of my pocket and opened, fully 
 determined to sell my life as dearly as possible. We par- 
 ried our adversary's blows as long as we could with our
 
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 Pfeiffer] THE PERILS OF TRAVEL. 457 
 
 parasols, but these lasted but a short time; besides, he 
 caught hold of mine, which, as we were struggling for it, 
 broke short off, leaving only a piece of the handle in my 
 hand. In the struggle, however, he dropped his knife, 
 which rolled a few steps from him ; I instantly made a 
 dash, and thought I had got it, when he, more quick than 
 I, thrust me away with his feet and hands, and once more 
 obtained possession of it. He waved it furiously over my 
 head, and dealt me two wounds, a thrust and a deep gash, 
 both in the upper part of the left arm ; I thought I was 
 lost, and despair alone gave me the courage to use my own 
 knife. I made a thrust at his breast ; this he warded off, 
 and I only succeeded in wounding him severely in the 
 hand. The Count sprang forward and seized the fellow 
 from behind, and thus afforded me an opportunity of 
 raising myself from the ground. The whole affair had not 
 taken more than a few seconds. 
 
 The negro's fury was now roused to its highest pitch by 
 the wounds he had received. He gnashed his teeth at us 
 like a wild beast, and flourished his knife with frightful 
 rapidity. The Count, in his turn, had received a cut right 
 across the hand, and we had been irrevocably lost, had not 
 Providence sent us assistance. We heard the tramp of 
 horses' hoofs upon the road, upon which the negro in- 
 stantly left us and sprang into the wood. Immediately 
 afterwards two horsemen turned a corner of the road, and 
 we hurried towards them ; our wounds, which were bleed- 
 ing freely, and the way in which our parasols were hacked, 
 soon made them understand the state of affairs. They 
 asked us which direction the fugitive had taken, and, 
 springing from their horses, hurried after him ; their efforts, 
 however, would have been fruitless, if two negroes, who 
 were coming from the opposite side, had not helped them. 
 As it was, the fellow was soon captured, 
 u 39
 
 458 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Pfeiffer 
 
 He was pinioned, and, as he would not walk, severely 
 beaten, most of the blows being dealt upon the head, so 
 that I feared the poor fellow's skull would be broken. In 
 spite of this, he never moved a muscle, and lay, as if in- 
 sensible to feeling, upon the ground. The two other ne- 
 groes were obliged to seize hold of him, when he endeav- 
 ored to bite every one within his reach like a wild beast, 
 and carry him to the nearest house. Our preservers, as 
 well as the Count and myself, accompanied them. We 
 then had our wounds dressed, and afterwards continued 
 our journey, not, it is true, entirely devoid of fear, espe- 
 cially when we met one or more negroes, but without any 
 further mishap, and with a continually increasing admira- 
 tion of the beautiful scenery. 
 
 [The negro was supposed to be either drunk or insane, but it 
 proved that he had been punished by his master for some offence, and 
 took that mode to obtain revenge. Madame Pfeiffer penetrated the 
 Brazilian forests, and thus describes the aboriginal savages.] 
 
 On a small space, under lofty trees, five huts, or rather 
 sheds, formed of leaves, were erected, eighteen feet long by 
 twelve feet broad. The frames were formed of four poles 
 stuck in the ground, with another reaching across, and the 
 roof of palm-leaves, through which the rain could penetrate 
 with the utmost facility. On three sides these bowers were 
 entirely open. In the interior hung a hammock or two, 
 and on the ground glimmered a little fire, under a heap of 
 ashes, in which a few roots, Indian corn, and bananas were 
 roasting. In one corner, under the roof, a small supply of 
 provisions was hoarded up, and a few gourds were scattered 
 around ; these are used by the savages instead of plates, 
 pots, water-jugs, etc. The long-bows and arrows, which 
 constitute their only weapons, were leaning in the back- 
 ground against the wall.
 
 Pfbiffer] THE PERILS OF TRAVEL. 459 
 
 I found the Indians still more ugly than the negroes. 
 Their complexion is a light bronze, they are stunted in 
 stature, well-knit, and about the middle size. They have 
 broad and somewhat compressed features, and thick, coal- 
 black hair, hanging straight down, which the women some- 
 times wear in plaits, fastened to the back of the head, and 
 sometimes falling down loose about them. Their forehead 
 is broad and low, the nose somewhat flattened, the eyes 
 long and narrow, almost like those of the Chinese, and 
 the mouth large, with rather thick lips. To give a still 
 greater effect to all these various charms, a peculiar look 
 of stupidity is spread over the whole face, and is more 
 especially to be attributed to the way in which their 
 mouths are always kept open. Most of them, both men 
 and women, were tattooed with a reddish or blue color, 
 though only round the mouth, in the form of a moustache. 
 Both sexes are passionately fond of smoking, and prefer 
 brandy to everything. Their dress was composed of a few 
 rags, which they had fastened round their loins. 
 
 The good creatures offered me the best hut they pos- 
 sessed, and invited me to pass the night there. Being 
 rather fatigued by the toilsome nature of my journey on 
 foot, the heat, and the hunting-excursion, I very joyfully 
 accepted their proposition ; the day, too, was drawing to a 
 close, and I should not have been able to reach the settle- 
 ment of the whites before night. I therefore spread out 
 my cloak upon the ground, arranged a log of wood so as to 
 serve instead of a pillow, and for the present seated myself 
 upon my splendid couch. In the mean while my hosts 
 were preparing the monkey and the parrots, by sticking 
 them on wooden spits and roasting them before tho fire. 
 
 In order to render the meal a peculiarly dainty one, they 
 also buried some Indian corn and roots in the cinders. 
 They then gathered a few large fresh leaves off the trees,
 
 460 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Pfeiffkk 
 
 tore the roasted ape into several pieces with their hands, 
 and, placing a large portion of it, as well as a parrot, Indian 
 corn, and some roots, upon the leaves, put it before me. 
 My appetite was tremendous, seeing that I had tasted 
 nothing since the morning. I therefore immediately fell 
 to upon the roasted monkey, which I found superlatively 
 delicious; the flesh of the parrot was far from being so 
 tender and palatable. 
 
 [As we have begun this selection with a perilous adventure of our 
 lady traveller, some other perils encountered by her in other parts of the 
 world may fitly close it. The following experience in a tiger-hunt took 
 place in India, during an excursion to the rock temples of Ellora.] 
 
 I had scarcely left the gates of the town behind, when I 
 perceived a number of Europeans seated upon elephants, 
 coming from the bungalow. On meeting each other we 
 pulled up and commenced a conversation. The gentlemen 
 were on the road to search for a tiger-lair, of which they 
 had received intimation, and invited me, if such a sport 
 would not frighten me too much, to take part in it. I was 
 greatly delighted to receive the invitation, and was soon 
 seated on one of the elephants, in a howdah about two 
 feet high, in which there were already two gentlemen and 
 a native, — the latter had been brought to load the guns. 
 They gave me a large knife to defend myself, in case the 
 animal should spring too high and reach the side of the 
 howdah. Thus prepared, we approached the chain of hills, 
 and after a lew hours we were already pretty near the lair 
 of the tigers, when our servants cried out softly, " Bach, 
 Bach!" and pointed with their fingers to some brushwood. 
 
 I had scarcely perceived the flaming eyes which glared 
 out of one of the bushes before shots were fired. Several 
 balls took effect upon the animal, who rushed, maddened, 
 upon us. He made such tremendous springs, that I
 
 Pfeiffer] THE PERILS OF TRAVEL. 461 
 
 thought every moment he must reach the howdah, and 
 select a victim from among us. The sight was terrible to 
 see, and my apprehensions were increased by the appear- 
 ance of another tiger ; however, I kept myself so calm, 
 that none of the gentlemen had any suspicion of what was 
 going on in my mind. Shot followed shot ; the elephants 
 defended their trunks with great dexterity by throwing 
 them up or drawing them in. After a sharp contest of 
 half an hour, we were the victors, and the dead animals 
 were triumphantly stripped of their beautiful skins. The 
 gentlemen politely offered me one of them as a present; 
 but I declined accepting it, as I could not postpone my 
 journey sufficiently long for it to be dried. 
 
 [iladame Pfeiffer had a courage and presence of mind in danger- 
 ous and difficult situations which often served her in good stead. Cer- 
 tainly it needed no slight courage to undertake the adventure described 
 in our next selection, a journey among the cannibal Battakers of 
 Sumatra. In 1835 two American missionaries had been killed and 
 eaten by them, and such a journey without a military escort seemed 
 foolhardy. But she persisted, and reached a village on the borders 
 of the Battaker territory July 19, 1852. Here she sent for the regents 
 of the neighboring villages.] 
 
 In the evening we sat in solemn conclave surrounded by 
 regents, and by a great crowd of the people, for it had 
 been noised abroad far and wide that here was a white 
 woman who was about to venture into the dreaded country 
 of the wild Battakers. Regents and people all concurred 
 in advising me to renounce so perilous a project ; but I had 
 tolerably made up my mind on this point, and I only 
 wanted to be satisfied as to one thing, — namely, whether it 
 was true, as many travellers asserted, that the Battakers 
 did not put their victims out of their pain at once, but tied 
 them living to stakes, and, cutting pieces off them, con- 
 sumed them by degrees with tobacco and salt. 
 
 39*
 
 462 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Pfkiffkr 
 
 The idea of this slow torture did a little frighten me; 
 but my hearers assured me, with one accord, that this was 
 only done to those who were regarded as criminals of a 
 deep dye, and who had been on that account condemned 
 to death. Prisoners of war are tied to a tree and be- 
 headed at once ; but the blood is carefully preserved for 
 drinking, and sometimes made into a kind of pudding with 
 boiled rice. The body is then distributed; the ears, the 
 nose, and the soles of the feet are the exclusive property 
 of the rajah, who has besides a claim on other portions. 
 The palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, the flesh of 
 the head, and the heart and liver, are reckoned peculiar 
 delicacies, and the flesh in general is roasted and eaten with 
 salt. The regents assured me, with a certain air of relish, 
 that it was very good food, and that they had not the least 
 objection to eat it. The women are not allowed to take 
 part in these grand public dinners. A kind of medicinal 
 virtue is ascribed to trees to which prisoners have been 
 tied when they have been put to death, and the stem is 
 usually cut into sticks five or six feet long, carved into 
 figures or arabesques, and decorated with human hair; 
 and these sticks are taken in hand by people who go to 
 visit the sick, or when any medicine is to be given. 
 
 [Despite this gruesome warning the daring woman continued her 
 journey, and prosecuted it until the 13th of August, when she found 
 herself in the most imminent peril.] 
 
 More than eighty armed men stood in the pathway and 
 barred our passage, and before we were aware of it, their 
 spearmen had formed a circle around me and shut me in, 
 looking the while indescribably terrible and savage. They 
 were tall robust men, fully six feet high ; their features 
 showed the most violent agitation, and their huge mouths 
 and projecting teeth had really more resemblance to the
 
 Pfeiffek] THE PERILS OF TRAVEL. 463 
 
 jaws of a wild beast than to anything human. They 
 yelled and made a dreadful noise about me, and had I not 
 been in some measure familiar with such scenes, I should 
 have felt sure that my last hour was at hand. 
 
 I was really uneasy, however : the scene was too fright- 
 ful ; but I never lost my presence of mind. At first I sat 
 down on a stone that lay near, endeavoring to look as com- 
 posed and confident as I could ; but some rajahs then came 
 up to me with very threatening looks and gestures, and 
 gave me clearly to understand that if I did not turn back 
 they would kill and eat me. Their words, indeed, I did 
 not comprehend, but their action left no manner of doubt, 
 for they pointed with their knives to my throat, and 
 gnashed their teeth at my arm, moving their jaws then as 
 if they already had them full of my flesh. 
 
 Of course, when I thought of coming among the wild 
 Battakers, I had anticipated something of this sort, and I 
 had therefore studied a little speech in their language for 
 such an occasion. I knew if I could say anything that 
 would amuse them, and perhaps make them laugh, I would 
 have a great advantage over them, for savages are quite 
 like children, and the merest trifle will often make them 
 friends. I got up, therefore, and patting one of the most 
 violent, who stood next me, upon the shoulder in a friendly 
 manner, said, with smiling face, in a jargon half Malay 
 and half Battaker, " Why, you don't mean to sny you 
 would kill and eat a woman, especially such an old one as 
 I am ! I must be very hard and tough !" And I also gave 
 them by signs and words to understand that I was not at 
 all afraid of them, and was ready, if they liked, to send 
 back my guide, if they would only take me as far as the 
 Eier- Tau. 
 
 Fortunately for me, the doubtless very odd way in which 
 I pronounced their language, and my pantomime, diverted
 
 464 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bates 
 
 them, and they began to laugh. Perhaps, also, the fearless 
 confidence which I manifested made a good impression; 
 they offered me their hands, the circle of spearmen opened, 
 and, rejoicing not a little at having escaped this danger, I 
 journeyed on, and reached in perfect safety a place called 
 Tugala, where the rajah received me into his house. 
 
 BRAZILIAN ANTS AND MONKEYS. 
 
 HENRY W. BATES. 
 
 [The "Naturalist in the Amazons" of Henry Walter Bates is a 
 work that has long held a deserved reputation for the closeness .and 
 accuracy of its observations and the interest of its narrative. The 
 author, born at Leicester, England, in 1825, accompanied the noted 
 biologist, Alfred Kussell Wallace, to Brazil, the story of which 
 journey is given in the work cited. From it we extract some passages 
 concerning the animal life of that country, embracing the doings of 
 the "leaf-cutting" ants and the monkeys. Our selections begin in 
 the suburbs of Para.] 
 
 In the gardens numbers of fine showy butterflies were 
 seen. There were two swallow-tailed species, similar in 
 colors to the English Papilio machaon, a white Pieris (P. 
 monuste), and two or three species of brimstone- and 
 orange-colored butterflies, which do not belong, however, 
 to the same genus as our English species. In weedy places 
 a beautiful butterfly with eye-like spots on its wings was 
 common, the Junonia lavinia, the only Amazonian species 
 which is at all nearly related to our Vanessas, the Admiral 
 and Peacock butterflies. 
 
 One day we made our first acquaintance with two of the 
 most beautiful productions of nature in this department, — 
 namely, the Helicopis cupido and endymion. A little be-
 
 Batks] BRAZILIAN ANTS AND MONKEYS. 405 
 
 yond our house one of the narrow green lanes which I 
 have already mentioned diverged from the mongabu 
 avenue, and led between enclosures overrun with a pro- 
 fusion of creeping plants and glorious flowers down to a 
 moist hollow, where there was a public well and a pictu- 
 resque nook, buried in a grove of mucaja palm-trees. On 
 the tree-trunks, walls, and palings grew a great quantity 
 of climbing Pothos plants, with large, glossy, heart-shaped 
 leaves. These plants were the resort of these two exquisite 
 species, and we captured a great number of specimens. 
 They are of extremely delicate texture. The wings are 
 cream-colored ; the hind pair have several tail-like append- 
 ages, and are spangled beneath as if with silver. Their 
 flight is very slow and feeble; they seek the protected under 
 surface of the leaves, and in repose close their wings over 
 the back, so as to expose the brilliantly spotted under 
 surface. 
 
 I will pass over the man}- orders and families of insects, 
 and proceed at once to the ants. These were in great 
 numbers everywhere, but I will mention here only two 
 kinds. We were amazed at seeing ants an inch and a 
 quarter in length, and stout in proportion, marching in 
 single file through the thickets. These belonged to the 
 species called Dinoponera grandis. Its colonies consist of 
 a small number of individuals, and are established about 
 the roots of slender trees. It is a stinging species, but the 
 sting is not so severe as in many of the smaller kinds. 
 There was nothing peculiar or attractive in the habits of 
 this giant among the ants. Another far more interesting 
 species was the Saiiba (CEcodoma cephalotes). This ant is 
 seen everywhere about the suburbs, marching to and fro 
 in broad columns. From its habit of despoiling the most 
 valuable cultivated trees of their foliage, it is a great 
 scourge to the Brazilians. In some districts it is so abun- 
 I. — ee
 
 466 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bates 
 
 dant that agriculture is almost impossible, and every- 
 where complaints are heard of the terrible pest. . . . 
 
 In our first walks we were puzzled to account for large 
 mounds of earth, of a different color from the surrounding 
 soil, which were thrown up in the plantations and woods. 
 Some of them were very extensive, being forty yards in cir- 
 cumference, but not more than two feet in height. We 
 soon ascertained that these were the work of the Saiibas, 
 being the outworks or domes which overlie and pi'otect 
 the entrances to their vast subterranean galleries. On 
 close examination I found the earth of which they are 
 composed to consist of very minute granules, agglomerated 
 with cement, and forming many rows of little ridges and 
 turrets. The difference in color from the superficial soil 
 of the vicinity is owing to their being formed of the under- 
 soil, brought up from a considerable depth. 
 
 It is very rarely that the ants are seen at work on these 
 mounds ; the entrances seem to be generally closed ; only 
 now and then, when some particular work is going on, are 
 the galleries opened. The entrances are small and numer- 
 ous ; in the larger hillocks it would require a great amount 
 of excavation to get at the main galleries ; but I succeeded 
 in removing portions of the dome in smaller hillocks, and 
 then I found that the minor entrances converged, at the 
 depth of about two feet, to one broad, elaborately worked 
 gallery or mine, which was four or five inches in diameter. 
 
 The habit in the Sauba ant of clipping and carrying 
 away immense quantities of leaves has long been recorded 
 in books on natural history. When employed on this work 
 their processions look like a multitude of animated leaves 
 on the march. In some places I found an accumulation of 
 such leaves, all circular pieces, about the size of a sixpence, 
 lying on the pathway, unattended by ants, and at some 
 distance from the colony. Such heaps are always found
 
 Bates] BRAZILIAN ANTS AND MONKEYS. 467 
 
 to be removed when the place is revisited the next day. 
 In. course of time I had plenty of opportunities of seeing 
 them at work. They mount the trees in multitudes, the 
 individuals being all worker-miners. Each one places itself 
 on the surface of a leaf, and cuts with its sharp, scissor- 
 like jaws, and by a sharp jerk detaches the piece. Some- 
 times they let the leaf drop to the ground, where a little 
 heap accumulates until carried away by another relay of 
 workers ; but generally each marches off with the piece it 
 has operated upon, and, as all take the same road to their 
 colony, the path they follow becomes in a short time smooth 
 and bare, looking like the impression of a cart-wheel 
 through the herbage. 
 
 It is a most interesting sight to see the vast host of busy 
 diminutive laborers occupied on this work. Unfortunately, 
 they choose cultivated trees for their purpose. This ant is 
 quite peculiar to tropical America, as is the entire genus to 
 which it belongs. It sometimes despoils the young trees 
 of species growing wild in its native forests; but it seems 
 to prefer, when within reach, plants imported from other 
 countries, such as the coffee- and orange-trees. . . . The 
 heavily-laden workers, each carrying its segment of leaf 
 vertically, the lower edge secured in its mandibles, troop 
 up and cast their burdens on the hillock; another relay 
 of laborers place the leaves in position, covering them with 
 a layer of earthy granules, which are brought one by one 
 from the soil beneath. 
 
 The underground abodes of this wonderful ant aro 
 known to be very extensive. The Rev. Hamlet Clark has 
 related that the Sauba of Rio de Janeiro, a species closely 
 allied to ours, has excavated a tunnel under the bed of the 
 river Parahyba at a place where it is as broad as the 
 Thames at London Bridge. At the Magoary rice-mills, 
 near Para, these ants once pierced the embankment of a
 
 468 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bates 
 
 large reservoir; the great body of water which it contained 
 escaped before the damage could be repaired. In the 
 Botanic Gardens at Para an enterprisng French gardener 
 tried all he could think of to extirpate the Saiiba. With 
 this object he made fires over some of the main entrances 
 to their colonics, and blew the fumes of sulphur down the 
 galleries by means of bellows. I saw the smoke issue 
 from a great number of outlets, one of which was seventy 
 yards distant from the place where the bellows were used. 
 This shows how extensively the underground galleries are 
 ramified. 
 
 Besides injuring and destroying young trees by despoil- 
 ing them of their foliage, the Saiiba ant is troublesome to 
 the inhabitants from its habit of plundering the stores of 
 provisions in houses at night, for it is even more active at 
 night than in the daytime. At first I was inclined to dis- 
 credit the stories of their entering habitations and carrying 
 off grain by grain the farinba or mandioca meal, the bread 
 of the poorer classes of Brazil. At length, while residing 
 at an Indian village on the Tapajos, I had ample proof of 
 the fact. One night my servant woke me three or four 
 times before sunrise by calling out that the rats were rob- 
 bing the farinha baskets. The article at that time was 
 scarce and dear. I got up, listened, and found the noise 
 very unlike that made by rats. So I took the light and 
 went into the store-room, which was close to my sleeping- 
 place. I there found a broad column of Saiiba ants, con- 
 sisting of thousands of individuals, as busy as possible, 
 passing to and fro between the door and my precious bas- 
 kets. Most of those passing outward were laden each 
 with a grain of farinha, which was, in some cases, larger 
 and many times heavier than the bodies of the carriers. 
 
 Farinha consists of grains of similar size and appearance 
 to the tapioca of our shops ; both are products of the same
 
 Bates] BRAZILIAN ANTS AND MONKEYS. 469 
 
 root, tapioca being the pure starch, and farinha the starch 
 mixed with woody fibre, the latter ingredient giving it a 
 yellowish color. It was amusing to see some of the dwarfs, 
 the smallest members of their family, staggering along, 
 completely hidden under their load. The baskets, which 
 were on a high table, were entirely covered with ants, 
 many hundreds of whom were employed in snipping the 
 dry leaves which served as lining. This produced the 
 rustling sound which had at first disturbed us. My ser- 
 vant told me that they would carry off the whole contents 
 of the two baskets (about two bushels) in the course of 
 the night if they were not driven off, so we tried to exter- 
 minate them by killing them with our wooden clogs. It 
 was impossible, however, to prevent fresh hosts coming in 
 as fast as we killed their companions. They returned the 
 next night, and I was then obliged to lay trains of gun- 
 powder along their line and blow them up. This, repeated 
 many times, at last seemed to intimidate them, for we were 
 free from their visits during the remainder of my residence 
 at the place. 
 
 What they did with the hard dry grains of mandioea I 
 was never able to ascertain, and cannot even conjecture. 
 The meal contains no gluten, and therefore would be use- 
 less as cement. It contains only a small relative portion 
 of starch, and, when mixed with water, it separates and 
 falls away like so much earthy matter. It may serve as 
 food for the subterranean workers. But the young or 
 larvae of ants are usually fed by juices secreted by the 
 worker-nurses. 
 
 [Leaving the ant8 with this example of their curious habits, we 
 shall proceed with the author's description of Brazilian monkeys.] 
 
 I have already mentioned that monkeys were rare in the 
 immediate vicinity of Para. I met with three species 
 
 40
 
 470 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bates 
 
 only in the forest near the city; they are shy animals and 
 avoid the neighborhood of towns, where they are subject 
 to much persecution by the inhabitants, who kill them for 
 food. The only kind which I saw frequently was the little 
 Midas ursulus, one of the Marmosets, a family peculiar to 
 tropical America, and differing in many essential points of 
 structure and habits from all other apes. They are small 
 in size, and more like squirrels than true monkeys in their 
 manner of climbing. The nails, except those of the hind 
 thumbs, are long and claw-shaped like those of squirrels, 
 and the thumbs of the fore extremities, or hands, are not 
 opposable to the other fingers. I do not mean to convey 
 that they have a near relationship to squirrels, which 
 belong to the Eodents, an inferior order of mammals ; their 
 resemblance to those animals is merely a superficial one. 
 They have two molar teeth less in each jaw than the 
 Cebidse, the other family of American monkeys; they 
 agree with them, however, in the sideway position of the 
 nostrils, a character which distinguishes both from all the 
 monkeys of the Old World. The body is long and slender, 
 clothed with soft hairs, and the tail, which is nearly twice 
 the length of the trunk, is not prehensile. The hind limbs 
 are much larger in volume than the anterior pair. 
 
 The Midas ursulus is never seen in large flocks; three or 
 four is the greatest number observed together. It seems 
 to be less afraid of the neighborhood of man than any 
 other monkey. I sometimes saw it in the woods which 
 border the suburban streets, and once I espied two individ- 
 uals in a thicket behind the English consul's house at 
 Nazareth. Its mode of progression along the main boughs 
 of the lofty trees is like that of squirrels ; it does not 
 ascend to the slender branches, or take those wonderful 
 flying leaps which the Cebidse do, whose prehensile tails 
 ,and flexible hands fit them for such headlong travelling.
 
 Bates] BRAZILIAN ANTS AND MONKEYS. s 4/1 
 
 It confines itself to the larger boughs and trunks of trees, 
 the long nails being of great assistance to the creature, 
 enabling it to cling securely to the bark ; and it is often 
 seen passing rapidly round the perpendicular cylindrical 
 trunks. It is a quick, restless, timid little creature, and 
 has a great share of curiosity, for when a person passes by 
 under the trees along which a flock is running, they always 
 stop for a few moments to have a stare at the intruder. 
 
 In Para Midas ursulus is often seen in a tame state in 
 the houses of the inhabitants. When full grown it is about 
 nine inches long, independently of the tail, which measures 
 fifteen inches. The fur is thick, and black in color, with 
 the exception of a reddish-brown streak down the middle 
 of the back. When first taken, or when kept tied up, it 
 is very timid and irritable. It will not allow itself to be 
 approached, but keeps retreating backward when any one 
 attempts to coax it. It is always in a querulous humor, 
 uttering a twittering, complaining noise ; its dark, watchful 
 eyes, expressive of distrust, observant of every movement 
 which takes place near it. When treated kindly, however, 
 as it generally is in the houses of the natives, it becomes 
 very tame and familiar. I once saw one as playful as a 
 kitten, running about the house after the negro children, 
 who fondled it to their heart's content. It acted some- 
 what differently towards strangers, and seemed not to like 
 them to sit in the hammock which was slung in the room, 
 leaping up, trymg to bite, and otherwise annoying them. 
 
 It is generally fed on sweet fruits, such as the banana, 
 but it is also fond of insects, especially soft-bodied spiders 
 and grasshoppers, which it will snap up with eagerness 
 when within reach. The expression of countenance in 
 these small monkeys is intelligent and pleasing. This is 
 partly owing to the open facial angle, which is given as one 
 of sixty degrees ; but the quick movements of the head, and
 
 472 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bates 
 
 the way they have of inclining it to one side when their 
 curiosity is excited, contribute very much to give them a 
 knowing expression. Anatomists who have dissected 
 species of Midas tell us that the brain is of a very low 
 type as far as the absence of convolutions goes, the surface 
 being as smooth as that of a squirrel's. I should conclude 
 at once that this character is an unsafe guide in judging 
 of the mental qualities of these animals ; in mobility of 
 expression of countenance, intelligence, and general man- 
 ners these small monkeys resemble the higher apes far 
 more than they do any rodent animal with which I am 
 acquainted. 
 
 On the upper Amazon I once saw a tame individual of 
 the Midas leoninus, a species first described by Humboldt, 
 which was still more playful and intelligent than the one 
 just described. This rare and beautiful little monkey is 
 only seven inches in length, exclusive of the tail. It is 
 named leoninus on account of the long brown mane which 
 depends from the neck, and which gives it very much the 
 appearance of a diminutive lion. In the house where it 
 was kept it was familiar with every one; its greatest 
 pleasure seemed to be to climb about the bodies of different 
 persons who entered. The first time I went in, it ran 
 across the room straightway to the chair on which I sat 
 down and climbed up to my shoulder; arrived there, it 
 turned round and looked into my face, showing its little 
 teeth, and chattering, as though it would say, " Well, and 
 how do you do?" It showed more affection towards its 
 master than towards strangers, and would climb up to his 
 head a dozen times in the course of an hour, making a 
 great show every time of searching there for certain 
 animalcula. 
 
 Isidore Geoffrey St. Hilaire relates of a species of this 
 genus that it distinguished between different objects de-
 
 Bates] BRAZILIAN ANTS AND MONKEYS. 473 
 
 picted on an engraving. M.. Audouin showed it the por- 
 traits of a cat and a wasp ; at these it became much terri- 
 fied ; whereas at the sight of a figure of a grasshopper or 
 beetle it precipitated itself on the picture, as if to seize the 
 objects there represented. /* 
 
 Although monkeys are now rare in a wild state near 
 Para, a great number may be seen semi- domesticated in 
 the city. The Brazilians are fond of pet animals. Mon- 
 keys, however, have not been known to breed in captivity 
 in this country. I counted in a short time thirteen dif- 
 erent species while walking about the Para streets, either 
 at the doors or windows of houses, or in the native canoes. 
 Two of them I did not meet with afterwards in any other 
 part of the country. One of these was the well known 
 Hapale jacchus, a little creature resembling a kitten, banded 
 with black and gray all over the body and tail, and having 
 a fringe of long white hairs surrounding the ears. It 
 was seated on the shoulder of a young mulatto girl, as she 
 was walking along the street, and I was told had been 
 captured in the island of Marajo. The other was a species 
 of Cebas, with a remarkably large head. It had ruddy 
 brown fur, paler on the face, but presenting a blackish tuft 
 on the top of the forehead. . . . 
 
 The only monkeys I observed at Cam eta were the Couxio 
 (Pithecia satanas), a largo species, clothed with long 
 brownish black hair, and the tiny Midas argentatus. The 
 Couxio has a thick bushy tail ; the hair of the head sits on 
 it like a cap, and looks as if it had been carefully combed. 
 It inhabits only the most retired parts of tho forest, on the 
 terra firma, and I observed nothing of its habits. Tho 
 little Midas argentatus is one of the rarest of the American 
 monkeys. I have not heard of its being found anywhere 
 except near Cameta. I once saw three individuals together 
 running along a branch in a cacao grove near Cameta ; 
 
 40*
 
 474 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bates 
 
 they looked like white kittens: in their motions they 
 resembled precisely the Midas ursulus already described. 
 
 I saw afterwards a pet animal of this species, and heard 
 that there were many so kept, and that they were esteemed 
 as choice treasures. The one I saw was full grown, but it 
 measured only seven inches in length of body. It was 
 covered with long white, silky hairs, the tail was blackish, 
 and the face nearly naked and flesh-colored. It was a most 
 timid and sensitive little thing. The woman who owned 
 it carried it constantly in her bosom, and no money would 
 induce her to part with her pet. She called it Mico. It 
 fed from her mouth and allowed her to fondle it freely, but 
 the nervous little creature would not permit strangers to 
 touch it. If any one attempted to do so it shrank back, 
 the whole body trembling with fear, and its teeth chattered, 
 while it uttered its tremulous frightened tones. The ex- 
 pression of its features was like that of its more robust 
 brother Midas ursulus ; the eyes, which were black, were 
 full of curiosity and mistrust, and it always kept them 
 fixed on the person who attempted to advance towards it. 
 
 In the orange groves and other parts humming-birds were 
 plentiful, but I did not notice more than three species. I 
 saw a little pigmy belonging to the genus Phaethornis one 
 day in the act of washing itself in a brook. It was perched 
 on a thin branch, whose end was under water. It dipped 
 itself, then fluttered its wings and pruned its feathers, and 
 seemed thoroughly to enjoy itself alone in the shady nook 
 which it had chosen,— a place overshadowed by broad leaves 
 of ferns and Heliconiae. I thought as I watched it that 
 there was no need for poets to invent elves and gnomes 
 while nature furnishes us with such marvellous little 
 sprites ready to hand.
 
 Orton] THE MONARCHS OF THE ANDES. 475 
 
 THE MONARCHS OF THE ANDES. 
 
 JAMES ORTON. 
 
 [The story of the Andes and the great river to which this mountain- 
 chain gives hirth has never been better told than in Orton's "The 
 Andes and the Amazon," from whom we select the following descrip- 
 tion of Chimborazo and its mountain neighbors. James Orton, born 
 at Seneca Tails, New York, in 1830, became a Congregationalist 
 clergyman, and in 1867 headed an exploring expedition to South 
 America. In 1873 he sought that continent again, and died on Lake 
 Titicaca, September 24, 1877.] 
 
 Coming up from Peru through the cinchona forests of 
 Loja, and over the barren hills of Assuay, the traveller 
 reaches Riobamba seated on the threshold of magnificence, 
 — like Damascus, an oasis in a sandy plain, but, unlike the 
 Queen of the East, surrounded with a splendid retinue of 
 snowy peaks that look like icebergs floating in a sea of 
 clouds. 
 
 On our left is the most sublime spectacle in the New 
 World. It is a majestic pile of snow, its clear outline on 
 the deep blue sky describing the profile of a lion in repose. 
 At noon the vertical sun, and the profusion of light re- 
 flected from the glittering surface, will not allow a shadow 
 to be cast on any part, so that you can easily fancy the 
 figure is cut out of a mountain of spotless marble. This 
 is Chimborazo, — yet not the whole of it, — you see but a 
 third of the great giant. His feet are as eternally green 
 as his head is everlastingly white ; but they are far away 
 beneath the banana and cocoanut palms of the Pacific coast. 
 
 Rousseau was disappointed when ho first saw the sea ; 
 and the first glimpse of Niagara often fails to meet one's 
 expectations. But Chimborazo is sure of a worshipper the
 
 476 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Orton 
 
 moment its overwhelming grandeur breaks upon the travel- 
 ler. You feel that you are in the presence-chamber of the 
 monarch of the Andes. There is sublimity in his kingly 
 look of which the ocean might be proud. 
 
 " All that expands the spirit, yet appeals, 
 Gathers around this summit, as if to show 
 How earth may pierce to heaven, yet leave vain man helow." 
 
 Well do we remember our disappointment as we stood 
 before that wonder of the world, — St. Peter's. We mounted 
 the pyramid of steps and looked up, but were not overcome 
 by the magnificence. We read in our guide-book that the 
 edifice covers eight acres, and to the tip-top of the cross 
 is almost five hundred feet ; that it took three hundred and 
 fifty years and twelve successive artists to finish it and an 
 expenditure of fifty million dollars, and now costs thirty 
 thousand dollars per annum to keep it in repair, still we do 
 not appreciate its greatness. We pushed aside the curtain 
 and walked in, — walked a day's journey across the transept 
 and up and down the everlasting nave, and yet continued 
 heterodox. We tried hard to believe it was very vast and 
 sublime, and we knew we ought to feel its grandeur, but 
 somehow we did not. Then we sat down by the 'Holy of 
 Holies, and there we were startled into a better judgment 
 by the astounding fact that the Cathedral of St. Paul — the 
 largest edifice in Great Britain — could stand upright, spire, 
 dome, body, and all, inside of St. Peter's ! that the letters 
 of the inscription which run round the base of the dome, 
 though apparently but an inch, are in reality six feet high I 
 Then for the first time the scales fell from our eyes, the 
 giant building began to grow; higher and higher still it 
 rose, longer and deeper it expanded, yet in perfect propor- 
 tions ; the colossal structure, now a living temple, put on 
 its beautiful garments and the robe of majesty. And that
 
 Orton] THE MONARCHS OF THE ANDES. 477 
 
 dome ! the longer we looked at it the vaster it grew, till 
 finally it seemed to be a temple not made with hands ; the 
 spacious canopy became the firmament ; the mosaic figures 
 of cherubim and seraphim were endowed with life; and as 
 we fixed our eyes on the zenith where the almighty is rep- 
 resented in glory, we thought we had the vision of Stephen. 
 Long we gazed upward into this heaven of man's creation, 
 and gazed again till we were lost in wonder. 
 
 But the traveller needs no such steps to lift him up to 
 the grand conception of the divine Architect as he beholds 
 the gi'eat white dome of Chimborazo. It looks lofty from 
 the very first. Now and then an expanse of thin, sky-like 
 \ T apor would cut the mountain in twain, and the dome, 
 islanded in the deep blue of the upper regions, seemed to 
 belong more to heaven than to earth. We knew that 
 Chimborazo was more than twice the altitude of Etna. 
 We could almost see the great Humboldt struggling up the 
 mountain's side till he looked like a black speck moving 
 over the mighty white, but giving up in despair four thou- 
 sand feet below the summit. We see the intrepid Bolivar 
 mounting still higher; but the hero of Spanish-American 
 independence returns a defeated man. Last of all comes 
 the philosophic Boussingault, and attains the prodigious ele- 
 vation of nineteen thousand six hundred feet, — the highest 
 point reached by man without the aid of a balloon ; but 
 the dome remains unsullied by his foot. Yet none of these 
 facts increase our admiration. The mountain has a tongue 
 which speaks louder than all mathematical calculations. 
 
 There must be something singularly sublime about Chim- 
 borazo, for the spectator at Eiobamba is already nine thou- 
 sand feet high, and the mountain is not so elevated above 
 him as Mont Blanc above the vale of Chamouni, when, in 
 reality, that culminating point of Europe would not reach 
 up even to the snow-limit of Chimborazo by two thousand
 
 478 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Ortow 
 
 feet. It is only while sailing on the Pacific that one sees 
 Chimborazo in its complete proportions. Its very magnifi- 
 cence diminishes the impression of awe and wonder, for the 
 Andes on which it rests are heaved to such a vast altitude 
 above the sea, that the relative elevation of its summit be- 
 comes reduced by comparison with the surrounding moun- 
 tains. Its altitude is twenty-one thousand four hundred 
 and twenty feet, or forty-five times the height of Strasburg 
 cathedral ; or, to state it otherwise, the fall of one pound 
 from the top of Chimborazo would raise the temperature 
 of water thirty degrees. One-fourth of this is perpetually 
 covered with snow, so that its ancient name Chimpurazu — 
 the mountain of snow — is very appropriate. It is a stirring 
 thought that this mountain, now mantled with snow, once 
 gleamed with volcanic fires. There is a hot spring on the 
 north side, and an immense amount of debris covers the 
 slope below the snow-limit, consisting chiefly of fine-grained, 
 iron-stained trachyte and coarse porphyroid gray trachyte ; 
 very rarely a dark vitreous trachyte. Chimborazo is very 
 likely not a solid mountain; trachytic volcanoes are sup- 
 posed to be full of cavities. Bouger found it made the 
 plumb line deviate 7" or 8". 
 
 The valleys which furrow the flank of Chimborazo are in 
 keeping with its colossal size. Narrower, but deeper, than 
 those of the Alps, the mind swoons and sinks in the effort 
 to comprehend their grim majesty. The mountain appears 
 to have been broken to pieces like so much thin crust, and 
 the strata thrown on their vertical edges, revealing deep, 
 dark chasms, that seem to lead to the confines of the lower 
 world. The deepest valley in Europe, that of the Ordesa 
 in the Pyrenees, is three thousand two hundred feet deep ; 
 but here are rents in the side of Chimborazo in which 
 Vesuvius could be put away out of sight. As you look 
 down into the fathomless fissure, you see a white fleck
 
 Orton] THE MONARCHS OF THE ANDES. 479 
 
 rising out of the gulf, and expanding as it mounts, till the 
 wings of the condor, fifteen feet in spread, glitters in the sun 
 as the proud bird fearlessly wheels over the dizzy chasm, 
 and then, ascending above your head, sails over the dome 
 of Chimborazo. Could the condor speak, what a glowing 
 description he could give of the landscape beneath him 
 when his horizon is a thousand miles in diameter ! If 
 
 " Twelve fair counties saw the blaze from Malvern's lonely height," 
 
 what must be the panorama from a height fifteen times 
 higher! 
 
 Chimborazo was long supposed to be the tallest moun- 
 tain on the globe, but its supremacy has been supplanted 
 by Mount Everest in Asia, and Aconcagua in Chile. In 
 mountain gloom and glory, however, it still stands un- 
 rivalled. The Alps have the avalanche, "the thunderbolt 
 of snow," and the glaciers, those icy Niagaras so beautiful 
 and grand. Here they are wanting. The monarch of 
 the Andes sits motionless in calm serenity and unbroken 
 silence. The silence is absolute and actually oppressive. 
 The road from Guayaquil to Quito crosses Chimborazo at 
 the elevation of fourteen thousand feet. Save the rush of 
 the trade wind in the afternoon, as it sweeps over the 
 Andes, not a sound is audible; not the hum of an insect, 
 nor the chirp of a bird, nor the roar of the puma, nor the 
 music of running waters. Mid-ocean is never so silent. 
 You can almost hear the globe turning on its axis. There 
 was a time when the monarch deigned to speak, and spoke 
 with a voice of thunder, for the lava on its sides is an evi- 
 dence of volcanic activity. But ever since the morning 
 stars sang together over man's creation Chimbo has sat in 
 sullen silence, satisfied to look " from his throne of clouds 
 o'er half the world." There is something very suggestive 
 in this silence of Chimborazo. It was once full of noise
 
 480 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Orton 
 
 and fury ; it is now a completed mountain, and thunders no 
 more. How silent was Jesus, a completed character I The 
 reason that we are so noisy is that we are so full of wants ; 
 we are unfinished characters. Had we perfect fulness of 
 all things, the beatitude of being without a want, we 
 should lapse into the eternal silence of God. 
 
 Chimborazo is a leader of a long train of ambitious 
 crags and peaks ; but as he who comes after the king must 
 not expect to be noticed, we will only take a glimpse of 
 these lesser lights as we pass up the Western Cordillera, 
 and then down the Eastern. 
 
 The first after leaving the monarch is Caraguairazo. 
 The Indians call it " the wife of Chimborazo." They are 
 separated only by a very narrow valley. One hundred and 
 seventy years ago the top of this mountain fell in, and 
 torrents of mud flowed out containing multitudes of fishes. 
 It is now over seventeen thousand feet high, and is one of 
 the most Alpine of the Quitonian volcanoes, having sharp 
 pinnacles instead of the smooth trachytic domes — usually 
 double domes — so characteristic of the Andean summits. 
 And now we pass in rapid succession numerous picturesque 
 mountains, some of them extinct volcanoes, as Iliniza, 
 presenting two pyramidal peaks, the highest seventeen 
 thousand feet above the sea, and Corazon, so named from 
 its heart-shaped summit, till we reach Pichincha, whose 
 smoking crater is only five miles distant in a straight line 
 from the city of Quito, or eleven by the travelled route. 
 
 The crown of this mountain presents three groups of rocky 
 peaks. The most westerly one is called Pucu-Pichincha, 
 and alone manifests activity. To the northeast of Eucu is 
 Guagua-Picbincha, a ruined flue of the same fiery furnace ; 
 and between the two is Cundur-Guachana. Pichincha is the 
 only volcano in Eucador which has not a true cone crater. 
 Some violent eruption beyond the reach of history or trad i-
 
 Orton] THE MONARCHS OF THE ANDES. 481 
 
 tion has formed an enormous funnel-shaped basin two thou- 
 sand five hundred feet deep, fifteen hundred in diameter at 
 the bottom, and expanding upward to a width of three- 
 fourths of a mile. It is the deepest crater on the globe. That 
 of Kilauea is six hundred feet ; Orizaba, five hundred ; Etna, 
 three hundred ; Heela, one hundred. Vesuvius is a portable 
 furnace in comparison. The abyss is girt with a ragged wall 
 of dark trachyte, which rises on the inside at various angles 
 between forty-five degrees and perpendicularity. As we 
 know of but one American besides the members of our ex- 
 pedition (Mr. Farrand, a photographer) who has succeeded 
 in entering the crater of this interesting volcano, we will 
 give a brief sketch of our visit. 
 
 Leaving Quito in the afternoon by the old arched gate- 
 way at the foot of Panecillo, and crossing a spur of the 
 mountain, we stopped for the night at the Jesuit hacienda, 
 situated in the beautiful valley of Lloa, but nearly ruined 
 by the earthquake of 1859. On the damp walls of this 
 monaster}*, perched ten thousand two hundred and sixty- 
 eight above the ocean, wc found several old paintings, 
 among them a copy of the Visitation by Iiubens. The 
 sunset views in this heart of the Andes were surpassingly 
 beautiful. Mounting our horses at break of day, and 
 taking an Indian guide, we ascended rapidly by a narrow 
 and difficult path through the forest that belts the vol- 
 cano up to the height of twelve thousand feet, emerging 
 gradually into a thicket of stunted bushes, and then entered 
 the dreary paramo. Splendid was the view of the Eastern 
 Cordillera. At least six dazzling white volcanoes were in 
 sight just across the valley of Quito, among them table- 
 topped Cayambi, majestic Antisana, and princely Cotopaxi, 
 whose tapering summit is a mile above the clouds. Toiling 
 upward we reached the base of the cone where vegetation 
 ceased entirely; and tying our horses to some huge rocks 
 i.— v ff 41
 
 482 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Orton 
 
 that had fallen from the mural cliff above, we started off 
 on hands and feet for the crater. The cone is deeply 
 covered with sand and cinders for about two hundred feet, 
 and the sides are inclined at an angle of about thirty-five 
 degrees. At ten o'clock we reached the brim of the crater, 
 and the great gulf buret suddenly into view. 
 
 We can never forget the impression made upon us by the 
 sight. We speak of many things here below as awful, but 
 that word has its full meaning when carried to the top of 
 Pichincha. There you see a frightful opening in the earth's 
 crust nearly a mile in width and half a mile deep, and 
 from the dark abyss comes rolling up a cloud of sulphurous 
 vapors. Monte Somma in the time of Strabo was a minia- 
 ture ; but this crater is on the top of a mountain four times 
 the height of the Italian volcano. Imagination finds it 
 difficult to conceive a spectacle of more fearful grandeur 
 or such solemn magnificence. It well accords with Milton's 
 picture of the bottomless pit. The united effect of the 
 silence and solitude of the place, the great depth of the 
 cavity, the dark precipitous sides, and the column of smoke 
 standing over an unseen crevice, was to us more impressive 
 than thundering Cotopaxi or fiery Vesuvius. Humboldt, 
 after standing on this same brink, exclaimed, " I have never 
 beheld a grander or more remarkable picture than that pre- 
 sented by this volcano ;" and La Condamine compared to 
 it "the Chaos of the poets." 
 
 Below us are the smouldering fires which may any 
 moment spring forth into a conflagration ; around us are 
 black, ragged cliffs, — fit boundary for this gate-way to the 
 infernal regions. They look as if they had just been 
 dragged up from the central furnace of the earth. Life 
 seems to have fled in terror from the vicinity ; even lichens, 
 the children of the bare rocks, refuse to clothe the scathed 
 and beetling crags. For some moments made mute by the
 
 Orton] THE MONARCHS OF THE ANDES. 483 
 
 dreadful sight, we stood like statues on the rim of the mighty 
 caldron, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below, lost in 
 contemplating that which cannot be described. The pano- 
 rama from this lofty summit is more pleasing, but equally 
 sublime. Towards the rising sun is the long range of the 
 Eastern Cordillera, hiding from our view the great valley 
 of the Amazon. To right and left are the peaks of an- 
 other procession of august mountains from Cotocachi to 
 Chimborazo. We are surrounded by tbe great patriarchs 
 of the Andes, and their speaker, Cotopaxi, ever and anon 
 sends his muttering voice over the land. 
 
 The view westward is like looking down from a balloon. 
 Those parallel ridges of the mountain chain, dropping one 
 behind the other, are the gigantic staircase by which the 
 ice-crowned Chimborazo steps down to the sea. A white 
 sea of clouds covers the peaceful Pacific and the lower parts 
 of the coast. But the vapory ocean, curling into the 
 ravines, beautifully represents little coves and bays, leaving 
 islands and promontories like a true ocean on a broken 
 shore. We seem raised above the earth, which lies like an 
 opened map below us ; we can look down on the upper sur- 
 face of the clouds, and, were it night, down too upon the 
 lightnings. . . . 
 
 The first to reach the brink of the crater were the French 
 Academicians in 1742. Sixty years after Humboldt stood 
 on the summit. But it was not until 1844 that any one 
 dared to enter the crater. This was accomplished by 
 Garcia Moreno, now President of Ecuador, and Sebastian 
 Wisse, a French engineer. Humboldt pronounced the bot- 
 tom of the crater "inaccessible from its great depth and 
 precipitous descent." We found it accessible, but exceed- 
 ingly perilous. The moment we prepared to descend our 
 guide ran awaj\ We went on without him, but when half- 
 way down were stopped by a precipice.
 
 484 HALF- HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Orton 
 
 On the 22d of October, 1867, we returned to Pichinoha 
 with another guide and entered the crater by a different 
 route. Manuel, our Indian, led us to the south side, and 
 over the brink we went. Wo were not long in realizing 
 the danger of the undertaking. Here the snow concealed 
 an ugly fissure or covered a treacherous rock (for nearly 
 all the rocks are crumbling), there we must cross a mass 
 of loose sand moving like a glacier down the almost ver- 
 tical side of the crater ; and on every hand rocks were 
 giving way, and, gathering momentum at each revolution, 
 went thundering down, leaping over precipices and jostling 
 other rocks, which joined in the race, till they all struck 
 the bottom with a deep rumbling sound, shivered like so 
 many bomb-shells into a thousand pieces, and telling us 
 what would be our fate if we made a single misstep. We 
 followed our Indian in single file, keeping close together, 
 that the stones set free by those in the rear might not dash 
 those below from their feet ; feeling our way with the greatest 
 caution, clinging with our hands to the snow, sand, rocks, 
 tufts of grass, or anything that would hold for a moment; 
 now leaping over a chasm, now letting ourselves down from 
 rock to rock ; at times paralyzed with fear, and alwaj-s with 
 death staring us in the face ; thus we scrambled for two 
 hours and a half till we reached the bottom of the crater. 
 
 Here we found a deeply furrowed plain strewn with 
 ragged rocks, and containing a few patches of vegetation, 
 with half a dozen species of flowers. In the centre is an 
 irregular heap of stones, two hundred and sixty feet high 
 by eight hundred in diameter. This is the cone of eruption, 
 — its sides and summit covered with an imposing group of 
 vents, seventy in number, all lined with sulphur and ex- 
 haling steam, black smoke, and sulphurous gas. The tem- 
 perature of the vapor just within the fumarole is 184°, 
 water boiling beside it at 189°.
 
 Squier] INCA HIGH-ROADS AND BRIDGES. 485 
 
 The central vent or chimney gives forth a sound like 
 the violent bubbling of boiling water. As we sat on this 
 fiery mount surrounded by a circular rampart of rocks, 
 and looked up at the immense towers of dark dolerite 
 which ran up almost vertically to the height of twenty-five 
 hundred feet above us, musing over the tremendous force 
 which fashioned this awful amphitheatre, — spacious enough 
 for all the gods of Tartarus to hold high carnival, — the 
 clouds which hung in the thin air around the crest of the 
 crater pealed forth thunder after thunder, which, rever- 
 berating from precipice to precipice, were answered by the 
 crash of rocks let loose by the storm, till the whole moun- 
 tain seemed to tremble like a leaf. Such acoustics, mingled 
 with the flash of lightning and the smell of brimstone, 
 made us believe that we had fairly got into the realm of 
 Pluto. It is the spot where Dante's " Inferno" ought to be 
 read. 
 
 INCA HIGH-ROADS AND BRIDGES. 
 
 E. GEORGE SQUIER. 
 
 [Squier's " Peru : Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land 
 of the Incas" is the source of our present selection. The author, 
 Ephraim George Squier, was born in Albany County, New York, in 
 1821. He studied the aboriginal monuments of New York, and after- 
 wards travelled and made extensive archaeological researches in Central 
 America. He was appointed United States Commissioner to Peru in 
 1863, and made important studies of the ancient ruins of that country. 
 We give his interesting account of the perilous crossing of the Apu- 
 rimac] 
 
 The great and elaborate highways, or public roads, 
 which the chroniclers and the historians, following their 
 
 41*
 
 486 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Sqitier 
 
 authorit}', tell us were constructed by the Incas through- 
 out their vast empire, all radiating north, east, south, 
 and west from the imperial city of Cuzco, if they existed 
 at all in Central and Southern Peru, have disappeared, 
 leaving here and there only short sections or fragments, 
 hardly justifying the extravagant praise that has been 
 bestowed on them. The modern mule-paths, miscalled 
 roads, must necessarily follow nearly, if not exactly, the 
 routes of the Indians under the Empire. The physical 
 conformation of the country is such that communica- 
 tion between puna and puna, and from valley to valley, 
 must always be made by the same passes. All these passes 
 over the mountains are marked by huge piles of stone 
 raised, like the cairns of Scotland and Wales, by the con- 
 tribution of a single stone from each traveller as an offer- 
 ing to the spirits of the mountains, and as an invocation 
 for their aid in sustaining the fatigues of travel. These 
 great stone heaps still exist, and will remain to the end of 
 time, monuments marking forever the routes of travel in 
 the days of the Incas. 
 
 We know, therefore, from these rude monuments very 
 nearly what were the ancient lines of communication. 
 These are also further indicated by remains of the tambos, 
 which occur at intervals all through the country, and 
 oftenest in places remote from supplies, in cold and desert 
 districts, where the traveller stands most in need of food 
 and shelter. 
 
 The modern voyager would consider himself supremely 
 fortunate were he to find one in a hundred of these tambos, 
 now in existence ; for travelling in Peru is infinitely more 
 difficult and dangerous than it was in the days of the Incas: 
 more difficult, because the facilities are less ; more danger- 
 ous, because the laws are more lax, and the moral standard 
 of the people lower. The influence of Spain in Peru has
 
 Squier] INC A HIGH-ROADS AND BRIDGES. 487 
 
 been every way deleterious ; the civilization of the country 
 was far higher before the Conquest than now. 
 
 As I have said, few traces of the Inca roads, such as are 
 described by the earl)' writers, and such as Humboldt saw 
 in Northern Peru, are now to be found in the southern 
 part of that country ; and as the modern pathways must 
 follow the ancient lines, I infer that they never existed 
 here, for there is no reason why they should have suffered 
 more from time and the elements in one part of the country 
 than in another. 
 
 Between Cuzco and the sweet valley of Yucay there are 
 numerous traces of an ancient road, some sections of which 
 are perfect. These sections coincide in character with the 
 long reaches in the direction of Quito. They consist of a 
 pathway from ten to twelve feet wide, raised slightly in 
 the centre, paved with stones, and the edges defined by 
 larger stones sunk firmly in the ground. Where this road 
 descends from the elevated puna — a sheer descent of al- 
 most four thousand feet into the valley of Yucay — it zig- 
 zags on a narrow shelf cut in the face of the declivity, and 
 supported here and there, where foothold could not other- 
 wise be obtained, by high retaining-walls of cut stone, 
 looking as perfect and firm as when first built centuries 
 ago. 
 
 High mountain-ranges and broad and frigid deserts, 
 swept by fierce, cold winds, are not the sole obstacles to 
 intercommunication in the Altos of Peru, and among those 
 snow-crowned monarchs of the Andes and Cordilleras. 
 There are deep valleys, gorges, and ravines among the 
 mountains, or cut deep in the plains that alternate with 
 them, in which flow swelling rivers or rapid torrents, fed 
 by the melting snows in the dry season, and swollen by the 
 rains in the wet season. They are often unfordable, but 
 still they must somehow be passed by the traveller. A
 
 488 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Squier 
 
 few bridges of stone were constructed by the Spaniards, 
 some after the Conquest, and a few others have been 
 erected by their descendants ; but, as a rule, the rivers and 
 mountain-torrents are passed to-day by the aid of devices 
 the same as were resorted to by the Incas, and at points 
 which they selected. 
 
 Had the principle of the arch been well understood by 
 the ancient inhabitants, who have left some of the finest 
 stone-cutting and masonry to be found in the world, there 
 is no doubt the interior of Peru would have abounded in 
 bridges rivalling those of Eome in extent and beauty. As 
 it was, occupying a country destitute of timber, they re- 
 sorted to suspension-bridges, no doubt precisely like those 
 now constructed bv their descendants and successors, — 
 bridges formed of cables of braided withes, stretched from 
 bank to bank, and called puentes de mimbres (bridges of 
 withes). Where the banks are high, or where the streams 
 are compressed between steep or precipitous rocks, these 
 cables are anchored to piers of stone. In other places they 
 are approached by inclined causeways, raised to give them 
 the necessary elevation above the water. Three or four 
 cables form the floor and the principal support of the 
 bridge, over which small sticks, sometimes only sections 
 of cane or bamboo, are laid transversely, and fastened to 
 the cables by vines, cords, or thongs of raw hide. Two 
 smaller cables are sometimes stretched on each side as a 
 guard or hand-rail. Over these frail and swaying struc- 
 tures pass men and animals, the latter frequently with their 
 load on their backs. 
 
 Each bridge is usually kept up by the municipality of 
 the nearest village ; and as it requires renewal every two 
 or three years, the Indians are obliged at stated periods to 
 bring to the spot a certain number of withes of peculiar 
 kinds of tough wood, generally of that variety called ioke,
 
 Squier] INCA HIGH-ROADS AND BRIDGES. 489 
 
 which are braided by experts, and then stretched across 
 the stream or river by the united exertions of the inhab- 
 itants. Some of the larger and most important structures 
 of this kind are kept up by the government, and all pas- 
 sengers and merchandise pay a fixed toll. Such is the case 
 with the great bridge over the Apurimac, on the main 
 road from the ancient Guamanga (now Ayacucho) to 
 Cuzco. 
 
 The Apurimac is one of the head-waters of the Amazon, 
 a large and rapid stream, flowing in a deep valley, or rather 
 gigantic ravine, shut in by high and precipitous mountains. 
 Throughout its length it is crossed at only a single point, 
 between two enormous cliffs, which rise dizzily on both 
 sides, and from the summits of which the traveller looks 
 down into a dark gulf. At the bottom gleams a white line 
 of water, whence struggles up a dull but heavy roar, 
 giving to the river its name, Apurimac signifying, in the 
 Quichua tongue, "the great speaker." From above, the 
 bridge, looking like a mere thread, is reached by a path 
 which on one side traces a thin, white line on the face of 
 the mountain, and down which the boldest traveller may 
 hesitate to venture. This path, on the other side, at once 
 disappears from a rocky shelf, where there is just room 
 enough to hold the hut of the bridge-keeper, and then runs 
 through a dark tunnel cut in the rock, from which it 
 emerges to trace its line of many a steep and weary zigzag 
 of the face of the mountain. It is usual for the traveller 
 to time his day's journey so as to reach this bridge in the 
 morning, before the strong wind sets in; for during the 
 greater part of the day it sweeps up the canon of the 
 Apurimac with great force, and then the bridge sways 
 like a gigantic hammock, and crossing is next to impos- 
 sible. 
 
 It was a memorable incident in my travelling experi-
 
 490 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Squikr 
 
 ences, the crossing of this great swinging bridge of the 
 Apurimac. I shall never forget it, even if it were not as- 
 sociated with a circumstance which, for the time, gave me 
 much uneasiness and pain. The fame of the bridge over 
 the Apurimac is coextensive with Peru, and every one we 
 met who had crossed it was full of frightful reminiscences 
 of his passage : how the frail structure swayed at a dizzy 
 height between gigantic cliffs over a dark abyss, filled with 
 the deep, hoarse roar of the river, and how his eyes grew 
 dim, his heart grew faint, and his feet unsteady as he 
 struggled across it, not dariug to cast a look on either 
 hand. 
 
 Our road to the bridge was circuitous and precipitous, 
 leading down the steeper side of the ridge of La Banca, 
 where it seemed hardly possible for a goat to find foothold. 
 It was a succession of abrupt zigzags, here and there inter- 
 rupted by a stretch of horizontal pathway. To see our 
 cavalcade it was necessary to look up or down, not beforo 
 or behind. It was like descending the coils of a flattened 
 corkscrew. In places the rocks encroached on the trail so 
 that it was necessary to crouch low on the saddle-bow to 
 pass beneath them, or else throw the weight of the body 
 on the stirrup overhanging the declivity of the mountain, 
 to avoid a collision. The most dangerous parts, however, 
 were where land-slips had occurred, and where it was im- 
 possible to construct a pathway not liable at any moment 
 to glide away beneath the feet of our animals. The gorge 
 narrowed as we descended, until it was literally shut in by 
 precipices of stratified rock strangely contorted; while 
 huge masses of stone, rent and splintered as from some 
 terrible convulsion of nature, rose sheer before us, appa- 
 rently preventing all exit from the sunless and threatening 
 ravine, at the bottom of which a considerable stream strug- 
 gled, with a hoarse roar, among the black boulders.
 
 Squier] INCA HIGH-ROADS AND BRIDGES. 491 
 
 There was foothold for neither tree nor shrub, and our 
 mules picked their way warily, with head and ears pointed 
 downward, among the broken and angular masses. The 
 occasional shouts of the arrieros sounded here sharp and 
 percussive, and seemed to smite themselves to death 
 against the adamantine walls. There was no room for 
 echo. Finally the ravine became so narrowed between the 
 precipitous mountain-sides as barely to afford room for the 
 stream and our scant part}*. Here a roar, deeper, stronger, 
 and sterner than that of the stream which we had followed, 
 reached our ears, and we knew it was the voice of the 
 " Great Speaker." A little farther on we came in view of 
 the river and two or three low huts built on the circum- 
 scribed space where the two streams came close together. 
 Our muleteers were already busy in unloading the baggage, 
 preparatory to its being carried across the bridge on the 
 cicatrized backs of the occupants of the huts. 
 
 To the left of the huts, swinging high in a graceful 
 curve, between the precipices on either side, looking won- 
 derfully frail and gossamer-like, was the famed bridge of 
 the Apurimac. A steep, narrow path, following for some 
 distance a natural shelf, formed by the stratification of the 
 rock, and for the rest of the way hewn in its face, led up, 
 for a hundred feet, to a little platform, also cut in the rock, 
 where were fastened the cables supporting the bridge. On 
 the opposite bank was another and rather larger platform, 
 partly roofed by the rock, where was the windlass for 
 making the cables taut, and where, perched like goats on 
 some mountain-shelf, lived the custodians of the bridge. 
 The path could barely be discovered turning sharp around 
 a rocky projection to the left of this perch, then reappear- 
 ing high above it, and then, after many a zigzag, losing 
 itself in the dark mouth of a tunnel. 
 
 My companions and myself lost no time in extracting
 
 492 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Squier 
 
 the measuring tapes and sounding lines from our alforjas, 
 and hurriedly scrambled up the rocky pathway to the 
 bridge. It was in bad condition. The cables had slacked 
 so that the centre of the bridge hung from twelve to 
 fifteen feet lower than its ends, and, then, the cables had 
 not stretched evenly, so that one side was considerably 
 lower than the other. The cables on either hand, intended 
 to answer the double purpose of stays and parapets, had 
 not sunk with the bridge, and were so high up that they 
 could not be reached without difficulty; and many of the 
 lines dropping from them to the floor, originally placed 
 widely apart, had been broken, so that practically they 
 were useful neither for security nor for inspiring con- 
 fidence. 
 
 Travelling in the Andes soon cures one of any nervous- 
 ness about heights and depths, and is a specific against 
 dizziness. Nevertheless, we all gave a rather apprehensive 
 glance at the frail structure before us, but we had no 
 difficulty in crossing and recrossing — as we did several 
 times — except on approaching the ends, to which our 
 weight transferred the sag of the cables and made the last 
 few yards rather steep. A stiff breeze swept up the 
 cation of the river, and caused a vibration of the bridge 
 from side to side of at least six feet. The motion, however, 
 inspired no sense of danger. 
 
 We carefully measured the length and altitude of the 
 bridge, and found it to be from fastening to fastening one 
 hundred and forty-eight feet long, and at its lowest part 
 one hundred and eighteen feet above the river. Mr. Mark- 
 ham, who crossed it in 1855, estimated the length at ninety 
 feet and the height at three hundred feet. Lieutenant 
 Gibbon, who crossed it in 1857, estimated the length at 
 three hundred and twenty-four feet and the height one 
 hundred and fifty feet. Our measurements, however, are
 
 Squier] INCA HIGH-ROADS AND BRIDGES. 493 
 
 exact. The height may be increased perhaps ten feet 
 when the cables are made taut. They are five in number, 
 twisted from the fibres of the cabuya, or maguey plant, 
 and are about four inches thick. The floor is of small 
 sticks and canes, fastened transversely with raw-hide 
 strings. The Indians coming from Andahuaylas and other 
 districts where the cabuya grows, generally bring a quan- 
 tity of leaves with them werewith to pay their toll. These 
 are prepared and made into rope by the custodians of the 
 bridge, who must be glad of some occupation in their lone 
 and lofty eyrie. 
 
 Our baggage was carried over the bridge, and the 
 animals were then led across one by one, loaded and 
 started up the mountain. The space is too limited to 
 receive more than two loaded mules at a time, and instances 
 are known of their having been toppled over the precipice 
 from overcrowding. "We led our horses over without 
 difficulty except in getting them on the bridge. But once 
 fairly on the swaying structure they were as composed 
 as if moving on the solid ground. Perhaps even to the 
 lowest animal intelligence it must be apparent that the 
 centre of the bridge of the Apurimac is not the place for 
 antics, equine or asinine. 
 
 Mounted once more, we commenced our steep and diffi- 
 cult ascent. At one place the sheer precipice presented 
 itself on one side, and a vertical wall on the other ; next it 
 was a scramble up a ladder of stairs, partly cut in the rock 
 and partly built up with stones against it; then a sudden 
 turn, with a parapet built around it in a semicircle, to pre- 
 vent descending animals from being carried into the abyss 
 below by their own momentum. Our cargo-mules toiled 
 up painfully above us, stopping every few steps to breathe, 
 while the muleteers braced themselves against their 
 haunches to afford them some support and rest. 
 
 42
 
 494 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Squieb 
 
 We had scarcely reached half-way to the mouth of the 
 tunnel, which enters the mountain at the base of a vast 
 vertical mass of rock, when our attention was arrested by 
 the shouts of our men and a commotion among the ani- 
 mals abovo us. It was occasioned by a descending train 
 of loaded mules, just plunging out of the black throat of 
 the tunnel. The mountain mule always seeks to take the 
 wall of the animal it meets, being perfectly aware of the 
 danger of trying to pass on the outer side of the pathway ; 
 and it sometimes happens that neither will give way under 
 any amount of persuasion or blows. The muleteers have 
 to unload the animals, which may then be got past each 
 other. A similar difficulty occurred now, and the con- 
 ductor of the advancing train hurried down to warn us to 
 dismount and seek the widest part of the path, or some 
 nook by its side, and there await the passage of his mules. 
 He had hardly done speaking when we saw one of our own 
 mules, loaded with our trunks, come plunging down the 
 narrow zigzagging way, evidently in fright, followed wildly 
 by its driver. Just before reaching the place where we 
 stood the animal fell, going literally heels over head, and 
 would have been carried over the little platform of rock 
 into the river had not the master of tho descending train 
 caught the falling mule by its foreleg, and in this way 
 saved it from tumbling over. He at once placed his whole 
 weight on its ears, thus prevented it from struggling, and 
 thus obviating its destruction, while we detached its cargo. 
 A foot farther, and the mule would inevitably have been 
 lost. 
 
 It was with no little satisfaction that we saw the last mule 
 of the train pass us, and resumed our ascent. We found the 
 tunnel a roomy one, two or three hundred )*ards in length, 
 with openings from the faco of the precipice for the admis- 
 sion of light and air. Through these we caught brief
 
 Hutchinson] THE GAUCHO AND HIS HORSE. 495 
 
 glimpses of the grand and solemn mountains on the 
 opposite side of the canon, and through them came in also, 
 hoarse and sullen, the deep voice of the river. I am un- 
 certain as to how far this tunnel may be ascribed to the 
 Incas, but feel sure that their bridge across the Apurimac 
 was at precisely the same point with the present one. We 
 were fully two hours in ascending the steeps, and reached 
 the high mountain-circled plain in which stands the 
 straggling town of Curahuasi, a well-watered village buried 
 among the trees and shrubbery. 
 
 THE GAUCHO AND HIS HORSE. 
 
 THOMAS J. HUTCHINSON. 
 
 [Among the skilled horsemen of the earth the gaucho of the plains 
 of Argentina bears pre-eminence. The cow-boy of our Western plains 
 somewhat nearly approaches him, but the cow-boy is only a passing ac- 
 cident, not an institution, like the gaucho, who will still flourish on 
 his native soil when the cow-boy has ceased to be. Hutchinson's 
 "Buenos Ayres and Argentine Gleanings" gives us a well-limned 
 picture of this interesting individual, to which we owe the following 
 selection.] 
 
 I can hardly consider myself presumptuous in believing 
 that few travellers who have made an ascent of the Parana 
 for the first time have done so with a more agreeable im- 
 pression of its beauty than I experienced. The only draw- 
 back connected with this pleasure is the consciousness of 
 being unable fully to describe it. My readers will, how- 
 ever, be indulgent enough to give me credit for an effort t<> 
 do my best. 
 
 Our water-way in the little steamer "Dolircitas," after 
 leaving Buenos Ayres, was through one of the narrow
 
 496 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Hutchinson 
 
 passages that are the boundaries of islets, higher up than, 
 as well as parallel with, the island of Martin Garcia. As 
 we steam along and pass the estancias of wealthy farmers, 
 I observe on the banks hundreds of cows, large troops 
 of horses, and flocks of sheep, in numbers sufficient to 
 puzzle even the calculating Pedder. There are very few 
 wild trees to be seen, except on the highlands an occasional 
 specimen of the Ombu or Algaroba species. The resi- 
 dences are invariably surrounded by groves or shrubberies 
 of peach-trees. The physical aspect of the islands is quite 
 flat, and until we advance a few hundred miles there is no 
 elevation above a few feet close to the river's bide. Now 
 and then — as, for example, when passing through the creek 
 called the "Baradero" — I catch a glimpse of high land, on 
 part of which there is a convent or chapel ; but the wholo 
 country is uncultivated, except in isolated patches near the 
 compounds of the tillers. 
 
 Flocks of wild duck and snipe are seen in abundance ; 
 wild turkeys likewise, with occasionally a group of flamin- 
 goes, whose scarlet plumage forms a strikingly dazzling ob- 
 ject in the bright sunshine. Indeed, birds of various kinds 
 are about us everywhere. Passing through one of these 
 island passages, you see strewing the banks on the mainland 
 side the skeletons of cows and horses, while other poor 
 brutes are lying in the agonies of death ; for the mud at 
 the extreme edge of the water is too soft to support them ; 
 hence, when they go down to drink, they are swamped in 
 its sponginess, and must therefore remain to die. 
 
 Steaming on, we pass or meet several small river-craft 
 engaged in the coasting-trade between Montevideo, Buenos 
 Ayres, and the towns up tho river, until wo land at an 
 est;incia, where cows, horses, and sheep are bred and nur- 
 tured: the cows and bullocks chiefly for the hides and 
 meat, disposed of as already described at a saladero ; sheep
 
 Hutchinson] THE GAUCHO AND HIS HORSE. 497 
 
 for their wool ; while horses are reared for every possible 
 purpose, and are turned to use whether alive or dead. 
 
 Horses dead! Their skins are tanned; the grease of the 
 mare's body is used for light, and for many oleaginous pur- 
 poses. Close to one of our towns is a rancho or hut be- 
 longing to a brick-maker, and there, between his door and 
 the kiln, is an immense pile — as high as an ordinary house 
 — of dead horses, whose bodies are to be used for burning 
 the bricks. Mares' tongues, preserved, are sold in the 
 market as luxuries ; hoofs, skulls, shank, thigh, and other 
 bones of the animal, as well as the hair of the mane and 
 tail, are exported hence to England, America, and other 
 places across the sea in large quantities. At the saladeros, 
 too, they slaughter mares in hundreds for their hides and 
 grease, the operation being conducted by crunching the 
 animal's skull with a mallet, after it has been brought to 
 the [ground by means of a lasso thrown round the feet. 
 One can scarcely travel a mile through the camp without 
 seeing a dead horse somewhere. 
 
 Horses alive! At many stations on the river they fish 
 on horseback, by riding into a considerable depth of water 
 and throwing a peculiar kind of net, which is drawn back 
 to the shore by the horse. Our letters are delivered at the 
 door by a rat-tat in regular English style from the post- 
 man, who is on horseback. The daily journal is brought to 
 us by a cavalier, who hands it in without dismounting ; even 
 a beggar-man rides up every Saturday to solicit Una limosna 
 por el amor de Dios, and he has a license from the police in 
 the shape of a piece of branded wood suspended round his 
 neck. The aristocracy of beggary is evident in this fellow, 
 too ; for on one occasion, being offered cold meat and bread 
 by my servant, he rode off, indignantly saying he wanted 
 money to buy cigarritos. 
 
 Horses making bricks! Ay, incredible as it ma}- appear, 
 l.—gg 42*
 
 498 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Hutchinson 
 
 there are the very animals which dragged the dead bodies 
 of their brethren to be made fuel of at the brick-kilns 
 before mentioned, now driven round and round in a circus, 
 tramping into malleable mud clay and water mixed to- 
 gether, and doing everything in the brick-making except 
 the moulding. 
 
 Horses threshing corn! Here at our friend's estancia I 
 see another large circus, styled a hera, in which are placed 
 several sheaves of wheat, and into this are turned fifteen 
 to twenty horses ; a mounted man goes in also, and drives 
 these animals with whip and yell round the circus until 
 all the corn is threshed by their tramping. 
 
 Horses churning butter! A novel sort of thing it is to see 
 a bag made of hides, into which the milk is put when it is 
 turned sufficiently sour ; this bag, fastened to a long strip 
 of rope-hide, is attached at the other end to the leather 
 girth which is round the horse's body; the latter is then 
 mounted by a gaucho, and ridden at a hard pace over the 
 camp for a sufficient length of time to secure the making 
 of the butter, by bumping the milk-bag against the ground. 
 
 A gaucho without his steed is an impracticability. To 
 move his furniture, consisting of beds, chairs, tables, crock- 
 ery, or hardware, the horse's back is fitted to the burden. 
 Coffins are conveyed to the burying-ground by being 
 strapped transversely on a horse's loins ; and one would 
 scarcely be surprised to hear of a specimen of the semi- 
 centaur under consideration going or cooking his dinner on 
 horseback, more especially with the picture before us of a 
 dentist operating on a poor fellow's grinders, the patient 
 and his physician being both mounted. 
 
 No crusader of olden time could have borne himself 
 more proudly at the head of a gallant regiment bound to 
 the Holy Land than does the gaucho, who guides a troop 
 of twenty to thirty carretas, each drawn by six bullocks,
 
 Hutchinson] THE GAUCHO AND HIS HORSE. 499 
 
 across the Pampas to Cordova or Mendoza. On his saddle, 
 chiefly made of untanned horse-hide and sheep-skin, he sits 
 with the consciousness that he is the horse's master. In- 
 deed, it is rarely that the real gaucho puts his foot in a 
 stirrup, — for practical purposes of riding never, — as it is 
 only on state occasions that he uses them. Stirrups made 
 in this country are of a triangular form, of iron or silver, 
 with the base fabricated after the fashion of a filigree 
 cruet-stand, though on a diminutive scale. At the museum 
 in Buenos Ayres I saw some of these triangular stirrups 
 that were described as having been brought from Paraguay, 
 made from hard wood, so large, clumsy, and heavy as to 
 constitute in themselves a load for a horse. With such 
 heavy stirrups it may be imagined what a weight the 
 gaucho's horse has to bear, when we consider the compo- 
 nent parts of the saddle or recado. 
 
 [This saddle is a very complex affair, made up of layers of sheep- 
 skin, carpet, cow-hide, woollen cloth, etc., too intricate to be here de- 
 scribed. It consists in all of twelve separate parts.] 
 
 The skill and endurance of the gaucho in the manage- 
 ment of horses is very remarkable. One of these men is 
 reported to have stood on the transverse bar, which crosses 
 over the gate of the corral, and dropped down upon the 
 back of a horse, while the animal, in company with sev- 
 eral others, without bridle or saddle, was at full gallop out 
 of the enclosure. What made the feat more adroit was 
 the fact of his having permitted a looker-on to select tho 
 horse for him to bestride before the whole lot were driven 
 out. The endurance of the gaucho is also striking; and I 
 have been told of a man, well known at Buenos Ayres, 
 having ridden a distance of seventy leagues — that is to 
 say, two hundred and ten miles — in one day to that city. 
 
 Sefior Don Carlos Iiurtado, of Buonos Ayres, informs me
 
 500 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Hutchinson 
 
 that the great gaucho game, in which the famous Rosas 
 was most proficient, was what is called el pialar, — that is, 
 catching horses by lassoing their feet (the ordinary mode 
 of doing this round the neck is called enlaser). Two lines 
 of horsemen, each from ten to twenty in number, are 
 placed at distances so far apart as to allow a mounted 
 gaucho to pass between them. This man is to gallop as 
 fast as he can from one end to the other, — in fact, to run 
 the gauntlet. Every horseman in the lines between which 
 he passes is furnished with a lasso. As he gallops up to 
 the end of the line the first lasso is thrown ; should it miss 
 him, the second is cast, and so on. The dexterity evidenced 
 by the watchfulness of men able to throw in such rapid 
 succession after a horse which is galloping, whilst they are 
 standing, is truly expert. At length the horse is pinned, 
 and down he falls as if he were shot. And now the activity 
 of the gaucho is displayed, for he comes on his feet with- 
 out any injury, smoking his cigarette as coolly as when he 
 lighted it at the starting-post. 
 
 The original popularity of Rosas was founded on his 
 gaucho dexterity. 
 
 The game of el pato is performed by sewing a cooked 
 duck into a piece of hide, leaving a leather point at each 
 end for the hand to grasp. This play having been in 
 former times limited in its carousal to the feast of St. John 
 (or San Juan), a gaucho took it up. Whoever is the 
 smartest secures the duck, and gallops away to any house 
 where he knows a woman residing who bears the name of 
 Juana, — Joan I suppose she would be called in English. It 
 is an established rule that tho lady of this name should 
 give a four-real piece (i.e., one shilling and sixpence), either 
 with the original duck returned or another equally complete. 
 Then away he gallops to another house where lives a 
 maiden of the name of Leonora, followed by a troop of
 
 Hutchinson] THE GAUCHO AND HIS HORSE. 501 
 
 his gaucho colleagues, trying to snap the duck-bag out of 
 his hand. With it, of course, must be delivered up the 
 four-real piece in the best of good humor. Falls and 
 broken legs have often been the result of this game. 
 
 Juego de la sortija is a class of sport pla}-ed by having a 
 small finger-ring fastened under a gibbet, beneath which 
 a gaucho gallops, and tries to tilt off the ring with a skewer 
 which he holds in his hand. This is done for a prize. 
 
 The salutation between two gauchos — even though they 
 be the best of friends — who have not met for a long time 
 is prefixed by a pass of arms with their knives. The con- 
 duct of these men is in general marked by sobriety, but 
 when the "patron" pays them their wages they often buy 
 a dozen of brandy or of gin, and this is all drunk, or 
 spilled in drinking, by one man at a single sitting. 
 
 It often happens in the gaucho communities that some 
 one gains a reputation for bravery. To prove his courage, 
 this hero goes to a pulperia, with a bottle in one hand and 
 a knife in the other, stands at the door, and turns out all 
 the occupants. One gaucho in the north and another in 
 the south hear of each other's bravery, obtain a meeting, 
 and, after returning compliments, draw out their knives 
 and fight to the death. 
 
 The gaucho dress is peculiar, — a poncho, which is placed 
 over the head by a hole in the centre, and which falls over 
 the body to the hips. This is often of a very gay pattern, 
 especially on Sundays and holidays. The lower garment 
 is a curious combination of bedgown and Turkish trousers, 
 named calzongillos ; it is bordered by a fringe, sometimes 
 of rich lace, from two to six inches in depth. Enormous 
 spurs form part of the toilette. I saw a pair on a gaucho 
 at the estancia of my friend Dr. Perez that measured 
 seven inches in diameter. These were of a larger size than 
 those mentioned by Mr. Darwin in his "Journal of
 
 502 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Hutchinson 
 
 Eesearches," describing the " Beagle's" voyage round the 
 world, and which he saw in Chile, measuring six inches in 
 the same direction as aforesaid. The boots for working 
 purposes are made of untanned hide, but those for holiday 
 dress are often of patent leather with bright scarlet tops. 
 
 Many of the gauchos wear purple or yellow handker- 
 chiefs over their heads, inside the sombrero, and others 
 have wide belts around their bodies, that are glistening 
 with silver dollars tacked on. The costume of a gaucho is, 
 however, only complete when he is on horseback with the 
 bolas, the lasso, and a knife at his girdle. The bolas consists 
 of two balls, which are fastened at the end of two short 
 leathern ropes, and thrown by means of another short 
 thong, — all three being secured together, — when they are 
 whirled round the head of the thrower before propulsion, 
 which is so efficaciously managed as to bring down at once 
 the horse or cow in whose legs they get entangled. 
 
 Mr. Prescott, in his admirable work on the " History and 
 Conquest of Peru," when alluding to the attack made by 
 the Peruvians on their ancient capital Cuzco, then (a.d. 
 1535) occupied by the Spanish invaders under Pizarro, 
 writes thus of the lasso : " One weapon peculiar to South 
 American warfare was used to some effect by the Peruvians. 
 This was the lasso, — a long rope with a noose at the end, 
 which they adroitly threw over the rider, or entangled 
 with it the legs of his horse, so as to bring them both to 
 the ground. More than one family fell into the hands of 
 the enemy by this expedient." The knowledge of the 
 weapon was therefore, in all probability, derived from this 
 quarter. 
 
 The horse-riding of the Chaco Indians, even in our day, 
 surpasses that of the gaucho. Fancy a troop of horses, 
 apparently riderless, galloping at full speed, yet each of 
 these animals is managed by a man who, with one arm
 
 Darwin] VALPARAISO AND ITS VICINITY. 503 1 
 
 over the neck of his brute, and with his other hand guiding 
 a bridle as well as grasping a lance, supports the whole 
 weight of his body by the back of the feet near the toes, 
 clinging on the horse's spine above his loins, — the rider's 
 body being thus extended, under cover of the steed's side. 
 As quick as thought he is up and standing on the horse's 
 back with a war-cry of defiance, — although, according to 
 Captain Page, U.S.N., never flinging away his javelin, for 
 with him it must be a hand-to-hand fight, — whilst with 
 equal rapidity he is down again, so as to be protected by 
 the body of the horse, which is all the time in full gallop. 
 
 Mr. Coghlan, C.E., and now attached to the Buenos 
 Ayres government, writes of those whom he saw when 
 exploring the Salado del Norte: '-The riding of the In- 
 dians is wonderful. The gauchos even give their horses 
 some preliminary training; but the Indian catches him 
 (of course with the lasso), throws him down, forces a 
 wooden bit into his mouth, with a piece of hide binds it 
 fast to the lower jaw, and rides him. I have seen a man at 
 the full gallop of his horse put his hand on the mane and 
 jump forward on his feet, letting the animal go on without 
 a check, merely to put his hand to something." 
 
 VALPARAISO AND ITS VICINITY. 
 
 CHARLES DARWIN. 
 
 [It is doubtful if there exists a more interesting work of scien- 
 tific travel than Darwin's " Journal of Kesearchcs into the Natural 
 History and Geology of the Countries visited during the Voyage 
 Round the World of H. M. S. Beagle " Nothing of scientific in- 
 terest and value seems to have missed the eyes of the indefatigable ex- 
 plorer, and he has described what he saw in so lucid and agreeable a
 
 504 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Dakwin 
 
 style as to make his work a veritable classic of travel and research. 
 We give here his description of Valparaiso and the adjoining country.] 
 
 July 23. — The " Beagle" anchored late at night in the 
 bay of Valparaiso, the chief seaport of Chile. When 
 morning came everything appeared delightful. After 
 Tierra del Fuego the climate felt quite delicious, — the at- 
 mosphere so dry, and the heavens so clear and blue with 
 the sun shining brightly, that all nature seemed sparkling 
 with life. The view from the anchorage is very pretty. 
 The town is built at the very foot of a range of hills, about 
 sixteen hundred feet high and rather steep. From its 
 position it consists of one long, straggling street, which 
 runs parallel to the beach, and wherever a ravine comes 
 down the houses are piled up on each sido of it. The 
 rounded hills, being only partially protected by a very 
 scanty vegetation, are worn into numberless little gullies, 
 which expose a singularly bright red soil. From this 
 cause, and from the low whitewashed houses with tile 
 roofs, the view reminded me of St. Cruz in Teneriffe. 
 
 In a northeasterly direction there are some fine glimpses 
 of the Andes ; but these mountains appear much grander 
 when viewed from the neighboring hills ; the great distance 
 at which they are situated can then more readily be per- 
 ceived. The volcano of Aconcagua is particularly mag- 
 nificent. This huge and irregularly conical mass has an 
 elevation greater than that of Chimborazo; for, from 
 measurements made by officers of the " Beagle," its height 
 is no less than twenty-three thousand feet. The Cordillera, 
 however, viewed from this point, owe the greater part of 
 their beauty to the atmosphere through which they are 
 seen. When the sun was setting in the Pacific, it was 
 admirable to watch how clearly their rugged outlines could 
 be distinguished, yet how varied and how delicate were the 
 shades of their color.
 
 Darwin] VALPARAISO AND ITS VICINITY. 505 
 
 The immediate neighborhood of Valparaiso is not very 
 productive to the naturalist. During the long summer the 
 wind blows steadily from the southward, and a little off 
 shore, so that rain never falls ; during the three winter 
 months, however, it is sufficiently abundant. The vegeta- 
 tion in consequence is very scanty : except in some deep 
 valleys there are no trees, and only a little grass and a few 
 low bushes are scattered over the less steep parts of the 
 hills. When we reflect that at the distance of three hun- 
 dred and fifty miles to the south this side of the Andes is 
 completely hidden by one impenetrable forest, the contrast 
 is very remarkable. 
 
 I took several long walks while collecting objects of 
 natural history. The country is pleasant for exercise. 
 There are many very beautiful flowers; and, as in most 
 other dry climates, the plants and shrubs possess strong 
 and peculiar odors, — even one's clothes in brushing through 
 them becomes scented. I did not cease from wonder at 
 finding each succeeding day as fine as the foregoing. What 
 a difference does climate make in the enjoyment of life ! 
 How opposite are the sensations when viewing black 
 mountains half enveloped in clouds, and seeing another 
 range through the light blue haze of a fine day! The 
 one for a time may be very sublime ; the other is all gayety 
 and happy life. 
 
 August 14- — I set out on a riding excursion, for the pur- 
 pose of geologizing the basal parts of the Andes, which 
 alone at this time of the year are not shut up by the winter 
 snow. Our first day's ride was northward along the sea 
 coast. After dark we reached the Hacienda de Quintero, 
 the estate which formerly belonged to Lord Cochrane. 
 My object in coming here was to see the great beds of 
 shells which stand some yards above the level of the sea, 
 and are burnt for lime. The proofs of the elevation of this 
 w 43
 
 506 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Darwin 
 
 whole line of coast are unequivocal : at the height of a few 
 hundred feet old-looking shells are numerous, and I found 
 some at thirteen hundred feet. These shells either lie loose 
 upon the surface or are embedded in a reddish-black vege- 
 table mould. I was very much surprised to find under 
 the microscope that this vegetable mould is really marine 
 mud, full of minute particles of organic bodies. 
 
 15th. — We returned towards the valley of Quillota. The 
 country was exceedingly pleasant, just such as poets 
 would call pastoral ; green open lawns, separated by small 
 valleys with rivulets, and the cottages, we may suppose of 
 the shepherds, scattered on the hill-sides. We were obliged 
 to cross the ridge of the Chilicauquen. At its base there 
 were many fine evergreen forest-trees, but these flourished 
 only in the ravines, where there was running water. Any 
 person who had seen only the country near Valparaiso 
 would never have imagined that there had been such pic- 
 turesque spots in Chile. 
 
 As soon as we reached the brow of the Sierra, the valley 
 of Quillota was immediately under our feet. The prospect 
 was one of remarkable artificial luxuriance. The valley is 
 very broad and quite flat, and is thus easily irrigated in all 
 parts. The little square gardens are crowded with orange- 
 and olive-trees and every sort of vegetable. On each side 
 huge bare mountains rise, and this from the contrast ren- 
 ders the patchwork valley the more pleasing. Whoever 
 called Valparaiso the " Valley of Paradise" must have been 
 thinking of Quillota. We crossed over to the Hacienda de 
 San Isidro, situated at the very mot of the Bell Mountain. 
 
 Chile, as may be seen in the maps, is a narrow strip of 
 land between the Cordillera and the Pacific ; and this strip 
 is itself traversed by several mountain-lines, which in this 
 part run parallel to the great range. Between these outer 
 lines and the main Cordillera a succession of level basins,
 
 Darwin] VALPARAISO AND ITS VICINITY. 507 
 
 generally opening into each other by narrow passages, ex- 
 tend far to the southward ; in these the principal towns 
 are situated, as San Felipe, Santiago, San Fernando. These 
 basins or plains, together with the transverse flat valleys 
 (like that of Quillota), which connect them with the coast, 
 I have no doubt are the bottoms of ancient inlets and deep 
 bays, such as at the present day intersect every part of 
 Terra del Fuego and the western coast. Chile must for- 
 merly have resembled the latter country in the configura- 
 tion of its land and water. The resemblance was occa- 
 sionally shown strikingly when a level fog-bank covered, 
 as with a mantle, all the lower parts of the country; the 
 white vapor curling into the ravines beautifully repre- 
 sented little coves and bays, and here and there a solitary 
 hillock, peeping up, showed that it had formerly stood 
 there as an islet. The contrast of these flat valleys and 
 basins with the irregular mountains gave the scenery a 
 character which to me was new and very interesting. 
 
 From the natural slope to seaward of these plains they 
 are very easily irrigated, and in consequence singularly 
 fertile. Without this process the land would produce 
 scarcely anything, for during the whole summer the sky is 
 cloudless. The mountains and hills are dotted over with 
 bushes and low trees, and excepting these the vegetation 
 is very scanty. Each land-owner in the valley possesses a 
 certain portion of hill-country, where his half-wild cattle, 
 in considerable numbers, manage to find sufficient pasture. 
 
 Once every year there is a grand rodeo, when all the 
 cattle are driven down, counted, and marked, and a certain 
 number separated to be fattened in the irrigated fields. 
 Wheat is extensively cultivated, and a good deal of Indian 
 corn; a kind of bean is, however, the staple articlo of food 
 for the common laborers. Tho orchards produce an over- 
 flowing abundance of peaches, figs, and grapes. With ah
 
 508 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Darwin 
 
 these advantages, the inhabitants of the country ought to 
 be much more prosperous than they are. 
 
 16th. — The major-domo of the hacienda was good enough 
 to give me a guide and fresh horses, and in the morning 
 we set out to ascend the Campana, or Bell Mountain, which 
 is six thousand four hundred feet high. The paths were 
 very bad, but both the geology and scenery amply repaid 
 the trouble. We reached, by the evening, a spring called 
 the Agua del Guanaco, which is situated at a great height. 
 This must be an old name, for it is very many years since 
 a guanaco drank its waters. During the ascent I noticed 
 that nothing but bushes grew on the northern slope, 
 while on the southern slope there was a bamboo about 
 fifteen feet high. In a few places there were palms, and I 
 was surprised to see one at an elevation of at least four 
 thousand five hundred feet. These palms are, for their 
 family, ugly trees. Their stem is very large and of a 
 curious form, being thicker in the middle than at the base 
 or top. They are excessively numerous in some parts of 
 Chile, and valuable on account of a sort of treacle made 
 from the sap. 
 
 On one estate near Petorca they tried to count them, but 
 failed, after having numbered several hundred thousand. 
 Every year in the early spring, in August, very many are 
 cut down, and when the trunk is lying on the ground the 
 crown of leaves is lopped off. The sap then immediately 
 begins to flow from the upper end, and continues so doing 
 for some months ; it is, however, necessary that a thin slice 
 should be shaved off from that end every morning, so as to 
 expose a fresh surface. A good tree will give ninety gal- 
 lons, and all this must have been contained in the vessels 
 of the apparently dry trunk. It is said that the sap flows 
 much more quickly on those days when the sun is power- 
 ful, and likewise that it is absolutely necessary to take
 
 Darwin] VALPARAISO AND ITS VICINITY. 509 
 
 care, in cutting down the tree, that it should fall with its 
 head upward on the slope of the hill ; for if it falls down 
 the slope scarcely any sap will flow, although in that case 
 one would have thought that the action would have been 
 aided, instead of checked, by the force of gravity. The sap 
 is concentrated by boiling, and is then called treacle, which 
 it very much resembles in taste. 
 
 We unsaddled our horses near the spring, and prepared 
 to pass the night. The evening was fine, and the atmos- 
 phere so clear that the masts of vessels at anchor in the 
 bay of Valparaiso, although no less than twenty-six geo- 
 graphical miles distant, could be distinguished clearly as 
 little black streaks. A ship doubling the point under sail 
 appeared as a bright white speck. Anson expresses much 
 surprise, in his voyage, at the distance at which his vessels 
 were detected from the coast ; but he did not sufficiently 
 allow for the height of the land and the great transparency 
 of the air. 
 
 The setting of the sun was glorious, the valleys being 
 black, whilst the snowy peaks of the Andes yet retained a 
 ruby tint. When it was dark we made a fire beneath a 
 little arbor of bamboos, fried our charqui (or dried slips of 
 beef), took our mate, and were quite comfortable. There 
 is an inexpressible charm in this living in the open air. 
 The evening was calm and still ; the shrill noise of the 
 mountain bizcacha and the faint cry of a goatsucker were 
 occasionally to be heard. Besides these, few birds, or even 
 insects, frequent these dry, parched mountains. 
 
 17th. — In the morning we climbed up the rough mass of 
 greenstone which crowns the summit. This rock, as fre- 
 quently happens, was much shattered and broken into 
 huge angular fragments. I observed, however, one re- 
 markable circumstance, — namely, that many of the sur- 
 faces presented every degree of freshness, some appearing 
 
 43*
 
 510 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Darwin 
 
 as if broken the day before, while on others lichens had 
 either just become, or had long grown, attached. I so 
 fully believed that this was owing to the frequent earth- 
 quakes, that I felt inclined to hurry from below each loose 
 pile. As one might very easily be deceived in a fact of 
 this kind, I doubted its accuracy, until ascending Mount 
 Wellington, in Yan Diemen's Land, where earthquakes do 
 not occur, and there I saw the summit of the mountain 
 similarly composed and similarly shattered, but all the 
 blocks appeared as if they had been hurled into their 
 present position thousands of years ago. 
 
 We spent the day on the summit, and I never enj'03'ed 
 one more thoroughly. Chile, bounded by the Andes and 
 the Pacific, was seen as in a map. The pleasure from the 
 scenery, in itself beautiful, was heightened by the many re- 
 flections which arose from the mere view of the Campana 
 range, with its lesser parallel ones, and of the broad valley 
 of Quillota directly intersecting them. Who can avoid 
 wondering at the force which has upheaved these moun- 
 tains, and even more so at the countless ages which it must 
 have required to have broken through, removed, and lev- 
 elled whole masses of them ? It is well in this case to call 
 to mind the vast shingle and sedimentary beds of Pata- 
 gonia, which, if heaped on the Cordillera, would increase 
 its height by so many thousand feet. When in that 
 country I wondered how any mountain-chain could supply 
 such masses and not have been utterly obliterated. We 
 must not now reverse the wonder, and doubt whether all- 
 powerful time can grind down mountains — even the 
 gigantic Cordillera — into gravel and mud. 
 
 The appearance of the Andes was different from that 
 which I had expected. The lower line of the snow was of 
 course horizontal, and to this line the even summits of the 
 range seemed quite parallel. Only at long intervals a
 
 Darwin] VALPARAISO AND ITS VICINITY. 511 
 
 group of points or a single cone showed where a volcano 
 had existed, or does now exist. Hence the range resem- 
 bled a great solid wall, surmounted here and there by a 
 tower, and making a most perfect barrier to the country. 
 
 Almost every part of the hill had been drilled by at- 
 tempts to open gold-mines; the rage for mining has left 
 scarcely a spot in Chile unexamined. I spent the evening 
 as before, talking round the fire with my two companions. 
 The guasos of Chile, Avho correspond to the gauchos of 
 the Pampas, are, however, a very different set of beings. 
 Chile is the more civilized of the two countries, and the in- 
 habitants, in consequence, have lost much individual char- 
 acter. Gradations in rank are much more strongly marked. 
 The guaso does not by any means consider every man his 
 equal, and I was quite surprised to find that my compan- 
 ions did not like to eat at the same time with myself. 
 
 This feeling of inequality is a necessary consequence of 
 the existence of an aristocracy of wealth. It is said that 
 some few of the greater land-owners possess from five to 
 ten thousand pounds sterling per annum, an inequality of 
 riches which I believe is not met with in any of the cattle- 
 breeding countries eastward of the Andes. A traveller 
 does not here meet that unbounded hospitality which re- 
 fuses all payment, but yet is so kindly offered that no 
 scruples can be raised in accepting it. Almost every house 
 in Chile will receive you for the night, but a triflo is ex- 
 pected to be given in the morning; even a rich man will 
 accept two or three shillings. 
 
 The gaucho, though he may be a cut-throat, is a gen- 
 tleman ; the guaso is in few respects better, but at the 
 same time a vulgar, ordinary fellow. The two men, al- 
 though employed much in the same manner, are different 
 in their habits and attire, and the peculiarities of each are 
 universal in their respective countries. The gaucho seems
 
 512 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bourne 
 
 part of his horse, and scorns to exert himself excepting 
 when on its back ; the guaso may be hired to work as a 
 laborer in the fields. The former lives entirely on animal 
 food, the latter almost wholly on vegetable. We do not 
 here see the white boots, the broad drawers, and scarlet 
 chilipa, the picturesque costume of the Pampas. Here 
 common trousers are protected by black and green worsted 
 leggings. The poncho, however, is common to both. The 
 chief pride of the guaso lies in his spurs, which are ab- 
 surdly large. I measured one which was six inches in 
 the diameter of the rowel, and the rowel itself contained 
 upward of thirty points. The stirrups are on the same 
 scale, each consisting of a square carved block of wood, 
 hollowed out, yet weighing three or four pounds. The 
 guaso is perhaps more expert with the lazo than the 
 gaucho, but, from the nature of the country, he does not 
 know the use of the bolas. 
 
 AN ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 
 
 BENJAMIN F. BOURNE. 
 
 [Benjamin Franklin Bourne, mate of a vessel that sailed, via the 
 Straits of Magellan, for California in 1849, during the intensity of the 
 gold fever, was taken prisoner by the Patagonians, having landed to 
 bring off' some of the sailors. He remained in their hands for more 
 than three months, and in his "The Captive in Patagonia" gives 
 a detailed description of the character and customs of the natives of 
 that country. "We extract from his work a good brief description of 
 the country and its people.] 
 
 Patagonia as it offered itself to my observation more 
 than answered the descriptions of geographers, — bleak, 
 barren, desolate, beyond description or conception, — only
 
 Bourne] AN ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 513 
 
 to be appreciated by being seen. Viewed from the Straits 
 of Magellan, it rises in gentle undulations or terraces. 
 Far as the eye can reach, in a westerly direction, it assumes 
 a more broken and hilly appearance, and long ranges of 
 mountains extending from north to south divide the eastern 
 from the western shore. The soil is of a light, sandy 
 character, and bears nothing worthy the name of a tree. 
 Low bushes, or underwood, are tolerably abundant, and in 
 the valleys a coarse wiry grass grows luxuriantly. Streams 
 of water are rare. The natives draw their supplies princi- 
 pally from springs or pools in the valleys, the water of 
 which is generally brackish and disagreeable. 
 
 The variety of animal is nearly as limited as that of 
 vegetable productions. The guanaco, a quadruped allied 
 to the lama and with some resemblance to the camelopard, 
 is found in considerable numbers. It is larger than the 
 red deer, fleet on the foot, usually found in large herds, 
 frequenting not only the plains, but found along the course 
 of the Andes. Its flesh is a principal article of food ; its 
 skin is dried with the hair on, in such a manner that, when 
 wet, it retains its pliability and softness. This process of 
 preserving skins seems to be peculiar to the Indian tribes, 
 and is not unlike that by which buffalo-robes, bear-skins, 
 buckskins, and other articles of luxury, and even necessity, 
 among us, are prepared by the North American Indians. 
 Guanaco-skins are cut into pieces of all sizes, and sewed 
 into a thousand fanciful patterns, every workman origi- 
 nating a style to suit himself. The hoofs are sometimes 
 turned to account by the natives as soles for shoes, when 
 they indulge in such a luxury, which is not often. 
 
 The enemy of the guanaco is the cougar, or " American 
 lion," smaller than its African namesake, and more resem- 
 bling the tiger in bis character and habits, having a smooth, 
 sleek coat, of a brownish-yellow color, — altogether a very 
 i.—hh
 
 514 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bournk 
 
 beautiful but ferocious creature. His chase is a favorite, 
 though rare and dangerous, sport of the natives. Patago- 
 nia likewise boasts of the skunk, whose flesh is used for 
 food. There are also foxes, and innumerable mice. Of 
 birds, the only noticeable varieties are the condor, in the 
 Andes, and the cassowary, a species of ostrich, smaller 
 than that of Africa, on the plains ; its plumage is not 
 abundant, generally of a gray or dun color. Its flesh is 
 tender and sweet, and with the fat much prized by the 
 Indians. Like the African ostrich, it is exceedingly swift, 
 only to be captured on horseback, and often fleet enough to 
 outrun the fastest racer. 
 
 The climate is severe ; the Rio Negro forms the northern 
 boundary, and nearly the whole country is south of the 
 parallel of 40° south latitude. At the time of my capture, 
 which was in the month of May, the weather corresponded 
 to that of November in the New England States. Its 
 chilliness, however, was greatly increased by the bleak 
 winds of that exposed locality. Along the Straits of 
 Magellan the weather is often exceedingly changeable. 
 Sudden and severe squalls, often amounting almost to a 
 hurricane, vex the navigation of the straits, and sweep 
 over the coast with fearful fury. 
 
 The habits of the Patagonians, or at least of the tribe 
 among whom I was cast, are migratory, wandering over 
 the country in quest of game, or as their caprice may 
 prompt them. They subsist altogether on the flesh of ani- 
 mals and birds. The guanaco furnishes most of their food, 
 and all their clothing. A mantle of skins, sewed with the 
 sinews of the ostrich, fitted closely about the neck and ex- 
 tending below the knee, is their only article of dress, except 
 in the coldest weather, when a kind of shoe, made of the 
 hind hoof and a portion of the skin above it, serves to 
 protect their inferior extremities.
 
 Bourne] AN ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 515 
 
 In person they are large; on first sight, they appear 
 absolutely gigantic. They are taller than any other race I 
 have seen, although it is impossible to give any accurate 
 description. The only standard of measurement I had was 
 my own height, which is about five feet ten inches. I 
 could stand very easily under the arms of many of them, 
 and all the men were at least a head taller than myself. 
 Their average height, I should think, is nearly six and a 
 half feet, and there were specimens that could have been 
 little less than seven feet high. They have broad shoulders, 
 full and well-developed chests, frames muscular and finely 
 proportioned, the whole figure and air making an impres- 
 sion like that which the first view of the sons of Anak is 
 recorded to have made on the children of Israel. They 
 exhibit enormous strength, whenever they arc sufficiently 
 aroused to shake off their constitutional laziness and exert 
 it. 
 
 They have large heads, high cheek-bones, like the North 
 American Indians, whom they also resemble in their com- 
 plexion, though it is a shade or two darker. Their fore- 
 heads are broad, but low, the hair covering them nearly to 
 the eyes; eyes full, generally black, or of a dark brown, 
 and brilliant, though expressive of but little intelligence. 
 Thick, coarse, and stiff hair protects the head, its abundance 
 making any artificial covering superfluous. It is worn 
 long, generally divided at the neck, so as to hang in two 
 folds over the shoulders and back, but is sometimes bound 
 abovo the temples by a fillet, over which it flows in ample 
 luxuriance. Like more civilized people, the Patagonians 
 take great pride in the proper disposition and effective dis- 
 play of their hair. Their teeth are. really % beautiful, sound 
 and white, — about the only enviable feature of their per- 
 sons. Feet and hands ai*o large, but not disproportionate 
 to their total bulk. They have deep, heavy voices and
 
 516 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bourne 
 
 speak in guttural tones, — the worst guttural I ever heard, 
 — with a muttei'ing, indistinct articulation, much as if 
 their mouths were filled with hot pudding. 
 
 Their countenances are generally stupid, but, on closer 
 inspection, there is a gleam of low cunning that flashes 
 through this dull mask, and is increasingly discernible on 
 acquaintance with them ; when excited, or engaged in any 
 earnest business that calls their faculties into full exercise, 
 their features light up with unexpected intelligence and 
 animation. In fact, as one becomes familiar with them, he 
 will not fail to detect an habitual expression of " secretive- 
 ness" and duplicity, which he will wonder he did not 
 observe sooner. They are almost as imitative as monkeys, 
 and are all great liars ; falsehood is universal and inveter- 
 ate with men, women, and children. The youngest seem to 
 inherit the taint, and vie with the oldest in displaying it. 
 The detection of a falsehood gives them no shame or un- 
 easiness. To these traits should be added a thorough- 
 paced treachery, and, what might seem rather inconsistent 
 with their other qualities, a large share of vanity and an 
 immoderate love of praise. 
 
 [The author has much more to say in this same vein, and gives a 
 detailed and valuable account of their customs, which only his captivity 
 could have enabled him to offer. His adventures were the reverse of 
 pleasant, and he was fortunately successful in the end in inducing 
 them to visit the coast near an island inhabited by whites. Here he 
 made a bold stroke for freedom.] 
 
 Our horses' heads were now turned from the shore, and 
 we rode back about an eighth of a mile to a large clump 
 of bushes, unsaddled our beasts, and waited some time for 
 the rest of our company, who had fallen in the rear. They 
 came at last, our horses were turned adrift, fire was lighted, 
 and, as the day was far spent, supper was in order. Then 
 ensued a repetition — a final one, I trusted — of the grand
 
 Bourne] AN ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 517 
 
 present to be levied on the Hollanders [as the natives 
 called the white settlers], and of the speech which was to 
 draw them out. The Indians arranged that I was to hoist 
 the English flag, — the colors of the unfortunate brig " Avon," 
 which they had brought along at my request, — and then 
 to walk the shore to attract the attention of the islanders. 
 On the approach of a boat, I was to be kept back from the 
 beach to prevent escape ; for I found that they were not, 
 after all, as well assured of my good faith as might have 
 been desirable. They thought, moreover, that when the 
 white men saw a prisoner with them, they would come 
 ashore to parley and offer presents to effect his release ; in 
 that case there might be a chance, if the negotiation 
 proved unsatisfactory, to take bonds of fate in the form of 
 another captive or two. So, at least, there was ground to 
 suspect, — and some cause to fear that the rascals might 
 prove too shrewd for all of us ! 
 
 After talking till a late hour, the Indians threw them- 
 selves upon the ground, stuck their feet into the bushes, 
 and were soon fast asleep. I consulted the chief as to the 
 propriety of modifying this arrangement by placing our 
 heads, rather than our feet, under cover, since both could 
 not be accommodated. He declined any innovations, and 
 told me to go to sleep. I stretched myself on the ground, 
 but as to sleep that was out of question. I lay all ni^ht 
 thinking over every possible expedient for escape. We 
 had no materials for a boat or raft of any description, and 
 it was impossible to think of any plan that promised 
 success ; so that, after tossing in body and mind througli 
 the weary hours of night, I could only resolve to wait the 
 course of events, and to take advantage of the first oppor- 
 tunity affording a reasonable hope of deliverance from this 
 horrid captivity. Snow, sleet, and rain fell during the 
 night; and I rose early, thoroughly chilled, every tooth 
 
 44
 
 518 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Bouknb 
 
 chattering. A fire was kindled and the last morsel of 
 meat that remained to us was cooked and eaten. The 
 weather continued squally till the middle of the afternoon. 
 
 After breakfast the chief went with me to the shore, 
 bearing the flag. On the beach I found a strip of thick 
 board, to which I fastened the colors, and then planted it 
 in the sand. The bushes around, which have a kind of oily 
 leaf, and readily ignite, were set on fire. I then walked 
 to the beach, — but no boat came. When it cleared up 
 sufficiently to see, I observed little objects moving about 
 on the island. The day wore away with fruitless attempts 
 to attract their attention. With an aching heart I returned, 
 at dark, to the camping-ground. On this island my hopes 
 had so long centred, — if they were now to be disappointed, 
 how could I endure it? The Indians began to talk of re- 
 joining the tribe the following day; I opposed the motion 
 with all the dissuasives at command, assuring them that at 
 sight of our flag the islanders would surely come over in a 
 boat, and that, if they would only wait a little, they could 
 go over to the island and enjoy themselves to their heart's 
 content; representing the absolute necessity that I should 
 procure the rum, etc., we had talked of, and how embar- 
 rassing it would be to go back to the tribe empty-handed, 
 after all that had been said, to be ridiculed and reproached. 
 It would never do. 
 
 Our conversation was continued till quite late, when we 
 ranged ourselves, hungry and weary, for another night. 
 For hours I was unable to sleep. The uncertainties of my 
 situation oppressed mo, and I lay restless, with anxiety in- 
 expressible, inconceivable by those whom Providence has 
 preserved from similar straits. It was a season of deep, 
 suppressed, silent misery, in which the heart found no 
 relief but in the mute supplication to Him who was alone 
 able to deliver. Towards morning, exhausted with the in-
 
 Bourne] AN ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 519 
 
 tensity of emotion acting on an enfeebled body, I slept a 
 little, and woke at early dawn, to a fresh consciousness of 
 my critical position. 
 
 The weather had been fair during the night, but there 
 were now indications of another snow-storm. I waited 
 long and impatiently for my companions to awake, and at 
 last started off in quest of fuel, on returning with which 
 they bestirred themselves and started a fire, which warmed 
 our half-benumbed limbs. There lay the little island, 
 beautiful to eyes that longed, like mine, for a habitation 
 of sympathizing men, about a mile and a half distant. It 
 almost seemed to recede while I gazed, so low had my 
 hopes sunken under the pressure of disappointment and 
 bitter uncertainty. A violent snow-storm soon setting in, 
 it was hidden from view; everything seemed to be against 
 me. It slackened and partially cleared up ; then came an- 
 other gust, filling the air and shutting out the prospect. 
 
 In this way it continued till past noon ; at intervals, as 
 the sky lighted up, I took a firebrand and set fire to the 
 bushes on the beach, and then hoisted the flag again, walk- 
 ing wearily to and fro till the storm ceased and the sky 
 became clear. The chief concealed himself in a clump of 
 bushes, and sat watching with cat-like vigilance the move- 
 ments of the islanders. After some time he said a boat 
 was coming; I scarcely durst look in the direction indi- 
 cated, lest I should experience a fresh disappointment; but 
 I did look, and saw, to my great joy, a boat launched, with 
 four or five men on board, and pushing off the shore. On 
 they came; the chief reported his discovery, and the rest 
 of the Indians came to the beach, where I was still walking 
 backward and forward. The boat approached, not directly 
 off where I was, but an eighth of a mile, perhaps, to the 
 windward, and there lay on her oars. 
 
 The Indians hereupon ordered me to return to the
 
 520 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Boubnb 
 
 camping-ground, but, without heeding them, I set off at a 
 full run towards the boat. They hotly pursued, I occa- 
 sionally turning and telling them to come on, that I only 
 wanted to see the boat. "Stop! stop!" they bawled. 
 " Now, my legs," said I, " if ever you want to serve me, 
 this is the time." I had one advantage over my pursuers : 
 my shoes, though much the worse for wear, protected my 
 feet from the sharp stones, which cut theirs at every step ; 
 but, under all disadvantages, I found they made about 
 equal speed with myself. As I gained a point opposite the 
 boat, the Indians slackened their speed and looked uneasily 
 at me ; the man in the stern of the boat hailed me, inquiring 
 what Indians these were, what number of them, and how 
 I came among them. I replied in as few words as pos- 
 sible, and told him we wished to cross to the island. He 
 shook his head ; they were bad fellows, he said ; he could 
 not take me with the Indians. They began to pull away. 
 I made signs of distress and waved them to return, shout- 
 ing to them through my hands. The boat was again 
 backed within hailing distance. "Will you look out for 
 me if I come by myself?" " Yes," was the prompt reply. 
 
 The Indians all this time had kept within ten or fifteen 
 feet of me, with their hands on their knives, and reiter- 
 ating their commands to come back, at the same time 
 edging towards me in a threatening manner. " Yes, yes," 
 I told them, "in a moment; but I want to look at the 
 boat," — taking care, however, to make good my distance 
 from them. 
 
 At the instant of hearing the welcome assurance that I 
 should be cared for, I drew out the watch (which I had 
 brought, according to promise, to have a new crystal in- 
 serted at Holland), and threw it into the bushes; the salt 
 water would spoil it, and, if I should be retaken, the spoil- 
 ing of that would be an aggravation which might prove
 
 Bourn k1 AN ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 521 
 
 fatal. At the same moment I gave a plunge headlong into 
 the river ; my clothes and shoes encumbered me, and the 
 surf, agitated by a high wind, rolled in heavy seas upon 
 the shore. The boat was forty or fifty yards off, and, as 
 the wind did not blow square in shore, drifted, so as to in- 
 crease the original distance, unless counteracted by the 
 crew. Whether the boat was backed up towards me I could 
 not determine; my head was a great part of the time 
 under water, my eyes blinded with the surf, and most 
 strenuous exertion was necessary to live in such a sea. 
 
 As I approached the boat I could see several guns, 
 pointed, apparently, at me. Perhaps we had misunder- 
 stood each other ; perhaps they viewed me as an enemy. 
 In fact, they were aimed to keep the Indians from follow- 
 ing me into the water, which they did not attempt. My 
 strength was fast failing me ; the man at the helm, per- 
 ceiving it, stretched out a rifle at arm's length. The 
 muzzle dropped into the water and arrested my feeble 
 vision. Summoning all my remaining energy, I grasped 
 it, and was drawn towards the boat ; a sense of relief shot 
 through and revived me, but revived, also, such a dread 
 lest the Indians should give chase, that I begged them to 
 pull away, I could hold on. The man reached down and 
 seized me by the collar, and ordered his men to ply their 
 oars. They had made but a few strokes when a simulta- 
 neous cry broke from their lips, " Pull the dear man in ! 
 Pull the dear man in!" They let fall their oars, laid hold 
 of me, and, in their effort to drag me over the side of their 
 whale-boat, I received some injury. I requested that they 
 would let me help myself, and, working my body up suffi- 
 ciently to get one knee over the gunwale, I gave a spring 
 with what strength was left me, and foil into the bottom 
 of the boat. 
 
 They kindly offered to strip me and put on dry clothing ; 
 
 44*
 
 522 HALF-HOURS OF TRAVEL. [Boubnk 
 
 but I told them, if they would only work the boat farther 
 from the shore, I would take care of myself. They pulled 
 away, while I crawled forward, divested mj'self of my 
 coat, and put on one belonging to one of the crew. Con- 
 versation, which was attempted, was impossible. It was 
 one of the coldest days in a Patagonian winter. I was 
 chilled through, and could only articulate, " I ca-n't ta-lk 
 now ; I'll ta-lk by a-nd by." Some liquor, bread, and to- 
 bacco, which had been put on board for my ransom, on 
 supposition that this was what the signal meant, was pro- 
 duced for my refreshment. The sea was heavy, with a 
 strong head-wind, so that, though the men toiled vigor- 
 ously, our progress was slow. 1 was soon comfortably 
 warmed by the stimulants provided, and offered to lend a 
 hand at the oar, but the offer was declined. The shouts 
 and screams of the Indians, which had followed me into 
 the water, and rung hideously in my ears while struggling 
 for life in the surf, were kept up till distance made them 
 inaudible. Whether they found the watch, whose myste- 
 rious tick at once awed and delighted them, and restored it 
 to its place of state in the chief's lodge, or whether it still 
 lies rusting in the sands by the sea-shore, is a problem un- 
 solved. 
 
 The boat at last grounded on the northern shore of the 
 island. Mr. Hall, the gentleman who commanded the 
 party, supported my tottering frame in landing, and, as 
 we stepped upon the shore, welcomed me to their island. 
 I grasped his hand and stammered my thanks for this de- 
 liverance, and lifted a tearful eye to heaven in silent 
 gratitude to God. I was then pointed to a cabin near by, 
 where a comfortable fire was ready for me. " Now," I 
 heard Mr. Hall say, " let us fire a salute of welcome to the 
 stranger. Make ready! Present! Fire!" Off went all 
 their muskets, and a very cordial salute it appeared to be.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A. PAGE 
 
 Alaska, A Summer Trip to James A. Harrison 235 
 
 Amazon and Madeira Rivers, The 
 
 Forests of the 
 
 Among Florida Alligators. . 
 Among the Cow-Boys . . . . 
 Among the Ruins of Yucatan 
 Andes, The Monarchs of the 
 Animals of British Guiana . 
 Ants and Monkeys, Brazilian 
 Arctic Seas, Fugitives from the 
 
 , Franz Keller 424 
 
 S. C. Clarke 70 
 
 , Louis C. Bradford 137 
 
 , John L. Stephens 343 
 
 James Outon 475 
 
 C. Barrington Brown 393 
 
 Henry W. Bates 464 
 
 Elisha Kent Kane 206 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon, Alfred Terry A Colorado " Round-Up" .... 129 
 
 " " " The Country of the Cliff- Dwellers 282 
 
 Bates, Henry W Brazilian Ants and Monkeys . . 464 
 
 Besieged by Peccaries Jamus W. Wells 443 
 
 Big Trees, Lake Tahoe and the . . . A. H. Tevis 292 
 
 Bourne, Benjamin F An Escape from Captivity . . . 512 
 
 Brace, Charles Loring Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Val- 
 ley 312 
 
 Bradford, Louis C Among the Cow-Boys 137 
 
 Brazilian Ants and Monkeys .... Henry W. Bates 464 
 
 British Guiana, Animals of C. Barrington Bkown 393 
 
 Brown, C. Barrington Animals of British Guiana . . . 393 
 
 Bryant, Henry G The Grand Falls of Labrador . . 185 
 
 Buffalo, Hunting the Washington Irving 143 
 
 Butler, W. F Winnipeg Lake and River . . . 245 
 
 C. 
 
 Campion, J. S A Hunter's Christmas Dinner . 
 
 Canadian Woods, Hunting Scenes in 
 
 the B. A. Watson 
 
 Canoe- and Camp-Life on the Madeira Franz Keller 
 
 623 
 
 120 
 
 174 
 426
 
 524 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Carver, Jonathan The Fort William Henry Massacre 9 
 
 Chinese Quarter in San Francisco, The Helen Hunt Jackson 302 
 
 Christmas Dinner, A Hunter's . . . . J. S. Campion 120 
 
 Clarke, William The Great Falls of the Missouri . 164 
 
 Clarke, S. C Among Florida Alligators .... 70 
 
 Cliff-Dwellers, The Country of the . . Alfred Terry Bacon 282 
 
 Collis, Septima M The Muir Glacier 226 
 
 Colorado " Round-Up," A Alfred Terry Bacon 129 
 
 Country of the Cliff-Dwellers, The . . " " " 282 
 
 Country of the Sioux, In the .... Meriwether Lewis 153 
 
 Cow-Boys, Among the Louis C. Bradford 137 
 
 D. 
 
 Darwin, Charles Valparaiso and its Vicinity . . . 503 
 
 Death, Rescued from W. S. Schley 216 
 
 Destruction of San Salvador, The . . Carl Sherzer 361 
 
 Down the Ohio and Mississippi . . . Thomas L. Nichols 90 
 
 E. 
 
 Escape from Captivity, An Benjamin F. Bourne 512 
 
 Esquimaux, Life among the William Edward Parry . . . 196 
 
 F. 
 
 Falls of Labrador, The Grand . . . . Henry G. Bryant 185 
 
 Falls of the Missouri, The Great . . . William Clarke 164 
 
 Featherstonhaugh, G. W Winter on the Prairies 110 
 
 Finck, Henry T A Fine Scenic Route 255 
 
 Fine Scenic Route, A Henry T. Finck 255 
 
 Florida Alligators, Among S. C. Clarke 70 
 
 Forests of the Amazon and Madeira 
 
 Rivers, The Franz Keller 424 
 
 Fort William Henry Massacre, The . Jonathan Carver 9 
 
 Fremont, John C South Pass and Fremont's Peak . 266 
 
 Froebel, Julius The Route of the Nicaragua Canal 354 
 
 Froude, James Anthony Scenes in Trinidad and Jamaica . 369 
 
 Fugitives from the Arctic Seas . . . Elisha Kent Kane 206 
 
 Q. 
 
 Glacier, The Muir Septima M. Collis 226 
 
 Grand Falls of Labrador, The . . . . Henry G. Bryant 185 
 
 Great Falls of the Missouri, The . . . William Clarke 164 
 
 Gaucho and his Horse, The Thomas J. Hutchinson 495
 
 INDEX. 525 
 
 H. PAOR 
 
 Harrison, James A. . ...... . A Summer Trip to Alaska. . . . 235 
 
 Hayden, Ferdinand V In the Yellowstone Park .... 273 
 
 High Woods of Trinidad, The .... Charles Kingsley 381 
 
 High-Roads and Bridges, Inca. . . . E. George Squier 485 
 
 Humboldt, Alexander yon .... Life and Scenery in Venezuela . 403 
 
 Hunter's Christmas Dinner, A . . . . J. S. Campion 120 
 
 Hunting Scenes in the Canadian 
 
 Woods B. A. Watson 174 
 
 Hunting the Buffalo Washington Irving 143 
 
 Hutchinson, Thomas J The Gaucho and his Horse . . . 495 
 
 I. 
 
 Inca High-Roads and Bridges . . . . E. George Squier 485 
 
 Irving, Washington Hunting the Buffalo 143 
 
 J- 
 Jackson, Helen Hunt The Chinese Quarter in San Fran- 
 cisco 302 
 
 Jamaica, Scenes in Trinidad and . . . James Anthony Froude .... 369 
 
 K. 
 
 Kane, Elisha Kent Fugitives from the Arctic Seas . 206 
 
 Keller, Franz The Forests of the Amazon and 
 
 Madeira Rivers 424 
 
 " " Canoe- and Camp-Life on the Ma- 
 deira 436 
 
 Kingsley, Charles The High Woods of Trinidad . . 381 
 
 L. 
 
 Labrador, The Grand Falls of ... . Henry G. Bryant 185 
 
 Lake Tahoe and the Big Trees . . . A. H. Tevis 292 
 
 Latham, Henry From New York to Washington in 
 
 18G6 35 
 
 Lewis, Meriwether In the Country of the Sioux . . 153 
 
 Life among the Esquimaux William Edward Parry . . . 196 
 
 Life and Scenery in Venezuela . . . Alexander von Humboldt . . . 403 
 
 Llaneros of Venezuela, The Ramon Paez 414 
 
 M. 
 
 Mammoth Cave, In the Therese Yelverton 79 
 
 Martineau, Harriet Winter and Summer in New Eng- 
 land 18
 
 526 INDEX. 
 
 Madeira Rivers, The Forests of the p *o" 
 
 Amazon and Franz Keller 424 
 
 Madeira, Canoe- and Camp-Life on the " " 436 
 
 Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley Charles Loring Brace .... 312 
 
 Mexican Lowlands, The Scenery of the Felix L. Oswald 332 
 
 Mexico, A Sportsman's Experience in Sir Rose Lambert Price .... 323 
 
 Mississippi, Down the Ohio and . . . Thomas L. Nichols 90 
 
 Missouri, the Great Falls of the . . . William Clarke 164 
 
 Monarchs of the Andes, The .... James Orton 475 
 
 Morris, Charles Niagara Falls and the Thousand 
 
 Islands ; 27 
 
 Muir Glacier, The Septima M. Collis 226 
 
 N. 
 
 Natural Bridge and Tunnel of Virginia, 
 
 The Edward A. Pollard 45 
 
 New England, Winter and Summer in Harriet Martineau 18 
 
 New York to Washington in 1866, 
 
 From Henry Latham 35 
 
 New Orleans to Red River, From . . Frederick Law Olmsted . . . 100 
 Niagara Falls and the Thousand 
 
 Islands Charles Morris 27 
 
 Nicaragua Canal, The Route of the . Julius Froebel 354 
 
 Nichols, Thomas L Down the Ohio and Mississippi . 90 
 
 O. 
 
 Ohio and Mississippi, Down the . . . Thomas L. Nichols 90 
 
 Olmsted, Frederick Law From New Orleans to Red River 100 
 
 Orton, James The Monarchs of the Andes . . . 475 
 
 Oswald, Felix L The Scenery of the Mexican Low- 
 lands 332 
 
 P. 
 
 Paez, Ramon The Llaneros of Venezuela . . . 414 
 
 Parry, William Edward Life among the Esquimaux ... 196 
 
 Peccaries, Besieged by James W. Wells 443 
 
 Perils of Travel, The Ida Pfeiffer 456 
 
 Pfeiffer, Ida The Perils of Travel 456 
 
 Plantation Life in War Times .... William Howard Russell ... 58 
 
 Pollard, Edward A The Natural Bridge and Tunnel 
 
 of Virginia 45 
 
 Prairies, Winter on the G. W. Featherstonhaugh . . . 110 
 
 Price, Sir Rose Lambert A Sportsman's Experience in 
 
 Mexico 323
 
 INDEX. 527 
 
 R. PAGB 
 
 Red River, From New Orleans to . . Frederick Law Olmsted . . . 100 
 
 Rescued from Death W. S. Schley 216 
 
 " Round-Up," A Colorado Alfred Terry Bacon 129 
 
 Route of the Nicaragua Canal, The . Julius Froebel 354 
 
 Ruins of Yucatan, Among the . . . John L. Stephens 343 
 
 Russell, William Howard .... Plantation Life in War Times . . 58 
 
 S. 
 
 San Francisco, The Chinese Quarter in Helen Hunt Jackson 302 
 
 San Salvador, The Destruction of . . Carl Sherzer 361 
 
 Scenery of the Mexican Lowlands . . Felix L. Oswald 332 
 
 Scenes in Trinidad and Jamaica . . . James Anthony Froude .... 369 
 
 Scenic Route, A Fine Henry T. Finck 255 
 
 Schley, W. S Rescued from Death 216 
 
 Sherzer, Carl The Destruction of San Salvador 361 
 
 Sioux, In the Country of the .... Meriwether Lewis 153 
 
 South Pass and Fremont's Peak . . . John C. Fremont 266 
 
 Sportsman's Experience in Mexico, A Sir Rose Lambert Price .... 323 
 
 Squier, E. George Inca High-Roads and Bridges . . 485 
 
 Stephens, John L Among the Ruins of Yucatan . . 343 
 
 Summer Trip to Alaska, A James A. Harrison 235 
 
 T. 
 
 Tevis, A. H Lake Tahoe and the Big Trees . . 292 
 
 Thousand Islands, Niagara Falls and 
 
 the Charles Morris 27 
 
 Travel, The Perils of Ida Pfeiffer 456 
 
 Trinidad and Jamaica, Scenes in . . James Anthony Froude .... 369 
 
 Trinidad, The High Woods of ... . Charles Kingsley 381 
 
 V. 
 
 Valparaiso and its Vicinity Charles Darwin 503 
 
 Venezuela, Life and Scenery in . . . Alexander von Humboldt . . . 403 
 
 Venezuela, The Llaneros of Ramon Paez 414 
 
 W. 
 
 War Times, Plantation Life in . . . . William Howard Russell . . . 58 
 Washington in 1866, From New York 
 
 to Henry Latham 35 
 
 Watson, B. A Hunting Scenes in the Canadian 
 
 Woods 174 
 
 Wells, James W Besieged by Peccaries 443 
 
 Winnipeg Lake and River W. F. Butler 245
 
 528 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Winter and Summer in New England Harriet Martineau 18 
 
 Winter on the Prairies G. W. Featherstonhaugh . . . 110 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yellowstone Park, In the Ferdinand V. Hayden 273 
 
 Yei/verton, Therese In the Mammoth Cave 79 
 
 Yosemite Valley, Mariposa Grove and . Charles Loring Brace .... 312 
 
 Yucatan, Among the Ruins of ... . John L. Stephens 343 
 
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