... ...

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

FROM THE COLLECTION MADE BY
CHARLES SHELDON B.A. 1890
OF BOOKS ON NATURAL HISTORY
EXPLORATION • HUNTING & FISHING

GIFT OF FRANCIS P. GARVAN
B.A. 1897

CANADIAN NIGHTS

CANADIAN NIGHTS
BEING SKETCHES AND REMINISCENCES OF
LIFE AND SPORT IN THE ROCKIES
THE PRAIRIES, AND THE
CANADIAN WOODS

BY
THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN
1 1 »

LONDON
SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1914
[All rights reserved]

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &* Co.
at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

CONTENTS
PAGE
WILLIE WHISPER .... . . . i
A COLORADO SKETCH ... .20
WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 51
MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA . . . 100
SHEEP-HUNTING IN THE MOUNTAINS . 151
NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES . 194
DAYS IN THE WOODS . . 247

CANADIAN NIGHTS
WILLIE WHISPER
YEARS ago, it matters not when, it was my
not unpleasant fate to spend an idle week
in the woods, and the memory of it is still
fresh in my mind.
It was late in the autumn. The glorious
foliage of the hardwood trees lay like a many-
tinted carpet on the earth, soon to be wrapped
in its winter covering of virgin snow. The air
was very still. Not a breath stirred the withered
leaves of the alders fringing the river bank when I
and a half-breed pushed off in a " dug-out " to
force our way up stream towards the winter camp
which my other two Indians were constructing in
the heart of the big woods. It was bitterly cold
under the morning star. Ice was forming rapidly
on the reeds and sedges margining the stream.
The water dripping from our poles froze, making
the footing in that most rickety of vessels, a

2 CANADIAN NIGHTS
" dug-out," more than usually insecure. It was
that uncomfortable interlude between summer and
winter when the weather is not cold and dry enough
to admit of soft caribou skin moccasins over heaps
of woollen socks, and is much too wet and cold to
make raw-hide knee boots comfortable wear.
But poling up a rushing river is vigorous exer
cise. Presently the great sun rose in a flood of
light, shedding genial warmth ; and as the day
wore on towards noon we were hot enough and
tired enough to enjoy a pannikin of strong tea, a
piece of hard bread, a quiet smoke and a rest.
But the rest was short. It was freezing so hard
that it became evident that unless we pushed on
our chance of reaching the old lumber camp at
the head of the stream before the ice made on the
still reaches was small indeed. So push on we
did, forcing the canoe up with our poles where
the open current ran strong, and breaking our way
with our paddles through the rapidly forming ice
on still reaches, till a little before sundown we ran
the dug-out ashore at the old camp situated just
above where the stream drained the still waters of
a chain of small ponds or lakes.
The prospect was not encouraging. Further
progress by water was obviously impossible as

WILLIE WHISPER 3
long as the cold snap lasted, and it really looked as
if it had come to stay ; but, with the philosophy
bred by contact with nature, we cut a supply of
maple logs and young branches of the " sapin,"
lit a big fire on the deserted hearth, made our
fragrant beds, ate our supper, smoked our pipes,
and curled up to sleep.
It was in the small hours of the morning, a
little before dawn, that I was jerked out of sleep
by someone pulling aside the blanket we had hung
across the doorway and walking unceremoniously
up to the dying fire. Having raked the embers
together and blown fresh logs into a cheerful blaze
the newcomer pulled off his sodden cow-hide
boots, stuck his dripping socks on two sticks to
dry, and turning to me with a courteous old-
fashioned inclination of the head, said, " Good
morning, sir. It is a monstrous fine morning,
but all nature is ashake with cold and so, by gad,
am I ! " By this time the " voyageur " was also
awake, and greeting the newcomer with " Bojure,
bojure, Willie," turned to me and said under his
breath, " He Willie Whisper. He crazy as a loon
but no harm, just like one child." So we made
Willie welcome, brewed some tea, handed him a
stick of tobacco, and sat awhile to smoke.

4 CANADIAN NIGHTS
I had often heard of Willie Whisper, a queer
old fellow by all accounts, an educated man, so
'twas said, who had seen the world and knew men
and cities, but who for some unaccountable reason
lived solitary in the woods, coming rarely and
with reluctance into settlements and the haunts of
man. Quite mad, most white men thought, be
cause they could not understand a sane man lead
ing such a life ; although some said he was sane
enough in most respects but had communings
with ghosts, and talked and whispered with the
trees and wild creatures and birds. All agreed
that he was a kindly, harmless man, and the Indians
held him in reverence and deep respect. Sitting
there in the full light of a bright fire of sweet-
smelling maple and birch I saw a man past middle
age, stooping more perhaps by the weight of packs
than of years, silvering hair falling about a fine-
cut intellectual face ; in short, a somewhat dilapi
dated Englishman in coarse homespun clothes,
ragged and unkempt, but with that air about him
which in some men nothing can efface. Beyond
that hall-mark of gentle breeding there was nothing
remarkable about this remarkable man except his
eyes and an expression upon his face difficult to
describe — a look of sadness but of infinite patience

WILLIE WHISPER 5
and ineffable peace. His glance was not piercing
or alert. It was abstracted rather. His eyes
certainly had not what novelists describe as " a
far away look " ; but they looked as if they saw a
great deal more than there was to see, as if they
saw right through everything to something be
yond, as though, while conscious of all his sur
roundings, he was perceptive also of something
else in relation to them. His face bore an ex
pression as though to say, " If you knew what I
know you would be sure, as I am, that nothing
matters and all is well."
Willie Whisper was, as he told us, on his way
down but had got stuck up in the ice a few miles
back. Winter had not set in, for the lakes were
not full, but the cold snap would last some days,
and he had made his way on foot to the old lumber
camp to wait for a thaw.
" You will have more visitors," he added ; " I
heard them breaking the ice on the old beaver
dam beyond long portage yesterday as the sun

set."

" Why ! " I cried, " that is thirty miles away."
" Quite so, but all the same I heard them, and
I know something about them. Two birch-bark
canoes and, I think, six men. I cannot be certain

6 CANADIAN NIGHTS
of course, but I expect they will carry round the
dead water and run down the open stream to
the head of these ponds where the ice will stop
them again. Some are newcomers from home,
perhaps going hunting like yourself, but the others
know the country, and I think you will find them
walking in here in a couple of days."
" Well, Willie," I said, " the more the merrier.
If the frost holds they will be welcome."
" To you very likely," grumbled Willie, " for the
gentlemen hunters are of your kind, but I am not
so sure that I shall like the others. They have
been ranging the deep woods looking foi lumber
and menacing my friends the trees, and have been
searching for that solidified curse, gold."
With that he knocked the ashes out of his pipe
and, wrapping himself in his blanket, lay down by
the fire. I followed his example, and slept until
the sun was a good half -hour high.
After breakfast — the inevitable hard tack and
tea — Willie and I caught a mess of trout through
a hole in the ice to eke out the very slender ration
of fat pork that we possessed. The day had broken
hard and clear. It was freezing in the shade,
but a glorious sun struck hot through an atmos
phere absolutely still, and after our midday meal

WILLIE WHISPER 7
we sat with our backs against a great tree and
smoked and talked. A most interesting talk it
was, for the strange and fascinating companion
that kindly fate had sent my way told me much
about himself. That he was a cultivated gentle
man was plain to eye and ear. Many such are
to be met in queer corners of the world, and
generally the stamp of failure, sometimes also of
disgrace, is plainly to be seen. But this man was
different, and I had wondered by what freak of
nature or chance of fortune one so evidently a
product of civilisation had become a child of the
woods and wilds. He told me about it in some
thing like the following words.
" You are quite right," he said, " I have not
drifted into this phase of existence through failure
or disgrace. I have not forged anybody's name,
or cheated at cards, or as a wastrel made myself
a hopeless misery to my friends. Nor is there
any woman in my story. I adopted this kind of
life of my own free will, though not without many
struggles against it, because it seemed to me the
only thing I could do. I am an Irishman, which
perhaps accounts for something, and a younger son
of a politically powerful family, which certainly
accounts for much more. I was at Harrow and

8 CANADIAN NIGHTS
Oxford, and I was destined for the Bar — more, I
fancy, as introductory to some other career than
as likely to lead to the Woolsack. By good or evil
chance, I don't know which, a leading member of
the party then in opposition met me in a country-
house and took a fancy to me, and offered me a
billet as a sort of unpaid assistant secretary. I
was the fortunate or uhfortunate possessor of an
income sufficient to keep me. I was young,
fairly clever, full of debating-society political
enthusiasm, and I gladly accepted the offer as
likely to open a path satisfactory to legitimate
ambition. And it did. For the first few years,
for so long, in fact, as I occupied a subordinate
position, the footsteps of time trod pleasantly.
" The work was easy, if uninteresting, con
sisting mainly of looking up a few facts and
statistics, of writing polite letters of disapproval,
or non-committal letters of approval, of soothing
the wounded self-importance of an occasional
constituent, and of applying to fractured engage
ments some plausible excuse. I saw the best of
the best society. I was looked upon as ' a rising
young man ' and I knew it. In short I had a
very good time. It was not until my superior
officer obtained a nice little government post as

WILLIE WHISPER 9
the reward of long and meritorious secretarial
service and I stepped into his cast-off secretarial
shoes, that the actualities of public political life
began to dispel the illusions with which I had
embellished it. I was in the inner ring. In all
things political I became the confidant of my
chief ; and oh, the bitter awakening of it all !
"It seemed to me that all were for the party
and none were for the state. Men who in private
life were truthful and the soul of honour laboured
under the conviction or illusion that politics was
a game to which the ordinary rules of ethics did
not apply. All means were deemed legitimate to
serve a legitimate end, and what was the end ?
To gull the people, to outmanoeuvre an opponent,
to get the inside track of a friend, to avert party
disaster, to inflict party defeat. It was party
alone that the players thought of. Place and
power were the stakes and no code of honour
regulated the game. Oh, of course my chief, in
common no doubt with others, acted on the
assumption that the success of his party was
essential to the well-being of the state. But did
they really think so ? I would fain believe it, but
who can say ? Has not the same belief or de
lusion possessed every great conqueror and scourge

io CANADIAN NIGHTS
of God who has deluged the fair earth with blood ?
What were considered the most useful qualities
in a public man ? Statesmanship, sound judg
ment, intuitive insight ? Not at all. Mob oratory ;
the dramatic instinct, the power so to identify
self momentarily with an assumed part as to move
great audiences. Oh well, I need not go into all
that. Public political life seemed to me at any
rate to be compounded of personal ambition,
private jealousy, and profound contempt for all
the great principles for which the players in a
disreputable game professed to be willing, nay
anxious, to sacrifice their lives. I am not laying
down the law, mind you. I may be all wrong, I
admit. I am only telling you how the insight
affected me. I found myself, according to my
instincts, playing a subordinate part in a sordid
comedy not unlikely to turn into a tragedy for the
poor stupid ignorant people herded like bleating
sheep into the party folds of the principal actors
on the stage. I felt degraded. I am not a re
ligious man, certainly not in the dogmatic sense,
but I even then believed in a great first cause,
in the persistence of some core of me derived
from that Supreme Being, and in my responsi
bility ; and I began to wonder whether anything

WILLIE WHISPER u
can profit a man if he lose his own soul. I felt as
if the life I was leading left, as it flowed through
me, some accretion binding and choking the best
in me. The thought sickened me. How far it
was all a question of nerves I didn't know. I
consulted an old friend of mine, a very eminent
medical man, and something of a psychologist
also. Of course he said nerves, brain fag, over
work, and recommended a complete change ; but
he added, ' Congenial work is never too hard. It
is the work that jars that irritates the nerves.
Perhaps your work cuts against the grain. If it
does, give it up, for that is the only cure.'
" Well, I took his advice partially by utilising my
first long vacation in a trip — a solitary trip into the
wilds. That was my undoing from a utilitarian
point of view. I cannot tell you — well, I suppose
it is scarcely necessary, for you must understand
something about it yourself — anyhow I cannot
describe the cleansing, healing influence of the
deep woods upon perplexed spirit and harassed
nerves. Great flakes of all the conventionalities
and hypocrisies of the world seemed to be shed off
me. Something seemed to whisper, ' What is
your civilisation after all ? Masses of men strug
gling to survive, striving amid degrading surround-

12 CANADIAN NIGHTS
ings to force or crawl their way out of the general
mass and welter of humanity. What is the life of
your own class in the great city in which your lot
is cast ? The same conflict, only under politer
forms. The same struggle to get the better of
others. The weariness and the vain endeavour
to find in artificial gaiety a little forgetfulness in
each fretful day. What do you find here ? A
struggle also — the incomprehensible immutable law
of all being that only by travail can life ascend ;
but under what different conditions ! An honest
fight, an open fight, and under surroundings clean
and sweet ; and with it great contentment and
peace of mind. Surely this is the natural and
proper life of man.' "
Willie Whisper paused to refill and light his
pipe. " And so," I broke in, " you made the great
renunciation, left it all and followed the call of
the wild ? "
" No, no, not by any means. I fought that
which I now believe to be my better self hard.
I went back to it all, to the intense interest and
excitement of politics, to all the pleasures that
London can offer to a young and fortune-favoured
man. But you are right. The call of the wild

WILLIE WHISPER 13
proved too strong at last. I wearied of the
pleasures. The sham patriotism and real selfish
ness of politicians disgusted me. Everything was
so mercenary, even art and literature saturated
with it and degraded. I think had I found some
outlet in great commercial undertakings, engineer
ing exploits, or trading adventure, I might have
stood it out ; but no, my lines were cast in
politics ; politics sickened me, and at long last I
cut clean adrift and sought the simple life. The
simple life ! Yes, fools play at it at home. Eat
nuts and get indigestion. Walk barefoot and
catch colds. No, my dear sir, that is of no kind
of use. If you cannot lead the life into which
according to the catechism God has called you —
if to you the simple life becomes an absolute
necessity, a craving that cannot be denied, you
must seek it where only it can be found. Don't
play with nature. Give yourself wholly up to
nature and nature will give herself wholly up to
you, and you will find peace.
" But don't suppose that peace and contentment
came to me all at once. I suffered from qualms of
conscience — thought that perhaps duty to others
made it necessary for me to struggle on in my
natural sphere, however disastrous the consequences

14 CANADIAN NIGHTS
might be to myself. I had lapses towards civilisa
tion. The lights of London lured me. But one
day something happened, I know not what, that
drove all thought of the great world of busy
cities for ever from my mind."
" What happened ? " I cried, for Willie paused
and seemed to fall into a reverie.
" What happened ? " he resumed, rousing
himself. " I don't know, but something happened
that in a flash changed my whole conception of
life, of the world, of the universe, of the past, the
present, and the future. I cannot understand it
myself ; so how can I hope to make you under
stand ? But I will try.
" I am not, as most people suppose, an absolute
wild man of the woods. I have a local habitation
and a name. Do you know the country about
Great Green Lake ? Yes, well, when I first came
out I bought a few acres of land near by where
the Manchester river runs out, cleared a patch and
built me a house, well, perhaps a shanty is a more
suitable term than house. There I keep a few
books — classics, and the stores I need, and there
I find an occasional letter from the outside world.
There I generally spend the few unpleasant weeks
of the early spring and late fall, and in a sense it is

WILLIE WHISPER 15
my home ; but, thank God, in this favoured
corner of the world man wants but little shelter,
and for nine months out of the twelve the woods
are my real home and the sky my roof. Well, I
was sitting outside the house one evening watching,
in a perfectly normal state of mind and body, the
blessed sun go down, when suddenly a most
appalling sensation engulfed me. The house, the
lake, the forest, the firmament, and — oh, the horror
of it ! I myself — became utter nothingness. It
was indescribably awful. But instantaneously
that nothingness became every thingness. In a
flash I saw myself, all past, present, and future,
all created or to be created things as one point
without dimensions, position in time or space, or
anything. In a flash it came. In a flash it was
gone, and I was there a solitary man, brooding in
the dusk, my back against a tree. It passed abso
lutely, but it left an indelible impression impos
sible to convey in words. Language is based on
phenomena and conceptions of time, space, and
dimensions, and language cannot deal with some
thing outside of limitations. I can only describe
the impression as one of completion, of perfec
tion, of flawless oneness. I knew myself to be
an imperishable atom in one great whole and

16 CANADIAN NIGHTS
akin to everything external to me that I could
sense. " Did something snap in my brain ? I don't
know. People say I am crazy, ' crazy as a loon,'
as your Indian said. Well, maybe I am, but I am
sane enough to know it. The Indians think that
I and the beasts and birds talk together and
understand each other ; and that I hold whispered
conversations with the trees and little herbs and
flowers of the field, and call me therefore Willie
Whisper. That is, of course, all nonsense ; but
it is true that the momentary sense of oneness
exposed some cord of sensitiveness that vibrates
to all the life about me. It developed some sort
of community of interest — shall I say of intelli
gence ? — between me and other living things.
Some sense other than the ordinary physical
senses came into embryonic being and, in some
way that I do not in the least understand, I do
become conscious of facts and happenings through
some medium unconnected with the ordinary
means whereby the self becomes aware of pheno
mena external to it. I cannot control it. The
relative importance of events appears to have no
bearing upon it. For instance, I told you that

WILLIE WHISPER 17
men are coming here and so they surely are, for
when these perceptions come to me they are
never wrong, but it is improbable that the advent
of these strangers has any bearing upon the
course of your life or of mine, and why it should
have been perceived by me I cannot say.
" Well now," said Willie, getting up and stretch
ing himself, " I have talked enough and more than
enough about myself. I have talked the sun
down below the tops of those pines, and I only
hope I have not bored you nearly to tears. Why
I have thus discoursed about my most uninteresting
life and experiences goodness only knows, but it
has at least eaten up some hours of a necessarily
uneventful day. Come, it is getting chilly. Let
us in to cook our supper and then, to while away
the time till sweet sleep sets us free to wander,
we must talk of some of our experiences in the
wilds." So we strolled back to camp, carried in
fuel for the night, cooked our supper of trout,
frizzling in fat pork, made up a bright fire of
sweet-smelling birch, and sat down to smoke
and yarn.
" Well, Willie," said I " you have done me a
good turn, and a day that would have been weary

1 8 CANADIAN NIGHTS
has passed in most interesting talk. One good
turn deserves another, but with all the will in the
world I don't know how I can repay you. I am
fresh from affairs and men, but the great world
and the ways of it have but little changed since
you left it not so very many years ago, and neither
current politics nor recent society doings, scandal
ous or otherwise, would interest you. Instead of
that you shall tell me something of your own life
in the woods and on the plains and mountains.
I'm only an amateur of the prairies and the
Rockies, and I dare say you have forgotten twice
as much as I shall ever know."
" There you're wrong," said Willie ; " I don't
think, leading this kind of life, that one ever
forgets what happens in it. You see it's all there
is, and to a solitary man memory takes the place
of a library and of society. If I'm sitting over
the fire and want diversion all I have to do is to
run over in remembrance some of my early ex
periences ; the more you think, the more you
remember. It's like taking out a book that
you've once read and half forgotten, and finding
it full of bright pictures."
" Well, we have no books here," I answered.

WILLIE WHISPER 19
" We have the evening to while away ; dip into
your memory library and let us have yarns or
pictures — I don't mind which. A man who lives
alone with nature ought to have a lot to tell."
" No," said Willie, looking into the fire, " I can't
talk about the life I lead now. A solitary life leaves
no record. It is enough for me to live it — I don't
want to talk it. What I amuse myself by recalling
— and I don't mind telling all I remember about
that — is my experience as an ordinary hunter.
As I told you, I wasn't always a solitary ; and before
I abandoned civilisation I went one or two trips
with a friend ; we took servants and gillies, and
did it in comfort." He smiled whimsically. " Go
back to that sort of thing I couldn't — but it's
amusing to remember."
And it was thus that we came to talk about
Colorado and about life in the woods and on the
plains. What was spoken by the fire on those
nights has long gone into the silence that engulfs
all human speech ; but the substance of it as I
afterwards wrote it, and the memory of those far-
off days, are preserved in the following pages.

A COLORADO SKETCH
IT would appear that the American continent
was originally of considerably larger dimensions
than it is at present. It was probably found to
be altogether too large for comfort or convenience,
and it was reduced by the simple process of
pressing or squeezing it together from the sides —
an operation which caused it to crumple up to
wards the centre, and produced that great, elevated,
tumbled, and tossed region generally and vaguely
known as the Rocky Mountains. If this simple
theory of the formation of a continent sounds
somewhat infantile, you must remember that I
am not a scientific man, and that it is not more
unscientific than many other theories of creation.
There is no such thing as a chain of Rocky Moun
tains. Under that name are included various
ranges and belts of mountains and hills, which
embrace within their far-stretching arms fertile
valleys, arid deserts, sunny hill-slopes clothed with
valuable timber, parks full of pastoral beauty
basking beneath a sun that warms them into semi-

A COLORADO SKETCH 21
tropical life, but which never melts the virgin snow
whitening the hoary heads of the mountains that
for ever look down upon those smiling scenes.
Rich and extensive plains, tracts of inhabitable
land almost large enough to be the cradle and
home of nations, are included in the Rocky Moun
tains. Among all the states and territories that
lie wholly or partially within the borders of this
vast, upheaved region, there is none, so far as I
am aware, more favoured by nature, and, at the
same time, more accessible to man, than Colorado.
It is easily reached from all the great cities of the
Eastern States ; its scenery is varied, beautiful,
grand, and even magnificent. Crystal streams of
pure, wholesome water rush down the hill-sides,
play at hide-and-seek in the woods, and wander
deviously through the parks. The climate is
health-giving — unsurpassed, as I believe, anywhere
— giving to the jaded spirit, the unstrung nerves,
and weakened body a stimulant, a tone, and a
vigour that can only be appreciated by those who
have had the good fortune to travel or reside in
that region.
The parks of Colorado constitute its special
feature : there is nothing elsewhere on the American
continent resembling them in natural character-

22 CANADIAN NIGHTS
istics. They are not valleys ; they are too flat
and too extensive for that. They cannot be
called plains, for they are not flat enough ; and,
besides, plains are generally bare and destitute of
trees, while the parks are rich in timber, with
beautifully undulating surfaces, broken up by
hills, spurs from the parent range, and isolated
mountains. The term " Park " is usually applied
to ground more or less artificially made ; and
these places are very properly called parks, for they
look, if it be not rank heresy to liken nature to
art, as if ground naturally picturesque had been
carefully laid out and planted with most consum
mate skill and taste. Some of them are of great
size, such as the North, Middle, South, and St.
Louis Parks ; others — and it is with them I am
best acquainted — are comparatively small.
There are many things to arouse deep interest
in that favoured region. Where you find lofty
mountains, foot-hills, plain, valley, forest, and
quick-flowing stream, in a southern latitude, you
have in combination all that can gratify the
scientific student, as well as all that can content
the eye of man, in the way of scenery. The philo
sopher who devotes himself to the study of atmos
pheric conditions could nowhere find a more

A COLORADO SKETCH 23
fitting field for observation. The mountain ranges
and extensive level spaces comprised within their
limits are important factors in the economy of
nature. The great masses of heat-radiating rock
temper the winds that blow over them, and shed
genial warmth far and wide. The whole region
is one vast brewery of storms. Chemical changes
are constantly going on. Electricity is working
with exceptional vigour, riving the solid rocks,
devastating trees, and putting forth most vividly
the awful and mysterious manifestations of its
strength. Hot currents and cold currents fight
aerial battles round those patient peaks, that stand
unmoved amidst the roar and racket of elemental
strife. Frequent lightnings blaze or flicker round
the mountain heads ; continuous thunder crashes
on their slopes, and rolls and rumbles in the
caverns and valleys that seam their sides. Tem
pests shriek round the crags, and moan dismally
as they toss the gnarled and matted branches of
the stunted trees that force their adventurous
way up the broad shoulders of the range. Snow
in winter, rain and hail in summer, pour upon the
higher summits ; while, beneath, the land is
glowing under a cloudless sky. Contending air-
currents of different density discharge their

24 CANADIAN NIGHTS
moisture on the hills. The sun draws up fresh
moisture from the valleys, like drawing water
from a well. All nature seems seething in that
region of heat and cold, sunshine and tempest,
dryness and damp, constantly fabricating those
great cloud masses that, breaking away from their
cradle, carry rain and fertility over thousands and
thousands of miles. Sometimes they over-exert
themselves, carry their good intentions too far,
exceed their proper limits, and, transgressing the
boundaries of their native land, cross the wide
Atlantic and pour their accumulated store of rain
upon those already sodden little islands, Great
Britain and Ireland.
The parks and valleys which spread out beneath
the mountains, or nestle cosily amid the warm
folds of the forest mantles which clothe them,
play also an important part. They act as reser
voirs ; they catch the little, tiny, ice-cold rills
that trickle out from under the ever-melting but
never-melted snow, gather them together, hold
them till they grow strong enough to carve their
way through the granite flanks that hem them in,
and launch them out into the world, forming
rivulets bright and sparkling, flecked with light
and shade, over which the quivering aspen bends

A COLORADO SKETCH 25
from banks sweet and bright with flowers ; growing
into brooks down which lumber may be rafted ;
swelling into streams which carry irrigation and
fertility to arid wastes ; becoming rivers upon
which steamboats ply and ships ride at anchor.
Physical geography is a fascinating science ; and
to the student of it nothing can be more interesting
than to stand upon some commanding mountain
top, and, with a large, comprehensive view, study
the configuration of the country that gives birth
to those rivers that in their course determine the
natural geographical features of a continent, and
consequently shape the destiny of a race. From
many a peak in Colorado the geographer can trace
the devious line of the " water-shed," the " divide "
that separates the rivers and sends them out,
each on its appointed course ; and can see, shining
like silver threads, the rivulets from which they
spring. Looking westward, and to the north and
south, he can see the fountains of both Plattes, of
the Rio Grande — the Grand river — the Arkansas,
the Blue, the White, and the Bear rivers, and
other streams which unite to form that most
extraordinary of all rivers on the American conti
nent- — the Colorado. Turning to the east, a very
different scene greets his eye ; there, spread out

26 CANADIAN NIGHTS
like an ocean beneath him, lies the Prairie, that
great deposit of gravel, sand, and unstratified
clays, the debris of the mountain range on which
he stands.
Where could the geologist find a region more
suitable for the exercise of his peculiar branch of
science than one which combines the vast deposit
of the prairies with mountain masses obtruded
from the bowels of the earth, and deep canons
exposing broad sections of the earth's crust to his
view ? And where is the mineralogist more likely
to be rewarded for his pains ? As to the botanist,
I would almost warn him from visiting those
scenes, lest he should never be able to tear him
self away ; for the variety of the flora is infinite,
ranging from Alpine specimens blooming amid
everlasting snows, to flowers of a very different
character, growing in rich luxuriance in deep
valleys under a subtropical sun.
I have not included hunting among the sciences,
but in reality I might have done so. It is a very
exact science, and one in which excellence is
rarely obtained. Many men never become, never
can become, good hunters. They are not endowed
with the necessary faculties ; and those who are
gifted with them require years of study and hard

A COLORADO SKETCH 27
work before they can be entitled to call themselves
masters of the art. I hope no one labours under
the delusion that hunting is a mere barbarous,
bloodthirsty sport. Every good hunter will agree
with me that it is not the killing of the animal
that gives pleasure. The charm lies in over
coming difficulties — in matching your natural in
telligence and acquired knowledge and skill against
the instinct, cunning, intellect, and reason of the
animal you are endeavouring to outwit. The
reward of the hunter is the same as that of the
student of languages, of the archaeologist, of the
geologist — in fact, of all scientific people. His
triumph is the triumph of unravelling a mystery,
tracing and discovering a hidden fact, grappling
with and overcoming a difficulty. It is the fact of
overcoming, not the act of killing, that brightens
the hunter's eye and renders his occupation so
charming. The hunter's craft gives health, its
surroundings are beautiful, it calls forth some of
the best qualities of man, it is full of fascination,
and it is no wonder that primitive races find it
difficult to emerge from the hunting condition.
It is most annoying that everything that is pleasant
is all wrong. We all know that peoples, in their
progress towards civilisation, advance from the

28 CANADIAN NIGHTS
hunting to the pastoral state, from the pastoral
to the agricultural, and from thence to a condition
of existence in which the manufacturing instincts
of man are fully developed. This is the sequence
— hunting, cattle-tending, sheep-herding, fesh air,
good water, lovely scenery, wholesome excitement,
healthy lives, and — barbarism ; agriculture, manu
factures, great cities, hideous country, poisoned
water, impure air, dirt, disease, and — civilisation.
It is difficult sometimes to know exactly what to
say when preaching civilisation to the savage. It
is certain that, so far as the masses of the people
are concerned, the highest aim of civilisation is
to secure to a large number the same blessings that
a small number obtain, freely and without trouble,
in an uncivilised state.
It was sport — or, as it would be called in the
States, hunting — that led me first to visit Estes
Park. Some friends and I had visited Denver
at Christmas to pay our proper devotions to the
good things of this earth at that festive season,
and, hearing rumours of much game at Estes
Park, we determined to go there. We spent a
day or two laying in supplies, purchasing many of
the necessaries and a few of the luxuries of life,
and wound up our sojourn in Denver with a very

A COLORADO SKETCH 29
pleasant dinner at an excellent restaurant, not
inaptly styled the " Delmonico " of the West.
During dinner one of those sudden and violent
storms peculiar to that region came on. When we
sat down the stars were shining clear and hard
with the brilliancy that is so beautiful in those
high altitudes on a cold dry mid-winter night, and
not a breath of wind disturbed the stillness of the
air ; but, before we had half satisfied the appetites
engendered by the keen frosty atmosphere, the
stars were all shrouded in cloud, the gale was
howling through the streets, and snow was whirl
ing in the air, piling up in drifts wherever it found
a lodgment, and sifting in fine powder through
every chink and cranny in the door. It did not
last long. Before morning the sky was clear,
cloudless, steely, star-bespangled as before, and
when we left by an early train for Longmont
Station the sun was shining undimmed upon
fields of freshly-fallen snow.
By way of enlivening the journey we were
treated by thoughtful nature to a magnificent
spectacle — a beautiful exhibition of that pheno
menon known, I believe, as a parhelion. The sun
was only a few degrees above the horizon. The
sky was very clear and intensely blue overhead,

30 CANADIAN NIGHTS
but slightly clouded with a thin gauzy film round
the horizon, and, on looking up, one could see
that the air was full of minute crystals of ice.
It was tolerably cold — probably about fifteen or
twenty degrees below zero — and perfectly calm.
All round the horizon ran a belt of pure bright
white light, passing through the sun. This belt
was not exactly level, but dipped a little to the
east and west, and rose slightly to the north and
south. The sun was surrounded by a halo showing
rainbow colours on the inside, which faded into
white light on the outside edge. A bright per
pendicular ray of white light cut through the sun,
forming, with the belt that ran round the horizon,
a perfect cross. There was a similar cross in the
west, and another in the north, but none in the
south at first, but after an hour or so a fourth
cross formed in that quarter also. Right overhead
was a partially formed horizontal rainbow, the
colours of which were very bright. Sometimes
this rainbow would develop into an almost perfect
circle ; then again it would diminish till there
remained only a small segment of the circle. The
points where the solar halo cut the belt which
encircled the horizon were intensely brilliant —
almost as bright as the sun — and rays of white

A COLORADO SKETCH 31
light struck down from them. As the sun rose
the halo surrounding it became very dazzling, and
assumed the colours of the rainbow, and a second
rainbow- tinted circle formed outside it. The
rainbow in the zenith increased at the same time
in brilliancy, and a second circle formed outside that
also. The whole phenomenon was very beautiful ;
it continued some hours, gradually fading away,
and finally disappeared about three in the afternoon.
The next morning we loaded up a wagon with
stores and started on our toilsome expedition to
the Park. It is very easy work — it is not work at
all, in fact — to get into the Park nowadays. It
was a very different affair at that time. There
are two good stage-roads now ; there was no road
at all then — only a rough track going straight up
hill and down dale, and over rocks and through
trees and along nearly perpendicular slopes, with
the glorious determination to go straight forward
of an old Roman road, but without any of the
engineering skill and labour expended upon the
latter. It was a hard road to travel, covered with
snow and slippery with ice ; but by dint of literally
putting our shoulders to the wheel uphill, by
chaining the wheels downhill, and by holding up
the wagon by ropes and main strength on pre-

32 CANADIAN NIGHTS
cipitous hill-sides, we got to our destination very
late at night with only one serious accident — the
fracture of a bottle containing medical comforts.
The road from Longmont to the Park traverses
the level plain for about fifteen miles, and then
enters a cation flanked on either side by strange-
shaped masses of bright red sandstone, outcropping
from the surface, and in some places tilted nearly
on end. It then follows along the bank of the
St. Vrain River — teeming with trout — crosses
that stream, and works its way with many curves
and twists up through the foot-hills, along grassy
slopes, through pine forests, past fantastic masses
of rock, crosses a little creek hiding deep among
aspens and poplars, and, after plunging down two
violent descents and mounting up again, enters
a long valley rejoicing in the euphonious title of
" Muggins's Gulch." I do not know who Muggins
was — no doubt an honest citizen ; but he should
have changed his name before bestowing it upon
such a pretty spot. You ascend this valley at an
easy gradient till you reach the summit, when
suddenly a lovely view bursts upon you, and the
Park lies spread out at your feet. On the left the
hill-side rises steeply, crowned with a buttress
of frowning rock. On the right a mountain of

A COLORADO SKETCH 33
almost solid rock stands naked and savage. In
front, beyond the Park, the main range of moun
tains rears itself, topped with snow, rent in great
chasms, pierced by the gloomy heavily-timbered
depths of black canon. On the extreme left and
in the distance Long's Peak towers above its
fellows ; and beneath you, in strange contrast with
the barren foot-hills through which you have
passed, and the savage stern grandeur of the
range, lies the Park — undulating, grass-covered,
dotted with trees, peaceful and quiet, with a
silver thread of water curving and twining through
its midst.
A log-house is comfortable enough at any time ;
and on that particular night it appeared eminently
so to us, as, cold and wearied, we passed the
hospitable threshold. What a supper we devoured,
and what logs we heaped upon the fire, till we
made the flames leap and roar on the open hearth !
and then lay down on mattresses on the floor, and
listened to the howling of the wind, till the noise
of the tempest, confusedly mingling with our
dreams, was finally hushed in deep, unbroken
sleep. The winter weather in Northern Colorado is
most enjoyable. At the high altitude of Estes
c

34 CANADIAN NIGHTS
Park, between 7000 and 8000 feet above sea-level,
it consists of alternate short storms and long spells
of fine weather. You will have several days of
bright clear weather, hard frost, the thermometer
very low, but the sun so powerful that you can
lie down and go fast asleep, as I have frequently
done, on a warm, sunny, and sheltered bank in the
very depth of winter. Then the clouds begin to
accumulate, growing denser and denser, till they
break and descend in a snowstorm of some hours'
duration. The cattle, which before dotted all the
open ground, disappear as if by magic, seeking and
finding shelter in little hidden gulches and un
noticed valleys, and the land looks utterly desolate.
The snowstorm is invariably succeeded by a violent
tempest of wind, which speedily clears the ground
of snow, heaping it up in drifts, and blowing
the greater part of it into the air in such a thin
powdery condition that it is taken up by the
atmosphere and disappears completely. So dry is
the air and so warm the winter's sun that snow
evaporates without leaving any moisture behind
it. Another period of clear, still, cold weather
then follows after the gale.
The violence of these tempests is very great.
Many a night have I lain awake listening to the

A COLORADO SKETCH 35
screams and clamour of the gale ; now rising
suddenly to a shriek as a fresh gust of wind came
tearing down the level plain, snatching up pebbles
and stones, sending them hopping over the ground,
and hurling them against the log-house ; then
sinking to a long melancholy moan ; whistling
shrilly around the walls, hoarsely howling in the
wide chimney ; while, under all, the low con
tinuous roar of the tempest raging in the distant
forest sounded like a mighty bass note in the
savage music of the storm.
That is the time to appreciate the comfort of a
warm weather-proof house, to snuggle up in your
blanket and idly watch the merry sparks fly up
the chimney, and the warm ruddy flicker of the
fire casting shadows on the rough brown pine-
logs; gazing and blinking, listening and thinking,
one's thoughts perhaps wandering very far away,
and getting less and less coherent. The storm
chimes in with your fancies, mingles with your
dreams, till with a start you open your eyes, and
find to your astonishment the level rays of the
rising sun lighting up a scene as calm and peaceful
as if the tempest had never been.
In spring and summer the scene and climate are
very different. Ice and snow and withered grass

36 CANADIAN NIGHTS
have passed away, and everything is basking and
glowing under a blazing sun, hot but always
tempered with a cool breeze. Cattle wander about
the plain — or try to wander, for they are so fat
they can scarcely move. Water-fowl frequent the
lakes. The whole earth is green, and the margins
of the streams are luxuriant with a profuse growth
of wild flowers and rich herbage. The air is
scented with the sweet-smelling sap of the pines,
whose branches welcome many feathered visitors
from southern climes ; an occasional humming
bird whirrs among the shrubs, trout leap in the
creeks, insects buzz in the air ; all nature is active
and exuberant with life.
I and a Scotch gillie, who had accompanied me
from home, took up our abode in a little log-
shanty close to the ranch-house, and made our
selves very cosy. There was not much elegance
or luxury in our domicile, but plenty of comfort.
Two rough rooms — a huge fireplace in one of
them — two beds, and no other furniture of any
kind whatever, completed our establishment.
But what on earth did we want with furniture ?
We were up before daylight, out hunting or fishing
all day, had our food at the ranch, sat on the
ground and smoked our pipes, and went to bed

A COLORADO SKETCH 37
early. One's rest is a good deal broken in winter
time, and it is necessary to go to bed early in order
to get enough sleep, because in very cold weather
it is highly advisable to keep a fire burning all
night ; and, as yet, hunters have not evolved
the faculty of putting on logs in their sleep. It
would be most useful if they could do so ; and,
according to the law of evolution, some of them
by this time ought to have done it. However,
I was not much troubled ; for Sandie, who slept
by the fire, was very wakeful. I would generally
awake about two or three in the morning to find
the logs blazing and crackling merrily, and Sandie
sitting in the ingle smoking his pipe, plunged in
deep thought.
" Well, Sandie," I would say, " what kind of a
night is it, and what are you thinking of ? "
" Oh, well, it's a fine night, just a wee bit cheely
outside (thermometer about 250 below zero) ;
and I'm thinking we did not make that stalk after
the big stag just right yesterday ; and I'm thinking
where we'll go to-day to find him." Then we
would smoke a little — haver a little, as Sandie
would call it — and discuss the vexed question of
how we made the mistake with the big stag ;
and having come to a satisfactory conclusion, and

38 CANADIAN NIGHTS
agreed that the stag had the biggest antlers that
ever were seen — which is always the case with the
deer you don't get — we would put out our pipes,
and sleep till daylight warned us to set about our
appointed task, which was to find a deer somehow,
for the larder wanted replenishing.
In those days you had not far to seek for game,
and you could scarcely go wrong in any direction
at any season of the year. In winter and spring
the Park still swarms with game ; but it is neces
sary in summer to know where to look for it, to
understand its manners and customs, to go further
and to work harder than formerly, for Estes Park
is civilised. In summer time beautiful but danger
ous creatures roam the Park. The tracks of tiny
little shoes are more frequent than the less in
teresting, but harmless, footprints of mountain
sheep. You are more likely to catch a glimpse of
the flicker of the hem of a white petticoat in the
distance than of the glancing form of a deer.
The marks of carriage wheels are more plentiful
than elk signs, and you are not now so likely to be
scared by the human-like track of a gigantic bear
as by the appalling impress of a number eleven
boot. That is as it should be. There is plenty of
room elsewhere for wild beasts, and nature's

A COLORADO SKETCH 39
beauties should be enjoyed by man. I well re
member the commencement of civilisation. I
was sitting on the stoop of the log-shanty one
fine hot summer's evening, when to me appeared
the strange apparition of an aged gentleman on a
diminutive donkey. He was the first stranger I
had ever seen in the Park. After surveying me in
silence for some moments he observed, " Say, is
this a pretty good place to drink whisky in ? "
I replied " Yes," naturally, for I have never heard
of a spot that was not favourable for the consump
tion of whisky, the State of Maine not excepted.
" Well, have you any to sell ? " he continued.
"No," I answered, "got none." After gazing at
me in melancholy silence for some moments,
evidently puzzled at the idea of a man and a house
but no whisky, he went slowly and sadly on his
way, and I saw him no more.
On the morning that Sandie and I went out,
it was not necessary to go far from the house.
We had not ridden long before we came to likely
looking country, got off, unsaddled and tethered
our horses, and started on foot, carefully scanning
the ground for fresh sign. Soon we came upon it —
quite recently formed tracks of three or four deer.
Then we had to decide upon the plan of opera-

40 CANADIAN NIGHTS
tions in a long and whispered conversation ; and
finally, having settled where the deer were likely
to be, and how to get at them, we made a long
circuit, so as to be down wind of the game, and
went to work. The ground to which I am re
ferring is very rough. It slopes precipitously
towards the river. Huge masses of rock lie
littered about on a surface pierced by many per
pendicular jagged crags, hundreds of feet high,
and long ridges and spurs strike downward from
the sheer scarp that crowns the canon of the river,
forming beautiful little glades — sheltered, sunny,
clothed with sweet grass — on which the deer love
to feed.
In such a country there was no chance of seeing
game at any distance ; so we had to go very cau
tiously, examining every sign, crawling up to every
little ridge, and inch by inch craning our heads over
and peering into every bush and under every tree.
In looking over a rise of ground it is advisable for
the hunter to take off his head-covering unless he
wears a very tight-fitting cap. I have often laughed
to see great hunters (great in their own estimation)
raising their heads most carefully, forgetting that a
tall felt hat, some six inches above their eyes, had
already been for some time in view of the deer.

A COLORADO SKETCH 41
Many hunters seem to think that the deer cannot see
them till they see the deer.
The sportsman cannot go too slowly, and it is
better to hunt out one little gully thoroughly than
to cover miles of ground in the day. If he walks
rapidly he will scare heaps of deer, hear lots of crash
ing in the trees and scattering of stones, and per
haps see the whisk of a white tail, or the glance of a
dark form, through the trees, but never get a shot
for his pains. We pursued a different plan — took
each little gulch separately, and carefully crept up
it, searching every inch of ground, using redoubled
caution towards the end where the bush is thickest,
and especially scanning the north side ; for, strange
to say, deer prefer lying on the north side of valleys
in the snow, even during the coldest weather, to
resting on the warm sunny grass on the southern
slopes. Patiently we worked ; but Our patience
was not well rewarded, for not a sign of anything
did we see till our entirely foodless stomachs and
the nearly shadowless trees indicated that it was
past noon. So we sat us down in a nice little
sheltered nook, from whence we commanded a good
view of the precipitous cliffs and gullies that led
down to the tortuous and icebound creek, some
thousands of feet below us, as well as of the face of

42 CANADIAN NIGHTS
the mountain that reared itself on the opposite
side, and betook ourselves to food and reflection.
It is very pleasant to lie comfortably stretched out
with nothing to do but to gaze with idle pleasure and
complete content upon grand and varied scenery.
The eye, now plunging into the abyss of blue
crossed at intervals by swiftly moving clouds, now
lowered and resting on the earth, pauses for a
minute on the dazzling snow-white summits, then
travels down through dark green pine woods,
wanders over little open glades or valleys grey with
withered grass, glances at steep cliffs and great
riven masses of rock which time and weather have
detached and hurled down the mountain side, and
falls at last upon the pale green belt of aspens that
fringes the river, white with snow where spanned
with ice, but black as ink where a rapid torrent has
defied the frost. Nor is the eye wearied with its
journey ; for mountain, valley, cliff, and glade are
so mingled, and are so constantly changing with
light and shade, that one could look for hours with
out a wish to move. The mind goes half asleep,
and wonders lazily whether its body is really there
in the heart of the Rocky Mountains leading a
hunter's life, or whether it is not all a dream — a
dream of schoolboy days which seemed at one time

A COLORADO SKETCH 43
so little likely to be realised, and yet which is
at length fulfilled.
It must not be supposed that, because we were
half asleep and wholly dreaming, we were not also
keeping a sharp look-out ; for in a man who is very
much accustomed to take note of every unusual
object, of every moving thing, and of the slightest
sign of any living creature — more especially if he has
roamed much on the prairies where hostile redskins
lurk and creep — the faculty of observation is so con
stantly exercised that it becomes a habit uncon
sciously used, and he is all the time seeing sights,
and hearing sounds, and smelling smells, and noting
them down, and receiving all kinds of impressions
from all external objects, without being the least
aware of it himself. However, none of our senses
were gratified by anything that betokened the
presence of game, and, after resting a little while,
we picked up our rifles and stole quietly on again.
So we crept and hunted, and hunted and crept, and
peered and whispered, and wondered we saw no
thing, till the pine trees were casting long shadows
to the east, when suddenly Sandie, who was a pace or
two in front of me, became rigid, changed into a man
of stone, and then, almost imperceptibly, a hair's-
breadth at a time, stooped his head and sank down.

44 CANADIAN NIGHTS
If you come suddenly in sight of game, you should
remain perfectly motionless for a time, and sink out
of sight gradually ; for if you drop down quickly,
the movement will startle it. Deer seem to be
short-sighted. They do not notice a man, even close
by, unless he moves. I never saw a man so excited
at the sight of game, and yet so quiet, as Sandie.
It seemed as if he would fly to pieces ; he seized
my arm with a grip like a vice, and whispered, " Oh,
a great stag within easy shot from the big rock
yonder ! He has not seen me." So, prone upon
the earth, I crawled up to the rock, cocked the rifle,
drew a long breath, raised myself into a sitting
position, got a good sight on the deer, pulled, and
had the satisfaction of seeing him tumbling head
long down the gulch, till he stopped stone-dead
jammed between two trees.
Leaving Sandie to prepare the stag for trans
portation, I started off as fast as I could, and
brought one of the ponies down to the carcass. It
was pretty bad going for a four-footed animal ; but
Colorado horses, if used to the mountains, will go
almost anywhere. The way they will climb up places,
and slither down places, and pick their way through
" wind-falls," is marvellous. They seem to be
possessed of any number of feet, and to put them

A COLORADO SKETCH 45
down always exactly at the right moment in the
right place. I do not suppose they like it, for they
groan and grunt the while in a most piteous manner.
My pony was sure-footed and willing, and, more
over, was used to pack game ; so we had little
trouble with him, and before long had the deer
firmly secured on the saddle and were well on our
way home. It was well for us that we killed the deer
in a comparatively accessible place, or we should
not have got him in that night or the next day. It
was almost dark when we topped the ridge, and
could look down into the Park and see the range
beyond, and there were plenty of signs there to show
that a storm was at hand. Right overhead the stars
were shining, but all the sky to the west was one
huge wall of cloud. Black Canon, the cation of the
river, and all the great rents in the range were filled
with vapour, and all the mountains were wrapped
in cloud.
When we left the ranch that night after a good
supper, a game of euchre, and sundry pipes, it was
pitch-dark, and light flakes of snow were noiselessly
floating down to the earth ; and, when we got
up the next morning, behold ! there was not a
thing to be seen. Mountains, ranch-house, and
everything else were blotted out by a densely falling

46 CANADIAN NIGHTS
white, bewildering mass of snow. Towards noon
it lightened up a little, and great grey shapes of
mountains loomed out now and then a shade darker
than the white wall that almost hid them ; but the
weather was not fit for hunting, and, as there was
nothing else to be done out of doors, we made a
fete of it, as a French-Canadian would say, and de
voted ourselves to gun-cleaning and spinning yarns.
When deep snow lies upon the higher grounds
surrounding Estes Park, wapiti come down into
the Park in considerable numbers. The wapiti is a
splendid beast, the handsomest by far of all the deer
tribe. He is called an elk in the States — why, I do
not know ; for the European elk is identical with
the American moose, and a moose and a wapiti are
not the least alike. But I presume the wapiti is
called by the Americans an elk for the same reason
that they call thrushes robins, and grouse partridges.
The reason, I dare say, is a good one, but I do not
know what it is. The wapiti enjoys a range ex
tending from the Pacific seaboard to the Missis
sippi, and from the north-west territory in British
possessions down to Texas, and he formerly was
found all the way across the continent and in the
Eastern States. He is exactly like the European
red deer — only about twice as large — carries mag-

A COLORADO SKETCH 47
nificent antlers, and is altogether a glorious animal.
Wapiti are very shy. They require quiet and large
undisturbed pastures ; and they are hunted with
a thoughtless brutality that must shortly lead to
their extermination in civilised districts. They do
not accustom themselves to civilisation as easily as
do moose or antelope, but resent deeply the prox
imity of man — that is to say, of civilised man, for
Indians do not interfere with them very much.
Indians, as a rule, are not really fond of hunting ;
they hunt for subsistence, not for pleasure, and,
where buffalo are to be found, never trouble their
heads about smaller game. Elk are plentiful in any
Indian country that suits them ; in fact, as a rule,
there is very little use in hunting wapiti in any
country that is not exposed to Indian incursions,
and the more dangerous the country, the better
sport you are likely to have. But this is not an
invariable rule. There are some places where
wapiti may be found in quite sufficient numbers
to repay a sportsman's labour, and where he need
not incur the smallest risk to life or limb. I imagine
there are more wapiti to be found in Montana and
the adjacent territories than in any other part of
the United States. Wapiti are to be met with in
forests of timber, among the mountains, and on the

48 CANADIAN NIGHTS
treeless prairie. They are, I think, most numerous
on the plains, but the finest specimens are found in
timbered districts. One might suppose that branch
ing antlers would cause inconvenience to an animal
running through the tangle of a primeval forest ;
but the contrary appears to be the case, for in all
countries the woodland deer carry far finer heads
than the stags of the same species that range in
open country. The size of the antlers depends
entirely on the food which the animal can procure.
Where he is well fed, they will be well developed ;
where food is scarce, they will be small. In a
timbered country there is more shelter than on the
plains, the grass is not so deeply covered with snow
in winter, and consequently food is more plentiful
at that time of year, and the animal thrives better.
You always find heavier deer in woodland than in
an open country. Early in the fall the stags gather
large herds of hinds about them ; about the end of
October they separate, and the big stags wander off
alone for a while, and then later on join in with the
big bands of hinds and small stags. During the
winter they run in great numbers — it is not un
usual to find herds of two or three hundred to
gether, and I have seen, I believe, as many as a
thousand different wapiti within a week. A large

A COLORADO SKETCH 49
herd of these grand animals is a magnificent sight,
and one not soon to be forgotten. They are to be
killed either by stalking them on foot, or partially
on foot and partially on horseback, or by running
them on horseback as you would run buffalo.
Willie broke off here, for Noel the Indian was
fast asleep. It is astonishing how these men can
sleep when they have nothing else to do, and how
well they can on necessity do without sleep ; and
Willie Whisper also began to look as if bedtime
was near at hand. The fire was getting low. " I
like that sketch," I said, " I like the description of
scenery. It is grand, but not peaceful and com
forting like your woods. And I like the natural
history — not too much slaughtering of my fellow-
creatures, and no killing just for killing's sake in the
story either. Man must eat to live and must kill
to eat, and we brethren of the woods seek our meat
from God. But I wish it were otherwise."
" So do I," he answered drowsily, " and I think
I could prove it, but you are sleepy and so am I,
and I have talked enough for one night," and so
wrapping our blankets round us we lay down to rest.
Provisions were getting low. I had not looked
for a long delay in reaching my hunting camp, and

50 CANADIAN NIGHTS
Willie Whisper was but scantily supplied. Of tea
and sugar we had enough, but we were short of
flour, and the little bit of fat pork was getting
lamentably small. So the next day was spent in
foraging. The proceeds of the chase did not
amount to much — one porcupine, plenty of trout,
and some cranberries — but it sufficed for present
needs, and after supper Willie said :
" I agree with all you said last night about killing
for the sake of killing. Though the hunting in
stinct is very strong in me I have never killed to
waste, and I don't think I shall offend you if I give
you another hunting yarn. I alluded last night to
wapiti. I have hunted them in every way, and in
every place in the woods, among the mountains, on
the plains, stalked them on foot, stalked them on
horseback, and run them. Shall I tell you about
wapiti-running on the plains ? "
" Good," said I, " fire away."

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS
The first time I ever saw the head of a wapiti
{Gervus canadensis) was at Chicago. I happened
to be talking one day with General Sheridan, when
a magnificent specimen arrived from one of the
frontier forts as a present from the officer in com
mand there. I had heard of these animals, but had
looked upon them as mythological beasts. I had
been so much disappointed in America in my search
for large game, had heard so many rumours which
turned out to be without the smallest foundation
in fact, and had listened to so many stories of
abundance of game which proved to be entirely
illusory — the animals existing only in the vivid
imagination of the story-tellers — that I had begun
seriously to doubt whether any wapiti existed on
the continent. The sight, however, of the pair of
horns reassured me considerably, for obviously
where one wapiti stag was to be found there was
a reasonable chance of killing others, and my en
thusiasm rising to fever heat on the closer inspection
of the antlers, nothing would satisfy me but I must

52 CANADIAN NIGHTS
be off at once to the fort. Accordingly I and my
companion boarded a Western-bound train on the
comfortable assurance that General  , a man
of his word, had promised to do all he could to
help me.
It would be useless to enter into any descrip
tion of the journey. The comfort of the Pullman
cars, the discomfort of the heat and dust, the occa
sional bands of buffalo, the herds of antelope, the
prairie dogs, the vast droves of Texan cattle and
the picturesque cattle-boys that drive them, the
long dreary stretches of prairie where the melan
choly solitude is broken only by occasional little
stations at which the train stops — are all familiar
to everybody who has crossed the plains, and have
been written about ad nauseam. Very curious are
these small settlements, some of them consisting
only of two or three mud, or rather adobe, houses,
or of a few wooden shanties and a pumping-engine
to supply water ; others being large villages or
small towns. They look as if Providence had been
carrying a box of toy houses, and had dropped the
lid and spilt out the contents on the earth. The
houses have all come down right end uppermost,
it is true, but otherwise they show no evidence of
design : they are scattered about in every conceiv-

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 53
able direction, dumped down anywhere, appar
ently without any particular motive or reason for
being so situated. The chief peculiarity noticeable
about these little settlements and their inhabitants
is that on the approach of a train everybody rushes
to the front of his house and rings an enormous bell.
I received quite an erroneous impression from this
ceremony the first time I crossed the plains. I
had read somewhere that the Chinese on the occa
sion of an eclipse or some natural phenomenon of
that kind, which they attribute to the action of
a malignant being, endeavour to drive away the
evil influence by ringing bells, beating gongs, and
making other hideous noises ; and I thought that
the unsophisticated inhabitants of these frontier
towns, not having become accustomed to the
passage of a train, looked upon it as some huge,
horrible, and dangerous beast, and sought to drive
it away by employing the same means as the
Chinese. I found out afterwards, however, that
the object of the bell-ringing was to induce travel
lers to descend and partake of hash.
At one of these lonely little stations I was de
posited one fine evening in the early fall just
before sundown. For a few moments only the place
was all alive with bustle and confusion. The train

54 CANADIAN NIGHTS
represented everything that was civilised, all the
luxuries that could be carried in a train were to be
found on board of it, the people were all clothed
in fashionable dresses, it was like a slice cut out of
one of the Eastern cities set down bodily in the
midst of a perfect wilderness. In a few seconds it
was gone, civilisation vanished with it, the station
relapsed into its normal condition of desolation,
and I found myself almost alone in the heart of the
desert. The day had been hot, and the air was resonant
with the noise of crickets and cicali. The almost
level prairie stretched out around me, fading away
towards the east in interminable distances, while in
the west the sun was just sinking behind a range
of low sand-hills and bluffs. The air was still
and calm, the sky perfectly cloudless, and the
setting sun cast a faint delicate rosy hue over
the sand and burnt sun-scorched herbage of the
prairie, giving it the general tint and appearance
of the Egyptian desert. It was very beautiful but
somewhat melancholy, and I confess I felt rather
blue and dismal as I watched the train vanishing
in the distance ; nor were my spirits roused by
learning from the station-master that Buffalo Bill
and Texas Jack had left the fort that very morning

WAPITI- RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 55
on a hunting expedition. I had counted upon one
or both of those famous scouts accompanying me,
for General Sheridan had with characteristic kind
ness written to the officer commanding at the
fort, requesting him to give me any assistance in
his power, and if possible to let me have the
valuable services of Mr. William Cody, otherwise
Buffalo Bill, the government scout at the fort ;
and I began to inveigh against the bad luck that
had arranged that he should go out hunting the
very day I arrived. However, I had to " take it
all back," for just as I was stepping into the
ambulance wagon that was waiting to take us to
the fort, two horsemen appeared in sight, gallop
ing towards us, and the station-master sang out,
" Say ! hold on a minute, here are the very men
you want, I guess." In another minute or two
they cantered up, swung themselves out of the
saddle, threw their bridles over a post, caught up
their rifles, and stepped on to the platform. I
thought I had never seen two finer-looking speci
mens of humanity, or two more picturesque
figures. Both were tall, well-built, active-looking
men, with singularly handsome features. Bill was
dressed in a pair of corduroys tucked into his high
boots, and a blue flannel shirt. He wore a broad-

56 CANADIAN NIGHTS
brimmed felt hat, or sombrero, and had a white
handkerchief folded like a little shawl loosely
fastened round his neck, to keep off the fierce rays
of the afternoon sun. Jack's costume was similar,
with the exception that he wore moccasins, and
had his lower limbs encased in a pair of comfort
ably greasy deer-skin trousers, ornamented with a
fringe along the seams. Round his waist was a
belt supporting a revolver, two butcher knives, and
in his hand he carried his trusty rifle the " Widow."
Jack, tall and lithe, with light brown close-cropped
hair, clear laughing honest blue eyes, and a soft
and winning smile, might have sat as a model
for a typical modern Anglo-Saxon — if ethnologists
will excuse the term. Bill was dark, with quick
searching eyes, aquiline nose, and delicately cut
features, and he wore his hair falling in long ringlets
oyer his shoulders, in true Western style. As he
cantered up, with his flowing locks and broad-
brimmed hat, he looked like a picture of a Cavalier
of olden times. Ah, well ! it is years ago now
since the day I first shook hands with Jack and
Bill, and many changes have taken place since
then. At that time neither of them had visited
the States, nor been anywhere east of the Missis
sippi : they knew scarcely more of civilisation

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 57
and the life of great cities than the Indians around
them. Afterwards they both went East and made
money. Cody has, I believe, settled down on a
ranch somewhere in Wyoming, and John Omo-
hondro, better known as Texas Jack, has gone to
other and better hunting grounds. Peace be with
him ; he was a good and kind friend to me, a
cheery companion, as brave as a lion, as gentle as a
woman, always ready for anything, always willing
to work, cutting down mountains of difficulties
into molehills, always in good humour, never
quarrelling — a better hunting companion than
Jack was in those days, or a more reliable friend,
it would be hard to find. There was nothing mean
about Jack ; he was — to use one of his own Western
phrases — a real white man. " Well," says Cody,
after the ceremony of introduction had been got
through, and we had made known our wishes and
aspirations, " I guess we will both go along with
you gents, if you like, and if I can get leave, and
I don't know as there will be any trouble about
that. You see Jack and I just started out this
morning to get a load of meat, but there has been
considerable of a fire down towards the forks, and
scared all the game off ; and as we had not got
no stores with us for more than a day or two, we

58 CANADIAN NIGHTS
concluded to come right back." " Oh Lord," I
said ; " the game all scared off, is it ? what an
infernal nuisance ! it does not look a very cheerful
country to ride about in without plenty of game
to 'liven one up." " Never you mind about deer
and elk," cried Jack ; " you have no call to worry
about that ; we will find game enough if you can
hit them ; you think the prairie don't look cheer
ful, eh ! Well it does seem kind of dismal, don't
it, this time of year. Ah ! " he added enthusi
astically, " but you should see it in the summer,
when the grass is all green, and the flowers is all
ablowing, and the little birdies is a building of
their nesties and boohooing around, and the deer
are that fat they will scarcely trouble to get out of
the way ; and as to eating, they are just splendid,
immense ! I tell you ; ain't they, Bill ? " " Yes,
sir, you bet your boots they are. But come on,
Jack ; let's fork our ponies and skin out for the
fort ; we don't want to stop here all night, anyhow.
Good night, gentlemen ; we will see you in the
morning and fix that hunt all right, I guess."
And so Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack " fork their
ponies and skin out," while we bundle ourselves
into the wagon and rattle off as fast as six
seventeen hands high mules can tear to the

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 59
fort, where we were most kindly and hospitably
received. Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack were as fine
specimens of their race and class as could anywhere
be found ; and that is saying a good deal, for
honest hearts and stalwart frames and handsome
features are not rare among the pioneers of Western
civilisation. It might be supposed that these
hunters, Indian-trackers, cattle-boys, and miners,
are disagreeable people to come across. That is
not the case at all. There are, of course, some
rough characters, regular desperadoes, among
them, and they occasionally shoot each other
pretty freely in gambling quarrels and drunken
sprees ; but to a stranger who knows how to
behave himself they are, as far as my experience
goes, most civil and obliging. If a man is civil to
them they will be civil to him, and if he does not
interfere about their affairs they won't bother
about his, unless he wants their assistance, and
then they will be ready and willing to give it. The
manly sense of independence, the self-respect, and
that feeling of respect for others engendered by
it, which so strongly characterise the American
people, are as deeply marked and have as good
an effect among the nomads of the West as in

60 CANADIAN NIGHTS
any other class of the population. Of course if a
man gives himself airs he must expect to pay for
it. I remember rather an amusing instance of
this. I had engaged a hunter and guide, a first-
rate man, to accompany a friend of mine. The
day before they were to start the guide came to
me and said, " Now look here, friend. I ain't
agoing to back out of this bargain, because I told
you I'd go ; but I ain't sweet upon the job, I tell
you. I never come across a chap with such a lot
of side on in my life, and I don't like it. However,
I said I'd go, and I'm agoing ; but I ain't agoing
at the price I told you. I am going to charge him
a dollar a day more." And so my friend enjoyed
his expedition in blissful ignorance that he was
paying four shillings and twopence a day extra for
" side." The next morning, after paying some visits
and making some preliminary arrangements for a
hunt, I wandered off a little distance and sat down
on the trunk of a fallen cottonwood tree, and tried
to realise that I was in the middle of those prairies
that, thanks to Captain Mayne Reid, had haunted
my boyish dreams. I cannot say that the realisa
tion of my hopes fulfilled my expectation. I
was oppressed with the vastness of the country,

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 6\
the stillness and the boundlessness of the plains
seemed to press like a weight upon my spirits, and
I was not sorry to get back into the bustle and
busy life of the fort. After a while, though, when
I became accustomed to the plains, the feeling of
depression of spirits which was at first occasioned
by the monotony and quiet colouring of every
thing faded away, and the limitlessness of the
prairie only impressed me with a feeling of freedom,
and created rather an exhilaration of spirits than
otherwise. It was difficult in those days, and I suppose
it is so now in most places, to enjoy much hunting
on the plains without the assistance of the military.
That assistance was never withheld if it could be
given ; for among no class of people in any country
in the world are the rites of hospitality better under
stood or more gracefully administered than among
the officers of Uncle Sam's army. I always found
them most courteous, kind, and obliging, ready
to do anything in their power to help a stranger
to see something of the country or to indulge in
the pleasures of a hunt. I had no great difficulty
therefore in obtaining permission to attach myself
to a scouting party that was to leave the fort in a
short time.

62 CANADIAN NIGHTS
The next two or three days were spent in
making preparations, buying stores, &c. I thought
the days interminable. I was crazy to get out on
the plains and see one of these great wapiti, and
it appeared to me that everything could have been
ready in half an hour's time. However, it was
no use hurrying ; one has to be philosophically
patient and let things take their natural course.
There is a regular routine to be observed in all
these cases. At some places it takes you two days
to fit out, at others three ; sometimes you may
strike a man accustomed to do things on short
notice, and able to get everything ready in two
or three hours. Then there are endless delays
on the day of starting. Something is sure to be
forgotten ; girths or buckles break ; perhaps one
of the drivers has had a birthday, and is suffering
a little from the effects of it, and cannot be induced
to pull himself together and get started at all. In
fact, you must make up your mind to be quite
content if the first day's march consists only of a
few miles, just enough to get beyond the radius
of the last whisky shop, so as to be certain of
making a clear, fair-and-square move on the
succeeding day.
We got off pretty well, sent the wagons,

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 63
escort, tents, and things away shortly after noon,
and started ourselves a couple of hours later. It
was with a feeling almost of exultation that I at
last found myself riding on the boundless prairie,
the tall flagstaff, and the wooden houses of the
fort fading in the distance, and before me nothing
but the illimitable wilderness. After a short
gallop, we overtook the outfit on the banks of the
Platte, an extraordinary river, which consists at
all seasons, except when in full flood, of a broad
band of shifting, soft, and dangerous sand, with
a little water trickling about in it. It is in some
places miles in breadth. There was a kind of
bridge, composed of numerous holes, with a few
wattles and planks and trunks of rotten trees
thrown across them, the whole structure being
supported on rickety trestles ; but it was in such
a dangerous condition that we did not attempt to
cross it, but preferred to ford the river, though
the bed of it was strewn with wheels, axles, and
fragments of wagons, a sight not very encouraging
to the traveller. However, by dint of much hard
swearing we got across, travelled a few miles on
the other side, and camped close to the source of
a little stream. Next morning shortly after day
light two or three of us started on ahead on the

64 CANADIAN NIGHTS
route that the wagons were to follow, and an
event occurred — we saw our first wapiti. Almost
immediately after leaving camp I spied two or
three gigantic objects, with horns like branching
trees, surveying us from a sand-hill at a little
distance. I was nearly frightened to death at the
sight, they looked so enormous in the dim light,
and although I had absolutely seen the head of an
elk at Chicago, I still had lingering doubts as to
their existence. We tried to ride round them,
but it was no use : they had seen the camp, and
made off before we could get anywhere within
range. We travelled all the rest of that day
without seeing anything more : it was intensely
hot, and altogether the journey was not a very
pleasant one. The heat was most oppressive,
although it was late in October, for there was not
a breath of wind, and the treeless prairie does not
afford a particle of shade of any kind ; being quite
a green hand on the prairies, I was afraid to wander
any distance from the wagons, lest I might lose
myself ; and I found riding behind a wagon all
day in the broiling sun on a rough-paced broncho
so tiresome that I was well pleased when the
camping-place for the night hove in sight.
The country we traversed is peculiar ; the soil

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 65
is of light sand, and the whole region is a vast series
of sand-heaps. It looks as if the ocean in a violent
gale — the height of the waves being exaggerated to
some fifty or a hundred feet — had suddenly been
arrested, solidified, and turned into sand. There
are occasional level places, low bottoms, in which
the water supplied by the winter snows and rains
collects and remains some time after the great heats
and droughts of summer have set in. These places
are covered with a rank vegetation of tall grass, in
which it is sometimes very difficult to force one's
way on horseback ; but generally the surface of
the country is sand, either devoid of vegetation or
covered with patches of coarse grass ; and here and
there are level tracts clothed with short, succulent,
curling buffalo-grass. The wind has a great effect
on the soft surface of the sand, and most of the hills
have one side blown or scooped out, which makes
the country somewhat dangerous to ride over, for
one is apt, in galloping after some animal, to come
suddenly upon a perpendicular cliff twenty or thirty
feet high, the descent down which would result in
broken bones for man and horse. The native
horses are pretty well accustomed to this pecu
liarity of the country, and will stop suddenly, a
proceeding which, though excellent and wise as

66 CANADIAN NIGHTS
regards themselves, is apt to result in the discom
fiture of the rider if he is new to the plains, and to
cause him to describe a graceful parabola in the air,
and fall down head foremost in the soft substance
of the sand beneath. It is the easiest thing in the
world to lose yourself in this broken sand-heapy
country, for you will lose sight of the wagons when
not a hundred yards from them, and not see them
until you are right on the top of them again. There
is of course no kind of road or track of any sort ;
you simply travel in the direction which you wish to
go, choosing the best line of country you can find.
We camped that night on Little Sandy Creek,
the south branch of the east fork of the western
arm of one of the larger tributaries of the North
Platte. It was on the next day's march that the
first elk was killed. I was riding alone a little to
the left of the wagons, much alarmed at not having
them constantly in view, but still so anxious to get
a shot that I ventured to keep off a little way. I
had adopted by this time the manners and cus
toms of the native hunter, which consist in going
up cautiously to the crest of a sand-hill, looking
over inch by inch, and occasionally going to the
top of the highest point in the neighbourhood and
taking a good survey round with a pair of field-

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 67
glasses. At last I was rewarded. Quietly craning
my head over a sand-ridge, I saw lying at the bottom,
not more than a couple of hundred yards from me,
what looked at first like a great tangled mass of dry
white sticks. It turned out to be the heads of three
wapiti stags lying down close together. I man
aged without much difficulty to get a little nearer
to them, left my horse, crawled up to the brow of
the nearest ridge, got a fine shot, and fired. I hate
taking a lying shot, and it would have been better
in this case if I had roused the animals up ; how
ever, I fired at one as he lay, and struck him, but
not fatally, and they all got up and made off.
Noticing that one was wounded, I jumped on my
horse and followed him. I speedily came up to
him, for he was severely hit, dismounted, fired
another shot, and laid him on the sand. He was
not a very large stag, in fact he had a small head,
but I thought him the most magnificent animal
I had ever seen in my life. Fortunately for me,
Buffalo Bill, who heard the shots and saw the
wapiti making off, followed them and came to my
assistance, helped me to cut him up, and after
taking some meat on our saddles, brought me safely
and speedily back to the wagons. The river we
camped on is a good-sized stream. It flows through

68 CANADIAN NIGHTS
a generally flat country, but partially composed, as
I have already said, of sand-hills and steep bluffs.
Its course is the most peculiar I have ever seen in
any river ; it twists and twines in a most miraculous
manner, forming loops and figures of eight, and
every kind of geometrical figure that can be made
by curves. Two bends of the river will approach
each other till they are separated only by a little neck
of land a few yards in width, and then go away for
ever so far, sweeping back again in such a manner
that I should think a man in a canoe might have to
travel twenty miles to accomplish a distance of
perhaps two or three miles in a straight line
by land.
Where the stream has cut through high sand
hills or bluffs the banks are of course precipitous,
almost perpendicular, but as a general rule there is
a margin some hundred yards or so in width be
tween the edge of the stream and the high steep
hills which form the banks of the river. Through
these hills, composed of loose sand and other soft
materials, winter rains have worn deep gullies, large
enough to be termed canons, precipitous valleys
leading up from the river, at right angles to its
general course, to the level of the plain, and from
these valleys other and smaller canons branch off

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 69
in all directions, forming a labyrinth of steep pre
cipitous gullies.
These canons, and indeed every crack and
cranny below the level of the prairie, are thickly
timbered with cypress ; in other words, the natural
wood grows everywhere where it is not subjected
to the continually recurring prairie fires which
desolate the region, and wherever it is sheltered
from the cutting blast of wintry winds, almost as
destructive in their effects as fire. The river is
fordable in most places as far as depth of water is
concerned, but the bottom is very treacherous, con
sisting generally of soft shifting quicksand. We
pitched our camp in a nice sheltered situation, not
far from the head of one of the cations leading down
to the river, near enough to the stream to be able
to water our horses without inconvenience, and
sufficiently close to the plain to get a good look out
over the surrounding country without having to
go too far.
It was a pleasant and convenient camp, and we
should have been very comfortable if we had not
suffered so much from cold at night ; but unfor
tunately for us summer turned suddenly into winter,
a violent snowstorm came on, and for a few days
after it we felt the cold very severely. We had

70 CANADIAN NIGHTS
plenty of buffalo rugs and blankets, it is true, but
there is a limit to the number of blankets that are
useful ; a dozen will not keep a man any warmer
than half a dozen, or half a dozen than two or three.
I do not like sleeping in great cold ; it necessitates
lying so still. The only chance is to get into bed,
roll yourself well up in your blankets and buffalo
robes while the tent is warm, see that there is no
cranny or hole anywhere by which the air can pene
trate, and then lie perfectly quiet. You will experi
ence a most oppressive and inconvenient amount
of heat at first, which it is very difficult to put up
with, for it is almost impossible to resist the
desire to kick off the clothes and get cool, but the
temptation must be resisted, and you must lie per
fectly still — even if you boil — otherwise your chance
of a comfortable night is gone. If you succeed in
going to sleep, you will find, when you wake after
three or four hours, that though the cold is intense
your body still contains a considerable amount
of caloric ; you must then pull the blankets com
pletely over your head, just leaving a little hole
through which to obtain a scanty supply of fresh
air, and remain in that position till you get up in
the morning. It makes an enormous difference to
your bodily heat having your head inside the blan-

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 71
kets, but it is not pleasant. In the morning you
will find your air-hole encrusted with a thick coat
ing of ice, and your body by that time thoroughly
cold and stiff, from lying so long in one position.
However, that is one of the discomforts of hunting
that has to be put up with.
We scoured the country for the first couple of
days in vain, seeing nothing, not even a fresh sign.
On the third afternoon we — that is, myself and a
friend and Buffalo Bill — were riding along, some
what dispirited, a little in the rear of Texas Jack,
who had gone on ahead and had disappeared round
a hill. Presently we caught sight of him again on
a little bluff at some distance from us. He had
dismounted, and was running round and round on
all fours, making such extraordinary antics that I
imagined he had gone suddenly insane, till Buffalo
Bill explained that he was merely indicating to us
in the language of the plain that there was some
wapiti in sight and pretty near. So we approached
him very cautiously, and looking over the edge of
the bluff saw a sight which I shall never forget —
a herd of at least 120 or 130 wapiti on the little
plain below close to the edge of the river. They
looked magnificent, so many of these huge deer to
gether. There were not many good heads among

72 CANADIAN NIGHTS
them, however, the herd consisting chiefly of
hinds and young stags. They were in such a
position that we could not make a good stalk upon
them, and as it was getting late in the afternoon
we determined to try and drive them, and so, after
posting Jack and my friend in two favourable posi
tions, Buffalo Bill and I went round to try and
creep as near the wapiti as we could. I did get
two or three unfavourable shots, and missed, but
the other two men were more fortunate, for they
shot three elk out of the herd as they ran by.
Next morning, a little before sunrise, I was
awaked as usual by hearing scratch, scratch, against
the canvas of my tent door. " Come in," I said,
with a sleepy and somewhat sulky voice at being
disturbed, for I could feel by the stiffened and
frozen condition of the blankets about my mouth
that it was a very cold morning, and I was still
tolerably warm. My " come in " was answered by
the appearance of Jack's jolly cheerful face as he
undid the strings that tied the tent door, and came
in, rubbing his hands and stamping his feet.
" Good morning," says Jack ; " it's about time to
get up, it's a fine large morning, and going to be
a great day for hunting." " All right, Jack, I will
be up in a minute. In the meantime there is the

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 73
pannikin, and there is the keg." Jack, like most
prairie men, invariably introduced himself to the Sun-
god with a copious libation of whisky. To take a big
drink of raw whisky in the morning, and to touch
nothing more during the rest of the day, appears
to me a most extraordinary perversion of principle.
However, it is a part of the manners and customs
of the country, and may be adapted to that peculiar
region. I have often tried to acquire the habit,
but have never succeeded. It is true that to take
one drink of whisky in the morning induces modi
fied intoxication for the whole of the day, and it is
therefore an economical habit ; but it makes a man
so unpleasantly drunk that he is apt to become a
nuisance to himself and a terror to his friends.
After Jack had tossed off his tot of whisky with the
customary salutation, " How," to which we replied
with the polite rejoinder," Drink hearty," we crawled
out of our blankets and began to dress ourselves ;
that is to say, to undress ourselves, for we slept
with more clothes on than we wore in the daytime ;
and then, having taken our drams in the shape of
coffee, and gone through the slight ceremonial that
answers to the getting-up of civilised life, we turned
out, watered our horses, and started, accompanied
by the captain in command of the scouting party.

74 CANADIAN NIGHTS
The captain, however, had a mishap, which neces
sitated his returning to camp, for in crossing a
stream his horse took fright, reared, and fell back
in the water. The result was that on emerging
from the river the gallant captain took upon himself
the appearance of a knight of old clad in a complete
and glittering armour of ice. In a few moments
his clothes were frozen and stiff as a board, and he
had to gallop home, get himself wrapped up in
blankets, and the circulation restored by external
friction and internal applications of hot whisky
and water.
We rode for a long time, keeping a general
direction down stream, but on the high ground on
the banks of the river, without seeing anything or
a sign of anything.
About noon I at last caught a glimpse of some
objects a long way off, on the side of a steep bluff.
It is very hard to take a good view of a distant object
on a cold winter's day from the top of an exposed
hill, with the wind blowing through and through
one, and one's eyes watering and one's benumbed
hands shaking the glasses in a most inconvenient
manner. And we were unable for some time to
determine the nature of the animals, but at length
made out that they were elk, and not what he feared

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 75
at first they might be, Indians. As soon as we had
made the joyful discovery we mounted our horses,
and galloped off, making a long circuit down wind,
so as to come upon the game from the proper direc
tion. Jack's instinct as a hunter stood us in good
stead on this occasion. He brought us round
beautifully to the exact spot where the deer lay,
which was an exceedingly difficult thing to do,
considering that when we first saw them they were
four or five miles off, and were lying on a sand-hill
exactly like hundreds and thousands of other sand
hills that surrounded us in every direction. There
was not even the slightest landmark to point out
the position of the elk, and having once got on our
horses we never saw them till Jack brought us
within a few hundred yards of the herd.
I had no idea where we were, when Jack said,
" Now be mighty careful in going up this hill, and
keep your eyes skinned : we ought to be able to see
elk from the top." Accordingly we rode our horses
up inch by inch, stooping down on their necks
whenever we moved, and halting every two or three
steps, and gradually raising our heads, so as to be
sure of catching sight of the game before they saw
us. When we discovered the deer, we found they
were lying on the opposite hill-side, out of shot,

76 CANADIAN NIGHTS
and we had to make another detour in order to get
closer up ; and finally, having reached a place
from whence we expected to be within easy range,
we dismounted, gave our horses in charge to two
soldiers who had accompanied us, and prepared to
make a start on foot. It was not pleasant ground
for crawling, covered as it was in patches with
dwarf cacti, horrible little vegetable nuisances
about the size of a cricket ball, covered with spikes
that penetrate through moccasins into the soles of
your feet, and fill your hands and knees till they
look like pincushions. They go in easily enough,
but being barbed at the end, they won't come out
again. They are a great trouble to dogs. I had a
collie with me that became so disgusted with these
cacti, that if he found himself among patches of
them, he would howl and yell with terror before he
was hurt at all. They are very detrimental also to
the human hunter, but of course it is better to be
as covered with prickles as is the fretful porcupine
than to miss a chance at a big stag ; and so, in spite
of cacti, we crawled on our hands and knees, and
after a while flat upon our waistcoats, till we got
to the crest of the hill, and there found ourselves
within two hundred yards of the game. We could
not tell how large the herd was, for not more than

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 77
twenty wapiti were in sight. Having mutually
settled what we were to do, in a few hurried whis
pers, we selected each man his deer, fired all to
gether, and loaded and fired again as fast as we
could. Wapiti are so stupid that when they do
not get your wind, or see you, they will bunch up
together and stand, poor things, some little time in
a state of complete terror, uncertain which way to
run or what to do, and we got several shots into
them before they started, and when at length they
did set off they went in such a direction that we
were able to cut them off again by running across
at an angle. We did so, and, making another care
ful stalk upon them, found them all gathered to
gether, looking about in all directions, and quite
bewildered at being unable to see or smell the
danger to which they were exposed. Signalling
our horses to come up, we got three or four more
shots at the elk before they made up their minds to
start, and when at last they did get under way, we
rushed to meet the horses, threw ourselves into the
saddle, and started full gallop after them.
Fortune again befriended us, for the deer ran
round a steep bluff, and, by taking the other side of
the hill, we succeeded in cutting them off again,
and rode in right on the top of the herd, yelling and

78 CANADIAN NIGHTS
shouting to frighten them. In running Wapiti
on horseback, the great thing is to get among them
suddenly at great speed, and to scare them as much
as possible. If you succeed in doing that, they get
winded, and with a good horse you will be able to
keep up with them for some little distance ; but if
you let them get started gradually at their own
pace, you have no more chance of coming up with
them than with the man in the moon. However,
this time we charged in among the herd, and kept
up with them a long way. What became of the
others I don't know, for I was too fully occupied
with myself to take any notice of them. I rode in
upon fifty or sixty of the huge beasts, kept my horse
galloping right along with them, and loaded and
fired as fast as I could, occasionally rolling over a
deer. Presently I singled out a big stag, the best
I could see, and devoted myself to him. With the
usual cowardice of his sex, he thrust himself in
among the hinds, and I had great difficulty in get
ting at him at all. Finally, I got a good broadside
shot at him, but missed, for it is not an easy thing
to hit a deer at full gallop with your own horse at
full gallop also ; in fact it is about as hard a thing
to do as a man can attempt in the way of shooting,
particularly as, owing to the peculiarly dangerous

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 79
nature of the ground, a man has to keep his eyes
open, and cannot devote his entire attention to the
animal he is pursuing, or even to his own horse.
However, I stuck to my deer, though he doubled
and turned in all directions, and at last by a lucky
shot rolled him over Hke a rabbit, a fact which I
announced by a yell which I should think must have
been heard in settlements.
As soon as I had done for him, I took after
the rest of the herd, or rather the largest portion
of the herd, for the main body of deer had broken
up into several parties, and followed a little bunch
of perhaps twenty or thirty, loading and firing,
and every now and then bowling over a wapiti.
I went on till my rifle fell from my hands through
sheer exhaustion, and stuck in the sand, muzzle
downwards. That of course stopped my wild
career. Then I got off my horse, which was
completely blown and stood with his legs wide
apart, his nostrils quivering, his flanks heaving,
pouring with sweat, and loosened his girths. I
felt in pretty much the same condition, for it is
hard work running elk on horseback ; so, having
first extracted my rifle from its position in the
sand, I led my horse slowly up to the top of a
sand-hill, turned his head to the fresh vivifying

80 CANADIAN NIGHTS
wind, and sat down. I had not the remotest idea
of where I was, how long I had been running the
elk, how many I had killed, or anything else ; the
excitement I had been in for the last half-hour or
so was so great that I felt quite bewildered, and
scarcely knew what had happened. It was natural
that I should not know where I was, for the oldest
hand will get turned round after running even
buffalo on the prairie ; and elk are much worse
than buffalo, for the latter will generally run
tolerably straight, but the former go in circles,
and double, and turn back on their tracks, and go
in any direction it suits them. I was utterly and
completely lost as far as finding my way back to
camp was concerned, and I began all at once to
feel a sense of dismalness creep over me. A sudden
reaction set in after the great excitement I had
enjoyed. Only a few seconds before I had been
careering at full gallop over the prairie, shouting
from sheer exuberance of spirits, every nerve in a
state of intense excitation, the blood coursing
madly through every artery and vein, every muscle
and sinew strained to the uttermost, bestriding an
animal in an equal state of excitement, and pursu
ing a herd of flying creatures, all instinct with life
and violent movement. In a second it was all

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 81
gone. Like a flash the scene changed. The
wapiti disappeared as if by magic. There was
not a living creature of any kind to be seen, and
the oppressive silence was unbroken by the faintest
sound. I looked all around the horizon ; not a
sign of life ; everything seemed dull, dead, quiet,
unutterably sad and melancholy. The change
was very strange, the revulsion of feeling very
violent and not agreeable. I experienced a most
extraordinary feeling of loneliness, and so having
stopped a few minutes to let my horse get his
wind, and to recover my faculties a little, I got
on my exhausted steed, cleaned the sand out of
my rifle, slowly rode up to the top of the highest
sand-hill in the neighbourhood, and there sat
down again to look about me. I dare say the
reader will ask, " Why did not you take your back
track, and so find your way ? " I should have
tried that of course in time, but it is not an easy
matter to follow one's footmarks when the whole
country is ploughed up and tracked over with the
feet of flying animals, and I had in all probability
been describing curves, crossing my trail many
times ; so I sat me down on the top of my sand
hill and waited.
After what seemed to me an intolerable time,
F

82 CANADIAN NIGHTS
probably nearly half an hour, I saw, in the distance,
a little black spot crawling up a high sand-hill and
remaining stationary at the top, and by the aid
of my glass I made out a man and a horse. The
man and horse remained where they were ; I
also did not stir ; and in a few minutes more I
had the pleasure of seeing in another direction
another man and horse climbing to the top of a
sand-hill. I felt sure they were my friends, for
we had always settled among ourselves that if we
got separated in running elk or buffalo, or any
thing, each man should get to the top of the
highest point he could find, wait there some little
time, and in this way we should be sure to get
together again ; and so after fixing well in my eye
the position of the first man I had seen, I got on
my horse and started in that direction. After a
bit I rode up another high sand-hill to take an
observation, and finding my friend still in the
same place, continued my way towards him. In
about an hour we had all got together again, and
after briefly giving each other an account of our
success, we struck out for the end of the track
where I had left my stag, and took the trail back.
Such a scene of slaughter I had never viewed
before ; for two or three miles the dead elk lay

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 83
thick upon the ground ; it was like a small battle
field ; a case of prairie murder, as the captain
said. By Jove, how we did work that afternoon,
gralloching the deer ! It was dark by the time we
had got through our task, and with bent and
aching backs and blunted knives had returned to
camp, about the dirtiest, most blood-stained,
hungriest, happiest, most contented, and most
disreputable-looking crowd to be found anywhere
in the great territories of the West. I shall never
participate in such a day's sport as that again.
It was wonderful, because it partook of the double
nature of stalking and running on horseback, for
we had our stalk first, and killed five or six wapiti
on foot, and then we had our run and killed a
lot more. The next two days we were busily
engaged in cutting up the meat with axes and
taking it into camp, for it must not be supposed
that an ounce of all that meat was wasted ; we
hauled every bit of it out to the fort, where the
demand for fresh venison greatly exceeded our
supply. The worst of killing so much game in a short
time is that it brings one's hunt to a premature
end. We had got all the meat we could carry,
and there was nothing for us to do but hitch up

84 CANADIAN NIGHTS
our teams and drive back to settlements. Two or
three days after our return the fort had a narrow
escape of being burned up in the night by a prairie
fire of unusual magnitude. The fire originated a
long way off, down on the Republican river, but
there was a stiff breeze blowing at the time, and
it travelled with most amazing swiftness towards
us. While it was still miles and miles away the
whole sky was lit up with a fierce lurid glare, and
as it soon became evident that it was coming in
our direction, energetic measures were at once
taken to fight the foe. All the troops, consisting,
if I remember right, of eight companies of infantry
and two or three troops of cavalry, were ordered
out, and every other able-bodied man in the fort
was requisitioned. The fire bore down upon us
from the south with awful speed and overwhelming
power. It was terrifying but grand to see it
coming. The country to the south is very hilly,
with long valleys leading down towards the fort.
The fire would work its way comparatively slowly
up a hill, and then pausing as it were for a moment
on the brink, would be caught by the wind and
hurled down the slope with a roar that could be
heard miles away. It poured down the valleys
with a rush, tossing a spray of flames twenty or

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 85
thirty feet high into the air, like as if a vast pent-
up flood of molten metal had suddenly burst its
barriers and spread over the plain. No living
creature that walks the earth, however fleet of
foot, could have escaped the fierce onslaught of
those flames. The approach of the fire was not
uniform and regular, but was affected by every
change and flaw of wind ; sometimes it would
move slowly, with a loud crackling noise hke that
made by a bundle of dry sticks burning ; then it
would come tearing on in leaps and bounds, de
vouring the earth and roaring like a huge furnace.
Occasionally a great body of fire advanced steadily
in one direction for some time, till, checked by
some change of wind, it would die down altogether,
or move on in some other course ; but, in spite of
occasional deflections of this kind, the general
drift of the fire was straight towards us, and it
soon became painfully evident that unless the
enemy could be checked or turned aside the fort
was doomed. Fire is an awful foe, but the men
met it gallantly — advancing in line, commanded
by their officers, as if moving against a living
enemy, only, instead of being armed with sabre
and rifle, they carried water-buckets and blankets.
As soon as they got as near as the intense heat

86 CANADIAN NIGHTS
would allow them, they set to work burning broad
strips of grass before the advancing flames. It
is of course impossible to cope with the fire itself,
no creature could stand near it for a moment and
live ; the only way to deal with it is to burn the
ground in front of the object you want to save,
so that when the fire comes down to the burned
and bare place it shall be forced, from want of
fuel, to turn aside. That sounds simple enough,
but in the case I am thinking of it was difficult
and dangerous work. The grass was very high,
dry as tinder, and with a strong gale blowing it
was no easy matter to keep in check the flames
that were lit on purpose. The men had to keep
on firing the grass and beating down the flames
with blankets, and firing it further on and beating
it down again, until a strip of burned ground, so
broad that it could not be overleaped by the
flames, was interposed between the fire and the
fort. It is hard to imagine anything more hellish
than that scene. The heat was intense, the sky
glowed lurid, red with the reflection of the flames,
the fire poured down towards us as if it would
devour everything in its way, and between us and
the flames, standing out clear and distinct against
the intense bright light, was the fighting line,

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 87
wild-looking figures waving coats and blankets as
they furiously beat the flames, men rushing to and
fro and mounted officers galloping up and down
the rank. After some hours' incessant hard work,
they beat the fire, thrust it on one side, and saved
the fort ; but it was a very, very narrow escape,
for the flames passed awfully close to the hay-
yard, where a whole winter's supply of forage was
stacked. A few yards nearer, and the hay must
have ignited, and if that had once caught fire
nothing could have saved the stables and all the
other buildings in the place. There was no actual
danger to life, for the barrack square of hard bare
earth was sufficiently large to have afforded shelter
and safety to all the human beings in the fort ;
but the horses would probably have perished, and
the stores, and barracks, and officers' quarters,
and in fact the whole settlement, would have been
burned to ashes. The fire travelled some 200
miles that night, destroyed a lot of cattle, leaped
over two or three good-sized streams, and was
finally arrested in its devastating course by a
large river.
We remained some time in that country,
made several expeditions from the fort, had many
little adventures, and enjoyed much good sport,

88 CANADIAN NIGHTS
but never again had such a run after wapiti as
that which I have endeavoured to describe. Cir
cumstances must be very favourable to ensure a
good run after elk : the ground must be tolerably
hard, or else there is no chance whatever, and you
must be able to get near enough to the game
unseen to enable you to burst in upon them at
the first spurt, otherwise you will never get up
with them at all. I remember once chasing a
wounded stag nearly all day along with a friend
who was hunting with me and a government
scout. It was most ludicrous : we got within
about 300 yards of him, and do what we would we
could get no nearer. We followed in this way for
hours, till our horses were completely blown, and
eventually killed him, because the deer himself
became exhausted through loss of blood, just as
our horses were giving out. The scout had got
within a hundred yards or so, and was just pulling
up his completely played-out horse, when the
deer stood still for a moment, which gave the
man time to slip out of the saddle and finish him
with a lucky shot. He was a fine stag, with a good
pair of horns. A nice chase he gave us, and a nice
job we had to get back to camp that night. We
were completely lost, had been running round

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 89
and round, up and down, in and out, for hours,
and it was more by good luck than good manage
ment that we hit upon the river and got safe
home. The prairie is the place to go to if you want to
make a big bag, but for true sport commend me
to the forest and the hills. To me at least there
is infinitely more charm in stalking wapiti among
the mountains, in the magnificent scenery to be
found there, than in running them on the plains.
The plains, although they give one a sense of
freedom and a certain exaltation from their im
mensity, yet are dismal and melancholy, and
running elk, although intensely exciting, is scarcely
a legitimate and sportsmanlike way of hunting
such a noble beast. But in the mountains, stalking
elk, picking out a good stag and creeping up to
him, is as fine a sport as can be obtained anywhere
in the world ; in fact, it is like deerstalking in
Scotland, with everything in grand proportions,
mountains many thousand feet in height instead of
hills of a few hundred, and a magnificent animal
weighing 600 or 800 pounds instead of a com
paratively small deer which would not turn the
scale at twenty stone.
Wapiti used to be, and I suppose still are,

90 CANADIAN NIGHTS
plentiful in all the mountainous regions of the
Western Territories. They were very numerous
formerly in that portion of Colorado with which
I am best acquainted, namely, Estes Park and the
mountains and valleys surrounding it ; but now
that the Park is settled up their visits are com
paratively rare. The flat country used to be full
of them in autumn, they would run among the
cattle, and apparently take little notice of them ;
but chasing them with hounds has made them
very shy, and now they do not often come down
except in winter, when deep snow upon the range
compels them to seek pasturage on the lower
grounds. Still, there are even now plenty of
them in the neighbourhood, and wapiti can
always be found with a little trouble at any
season of the year.
Thirty years ago Estes Park was a hunter's
paradise. Not only were all the wild beasts of the
continent plentiful, but the streams also were alive
with trout, as for the matter of that they are still ;
and we often devoted a day to fishing, by way of
varying our sport and obtaining a little change of
diet. In summer there was nothing peculiar about
the method of fishing ; we used artificial flies, or
live grasshoppers, and caught multitudes of trout,

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 91
for they generally took the fly so well that I never
remember finding myself in the position of the
gentleman who was heard complaining to a friend
that he had been " slinging a five and twenty cent
bug,1 with a twenty foot pole, all day, and had not
had nary bite " ; and on the rare occasions on which
they did not rise freely at the artificial insect, you
were pretty sure to get them with a live " hopper."
There is another advantage also in using the last-
mentioned bait, namely, that it assures a double
amount of sport and labour, for catching grass
hoppers is a great deal harder work than hooking
trout. But in winter we had to fish through holes
in the ice, and that is a somewhat peculiar proceed
ing. The first time I ever fished trout through the
ice was in the Park. Three of us started off one
fine bright winter's morning, and rode about ten or
twelve miles up the main creek, to a place near some
beaver dams where trout were said to be plentiful,
carrying with us an axe, a sack, some twine and
hooks, a bit of raw pork, and of course our rifles.
Having dismounted, tied up my horse, and selected
1 The Americans have retained the original meaning of the word " bug,"
and apply it to various insects : for instance, a daddy-long-legs, fire-fly, or
lady-bird would be called a straddle bug, a lightning bug, or a lady bug.
The peculiar reptile which has monopolised the term among us is dis
tinguished in the States by prefixing the name of that article of furniture
in which he loves to lurk, and where his presence murders sweet repose.

92 CANADIAN NIGHTS
what I thought was a likely looking spot, I set to
work to cut through the ice, while my companions
rode some way further up the stream.
I cut and chopped and got pretty warm, for it
is no joke cutting through two feet of solid ice, and,
after some labour, struck down upon an almost dry
gravel bed. I repeated the same operation the
second time to my great disgust ; but on the third
attempt the axe went suddenly through into deep
water. You know something about it, and will agree
with me that the proper way to set to work is to
chop a square hole, taking pains to cut down very
evenly ; the improper way is to do as I did the first
time — cut carelessly, get down deeper on one side
of the square than on the other, suddenly strike
the axe through, and get the hole full of water,
while yet there are several inches of ice to be cut
through. If anyone will try chopping ice in a hole
two feet deep and full of water, he will discover
that the splashing, though graceful to look at, is
not comfortable to feel in cold weather. Fishing
through the ice is chilly and depressing work. I
mean such fishing as I am thinking of when you are
exposed to all the keen airs of heaven, a solitary
shivering mortal out all alone in the wilderness.
Of course if two young persons go out fishing for

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 93
Tommy-cods, as they occasionally do on the St.
Lawrence, through a hole in the ice, with a nice little
hut built over it, and a nice little stove inside, why
things are quite different.
I cannot say that fishing through the ice under
ordinary circumstances is very exciting sport, but
there is something comical about it, and it affords
a certain amount of innocent enjoyment. When
I rejoined my pals that evening, I could not forbear
laughing at the peculiar appearance cf the winter
trout-fisher as represented by a staid, respectable
member of society, who looked as if he ought to be
engaged in some learned or scientific pursuit or
dressed in good broadcloth, and poring over his
books in some well-filled library. His costume was
remarkable. His feet were protected by volumi
nous moccasins stuffed with many woollen socks ;
his legs encased in dingy and somewhat greasy
corduroys ; his body in an ancient, blood-stained,
weather-beaten jacket, with two or three pieces of
old sacking or gunny bags hung on the shoulders,
and strapped round the waist to keep off the wind ;
an ordinary deerstalking cap, with pieces filched
from a buffalo robe sewn on the ear-flaps, pulled
over the brows and tied under the chin, and a long
and tattered woollen muffler wound round and

94 CANADIAN NIGHTS
round the neck, allowed little of the fisherman's
face to be seen, except a nose, purple with cold,
from which hung a little icicle, and a pair of eyes
gazing intently at the hole in the ice over which he
stooped. Patiently he crouched over his fishing
hole, occasionally stirring up the water to keep it
from freezing, holding in his hand a fishing-rod in
the shape of a stick about a foot long, from which
depended a piece of thick twine attached to a hook
armed with the eye of a deceased trout as a bait. At
intervals hewould twitch out a fish,pull him violently
off the hook — a man cannot employ much delicacy
of manipulation when his hands are encased in thick
fingerless mittens — and throw him on a heap of his
forerunners in misfortune, where he speedily froze
solid in the very act of protesting by vigorous con
tortions against his cruel fate. We caught I should
be ashamed to say how many dozen trout on that
occasion. I know we had the best part of a sack
ful, but as to the exact size of the sack I propose to
retain a strict reserve, lest I should be accused of
taking a mean advantage of that noble little fish the
trout. On the way home we shot a mountain sheep.
We came suddenly and unexpectedly upon three of
them, started our host of the ranch Griff Evan's

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 95
huge hound Plunk after them, jumped off our
horses, and put out up the mountain on foot after
the dog. What a pace those sheep went up that
mountain, and what a pace old Plunk went up after
them, and what a ludicrously long way behind we
were left ! It made one quite ashamed of being a
man to see the manner in which the sheep and the
dog got away up the mountain and out of sight before
we had panted and perspired up a few hundred feet.
We might have saved ourselves the trouble of climb
ing, for presently down came one of the sheep,
followed closely by Plunk and preceded by a small
avalanche of rattling gravel and bounding stones, in
such a hurry that he as nearly as possible ran
between the legs of one of the sportsmen. The
animal passed literally within two yards of him with
such startling effect that he had no time to do any
thing but fire his rifle off in the air in a kind of vague
and general way. Plunk stuck to the sheep gallantly,
and pressed him so hard that he went to bay in the
bed of the river, at a place where the water rushes
foaming down a steep descent among a mass of
huge boulders, and there he met his fate.
• ••••••
" That was my first experience," said Willie,
" with Ovis Montana, the bighorn or mountain

96 CANADIAN NIGHTS
sheep. I don't think I care for hunting big game
with hounds. I'd rather pit my intelligence and
cunning and senses against those of my quarry
in a solitary stalk. But the mere mention of
mountain sheep opens the flood-gates of memories,
and I will tell you more about them some other
night if you so please. In the meantime, don't
you think it is about time for bed ? I only hope
my wapiti-running has not sunk me in your
estimation to the level of an inhuman hunter
thirsting for blood. Such slaughter, the prairie
looking like a battlefield ! I hate it. The hunting
instinct is dead in me and I have no lust for
blood." " But I can understand the wild excitement,"
I rejoined, " and how the fierce instincts of God
knows how many ancestral generations of men
living by the chase may under such excitement
be evoked ; and you wasted nothing. Had those
noble beasts been left to wolves and foxes I could
not have forgiven it. But the meat was wanted and
was used. That saves your face. Sleep in peace."
The morning broke clear, hard and cold. Not
a shred of cloud, not a breath of soft air from the
south gave promise of a change, and we spent a
quiet uneventful day.

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 97
It wanted about two hours to sundown when
the thin sound of distant voices reached us through
the still crisp air, and presently the party foreseen
by Willie Whisper came into camp. He proved
accurate in his vision. The party consisted of
two English gentlemen novices in the woods, and
three countrymen — " habitants " as they would be
styled in Quebec — conducting them on a hunting
trip. They had, as Willie suggested, run down
the stream in two birch-bark canoes to the little
chain of lakes, where, finding the ice too thick
to permit of attempting to break a passage for
so fragile a structure as a birch-bark, they had
" cached " their canoes and stores, and tramped
across the cranberry marshes to the disused lumber
camp in which we had taken up our temporary
abode. The afternoon passed busily in helping
to make the newcomers — guests in a sort of way
— comfortably at home. Cheerily it passed also,
for they brought some luxuries in their packs,
flour, tea and sugar, a little keg of butter, and a
littler one of whisky. By nightfall we had all
settled down to wait for a thaw with what patience
we could command. Willie Whisper stayed with
us during the cold snap, and took his share and
contributed his share of shelter, warmth, and

98 CANADIAN NIGHTS
food. The guides knew him by reputation, and
welcomed the chance of hearing a yarn from him ;
for if he was in one of his silent moods no one
could get anything out of him at all.
" Well, gents," said the elder of the two guides
when we had finished supper that night, " your
Indian says this frost ain't set in for good, and I
guess he ought to know. But it looks like we
were going to be stuck up in this old shanty in
the middle of a cranberry swamp for some days
with nothing to do but chop wood. I and my
partner are taking these two gents in to try and
get a moose. It's a kind of new job for us. I
was sent in a couple of months ago to report upon
a patch of likely looking timber, and my partner
here to look at a place where some durned fool
thought he had found gold. Now we are after
moose and caribou. We go into these cursed
swamps and woods for business. The gents
go for pleasure. Now I don't suppose our
business experiences would interest you, but
if you, sir " (turning to Willie), " would tell us
what took you in for pleasure, and where the
pleasure comes in, why, if agreeable to you it
would be agreeable to me and my partner, and it
would be interesting I am sure to these two gents,

WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 99
who are going in hunting for the first time. Any
way, it would pass the time and keep us from
quarrelling for want of something else to do.
What do you say to spinning us a yarn ? "
" Well," said Willie Whisper, " I've hunted a
bit in the woods, among the mountains and on
the great plains, and the memory of those hunts
is pretty fresh. But as to the pleasure to be
found in hunting, you must judge of that for
yourselves. Some people find no pleasure where
there is no profit. To others the mere fact that
there is no profit constitutes half the pleasure.
Well, here goes. What shall I begin with ? You
two gentlemen are about to have your first ex
perience of the Canadian woods, so I may as well
make a start with moose-hunting in Canada."
It would be tedious to allude to the episodes
of each recurring day. The daylight hours were
short in the ordinary routine of an idle camp —
cooking, eating, foraging for food, trout and a
few spruce partridges, cleaning guns, mending
moccasins, cutting firewood, and so on. I will
just recount the substance of the yarns that were
spun night after night before the red fire.

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA
Moose-hunting, if it has no other advantages,
at least leads a man to solitude and the woods,
and life in the woods tends to develop many
excellent qualities which are not invariably pro
duced by what we are pleased to call our civilisa
tion. It makes a man patient, and able to bear
constant disappointments ; it enables him to
endure hardship with indifference, and it produces
a feeling of self-reliance which is both pleasant
and serviceable. True luxury, to my mind, is
only to be found in such a life. No man who has
not experienced it knows what an exhilarating
feeling it is to be entirely independent of weather,
comparatively indifferent to hunger, thirst, cold,
and heat, and to feel himself capable not only of
supporting but of enjoying life thoroughly, and
that by the mere exercise of his own faculties.
Happiness consists in having few wants and being
able to satisfy them, and there is more real
comfort to be found in a birch-bark camp than

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 101
in the most luxuriously furnished and carefully
appointed dwelling.
Such a home I have often helped to make. It
does not belong to any recognised order of architec
ture, although it may fairly claim an ancient origin.
To erect it requires no great exercise of skill, and
calls for no training in art schools. I will briefly
describe it.
A birch-bark camp is made in many ways. The
best plan is to build it in the form of a square,
varyingin size according to the number of inhabitants
that you propose to accommodate. Having selected
a suitable level spot and cleared away the shrubs and
rubbish, you proceed to make four low walls com
posed of two or three small suitable-sized pine logs
laid one on the other, and on these little low walls
so constructed you raise the framework of the
camp. This consists of light thin poles, the lower
ends being stuck into the upper surface of the pine
trees which form the walls, and the upper ends
leaning against and supporting each other. The
next operation is to strip large sheets of bark off
the birch trees, and thatch these poles with them to
within a foot or two of the top, leaving a sufficient
aperture for the smoke to escape. Other poles are
then laid upon the sheets of birch bark to keep

102 CANADIAN NIGHTS
them in their places. A small doorway is left in
one side, and a door is constructed out of slabs of
wood or out of the skin of some animal. The
uppermost log is hewn through with an axe, so that
the wall shall not be inconveniently high to step
over, and the hut is finished. Such a camp is per
fectly impervious to wind or weather, or rather can
be made so by filling up the joints and cracks be
tween the sheets of birch bark and the interstices
between the pine logs with moss and dry leaves.
You next level off the ground inside, and on three
sides of the square strew it thickly with the small
tops of the safin or Canada-balsam fir, for a breadth
of about four feet ; then take some long pliant ash
saplings or withy rods, and peg them down along
the edge of the pine tops to keep your bed or carpet
in its place, leaving a bare space in the centre of the
hut, where you make your fire. Two or three rough
slabs of pine to act as shelves must then be fixed
into the wall, a couple of portage-straps or tump-
lines stretched across on which to hang your clothes,
and the habitation is complete.
I ought perhaps to explain what a " portage-
strap " and a " portage " are. Many French and
Spanish words have become incorporated with the

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 103
English language in America. The western cattle
man or farmer speaks of his farm or house as his
" ranch," calls the enclosure into which he drives
his stock a " corral," fastens his horse with a " lariat,"
digs an " acequia " to irrigate his land, gets lost in the
" chapparal " instead of the bush ; and uses com
monly many other Spanish words and expressions.
No hunter or trapper talks of hiding anything ; he
" caches " it, and he calls the place where he has
stowed away a little store of powder, flour, or some
of the other necessaries of life, a " cache." The
French word " prairie," as everybody knows, has
become part and parcel of the English language.
Indians and half-breeds, who never heard French
spoken in their lives, greet each other at meeting
and parting with the salutation " bo jour " and
" adieu." And so the word " portage " has come
to be generally used to denote the piece of dry land
separating two rivers or lakes over which it is neces
sary to carry canoes and baggage when travelling
through the country in summer. Sometimes it is
literally translated and called a " carry." Another
French word, " traverse," is frequently used in
canoeing, to signify a large unsheltered piece of
water which it is necessary to cross. A deeply

104 CANADIAN NIGHTS
laden birch-bark canoe will not stand a great deal
of sea, and quite a heavy sea gets up very rapidly on
large fresh-water lakes, so that a long " traverse " is
a somewhat formidable matter. You may want to
cross a lake, say, five or six miles in width, but of such
a size that it would take you a couple of days to coast
all round. That open stretch of five or six miles
would be called a " traverse."
The number and length of the portages on any
canoe route, and the kind of trail that leads over
them, are important matters to consider in canoe
travelling. A man in giving information about any
journey will enter into most minute particulars
about them. He will say, " You go up such and
such a river," and he will tell you all about it —
where there are strong rapids ; where it is very
shallow ; where there are deep still reaches in
which the paddle can be used, and where you must
pole, and so forth. Then he will tell you how you
come to some violent rapid or fall that necessitates
a " portage," and explain exactly how to strike into
the eddy, and shove your canoe into the bank at a
certain place, and take her out there, and how long
the " portage " is ; whether there is a good trail, or a
bad trail, or no trail at all ; and so on with every
" portage " on the route. Carrying canoes and

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 105
baggage across the " portage " is arduous work. A
birch-bark canoe must be treated delicately, for it
is a very fragile creature. You allow it to ground
very carefully ; step out into the water, take out all
the bales, boxes, pots, pans, bedding, rifles, &c. ;
lift up the canoe bodily, and turn her upside down
for a few minutes to drain the water out. The
Indian then turns her over, grasps the middle
thwart with both hands, and with a sudden twist of
the wrists heaves her up in the air, and deposits her
upside down on his shoulders, and walks off with
his burden. An ordinary-sized Micmac or Meli-
cite canoe, such as one man can easily carry, weighs
about 70 or 80 lbs., and will take two men and about
600 or 700 lbs.
The impedimenta are carried in this manner.
A blanket, doubled to a suitable size, is laid
upon the ground ; you take your portage-strap, or
tump-line as it is sometimes called, which is com
posed of strips of webbing or some such material,
and is about twelve feet long, a length of about
two feet in the centre being made of a piece of
broad soft leather ; you lay your line on the
blanket so that the leather part projects, and fold
the edges of the blanket over either portion of
the strap. You then pile up the articles to be

106 CANADIAN NIGHTS
carried in the centre, double the blanket over
them, and by hauling upon the two parts of the
strap bring the blanket together at either side,
so that nothing can fall out. You then cut a
skewer of wood, stick it through the blanket in
the centre, securely knot the strap at either end,
and your pack is made. You have a compact
bundle with the leather portion of the portage-
strap projecting like a loop, which is passed over
the head and shoulders, and the pack is carried
on the back by means of the loop which passes
across the chest. If the pack is very heavy, and
the distance long, it is usual to make an additional
band out of a handkerchief or something of that
kind, to attach it to the bundle, and pass it across
the forehead, so as to take some of the pressure
off the chest. The regular weight of a Hudson's
Bay Company's package is 80 lbs. ; but any
Indian or half-breed will carry double this weight
for a considerable distance without distress. A
tump-line, therefore, forms an essential part of
the voyageur's outfit when travelling, and it
comes in handy also in camp as a clothes
line on which to hang one's socks and moccasins
to dry.
A camp such as that I have attempted to

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 107
describe is the best that can be built. An ordinary
camp is constructed in the same way, but with
this difference, that instead of being in the form
of a square it is in the shape of a circle, and the
poles on which the bark is laid are stuck into the
ground instead of into low walls. There is not
half so much room in such a camp as in the
former, although the amount of material em
ployed is in both cases the same. It may be
objected that the sleeping arrangements cannot
be very luxurious in camp. A good bed is
certainly an excellent thing, but it is very hard
to find a better bed than Nature has provided
in the wilderness. It would appear as if Provi
dence had specially designed the Canada-balsam
fir for the purpose of making a soft couch for
tired hunters. It is the only one, so far as I am
aware, of the coniferous trees of North America
in which the leaves or spicules lie perfectly flat.
The consequence of that excellent arrangement is
that a bed made of the short tender tips of the
Canada balsam, spread evenly to the depth of
about a foot, is one of the softest, most elastic,
and most pleasant couches that can be imagined ;
and as the scent of the sap of the Canada balsam
is absolutely delicious, it is always sweet and

108 CANADIAN NIGHTS
refreshing — which is more than can be said for
many beds of civilisation.
Hunger is a good sauce. A man coming in
tired and hungry will find more enjoyment in a
piece of moose meat and a cup of tea than in the
most luxurious of banquets. Moreover it must
be remembered that some of the wild meats of
North America cannot be excelled in flavour and
delicacy ; nothing, for instance, can be better
than moose or caribou, mountain sheep or ante
lope. The " moufle," or nose of the moose, and
his marrow bones, are dainties which would be
highly appreciated by the most accomplished
epicures. The meat is good, and no better
method of cooking it has yet been discovered than
the simple one of roasting it before a wood fire
on a pointed stick. Simplicity is a great source of
comfort, and makes up for many luxuries ; and
nothing can be more simple, and at the same
time more comfortable, than life in such a birch-
bark camp as I have attempted to describe. In
summer time and in the fall, until the weather
begins to get a little cold, a tent affords all the
shelter that the sportsman or the tourist can
require. But when the leaves are all fallen, when
the lakes begin to freeze up, and snow covers the

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 109
earth, or may be looked for at any moment, the
nights become too cold to render dwelling in
tents any longer desirable. A tent can be used in
winter, and I have dwelt in one in extreme cold,
when the thermometer went down as low as 320
below zero. It was rendered habitable by a little
stove, which made it at the same time exceedingly
disagreeable. A stove sufficiently small to be
portable only contained wood enough to burn for
an hour and a half or so. Consequently some one
had to sit up all night to replenish it. Now,
nobody could keep awake, and the result was that
we had to pass through the unpleasant ordeal of
alternately freezing and roasting during the whole
night. The stove was of necessity composed of
very thin sheet iron, as lightness was an important
object, and consequently when it was filled with
good birch wood and well under way, it became
red-hot, and rendered the atmosphere in the
tent insupportable. In about half an hour or so
it would cool down a little, and one would drop
off to sleep, only to wake in about an hour's time
shivering, to find everything frozen solid in the
tent, and the fire nearly out. Such a method of
passing the night is little calculated to ensure
sound sleep. In the depth of winter it is quite

no CANADIAN NIGHTS
impossible to warm a tent from the outside,
however large the fire may be. It must be built
at such a distance that the canvas cannot possibly
catch fire, and hence all heat is dispersed long
before it can reach and warm the interior of the
tent. It is far better to make a " lean-to " of
the canvas, build a large fire, and sleep out in the
open. A " lean-to " is easily made and scarcely
needs description. The name explains itself.
You strike two poles, having a fork at the upper
end, into the ground, slanting back slightly ; lay
another fir pole horizontally between the two,
and resting in the crutch ; then place numerous
poles and branches leaning against the horizontal
pole, and thus form a framework which you cover
in as well as you can with birch bark, pine boughs,
pieces of canvas, skins, or whatever material is
most handy. You build an enormous fire in the
front, and the camp is complete. A " lean-to "
must always be constructed with reference to the
direction of the wind ; it serves to keep off the
wind and a certain amount of snow and rain. In
other respects it is, as the Irishman said of the
sedan-chair with the bottom out, more for the honour
and glory of the thing than anything else. For all
practical purposes you are decidedly out of doors.

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA in
Although the scenery of the greater part of
Canada cannot justly be described as grand or
magnificent, yet there is a weird, melancholy,
desolate beauty about her barrens, a soft loveli
ness in her lakes and forest glades in summer, a
gorgeousness of colour in her autumn woods, and
a stern, sad stateliness when winter has draped
them all with snow, that cannot be surpassed in
any land. I remember, as distinctly as if I had
left it but yesterday, the beauty of the camp from
which I made my first successful expedition after
moose one calling season. I had been out several
times unsuccessfully, sometimes getting no answer
at all ; at others, calling a bull close up, but
failing to induce him to show himself ; sometimes
failing on account of a breeze springing up, or of
the night becoming too much overcast and cloudy
to enable me to see him. My companions had
been equally unfortunate. We had spent the
best fortnight of the season in this way, and had
shifted our ground and tried everything in vain.
At last we decided on one more attempt, broke
camp, loaded our canoes, and started. We made
a journey of two days, traversing many lovely
lakes, carrying over several portages, and arrived
at our destination about three o'clock in the

112 CANADIAN NIGHTS
afternoon. We drew up our canoes at one of the
prettiest spots for a camp I have ever seen. It
lay beside a little sheltered secluded bay at the
head of a lovely lake, some three or four miles in
length. The shores near us were covered with
" hardwood " trees — birch, maple, and beech, in
their glorious autumn colours ; while the more
distant coasts were clothed with a sombre dark
mass of firs and spruce. Above the ordinary level
of the forest rose at intervals the ragged gaunt
form of some ancient and gigantic pine that had
escaped the notice of the lumberman, or had
proved unworthy of his axe. In front of us and
to the right, acting as a breakwater to our harbour,
lay a small island covered with hemlock and
tamarack trees, the latter leaning over in various
and most graceful angles, overhanging the water
to such an extent as sometimes to be almost
horizontal with it. Slightly to the left was a
shallow spot in the lake marked by a growth of
rushes, vividly green at the top, while the lower
halves were of a most brilliant scarlet, affording
the precise amount of warmth and bright colour
ing that the picture required. It is extraordinary
how everything seems to turn to brilliant colours
in the autumn in these northern latitudes. The

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 113
evening was perfectly still ; the surface of the
lake, unbroken by the smallest ripple, shone like
a mirror and reflected the coast-line and trees so
accurately that it was impossible to tell where
water ended and land began.
The love of money and the love of sport are the
passions that lead men into such scenes as these.
The lumberman, the salmon fisher, and the hunter
in pursuit of large game, monopolise the beauties
of nature in these Canadian wilds. The moose
{Cervus Alces) and caribou {Cervus rangifer) are
the principal large game to be found in Canada.
The moose is by far the biggest of all existing deer.
He attains to a height of quite 18 hands, and
weighs about 1200 pounds or more. The moose
of America is almost, if not quite, identical with
the elk of Europe, but it attains a greater size.
The horns especially are much finer than those to
be found on the elk in Russia, Prussia, or the
Scandinavian countries.
The moose has many advantages over other
deer, but it suffers also from some terrible dis
advantages, which make it an easy prey to its
great and principal destroyer, man. Whereas
among most, if not all, the members of the deer
tribe, the female has but one fawn at a birth, the

H

114 CANADIAN NIGHTS
cow moose generally drops two calves — which is
much in favour of the race. The moose is blessed
with an intensely acute sense of smell, with an
almost equally acute sense of hearing, and it is
exceedingly wary and difficult of approach. On
the other hand, it is but little fitted to move in
deep snow, owing to its great weight. Unlike
the caribou, which has hoofs specially adapted
for deep snow, the moose's feet are small compared
with the great bulk of the animal. If, therefore,
it is once found and started when the snow lies
deep upon the ground, its destruction is a matter
of certainty ; it breaks through the snow to solid
earth at every step, becomes speedily exhausted,
and falls an easy prey to men and dogs. Again,
a large tract of land is necessary to supply food
for even one moose. In summer it feeds a good
deal upon the stems and roots of water-lilies, but
its staple food consists of the tender shoots of the
moose-wood, ground-maple, alder, birch, poplar,
and other deciduous trees. It is fond of ground-
hemlock, and will also occasionally browse upon
the sapin or Canada balsam, and even upon spruce,
though that is very rare, and I have known them
when hard pressed to gnaw bark off the trees.
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are nearly

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 115
" settled up." More and more land is cleared
and brought under cultivation every day ; more
and more forest cut down year by year ; and the
moose-supporting portion of the country is be
coming very limited in extent. On the other
hand, the moose is an animal which could easily
be preserved if only reasonable laws could be
enforced. It adapts itself wonderfully to civilisa
tion. A young moose will become as tame as a
domestic cow in a short time. Moose become
accustomed to the ordinary noises of a settled
country with such facility that they may some
times be found feeding within a few hundred
yards of a road. A railway does not appear to
disturb them at all. I have shot moose within
sound of the barking of dogs and the cackling of
geese of a farmhouse, in places where the animals
must have been constantly hearing men shouting,
dogs barking, and all the noises of a settlement.
Their sense of hearing is developed in a wonderful
degree, and they appear to be possessed of some
marvellous power of discriminating between inno
cent sounds and noises which indicate danger.
On a windy day, when the forest is full of noises
— trees cracking, branches snapping, and twigs
breaking — the moose will take no notice of all

116 CANADIAN NIGHTS
these natural sounds ; but if a man breaks a twig,
or, treading on a dry stick, snaps it on the ground,
the moose will distinguish that sound from the
hundred voices of the storm, and be off in a
second. Why it is that the moose has developed no
peculiarity with regard to his feet, adapting him
especially to the country in which he dwells,
while the caribou that shares the woods and
barrens with him has done so in a remarkable
degree, I will leave philosophers to decide. In
the caribou the hoofs are very broad and round,
and split up very high, so that, when the animal
treads upon the soft surface of the snow, the
hoofs spreading out form a natural kind of snow-
shoe, and prevent its sinking deep. The frog
becomes absorbed towards winter, so that the
whole weight of the animal rests upon the hoof,
the edges of which are as sharp as a knife, and
give the animals so secure a foothold that they
can run without fear or danger on the slippery
surface of smooth glare ice. Now the moose, on
the contrary, is about as awkward on the ice as a
shod horse, and will not venture out on the frozen
surface of a lake if he can help it. His feet are
rather small and pointed, and allow him to sink

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 117
and flounder helplessly in the deep snows of mid
winter and early spring.
There are several ways in which the moose is
hunted ; some legitimate and some decidedly ille
gitimate. First of all there is moose-calling, which
to my mind is the most interesting of all woodland
sports. It commences about the beginning of
September, and lasts for about six weeks, and
consists in imitating the cry of the female moose,
and thereby calling up the male. This may sound
easy enough to do, especially as the bull at this
season of the year loses all his caution, or the
greater part of it. But the pastime is surrounded
by so many difficulties, that it is really the most
precarious of all the methods of pursuing or en
deavouring to outwit the moose ; and it is at the
same time the most exciting. I will endeavour to
describe the method by giving a slight sketch of
the death of a moose in New Brunswick woods
last year.
It was early in October. We had pitched our
tents — for at that season of the year the hunter
dwells in tents — upon a beautiful hardwood ridge,
bright with the painted foliage of birch and
maple. The weather had been bad for calling,
and no one had gone out, though we knew there

118 CANADIAN NIGHTS
were moose in the neighbourhood. We had cut
a great store of firewood, gathered bushels of
cranberries, dug a well in the swamp close by,
and attended to the thousand and one little
comforts that experience teaches one to provide
in the woods, and had absolutely nothing to do.
The day was intensely hot and sultry, and if any
one had approached the camp about noon he
would have deemed it deserted. All hands had
hung their blankets over the tents by way of pro
tection from the sun, and had gone to sleep.
About one o'clock I awoke, and sauntered out of
the tent to stretch my limbs and take a look at
the sky. I was particularly anxious about the
weather, for I was tired of idleness, and had de
termined to go out if the evening offered a tolerably
fair promise of a fair night. To get a better view
of the heavens I climbed to my accustomed look
out in a comfortable fork near the summit of a
neighbouring pine, and noted with disgust certain
little black shreds of cloud rising slowly above
the horizon. To aid my indecision I consulted
my dear old friend John Williams, the Indian,
who after the manner of his kind stoutly refused
to give any definite opinion on the subject. All
that I could get out of him was, " Well, dunno ;

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 119
mebbe fine, mebbe wind get up ; guess pretty
calm, perhaps, in morning. Suppose we go and
try, or praps mebbe wait till to-morrow." Finally
I decided to go out ; for although if there is the
slightest wind it is impossible to call, yet any wise
and prudent man, unless there are unmistakable
signs of a storm brewing, will take the chance ;
for the calling season is short and soon over.
I have said that an absolutely calm night is
required for calling, and for this reason : the
moose is so wary that in coming up to the call
he will invariably make a circle down wind in
order to get scent of the animal which is calling
him. Therefore, if there is a breath of wind astir,
the moose will get scent of the man before the
man has a chance of seeing the moose. A calm
night is the first thing necessary. Secondly, you
must have a moonlight night. No moose will
come up in the daytime. You can begin to call
about an hour before sunset, and moose will
answer up to, say, two hours after sunrise. There
is very little time, therefore, unless there is bright
moonlight. In the third place, I need scarcely
observe that to call moose successfully you must
find a place near camp where there are moose to
call, and where there are not only moose, but bull

120 CANADIAN NIGHTS
moose ; not only bull moose, but bulls that have
not already provided themselves with consorts ; for
if a real cow begins calling, the rough imitation
in the shape of a man has a very poor chance of
success, and may as well give it up as a bad job.
Fourthly, you must find a spot that is convenient
for calling, that is to say, a piece of dry ground,
for no human being can lie out all night in the
wet, particularly in the month of October, when
it freezes hard towards morning. You must have
dry ground well sheltered with trees or shrubs of
some kind, and a tolerably open space around it
for some distance ; open enough for you to see
the bull coming up when he is yet at a little dis
tance, but not a large extent of open ground,
for no moose will venture out far on an entirely
bare exposed plain. He is disinclined to leave
the friendly shelter of the trees. A perfect spot,
therefore, is not easily found. Such are some of
the difficulties which attend moose-calling, and
render it a most precarious pastime. Four con
ditions are necessary, and all four must be com
bined at one and the same time.
Having once determined to go out, preparations
do not take long. You have only to roll up a
blanket and overcoat, take some tea, sugar, salt,

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 121
and biscuit, a kettle, two tin pannikins, and a
small axe, with, I need scarcely say, rifle and
ammunition. The outfit is simple ; but the
hunter should look to everything himself, for an
Indian would leave his head behind if it were
loose. A good thick blanket is very necessary,
for moose-calling involves more hardship and
more suffering from cold than any other branch
of the noble science of hunting with which I am
acquainted. It is true that the weather is not
especially cold at that time of year, but there are
sharp frosts occasionally at night, and the moose-
caller cannot make a fire by which to warm himself,
for the smell of smoke is carried a long way by the
slightest current of air. Neither dare he run about
to warm his feet, or flap his hands against his
sides, or keep up the circulation by taking exercise
of any kind, for fear of making a noise. He is sure
to have got wet through with perspiration on his
way to the calling place, which of course makes
him more sensitive to cold.
So I and the Indian shouldered our packs, and
started for the barren, following an old logging
road. Perhaps I ought to explain a little what is
meant by a " logging road " and a " barren."
A logging road is a path cut through the forest in

122 CANADIAN NIGHTS
winter, when the snow is on the ground and the
lakes are frozen, along which the trunks of trees
or logs are hauled by horses or oxen to the water.
A logging road is a most pernicious thing. Never
follow one if you are lost in the woods, for one
end is sure to lead to a lake or a river, which is
decidedly inconvenient until the ice has formed ;
and in the other direction it will seduce you deep
into the inner recesses of the forest, and then
come to a sudden termination at some moss-
covered decayed pine-stump, which is discourag
ing. A " barren," as the term indicates, is a
piece of waste land ; but, as all hunting grounds
are waste, that definition would scarcely be
sufficient to describe what a " barren " is. It
means in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick an
open marshy space in the forest, sometimes so
soft as to be almost impassible, at other times
composed of good solid hard peat. The surface
is occasionally rough and tussocky, like a great
deal of country in Scotland.
In Newfoundland there are barrens of many
miles in extent, high, and, comparatively speaking,
dry plateaux ; but the barrens in the provinces I
am speaking of vary from a little open space of a
few acres to a plain of five or six miles in length

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 123
or breadth. There has been a good deal of dis
cussion as to the origin of these " barrens." It
appears to me that they must have been originally
lakes which have become dry by the gradual
elevation of the land, and through the natural
processes by which shallow waters become choked
up and filled with vegetable debris. They have
all the appearance of dry lakes. They are about
the size of the numerous sheets of water that are
so frequent in the country. The forest surrounds
them completely, precisely in the same way as it
does a lake, following all the lines and curvatures
of the bays and indentations of its shores ; and
every elevated spot of dry solid ground is covered
with trees exactly as are the little islands that so
thickly stud the surfaces of the Nova Scotian lakes.
Most of the lakes in the country are shallow, and
in many of them the process by which they become
filled up can be seen at work. The ground rises
considerably in the centre of these barrens, which
is, I believe, the case with all bogs and peat
mosses. I have never measured any of their areas,
neither have I attempted to estimate the extent
of the curvature of the surface ; but on a barren
where I hunted last year, of about two miles
across, the ground rose so much in the centre

124 CANADIAN NIGHTS
that when standing at one edge we could see
only the upper half of the pine trees which grew
at the other. The rise appeared to be quite
gradual, and the effect was as if one stood on an
exceedingly small globe, the natural curvature of
which hid the opposite trees.
To return to our calling. We got out upon the
barren, or rather upon a deep bay or indentation
of a large barren, about four o'clock in the after
noon, and made our way to a little wooded island
which afforded us shelter and dry ground, and
which was within easy shot of one side of the bay,
and so situated with regard to the other that a
moose coming from that direction would not
hesitate to approach it. The first thing to be
done is to make a lair for oneself — a little bed.
You pick out a nice sheltered soft spot, chop down
a few sapin branches with your knife, gather a
quantity of dry grass or bracken, and make as
comfortable a bed as the circumstances of the
case will permit.
Having made these little preparations, I sat
down and smoked my pipe while the Indian climbed
up a neighbouring pine tree to " call." The only
object of ascending a tree is that the sound may
be carried further into the recesses of the forest.

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 125
The instrument wherewith the caller endeavours
to imitate the cry of the cow consists of a cone-
shaped tube made out of a sheet of birch bark
roiled up. This horn is about eighteen inches in
length and three or four in diameter at the broadest
end, the narrow end being just large enough to fit
the mouth. The " caller " uses it like a speaking-
trumpet, groaning and roaring through it, imitating
as well as he can the cry of the cow moose. Few
white men can call really well, but some Indians
by long practice can imitate the animal with
wonderful success. Fortunately, however, no two
moose appear to have precisely the same voice,
but make all kinds of strange and diabolical noises,
so that even a novice in the art may not despair of
himself calling up a bull. The real difficulty —
the time when you require a perfect mastery of
the art — is when the bull is close by, suspicious
and listening with every fibre of its intensely
accurate ear to detect any sound that may reveal
the true nature of the animal he is approaching.
The smallest hoarseness, the slightest wrong vibra
tion, the least unnatural sound, will then prove
fatal. The Indian will kneel on the ground, putting
the broad end of the horn close to the earth so as
to deaden the sound, and with an agonised expres-

126 CANADIAN NIGHTS
sion of countenance will imitate with such mar
vellous fidelity the wailing, anxious, supplicating
cry of the cow, that the bull, unable to resist,
rushes out from the friendly cover of the trees, and
exposes himself to death. Or it may be that the
most accomplished caller fails to induce the sus
picious animal to show himself : the more ignoble
passion of jealousy must then be aroused. The
Indian will grunt like an enraged bull, break dead
branches from the trees, thrash his birch-bark horn
against the bushes, thus making a noise exactly like
a moose fighting the bushes with his antlers. The
bull cannot bear the idea of a rival, and, casting his
prudence to the winds, not unfrequently falls a
victim to jealousy and rage.
The hunter calls through his horn, first gently,
in case there should be a bull very near. He then
waits a quarter of an hour or so, and, if he gets no
answer, calls again a little louder, waiting at least a
quarter of an hour — or half an hour some Indians
say is best — after each attempt.
The cry of the cow is a long-drawn-out melan
choly sound, impossible to describe by words. The
answer of the bull moose, on the contrary, is a
rather short guttural grunt, and resembles at a
great distance the sound made by an axe chopping

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 127
wood, or that which a man makes when pulling
hard at a refractory clay pipe. You continue call
ing at intervals until you hear an answer, when
your tactics depend upon the way in which the
animal acts. Great acuteness of the sense of hear
ing is necessary, because the bull will occasion
ally come up without answering at all ; and the
first indication of his presence consists of the slight
noise he makes in advancing. Sometimes a bull
will come up with the most extreme caution ; at
others he will come tearing up through the woods,
as hard as he can go, making a noise like a steam-
engine, and rushing through the forest apparently
without the slightest fear.
On the particular occasion which I am recalling,
it was a most lovely evening. It wanted but about
half an hour to sundown, and all was perfectly
still. There was not the slightest sound of anything
moving in the forest except that of the unfrequent
flight of a moose-bird close by. And so I sat watch
ing that most glorious transformation scene — the
change of day into night ; saw the great sun sink
slowly down behind the pine trees ; saw the few
clouds that hovered motionless above me blaze
into the colour of bright burnished gold ; saw the
whole atmosphere become glorious with a soft

128 CANADIAN NIGHTS
yellow light, gradually dying out as the night crept
on, till only in the western sky there lingered a
faint glow fading into a pale cold apple-green,
against which the pines stood out as black as mid
night, and as sharply defined as though cut out of
steel. As the darkness deepened, a young crescent
moon shone out pale and clear, with a glittering
star a little below the lower horn, and above her
another star of lesser magnitude. It looked as
though a supernatural jewel — a heavenly pendant,
two great diamond solitaires, and a diamond cres
cent — were hanging in the western sky. After a
while, the moon too sank behind the trees, and
darkness fell upon the earth.
I know of nothing more enchanting than a per
fectly calm and silent autumnal sunset in the woods,
unless it be the sunrise, which to my mind is more
lovely still. Sunset is beautiful, but sad ; sunrise
is equally beautiful, and full of life, happiness, and
hope. I love to watch the stars begin to fade, to
see the first faint white light clear up the darkness
of the eastern sky, and gradually deepen into the
glorious colouring that heralds the approaching
sun. I love to see nature awake shuddering,
as she always does, and arouse herself into
active, busy life ; to note the insects, birds,

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 129
and beasts shake off slumber and set about their
daily tasks.
Still, the sunset is inexpressibly lovely, and I
do not envy the condition and frame of mind of a
man who cannot be as nearly happy as man can be,
when he is lying comfortably on a luxurious and
soft couch, gazing in perfect peace on the glorious
scene around him, rejoicing all his senses, and
saturating himself with the wonderful beauties of
a northern sunset.
So I sat quietly below, while the Indian called
from the tree- top. Not a sound answered to the
three or four long-drawn-out notes with which he
hoped to lure the bull ; after a long interval he called
again, but the same perfect, utter silence reigned
in the woods, a silence broken only by the melan
choly hooting of an owl, or the imaginary noises
that filled my head. It is extraordinary how small
noises become magnified when the ear is kept at a
great tension for any length of time, and how
the head becomes filled with all kinds of fictitious
sounds ; and it is very remarkable also how utterly
impossible it is to distinguish between a loud noise
uttered at a distance and a scarcely audible sound
close by. After listening very intently amidst the
profound silence of a quiet night in the forest for

130 CANADIAN NIGHTS
an hour or so, the head becomes so surcharged
with blood, owing, I presume, to all the faculties
being concentrated on a single sense, that one
seems to hear distant voices, the ringing of bells,
and all kinds of strange and impossible noises. A
man becomes so nervously alive to the slightest
disturbance of the almost awful silence of a still
night in the woods, that the faintest sound — the
cracking of a minute twig, or the fall of a leaf, even
at a great distance — will make him almost jump out
of his skin. He is also apt to make the most ludi
crous mistakes. Towards morning, about day
break, I have frequently mistaken the first faint
buzz of some minute fly, within a foot or so of my
ear, for the call of moose two or three miles off.
About ten o'clock the Indian gave it up in de
spair and came down the tree ; we rolled ourselves
up in our rugs, pulled the hoods of our blanket
coats over our heads, and went to sleep. I awoke
literally shaking with cold. It was still the dead
of night ; and the stars were shining with intense
brilliancy, to my great disappointment, for I was
in hopes of seeing the first streaks of dawn. It was
freezing very hard, far too hard for me to think of
going to sleep again. So I roused the Indian and
suggested that he should try another call or two.

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 131
Accordingly we stole down to the edge of the
little point of wood in which we had ensconced
ourselves, and in a few minutes the forest was re
echoing the plaintive notes of the moose. Not an
answer, not a sound — utter silence, as if all the
world were dead ! broken suddenly and horribly
by a yell that made the blood curdle in one's veins.
It was the long, quavering, human, but unearthly
scream of a loon on the distant lake. After what
seemed to me many hours, but what was in reality
but a short time, the first indications of dawn re
vealed themselves in the rising of the morning star,
and the slightest possible paling of the eastern sky.
The cold grew almost unbearable. That curious
shiver that runs through nature — the first icy
current of air that precedes the day — chilled us to
the bones. I rolled myself up in my blanket and
lighted a pipe, trying to retain what little caloric
remained in my body, while the Indian again
ascended the tree. By the time he had called twice
it was grey dawn. Birds were beginning to move
about, and busy squirrels to look out for their
breakfast of pine-buds. I sat listening intently,
and watching the blank emotionless face of the
Indian as he gazed around him, when suddenly I
saw his countenance blaze up with vivid excite-

132 CANADIAN NIGHTS
ment. His eyes seemed to start from his head, his
muscles twitched, his face glowed, he seemed trans
formed in a moment into a different being. At
the same time he began with the utmost celerity,
but with extreme caution, to descend to the ground.
He motioned me not to make any noise, and whis
pered that a moose was coming across the barren
and must be close by. Grasping my rifle, we
crawled carefully through the grass, crisp and
noisy with frost, down to the edge of our island of
woods, and there, after peering cautiously around
some stunted juniper bushes, I saw standing,
about sixty yards off, a bull moose. He looked
gigantic in the thin morning mist which was be
ginning to drift up from the surface of the barren.
Great volumes of steam issued from his nostrils,
and his whole aspect, looming in the fog, was vast
and almost terrific. He stood there perfectly
motionless, staring at the spot from which he had
heard the cry of the supposed cow, irresolute
whether to come on or not. The Indian was
anxious to bring him a little closer, but I did not
wish to run the risk of scaring him, and so, taking
aim as fairly as I could, considering I was shaking
all over with cold, I fired and struck him behind
the shoulder. He plunged forward on his knees,

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 133
jumped up, rushed forward for about two hundred
yards, and then fell dead at the edge of the heavy
timber on the far side of the barren.
We went to work then and there to skin and
clean him, an operation which probably took us an
hour or more, and, having rested ourselves a few
minutes, we started off to take a little cruise round
the edge of the barren and see if there were any
caribou on it. I should explain that " cruising "
is in the provinces performed on land as well as at
sea. A man says he has spent all summer " cruis
ing " the woods in search of pine timber, and if your
Indian wants you to go out for a walk, he will
say, " Let us take a cruise around somewhere."
Accordingly, we trudged off over the soft yielding
surface of the bog, and, taking advantage of some
stunted bushes, crossed to the opposite side, so as
to be well down wind in case any animals should be
on it. The Indian then ascended to the top of the
highest pine-tree he could find, taking my glasses
with him, and had a good look all over the barren.
There was not a thing to be seen. We then passed
through a small strip of wood, and came out upon
another plain, and there, on ascending a tree to
look round, the Indian espied two caribou feeding
towards the timber. We had to wait some little

134 CANADIAN NIGHTS
time till they got behind an island of trees, and then,
running as fast as the soft nature of the ground
would permit, we contrived to get close up to them
just as they entered the thick woods, and, after an
exciting stalk of about half an hour, I managed to
kill both.
Having performed the obsequies of the chase
upon the two caribou, we returned to our calling-
place. By this time it was about noon : the sun
was blazing down with almost tropical heat. We
had been awake the greater part of the night, and
had done a hard morning's work, and felt a decided
need for refreshment. In a few minutes we had
lighted a little fire, put the kettle on to boil, and set
the moose kidneys, impaled on sharp sticks, to
roast by the fire ; and with fresh kidneys, good
strong tea, plenty of sugar and salt, and some hard
biscuit, I made one of the most sumptuous break
fasts it has been my lot to assist at.
Breakfast over, I told the Indian to go down to
camp and bring up the other men to assist in cutting
up and smoking the meat. As soon as he had de
parted I laid myself out for a rest. I shifted my
bed — that is to say, my heap of dried bracken and
pine tops — under the shadow of a pine, spread my
blanket out, and lay down to smoke a pipe of peace

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 135
in the most contented frame of mind that a man
can ever hope to enjoy in this uneasy and trouble
some world. I had suffered from cold and from
hunger — I was now warm and well fed. I was tired
after a hard day's work and long night's vigil, and
was thoroughly capable of enjoying that greatest of
all luxuries — sweet repose after severe exercise. The
day was so warm that the shade of the trees fell
cool and grateful, and I lay flat on my back, smok
ing my pipe, and gazing up through the branches
into a perfectly clear, blue sky, with occasionally a
little white cloud like a bit of swansdown floating
across it, and felt, as I had often felt before, that
no luxury of civilisation can at all compare with the
comfort a man can obtain in the wilderness. I lay
smoking till I dropped off to sleep, and slept soundly
until the men coming up from camp awoke me.
Such is a pretty fair sample of a good day's
sport. It was not a very exciting day, and I have
alluded to it chiefly because the incidents are
fresh in my mind. The great interest of moose-
calling comes in when a bull answers early in the
evening, and will not come up boldly, and you
and the bull spend the whole night trying to
outwit each other. Sometimes, just when you
think you have succeeded in deceiving him, a

136 CANADIAN NIGHTS
little air of wind will spring up ; he will get scent
of you, and be off in a second. Sometimes a bull
will answer at intervals for several hours, will
come up to the edge of the open ground, and
there stop and cease speaking. You wait, anxiously
watching for him all night, and in the morning,
when you examine the ground, you find that
something had scared him, and that he had
silently made off, so silently that his departure
was unnoticed. It is marvellous how so great
and heavy a creature can move through the woods
without making the smallest sound ; but he can
do so, and does, to the great confusion of the
hunter. Sometimes another bull appears upon the scene,
and a frightful battle ensues ; or a cow will com
mence calling and rob you of your prey ; or you
may get an answer or two in the evening, and
then hear nothing for several hours, and go to
sleep and awake in the morning to find that the
bull had walked calmly up within ten yards of
you. Very frequently you may leave camp on a
perfectly clear, fine afternoon, when suddenly a
change will come on, and you may have to pass
a long dreary night on some bare and naked spot
of ground, exposed to the pitiless pelting of the

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 137
storm. One such night I well remember last fall.
It rained, and thundered, and blew the whole
time from about eight o'clock, until daylight at
last gave us a chance of dragging our chilled and
benumbed bodies back to camp. Fortunately
such exposure, though unpleasant, never does one
any harm in the wilderness.
Occasionally a moose will answer, but nothing
will induce him to come up, and in the morn
ing, if there is a little wind, you can resort to the
only other legitimate way of hunting the moose,
namely, " creeping," or " still hunting," as it
would be termed in the States, which is as nearly
as possible equivalent to ordinary deerstalking.
After the rutting season the moose begin to
" yard," as it is termed. I have seen pictures of
a moose-yard in which numbers of animals are
represented inside and surrounded by a barrier
of snow, on the outside of which baffled packs of
wolves are clamorously howling ; and I have seen
a moose-yard so described in print as to make it
appear that a number of moose herd together
and keep tramping and tramping in the snow to
such an extent that by mid-winter they find
themselves in what is literally a yard — a hollow
bare place, surrounded by deep snow. Of course

138 CANADIAN NIGHTS
such a definition is utterly absurd. A moose does
not travel straight on when he is in search of food,
but selects a particular locality, and remains there
as long as the supply of provisions holds out ;
and that place is called a yard.
Sometimes a solitary moose " yards " alone,
sometimes two or three together, occasionally as
many as half a dozen may be found congregated
in one place. When a man says he has found a
" moose-yard," he means that he has come across
a place where it is evident from the tracks crossing
and recrossing and intersecting each other in all
directions, and from the signs of browsing on the
trees, that one or more moose have settled down
to feed for the winter. Having once selected a
place or " yard," the moose will remain there till
the following summer if the food holds out, ¦ and
they are not disturbed by man. If forced to leave
their " yard," they will travel a long distance —
twenty or thirty miles — before choosing another
feeding-ground. After the rutting season moose
wander about in an uneasy state of mind for three
weeks or so, and are not all settled down till the
beginning of November.
In " creeping," therefore, or stalking moose, the
first thing to be done is to find a moose-yard.

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 139
You set out early in the morning, in any direction
you may think advisable, according to the way the
wind blows, examining carefully all the tracks that
you come across. When you hit upon a track,
you follow it a little way, examining it and the
ground and trees, to see if the animal is travelling
or not. If you find that the moose has " yarded,"
that is to say, fed, and you can come across evi
dences of his presence not more than a couple of
days or so old, you make up your mind to hunt
that particular moose.
The utmost caution and skill are necessary.
The moose invariably travels down wind some
little distance before beginning to feed, and then
works his way up, browsing about at will in various
directions. He also makes a circle down wind
before lying down, so that, if you hit on a fresh
track and then follow it, you are perfectly certain
to start the animal without seeing him. You may
follow a moose track a whole day, as I have done
before now, and finally come across the place where
you started him, and then discover that you had
passed within fifty yards of that spot early in the
morning, the animal having made a large circuit
and lain down close to his tracks. The principle,
therefore, that the hunter has to go upon is, to

140 CANADIAN NIGHTS
keep making small semicircles down wind so as to
constantly cut the tracks and yet keep the animal
always to windward of him. Having come across
a track and made up your mind whether it is
pretty fresh, whether the beast is a large one
worth following, and whether it is settled down
and feeding quietly, you will not follow the track,
but go down wind and then gradually work up
wind again till you cut the tracks a second time.
Then you must make out whether the tracks are
fresher or older than the former, whether they
are tracks of the same moose or those of another,
and leave them again and work up, and cut them
a third time ; and so you go on gradually, always
trimming down wind and edging up wind again,
until, finally, you have quartered the whole
ground. Perhaps the moose is feeding upon a hardwood
ridge of beech and maples of, say, two or three
miles in length and a quarter of a mile in width.
Every square yard you must make good in the way
I have endeavoured to describe, before you pro
ceed to go up to the moose. At length, by dint
of great perseverance and caution, you will have
so far covered the ground that you will know the
animal must be in some particular spot. Then

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 141
comes the difficult moment. I may say at once
that it is mere waste of time trying to creep except
on a windy day, even with moccasins on ; and it
is of no use at any time trying to creep a moose
unless you are provided with soft leather mocca
sins. No human being can get within shot of a
moose on a still day : the best time is when windy
weather succeeds a heavy fall of rain. Then the
ground is soft, the little twigs strewed about bend
instead of breaking, and the noise of the wind in
the trees deadens the sound of your footsteps.
If the ground is dry, and there is not much wind,
it is impossible to get near the game. When you
have determined that the moose is somewhere
handy — when you come across perfectly fresh
indications of his presence — you proceed inch by
inch ; you must not make the smallest noise ; the
least crack of a dead branch or of a stick under
foot will start the animal. Especially careful
must you be that nothing taps against your gun-
stock, or that you do not strike the barrel against
a tree, for, naturally, any such unusual sound is
far worse than the cracking of a stick. If, how
ever, you succeed in imitating the noiseless
movements and footsteps of your Indian, you will
probably be rewarded by seeing him presently

142 CANADIAN NIGHTS
make a " point " like a pointer dog. Every
quivering fibre in his body proves his excitement.
He will point out something dark to you among
the trees. That dark mass is a moose, and you
must fire at it without being too careful what part
of the animal you are going to hit, for probably
the moose has heard you and is only waiting a
second before making up his mind to be off.
Generally speaking, the second man sees the
moose first. The leader is too much occupied in
looking at the tracks — in seeing where he is going
to put his foot down. The second man has only
to tread carefully in the footsteps of the man
preceding him, and is able to concentrate his
attention more on looking about. The moment
you spy or hear the animal you should imitate the
call of a moose — first to attract the attention of
the animal, which, if it has not smelt you, will
probably stop a second to make sure what it is
that has frightened him ; secondly, to let the
Indian in front know that the game is on foot.
Moose-creeping is an exceedingly difficult and
exciting pastime. It requires all a man's patience,
for, of course, you may travel day after day in this
way without finding any traces of deer. To the
novice it is not interesting, for, apparently, the

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 143
Indian wanders aimlessly about the woods without
any particular object. When you come to under
stand the motive for every twist and turn he
makes, and appreciate the science he is displaying,
it becomes one of the most fascinating pursuits
in which the sportsman can indulge.
Sometimes one may be in good luck and come
across a moose in some glade or " interval," the
result of the labours of former generations of
beavers. An " interval " is the local term for
natural meadows, which are frequently found
along the margins of streams. Beavers have done
great and useful work in all these countries. The
evidences of their labours have far outlived the
work of aboriginal man. They dam up little
streams and form shallow lakes and ponds. Trees
fall in and decay ; the ponds get choked with
vegetation, fill up, and are turned into natural
meadows of great value to the settler. Beavers
have played an important part in rendering these
savage countries fit for the habitation of civilised
man. The moose may also be run down in winter
time on snow-shoes. This may be called partly
a legitimate, and partly an illegitimate, mode of
killing the animal. If the snow is not very deep,

144 CANADIAN NIGHTS
the moose can travel, and to come up with him
requires immense endurance on the part of a man,
but no skill except that involved in the art of
running on snow-shoes. You simply start the
animal and follow after him for a day, or some
times two or three days, when you come up with
him and walk as close as you like and shoot him.
If the snow lies very deep in early spring, moose
may be slaughtered with ease. The sun thaws the
surface, which freezes up again at night and forms
an icy crust strong enough to support a man on
snow-shoes, or a dog, but not nearly strong enough
to support a moose. Then they can be run down
without trouble. You find your moose and start
a dog after him. The unfortunate moose flounders
helplessly in the snow, cutting his legs to pieces,
and in a very short time becomes exhausted, and
you can walk up to him, knock him on the head
with an axe, or stick him with a knife, as you think
best. Hundreds and hundreds of moose have been
slaughtered in this scandalous manner for their
hides alone. The settlers also dig pits for them
and snare them, both of which practices, I need
hardly say, are most nefarious. There is nothing
sportsmanlike about them, and they involve waste
of good meat, because, unless a man looks to the

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 145
snare every day (which these men never do), he
runs the chance of catching a moose and finding
the carcass unfit for food when he revisits the
place. I shall not describe the method of snaring
a moose, for fear some of you gentlemen might be
tempted to practise it, or lest it might be supposed
for a moment that I had ever done such a wicked
thing myself.
Many men prefer caribou-hunting to moose-
hunting, and I am not sure that they are not right.
The American caribou is, I believe, identical with
the reindeer of Europe, though the American
animal grows to a much larger size and the males
carry far finer horns. The does have small horns
also. I believe the caribou is the only species of
deer marked by that peculiarity. Caribou are very
fond of getting out on the lakes as soon as the ice
will bear, and feeding round the shores. They
feed entirely on moss and lichens, principally on the
long grey moss, locally known as " old men's
beards," which hangs in graceful festoons from the
branches of the pines, and on the beautiful purple
and cream-coloured caribou-moss that covers the
barrens. They are not very shy animals, and will
venture close to lumber camps to feed on the moss
which grows most luxuriantly on the tops of the

146 CANADIAN NIGHTS
pines which the axe-men have felled. Caribou can
not be run down, and the settlers rarely go after
them. They must be stalked on the barrens and
lakes, or crept up to in the woods, precisely in the
same manner as the moose.
Such is a brief outline of some Canadian sports.
Life in the woods need not be devoted entirely to
hunting, but can be varied to a great extent by
fishing and trapping. The streams and lakes teem
with trout, and the finest salmon-fishing in the
world is to be found in New Brunswick and on the
north shore of the gulf. In Lower Canada there
is still a good deal of fur to be found. In New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia beavers are almost
extinct, and marten, mink, lynx, otter, and other
valuable fur-bearing animals are comparatively
scarce. It would be hard, I think, for a man to
spend a holiday more pleasantly and beneficially
than in the Canadian woods. Hunting leads him
into beautiful scenery ; his method of life induces
a due contemplation of nature, and tends to whole
some thought. He has not much opportunity for
improving his mind with literature, but he can
read out of the great book of Nature and find " books
in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good
in everything." If he has his eyes and ears open,

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 147
he cannot fail to take notice of many interesting
circumstances and phenomena ; and if he has any
knowledge of natural history, every moment of the
day must be suggesting something new and inter
esting to him. A strange scene, for example,
which once came within my observation, com
pletely puzzled me at the time, and has done so
ever since. I was in Nova Scotia in the fall, when
one day my Indian told me that in a lake close by
all the rocks were moving out of the water, a cir
cumstance which I thought not a little strange.
However, I went to look at the unheard-of spec
tacle, and sure enough there were the rocks appar
ently all moving out of the water on to dry land.
The lake is of considerable extent, but shallow, and
full of great masses of rock. Many of these masses
appear to have travelled right out of the lake, and
are now high and dry, some fifteen yards above the
margin of the water. They have ploughed deep
and regularly defined channels for themselves.
You may see them of all sizes, from blocks of, say,
roughly speaking, six or eight feet in diameter,
down to stones which a man could lift. Moreover,
you find them in various stages of progress, some
a hundred yards or more from shore and apparently
just beginning to move ; others half-way to their

148 CANADIAN NIGHTS
destination, and others again, as I have said, high
and dry above the water. In all cases there is a
distinct groove or furrow which the rock has clearly
ploughed for itself. I noticed one particularly
good specimen, an enormous block which lay some
yards above high-water mark. The earth and
stones were heaped up in front of it to a height of
three or four feet. There was a deep furrow, the
exact breadth of the block, leading down directly
from it into the lake, and extending till it was
hidden from my sight by the depth of the water.
Loose stones and pebbles were piled up on each
side of this groove in a regular clearly defined line.
I thought at first that from some cause or other the
smaller stones, pebbles, and sand had been dragged
down from above, and consequently had piled
themselves up in front of all the large rocks too
heavy to be moved, and had left a vacant space or
furrow behind the rocks. But if that had been the
case, the drift of moving material would of course
have joined together again in the space of a few
yards behind the fixed rocks. On the contrary,
these grooves or furrows remained the same width
throughout their entire length, and have, I think,
undoubtedly been caused by the rock forcing its
way up through the loose shingle and stones which

MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 149
compose the bed of the lake. What power has set
these rocks in motion it is difficult to decide. The
action of ice is the only thing that might explain
it ; but how ice could exert itself in that special
manner, and why, if ice is the cause of it, it does
not manifest that tendency in every lake in every
part of the world, I do not pretend to comprehend.
My attention having been once directed to this,
I noticed it in various other lakes. Unfortunately
my Indian only mentioned it to me a day or two
before I left the woods. I had not time, therefore,
to make any accurate investigation into the sub
ject. I have mentioned this extraordinary phen
omenon to geologists and other scientific men,
but have never been given any satisfactory explana
tion of it. In fact, the usual explanation was an
assurance in polite language that I was a liar.
Scientists hate to be puzzled.
Even from the point of view of a traveller who
cares not for field sports, Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, and in fact all Canada, is a country full
of interest. It is interesting for many reasons
which I need not trouble you with, but especially
so as showing the development of what in future
will be a great nation. For whether in connection
with this country, or as independent, or as joined

150 CANADIAN NIGHTS
to the United States, or any portion of them, that
vast region which is now called British North
America will assuredly some day support the
strongest, most powerful, and most masterful
population on the continent of America.

SHEEP-HUNTING IN THE
MOUNTAINS
OVIS MONTANA, locally and variously
' called the mountain sheep, Big-horn, or
Taye, is very closely allied to, if he is
not identical with, Ovis argali, the wild sheep
of Asia, and he is akin to the European Mouflon.
He stands about as high as a black-tail deer, but
is much thicker and more massively made in the
body and limbs than the latter animal. His head
resembles that of a domestic sheep, but it is larger
and more powerful-looking, and, in the case of the
male, it is surmounted by a huge pair of curving
horns far longer than those that adorn the head
of any civilised ram. Among these animals this
ornament is not confined to the male sex, for
the females also carry small horns. The hair is
coarse, very thick and close, resembling that of
the deer in texture, but bluer in colour over the
greater portion of his body, with a peculiar ex
ception which makes him look as if he was in the
habit of sitting down in the snow, and some stuck

i52 CANADIAN NIGHTS
to him. He is a grand and noble-looking animal,
viewed standing motionless on some jutting crag,
or bounding with gigantic springs down a precipice
that apparently could not afford a foothold to
any living thing.
Some years ago I doubted the existence of the
mountain sheep. I classed him with the Gorgons,
dragons, and unicorns. I had read about him in
books, but in all my wanderings I had never seen
one, not even a stuffed specimen except in the
British Museum, and I had some doubts as to
whether they were genuine, or had been got up
after the manner of Barnum's mermaid ; neither
had I come across any reliable man who had killed
one. My doubts were, however, at length dis
pelled. One day, while hunting on the plains, the
government scout of a neighbouring post told me
he was certain that there were big-horns on a
certain range of bluffs in Wyoming. I did not
believe him in the least, but as a large party of us,
including some soldiers, were going through from
a post on the railway to one of the forts situated
in that territory, and as we should have to pass
through the bluffs, we determined to spend a few
days there and to prospect for sheep. This same
government scout was a considerable villain, and

SHEEP-HUNTING 153
got us into a nice mess. I don't know why it was,
but the inhabitants of the " city " in the neigh
bourhood of the fort from which we had been
hunting took it into their wise heads that neither
my friend P. nor myself were likely ever to revisit
that region, and that therefore it was expedient
to pillage, squeeze, and skin us completely before
we got away. They had laid their plans pretty
well. The scout arranged with a worthy citizen
from whom we had hired some horses that at the
last moment he should put in a most exorbitant
claim for damage done to his horses. Accordingly,
after the ambulance that had conveyed us to the
station had returned to the fort, and while we
were waiting quietly at the hotel for the train, it
being then about eleven o'clock at night, we were
politely but firmly requested to pay a sum for
damage done to the team, greatly exceeding the
whole value of both horses and wagon put to
gether, and, at the same moment, an attachment
was placed upon our luggage. We were in a nice
fix. We had to leave by that night's train, for
there was but one train a day, and the party we
were to join were impatiently waiting for us at
S  , a station some distance down the line, and
expected to leave the next day, the moment the

154 CANADIAN NIGHTS
train got in. Fortunately the cars were three or
four hours late, which gave us time to do some
thing. We got a buggy, drove off to the residence
of an attorney, who was recommended to us by
the hotel proprietor for his strict honesty, woke
him up, turned him out of bed, narrated the
circumstances, lugged him down to the station,
paid the money into court, got the attachment
off our luggage, and started triumphantly by the
train. I never found out what became of our case,
but I need scarcely say we never saw any of our
money again. Where it went to I do not know ;
probably it went, in the words of the late Mr.
James Fisk, " where the woodbine twineth " ; at
any rate I am pretty sure that a very small pro
portion of it, if any, found its way into the pockets
of the two conspirators — the scout and the owner
of the horses.
On arriving at the little town of S  we found
the party were not ready, and we were com
pelled to wait there some days, a period of inac
tivity which proved fatal to bur scout. S  was
at that time inhabited by a great many card-
sharpers and gentlemen of that and Mndred
persuasions, and a few railway employes. The
small military post is situated some little distance

SHEEP-HUNTING 155
outside the town. The day after our arrival a
carpenter who had just completed a building
contract somewhere, and who was overflowing
with money and good-nature, came back to the
town and proceeded to " treat," with the result
that in a few hours the city was mad drunk, and
remained so for a considerable time. P  and
I dined that night at the barracks, and by the
time we returned to the town the orgy was at
its height. The men were simply wild, raving
drunk, drunk with the vilest of whisky, and
nobody knows how vile and how horrible in its
consequences whisky can be until he has tasted
a sample of the kind of stuff that is, or used to be,
concocted at many of those little out-of-the-way
frontier towns. They were yelling, laughing, roar
ing, fighting, exploding rifles and firing off revolvers
promiscuously all over the place. They intended
it as a feu de joie no doubt, but as they loaded
with ball cartridge, and were too magnanimous
to take the petty precaution of firing in the air,
it did not strike P  and me exactly in that
light. In fact it appeared anything but a joyful
proceeding to us, and considering that discretion,
in such a case, was undoubtedly the better part of
valour, we made a wide circle out of the line of

156 CANADIAN NIGHTS
fire until we gained the shelter of a long line of
trucks, and under their friendly cover crept up to
the hotel at the railway station, like a couple of
malefactors escaping from a hot pursuit. Male
factors in fact we soon found ourselves to be, for
when we reached the hotel we discovered all our
baggage piled up in a heap in the centre of the
room, with the sheriff drunk, and in his shirt
sleeves, seated on it, attended by a judge and the
sub-sheriff, both also the better — or worse — for
whisky. It was fortunate that we arrived when
we did. The sheriff or sub-sheriff, I forget which,
had assaulted my servant in the most cowardly,
brutal manner. The man had refused, and very
properly refused, to separate my property from
a lot of baggage belonging to other people, and
the drunken representative of the law drew two
pistols upon him, knocked him down, kicked him,
threatened to blow his bad-worded brains out,
and likely enough would have done so but for the
man's wonderful command of himself and quiet
courage. After some little difficulty we found out what
was the matter. It appeared that our government
scout, under the influence of bad whisky, had taken
it into his head to try the attachment dodge over

SHEEP-HUNTING 157
again. Accordingly, during our absence at the
barracks, he trumped up a most ridiculous charge,
claiming five dollars a day wages from us during
the whole time he was out on an expedition from
Fort  , which we had accompanied. He was
receiving government pay, was detailed for duty
with the expedition in his capacity of government
scout, and was allowed by the officer in command
to go out hunting with us as a matter of courtesy
and kindness to us, and because he knew the country
better than anyone else. The man was anxious to
go, and was very pleased and perfectly satisfied with
the liberal present we made him at the termination
of the hunt. The charge was too preposterous to
be sustained, but there was no use in representing
the injustice and absurd nature of it, as the civil
authorities and legal functionaries in the town were
in the swim, and, if they had not been, were too
drunk to listen to reason. At first the captors of
our baggage were very offensive, and things looked
somewhat ugly ; but a remark of P  quite
altered the aspect of affairs. He asked the sheriff,
with a plaintive air of humble submission, whether
he would not allow us the use of one small article
of baggage, namely, a five-gallon keg of whisky.
This request seemed somehow to tickle the fancies

158 CANADIAN NIGHTS
of the officials, for they allowed us to take possession
of the keg, and becoming more civil and communi
cative, told us that either we must pay the money
claimed, or lose our baggage, or get two well-to-do
respectable citizens to go security for the amount.
The hotel proprietor and other gentlemen were
kind enough to do this for us, and the sheriffs then
condescended to give over our baggage and vacate
our rooms. The shouting and the riot went on all
night, and I am bound to say that I was not very
sorry to leave S — — . The impression it made
upon me was that it was not a nice place for a quiet
inoffensive man to live in, especially if he had any
property of any kind. Of course we then and there
discharged our scout. He applied to the officer
commanding at S  to pay his expenses back to
Fort  , which that officer politely declined to do,
and our friend had to make his way back as best he
could. He lost his place, and that was the last I
heard of him. We subsequently heard that the
sheriff also came to an untimely end. It seems he
had a little unpleasantness with some gentleman of
the town, and, happening one night to see his friend
through a window seated with his back towards
him, and thinking that the opportunity of settling
the difference between them was too good to be

SHEEP-HUNTING 159
lost, he fired at the man, shot him through the back,
and killed him. In consequence of this the sheriff
lost his appointment, and, if report be true, what
he probably thought of still greater importance,
his life. The whole town also was thoroughly
purged. Detectives were sent down, the card-
sharpers were hunted out of the place, the ring of
villains who administered so-called law and justice
was broken up, and I believe S  has ever since
been as peaceable a place as a man need wish to see
anywhere. So possibly our experience, which was
decidedly disagreeable to us personally, resulted to
the general welfare of the commnuity at S  .
After this episode we met with no further delays,
and the next morning we started on our way to
Fort  .
A very pleasant time we had, skirting the base
of the hills, following the old emigrant track to
Utah. The month was December, the weather
fine and open, and game — that is, deer and antelope
— abundant, with an occasional buffalo for a change.
One day I went out alone on foot to look for a deer.
I had not gone very far walking along a ridge, keep
ing a sharp look-out on either side, before I espied
a long way off a party of five or six deer. Taking
care to keep myself concealed, I got up within good

160 CANADIAN NIGHTS
view and took a spy at them with my field-glasses,
to see if there was a good head among the gang.
There they were — one, two, three, four, five deer,
feeding quietly, but I could not make out any
antlers among them. Curious-looking deer, too, I
thought to myself, and screwed the glasses in a
little, and steadied myself for a better look. Well,
I thought, there is certainly an unusual appearance
about them, something odd in the colour, some
thing strange in the shape. Of a sudden a thought
that felt red-hot rushed through me — what if they
should be sheep ! " By Jove ! they are sheep,"
I exclaimed, as one moved a little into a better
light — " two big rams, just look at their horns,"
and three small ones. I declare I felt as excited as
if I had discovered a new animal or attained the
North Pole. I was so nervous I could not do any
thing for a few minutes, but after a while set to
work in fear and trembling to execute a scientific
stalk. If those sheep had been the last specimens
of their race remaining on earth, I could not have
been more anxious to get a fair shot at them. It
was a difficult country, and I had a hard climb and
an anxious time of it, but at last I got into a position
that I felt sure would enable me to creep up within
range. Alas ! I was doomed to awful disappoint-

SHEEP-HUNTING 161
ment that day. Two others of the party were out
shooting at coyotes, birds, anything they came
across ; and when after infinite trouble I had
crawled up within shooting distance of the sheep,
and was pulling myself together and settling myself
for the fatal moment, they fired a shot, started the
game, and snatched the victory from out of my very
grasp, and I had all my labour to begin over again.
To make a long story short, I made three stalks on
those sheep, for they were unaccustomed to the
sound of firearms, and did not run far, and three
times the same thing happened, and I was baulked
by the same unlucky cause. On the third occasion,
however, the sheep were seriously scared, and ran
so far that, as it was getting late, I was obliged to
leave them, and with a very heavy heart set a gloomy
face towards home. On my way over a high ridge I
noticed something curious away out on the plains
near a bend of the Platte, and with the glasses made
out a lot of tents or Indian tepees, I could not de
termine which. We had a consultation about it in
camp that evening, and decided that, as there were
no Indians in the neighbourhood, what I saw must
have been the tents of a company of soldiers we
expected to meet us from the fort.
The next morning my hunting companion, my

162 CANADIAN NIGHTS
Scotch gillie Sandie, and I, started off to take up
the trail of the sheep. We galloped along till
opposite the place where I had last seen them,
picketed our horses, and commenced climbing the
hills. We had not gone twenty yards when we
saw something moving in the far distance. Out
with the glasses ! Perhaps it is one of the sheep,
I thought. " Hallo ! " I cried, amid general con
sternation, " it is a man." Another good look.
" No, it is a woman." " No, a man in a blanket.
An Indian ! " Without another word, down we
went flat as serpents in the long grass, crawled
back to our horses, and then helter-skelter back
to camp as hard as we could go. We found camp
in a bustle, men with their carbines in their hands
saddling up, tents being taken down, and a lot of
ugly-looking savages sitting about three or four
hundred yards off on a rock, with their blankets
drawn up to their noses, looking on, while several
more noble redskins were hovering about in the dis
tance. It did not look pleasant. More and more
Indians kept arriving, some with the carcasses
of deer on their saddles — the villains ! what right
had they to come marauding on our hunting
grounds ? — and after a while a lot of them, getting
bold, came into camp, making friendly signs,

SHEEP-HUNTING 163
shook hands, and sat down and smoked with us.
There was one old fellow who spoke a few words
of English and acted as interpreter ; he was
evidently the comic man of the party, and quite
a character in his way. He was a queer, wizened,
dried-up looking specimen of humanity, clothed in
multitudinous rags of ancient flannel shirt, tattered
blanket, and dilapidated deerskin leggings. He
rode a pony as ancient, as lean, and as ragged as
himself, and he had a lot of old rusty beaver-traps,
and pots, and pans, and kettles, and in fact appa
rently all his household goods distributed over
the persons of himself and his steed, and rattling,
clanging, and jingling whenever he moved. He
made frequent remarks in Indian — jokes, I pre
sume, or remarks on our personal appearance, for
they were received with shouts of laughter — and
he was equally voluble in English, though his
knowledge of that language was apparently limited,
for he kept on informing us that " heap of Sioux
coming, heap wagon, white men with them."
They all professed great friendship, but they were
so very saucy and bumptious, and tried so perti
naciously to steal everything that they could lay
their hands on, that we concluded to clear out as
speedily as possible, and accordingly we struck

164 CANADIAN NIGHTS
tents, bundled everything into the wagons, and
left with, as far as I am concerned, no amiable
feelings towards the " cut off " band of Sioux. I
am generally rather partial to Indians, but I confess
on this occasion I felt fully prepared to endorse
the opinion of the gentleman who said that " all
Indians were pison." In the first place this same
" cut off " band of Sioux had only a short time
before massacred between eighty and ninety Paw
nee women and children. They came upon the
camp while all the men were out running buffalo,
surrounded it, and killed every human being in
the place. It may be said that it was " their
nature so to do," the Pawnees and the Sioux being
hereditary foes, but at any rate I defy anyone to
show that they had the slightest right to come
rampaging about the bluffs, turning us out of camp,
spoiling our hunting, and destroying our chance of
getting a sheep.
Late in the evening after dark we arrived at a
little solitary cattle-ranch tended by one man.
He was standing at the door when we rode up,
looking very uneasy and peering through the
darkness, but he brightened up considerably when
he saw we were white men. He was very hospi
table. " Walk in, boys," he said, " walk right in

SHEEP-HUNTING 165
and sit down. We ain't much ' heeled ' 1 for
chairs, I guess, but you must make yourselves
as comfortable as you can." And so we sat down
and had a long talk with him about cattle and
hunting and Indians, and the lonely dangerous
life he led, and various other congenial topics of a
similar nature. We camped that night close to
the ranch, and on the following morning made
another excursion into the hills in the hope of
crossing the tracks of the sheep ; but finding that
we were in the position of little Bo-peep, and that
like her we had lost our sheep and could not tell
where to find them, and not having sufficient
leisure to adopt the policy of masterly inactivity
recommended to that young lady — a policy which,
moreover, we were forced to recognise would have
proved unavailing in our case, since we were
anxious only about the heads and horns of the
animals, and the position of their tails was a matter
of indifference to us in the event of their coming
home — and perceiving that the Indians had run
through the whole district and had scared the
game out of it, we very reluctantly abandoned the
1 To be " heeled " signifies in Western phraseology to be prepared for,
or provided with, anything. The term is borrowed from the cockpit ; a
bird is said to be heeled when his spurs are put on and he is ready for
the fight.

166 CANADIAN NIGHTS
sheep, and struck out in a straight line for our
destination. We had to travel through an ugly monotonous
country consisting of flat dried-up plains broken
by occasional lines of clay bluffs. Herbage was
scarce, fuel still scarcer, and as we had no time for
hunting even if the country had been favourable
for the chase, we thought it best to shorten the
journey as much as possible. Accordingly when
we got within two or three days' march of the
fort, four of us determined to make a push for it
and try to accomplish the distance, some seventy
miles or so, in one day. We travelled fast,
" loping " along most of the way, without seeing
sign of man or beast until late in the afternoon,
when we espied two men galloping towards us.
As soon as they caught sight of us they pulled up,
then came on a little further, stopped again,
turned round, and galloped off a short distance,
then stopped again, and finally turned out of the
track, pushed their horses a little way up the
hill-side, and awaited us. Their manners puzzled
us somewhat, but as they were only two, while
we were four, we felt exceedingly courageous and
cantered merrily on. As soon as we got near
they moved down the hill towards us, and we

SHEEP-HUNTING 167
pulled up to see what they wanted. " Good-
evening, boys," said J  ; " can you tell us how
far it is into the fort, and what on earth were you
doing up the hill there ? " " Well, I never did,"
answered one of the men ; " darned if we did not
take you fellers for Indians. What were we doing
up the hill ? What in the  were you doing
scooting over the prairie on a dead jump like that
for ? We made sure you were Indians, did not
we, Jim ? and we kinder thought we would have a
better show up on the high grounds. How far is
it to the fort ? Well, if you keep up that kind
of  to split gait it won't take you long to git
there, I guess ; anyhow, you'll be in soon after
dark. Been hunting, I expect, haven't you ?
You did not happen to see any steers down this
way as you came along, did you ? We lost some
of ours a couple of days ago, and can't get track
of them anywhere. Did you see no Indians
either ? No ! Well, that's kinder strange too.
You had better keep your eyes skinned, there's
plenty of 'em around, and they are getting mighty
sarcy too. Why, Dr.  drove out in his buggy
a few miles from the fort the other day to meet
some gentlemen he was expecting — likely you're
the party, I expect — and darned if a bunch of

1 68 CANADIAN NIGHTS
Indians did not come across him and chased him
right back into the fort, and a mighty near thing
it was too, I tell you. Well, good-evening. I
guess we won't go any further this way, Jim,
since they haven't seen any sign of those steers."
And so with mutual good-nights we parted, they
to pick a nice place to camp for the night, and we
to pursue our way to the fort.
It was long after dark when we got in, and, after
saying good-night to Lieut.  , who went off to
look up his friends, at length hitched up our tired
hoises at Dr.  's door, and after knocking for
admittance in vain walked in and sat down in the
parlour to await the arrival of our host. After
a few anxious minutes — for we were getting very
hungry, not to say thirsty and tired, and had been
consoling ourselves during the last few wearisome
hours of darkness with anticipations of an hospi
table welcome — a step resounded in the wooden
passage, the door opened, and a gentleman entered
the room, and, after scrutinising us with a somewhat
astonished gaze, said, " Well, men, what do you
want ? " " We were looking for Dr.  ," I
timidly answered. " Perhaps you could tell us — "
" That's all right," he interrupted ; " I am
Dr.  . What's the matter ? what do you

SHEEP-HUNTING 169
want with me ? " " Oh ! " I said, feeling rather
aggrieved at this reception, " I beg your pardon for
intruding. We don't want anything. We thought
probably you were expecting us. General 
said he would write, and so we thought we
would call, and — " " Why, my dear sir, I am
most delighted to see you, most happy to make
your acquaintance," cried the Doctor, shaking
hands violently. " Why did you not say who you
were ? won't you introduce me to your friends ?
Expecting you, why of course I have been expecting
you this ever so long, began to think you must
have been jumped by Indians. By Jove, I came
pretty near losing my scalp a couple of days ago.
I went out for a drive in the afternoon, thinking
I might meet you, and six of those infernal Sioux
ran right on top of me and chased me clean up to
the fort. If I had not had a pretty good horse,
I should have been in a tight place, I can tell you,
but there are not many Indian ponies that can
get near the mare I was driving. She is a beauty.
I must take you out for a drive to-morrow (No,
I thank you, thinks I, not any for me. I don't
want to be chased round Wyoming in a buggy by
a parcel of Sioux Indians). In the meantime you
are pretty hungry, I expect. What ! come in all

170 CANADIAN NIGHTS
the way from the big bend, did you, you don't say.
Well, we will soon settle that all right ; supper
will be ready in five minutes. In the meantime
don't you think just a little — eh ? yes, I think so,
from a purely medical point of view, I should
certainly recommend it," and the Doctor left the
room, to reappear in a minute preceded by a
pleasant tinkling of spoons and glasses. " How ? "
said the doctor, and " how " we replied in chorus,
replacing our empty goblets on the table, and in a
few minutes four hungry individuals were seated
round the table, busily engaged in spoiling appe
tites engendered by a long day's ride.
Some time after I asked the Doctor, who proved
to be not only a most hospitable host but also a
most charming and agreeable companion, why he
appeared so much astonished and in fact disgusted
at our first appearance. " Well," he said, " you
must not be offended, you know, but really you
did look the most horrid set of scoundrels ; upon
my word you were the very roughest-looking
crowd I have seen since I came out west. I
thought at first that some one of the cattle-boys
had met with some accident, broken his leg or
something, but when you all stood up, and there
was evidently nothing the matter with any of you,

SHEEP-HUNTING 171
I was puzzled. I could not make out who you
were or what you wanted, anyhow." I could not
dispute the accuracy of the Doctor's first estimate
of our social status and moral character. Our
countenances, scarred by the cutting wind,
blistered and peeled by the rays of a bright
winter's sun reflected from dazzling snow or the
almost equally white surface of alkaline plains,
were partially concealed by a three weeks' growth
of stubbly beard, and were deeply engrained with
the black impalpable powder swept from off the
burned prairie by fierce gales. Our hands were
grimy, our clothes blood-besmirched and dirty, our
moccasins in holes, our headgear misshapen — for
constantly sleeping in a felt hat does not improve
its appearance or add elegance to its form ; we
were tired and travel-stained, and I have no doubt
we did look a most disreputable gang. After all,
it is the clothes that make the man. One reads
in books of gifted individuals — superior persons,
in whose uncontaminated veins courses the bluest
Norman blood — who are supposed to present a
dignified and gentlemanlike appearance under all
circumstances ; but one does not often come
across them in real life. The gentility of most
men is contained in their shirt collars. The

172 CANADIAN NIGHTS
simple innocence of a narrow band of white un
defiled linen invests the whole figure with an air
that nothing else can impart. Remove it, supply
its place with a ragged woollen muffler or kerchief
of ancient date, and the effect is marvellous and
sad. If you want to destroy an aristocracy, cut
off their collars, not their heads. Of course there
are some men who bear the change better than
others. So there are some individuals among all
those classes that lead rough, wild, out-of-door
lives, such as hunters, trappers, miners, cattle
men, lumber men, &c, who look more refined and
neater than their fellows, and these men, being to
the manner born, will look a great deal more like
gentlemen than almost any gentleman who has
taken to the wild life for a while. A few weeks in
the wilderness will transform most high-bred
looking men, and give them the appearance of
atrocious villains of the deepest dye. You need
not smile, you fellows, I really have not any
personal feeling in this matter. It is true that
my appearance and probable circumstances in life
have been the subject of varied criticism and
frequent remarks. I have had many trades, occu
pations, and missions in life attributed to me, all
very wide of the mark, but none of them incom-

SHEEP-HUNTING 173
patible with a decent and honourable existence.
Under these circumstances I have no ground of
complaint, seeing that I have but little faith in
the novelist's theory of the indestructibility of a
gentlemanlike appearance, but believe greatly in
the saving qualities of a shirt collar ; and hold that
without that mystic ring, if you take a lot of men
from different classes, mix them up, dress them
in the same rough clothes, and see that they are
all equally unkempt, unshaven, and unclean, you
will find it very hard to separate them correctly
again. For the next three days we were busily engaged,
in " paying visits " during the first two, and in
recuperating our shattered constitutions on the
third. Then Christmas was close at hand, and
we concluded to celebrate that festival in the
fort, so that it was not until ten days or a fortnight
after our arrival that we sallied out on a hunting
expedition into the Black Hills. Game proved
tolerably abundant, but the weather was awfully
cold, too cold for pleasure. If I may here be
allowed to offer one word of advice to hunters, I
would say, Don't go out on the plains in the
northern and middle territories and states in the
depth of winter ; the game is not worth the

174 CANADIAN NIGHTS
candle. Up to about Christmas you are safe
enough ; you will experience spells of cold weather,
but nothing to hurt, up to that time ; but after
the end of December you may be caught at any
moment in a cold snap, lasting several days, when
the thermometer will go down very low, and the
intense cold be accompanied by violent cruel gales
of wind. Such storms are dangerous, and may
result in loss of limb or even of life to the
traveller whose camp is in an exposed position.
Among the hills and in the forest you are right
enough at all times, for it is your own fault, or
the fault of the men with you, if you cannot make
yourself comfortable in any weather where fuel
and shelter can be obtained. Nothing worthy of
note occurred during this expedition except a
little misunderstanding which came near proving
inconvenient to one of the party. As one of the
officers from the fort and I were returning to
camp one evening, making our way through a
thick growth of brush and cotton-wood trees that
fringed a little stream, we happened to start one
of those huge prairie hares commonly called
jack-rabbits. We fired at him, as we were close
to the camp and there was no danger of scaring
better game, and then slid off our horses and

SHEEP-HUNTING 175
commenced peering and poking about among the
bushes to try and get another shot. We had fired
two or three more unsuccessful shots, when we
broke suddenly into a little open glade, in full
view of a small log shanty. We were vastly
astonished, for we did not know there was a
human habitation within miles and miles of us,
and to add to our dismay an excited German
sprang up in the open doorway and advanced to
us, shouting and gesticulating in the wildest
manner. " Mein Gott ! " he cried, " I am so
glad I did not shoot. Oh, mein Gott, I am so
glad. I thought the Indians were on me this
time sure : what for you fire into mein house ?
Three or four bullets come right slam into mein
house, I tell you. I was lying down behind a
flour-sack, and could see you peeping about in the
bush like so many Indian thieves. I got a beauti
ful sight on that little fellow in the deerskin shirt,
and was shoost about to pull when you come out
into the open, and I saw you were white men.
He'd have gone up anyhow, I tell you. I had a
sure thing on him." It was no wonder the poor
man was alarmed, for in fact some of our bullets
had by bad luck gone right into his shanty through
the open door. He had made all his preparations,

176 CANADIAN NIGHTS
had thrown down two sacks of flour across the
doorway, and was lying down behind them, with
his finger pressing the trigger of a sixteen-shooter
repeating rifle when we burst out of the bush and
revealed ourselves just in time. The consequences
might have been serious, if not they would have
been comical, for if he had fired we should have
taken him for Indians, and should have got into
cover and returned the fire ; and our friends,
hearing an unusual amount of shooting close to
the camp, would have come to our assistance,
and a little battle all about nothing would have
ensued. We enjoyed pretty fair sport during this hunt,
and got a good many deer and two sheep, but the
latter were small young rams, and it was not until
I had killed a large specimen some time later that
I quite forgave the " cut off " band of Sioux for
disturbing us in the bluffs.
Indians are a great nuisance, more especially the
Sioux, who roam over the whole breadth of the
interior of the continent as far west as the Rocky
Mountains, and eastward to the territories of their
hereditary enemies, the Chippewas. How these
two tribes can ever have fought together much I
don't know, for a Sioux is entirely out of his element

SHEEP-HUNTING 177
off the plains, knows little of canoes, and hates to
trust himself in the woods or among the mountains ;
while the Chippewa is a fish out of water when
away from his swamps, rivers, lakes, and woods.
They are a fine tribe, the Chippewas, as far as my
experience of them goes, and much to be preferred
in every way to their roving, marauding, trouble
some neighbours on the plains. I think it is Wash
ington Irving who has somewhere (I forget where)
unfavourably contrasted the Indian, half-breed,
or French voyageur, " cowering in his canoe," with
the bold adventurous hunters and trappers who
career on their high-mettled steeds over the bound
less prairie. With all deference to Washington
Irving, I do not think he could have had much
actual experience in canoes, or he would not have
found it necessary to " cower," nor would he have
found travelling in a canoe conducive to a mean,
melancholy, dispirited frame of mind, as is evi
denced by the fact that Canadian Indians and the
Hudson Bay Company voyageurs and other half-
breeds are about the most joyous, light-hearted
people on the face of the earth.
I made a very extensive acquaintance among
mountain sheep afterwards in Estes Park in Color
ado, and on one occasion caught a young one alive.
M

178 CANADIAN NIGHTS
I left the ranch just before grey dawn to take a
solitary stroll round the margin of St. Mary's Lake,
and on the slopes and spurs of sheep mountain, and
to enjoy that most glorious spectacle, a sunrise
among the mountains. I had also some hopes of
picking up a sheep or deer. It is hard to imagine
anything more beautiful than a summer sunrise in
those regions. There is a curious effect in nature
just before the break of day that is impossible to
describe, but that I think all who have passed many
nights under the stars will recognise. There comes
a sort of strange uneasy feeling through the atmos
phere, a faint tremor as of cold air moves over the
earth, as if Nature shivered in her sleep, grew
restless, and half awoke.
That sensation will be the first token of a great
change at hand. Then the morning star shines out
bright and strong, and the other constellations
begin to fade. The highest peaks seem to approach
one quickly, commence to look nearer, to stand out
clearer and whiter than before. A faint, a very
faint, light steals over them, a radiance deepening
quickly into the beautiful colour of a fresh rose,
deepening still, flushing, glowing, and spreading
downwards, colouring the snow a most delicate
pink, gilding with bright gold the yellow grass,

SHEEP-HUNTING 179
burnishing and shining like silver on ice and rock.
Mists creep up the hillsides, grey in the valleys, pink
on the tops, brooding sluggishly in heavy clouds
among the lower masses of timber, gauzy, thin,
transparent, and hanging in long wisps and shreds
from the higher summits of the range. Of a sudden
a bare naked crag, piercing the heavens, blazes into
dazzling light, like a fiery beacon. Peak after peak
answers the signal. The light flows down. The
mists float up. Black darkness still reigns in the
valleys, the eastern slopes are still wrapped in sleep,
but the western hillsides are sparkling with the
brightness of a white frost or dewdrops under a
dazzling sun, and all the fells and peaks above them
are bathed in light. There is nothing so beautiful
as beautiful scenery, and it is never seen to better
advantage than in the first hour of the dawn.
It is not difficult, after several days' hard work
hunting, to spend an idle day or two in such a scene,
watching the face of nature ever changing under
cloud and sunshine, calm and tempest. The eye
never aches at the sight of lovely scenery, nor does
the soul sadden. It is the one thing that never
palls, with which neither mind nor body is ever
weary. The love of hunting is a passion that leads a man

180 CANADIAN NIGHTS
into scenes of most picturesque beauty. The
speckled trout allures him to lake and stream ; in
pursuit of deer, he wanders through many a se
cluded valley, amid scenes of soft beauty, which
otherwise he might never see. To find the " big
horn " he scales giddy precipices, and climbs to
soaring peaks, and confronts nature face to face in
her grandest, most terrific moods. He is with
nature always, whether on foot, on horseback, or
in his birch-bark canoe.
Walking in the midst of such lovely scenery, and
watching the day break in such infinite splendour,
I must confess that I became somewhat careless as
to my hunting, and stumbled right on top of a
little band of sheep, feeding on the level ground,
before I was aware of their presence. In fact I
did not see them until they started. I fired, but
without any effect, and set the hound, poor old
Plunk, after them.
They had got too good a start, and he could not
come near them, but after a while I noticed a little
sheep lagging behind. Thinking Plunk might over
take it, I started off best pace after him. It is
no joke running over rough ground at an ele
vation of some 8000 feet on a blazing hot July
morning in Colorado, and I puffed and blew

SHEEP-HUNTING 181
and " larded the lean earth " in the most generous
manner. When I came up I found the sheep perched on a
little pinnacle of rock, and the hound baying furi
ously below. Poor little beast, I pitied it. It was
only about three months old, and it looked very
forlorn ; it was very slightly wounded also, a fact
which I did not know before. I went up to it and
patted it, and the poor little creature did not seem
much frightened, and did not mind my touching it
a bit ; but it would not follow me. It was too
much afraid of the dog, I fancy. I did not know
what to do. I wanted to keep it alive, for a tame
sheep is somewhat of a rarity. I was afraid to
leave it alone while I went for a wagon, and I was
afraid of leaving the hound to watch it, lest he
should run in upon it and kill it during my ab
sence. So I concluded to pack it into the ranch
on my back. A nice job I had of it. The little
animal was as strong as a donkey, and kicked and
walloped about all the time. It was as much as
I could do to keep it on my shoulders. By that
time the forenoon was far spent, and the sun was
pouring down with tropical strength. I don't
know which of us was most exhausted by the time
we sot to the house. However, I was none the

1 82 CANADIAN NIGHTS
worse, but the poor little sheep never recovered.
He drank lots of milk, and seemed all right for the
first day, but after that he pined away and died in
three or four days.
Running sheep with hounds is a good deal prac
tised in some places. I don't like it. It is a repre
hensible habit, and scares all the game out of the
country. It is a very sure and easy way of killing
sheep if you have a first-rate dog and the ground
is suitable to the sport, but unless those two con
ditions are fulfilled the chance of success is small.
Your hound must be very speedy and staunch, and
accustomed to the business ; and the sheep must be
found near some isolated pinnacle or crags of cliff.
You creep up as near as you possibly can to the
game, and then start the dog at them, yelling and
hallooing, to scare them as much as possible, as soon
as you perceive that they have caught sight of the
hound. The sheep will run straight up the moun
tain, and will beat any dog in a short time ; but if
the hound has got a good start, and if the ground
has been pretty level at first, he will press them so
hard that one or perhaps two or three of them will
take refuge on the first precipitous cliff or crag they
can find. If that happens to be an isolated rock so
small that the dog can keep guard round the base of

SHEEP-HUNTING 183
it, he will keep the sheep at bay — " treed," as they
say in Colorado — until his master comes up. But
for one successful run you may make many un
successful ones. Nothing scares game so much as
running them with dogs, and consequently it is a
pastime that ought never to be pursued, or at any
rate hardly ever, and then only when you can be
quite certain of success. The place where I caught
the little sheep was very favourable for running
them. The water of St. Mary's Lake is strongly impreg
nated with alkali, and leaves a deposit of that sub
stance round the edge. The spot is in consequence
much frequented by sheep, who, in common with
all kinds of deer and cattle, are intensely fond of
salt. In former days sheep used to come down
nearly every morning to lick the alkali on the little
plains surrounding the lake. The ground in the
neighbourhood is level, with three or four quite
detached rocks jutting out of it, and on one side you
can get down pretty close to the plain without
showing yourself. I remember one day that same
summer we passed the lake, a party of four of us
with a string of packhorses, on our way to pitch
camp for a few days high up on Long's Peak for the
purpose of hunting wapiti on the highest fells. I

1 84 CANADIAN NIGHTS
was riding behind when I heard Plunk barking
furiously, and on galloping up found the cavalcade
halted at a little distance, Plunk halfway up one of
the masses of detached rock, barking vigorously, and
every now and then making plunges towards a fine
old patriarchal ram who stood on the top of the
rock, and who, with feet placed closed together and
head stooped, followed every movement of the dog,
presenting his massive horns to him at every point
of attack. It was a very pretty sight. In front lay
a green grass-covered plain bounded by the little
lake, vividly blue and sparkling under a summer
breeze and the bright sun that shone on the white
alkali that fringed its shores. On the far side of it
the mountain rose, covered to the right with a thick
growth of green young pine timber, but on the left
burned and bare, and terminating in the great crags
and cliffs of sheep mountain. In the foreground,
piercing the green plain, rose a mass of red sand
stone crowned with the massive and stately form of
the defiant ram, while the huge dun-coloured hound,
bristling with rage, furiously bayed and rushed at
him from below. The people at the ranch had
roast mutton for dinner that night, and we had
mutton chops for tea on Long's Peak. That was
the only time I ever killed a sheep with a hound,

SHEEP-HUNTING 185
and it was a mere accident, for we ran across the
sheep by chance. Plunk belonged to Mr. Evans,
who at that time owned the ranch-house. He was
the best dog for that kind of work I ever saw or
heard of, for if he once " treed " a sheep he would
hold him there for days. He got into many scrapes,
poor beast ; he was so eager, he would follow sheep
anywhere, and on one or two occasions got into
positions from which he could not have extricated
himself without human aid. And in that way he
met his fate. He got after a band of sheep one
day, and followed them away off out of sight and
out of hearing. No distant note of baying came
to the anxious ear of his master, who searched all
that day for him fruitlessly till nightfall, and all the
next day and many days equally in vain. Poor
Plunk was never seen or heard of again. He must
either have fallen over some cliff, or have jumped
down upon some ledge from which he could not
descend or ascend again, and there perished slowly
and miserably of starvation.
The mountain sheep is a magnificent animal, and
the ram carries a splendid head. He is wild-looking
and picturesque, and exactly suits the character of
the country in which he is found. I know nothing
finer in nature than the massive form of a big old

186 CANADIAN NIGHTS
ram standing on some jutting point of a precipitous
cliff amidst the grandeur of the mountains which
are his home. It requires a good deal of patience
and perseverance to hunt the mountain sheep suc
cessfully. As a rule they are to be found on the
highest peaks and the most inaccessible positions of
the range, though in the rutting season, if you are
fortunate enough to find a locality inhabited by
sheep and undisturbed by man, they will come
down and may be met with and killed with com
parative ease. To hunt the animal with success,
you must have a tolerably accurate idea of his
manners and customs. The mountain sheep in
Colorado come down to the foothills in the early
spring, and return with their lambs about a month
or six weeks old in the month of June or July. The
old rams stay up on the mountains, and seem to
seek the highest crags for shelter, even during the
terrible storms of winter. Of course the snow
never lies on the more precipitous parts of the
mountains, and there is plenty of long grass for
them to feed upon, and they appear to prefer the
shelter they obtain among the caves and caverns
of the rocks to coming down lower on to more
snow-encumbered regions, and seeking safety
amongst the timber. They are very fond of alkali,

SHEEP-HUNTING 187
like all other animals, and will run great risks to get
a lick of salt every now and then ; they will also
come down to feed occasionally on little plains and
parks at the foot of the mountains.
I have shot many, many sheep at one spot close
to the margin of a shallow brackish pond. Finding
that they generally came down about eight or nine
o'clock in the morning, I used to get there about
seven, and sit down and wait patiently for them.
I have seen them over and over again descend the
mountain, skylarking among themselves, galloping
down a few hundred yards and then stopping and
looking out carefully all over the country. Finally
they would descend to the pond, and, after some
hesitation and a great deal of caution, would walk
boldly out on the plain, and begin to lick the alkali
and browse a little on the grass.
They would stop down sometimes an hour or
two if undisturbed, and I have often watched
them simply to see what they would do. After a
time they would scamper off again, butting each
other with their heads in sport, and at last would
clamber up the mountain-side and disappear. The
great thing in sheep-hunting is to get above them ;
it is no use whatever trying to stalk a big ram by
endeavouring to get up to him from underneath,

1 88 CANADIAN NIGHTS
because he is certain to see you. The only chance,
if you know where he is likely to be, is to climb up
above him and work gradually down ; then you
have a fair likelihood of coming upon him, for he
is accustomed to look below for danger.
It is labour lost to follow their tracks. There is
a certain great old ram that I know of which
nobody has been able to kill yet. I have never
seen him, but I know the size of his foot
accurately. I followed him all day once some years ago,
and he fooled me beautifully. I started out alone
about seven o'clock one winter's morning, and had
not ridden more than three or four miles from the
house in Estes Park when I struck a very large sheep
track plainly visible in the snow. I followed it a
little while, till it seemed to be so fresh that I dis
mounted, tied up my horse, and proceeded on foot.
The track was gigantic, and as it led right in the
direction of the habitation of this particular old
ram, I knew it must be his foot ; so I determined
to follow him all day if necessary on the chance of a
shot. I left my bag and luncheon, took off my
coat, and prepared myself for a long and arduous
climb. As bad luck would have it, the sheep was travel-

SHEEP-HUNTING 189
ling along a very steep mountain side all covered
with loose stones, and though I was in moccasins,
which are the best wear for hunting, I could not
move without making a noise, and I started my
sheep. After walking about half an hour I came to
the place where he had started, but followed on all
the same, in the hope of getting sight of him, and
presently came to another spot where he had stood
and looked about him. He had no doubt caught
sight of me, for he had started off on a dead jump
straight down a very steep ravine, at least a
thousand feet deep and equally precipitous on
the other side. I could make out his tracks going
down, but could not see anything of him, although
I sat down and carefully examined the opposite face
of the mountain with my glasses. So down I
went, and presently struck his tracks again going
up the other side. It was a terribly hard mountain
to climb. It had once been clothed with a thick
covering of pine trees which had all been burnt and
blown down, and the ground was completely strewn
with trunks of trees, smooth and slippery. I do not
suppose that my foot touched the ground one-
fourth of the distance, for I was obliged to walk
along the trees, and hop and jump from one to the
other, after the manner of a squirrel. Added to

190 CANADIAN NIGHTS
which inconvenience there was about a foot of snow
on the ground, melted by the heat of the sun and
frozen by the cold, so that a thick crust had
formed, just strong enough to bear your weight
about a second, then let you through plump to the
ground. It was terrible ground to travel over, and
it exhausted me, but I was in hopes it exhausted
the sheep also, because the footprints began to be
deeply dyed with blood, showing that the sheep
was cutting himself with the crust on the snow. I
followed and followed my sheep, now and then
stopping to use my glass, because the tracks were
so fresh that I fancied he ought to be in sight ;
but I could not get a glimpse of him, and so
imagining that he must be further off than I
had supposed, I still followed the tracks till I got
near the top of a mountain which forms a
ridge or offshoot from the gigantic mass of Long's
Peak. Near the top of this ridge was a notch, through
which, as I got nearer, I could see that the tracks
led. I hurried as much as possible, thinking to
myself that he could not be very far off, and that
in all probability when I got to the top and looked
down through the notch into Willow Park beyond
I should see him somewhere below me, and have

SHEEP-HUNTING 191
a good chance of a shot, or, at any rate, of a
stalk. When I reached the top I found the tracks led
down through the notch about twenty or thirty
yards, and then stopped ; and on looking about me
I discovered that my friend, this crafty old ram,
had gone down a little way so as to deceive me, had
then made a violent leap on one side, gone straight
back again through the notch, climbed up to the
top of a pile of rocks there, and no doubt had been
looking at me and laughing as I toiled laboriously
up the hillside after him until I got unpleasantly
near, when he had stared off in the direction of the
top of Long's Peak. It was now about three o'clock
in the afternoon, and of course I had to give up the
chase and scramble down the mountain as best I
could. The ground was so dangerous that I was
obliged to go very carefully, and it was dark before
I got to the bottom of the deep ravine.
I was very tired by this time, having been up
before daylight, and working hard all day with
nothing to eat ; and I was getting awfully cold
also, for I had left my coat behind. However, I
had to climb up the opposite slope, which I eventu
ally succeeded in doing, and then had to look for
my coat, but could not find it anywhere. Then I

192 CANADIAN NIGHTS
searched for my luncheon bag, but could not find
that either.
It was pitch dark by this time, so I gave up the
search for them, and began to look for my horse,
but could not find him.
It sounds very easy to remember where you
left your horse, and to find him, but it is not such
a simple matter when it is pitch dark, when there is
nothing particular to mark the spot, and when you
have the whole of Colorado to look in. I did not
know what to do. I could have walked back in two
or three hours' time, and would have done so, but
I was afraid to leave my horse out all night, lest he
should freeze to death. He was not hitched up by
the bridle merely, but securely fastened with a
strong new lariat, which he could not possibly have
broken, so I kept hunting about until eventually I
found the poor beast. How glad he was to see
me ! No doubt he had made up his mind to be
deserted. It was a difficult job to get home, for I had to
lead the horse a long way down the hillside, over
ground thickly strewn with fallen trees, and the
night was pitch dark. I blundered and stumbled,
and I swore, and he swore, if a horse can swear,
and stumbled and blundered ; and we had a very

SHEEP-HUNTING 193
bad time of it altogether till we got on more level
ground, and I was able to get on his back and make
rapid progress. We reached the shanty, pretty
tired, about eleven o'clock at night. That old ram
had fooled me completely, and I have never since
had a chance of paying him out for it.

N

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE
'SEVENTIES
ONE fine August day a friend of mine and
I, being anxious to explore the hunting-
grounds of Newfoundland, embarked on
board an Allan steamship, and after a somewhat
boisterous passage found ourselves deposited in
the city of St. John's.
St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland, is re
markably well situated on the northern side of a
magnificent harbour. The entrance to the harbour
is through a very narrow passage between lofty,
precipitous, rugged cliffs ; but within, the haven
expands and forms a perfectly secure, land-locked,
and commodious shelter from the wild waves that
lash those inhospitable shores. The most notice
able point about the city is that all the manufactur
ing energy of the population appears to be concen
trated in the making of long fisherman's boots, and
the keeping of public-houses. It produces seal oil
and cod-fish, and consumes rum and tobacco. St.
John's is a busy, thriving, money-making place, and
194 '

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 195
the prosperity of the capital of the oldest colony
of Great Britain is appreciated by the traveller long
before he sets foot upon her classic shores ; for one
side of the harbour smells abominably of dried
cod-fish, and the other of seal oil. Judging by the
accent, there must be a large mixture of Irish blood
in the population, a conjecture which is not con
futed by the fact that the inhabitants of St. John's
and of the outports — as all the other towns and
settlements are called — and of the island in general,
are a splendid set of tall, strong, active, healthy-
looking men. Accustomed from childhood to
brave the hardships of a most rigorous climate,
drawing their sustenance from the teeming but
treacherous bosom of a storm-vexed ocean, that
rages in vain for ever round a rugged reef-bound
coast ; navigating their frail and ill-found schooners
amid tempest, ice, and fog, the Newfoundlanders
have developed into one of the finest seafaring
populations on the face of the globe. Nowhere can
better mariners be found than among the hardy,
adventurous, self-reliant men who ply their pre
carious calling along the dangerous shores of their
native island, or on the wintry coast of the neigh
bouring mainland of Labrador.
The principal industry of Newfoundland is the

196 CANADIAN NIGHTS
cod-fishery, and the chief centre of the trade is at
St. John's, where the process of packing and
shipping the salted fish may be witnessed to
perfection. The fish, having been dried on stages
erected for the purpose on the shores of every
bay and inlet of the island, are brought to St.
John's in small schooners and thrown in heaps
upon the wharves of the merchants. There they
are culled over, sorted into three or four piles
according to their quality by experienced cullers,
who separate the good from the indifferent, and
the indifferent from the bad, with great rapidity
and unerring skill. Women with hand-barrows
attend upon the cullers, carry the fish into an
adjoining shed, and upset their loads beside
barrels standing ready to receive them. A couple
of boys throw the fish into a cask, piling them up
a foot or so above the brim, mount on the top, and
having danced a war-dance upon them in their
hob-nailed boots to pack them down, roll the
barrel under a screw-press, where two men stand
ready to take charge of it. Grasping the ends of
the long arms of the lever, the men run quickly
round a couple of times, lift their feet off the
ground, and, throwing their weight on the lever
to add impetus to the blow, swing round with it,

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 197
and bring down the stamp with a dull thud, com
pressing the cod-fish into a compact mass. The
cask is then rolled out from under the press, and
handed over to two coopers. In a trice the hoops
are driven on, the cask is headed up, and then
trundled down an incline into the hold of some
vessel loading for the West Indies or some Mediter
ranean port. The rapidity with which the whole
process is managed is remarkable.
Sealing operations also are vigorously conducted
by the inhabitants of St. John's. In former days
the seal fishery was carried on in sailing vessels,
and was attended with considerable danger ; but
now that steamships are used the risk is much
diminished. The paying nature of the business
may be gathered from the fact that steamers of
five or six hundred tons burden, built and fitted
for the purpose, and quite useless for any other
trade, make a large profit in average years, although
the sealing season lasts only a month or six weeks.
Early in the spring, about the beginning of March,
the ice from the north strikes in towards the
eastern coast of Newfoundland, bringing with it
hundreds and hundreds of thousands of seals, young
and old. Then St. John's wakes up, and the whole
island is in a bustle. Though it entails constant

198 CANADIAN NIGHTS
exposure to great cold, and extremely hard work,
the young men struggle eagerly to secure a berth
for the sealing season, for they earn very high wages,
and the business is salted with that element of un
certainty and danger which adds such a relish to
life. At length everything is ready, and a fleet
of steamers from St. John's, and of sailing craft,
of all kinds and sizes from large coasting schooners
down to open boats, issuing from every bay, start
out to look for the ice. The ships, crowded with
as many men as they can hold, make two trips of
about a fortnight's duration each ; the first being
devoted to the capture of the young seals, at that
time only a few weeks old, and the second to the
destruction of the full-grown animals. The latter
are generally shot, while the former are knocked on
the head with clubs. As soon as the ice is reached,
the men scatter themselves about the field, running
over the rough surface, jumping from block to
block of loose ice, tumbling into holes and scramb
ling out again, wild with excitement in their search
for seals. Each man acts independently, doing the
best he can for himself. When he has killed a seal
he stops but a minute to whip off the skin with
the blubber attached, and fasten a cord to it, and
then off again after another seal, till he has got

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 199
as many as he can drag, when he returns, towing
his load behind him, to the ship. The men work
with a will, giving themselves scarcely time to eat
or rest, for they receive a share of the profits
according to the number of seals that each man
brings in, and if the season is successful, an active
and daring man will make a large sum of money.
The seals are valuable only for the oil which is
tried out of their fat, and which is employed for
various lubricating purposes, and for their skins,
which are tanned and used principally, I believe,
for shoe leather. They do not produce the pelt
which, when plucked and dyed, is worked up into
those lovely sealskin jackets that are as destructive
to the purse as they are delightful to the eye.
The number of seals brought in annually is very
great, as many as 500,000 having been killed in a
single season, and the business employs nearly
10,000 men. What becomes of the multitude of
surviving seals is a problem I have never heard
satisfactorily solved. The ice, on which they
come down in swarms every year from the north,
melts during the summer months soon after
coming in contact with the warm waters of the
Gulf Stream. What then becomes of the seals ?
Do they find their way back through thousands

200 CANADIAN NIGHTS
of watery miles to their polar birthplace, or do
they remain scattered about along the shores of
Newfoundland and the neighbouring continent ?
It is a problem in natural history similar to the eel
puzzle at home, for we are still in ignorance as to
what becomes of the millions of full-grown eels
that descend our rivers with each autumn flood,
but which are never seen reascending the stream.
We remained some days in the interesting city
of St. John's, much enjoying the kind hospitality
of our friends, but waiting somewhat anxiously for
an opportunity to get a lift down the coast to the
neighbourhood of our proposed hunting-grounds.
The regular fortnightly steamer did not call in
anywhere near our destination, and day after day
passed without any coasting vessel sailing in that
direction. From this dilemma we were relieved
by the kindness of a judge who was about to start
on his circuit in one of the harbour tugs, and who
very good-naturedly undertook to put us ashore
at the mouth of the river we wished to ascend.
This offer was most thankfully accepted, and
shortly after, my friend and I, with three Micmac
Indians from Bay of Despair, two birch-bark
canoes, one month's provisions and a very limited
supply of baggage, steamed out of the picturesque

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 201
harbour of St. John's in the august society of the
judge and all the functionaries of his court. The
whole court was there assembled, including judge,
barristers, lawyers, clerks, and all — everybody, in
fact, except the criminals and the jurymen ; and
it really was a pity they could not have been pro
vided also ; it would have saved such a lot of
time and trouble. As far as I could see, there
was very little work for the court to do. We
would stop occasionally, apparently at any nice
likely-looking spot for a malefactor, and send
on shore to see if there was any demand for our
commodity, namely, justice. Generally we were
informed that the inhabitants did not require any
just at present, but that perhaps if we would call
again another time a little later, we might be more
fortunate ; and then we would give three hideous
steam whistles by way of a parting benediction,
and plough our way through the yielding billows
to some other settlement, where, if we were
lucky, the court would divest itself of oilskin
coats and sou'-westers, and go ashore to dispose
of the case or cases to be tried.
We were a very jolly party, and amused ourselves
by lounging about the little deck enjoying the
fresh air and grand wild coast scenery, reading

202 CANADIAN NIGHTS
" dime novels " and playing cards in the stifling
saloon below, where we were veritably " cribbed,
cabined, and confined " — stuffed as close as
herrings in a cask. There was something rather
comical in the whole proceeding. To my insular
and antiquated notions, a judge is an awful form
clad in a solemn wig and wrapped in gorgeous
robes and the majesty of the law, and barristers
and the whole personnel of a court of justice are
superhuman creatures, extraordinary mortals to be
looked upon with wonder not unmixed with awe ;
and to see eminent counsel staggering about the
slippery deck in long boots and guernsey frocks,
and the highest functionary of the law con
descending to exchange remarks concerning the
weather with grimy stokers and tarry-breeched
seamen, and even experiencing inner qualms and
spasms when our little ship tossed and struggled
across some wide exposed bay, quite destroyed my
illusions, and produced a feeling of somewhat
irreverent amusement. The mere fact of the judge
going his circuit in a tug-steamer appeared strange
and incongruous, though why he should not go
in a steamer just as naturally as in a train or a
coach-and-four, I do not know. Indeed, it was
the natural mode of progression in Newfoundland,

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 203
where the ocean is, or was at the time of my visit,
the principal highway. Roads in those days — and
I am thinking of events which happened some
years ago — there were none, except in the vicinity
of St. John's and one or two other towns. People
who, for their sins, had to go from one part of the
island to another, travelled in the most uncertain,
vague, and promiscuous manner, sometimes taking
days, weeks, or even months, in accomplishing
quite a short distance, and sometimes never getting
to their destination at all. The usual method of
procedure appeared to be to embark in the coasting
steamer, and go ashore as near the place you
wished to visit as the route pursued by the steamer
would permit. The traveller might by that means
get within ten or twenty or fifty or one hundred
miles of his destination, as the case might be.
He would then betake himself to a house or cabin,
if there happened to be one in the neighbourhood,
and wait there, or he would build a big fire and
sit on a rock until some coasting schooner, or
fishing smack, or open boat happened to pass by,
going in the right direction, in which he would
embark and get another lift upon his road. By
such means he would eventually accomplish his
object if he was lucky ; but if, unluckily, no craft

204 CANADIAN NIGHTS
going the right way came by, he would be com
pelled to take a passage in some vessel or boat
bound in exactly the opposite direction to that in
which he wished to move. I remember we called
in at some place or other — I forget the name — on
our way back to St. John's, after our hunting ex
pedition, and a clergyman came on board begging
for a passage. " I understand," he said, " that
you are bound round the north end of the island
to Halifax. It is rather out of my way to go there,
it is true, for my destination is a few miles south
of this ; but I have been waiting here till I am
sick and tired of it, for a chance of a lift down the
coast, and I shall be truly obliged to you if
you will take me to Halifax, where I can get the
fortnightly Allan steamer to St. John's, which
will be better, at any rate, than waiting here in
definitely." We replied that we were bound for St. John's and
not for Halifax, as he had supposed, and that we
should be delighted to take him on board. " Oh,"
he cried joyfully, " that is charming, it will suit me
much better of course to go straight to St. John's.
I have been wandering about for weeks and weeks
trying to get to my parish, which is not far from
here. I was staying in St. John's on a visit to

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 205
some friends, when I received a message saying
that one of my parishioners was dead and required
to be buried. As the necessities of the case were
pressing, I took my passage in the coasting steamer
that left the following morning, and ought to have
arrived at my destination the same night. Un
fortunately, however, a strong off-shore breeze
sprang up, and the steamer being unable to call
in carried me some distance up the coast to the
next stopping-place. Then I was delayed some
days till I got a lift in a fishing schooner, but she
was driven by stress of weather into some little
harbour where no steamers called, and eventually
went off in a direction that did not suit me at all.
The same bad luck has pursued me all along, and
I have been wandering about ever since, taking
every opportunity offered me by passing coasting
craft or fishing-boats ; sometimes being carried
miles away, sometimes getting pretty near, but
never succeeding in actually reaching my journey's
end. As the season is getting late and winter
will soon be upon us, I made up my mind to
abandon the attempt for the present, and go
round with you to Halifax, if you would take me,
and so back to St. John's to finish my visit ; for as
it is now a couple of months or so since my services

206 CANADIAN NIGHTS
were required to bury the gentleman, it is probable
that my presence is no longer necessary on that
account." We were much more astonished than was
our guest at the extraordinary delays and troubles
to which he had been subjected, but after be
coming a little better acquainted with Newfound
land, we perceived that there was nothing so very
unusual in his misfortunes after all, and that
similar experiences were looked upon with a calm
and philosophical spirit by the natives.
It was late in the afternoon of a beautiful, still,
warm autumn day that the Hercules dropped
her anchor in the Bay, and after putting us safely
ashore with our Indians, canoes, and baggage, and
after three hearty cheers and three hideous ear-
splitting screams from the whistle, steamed away
out to sea again and left us to our own devices.
There was quite a settlement in those parts, con
sisting of a small saw-mill and house adjoining in
habited by the white man who ran the mill, and of
two or three families of Indians, all rejoicing in the
name of Joe. The head of the tribe was old Abra
ham Joe, a fine specimen of his race, an active up
right man, standing about six feet two inches in
his moccasins, and broad and strong in proportion.
He had spent nearly all his life in Newfoundland.

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 207
and knew the interior of the island better than any
man living. He was a good hunter, trapper, and
guide, but he was — well, he is dead, and I will put it
mildly — he had the bump of acquisitiveness highly
developed. They had, I should imagine, a very
pleasant life, these Indians ; and if one can judge by
the independence of the men, and the nature and
quality of the clothing worn by the girls, they must
have been very well off in this world's goods. They
had comfortable little cabins, in which they spent
the winter in comparative idleness, earning little
or nothing. The single exception to this rule was
in the case of one of old Abraham Joe's sons, who
carried the mail during the winter and spring
months between St. John's and the copper-mines
at the entrance of the Bay. He was well paid, and
deservedly so, for his was an arduous task. Travel
ling on snow-shoes backwards and forwards over a
distance of some hundreds of long, weary, desolate,
monotonous miles, over bare wind-swept barrens,
through dense pine forests and thick alder swamps,
without a mark to guide or a hut to shelter the
traveller ; tramping on alone with no companion
to cheer one on the lonely way, without the chance
even of seeing a human being from one end of the
journey to the other ; struggling along from dawn

208 CANADIAN NIGHTS
to dark of the short wintry days against snow,
storm, or sleet, or in the bitter cold of hard frosty
weather ; crouching through the long nights by a
solitary fire with a few bushes stuck in the snow for
shelter ; caught perhaps in some sudden thaw,
when the softened snow clogs and sticks in the
netting of the snow-shoes, and progress is almost
impossible ; exposed to mal de raquette, snow
blindness, and all the chances of a forest life — such
an occupation is one that fully deserves to be well
paid. However, the activity of this particular
" Joe " was abnormal ; the rest of the family spent
their winters lounging about the beach, making
perhaps a few mast hoops, butter tubs, or fish
barrels, or sitting by the stove indoors, smoking
their pipes and doing nothing. In the summer they
fished a little, and in the autumn the whole com
munity went up Indian brook and spent two months
in the interior of the island, shooting and trapping
beavers and otters. Fur was pretty plentiful in
those days, and a man could make a good income
out of a couple of months' hard work, furring in the
fall. These " Joes " appeared to entertain, to a
limited extent, communistic principles, while par
tially recognising at the same time the right of pri
vate ownership in land and chattels. They would

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 209
use each other's boats, canoes, &c. without hesita
tion, but spoke of them nevertheless as belonging
to some individual member of the sept. They
wandered about the island in an apparently hap
hazard, aimless, happy-go-lucky way, and some
member or other of the family was always turning
up at odd times in unexpected places. Some
times we would meet a Joe striding over some
barren or crossing a lake in his canoe ; occasionally
a Joe would drop into our camp, miles away from
anywhere, unprovided with boat, canoe, provisions
or baggage of any kind, and furnished only with a
pipe, tobacco, a rusty gun, and some powder and
lead. He would sit down quietly by the fire and
chat a little and smoke a little, and after a while
accept, with apparent insouciance, an invitation to
eat and drink, and after consuming enough food for
three men and swallowing a few quarts of tea,
would say, " Well, I suppose I shall be going now.
Adieu, gentlemen, adieu. Yes, I guess I was pretty
hungry ; most starved, I expect. How am I going
to cross the lake ? Oh, that's all right ; we —
that's old Peter John Joe's son, and I — got a canoe
a little way off ; mebbe one, two, three, four miles ;
I'll cross in her, I reckon. Expect likely I'll see
you again by and by — I shall be coming out again

210 CANADIAN NIGHTS
about the end of this moon." " Well, good-bye,"
said we, " but where are you going to ? not trap
ping, evidently, because you have got no traps."
" Yes, I'm a going a trapping, that's so. Not far —
mebbe two or three days back in the woods —
beaver pretty plenty there ; left my traps there last
fall — no, let me see, fall before last, I guess."
" But what are you going to live on all the time ? "
" Oh, I got plenty grub, no fear ; not much tea,
though " (showing a little parcel of the fragrant
herb knotted up in a corner of his dirty blanket),
" and no sweetening : mebbe you could spare a
little tea and sugar, eh ? No ! ah well, all the
same, never mind, suppose my tea give out, per
haps make some spruce tea. You see young John
Joe, he got a cache yonder, away off just across that
blue ridge, about one day or one day and a half, or
mebbe two days' journey, plenty flour there ; and
young Peter John Joe and old John Peter Joe, they
cached their cooking-pots on the little stream there,
near the north end of big blueberry pond. See you
again soon. Adieu ! " and after a few words in
Micmac to our Indians, this particular Joe would
walk off, to be seen no more till he reappeared after
some time with half a canoe load of beaver skins, or
perhaps to turn up quite unexpectedly in the course

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 211
of a day or two, in company with some other Joe
whom he had come across promiscuous-like in the
woods. Over this small community and large
territory old Abraham Joe ruled after the manner of
a feudal lord, settling all little disputes and parcel
ling out the country into hunting-grounds for each
individual member of his family. Indians are very
tenacious of their territorial rights : each man
has his own hunting, or rather furring, ground
accurately marked out with the marches carefully
fixed, perhaps up one river from its mouth to its
source, then across in a straight line through the
woods to some other creek, and down that stream
to such and such a lake, and so on ; the boundaries
are all arranged among themselves, and it is con
sidered a most iniquitous proceeding for one
trapper to trespass on the district belonging to
another. Their system of land tenure is similar
to that of most primitive peoples in tribal times.
They consider that the land belongs in common
to the clan, but each member has a certain part
of it allotted to him for his temporary use, and he
possesses a limited life-ownership over his own
particular share. Poor old Abraham Joe was very
unhappy about the state of things in Newfound
land. Too much civilisation was destroying the

212 CANADIAN NIGHTS
island, in his estimation. " Yes, sir," he said to
me one day, " things is very different from what
they used to be. Lord ! I mind the times when
a man might travel from one end of the island to
the other and never see nobody nowheres. Beavers
were plenty then, and there was a good price for
fur too ; now there ain't no price, and beavers and
otters ain't plenty like they used to be. Those
d  lumbermen be come up the rivers and
scare the game. Why, there ain't a bay scarcely
anywheres without one, mebbe even two liviers 1
in it. Yes, sir, it's true ; Newfoundland he
spoil, too much people come, too much people
altogether in the country, no use furring any more,
no price now for beaver skins, very bad times now,
most impossible to make a living. Expect you
don't want that axe-head, do you, sir ? It would
come in very handy. I lost mine the other day —
head flew clean off the handle into the water. Can't
do without it, can't you ? Well, never mind ; mebbe
you won't want to take your canoes out of the
country. I'd like to trade with you for one of
them." He became a positive nuisance, did the
old man, about the axe-head, and followed us
1 A "livier" signifies a person who lives all the year round in a locality,
in contradistinction to one who only visits it during the fishing season.

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 213
about for days on the chance of getting it for
nothing, pleading awful poverty, at the same time
that he refused an offer of four dollars a day to
come with us for a short time hunting.
The sole representatives of the Joe tribe left
at home on the evening of our arrival were an old
woman and two girls of about eighteen or twenty,
whose clear complexions and good features I must
suppose were to be accounted for by some mysteri
ous influence exercised by the superior over the
inferior race, for I should be sorry to indulge for
a moment even in speculation which might be
derogatory to the conduct and character of former
generations of Joes. On inquiry, we found that
most of the family had gone off some days before
to the copper mines, to solemnise the wedding of
a couple of fond and youthful Joes, and were
expected home that night. About midnight they
returned ; two large whale-boats full of them,
rather noisy and very jovial. The unfortunate but
loving Joes had not succeeded in getting married,
as the priest, who was expected to arrive by the
coasting steamer, had failed to put in an appear
ance ; but nowise discouraged by this untoward
event, the party had consumed the wedding
breakfast, wisely deciding that the ceremony

214 CANADIAN NIGHTS
might keep, but the viands would not. The
bride and bridegroom bore their disappointment
with a philosophical composure to be found only
among people who attach no value whatever to
time. In answer to our condolence they replied,
" Oh, no matter ; mebbe he come next steamer,
mebbe in two, three months, mebbe not come till
next year," and dismissed the subject as though
it were a matter of no importance whatever to
them. We tried hard to obtain the services of some
able-bodied Joe, but they were all bent on going
into the woods to hunt beaver on their own
account, and nothing would induce any of the
men to take service with us. We might have had
our pick of the women, and we regretted after
wards that we had not engaged a couple of girls.
They are just as well acquainted with the country
as the men ; they can paddle a canoe and do all
that a man can, except carry loads, and are able
to fulfil certain duties that a man cannot — for
instance, they can cook, tan hides, and wash and
mend clothes. We often regretted afterwards that
we had gone into the country, without a guide.
The Joes would not give our Indians any accurate
instructions, and although an Indian in St. John's

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 215
had explained the route to me as well as he could,
it is so difficult for a white man to understand an
Indian's description of a country, that my ideas
on the subject were very vague and hazy. An
Indian thinks little of the points of the compass,
and uses them very inaccurately. He seems to rely
rather upon the prominent landmarks and principal
features of the country to find his way about, and
attempts to explain the route by reference to
solitary pines, high hills, hard wood ridges, swamps,
and streams. In saying that a river runs south
west, he probably is taking it the reverse way,
counting from the mouth to the source, and really
means that it has a north-east course ; and he in
variably calls all the tributaries of a river by one
and the same name : a fact which leads to infinite
confusion. However, we determined to trust to
luck to find our way to the hunting-grounds, and,
after spending all the forenoon in patching up
canoes and arranging the baggage in suitable-
sized bundles, we made a start late in the after
noon, poled up to a picturesque fall some four
miles from the mouth of the stream, made our
" portage " round it and camped for the night.
It was a lovely evening, and we thoroughly enjoyed
it as we lay on our comfortable beds of sapin,

216 CANADIAN NIGHTS
gazing, through the transparent walls of our tent,
at the moonlight mingling with the flickering
flames of the camp fire, listening to the whisper
of the wind among the trees, and the distant
drowsy varying music of the fall, smoking our pipes
in placid contentment, delighted that at last we
were fairly launched into the woods.
We got along very nicely for the next two days,
though our progress was not rapid, but on the third
day the brook became so shallow that we had great
difficulty in advancing any farther. The channel
was almost dry in places, and we had to wade all
day, heaving stones out of the way, pushing and
pulling our heavily laden canoes by hand, carefully
manoeuvring them among the rocks, and wriggling
our way very slowly up the lessening stream. It
was evident that we must be near the head of navi
gation, and my companion and I splashed on ahead
in the bed of the stream to look out for the " por
tage." We walked and walked till we felt sure
that we must have passed the " carry," and were
on the point of turning back when I espied a swarthy
countenance peering cautiously at us through an
alder bush. " Bojour ! " said we, and " Bojour ! "
answered old Abraham Joe, emerging from his
covert. " Where are you going to ? " " Well,"

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 217
we replied, " we don't exactly know where we are
going to, but we are looking for the ' portage.'
Is it anywhere near here ? " " Yes," said he,
" close handy, just a little ways up the stream.
Water very low, ain't it ? Plenty rain pretty soon,
and then have good water in the brook. You
going hunting, I guess ? Not much good, deer all
gone. You wait, by and by we get through hunt
ing ; mebbe one of my sons show you where to
find plenty. Mebbe I go with you myself," added
the old man, with an air that seemed to say,
" There, just think of that : there's a chance you
don't get every day of the week." We camped that
night on the portage, and the next day " carried "
over to a neighbouring lake in a drenching rain,
and pitched our tent close to the camp of the
patriarch and certain other members of the Joe
family. The old man's prophecy of " plenty rain
come soon " was abundantly fulfilled during the
next three days, for it rained and blew, and blew
and rained, the whole time without ceasing. The
natives did not seem to mind it in the least, but
lounged about in the wet as unconcernedly as if
water was their natural element. I remember
going over to old Joe's tent one morning for some
thing or other, and finding a little French boy that

218 CANADIAN NIGHTS
he had with him lying outside by the dead sodden
ashes of the fire, in a most uncomfortable attitude,
leaning on his elbow with his head supported by
his hand, drenched of course to the skin through his
tattered clothing, and shivering with cold, but
sleeping soundly all the same. " Why, Joe," I said,
" what a shame to keep that miserable little boy out
in the cold and wet all night." " Oh," he replied,
" he don't mind ; he hard, hard all the same as one
d  dog : do him good."
We remained a few days on the shores of the
lake, but finding no sign of game, crossed to the
opposite side, made a short " portage " to another
lake, traversed that, and after a long and toilsome
tramp over land of some eight or ten miles, arrived
at what we hoped would prove our final destination.
What a lovely hunting country it was ! Not
more than half a mile from our camp, which was
placed in a nicely sheltered little island of wood,
rose a steep hill, which commanded an unob
structed view over miles of open country. Bare,
dry, barren, the surface principally composed of
rock covered with lichens on which the reindeer
feed,, alternating with patches of softer ground
carpeted with the beautiful ivory white caribou
moss, shallow pools and trickling streams, sheltered

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 219
depressions in the plain supporting a sparse growth
of junipers and dwarf pines, combined to form a
perfect paradise for game. But, alas ! it turned
out to be an empty Eden. Day after day we wore
out our moccasins tramping over the stony ground,
seeking for a sign but finding none ; day after day
we climbed the look-out hill and vainly swept the
plain with our glasses. That game had once been
abundant was very evident, for the plain was crossed
in all directions by paths worn deep into the surface
by the countless feet of constantly passing herds of
caribou, but now rapidly filling up through long
disuse. Patches of sun-dried clay showed footprints
that had been made long before our arrival ; the
tattered bark and broken branches of many a pine-
tree showed where a great stag had rubbed his horns,
but the scars were all old and brown ; numerous
horns lay scattered about in evidence of how plen
tiful the deer must have been at one time, but they
were bleached by the sun, weather-worn and half-
consumed. It was plain enough that deer had once
frequented those plains in great numbers, but it
was equally certain that not a deer had visited them
for months. The great barrens on which we were
hunting — if a man can be said to be' hunting when
there is nothing to hunt — stretch nearly right across

220 CANADIAN NIGHTS
the island from east to west, and occupy all the
country from north to south between Grand Pond,
a magnificent lake of some eighty miles in length,
and Red Indian Pond. The extent of hunting
country is very large ; and, thinking that surely
there must be some herds of deer out on the barrens
somewhere, we made expeditions from the main
camp of a day or two's journey, and thoroughly
searched the country in all directions. It was in
vain ; not a fresh track did we find. We proved
that there was not a herd of caribou within twenty
miles or more of us, and, after spending a fortnight
of our valuable time in a most unprofitable manner,
we packed up our goods, and with weary and dis
pirited steps returned to our canoes, made the best
of our way back to Joe's camp, and after resting a
day, started in the teeth of a fierce gale for Grand
Pond. Our course led us through a splendid game
country. We camped at nights in the very passages
through which, in former days, the caribou used to
pass in countless numbers during their annual
autumn migration from the north to the south side
of the island, but we were a day too late for the fair.
Lumber-men were cutting timber on the shores of
Deer Pond and rafting it down the broad current

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 221
of the Humber ; white men had invaded those
solitudes, and the caribou had abandoned them in
disgust. We made a nice camp at the north end
of Grand Pond at the mouth of a little stream
from which a faint trail, blazed some ten or perhaps
twenty years before by a wandering Indian, led up
through the pine woods to the open barren above,
and there we stayed for a week, during which time
we saw three hinds and killed one of them. The
flesh was welcome, for we had been living all the
time on beaver meat ; but what we wanted was one
or two of the gigantic heads for which the New
foundland stags are so famous ; and as it did not
appear likely that we should be successful in that
district, we packed up for the third time, paddled
some ten or twelve miles down the lake, lugged our
tent, bedding, and cooking things up a steep hill
side, and camped just on the edge of the barren,
about a thousand feet above the lake, determined
to make one more attempt. The next morning
my friend, accompanied by one of our Indians,
started in one direction, while young Joe John —
who had joined us for a few days — and I tried our
luck in another.
It was a lovely morning as we cleared the woods
and emerged upon the open breezy barren. The

222 CANADIAN NIGHTS
sky was cloudless : we could see for miles round
to the south of us and across the lake to the north,
but the surface of the water was hidden by a veil —
not of mist, but of thick solid-looking cloud. The
effect was curious, for the whole valley of the lake
was filled with a bank of white motionless cloud,
so level that it looked as if the water had been
turned into milk. Suddenly, as the sun rose
higher, this mass began to move — to roll about
and lift a little in places — and then, almost instan
taneously, it all broke up, curled off in wreaths,
vanished in thin air, and disclosed the placid
deep-blue surface of the water beneath. We had
not walked far before we discovered three stags
standing distinct against the sky-line on a distant
ridge. The ground was so level and so bare of
cover, that it was impossible to get near them un-
perceived, and I was obliged to content myself
with a long shot. I fired both barrels, and, to my
disgust, saw all three deer trot quietly off together.
After a while they wheeled round and stood
looking back to see what was the matter, and gave
me a chance for another long shot, which seemed to
satisfy their curiosity, for they turned at once
and disappeared over a little rise. An expression
more emphatic than polite escaped my lips, I

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 223
fear ; but Joe only smiled, and said, " How many
deer went over the rise ? Three, eh ? I only see
two now going up the other side : one stop down
in the hollow ; mebbe you hit him, or what he
stop down there for ? " "By Jove! Joe, you are
right," cried I. " Let's after him." " No, no ;
he all right — he safe enough ; bound to get him
by and by. Let's go after the other two. They
won't go far, not much scared — no wind, you
know — and not much afraid of the noise." The
stags in truth were not much alarmed, and more
over they were so fat, so preposterously fat, that
they literally could scarcely run away ; and after
a very hard chase, keeping ourselves as much as
possible out of sight, we got within range again
and bagged another stag. While Joe was engaged
upon the dead body of the deer, I noticed some
object moving a long way off, and with the glass
made out two men, one looking towards us, while
the other was stooping and working at something
on the ground. " Hurrah, Joe ! " said I, " they
have got the other one. Not a bad bag after all,
to finish up an unsuccessful hunt. Luck has
turned at last. Plenty of fresh meat for supper
to-night, Joe." " Yes," muttered Joe, with his
bloody knife between his teeth, " glad of it too.

224 CANADIAN NIGHTS
I have not tasted a bit of fresh meat this year :
most tired of chewing beaver meat ; you got two
days more, eh ? Well, we go out again to-morrow ;
leave the other men to fetch the meat in and
mebbe get something more. Suppose you let me
have the skins to make snow-shoes : must beat
out for something to make snow-shoes this winter.
No deer left in this country now." So Joe worked
away gralloching the deer, while I, having made a
little smudge of dry lichens and moss to windward
to keep off the swarms of black flies that pestered
us, smoked my pipe, happy in the certainty that
we should not suffer the disgrace of returning to
St. John's quite empty-handed.
Scarcely had Joe and I got well away from the
camp next morning, when such a blinding storm
of rain came on that we were compelled to make
a little shelter for ourselves among some dwarf
junipers and wait till it was over. We lit a little
fire, boiled some water in a pannikin, brewed some
tea, and talked about hunting until the clouds
lifted and enabled us to see our way about the
country ; but the best part of the day was gone,
and we had to return to camp without seeing
anything or even a fresh track. The day following
we were obliged to set out on our homeward

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 225
journey, for we had left ourselves only just time
enough to catch the tug steamer which was to
call for us in the bay, even by travelling almost
night and day ; but as I was loath to quit the
country without one more try, Joe and I climbed
up to the barren before daylight, leaving the
others to pack up, carry the baggage and meat
down to the lake, and get everything ready for a
start in the afternoon. Joe got the best of me
that day to the extent of twenty-five dollars, the
villain. We had walked for hours without seeing
a thing, when he remarked in a casual manner,
" You have not seen no bears, have you, since
you came in the island ? " " No, Joe," I replied,
" not even a sign. I should have thought bears
would have been plenty enough ; there is lots of
feed for them, goodness knows, for the whole
barren is covered with blueberries ; but they
seem to be very scarce." " Yes," answered Joe,
" bear's awful scarce in Newfoundland, but I
think I know a place where we might find one,
only I ain't got much time ; want to get back to
my beaver trapping, you know. What you give
me if I show you a bear ? " " Oh, well," I said,
" I don't know ; there is no chance of that now ;
but I would give a five-pound note for a shot at

226 CANADIAN NIGHTS
a bear if we had time to look for one." " All
right," said Joe ; " suppose I show you a bear
within shot, you give me five pounds, eh ? "
" Yes, Joe, certainly I will," replied I. " That's
sure, eh ? " " Yes." " Well, look yonder." And
following the direction of Joe's extended hand, I
saw a little black speck moving about near the
summit of a neighbouring mountain. " Oh, I
say, Joe, that is rather too bad," I remonstrated.
" I could have seen him just as well as you, and
got up to him too, for that matter. However, a
bargain is a bargain, so let us go for him." The
ground was very bare and open, but Bruin (or
" Mouin," as the Indians call him) was so busily
engaged eating blueberries, that he allowed us to
crawl up pretty near. I had to wait some time for
a shot, for the bear would not stand still for a
second, but kept turning himself about restlessly,
moving rapidly from bush to bush, grumbling to
himself the while — complaining, no doubt, about
the scarcity of berries that autumn and the diffi
culty of filling his ravenous inside. At last I got
a good opportunity, but made a bad shot, striking
the animal too low down on the shoulder, and
only breaking his leg. With a violent snort of
pain and astonishment, but without looking round

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 227
for a second to see what was the matter, away
went " Mouin " down the mountain side at a
most surprising pace. " Come on," yelled Joe.
" Try and head him off ; if he once gets down
into the timber he is gone sure." And away we
went after him as hard as we could tear. How
Joe jumped and bounded and yelled, and how the
bear did put out down that hill-side ! He seemed
to go twice as fast on three legs as any other
animal ever went on four. Sometimes Joe would
head the bear and turn him, sometimes the bear
would make a drive at Joe and turn him, which
would give me time to get up ; and so we went
on yelling and whooping and plunging through the
tangled matted junipers, the bear doubling and
twisting, and sometimes charging us, but always
struggling gallantly to gain the shelter of the
woods. We had the best of Bruin as long as we
were on the bare ground near the top, but when
we got among the junipers growing horizontally
like creepers along the ground, not rising more
than three or four feet above the surface, but with
stems as thick as your leg, and interlacing branches
as hard and springy as steel, then the bear got so
much the best of us, that we feared we should
lose him. Now and then I would get a shot, but

228 CANADIAN NIGHTS
shooting under such circumstances is chance work,
and I missed the bear several times, until at last
with a lucky shot I rolled him over, and Joe and I
threw ourselves down exhausted beside his dead
body. Joe's first action was to be violently sea
sick ; he then sat him down on a rock, filled and
lit his pipe, and gasped out, " Oh, I thought we
should have taken off our breeches ! " I stared at
Joe, thinking his exertions had produced a fit of
temporary insanity, and said, " Why, Joe, what
on earth should we take off our breeches for ? "
" What for ? — Why, suppose you not got any
breeches on, you run heap faster. Best always
take 'em off before shooting at a bear : he run such
a devil of a pace if you only wound him." And so,
having rested a little and skinned our bear, and
packed the hide and some meat on our backs, we
scrambled down to the shore, chucked our burdens
into the canoes lying ready laden, and paddled off
under the light of a rising moon.
Our canoes were deep in the water. A straight
course led us far from shore, and once or twice my
heart leaped into my throat with a horrid feeling
of apprehension, at the sudden unearthly scream
of a startled loon, sounding exactly like a human
shriek of agony denoting the capsize of one of the

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 229
following canoes ; but no such untoward accident
occurred, and after some hours of paddling we
drew up our boats at our old camp near the head
of the lake, made a fire, cooked and ate our supper,
and after a couple of hours' sleep started again
the following morning, about two hours before
dawn. We had hard work on that day's journey.
The river was very rapid : our course lay up
stream, and we had to pole all the way. It is not
easy for a novice to stand upright in a small
birch-bark canoe, but after a little practice he
gets his canoe legs, and learns not only to balance
himself without danger to the frail craft, but to
exert in safety the whole of his strength in forcing
her up some rapid stream. It is astonishing to
see the apparent ease with which two good men
will drive a canoe up a rapid. They approach it
in the same way as does a fish, stealing quietly up,
husbanding their strength, and taking advantage
of every little eddy to get as close to the fall as
possible ; and then make a rush out into the
stream without any hurry, plashing, or confusion,
but with quiet, methodical, concentrated strength.
Once out in the full force of the current, and the
struggle begins. For a few yards the momentum
of the canoe carries her on ; then she stops, the

230 CANADIAN NIGHTS
men throw their whole weight upon their poles,
that bend beneath them and tremble in the
glancing stream ; the water hisses by the side,
and curls up in front of the prow as the canoe is
forced up inch by inch against the tide. Hold on
now in the stern, while the bow-man takes a fresh
hold. Down slips the canoe half a fathom, while
the man in the stern snatches his pole from the
water and drives it fiercely down again and holds
her up once more against the torrent. Perhaps his
pole slips, or gets jammed between two stones, or
in spite of all their efforts to keep her end-on to
the stream, the boat's head slews a little on one
side, and away you float helplessly down stream,
only to make another effort, and if necessary
another and another, until the obstacle is over
come. At last it is overcome : inch by inch, foot
by foot, yard by yard, the quivering bark struggles
up, till with a final powerful shove she is lifted
over the break of the fall, and glides into still
water above. The three principles of poling are :
first, never to put out your strength until you
know, by the feel of it, that your pole is firmly
fixed, and does not rest on some loose or smooth
and slippery stone. Secondly, to be careful to
exert your force in a line parallel with the keel of

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 231
the canoe, and to keep your pole perpendicularly
under you, so that you can draw the canoe towards
it or push her away, according as you may wish.
If you plant your pole too far out or too much
under the canoe, and throw your weight across
her or hang over on your own side, a capsize is
probable, if not inevitable. Thirdly, if your pole
gets jammed and you cannot snatch it out in a
second, let go instantly ; for if you hold on and
drag at it, either the canoe will upset or she will
slip in the most miraculous manner from under
your feet, and you will find yourself suspended
for a second in space, and then plunged into a
raging flood.
We made camp early that afternoon, for the work
had been very severe, and we needed rest ; but
seeing a lot of salmon on the shallows, we deter
mined, in spite of fatigue, to do a little bit of poach
ing and burn the water before turning in. An
Indian fish-spear is a very simple affair, but it is far
superior to any civilised instrument of the same kind.
It consists of a straight iron spike about six inches
long, let into the end of a pole of ash, or some other
heavy wood, and two wooden jaws lashed one on
each side of the spike. These jaws must be made
of some tough elastic material, and are so shaped

232 CANADIAN NIGHTS
as to be furnished with broad barbs on the inner
sides. There is a space of about six inches be
tween the points of the jaws, which project an inch
or two beyond the end of the iron spike, but the
barbs are not more than a couple of inches apart ;
beyond and inside the barbs the jaws open out
again to a breadth of about four or five inches.
When a fish is fairly struck, the wooden jaws ex
pand, the iron spike transfixes him, the weight of
the blow forces him up above the barbs, and the
jaws, closing in again, hold him as fast as though he
were in a vice. This kind of spear is very light and
handy. It holds a salmon as securely as any lyster,
and it does not gash and mangle the fish. The
material for the wooden portion of our spear was
not difficult to procure, but we were puzzled to
find anything that would do for the indispensable
iron spike, and at last had to make up our minds to
sacrifice the handle of the frying-pan. No sooner
said than done. In a few minutes the rivets were
knocked out, and the handle stuck in the embers of
the fire. While some of us were manufacturing
the spike by beating out the handle on an axe-head
and afterwards grinding it to a sharp point on a
smooth stone, one of the Indians was hard at work
making the pole and jaws with his hatchet and

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 233
crooked knife. With these two implements an
Indian will make anything. I have often watched
with admiration a man fell a maple-tree, and in an
hour or two turn out a smooth, delicately poised,
accurately shaped axe-haft or paddle, with the help
of no other tools than his axe and his crooked
knife, an instrument which he generally makes for
himself out of a file, and which resembles in shape
the drawing knife of a shoeing smith. There is one
peculiarity about the red man worth mentioning,
namely, that in using a knife he invariably cuts
towards his body, while a white man always cuts
away from his. The Indians of all the coast pro
vinces are skilful workmen with the crooked knife,
and earn a good deal of money by making butter
firkins, tubs, mast-hoops, and various articles of a
similar nature.
By sunset we had finished our spear, and had
collected a good supply of birch bark ; and as soon
as it was dark a couple of us launched a canoe, and
after lighting a bunch of birch bark stuck in a cleft
stick in the bow of the boat to act as a torch,
started on our poaching expedition. We all of us
had a turn at spearing, and most comical attempts
we made. An empty canoe is possessed by a most
malignant spirit of perversity : it floats light as a

234 CANADIAN NIGHTS
dry leaf upon the water, and spins round and round,
and insists on going in the wrong direction, and
displays a propensity to slip suddenly from under
your feet, and in fact behaves altogether in a very
fickle and cantankerous manner. Mishaps, though
frequent, were only ludicrous ; for the water was
shallow, salmon were numerous, and in spite of our
awkwardness we had fresh fish for supper that night.
We made good progress next day, and arrived at our
old camp on the first lake about sunset. It rained
in perfect torrents that night, and we had a most
uncomfortable time of it, carrying across to Indian
Brook. The water had fallen so much since we
were there, that we found it necessary to make a
portage of six miles instead of two, so as to strike
the river lower down. It is no joke carrying
canoes six miles over a rough ground, and though
our Indians worked splendidly, it did not want
many hours to dawn by the time we had got every
thing across, and were changing wet clothes for
damp ones, and trying to dry ourselves before a huge
fire, under the partial shelter of a hastily arranged
lean-to. If we had only known that it was going to
rain so hard, we might have been spared the trouble
of making the long portage, for when day broke we
found the stream had risen at least a foot, and was

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 235
coming down in a torrent that bore us rapidly
towards the sea. It was getting dusk when we
approached the most ticklish part of the naviga
tion : we might truthfully have sung —
" Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near and the daylight past" ;
and under any other circumstances we would have
camped for the night ; but we were so anxious to
save our time with the steamer, that we determined
to chance the rapids, and kept on our way after
dark. It was a lovely night — a night the very
memory of which is soothing to the heart : a night
such as can be seen only in high latitudes ; for, in
spite of all the poetry that has been written on the
subject, I maintain that no sultry southern night
can compare in beauty with the great glory of the
moonlit or star-studded heavens revealed through
the clear and frosty atmosphere of the icy north.
The broad friendly moon rose above the pine trees,
climbed up among the stars, drowning their feeble
beams with a deepening flood of radiance, and
hung suspended in the heavens, a globe of mellow
light, searching out the secrets of the forest, shining
white on some fir-tree bleached and dead, throwing
black and awful looking shadows from the living

236 CANADIAN NIGHTS
pines, glimmering on the ragged bark and creamy
stems of birch-trees, casting the river fringe of
alders into deepest gloom, tracing bands of silver
across still reaches of the stream, dancing and
flickering on the rapids, glittering like diamonds on
frozen raindrops clinging to the stiffening blades
of grass, half revealing strange mysterious forms,
dimly unveiling misty distances, and shedding a
peaceful softened lustre over the whole scene.
The night was still. Silence settled down upon
the earth with the sinking sun — a silence broken
now and then by the plunge of an otter, the hoot
of an owl, the rise of some startled wild fowl from
the sedge, or the snapping of a dead stick under
the light footfall of some beast of the forest, dis
turbed by the occasional splash of the steersman's
paddle. So, drinking in the beauties of the night,
we drifted quietly on till the quickening current
warned us to concentrate all our thoughts upon
our own safety. The moonlight was so bright,
and objects were so distinctly visible as long as
we were in still water, that we anticipated but
little difficulty in running the rapids, which are
not the least dangerous by day ; but as soon as
we got among them the difference between the
light of even a cloudy day and the clearest night

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 237
became very evident. Our canoes were deeply
laden, and so heavy that it was impossible to
check them in the strength of the stream ; and we
flew down with such velocity that there was no time
to pick a channel, and one found oneself right on
top of some rock or boiling eddy almost at the
same instant that the eye caught sight of the
danger. Yet our progress was slow, for in many
places the river spreads out over broad shallows,
and there we had to go very cautiously, creeping
along, holding the canoe back with the paddles,
grounding now and then, and having to back off
and seek some deeper place ; and it was long past
midnight when a distant welcome roar showed we
were approaching the fall. There we went ashore,
made a fire, brewed some strong green tea, rested
for half an hour, and then, having made the short
" portage," launched our canoes again below the
fall. As bad luck would have it, the tide was out,
and we had to pick our way over great flats of
sand miles in breadth, covered by only two or
three inches of water, through which a little narrow
shallow channel went meandering to the sea. It
was tedious work, and it was four o'clock in the
morning when we got into deep water, paddled
alongside the tug, roused up the crew, tumbled up

238 CANADIAN NIGHTS
on deck, and turned into our bunks below,
thoroughly tired out.
So ended our hunting trip in Newfoundland.
It was not very successful ; three caribou heads
and one bearskin were all the trophies we had to
show. We could not congratulate ourselves upon
the amount of game killed, but at any rate we did
not come back empty-handed, and we had seen
something of the country and had enjoyed a very
pleasant month in the woods.
Newfoundland is not much visited by English
men. I know not why, for it is the nearest and
most accessible of all their colonies, and it offers
a good field for exploration and for sport. The
interior of a great part of the island, all the northern
part of it in fact, is almost unknown. The variety
of game is not great, there are no moose or small
deer, and bears are, strange to say, very scarce ;
but caribou are plentiful, and the Newfoundland
stags are finer by far than any to be found on any
portion of the continent of North America. The
caribou, or reindeer, are getting scarce, as they are
also in every other accessible place. Constant
travel across the island interferes with their annual
migration from north to south and from south to
north. They are no longer to be seen crossing

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 239
Sandy Pond in vast herds in the spring and fall,
but no doubt they are still pretty plentiful in
some remote parts of the country. The shores of
Newfoundland are indented with numerous and
excellent harbours, the interior is full of lakes and
is traversed by many streams navigable for canoes,
fur is pretty plentiful, wild fowl and grouse
abundant, and the creeks and rivers are full of
salmon and trout.
A great portion of the interior of the island
consists of barren, swamp, and water, but there are
large tracts of valuable timber, and of good land
suitable in every way for farming purposes. The
climate is very pleasant in summer and the fall ;
the winters are cold, though not so severe as on
the mainland, but they are protracted far into
the spring, through the chilling influence of the
great mass of Baffin Bay ice that comes down
the coast about the month of March. For that
reason, and because the extent of good land is
limited, and also on account of the proximity of
Prince Edward Island and the mainland, where
both soil and climate are better suited to the
cultivation of crops, Newfoundland will never be
much of an agricultural country. It has great
mineral riches, chiefly consisting of copper, which

240 CANADIAN NIGHTS
as yet are only partially developed, but the true
source of its wealth and cause of its prosperity is,
and always will be, the sea. There is a farm which
needs no cultivation, a mine which never " peters
out." The hardy Newfoundland fisherman pur
sues his calling not only among his native bays,
but also along the coasts of the Labrador as far
north as the entrance into Hudson Straits ; and
yet, in spite of all his industry and the inex
haustible riches of the sea, he leads a poor, and
too often a miserable life. He is generally deeply
in debt to the nearest storekeeper, and he is com
pelled to look on while others reap the harvest
drawn from what he, perhaps not unnaturally,
considers his own seas. The fishery question in
Newfoundland, and in fact the whole state of the
country, is in a peculiar condition.
Most Englishmen probably suppose that New
foundland is a dependency of Great Britain ; but
that idea is only partially true, for the sovereign
rights of the Crown are recognised only over a
portion of the island. The fishery rights of
France, as settled under the treaty of Utrecht in
1 71 3, still remain in force. Under that treaty the
islands of St. Pierre and Miguelon were absolutely
secured to France to enable her to pursue the

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 241
cod-fishery of the great banks, and she further
retained certain vaguely defined rights over that
part of the island known as the French coast,
namely, the shore from Cape Ray to Cape John, a
distance of about 400 miles. The possession of
the two islands above mentioned is of the greatest
value to France, and at the same time causes no
practical inconvenience to the Newfoundlanders.
It is true that a great industry has passed from us,
and that the fishery on the great banks is almost
entirely in the hands of the French, who employ
about 300 vessels and 10,000 men — half the
number of ships and seamen engaged in their
Newfoundland fishery, in that branch of the trade
alone ; but this is not owing to the convenience
offered them by the possession of fishing stations
at St. Pierre, or to any lack of industry and enter
prise on the part of our men, but is caused by the
high bounties given by the French Government,
which enable their fishermen to undersell our
people, and renders competition on our part
useless. The state of things existing on the
French shore is, however, looked upon as a real
grievance by the English inhabitants of Newfound
land. France claims a strip of land half a mile in
width along the whole western seaboard of the

242 CANADIAN NIGHTS
island. She also, practically speaking, owns half
the interior of the island. What is the exact
nature of the rights which she is entitled to exercise
over the foreshore has never yet been determined.
It was retained for fishery purposes. The French
cannot erect permanent buildings of any kind, but
they may set up temporary huts and drying
stages, and everything necessary for the accom
modation of their men during the fishing season.
So much is clearly understood. But whether the
French rights are exclusive ; or whether the
English may also make use of the shore for fishing
purposes ; or if not, then whether they are also
precluded from permanently settling and cultivat
ing land, or working minerals on the French shore,
are doubtful points ; but they will have to be
decided some day, for the state of things which
now exists, though it might have been thought
little of when Newfoundland was a mere store
house for salt, and a drying-place for the nets of
fishermen who paid it an annual visit, will become
unbearable as the island develops and is settled up.
It is not the fisheries alone that are concerned.
If you make a man absolute master of the door,
it is obvious that he practically controls the room
within ; and as the natural and only outlet for

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 243
nearly half the island is through the French shore,
it is equally certain that the wealth in mines,
timber, and agricultural produce of many thou
sands of square miles must remain undeveloped
until some satisfactory arrangement is arrived at.
Thanks to the tendency of treaty makers to scamp
their work, and to be content to accept vague
generalities and to leave inconvenient details to
be dealt with by their successors, a nice muddle
exists in Newfoundland. The Crown exercises
sovereign right, and the Colonial Parliament
extends its rule over a portion only of a British
colony. And now, to make confusion worse con
founded, we have entered into more vague and
ill-defined engagements with the United States.
Nobody seems even to know whether American
fishermen can exercise their rights subject to or
independent of the local laws binding on the
natives of Newfoundland. Still less can anyone
pretend to say what rights, if any, the United
States acquired on the French shore. The Fishery
Convention between Great Britain and the United
States was of course subject to the provisions of
all existing treaties entered into by France and
England, and dealing with the fisheries of New
foundland, but nobody knows what those pro-

244 CANADIAN NIGHTS
visions mean. We may take one view, France a
second, Newfoundland a third, and the Govern
ment of Washington a fourth. Who is to say
which view is correct ? The result of this con
fusion is, that there is no law whatever on the
French shore. That country is inhabited by
refugees from other parts of the island, and
emigrants from Cape Breton or Prince Edward
Island, and from Nova Scotia and other portions
of the mainland. These people, many of whom
had urgent private reasons for thinking a change
of domicile desirable, have squatted on the land
and appropriated it — stolen it, in fact, from the
Crown. Each family or cluster of families forming
a little settlement, claims the land about them,
the valley probably of the river on the banks of
which they dwell, and are fully prepared to uphold
their claim. It is a delightfully primitive state of
society. No writs run in that happy land, and
every man does that which seems best to him in
his own eyes. Taxes, however, have been raised,
but when the Colonial Parliament passed a Bill
giving two members to the district, the Act was
at once disallowed by the Home Government, as
interfering with the French rights ; and the
curious spectacle might have been seen of a popu-

NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 245
lation of British subjects in a colony enjoying free
Parliamentary Government, paying taxes, but
having no representation whatever. There are
many other inconveniences arising from the
peculiar circumstances connected with the French
shore. The Government is, practically speaking,
precluded from making grants of Crown lands
over about 20,000 square miles of country ; nobody
cares to purchase and clear land or prospect for
minerals ; millions of feet of lumber have been
cut from off Crown lands without the payment
of one farthing, and the rivers are persistently
barred and the salmon fisheries destroyed. There
is, in fact, a state of things existing in Newfound
land which finds no parallel in any civilised country
in the world, and which is unknown in any other
colony of Great Britain. In the midst of a self-
governing community a population exists owning
no allegiance to anyone, liable to no laws, practi
cally speaking subject to no Government of any
kind. It is an anomalous and not a very creditable
state of things. Whether it can be remedied or
not is altogether another matter, but if possible
something should be done for our own credit and
for the sake of our fellow-subjects in Newfoundland.
Newfoundland has special claims upon us, for

246 CANADIAN NIGHTS
though sentiment is generally out of place in
politics, it cannot be forgotten that Newfoundland
is England's first-born. That foggy little island,
although perhaps somewhat of a rough diamond,
is a valuable jewel, and is the first that was set in
the imperial crown.
" There will be changes, ot course," said Willie
Whisper ; " there may be some now, for all I
know. You will know all about them, for you will
go back to civilisation. I shall not know, because
I shall never go back — and it won't matter a bit !
That is one of the advantages of living out of the
world."

DAYS IN THE WOODS
TOWARDS August or September, any man
who has once been in the woods will
begin to feel stirring within him a restless
craving for the forest — an intense desire to
escape from civilisation, a yearning to kick off
his boots, and with them all the restraints,
social and material, of ordinary life, and to
revel once again in the luxury of moccasins,
loose garments, absolute freedom of mind and
body, and a complete escape from all the petty
moral bondages and physical bandages of society.
To a man who has once tasted of the woods, the
instinct to return thither is as strong as that of
the salmon to seek the sea.
Suppose then that you have determined upon such
a return and, with me, have arrived at the last house,
where Indians and canoes are waiting for us. Old
John Williams, the Indian, beaming with smiles,
shakes hands, and says, " My soul and body, sir,
I am glad to see you back again in New Brunswick.
24?

248 CANADIAN NIGHTS
How have you been, sir ? Pretty smart, I hope."
" Oh, first-rate, thank you, John ; and how are you,
and how did you get through the winter, and how is
the farm getting on ? " " Pretty well, sir. I killed
a fine fat cow moose last December, that kept me
in meat most all winter ; farm is getting on
splendid. I was just cutting my oats when I got
your telegram, and dropped the scythe right there
in the swarth, and left. I hear there's a sight of
folks going in the woods this fall ; more callers
than moose, I guess." And so, after a little con
versation with the other Indians, in the course of
which we discover that though they have been
there three days, they have never thought of
patching up the canoes, and have left the baking-
powder or frying-pan or some equally essential
article behind, we enter the settler's house, and
so to supper and bed.
The first day is not pleasant. The canoes have
to be carted ten miles to the head of the stream
we propose descending, and the hay wagon wants
mending, or the oxen have gone astray. Patience
and perseverance, however, overcome all these
and similar difficulties, and at last we are deposited
on the margin of a tiny stream ; the settler starts
his patient, stolid oxen, over the scarcely per-

DAYS IN THE WOODS 249
ceptible track, saying, " Well, good day, gents ; I
hope you will make out all right," and we are left
alone in the forest.
The first thing to be done is to make a little fire,
and then with a hot brand melt the gum on the
seams of the canoes where it may have been
cracked by the jolting of the wagon, and to patch
up with resin and pieces of calico, brought for the
purpose, any holes in the bark. An Indian ascer
tains that his canoe is watertight by the simple
method of applying his lips to every seam that
appears leaky, and seeing whether the air sucks
through. This ceremony he religiously performs
every morning before launching his canoe, and
every evening when he takes her out of the water.
It looks as though he were embracing her with
much affection, and it sounds like it ; but in
reality it must be an osculatory process more
useful than agreeable, for a canoe, like an Indian
squaw, though excellent for carrying burdens,
cannot be particularly pleasant to kiss. Our canoes
having successfully passed through this ordeal,
they are carefully placed upon the water, brush is
cut and laid along the bottom, the baggage care
fully stowed, and away we start at last, three
canoes with a white man in the bow and a red

250 CANADIAN NIGHTS
man in the the stern of each. Civilisation, with all
its worries, anxieties, disappointments, heat, dust,
restraint, luxury, and discomfort, is left behind ;
before us are the grand old woods, the open
barrens, stream, lake, and river — perfect freedom,
lovely cool autumnal weather, three weeks' pro
visions, plenty of ammunition, the forest and the
stream to supply food, and the fishing-rod and
rifle with which to procure it.
Down we go, very slowly and carefully, wading
half the time, lifting stones out of the way,
tenderly lifting the canoes over shallows, for
the stream scarcely trickles over its pebbly bed.
After a while the water deepens and becomes
still. We take to the paddles and make rapid
progress. " Guess there's a dam pretty handy," says John,
and so it turns out to be, for after a mile of dead
water we are brought up by a beaver-dam, showing
an almost dry river-bed below it. Canoes are
drawn up and the dam is demolished in a few
minutes, giving a couple of nights' hard labour
to the industrious families whose houses we had
passed a little way above the dam. Then we have
to wait for half an hour to give the water a start
of us, and then off again, poling, wading, paddling

DAYS IN THE WOODS 251
down the stream, until the sinking sun indicates
time to camp.
In a few minutes — for all hands are used to
the work — canoes are unladen, two tents pitched,
soft beds of fir-tops spread evenly within them,
wood cut, and bright fires burning, more for
cheerfulness than warmth. A box of hard bread
is opened, tea brewed, and ham set frizzling in the
pan. Tea is a great thing in the woods. Indians
are very fond of it ; their plan is to put as much
tea as they can get hold of into a kettle, and boil it
until it is nearly strong enough to stand a spoon
upright in. Of this bitter decoction they drink
enormous quantities for supper, and immediately
fall fast asleep, having nothing about them that
answers to civilised nerves.
Sunrise finds us up ; breakfast is soon over,
tents are struck, canoes loaded, and we are on our
way down the deepening stream. It is a river
now, with lots of trout in the shallows, and salmon
in the deep pools. About noon we turn sharp off
to the eastward up a little brawling brook, forcing
our way with some difficulty up its shallow rapids
till it gets too dry, and we are compelled to go
ashore and to " carry " over to the lake whither
we are bound. One of us stops behind to make a

252 CANADIAN NIGHTS
fire, boil the kettle, and prepare the dinner, while
the Indians swing each a canoe on to his shoulders
and start through the woods. In three trips
everything is carried across, and we embark again
upon a lovely lake.
The " carry " was not long, only about half a
mile, and there was a good blazed trail, so that
it was a comparatively easy job ; but under the
most favourable circumstances this portaging, or
carrying, is very hard work. It is hard enough to
have to lift eighty or one hundred pounds on your
back. It is worse when you have to carry the
burden half a mile, and get back as quickly as you
can for another load ; and when you have to crawl
under fallen limbs, climb over prostrate logs,
balance yourself on slippery tree-trunks, flounder
through bogs, get tangled up in alder swamps,
force yourself through branches which slap you
viciously in the face, with a big load on your back,
a hot sun overhead, and several mosquitoes on
your nose. I know of nothing more calculated
to cause an eruption of bad language, a consider
able gain in animal heat, and a corresponding loss
of temper. But it has to be done, and the best
way is to take it coolly, and, if you cannot do that,
to take it as coolly as you can.

DAYS IN THE WOODS 253
Out on the lake it was blowing a gale, and right
against us. We had to kneel in the bottom of the
canoes, instead of sitting on the thwarts, and
vigorously ply our paddles. The heavily laden
craft plunged into the waves, shipping water at
every jump, and sending the spray flying into our
faces. Sometimes we would make good way, and
then, in a squall, we would not gain an inch, and
be almost driven on shore ; but after much labour
we gained the shelter of a projecting point, and
late in the evening reached our destination, and
drew up our canoes for the last time.
While others make camp, old John wanders off
with his head stooped, and eyes fixed on the
ground, according to his custom. The old man
always looks as if he had lost something and was
searching for it. Indeed, this is very often the
case. I remember, after watching him one day
prying and wandering about an old lumber camp,
asking him what on earth he was doing. " Oh,
nothing, sir," he answered ; " I hid a clay pipe
here, somewhere — let me see, about thirty-five
years ago, and I was looking for it." After dark
he comes quietly in, sits down by the fire and
lights his pipe, and, after smoking a little while,
observes, " Moose been here, sir, not long ago.

254 CANADIAN NIGHTS
I saw fresh tracks, a cow and a calf close handy
just around that little point of woods." Another
silence, and then he looks up with a smile of the
most indescribable cunning and satisfaction, and
adds, " I think, mebbe, get a moose pretty soon
if we have a fine night." " Well, I hope so, John,"
say I. " Yes, sir, I see where he rub his horn,
sir ; you know the little meadow just across the
hardwood ridge ? why, where we saw the big
cariboo track three years ago. He's been fighting
the bushes there. My soul and body, a big bull,
sir, great works, tracks seven inches long." And
so we fall to talking about former hunting ex
cursions till bedtime, or rather sleepy time, comes,
and we curl up in our blankets, full of hopes for
the future, which may or may not be disappointed.
Moose-calling commences about the 1st of
September and ends about the 15th of October.
A full moon occurring between the middle and
end of September is the best of all times. The
best plan in calling is to fix upon a permanent
camp and make little expeditions of two or three
days' duration from it, returning to rest and get
fresh supplies. Then you enjoy the true luxury
of hunting. Then you feel really and thoroughly
independent and free. The Indian carries your

DAYS IN THE WOODS 255
blanket, your coat, a little tea, sugar, and bread, a
kettle, and two tin pannikins. The hunter has
enough to do to carry himself, his rifle, ammunition,
a small axe, hunting-knife, and a pair of field-
glasses. Thus accoutred, clad in a flannel shirt and
home-spun continuations, moose-hide moccasins
on your feet, your trousers tucked into woollen
socks, your arms unencumbered with that useless
article, a coat, you plunge into the woods, the sun
your guide in clear weather, your pocket-compass
if it is cloudy, the beasts and birds and fishes your
companions ; and wander through the woods at
will, sleeping where the fancy seizes you, " calling "
if the nights are calm, or still hunting on a windy
day. Calling is the most fascinating, disappointing,
exciting of all sports. You may be lucky at once
and kill your moose the first night you go out,
perhaps at the very first call you make. You may
be weeks and weeks, perhaps the whole calling
season, without getting a shot. Moose-calling is
simple enough in theory ; in practice it is im
mensely difficult of application. It consists, as I
explained the other night, in imitating the cry of
the animal with a hollow cone made of birch bark,
and endeavouring by this means to call up a moose
near enough to get a shot at him by moonlight or

256 CANADIAN NIGHTS
in the early morning. He will come straight up
to you, within a few yards — walk right over you
almost — answering, " speaking," as the Indians
term it, as he comes along, if nothing happens to
scare him ; but that is a great if. So many un
avoidable accidents occur. The great advantage
of moose-calling is, that it takes one out in the
woods during the most beautiful period of the
whole year — when Nature, tired with the labour of
spring and summer, puts on her holiday garments,
and rests luxuriously before falling into the deep
sleep of winter. The great heats are past, though
the days are still warm and sunny ; the nights are
calm and peaceful, the mornings cool, the evenings
so rich in colouring that they seem to dye the
whole woodland with sunset hues, for the maple,
oak, birch, and beech trees glow with a gorgeous
ness unknown to similar trees at home. If the
day is windy, you can track the moose and cariboo,
or perchance a bear, through the deep shady
recesses of the forest. On a still day, you may
steal noiselessly over the smooth surface of some
lake, or along a quiet reach of still river water,
fringed with alder, winding tortuously through
natural meadows, or beneath a ridge crowned with
birch and maples, whose feathery branches and

DAYS IN THE WOODS 257
crimson leaves are so clearly reflected on a surface
perfectly placid that you seem to be gliding over
a forest of submerged trees. Or you may indulge
to perfection in that most luxurious pastime —
doing nothing. I know a lovely place for that,
on a hunting-ground I used to frequent, a little
island of woods about a quarter of a mile from
camp, with a tall pine-tree in the middle, which
was kind enough to arrange its branches in such
a way that it was very easy to climb. Thither I
would go on lazy days, when tired with hunting,
with my gun and a book, and, leaning against its
friendly trunk, read till I was tired of literature,
and then climb up in the breezy branches and look
out far and wide over the barrens on either side.
Many a cariboo have I seen from thence, and shot
him after an exciting stalk out on the plain.
Let us imagine a party of three men to burst
out of the thick woods on to a little open space,
or barren, hot and tired, about four o'clock on a
fine October day. Before them lies a still deep
reach of a little river, fringed on the near side
with brown alders ; on the opposite side lies a
piled-up ragged heap of loose grey granite blocks,
with one solitary dead pine-tree, stretching out its
gaunt, bare, shrivelled limbs against the clear sky.

258 CANADIAN NIGHTS
Just beyond is a little clump of pines, and all
around a grey meadow, quite open for some fifty
yards or so, then dotted with occasional unhappy-
looking firs, sad and forlorn, with long tresses
of grey moss hanging from their stunted limbs.
The trees grow closer and closer together, and
become more vigorous in appearance till they
merge into the unbroken forest beyond. Sup
posing that I formed one of the party, I should
immediately take measures to make myself com
fortable for the night, for I am of a luxurious
habit. I should set one Indian, say John Williams,
to look for water, which he would find by scooping
a hole in the moss with his hands, into which cavity
a black and muddy liquid would presently flow,
not inviting to look at, but in an hour's time it
will have settled clear enough to drink — in the
dark. I and the other Indian, say Noel Glode,
would turn to and make camp. That is easily done
when you know how — so is making a watch. You
clear away a space beneath some tree, making it
nice and level, and set up a shelter on whichever
side you apprehend the wind will come from.
You stick some poles or young fir-trees into the
ground, prop them up with other trees, lash a pole
horizontally along them, with a bit of string if you

DAYS IN THE WOODS 259
have it, or the flexible root of a fir if you have not.
Cut down a lot of pine branches, and thatch the
framework with them till you have formed a little
lean-to, which will keep off a good deal of wind and
all the dew. Then you strew the ground thickly
with fir-tops or bracken, gather a lot of dry wood
in case you want to make a fire, and all is ready for
the night.
In a scene very like that, many a year ago now,
I spent the last two nights of the calling season.
It was nearly sundown before our work was
over, and, leaving Noel to finish camp, I sent
John to a tree-top to look out, and sat down myself
on a rock at a little distance to smoke the calumet
of peace. These " barrens " are very melancholy
at the decline of day, intensely sad, yet in their
own way beautiful, full of delicate colouring. The
grey, dead, tufted grass lies matted by the margin
of the stream, over which brown alders droop,
looking at their own images in the water, perfectly
still, save when some otter, beaver, or musk-rat
plunges sullenly in and disturbs it for a moment.
The ground, carpeted with cariboo moss, white as
ivory but with purple roots, is smooth, save for
a few detached rugged masses of granite covered
with grey or black lichens. An occasional dwarfed

260 CANADIAN NIGHTS
pine, encumbered with hanging festoons of moss,
strives to grow in the wet soil ; and on drier spots,
two or three tall, naked, dead firs, that have been
burned in some bygone fire, look pale, like ghosts
of trees in the deepening twilight.
Beyond all, the forest rises, gloomy, black,
mysterious. Nature looks sad, worn-out, dying ;
as though lamenting the ancient days and the
inevitable approach of the white man's axe. Well
in harmony with her melancholy mood are the
birds and beasts that roam those solitudes, and
haunt the woods and streams. The hooting owl,
the loon or great northern diver, that startles the
night with its unearthly scream, are weird uncanny
creatures ; the cariboo or reindeer, which was
contemporary with many extinct animals on this
globe — mammoths, cave bears, and others — and
which has seen curious sights among aboriginal
men, has a strange look as if belonging to some
older world and some other time, with his fantastic
antlers and great white mane ; and so, too, has
the huge ungainly moose, that shares with him
the forest and the swamps.
I had not, however, much time to indulge in
reverie, for scarcely had I sat down before I heard
old John call gently like a moose to attract my

DAYS IN THE WOODS 261
attention. Now it must be borne in mind that
when hunting you never call to anyone like a
human being, for to do so might scare away game ;
but you grunt like a moose, or, if you prefer it,
hoot like an owl, or make any other sound emitted
by one of the brute creation. I crept up quickly,
and in obedience to John's whisper gave him the
moose-caller, and, following the direction of his
eyes, saw a small bull moose slowly crossing the
barren some four or five hundred yards to our
left. At the first sound from John's lips, the
moose stopped dead short, and looked round,
then moved a few steps towards us and stopped
again. We watched him for some time. He was
evidently timid, and it seemed doubtful whether
he would come up ; and, as it was growing dark,
Noel and I started to try and steal round the
edge of the wood in order to cut him off before
he could get into the timber and cross our tracks.
We had not gone a hundred yards before we heard
another bull coming up from a different direction
through the forest, answering John's call. We
could tell by the sound that he was a large one,
and that he was coming up rapidly. The small
bull heard him also, and stopped. We were now,
of a truth, in a dilemma. There was a moose in

262 CANADIAN NIGHTS
sight of us, but it was ten to one that he would
smell our tracks and get scared before we could
reach him. There was a larger moose coming
through the woods, but where he would emerge
it was impossible to say ; and, to make matters
worse, it was rapidly getting dark. The difficulty
was soon settled, for the smaller moose moved
on again towards the woods, crossed our track,
snuffed us, and started off across the barren at a
trot ; so we had to turn our attention to the
larger one. He came on boldly ; we could hear
him call two or three times in succession, and then
stop dead silent for a few minutes to listen, and
then on again, speaking. We planted ourselves
right in his way, just on the edge of the woods,
and, crouching close to the ground, waited for him.
Presently we heard his hoarse voice close to us,
and the crackling of the bushes as he passed through
them ; then silence fell again, and we heard no
thing but the thumping of our hearts ; another
advance, and he stopped once more, within appa
rently about fifty yards of us. After a long, almost
insupportable pause, he came on again ; we could
hear his footsteps, we could hear the grass rustling,
we could hear him breathing, we could see the
bushes shaking, but we could not make out even

DAYS IN THE WOODS 263
the faintest outline of him in the dark. Again he
stopped, and our hearts seemed to stand still also
with expectation ; another step must have brought
him out almost within reach of me, when suddenly
there was a tremendous crash ! He had smelt us,
and was off with a cracking of dead limbs, rattling
of horns, smashing of branches, which made the
woods resound again. Disappointed we were, but
not unhappy, for the first duty of the hunter is
to drill himself into that peculiar frame of mind
which enables a man to exult when he is success
ful, and to accept ill-luck and defeat without
giving way to despondency.
It was by this time pitch dark, and there was no
use therefore in calling any more. So in a few
minutes we were seated round a bright cheerful
little fire ; the kettle was boiled, and we consoled
ourselves with what story-books call " a frugal
meal " of bread and tea, and then reclining on
our beds of bracken, with our backs to the fire,
smoked and chatted till sleep began to weigh our
eyelids down. I have observed that in most
accounts of travel and hunting adventure people
are represented as lying with their feet to the
fire. That is a great blunder. Always keep your
shoulders and back warm, and you will be warm

264 CANADIAN NIGHTS
all over. If there are a number of people round
one fire, and it is necessary to lie stretched out
like the spokes of a wheel, with the fire representing
the axle, it is advisable, no doubt, to lie with your
head outwards, for it is better to toast your heels
than to roast your head ; but if there is room to
lie lengthways, always do so, and keep your back
to the fire. Of course we talked about the moose
we had so nearly killed. " My soul and body,
sir," says John, " never see such luck in all my
life ; most as bad as we had two years ago when
we was camped away down east by the head of
Martin's River. You remember, sir, the night we
saw the little fire in the woods close by, when
there was no one there to make it. Very curious
that was ; can't make that out at all. What was
it, do you think ? "
" Well, John," I said, " I suppose it must have
been a piece of dead wood shining."
" Yes, sir ; but it did not look like that ; most
too red and flickering for dead wood."
" Perhaps ghosts making a fire, John," said I.
" Yes, sir, mebbe ; some of our people believes
in ghosts, sir ; very foolish people, some Indians."
" Don't you, John ? "
" Oh no, sir ; I never seed no ghosts. I have

DAYS IN THE WOODS 265
seen and heard some curious things, though. I
was hunting once with two gentlemen near Rocky
River — you know the place well, sir. We were all
sitting in the camp ; winter time, sir ; pretty
late, about bedtime. The gentlemen were drink
ing their grog, and we was smoking and talking,
when we heard someone walking, coming up to
the camp. ' Holloa ! ' says one of the gentlemen,
' who can this be at this time of night ? ' Well,
sir, we stopped talking, and we all heard the man
walk up to the door. My soul, sir, we could hear
his moccasins crunching on the hard dry snow quite
plain. He walked up to the door, but did not
open it, did not speak, did not knock. So, after a
little, one of us looked out — nobody there ; nobody
there at all, sir. Next morning there was not a
track on the snow — not a track — and no snow fell
in the night. Well, sir, we stayed there a fort
night, and most every night we would hear a man
in moccasins walk up to the door and stop ; and if
we looked there was no one there, and he left no
tracks in the snow. What was it, do you think,
sir ? "
" Don't know, John, I am sure," I said, " unless
it was some strange effect of wind in the trees."
" Well, sir, I seed a curious thing once. I was

266 CANADIAN NIGHTS
hunting with a gentleman — from the old country,
I think he was — my word, sir, a long time ago,
mebbe thirty years or more. My soul and body,
sir, what a sight of moose there was in the woods
in those days ! and the cariboo run in great herds
then ; all failing now, sir, all failing. We were
following cariboo, right fresh tracks in the snow ;
we were keeping a sharp look-out, expecting to
view them every minute, when I looked up and
saw a man standing right between us and where
the cariboo had gone. He was not more than
two hundred yards off — I could see him quite
plain. He had on a cloth cap and a green blanket-
coat with a belt round the middle — not a leather
belt like we use, sir, but a woollen one like what
the Frenchmen uses in Canada. There was braid
down the seams of his coat and round the cuffs.
I could see the braid quite plain. He had no gun,
nor axe, nor nothing in his hands, but just stood
there with his hand on his hip, that way, right in
the path, doing nothing. ' Our hunting all over,
sir,' I said to the gentleman. ' We may as well
go home.' ' Why, what is the matter, John ? '
says he. ' Why, look at the man there right in
the track ; he's scared our cariboo, I guess.'
Well, sir, he was very mad, the gentleman was,

DAYS IN THE WOODS 267
and was for turning right round and going home ;
but I wanted to go up and speak to the man.
He stood there all the time — never moved. I
kind of bowed, nodded my head to him, and he
kind of nodded his head, bowed just the same way
to me. Well, I started to go up to him, when up
rose a great fat cow moose between him and me.
' Look at the moose, Captain ! ' I said. ' Shoot
her ! ' ' Good heavens, John ! ' he says, ' if I do,
I shall shoot the man too ! ' ' No, no, sir, never
mind,' I cried, ' fire at the moose.' Well, sir,
he up with the gun, fired, and downed the moose.
She just ran a few yards, pitched forward, and fell
dead. When the smoke cleared off, the man was
gone ; could not see him nowheres. ' My soul
and body ! what's become of the man, Captain ? '
I says. ' Dunno, John ; perhaps he is down too,'
says he. ' Well, sir,' says I, ' you stop here, and I
will go and look ; mebbe he is dead, mebbe not
quite dead yet.' Well, I went up to the place,
and there was nothing there — nothing but a little
pine-tree, no man at all. I went all round, sir —
no tracks, no sign of a man anywhere on the snow.
What was it, do you think, sir, we saw ? "
" Well, John," I replied, " I think that was a
curious instance of refraction." " Oh, mebbe,"

268 CANADIAN NIGHTS
says John ; " guess I will take a little nap now —
moon get up by and by ; " and in another instant
he was fast asleep. Indians have a wonderful
faculty for going to sleep. They seem to shut
themselves up at will, with a snap like slamming
down the lid of a box with a spring, and are fast
asleep in a second ; and there they will lie, snoring
and shivering with cold until you touch or call
them, and then they are wide awake in an in
stant, as if they pressed some knob concealed in
their internal mechanism, and flew suddenly open
again. I remember seeing a curious instance of re
fraction once myself. We were paddling home
one evening, old John and I, along a still deep
reach of dead water, gliding dreamily over a surface
literally as smooth as a polished mirror. It was
evening, and the sun was only just clear of the
tree-tops on the western side. Happening to look
up, I saw on the eastern side a shadow, a stooping
form, glide across the trees about twenty or thirty
feet from the ground and disappear. It looked
very ghost-like, and for an instant it startled me.
In a few seconds it reappeared, and, the trees
growing thicker together and affording a better
background, I saw the shadows plainly — two

DAYS IN THE WOODS 269
figures in a canoe gliding along in the air, the
shadows of John and myself, cast up at an ob
tuse angle from the surface of the water by the
almost level rays of the setting sun.
The Indians soon were comfortably sleeping,
and had wandered off into the land of dreams ;
but I, my nature being vitiated by many years of
civilisation, could not so easily yield to the wooing
of the drowsy god. For some time I lay awake,
blinking lazily at the fire, watching flickering forms
and fading faces in the glowing embers, speculat
ing idly on the fortunes of the Red Indian race,
and on the destinies of the vast continent around
me — in memory revisiting many lovely scenes,
and going over again in thought the hunting
adventures and canoeing voyages of former days.
The palmy days of canoeing are past and gone.
Time was when fleets of large birch-bark canoes,
capable of carrying some tons weight, navigated
the waters of the St. Lawrence, of the Ottawa, and
of the great lakes to the mouths of different rivers
on the north shore of Lake Superior, where they are
met by smaller canoes arriving from the shores of
the Frozen Ocean, from unnamed lakes and un
known rivers, from unexplored regions, from
countries inhabited by wild animals and fur-

270 CANADIAN NIGHTS
bearing beasts — districts as large as European
countries lying unnoticed in the vast territories
of British North America.
All that is changed, though a great trade is still
carried on by means of these primitive but most
useful and graceful boats. Steamers ply upon
the lakes and ascend the rivers, the country is
being rapidly opened up, wrested from wild nature,
and turned into a habitation fit for civilised man.
One of the pleasantest canoe voyages I ever made
was from Fort William, at the mouth of the
Kaministiquoya, to Fort Garry, situated close to
the junction of the Assineboin with the Red
River of the North, and near to the shores of Lake
Winnipeg. That was but a few years ago ; but
how all that country has changed since then !
Winnipeg was a very small place then, scarcely
known to the outside world. I remember I met a
family in the steamer on Lake Superior, a lady and
gentleman and their children, and when in the
course of the conversation it came out that they
were going to Winnipeg, I felt almost as much
astonished as ¦ if they had told me they were on
their way to spend the summer at their country
residence at the North Pole. Now Winnipeg has
become a flourishing town. The trading post of

DAYS IN THE WOODS 271
Fort Garry is submerged and overwhelmed by a
mass of civilisation ; Manitoba is a province, and
a growing and prosperous one. One of the finest,
if not the very finest, agricultural districts in the
world has been opened up to man. It is a district
capable of producing the choicest wheat in practi
cally limitless quantities. It is blessed with many
advantages, but it also labours under certain dis
advantages which must not be overlooked. Three
great rivers flow into Lake Winnipeg — the Red
River, the Saskatchewan, and the Winnipeg. The
latter river is magnificent so far as scenery is con
cerned, but it is full of dangerous rapids, and will
never be of any great commercial value to the
country. The Red River is navigable for steamers
for a distance of six hundred miles. One hundred
and eighty-five miles only of its course lie in
British territory ; the remainder of the distance
it traverses the state of Minnesota. The land it
drains is rich alluvial prairie. At a distance of
forty miles from its mouth it receives the waters
of the Assineboin, a river flowing entirely through
British territory ; it is said to be navigable for
three hundred miles. The two Saskatchewans rise
in the Rocky Mountains about thirty miles apart,
and pursue slightly diverging courses, till they

272 CANADIAN NIGHTS
become separated by a distance of nearly three
hundred miles. They then gradually converge
again until they join together at a distance of
about eight hundred miles from their head-waters,
and then after a united course of nearly three
hundred miles, discharge their mingled waters
into Lake Winnipeg. With the exception of the
last few miles of their course, these rivers are
navigable for steamers, the one — that is, the North
Saskatchewan — for one thousand, and the South
branch for eight hundred miles. Between them,
and on each side of them, lies the fertile belt, a
virgin soil of any depth. No forests encumber
the land. The farmer has but to turn up the soil
lying ready waiting for the seed. It is a mistake to
suppose that all this great Western country is good
land ; that is nonsense. There is good and there
is bad ; but it is true that there is little bad and
much good. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands
of acres of the best land in the world are lying
there idle, waiting for man. From the southern
boundary of the United States to the South
Saskatchewan, there is no such fertile tract as
this. It is like a huge oasis lying between the
parched pastures of the south and the frozen
solitudes of the icy north. Nor is the wheat-

DAYS IN THE WOODS 273
growing country confined to the great tract that
drains into Lake Winnipeg. If anyone will look
at the isothermal line upon a map, he will find
that it takes a tremendous sweep northward a
little to the west of the centre of the continent,
and includes the great Peace River valley, a portion
of the Athabaska district, and of the valley of the
Mackenzie River. The day will come when wheat
will be grown in that country within a very few
degrees of the Arctic Circle. Nature has been
bountiful to these north-western provinces. The
warm breezes from the west waft them prosperity,
but it is their northern position which proves the
only drawback to them. The chief difficulty is a
difficulty of communication. The value of land,
in a country where land is plentiful and cheap,
depends upon the cost of transporting the produce
of the soil to market. The great wheat-producing
region I have described is at present tapped by a
line of railway running south through the United
States. That cannot be called a natural, or
altogether a proper outlet. It is not worth while
anticipating any serious difficulty between the
United States and the British Empire. We may
for practical purposes dismiss that contingency
from our calculations, as one most unlikely to

274 CANADIAN NIGHTS
occur. It is becoming more and more improbable
every year as the two nations learn to understand
and appreciate each other better. But, at the
same time, it is highly inexpedient that the produce
of any portion of the British Empire should, in
seeking its natural market in other portions of the
same Empire, be compelled to pass through the
territories of another nation. When that produce
consists of the first necessary of life, the inex
pediency is increased.
Another line of railway has now been con
structed for the carriage of grain from Manitoba
to the north shore of Lake Superior, whence it can
be transported by ships or barges over the broad
waters of the great lakes, and down the majestic
current of the St. Lawrence to the ocean. But on
this line also there is a difficulty, an obstruction.
The waters of that inland sea, Lake Superior, pour
themselves into Lake Huron in a boiling, tumul
tuous flood down the rapid known as the Sault
St. Mary. This rapid is quite impassable, and
ships go round it through a canal which is in the
State of Michigan. This is a disadvantage to the
route, but not a very great one, for the canal is
only a few miles in length. A convention, I be
lieve, exists between the Canadian and United

DAYS IN THE WOODS 275
States Governments, regulating the rates to be
charged upon it, and, moreover, there is no
engineering difficulty whatever in constructing a
canal on the British side of the river. It is true
that the canal is closed by ice during the winter
months, but free navigation exists during the
greater part of the year, and the St. Lawrence is
also closed during the winter. Anyone looking at
a map of British North America will say at once,
" But neither of these routes is the natural geo
graphical road in and out of this country. The
Hudson's Bay Company long ago discovered and
made use of the proper outlet, and the grain of
thousands and thousands of fertile acres will find
its way to London by the same means, and over
the same roads, as the skins of wild animals have
been brought to that market." I wish I could
think that was true. Then indeed would Manitoba
and the great North-West be the most favoured
country in the world — the earthly paradise of the
agriculturist. Hudson's Bay and the river flowing into it from
Lake Winnipeg form the natural gateway to the
great North-West, and Lake Winnipeg is the
natural centre of distribution and collection for a
large portion of that vast region. But there is an

276 CANADIAN NIGHTS
icy bolt drawn across the door, barring the way.
Lake Winnipeg is a huge lake, an inland sea of
some three hundred miles in length and fifty or
sixty in breadth. It receives the drainage of the
fertile belt through navigable rivers, and it sends
off that drainage towards the North through a
large river — the Nelson — which pours its waters
into Hudson's Bay. The Nelson is, in fact, the
continuation of the Saskatchewan. Lake Winnipeg
is in the very centre of the continent. If ocean
steamers could penetrate to that lake, it would be
like despatching a steamer direct from the port of
London to the grain elevators of Chicago. It
would be even better, for a vessel loading in Lake
Winnipeg could take in her grain at the mouth of
rivers penetrating to the very base of the Rocky
Mountains, navigable for a thousand miles through
the richest land of the continent. Cannot this
magnificent water system be utilised ? I fear not.
There are two obstacles which I am afraid will
prove insurmountable. These are, the navigation
of Hudson's Straits, and the navigation of the
Nelson. Of Hudson's Bay and Straits we can
speak with some confidence, for the Hudson's Bay
Company have for a long period sent two, and
occasionally three, ships every year to their two

DAYS IN THE WOODS 277
principal posts on Hudson's Bay — namely, Moose
Factory, situated at the head of James Bay, the
most southern indentation of Hudson's Bay, and
York Factory, which is placed close to the mouth
of the Nelson River.
Hudson's Bay is open for four or five months
in the year. But Hudson's Straits are not, and
there is little comfort in having open water inside
in the Bay when you cannot reach it, and it is a
poor consolation to know that the warm ocean is
close to you outside when you cannot get out.
There are years in which the straits are not open
for more than two or three weeks. Ships have
occasionally failed to force a passage through the
Straits, and ships have been detained in the Bay
all the summer, unable to work their way out.
The average duration of open navigation of the
Straits is about five or six weeks in the year ; you
cannot depend upon more than that, though they
may be open for nearly as many months. Of
course the substitution of steam vessels for sailing
ships would make considerable difference ; but,
even supposing steamers adapted to the purpose
to be used, it must, I fear, be conceded that the
navigation would be precarious, and the open
season short. Moreover, the navigation is difficult

278 CANADIAN NIGHTS
and peculiar at the best of times, and it is doubtful
whether ordinary steam vessels could be used,
and problematical whether a trade could possibly
be made to pay, requiring especially constructed
ships, which would be idle for eight or ten months
of the year. So much for the Straits — now as to
the rivers.
Formerly the Hudson's Bay Company trans
ported all the peltry — that is, furs and skins —
collected over a vast area, to Lake Winnipeg.
Over that lake it was taken in large boats to
Norway House, at the head of the Nelson, and
down that river to York Factory at the mouth of
it. And all supplies, all the necessaries and all the
luxuries of life, all that white men and Indians
required, were transported up the Nelson to
Norway House, thence carried to various parts
of the lake, and then disseminated through the
land by boats, canoes, and dog sleighs.
Some time ago the Company abandoned the
Nelson, adopted Hayes River, and have used that
route ever since. Hayes River is not an outlet
of Lake Winnipeg. Properly speaking, it is a
small river flowing into Hudson's Bay close to the
mouth of the Nelson. But the name, Hayes
River, is generally given to that series of lakes

DAYS IN THE WOODS 279
and streams which constitutes the route for canoe
and boat navigation between Norway House on
Lake Winnipeg and York Factory on the sea. In
referring to the line of water communication at
present in use between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson's
Bay, I shall therefore call it Hayes River. The
Hudson's Bay Company use large boats capable
of carrying ten tons burden ; so I assume that
Hayes River is the better river of the two, and the
more easily navigated by vessels of any size.
Hayes River has a course of somewhere about three
hundred miles in length. In the course of that three
hundred miles there are twenty or thirty portages.
That is to say, obstructions occur at average inter
vals of ten or fifteen miles, so serious as to necessi
tate the immense labour of dragging over land boats
capable of carrying ten tons, and the merchandise
within them. That does not sound like a water
way that could be navigated by steamers of any
kind — as a matter of fact, Hayes River is a mere
boat route. There remains, then, the great Nelson
River, the outlet of Lake Winnipeg. The Nelson
or Saskatchewan is a first-class river in point of
size and volume of water, but it is not navigable.
Although the average depth of water for about
ninety miles is said to be twenty feet, yet it is

280 CANADIAN NIGHTS
stated that there is only ten feet of water at the
head of the tideway ; a fact which of course
entirely precludes ocean steamers from ascending
the river. For vessels drawing less than ten feet
it is navigable for about a hundred miles ; but at
that distance from the sea there is a rapid or fall
that entirely puts a stop to navigation, and renders
it impossible for vessels of light draught to descend
the river from the lake to the sea.
I do not suppose that either the Nelson or Hayes
River has ever been thoroughly and accurately
surveyed, sounded, or reported on by engineers
with a view to future navigation ; and so wonderful
is the way in which man wars against nature by
means of engineering skill, that I should be sorry
to assert that this route is now, and always will
remain, impracticable. But I know that it presents
great, and I fear it presents insuperable, difficulties.
It is certain that the Nelson, a river which, as far as
the volume of water discharged by it is concerned,
ought to be navigable for large ships, is rendered
useless and impassable by obstructions which
must be of a serious nature, seeing that the
Hudson's Bay Company prefer Hayes River to it.
Hayes River is merely a boat route, and not even
a good one, for it contains, as I have before stated,

DAYS IN THE WOODS 281
twenty or thirty portages in some three hundred
miles. The fact, therefore, that it is better for
large boats than the Nelson, does not lead one to
form a very favourable estimate of the latter river.
Even without this direct communication by sea
with Europe, Manitoba and the western fertile
tract must become one of the most prosperous
regions of the earth ; and I think it affords a
better opening for farming industry at the present
time than any other district on the globe. If this
route proved practicable, the prosperity of the
country would be enormously increased ; and it
is to be sincerely hoped that the sanguine views
of some writers on the subject may not prove
fallacious. But until they are demonstrated to be
correct, it would be unwise to attach too much
importance to them. Disappointed immigrants
form but a dejected and heart-broken population,
and the strength of a young country was never
healthily fostered by delusive hopes, mistaken
statements, or thoughtless exaggeration.
I have alluded to this vast fertile region only in
connection with the advantages it offers to the
grower of wheat, but it must not on that account
be supposed that it is unfitted in any way for the
raising of stock. On the contrary, it is a vast

282 CANADIAN NIGHTS
natural pasture-land — the true home and breeding
ground of the American bison, commonly called
the buffalo. Formerly a vast herd of buffalo,
numbering many millions, wandered through the
continent, their range extending from as high as
6o° north down to the southern parts of Texas.
In winter they moved towards the south, migrating
again northward with summer-time.
This vast herd is now entirely broken up, and
buffalo are disappearing out of the land. All the
Indians on the plains subsist by means of them,
living on their flesh, and making houses of their
skins. Besides the thousands killed by Indians
for food and robes, incredible numbers are slain
every year by white hunters for the hides and
horns. Owing to this indiscriminate slaughter,
and to the fact that their pastures are cut by
railways and intrusive settlements, the herd has
become permanently divided into three. One
band ranges in British territory about the Saskat
chewan, west of Red River settlement ; the second
over the middle western Territories about the
Platte and Republican Rivers ; while the third, or
southern herd, roams through Texas and the
neighbouring States. As these the indigenous
cattle of the country disappear, their place is to a

DAYS IN THE WOODS 283
certain extent taken by the cattle originally im
ported from Europe. The shaggy-headed, short-
horned bison passes from the scene, and with it
the painted whooping savage, naked himself, and
on a naked horse pursuing his natural prey with
bow or spear ; and in their place come herds
of long-horned, savage-tempered, Spanish cattle,
tended and driven by men wild to look at, strange
of speech, and picturesque in garment, but white
men and very different beings from the Indian
hunters that came before them. Though Texas
may be called the home of the Spanish cattle,
and though vast unnumbered herds pasture on
its luxuriant grasses, yet States lying further to
the north are more suitable for cattle-breeding
purposes. A mountainous country, affording, as
it does, shelter in winter and some variety of
temperature, is better adapted for cattle than the
plains, which are either parched by the summer's
sun, or covered with the snows of winter.
On the great plains extending west from Mani
toba to the Rocky Mountains, the snow does not
lie so deep as it does in districts within the same
degrees of latitude, but further to the south, and
consequently that country is well adapted by
nature for stock-raising. But until means of cheap

284 CANADIAN NIGHTS
transportation are provided, it cannot compete
with other and less naturally favoured regions ;
it cannot hope to vie with Colorado, Wyoming, and
the other States and Territories that include the
foot-hills and fertile plains, packs, and valleys
that lie within the eastern ranges of the Rocky
Mountains. So, while the Indians slept, I strayed in thought
over hunting-grounds of the past, and marvelled
at the changes that had taken place and the greater
changes yet to come, till my musings were inter
rupted by old John, who awoke, sat up, shook his
long hair out of his eyes, pulled his old black clay
pipe out of his belt, placed a glowing ember in the
bowl, and commenced smoking, with that ex
pressive sound, half sigh, half suck, that tells of
perfect satisfaction. " Why, old man, what is
the matter," I said ; " have you been dreaming ? "
" Yes, sir, I dreamed very hard, very hard indeed,
very good dream too ; see moose soon, I know —
big one too. I see a big ship, with a big hull all
black, oh black as pitch. I had a job to get on
board, but I did get on board. It is all right,
you'll get one pretty soon. My shoulders and
legs ache awful bad too, sir. I shall be carrying
a heavy load of meat soon, I know." It is a

DAYS IN THE WOODS 285
curious fact that the strange conceit in " Alice
through the Looking-glass," where effects are
made to precede their causes, and the Queen cries
before she has pricked her finger, is actually be
lieved in and recognised as a law of nature by many
people. Indians and half-breeds are usually very
shy of mentioning their superstitions, for they
hate ridicule. If they do speak of them, they
affect to laugh at them themselves. Time and
again I have heard Indians declare as a joke that
they could feel the muscles of their backs ache
where the withy rope cuts into them by which
they carry a load of moose meat, and declare that
it was a sure sign that a moose was shortly to die.
But though they affected to laugh, they in their
hearts believed thoroughly all they said.
" Well, John," I said, " I hope your dream will
come true ; but, talking of dreams, what was that
story you began to tell me the other day about
the bullets ? "
" Oh yes, sir, that was a very curious dream,
that was ; many gentlemen won't believe that
story, but it's true though. I was hunting with a
gentleman long ago — in the winter time it was —
and as we left the camp after breakfast, he laughed,
and asked me what kind of dreams I had in the

286 CANADIAN NIGHTS
night. He wanted to know whether we should
have any luck, you know, sir. He was a very
funny gentleman ; he used always to tell the cook
at night, c You give John plenty fat pork for
supper, make him dream good.' Well, sir, I told
him I had a very curious dream. I thought he
fired both barrels at a cariboo, and that I caught
both the bullets in my hand and gave them to
him. Well, he laughed at that, and said it could
not be true, and that I could not dream good
anyhow. But I thought to myself, we'll see.
So we hunted all day, and in the afternoon came
upon a large herd of cariboo out on a lake. We
crept up behind some little bushes to within sixty
or eighty yards, and then I told the gentleman to
put on a fresh cap— it was in the old days of
muzzle loaders, you know, sir — and shoot, for I
could not get him any nearer. Well, sir, he took
a long aim, and fired. The cariboos were all lying
down on the ice, you know, sir, and they just
jumped up and stood all bunched up together,
looking about them. ' Fire again, sir,' I said, and
he took another steady aim, and fired. Nothing
hit, nothing down, away the cariboo went, tails up,
not a sign of a wounded one among them. Every
now and then they would stop and turn round to

DAYS IN THE WOODS 287
see what had scared them, and then off again in
a minute. Oh ! we might have got plenty more
shots, if we had had a rifle like what you have now,
sir, but it took some time to load a rifle in those
days, especially in winter time, when a man can
scarcely take his fingers out of his mits — and so
they got clean away. The gentleman was terribly
mad, threw his rifle down, and swore he would
never use it again. It seemed to me the shots
sounded kind of curious somehow, and I thought
I would just go and see where the bullets went to.
I had not gone twenty yards, when I found the
place where one of them had struck the snow.
A little further on I found where it had struck
again, and then where it had struck a third time
a little further on still. And so it went on hopping
in the snow, the jumps getting shorter and shorter
each time, and the trail circling round as it went,
till finally the track ran along in the snow for
a few feet and stopped. And there I found the
bullet, picked it up, and put it in my pocket. Well,
having got one, I thought I would go and trail the
other bullet : I soon found where that had struck.
It acted just like the first one, and I picked it up
also. So I went back to the gentleman, and as he
was loading the gun, I said, kind of indifferent like,

288 CANADIAN NIGHTS
' Just see if those bullets fit your gun, Captain.'
' Yes, John,' he says, ' and suppose they do, what
of that ? ' ' Why, Captain,' says I, ' those are
your bullets, and I picked them up. Now what
do you say about my dream ? ' Well, he would
not believe me until I showed him the marks in
the snow, and he found that the bullets fitted his
rifle exactly, and then he had to. Lord, sir, I
have heard him tell that story scores of times, and
he would get quite angry when people would not
believe it."
So we talked and yarned till I grew sleepy and
dozed off, somewhat against my will, for the nights
are too lovely to waste in sleep. Nothing can
exceed the beauty of these northern nights, a
beauty so calm, grand, majestic, almost awful in
its majesty, that there exists not a man, I believe,
on the face of this earth with a spirit so dulled,
or a mind so harassed, that he could withstand
its peace-giving power. By day his troubles may
be too heavy for him, but the night is more potent
than any drug, than any excitement, to steep the
soul in forgetfulness. You cannot " bind the
sweet influence of the Pleiades," nor resist the
soothing touch of mother Nature, when she reveals
herself in the calm watches of the night, and her

DAYS IN THE WOODS 289
presence filters through all the worldly coverings
of care, down to the naked soul of man. It is a
wonderful and strange experience to lie out under
the stars in the solemn, silent darkness of the
forest, to watch the constellations rise and set,
to lie there gazing up through the branches of
the grand old trees, which have seen another race
dwell beneath their boughs and pass away, whose
age makes the little fretful life of man seem in
significantly small ; gazing up at planet after
planet, sun beyond sun, into the profundity of
space, till this tiny speck in the universe, this
little earth, with all its discontent and discord,
its wrangling races, its murmuring millions of
men, dwindles into nothing, and the mind looks
out so far beyond, that it falls back stunned
with the vastness of the vision which looms
overwhelmingly before it.
The earth sleeps. A silence that can be felt
has fallen over the woods. The stars begin to
fade. A softer and stronger light wells up and
flows over the scene as the broad moon slowly
floats above the tree-tops, shining white upon the
birch trees, throwing into black shadow the sombre
pines, dimly lighting up the barren, and revealing
grotesque ghost-like forms of stunted fir and grey

290 CANADIAN NIGHTS
rock. The tree trunks stand out distinct in the
lessening gloom ; the dark pine boughs overhead
seem to stoop caressingly towards you. Amid a
stillness that is terrifying, man is not afraid.
Surrounded by a majesty that is appalling, he
shrinks not, nor is he dismayed. In a scene of
utter loneliness he feels himself not to be alone.
A sense of companionship, a sensation of satis
faction, creep over him. He feels at one with
Nature, at rest in her strong protecting arms.
As soon as the moon was high enough to shed
a good light, Noel and I walked down to a little
point of woods jutting out into the barren to call.
Putting the birch-bark caller to his lips, Noel
imitated the long-drawn, wailing cry of the moose,
and then we sat down wrapped in our blankets,
patiently to listen and to wait. No answer, per
fect stillness prevailed. Presently, with a strange,
rapidly approaching rush, a gang of wild geese
passed, clanging overhead, their strong pinions
whirring in the still air. After pausing about
half an hour Noel called again, and this time we
heard a faint sound that made our hearts jump.
We listened intently and heard it again. It was
only an owl a long way off calling to its mate in
the woods. After a while we heard a loon's

DAYS IN THE WOODS 291
melancholy quavering scream on the lake, taken
up by two or three other loons. " Something
frightens the loons," whispers Noel to me.
" Mebbe moose coming. I will try another call ; "
and again the cry of the moose rolled across the
barren, and echoed back from the opposite wood.
" Hark ! " says Noel, " what's that ? I hear him
right across the wood there," and in truth we
could just make out the faint call of a bull moose
miles away. The sound got rapidly nearer, he
was coming up quickly, when we heard a second
moose advancing to meet him. They answered
each other for a little while, and then they ceased
speaking, and the forest relapsed into silence, so
death-like that it was hard to believe that it ever
had been or could be broken by any living thing.
Nothing more was heard for a long time ; not a
sound vibrated through the frosty stillness of the
air, till suddenly it was rudely broken by a crash
like a dead tree falling in the forest, followed
by a tremendous racket — sticks cracking, hoofs
pawing the ground, horns thrashing against
bushes. There the moose fought at intervals for about
two hours, when the noise ceased as suddenly as
it began, and after a pause we heard one bull
T 2

292 CANADIAN NIGHTS
coming straight across the barren to us, speaking
as he came along.
The moose arrived within about fifty or sixty
yards of us. We could dimly see him in the dark
shadow of an island of trees. In another second
he would have been out in the moonlight if we
had left him alone, but Noel, in his anxiety to
bring him up, called like a bull, and the moose,
who had probably had enough of fighting for one
night, turned right round and went back again
across the barren. We did not try any more
calling, but made up our fire and lay down till
daylight. The next night, or rather on the morning after,
we called up two moose after sunrise, but failed
from various causes in getting a shot, but on the
day succeeding that I killed a very large bull.
We had called without any answer all night, and
were going home to the principal camp about
ten in the day, when we heard a cow call. It was
a dead calm, and the woods were very noisy, dry
as tinder, and strewn with crisp, dead leaves, but
we determined to try and creep up to her. I will
not attempt to describe how we crept up pretty
near, and waited, and listened patiently for hours,
till we heard her again, and fixed the exact spot

DAYS IN THE WOODS 293
where she was : how we crept and crawled, inch
by inch, through bushes, and over dry leaves and
brittle sticks, till we got within sight and easy
shot of three moose — a big bull, a cow, and a
two-year-old. Suffice it to say, that the big bull
died ; he paid the penalty. Female loquacity cost
him his life. If his lovely but injudicious com
panion could have controlled her feminine dis
position to talk, that family of moose would still
have been roaming the woods, happy and united.
" There are still many things which I should like
to have told you," said Willie, " if there had been
time ; but by the smell of the air this spell will have
broken before morning, and we shan't have another
night of yarning. I should like to have given you
one run with buffalo on the plains, and told you of
a successful stalk up in the Colorado mountains
that brought me the finest known specimen of the
mountain sheep, and showed me grizzlies feeding
on heaps of locusts just under the snow line. I wish
I could have described a mountain lion which I
once saw in the middle of a warm summer's night
in Estes Park, when I was lying awake in bed, and
which I pursued some distance in the costume
peculiar to that part of the four-and-twenty hours

294 CANADIAN NIGHTS
usually devoted to sleep. I might have carried
you with me to Newfoundland, to stalk cariboo
on the great barrens, and taken you on snow-shoes
in the winter to track moose upon the hardwood
ridges, when the forest is more glorious perhaps
even than in the fall. I could have shown you
glimpses of primitive life among the French-
speaking c habitants ' of Lower Quebec and the
simple Celtic, Gaelic-speaking population of eastern
Nova Scotia, and given you a peep into lumber
camps and birch-bark wigwams, and talked much
to you about Indians — that strange race, which,
even when it shall have entirely disappeared, will
have left an enduring mark behind it. Civilised
nations have passed and left no sign ; but the
Indian will be remembered by two things at
least — the birch-bark canoe, which no production
of the white man can equal for strength, lightness,
gracefulness, sea-going qualities, and carrying
capacity, and the snow-shoe, which appears to be
perfect in its form and, like a violin, incapable of
development or improvement. There are three
inventions which the ingenuity of man seems to
be unable to improve upon, and two of them are
the works of savages. They are the violin, snow-
shoes, and birch-bark canoes."

DAYS IN THE WOODS 295
Somewhere about four o'clock in the morning
after the last night I awoke and found that Willie
Whisper had made up the fire, and was packing
his few belongings in his blanket.
" Why, Willie," said I, " what is the matter ?
What are you doing ? "
" What am I doing ! Why, going to make a
start as soon as I have made some tea, and if you
take my advice you will do the same. It rained
heavily all the early part of the night away back.
It will be raining here pretty soon. Put your head
out and you will smell it, and see the moon riding
through a southerly scud. The ice is not thick.
It will break up quickly under the press of water
that is coming down. There's going to be a
strong thaw but a very short one, and the next
frost means a freeze up for the winter. I have to
hustle to get out to settlements for a few neces
saries, and back into the woods before all the
waterways are closed, and you have no time to
lose if you want to make your winter camp by

canoe."

Willie was right. As he finished speaking a few
drops of rain fell spluttering into the fire, and I
found heavy masses of low flying clouds from the
South- West drifting across the setting moon.

296 CANADIAN NIGHTS
The air was soft and warm, redolent of resinous
pines and clean wet earth. There was no doubt
about the thaw. Going down to the water's edge
I found a rise of several feet, a strong current
rushing out, and the thin ice all breaking away.
So I roused up Noel, made up our packs, brewed
some strong tea, said good-bye to the newcomers,
who seemed disinclined to exchange shelter for
torrential rain, and plunged into the dawn to
launch our dug-out and pole up against the stream.
Willie Whisper came down with us to the water's
edge. " God be with you," he said, as he wrung
my hand, " surely we shall meet again sometime,
somewhere. Perhaps in the flesh — I don't know.
I think not, but who can tell ? So long ! "
I never did meet him again, though after some
years I did once again taste the freedom of my
well-beloved woods. I heard that he had died
as he had lived, in the deep woods, alone among
the trees.

NOTE
The substance of these Sketches first appeared in the pages
of the " Nineteenth Century," to the Editor of which
the Author is indebted for permission to republish them.

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