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diff --git a/6355.txt b/6355.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fad0970 --- /dev/null +++ b/6355.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6525 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Locusts and Wild Honey, by John Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Locusts and Wild Honey + +Author: John Burroughs + +Release Date: November 14, 2006 [EBook #6355] +[First posted on November 29, 2002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY *** + + + + +This etext was produced by Jack Eden <jackeden@yahoo.com> + + + + + + + + +THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BURROUGHS +WITH PORTRAITS AND MANY ILLUSTRATIONS + + +VOLUME IV + +LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY + + +PREFACE + +I am aware that for the most part the title of my book is an allegory +rather than an actual description; but readers who have followed me +heretofore, I trust, will not be puzzled or misled in the present case +by any want of literalness in the matter of the title. If the name +carries with it a suggestion of the wild and delectable in nature, of +the free and ungarnered harvests which the wilderness everywhere +affords to the observing eye and ear, it will prove sufficiently +explicit for my purpose. + +ESOPUS-ON-HUDSON, N. Y. + + + CONTENTS + I. THE PASTORAL BEES + II. SHARP EYES + III. STRAWBERRIES + IV. IS IT GOING TO RAIN? + V. SPECKLED TROUT + VI. BIRDS AND BIRDS + VII. A BED OF BOUGHS + VIII. BIRDS'-NESTING + IX. THE HALCYON IN CANADA + INDEX + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + JOHN BURROUGHS + From a photograph + WHIP-POOR WILL + From a drawing by L. A. Fuertes + TROUT STREAM + From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason + YELLOW BIRCHES + From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason + LEDGES + From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason + KINGFISHER (colored) + From a drawing by L. A. Fuertes + + + + + +LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY + + + +I + +THE PASTORAL BEES + + +The honey-bee goes forth from the hive in spring like the dove from +Noah's ark, and it is not till after many days that she brings back the +olive leaf, which in this case is a pellet of golden pollen upon each +hip, usually obtained from the alder or the swamp willow. In a country +where maple sugar is made the bees get their first taste of sweet from +the sap as it flows from the spiles, or as it dries and is condensed +upon the sides of the buckets. They will sometimes, in their eagerness, +come about the boiling-place and be overwhelmed by the steam and the +smoke. But bees appear to be more eager for bread in the spring than +for honey: their supply of this article, perhaps, does not keep as well +as their stores of the latter; hence fresh bread, in the shape of new +pollen, is diligently sought for. My bees get their first supplies from +the catkins of the willows. How quickly they find them out! If but one +catkin opens anywhere within range, a bee is on hand that very hour to +rifle it, and it is a most pleasing experience to stand near the hive +some mild April day and see them come pouring in with their little +baskets packed with this first fruitage of the spring. They will have +new bread now; they have been to mill in good earnest; see their dusty +coats, and the golden grist they bring home with them. + +When a bee brings pollen into the hive he advances to the cell in which +it is to be deposited and kicks it off, as one might his overalls or +rubber boots, making one foot help the other; then he walks off without +ever looking behind him; another bee, one of the indoor hands, comes +along and rams it down with his head and packs it into the cell, as the +dairymaid packs butter into a firkin with a ladle. + +The first spring wild-flowers, whose sly faces among the dry leaves and +rocks are so welcome, are rarely frequented by the bee. The anemone, +the hepatica, the bloodroot, the arbutus, the numerous violets, the +spring beauty, the corydalis, etc., woo all lovers of nature, but +seldom woo the honey-loving bee. The arbutus, lying low and keeping +green all winter, attains to perfume and honey, but only once have I +seen it frequented by bees. + +The first honey is perhaps obtained from the flowers of the red maple +and the golden willow. The latter sends forth a wild, delicious +perfume. The sugar maple blooms a little later, and from its silken +tassels a rich nectar is gathered. My bees will not label these +different varieties for me, as I really wish they would. Honey from the +maple, a tree so clean and wholesome, and full of such virtues every +way, would be something to put one's tongue to. Or that from the +blossoms of the apple, the peach, the cherry, the quince, the +currant,--one would like a card of each of these varieties to note +their peculiar qualities. The apple-blossom is very important to the +bees. A single swarm has been known to gain twenty pounds in weight +during its continuance. Bees love the ripened fruit, too, and in +August and September will such themselves tipsy upon varieties such +as the sops-of-wine. + +The interval between the blooming of the fruit-trees and that of the +clover and the raspberry is bridged over in many localities by the +honey locust. What a delightful summer murmur these trees send forth at +this season! I know nothing about the quality of the honey, but it +ought to keep well. But when the red raspberry blooms, the fountains of +plenty are unsealed indeed; what a commotion about the hives then, +especially in localities where it is extensively cultivated, as in +places along the Hudson! The delicate white clover, which begins to +bloom about the same time, is neglected; even honey itself is passed by +for this modest, colorless, all but odorless flower. A field of these +berries in June sends forth a continuous murmur like that of an +enormous hive. The honey is not so white as that obtained from clover, +but it is easier gathered; it is in shallow cups, while that of the +clover is in deep tubes. The bees are up and at it before sunrise, and +it takes a brisk shower to drive them in. But the clover blooms later +and blooms everywhere, and is the staple source of supply of the finest +quality of honey. The red clover yields up its stores only to the +longer proboscis of the bumblebee, else the bee pasturage of our +agricultural districts would be unequaled. I do not know from what the +famous honey of Chamouni in the Alps is made, but it can hardly surpass +our best products. The snow-white honey of Anatolia in Asiatic Turkey, +which is regularly sent to Constantinople for the use of the grand +seignior and the ladies of his seraglio, is obtained from the cotton +plant, which makes me think that the white clover does not flourish +there. The white clover is indigenous with us; its seeds seem latent in +the ground, and the application of certain stimulants to the soil, such +as wood ashes, causes them to germinate and spring up. + +The rose, with all its beauty and perfume, yields no honey to the bee, +unless the wild species be sought by the bumblebee. + +Among the humbler plants let me not forget the dandelion that so early +dots the sunny slopes, and upon which the bee languidly grazes, +wallowing to his knees in the golden but not over-succulent pasturage. +From the blooming rye and wheat the bee gathers pollen, also from the +obscure blossoms of Indian corn. Among weeds, catnip is the great +favorite. It lasts nearly the whole season and yields richly. It could +no doubt be profitably cultivated in some localities, and catnip honey +would be a novelty in the market. It would probably partake of the +aromatic properties of the plant from which it was derived. + +Among your stores of honey gathered before midsummer you may chance +upon a card, or mayhap only a square inch or two of comb, in which the +liquid is as transparent as water, of a delicious quality, with a +slight flavor of mint. This is the product of the linden or basswood, +of all the trees in our forest the one most beloved by the bees. +Melissa, the goddess of honey, has placed her seal upon this tree. The +wild swarms in the woods frequently reap a choice harvest from it. I +have seen a mountain-side thickly studded with it, its straight, tall, +smooth, light gray shaft carrying its deep green crown far aloft, like +the tulip-tree or the maple. + +In some of the Northwestern States there are large forests of it, and +the amount of honey reported stored by strong swarms in this section +during the time the tree is in bloom is quite incredible. As a shade +and ornamental tree the linden is fully equal to the maple, and, if it +were as extensively planted and cared for, our supplies of virgin honey +would be greatly increased. The famous honey of Lithuania in Russia is +the product of the linden. + +It is a homely old stanza current among bee folk that + + "A swarm of bees in May + Is worth a load of hay; + A swarm of bees in June + Is worth a silver spoon; + But a swarm in July + Is not worth a fly." + +A swarm in May is indeed a treasure; it is, like an April baby, sure to +thrive, and will very likely itself send out a swarm a month or two +later: but a swarm in July is not to be despised; it will store no +clover or linden honey for the "grand seignior and the ladies of his +seraglio," but plenty of the rank and wholesome poor man's nectar, the +sun-tanned product of the plebeian buckwheat. Buckwheat honey is the +black sheep in this white flock, but there is spirit and character in +it. It lays hold of the taste in no equivocal manner, especially when +at a winter breakfast it meets its fellow, the russet buckwheat cake. +Bread with honey to cover it from the same stalk is double good +fortune. It is not black, either, but nut-brown, and belongs to the +same class of goods as Herrick's + + "Nut-brown mirth and russet wit." + +How the bees love it, and they bring the delicious odor of the blooming +plant to the hive with them, so that in the moist warm twilight the +apiary is redolent with the perfume of buckwheat. + +Yet evidently it is not the perfume of any flower that attracts the +bees; they pay no attention to the sweet-scented lilac, or to +heliotrope, but work upon sumach, silkweed, and the hateful snapdragon. +In September they are hard pressed, and do well if they pick up enough +sweet to pay the running expenses of their establishment. The purple +asters and the goldenrod are about all that remain to them. + +Bees will go three or four miles in quest of honey, but it is a great +advantage to move the hive near the good pasturage, as has been the +custom from the earliest times in the Old World. Some enterprising +person, taking a hint perhaps from the ancient Egyptians, who had +floating apiaries on the Nile, has tried the experiment of floating +several hundred colonies north on the Mississippi, starting from New +Orleans and following the opening season up, thus realizing a sort of +perpetual May or June, the chief attraction being the blossoms of the +river willow, which yield honey of rare excellence. Some of the bees +were no doubt left behind, but the amount of virgin honey secured must +have been very great. In September they should have begun the return +trip, following the retreating summer south. + +It is the making of wax that costs with the bee. As with the poet, the +form, the receptacle, gives him more trouble than the sweet that fills +it, though, to be sure, there is always more or less empty comb in both +cases. The honey he can have for the gathering, but the wax he must +make himself,--must evolve from his own inner consciousness. When wax +is to be made, the wax-makers fill themselves with honey and retire +into their chamber for private meditation; it is like some solemn +religious rite: they take hold of hands, or hook themselves together in +long lines that hang in festoons from the top of the hive, and wait for +the miracle to transpire. After about twenty-four hours their patience +is rewarded, the honey is turned into wax, minute scales of which are +secreted from between the rings of the abdomen of each bee; this is +taken off and from it the comb is built up. It is calculated that about +twenty-five pounds of honey are used in elaborating one pound of comb, +to say nothing of the time that is lost. Hence the importance, in an +economical point of view, of a recent device by which the honey is +extracted and the comb returned intact to the bees. But honey without +the comb is the perfume without the rose,--it is sweet merely, and soon +degenerates into candy. Half the delectableness is in breaking down +these frail and exquisite walls yourself, and tasting the nectar before +it has lost its freshness by contact with the air. Then the comb is a +sort of shield or foil that prevents the tongue from being overwhelmed +by the first shock of the sweet. + +The drones have the least enviable time of it. Their foothold in the +hive is very precarious. They look like the giants, the lords of the +swarm, but they are really the tools. Their loud, threatening hum has +no sting to back it up, and their size and noise make them only the +more conspicuous marks for the birds. They are all candidates for the +favors of the queen, a fatal felicity that is vouchsafed to but one. +Fatal, I say, for it is a singular fact in the history of bees that the +fecundation of the queen costs the male his life. Yet day after day the +drones go forth, threading the mazes of the air in hopes of meeting her +whom to meet is death. The queen only leaves the hive once, except when +she leads away the swarm, and as she makes no appointment with the +male, but wanders here and there, drones enough are provided to meet +all the contingencies of the case. + +One advantage, at least, results from this system of things: there is +no incontinence among the males in this republic! + +Toward the close of the season, say in July or August, the fiat goes +forth that the drones must die; there is no further use for them. Then +the poor creatures, how they are huddled and hustled about, trying to +hide in corners and byways! There is no loud, defiant humming now, but +abject fear seizes them. They cower like hunted criminals. I have seen +a dozen or more of them wedge themselves into a small space between the +glass and the comb, where the bees could not get hold of them, or where +they seemed to be overlooked in the general slaughter. They will also +crawl outside and hide under the edges of the hive. But sooner or later +they are all killed or kicked out. The drone makes no resistance, +except to pull back and try to get away; but (putting yourself in his +place) with one bee a-hold of your collar or the hair of your head, and +another a-hold of each arm or leg, and still another feeling for your +waistbands with his sting, the odds are greatly against you. + +It is a singular fact, also, that the queen is made, not born. If the +entire population of Spain or Great Britain were the offspring of one +mother, it might be found necessary to hit upon some device by which a +royal baby could be manufactured out of an ordinary one, or else give +up the fashion of royalty. All the bees in the hive have a common +parentage, and the queen and the worker are the same in the egg and in +the chick; the patent of royalty is in the cell and in the food; the +cell being much larger, and the food a peculiar stimulating kind of +jelly. In certain contingencies, such as the loss of the queen with no +eggs in the royal cells, the workers take the larva of an ordinary bee, +enlarge the cell by taking in the two adjoining ones, and nurse it and +stuff it and coddle it, till at the end of sixteen days it comes out a +queen. But ordinarily, in the natural course of events, the young queen +is kept a prisoner in her cell till the old queen has left with the +swarm. Later on, the unhatched queen is guarded against the reigning +queen, who only wants an opportunity to murder every royal scion in the +hive. At this time both the queens, the one a prisoner and the other at +large, pipe defiance at each other, a shrill, fine, trumpet-like note +that any ear will at once recognize. This challenge, not being allowed +to be accepted by either party, is followed, in a day or two, by the +abdication of the reigning queen; she leads out the swarm, and her +successor is liberated by her keepers, who, in her time, abdicates in +favor of the next younger. When the bees have decided that no more +swarms can issue, the reigning queen is allowed to use her stiletto +upon her unhatched sisters. Cases have been known where two queens +issued at the same time, when a mortal combat ensued, encouraged by the +workers, who formed a ring about them, but showed no preference, and +recognized the victor as the lawful sovereign. For these and many other +curious facts we are indebted to the blind Huber. + +It is worthy of note that the position of the queen cells is always +vertical, while that of the drones and workers is horizontal; majesty +stands on its head, which fact may be a part of the secret. + +The notion has always very generally prevailed that the queen of the +bees is an absolute ruler, and issues her royal orders to willing +subjects. Hence Napoleon the First sprinkled the symbolic bees over the +imperial mantle that bore the arms of his dynasty; and in the country +of the Pharaohs the bee was used as the emblem of a people sweetly +submissive to the orders of its king. But the fact is, a swarm of bees +is an absolute democracy, and kings and despots can find no warrant in +their example. The power and authority are entirely vested in the great +mass, the workers. They furnish all the brains and foresight of the +colony, and administer its affairs. Their word is law, and both king +and queen must obey. They regulate the swarming, and give the signal +for the swarm to issue from the hive; they select and make ready the +tree in the woods and conduct the queen to it. + +The peculiar office and sacredness of the queen consists in the fact +that she is the mother of the swarm, and the bees love and cherish her +as a mother and not as a sovereign. She is the sole female bee in the +hive, and the swarm clings to her because she is their life. Deprived +of their queen, and of all brood from which to rear one, the swarm +loses all heart and soon dies, though there be an abundance of honey in +the hive. + +The common bees will never use their sting upon the queen; if she is to +be disposed of, they starve her to death; and the queen herself will +sting nothing but royalty,--nothing but a rival queen. + +The queen, I say, is the mother bee; it is undoubtedly complimenting +her to call her a queen and invest her with regal authority, yet she is +a superb creature, and looks every inch a queen. It is an event to +distinguish her amid the mass of bees when the swarm alights; it +awakens a thrill Before you have seen a queen, you wonder if this or +that bee, which seems a little larger than its fellows, is not she, +but when you once really set eyes upon her you do not doubt for a +moment. You know _that_ is the queen. That long, elegant, shining, +feminine-looking creature can be none less than royalty. How +beautifully her body tapers, how distinguished she looks, how +deliberate her movements! The bees do not fall down before her, but +caress her and touch her person. The drones, or males, are large +bees, too, but coarse, blunt, broad-shouldered, masculine-looking. +There is but one fact or incident in the life of the queen that looks +imperial and authoritative: Huber relates that when the old queen +is restrained in her movements by the workers, and prevented from +destroying the young queens in their cells, she assumes a peculiar +attitude and utters a note that strikes every bee motionless and +makes every head bow; while this sound lasts, not a bee stirs, but +all look abashed and humbled: yet whether the emotion is one of fear, +or reverence, or of sympathy with the distress of the queen mother, +is hard to determine. The moment it ceases and she advances again +toward the royal cells, the bees bite and pull and insult her as +before. + +I always feel that I have missed some good fortune if I am away from +home when my bees swarm. What a delightful summer sound it is! how they +come pouring out of the hive, twenty or thirty thousand bees, each +striving to get out first! It is as when the dam gives way and lets the +waters loose; it is a flood of bees which breaks upward into the air, +and becomes a maze of whirling black lines to the eye, and a soft +chorus of myriad musical sounds to the ear. This way and that way they +drift, now contracting, now expanding, rising, sinking, growing thick +about some branch or bush, then dispersing and massing at some other +point, till finally they begin to alight in earnest, when in a few +moments the whole swarm is collected upon the branch, forming a bunch +perhaps as large as a two-gallon measure. Here they will hang from one +to three or four hours or until a suitable tree in the woods is looked +up, when, if they have not been offered a hive in the mean time, they +are up and off. In hiving them, if any accident happens to the queen +the enterprise miscarries at once. One day I shook a swarm from a small +pear-tree into a tin pan, set the pan down on a shawl spread beneath +the tree, and put the hive over it. The bees presently all crawled up +into it, and all seemed to go well for ten or fifteen minutes, when I +observed that something was wrong; the bees began to buzz excitedly and +to rush about in a bewildered manner, then they took to the wing and +all returned to the parent stock. On lifting up the pan, I found +beneath it the queen with three or four other bees. She had been one of +the first to fall, had missed the pan in her descent, and I had set it +upon her. I conveyed her tenderly back to the hive, but either the +accident terminated fatally with her, or else the young queen had been +liberated in the interim, and one of them had fallen in combat, for it +was ten days before the swarm issued a second time. + +No one, to my knowledge, has ever seen the bees house-hunting in the +woods. Yet there can be no doubt that they look up new quarters either +before or on the day the swarm issues. For all bees are wild bees and +incapable of domestication; that is, the instinct to go back to nature +and take up again their wild abodes in the trees is never eradicated. +Years upon years of life in the apiary seem to have no appreciable +effect towards their final, permanent domestication. That every new +swarm contemplates migrating to the woods, seems confirmed by the fact +that they will only come out when the weather is favorable to such an +enterprise, and that a passing cloud, or a sudden wind, after the bees +are in the air, will usually drive them back into the parent hive. Or +an attack upon them with sand or gravel, or loose earth or water, will +quickly cause them to change their plans. I would not even say but +that, when the bees are going off, the apparently absurd practice, now +entirely discredited by regular bee keepers but still resorted to by +unscientific folk, of beating upon tin pans, blowing horns, and +creating an uproar generally, might not be without good results. +Certainly not by drowning the "orders" of the queen, but by impressing +the bees, as with some unusual commotion in nature. Bees are easily +alarmed and disconcerted, and I have known runaway swarms to be brought +down by a farmer plowing in the field who showered them with handfuls +of loose soil. + +I love to see a swarm go off--if it is not mine, and, if mine must go, +I want to be on hand to see the fun. It is a return to first principles +again by a very direct route. The past season I witnessed two such +escapes. One swarm had come out the day before, and, without alighting, +had returned to the parent hive,--some hitch in the plan, perhaps, or +may be the queen had found her wings too weak. The next day they came +out again and were hived. But something offended them, or else the tree +in the woods--perhaps some royal old maple or birch, holding its head +high above all others, with snug, spacious, irregular chambers and +galleries--had too many attractions; for they were presently discovered +filling the air over the garden, and whirling excitedly around. +Gradually they began to drift over the street; a moment more, and they +had become separated from the other bees, and, drawing together in a +more compact mass or cloud, away they went, a humming, flying vortex of +bees, the queen in the centre, and the swarm revolving around her as a +pivot,--over meadows, across creeks and swamps, straight for the heart +of the mountain, about a mile distant,--slow at first, so that the +youth who gave chase kept up with them, but increasing their speed till +only a foxhound could have kept them in sight. I saw their pursuer +laboring up the side of the mountain; saw his white shirtsleeves gleam +as he entered the woods; but he returned a few hours afterward without +any clue as to the particular tree in which they had taken refuge out +of the ten thousand that covered the side of the mountain. + +The other swarm came out about one o'clock of a hot July day, and at +once showed symptoms that alarmed the keeper, who, however, threw +neither dirt nor water. The house was situated on a steep side-hill. +Behind it the ground rose, for a hundred rods or so, at an angle of +nearly forty-five degrees, and the prospect of having to chase them up +this hill, if chase them we should, promised a good trial of wind at +least; for it soon became evident that their course lay in this +direction. Determined to have a hand, or rather a foot, in the chase, I +threw off my coat and hurried on, before the swarm was yet fairly +organized and under way. The route soon led me into a field of standing +rye, every spear of which held its head above my own. Plunging +recklessly forward, my course marked to those watching from below by +the agitated and wriggling grain, I emerged from the miniature forest +just in time to see the runaways disappearing over the top of the hill, +some fifty rods in advance of me. Lining them as well as I could, I +soon reached the hilltop, my breath utterly gone and the perspiration +streaming from every pore of my skin. On the other side the country +opened deep and wide. A large valley swept around to the north, heavily +wooded at its head and on its sides. It became evident at once that the +bees had made good their escape, and that whether they had stopped on +one side of the valley or the other, or had indeed cleared the opposite +mountain and gone into some unknown forest beyond, was entirely +problematical. I turned back, therefore, thinking of the honey-laden +tree that some of these forests would hold before the falling of the +leaf. + +I heard of a youth in the neighborhood more lucky than myself on a like +occasion. It seems that he had got well in advance of the swarm, whose +route lay over a hill, as in my case, and as he neared the summit, hat +in hand, the bees had just come up and were all about him. Presently he +noticed them hovering about his straw hat, and alighting on his arm; +and in almost as brief a time as it takes to relate it, the whole swarm +had followed the queen into his hat. Being near a stone wall, he coolly +deposited his prize upon it, quickly disengaged himself from the +accommodating bees, and returned for a hive. The explanation of this +singular circumstance no doubt is, that the queen, unused to such long +and heavy flights, was obliged to alight from very exhaustion. It is +not very unusual for swarms to be thus found in remote fields, +collected upon a bush or branch of a tree. + +When a swarm migrates to the woods in this manner, the individual bees, +as I have intimated, do not move in right lines or straight forward, +like a flock of birds, but round and round, like chaff in a whirlwind. +Unitedly they form a humming, revolving, nebulous mass, ten or fifteen +feet across, which keeps just high enough to clear all obstacles, +except in crossing deep valleys, when, of course, it may be very high. +The swarm seems to be guided by a line of couriers, which may be seen +(at least at the outset) constantly going and coming. As they take a +direct course, there is always some chance of following them to the +tree, unless they go a long distance, and some obstruction, like a wood +or a swamp or a high hill, intervenes,--enough chance, at any rate, to +stimulate the lookers-on to give vigorous chase as long as their wind +holds out. If the bees are successfully followed to their retreat, two +plans are feasible,--either to fell the tree at once, and seek to hive +them, perhaps bring them home in the section of the tree that contains +the cavity; or to leave the tree till fall, then invite your neighbors +and go and cut it, and see the ground flow with honey. The former +course is more business-like; but the latter is the one usually +recommended by one's friends and neighbors. + +Perhaps nearly one third of all the runaway swarms leave when no one is +about, and hence are unseen and unheard, save, perchance, by some +distant laborers in the field, or by some youth plowing on the side of +the mountain, who hears an unusual humming noise, and sees the swarm +dimly whirling by overhead, and, maybe, gives chase; or he may simply +catch the sound, when he pauses, looks quickly around, but sees +nothing. When he comes in at night he tells how he heard or saw a swarm +of bees go over; and perhaps from beneath one of the hives in the +garden a black mass of bees has disappeared during the day. + +They are not partial as to the kind of tree,--pine, hemlock, elm, +birch, maple, hickory,--any tree with a good cavity high up or low +down. A swarm of mine ran away from the new patent hive I gave them, +and took up their quarters in the hollow trunk of an old apple-tree +across an adjoining field. The entrance was a mouse-hole near the +ground. Another swarm in the neighborhood deserted their keeper, and +went into the cornice of an out-house that stood amid evergreens in +the rear of a large mansion. But there is no accounting for the taste +of bees, as Samson found when he discovered the swarm in the carcass, +or more probably the skeleton, of the lion he had slain. + +In any given locality, especially in the more wooded and mountainous +districts, the number of swarms that thus assert their independence +forms quite a large per cent. In the Northern States these swarms very +often perish before spring; but in such a country as Florida they seem +to multiply, till bee-trees are very common. In the West, also, wild +honey is often gathered in large quantities. I noticed, not long since, +that some wood-choppers on the west slope of the Coast Range felled a +tree that had several pailfuls in it. + +One night on the Potomac a party of us unwittingly made our camp near +the foot of a bee-tree, which next day the winds of heaven blew down, +for our special delectation, at least so we read the sign. Another +time, while sitting by a waterfall in the leafless April woods, I +discovered a swarm in the top of a large hickory. I had the season +before remarked the tree as a likely place for bees, but the screen of +leaves concealed them from me. This time my former presentiment +occurred to me, and, looking sharply, sure enough there were the bees, +going out and in a large, irregular opening. In June a violent tempest +of wind and rain demolished the tree, and the honey was all lost in the +creek into which it fell. I happened along that way two or three days +after the tornado, when I saw a remnant of the swarm, those, doubtless, +that escaped the flood and those that were away when the disaster came, +hanging in a small black mass to a branch high up near where their home +used to be. They looked forlorn enough. If the queen was saved, the +remnant probably sought another tree; otherwise the bees soon died. + +I have seen bees desert their hive in the spring when it was infested +with worms, or when the honey was exhausted; at such times the swarm +seems to wander aimlessly, alighting here and there, and perhaps in the +end uniting with some other colony. In case of such union, it would be +curious to know if negotiations were first opened between the parties, +and if the houseless bees are admitted at once to all the rights and +franchises of their benefactors. It would be very like the bees to have +some preliminary plan and understanding about the matter on both sides. + +Bees will accommodate themselves to almost any quarters, yet no hive +seems to please them so well as a section of a hollow tree,--"gums," as +they are called in the South and West where the sweet gum grows. In +some European countries the hive is always made from the trunk of a +tree, a suitable cavity being formed by boring. The old-fashioned straw +hive is picturesque, and a great favorite with the bees also. + +The life of a swarm of bees is like an active and hazardous campaign of +an army; the ranks are being continually depleted, and continually +recruited. What adventures they have by flood and field, and what +hairbreadth escapes! A strong swarm during the honey season loses, on +an average, about four or five thousand a month, or one hundred and +fifty a day. They are overwhelmed by wind and rain, caught by spiders, +benumbed by cold, crushed by cattle, drowned in rivers and ponds, and +in many nameless ways cut off or disabled. In the spring the principal +mortality is from the cold. As the sun declines they get chilled before +they can reach home. Many fall down outside the hive, unable to get in +with their burden. One may see them come utterly spent and drop +hopelessly into the grass in front of their very doors. Before they can +rest the cold has stiffened them. I go out in April and May and pick +them up by the handfuls, their baskets loaded with pollen, and warm +them in the sun or in the house, or by the simple warmth of my hand, +until they can crawl into the hive. Heat is their life, and an +apparently lifeless bee may be revived by warming him. I have also +picked them up while rowing on the river and seen them safely to +shore. It is amusing to see them come hurrying home when there is a +thunder-storm approaching. They come piling in till the rain is upon +them. Those that are overtaken by the storm doubtless weather it as +best they can in the sheltering trees or grass. It is not probable +that a bee ever gets lost by wandering into strange and unknown +parts. With their myriad eyes they see everything; and then their +sense of locality is very acute, is, indeed, one of their ruling +traits. When a bee marks the place of his hive, or of a bit of good +pasturage in the fields or swamps, or of the bee-hunter's box of +honey on the hills or in the woods, he returns to it as unerringly as +fate. + +Honey was a much more important article of food with the ancients than +it is with us. As they appear to have been unacquainted with sugar, +honey, no doubt, stood them instead. It is too rank and pungent for the +modern taste; it soon cloys upon the palate. It demands the appetite of +youth, and the strong, robust digestion of people who live much in the +open air. It is a more wholesome food than sugar, and modern +confectionery is poison beside it. Besides grape sugar, honey contains +manna, mucilage, pollen, acid, and other vegetable odoriferous +substances and juices. It is a sugar with a kind of wild natural bread +added. The manna of itself is both food and medicine, and the pungent +vegetable extracts have rare virtues. Honey promotes the excretions, +and dissolves the glutinous and starchy impedimenta of the system. + +Hence it is not without reason that with the ancients a land flowing +with milk and honey should mean a land abounding in all good things; +and the queen in the nursery rhyme, who lingered in the kitchen to eat +"bread and honey" while the "king was in the parlor counting out his +money," was doing a very sensible thing. Epaminondas is said to have +rarely eaten anything but bread and honey. The Emperor Augustus one day +inquired of a centenarian how he had kept his vigor of mind and body so +long; to which the veteran replied that it was by "oil without and +honey within." Cicero, in his "Old Age," classes honey with meat and +milk and cheese as among the staple articles with which a well-kept +farmhouse will be supplied. + +Italy and Greece, in fact all the Mediterranean countries, appear to +have been famous lands for honey. Mount Hymettus, Mount Hybla, and +Mount Ida produced what may be called the classic honey of antiquity, +an article doubtless in no wise superior to our best products. Leigh +Hunt's "Jar of Honey" is mainly distilled from Sicilian history and +literature, Theocritus furnishing the best yield. Sicily has always +been rich in bees. Swinburne (the traveler of a hundred years ago) says +the woods on this island abounded in wild honey, and that the people +also had many hives near their houses. The idyls of Theocritus are +native to the island in this respect, and abound in bees--"flat-nosed +bees," as he calls them in the Seventh Idyl--and comparisons in which +comb-honey is the standard of the most delectable of this world's +goods. His goatherds can think of no greater bliss than that the mouth +be filled with honeycombs, or to be inclosed in a chest like Daphnis +and fed on the combs of bees; and among the delectables with which +Arsinoe cherishes Adonis are "honey-cakes," and other tidbits made of +"sweet honey." In the country of Theocritus this custom is said still +to prevail: when a couple are married, the attendants place honey in +their mouths, by which they would symbolize the hope that their love +may be as sweet to their souls as honey to the palate. + +It was fabled that Homer was suckled by a priestess whose breasts +distilled honey; and that once, when Pindar lay asleep, the bees +dropped honey upon his lips. In the Old Testament the food of the +promised Immanuel was to be butter and honey (there is much doubt about +the butter in the original), that he might know good from evil; and +Jonathan's eyes were enlightened by partaking of some wood or wild +honey: "See, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I +tasted a little of this honey." So far as this part of his diet was +concerned, therefore, John the Baptist, during his sojourn in the +wilderness, his divinity-school days in the mountains and plains of +Judea, fared extremely well. About the other part, the locusts, or, not +to put too fine a point on it, the grasshoppers, as much cannot be +said, though they were among the creeping and leaping things the +children of Israel were permitted to eat. They were probably not eaten +raw, but roasted in that most primitive of ovens, a hole in the ground +made hot by building a fire in it. The locusts and honey may have been +served together, as the Bedas of Ceylon are said to season their meat +with honey. At any rate, as the locust is often a great plague in +Palestine, the prophet in eating them found his account in the general +weal, and in the profit of the pastoral bees; the fewer locusts, the +more flowers. Owing to its numerous wild-flowers, and flowering shrubs, +Palestine has always been a famous country for bees. They deposit +their honey in hollow trees, as our bees do when they escape from the +hive, and in holes in the rocks, as ours do not. In a tropical or +semi-tropical climate, bees are quite apt to take refuge in the rocks; +but where ice and snow prevail, as with us, they are much safer high +up in the trunk of a forest tree. + +The best honey is the product of the milder parts of the temperate +zone. There are too many rank and poisonous plants in the tropics. +Honey from certain districts of Turkey produces headache and vomiting, +and that from Brazil is used chiefly as medicine. The honey of Mount +Hymettus owes its fine quality to wild thyme. The best honey in Persia +and in Florida is collected from the orange blossom. The celebrated +honey of Narbonne in the south of France is obtained from a species of +rosemary. In Scotland good honey is made from the blossoming heather. + +California honey is white and delicate and highly perfumed, and now +takes the lead in the market. But honey is honey the world over; and +the bee is the bee still. "Men may degenerate," says an old traveler, +"may forget the arts by which they acquired renown; manufactures may +fail, and commodities be debased; but the sweets of the wild-flowers of +the wilderness, the industry and natural mechanics of the bee, will +continue without change or derogation." + + + + +II + +SHARP EYES + + +Noting how one eye seconds and reinforces the other, I have often +amused myself by wondering what the effect would be if one could go on +opening eye after eye to the number say of a dozen or more. What would +he see? Perhaps not the invisible,--not the odors of flowers or the +fever germs in the air,--not the infinitely small of the microscope or +the infinitely distant of the telescope. This would require, not more +eyes so much as an eye constructed with more and different lenses; but +would he not see with augmented power within the natural limits of +vision? At any rate, some persons seem to have opened more eyes than +others, they see with such force and distinctness; their vision +penetrates the tangle and obscurity where that of others fails like a +spent or impotent bullet. How many eyes did Gilbert White open? how +many did Henry Thoreau? how many did Audubon? how many does the hunter, +matching his sight against the keen and alert sense of a deer or a +moose, or fox or a wolf? Not outward eyes, but inward. We open another +eye whenever we see beyond the first general features or outlines of +things,--whenever we grasp the special details and characteristic +markings that this mask covers. Science confers new powers of vision. +Whenever you have learned to discriminate the birds, or the plants, or +the geological features of a country, it is as if new and keener eyes +were added. + +Of course one must not only see sharply, but read aright what he sees. +The facts in the life of Nature that are transpiring about us are like +written words that the observer is to arrange into sentences. Or the +writing is in cipher and he must furnish the key. A female oriole was +one day observed very much preoccupied under a shed where the refuse +from the horse stable was thrown. She hopped about among the barn +fowls, scolding them sharply when they came too near her. The stable, +dark and cavernous, was just beyond. The bird, not finding what she +wanted outside, boldly ventured into the stable, and was presently +captured by the farmer. What did she want? was the query. What but a +horsehair for her nest which was in an apple-tree near by? and she was +so bent on having one that I have no doubt she would have tweaked one +out of the horse's tail had he been in the stable. Later in the season +I examined her nest, and found it sewed through and through with +several long horsehairs, so that the bird persisted in her search till +the hair was found. + +Little dramas and tragedies and comedies, little characteristic scenes, +are always being enacted in the lives of the birds, if our eyes are +sharp enough to see them. Some clever observer saw this little comedy +played among some English sparrows, and wrote an account of it in his +newspaper; it is too good not to be true: A male bird brought to his +box a large, fine goose feather, which is a great find for a sparrow +and much coveted. After he had deposited his prize and chattered his +gratulations over it, he went away in quest of his mate. His next-door +neighbor, a female bird, seeing her chance, quickly slipped in and +seized the feather; and here the wit of the bird came out, for instead +of carrying it into her own box she flew with it to a near tree and hid +it in a fork of the branches, then went home, and when her neighbor +returned with his mate was innocently employed about her own affairs. +The proud male, finding his feather gone, came out of his box in a high +state of excitement, and, with wrath in his manner and accusation on +his tongue, rushed into the cote of the female. Not finding his goods +and chattels there as he had expected, he stormed around awhile, +abusing everybody in general and his neighbor in particular, then went +away as if to repair the loss. As soon as he was out of sight, the +shrewd thief went and brought the feather home and lined her own +domicile with it. + +I was much amused one summer day in seeing a bluebird feeding her young +one in the shaded street of a large town. She had captured a cicada or +harvest-fly, and, after bruising it awhile on the ground, flew with it +to a tree and placed it in the beak of the young bird. It was a large +morsel, and the mother seemed to have doubts of her chick's ability to +dispose of it, for she stood near and watched its efforts with great +solicitude. The young bird struggled valiantly with the cicada, but +made no headway in swallowing it, when the mother took it from him and +flew to the sidewalk, and proceeded to break and bruise it more +thoroughly. Then she again placed it in his beak, and seemed to say, +"There, try it now," and sympathized so thoroughly with his efforts +that she repeated many of his motions and contortions. But the great +fly was unyielding, and, indeed, seemed ridiculously disproportioned to +the beak that held it. The young bird fluttered and fluttered, and +screamed, "I'm stuck, I'm stuck!" till the anxious parent again seized +the morsel and carried it to an iron railing, where she came down upon +it for the space of a minute with all the force and momentum her beak +could command. Then she offered it to her young a third time, but with +the same result as before, except that this time the bird dropped it; +but she reached the ground as soon as the cicada did, and taking it in +her beak flew some distance to a high board fence, where she sat +motionless for some moments. While pondering the problem how that fly +should be broken, the male bluebird approached her, and said very +plainly, and I thought rather curtly, "Give me that bug," but she +quickly resented his interference and flew farther away, where she sat +apparently quite discouraged when I last saw her. + +The bluebird is a home bird, and I am never tired of recurring to him. +His coming or reappearance in the spring marks a new chapter in the +progress of the season; things are never quite the same after one has +heard that note. The past spring the males came about a week in advance +of the females. A fine male lingered about my grounds and orchard all +that time, apparently waiting the arrival of his mate. He called and +warbled every day, as if he felt sure she was within ear-shot and could +be hurried up. Now he warbled half-angrily or upbraidingly, then +coaxingly, then cheerily and confidently, the next moment in a +plaintive, far-away manner. He would half open his wings, and twinkle +them caressingly, as if beckoning his mate to his heart. One morning +she had come, but was shy and reserved. The fond male flew to a +knothole in an old apple-tree, and coaxed her to his side. I heard a +fine confidential warble,--the old, old story. But the female flew to a +near tree, and uttered her plaintive, homesick note. The male went and +got some dry grass or bark in his beak, and flew again to the hole in +the old tree, and promised unremitting devotion, but the other said, +"Nay," and flew away in the distance. When he saw her going, or rather +heard her distant note, he dropped his stuff, and cried out in a tone +that said plainly enough, "Wait a minute. One word, please," and flew +swiftly in pursuit. He won her before long, however, and early in April +the pair were established in one of the four or five boxes I had put up +for them, but not until they had changed their minds several times. As +soon as the first brood had flown, and while they were yet under their +parents' care, they began another nest in one of the other boxes, the +female, as usual, doing all the work, and the male all the +complimenting. A source of occasional great distress to the mother bird +was a white cat that sometimes followed me about. The cat had never +been known to catch a bird, but she had a way of watching them that was +very embarrassing to the bird. Whenever she appeared, the mother +bluebird would set up that pitiful melodious plaint. One morning the +cat was standing by me, when the bird came with her beak loaded with +building material, and alighted above me to survey the place before +going into the box. When she saw the cat she was greatly disturbed, and +in her agitation could not keep her hold upon all her material. Straw +after straw came eddying down, till not half her original burden +remained. After the cat had gone away the bird's alarm subsided, till +presently, seeing the coast clear, she flew quickly to the box and +pitched in her remaining straws with the greatest precipitation, and, +without going in to arrange them, as was her wont, flew away in evident +relief. + +In the cavity of an apple-tree but a few yards off, and much nearer the +house than they usually build, a pair of high-holes, or golden-shafted +woodpeckers, took up their abode. A knothole which led to the decayed +interior was enlarged, the live wood being cut away as clean as a +squirrel would have done it. The inside preparations I could not +witness, but day after day, as I passed near, I heard the bird +hammering away, evidently beating down obstructions and shaping and +enlarging the cavity. The chips were not brought out, but were used +rather to floor the interior. The woodpeckers are not nest-builders, +but rather nest-carvers. + +The time seemed very short before the voices of the young were heard in +the heart of the old tree,--at first feebly, but waxing stronger day by +day until they could be heard many rods distant. When I put my hand +upon the trunk of the tree, they would set up an eager, expectant +chattering; but if I climbed up it toward the opening, they soon +detected the unusual sound and would hush quickly, only now and then +uttering a warning note. Long before they were fully fledged they +clambered up to the orifice to receive their food. As but one could +stand in the opening at a time, there was a good deal of elbowing and +struggling for this position. It was a very desirable one aside from +the advantages it had when food was served; it looked out upon the +great, shining world, into which the young birds seemed never tired of +gazing. The fresh air must have been a consideration also, for the +interior of a high-hole's dwelling is not sweet. When the parent birds +came with food, the young one in the opening did not get it all, but +after he had received a portion, either on his own motion or on a hint +from the old one, he would give place to the one behind him. Still, one +bird evidently outstripped his fellows, and in the race of life was two +or three days in advance of them. His voice was loudest and his head +oftenest at the window. But I noticed that, when he had kept the +position too long, the others evidently made it uncomfortable in his +rear, and, after "fidgeting" about awhile, he would be compelled to +"back down." But retaliation was then easy, and I fear his mates spent +few easy moments at that lookout. They would close their eyes and slide +back into the cavity as if the world had suddenly lost all its charms +for them. + +This bird was, of course, the first to leave the nest. For two days +before that event he kept his position in the opening most of the time +and sent forth his strong voice incessantly. The old ones abstained +from feeding him almost entirely, no doubt to encourage his exit. As I +stood looking at him one afternoon and noting his progress, he suddenly +reached a resolution,--seconded, I have no doubt, from the rear,--and +launched forth upon his untried wings. They served him well, and +carried him about fifty yards up-hill the first heat. The second day +after, the next in size and spirit left in the same manner; then +another, till only one remained. The parent birds ceased their visits +to him, and for one day he called and called till our ears were tired +of the sound. His was the faintest heart of all. Then he had none to +encourage him from behind. He left the nest and clung to the outer bole +of the tree, and yelped and piped for an hour longer; then he committed +himself to his wings and went his way like the rest. + +A young farmer in the western part of New York, who has a sharp, +discriminating eye, sends me some interesting notes about a tame +high-hole he once had. + +"Did you ever notice," says he, "that the high-hole never eats anything +that he cannot pick up with his tongue? At least this was the case with +a young one I took from the nest and tamed. He could thrust out his +tongue two or three inches, and it was amusing to see his efforts to +eat currants from the hand. He would run out his tongue and try to +stick it to the currant; failing in that, he would bend his tongue +around it like a hook and try to raise it by a sudden jerk. But he +never succeeded, the round fruit would roll and slip away every time. +He never seemed to think of taking it in his beak. His tongue was in +constant use to find out the nature of everything he saw; a nail-hole +in a board or any similar hole was carefully explored. If he was held +near the face he would soon be attracted by the eye and thrust his +tongue into it. In this way he gained the respect of a number of +half-grown cats that were around the house. I wished to make them +familiar to each other, so there would be less danger of their +killing him. So I would take them both on my knee, when the bird +would soon notice the kitten's eyes, and, leveling his bill as +carefully as a marksman levels his rifle, he would remain so a +minute, when he would dart his tongue into the cat's eye. This was +held by the cats to be very mysterious: being struck in the eye by +something invisible to them. They soon acquired such a terror of him +that they would avoid him and run away whenever they saw his bill +turned in their direction. He never would swallow a grasshopper even +when it was placed in his throat; he would shake himself until he had +thrown it out of his mouth. His 'best hold' was ants. He never was +surprised at anything, and never was afraid of anything. He would +drive the turkey gobbler and the rooster. He would advance upon them +holding one wing up as high as possible, as if to strike with it, +and shuffle along the ground toward them, scolding all the while +in a harsh voice. I feared at first that they might kill him, but +I soon found that he was able to take care of himself. I would turn +over stones and dig into ant-hills for him, and he would lick up +the ants so fast that a stream of them seemed going into his mouth +unceasingly. I kept him till late in the fall, when he disappeared, +probably going south, and I never saw him again." My correspondent also +sends me some interesting observations about the cuckoo. He says a +large gooseberry-bush standing in the border of an old hedge-row, in +the midst of open fields, and not far from his house, was occupied by a +pair of cuckoos for two seasons in succession, and, after an interval +of a year, for two seasons more. This gave him a good chance to observe +them. He says the mother bird lays a single egg, and sits upon it a +number of days before laying the second, so that he has seen one young +bird nearly grown, a second just hatched, and a whole egg, all in the +nest at once. "So far as I have seen, this is the settled practice,--the +young leaving the nest one at a time to the number of six or eight. +The young have quite the look of the young of the dove in many +respects. When nearly grown they are covered with long blue pin-feathers +as long as darning-needles, without a bit of plumage on them. They +part on the back and hang down on each side by their own weight. +With its curious feathers and misshapen body, the young bird is +anything but handsome. They never open their mouths when approached, as +many young birds do, but sit perfectly still, hardly moving when +touched." He also notes the unnatural indifference of the mother bird +when her nest and young are approached. She makes no sound, but sits +quietly on a near branch in apparent perfect unconcern. + +These observations, together with the fact that the egg of the cuckoo +is occasionally found in the nests of other birds, raise the inquiry +whether our bird is slowly relapsing into the habit of the European +species, which always foists its egg upon other birds; or whether, on +the other hand, it is not mending its manners in this respect. It has +but little to unlearn or to forget in the one case, but great progress +to make in the other. How far is its rudimentary nest--a mere platform +of coarse twigs and dry stalks of weeds--from the deep, compact, finely +woven and finely modeled nest of the goldfinch or the kingbird, and +what a gulf between its indifference toward its young and their +solicitude! Its irregular manner of laying also seems better suited to +a parasite like our cowbird, or the European cuckoo, than to a regular +nest-builder. + +This observer, like most sharp-eyed persons, sees plenty of interesting +things as he goes about his work. He one day saw a white swallow, which +is of rare occurrence. He saw a bird, a sparrow he thinks, fly against +the side of a horse and fill his beak with hair from the loosened coat +of the animal. He saw a shrike pursue a chickadee, when the latter +escaped by taking refuge in a small hole in a tree. One day in early +spring he saw two hen-hawks, that were circling and screaming high in +air, approach each other, extend a claw, and, clasping them together, +fall toward the earth, flapping and struggling as if they were tied +together; on nearing the ground they separated and soared aloft again. +He supposed that it was not a passage of war but of love, and that the +hawks were toying fondly with each other. + +He further relates a curious circumstance of finding a hummingbird in +the upper part of a barn with its bill stuck fast in a crack of one of +the large timbers, dead, of course, with wings extended, and as dry as +a chip. The bird seems to have died, as it had lived, on the wing, and +its last act was indeed a ghastly parody of its living career. Fancy +this nimble, flashing sprite, whose life was passed probing the honeyed +depths of flowers, at last thrusting its bill into a crack in a dry +timber in a hay-loft, and, with spread wings, ending its existence! + +When the air is damp and heavy, swallows frequently hawk for insects +about cattle and moving herds in the field. My farmer describes how +they attended him one foggy day, as he was mowing in the meadow with a +mowing-machine. It had been foggy for two days, and the swallows were +very hungry, and the insects stupid and inert. When the sound of his +machine was heard, the swallows appeared and attended him like a brood +of hungry chickens. He says there was a continued rush of purple wings +over the "cut-bar," and just where it was causing the grass to tremble +and fall. Without his assistance the swallows would doubtless have gone +hungry yet another day. + +Of the hen-hawk, he has observed that both male and female take part in +incubation. "I was rather surprised," he says, "on one occasion, to see +how quickly they change places on the nest. The nest was in a tall +beech, and the leaves were not yet fully out. I could see the head and +neck of the hawk over the edge of the nest, when I saw the other hawk +coming down through the air at full speed. I expected he would alight +near by, but instead of that he struck directly upon the nest, his mate +getting out of the way barely in time to avoid being hit; it seemed +almost as if he had knocked her off the nest. I hardly see how they can +make such a rush on the nest without danger to the eggs." + +The kingbird will worry the hawk as a whiffet dog will worry a bear. It +is by his persistence and audacity, not by any injury he is capable of +dealing his great antagonist. The kingbird seldom more than dogs the +hawk, keeping above and between his wings, and making a great ado; but +my correspondent says he once "saw a kingbird riding on a hawk's back. +The hawk flew as fast as possible, and the kingbird sat upon his +shoulders in triumph until they had passed out of sight,"--tweaking his +feathers, no doubt, and threatening to scalp him the next moment. + +That near relative of the kingbird, the great crested flycatcher, has +one well-known peculiarity: he appears never to consider his nest +finished until it contains a cast-off snake-skin. My alert +correspondent one day saw him eagerly catch up an onion skin and make +off with it, either deceived by it or else thinking it a good +substitute for the coveted material. + +One day in May, walking in the woods, I came upon the nest of a +whip-poor-will, or rather its eggs, for it builds no nest,--two +elliptical whitish spotted eggs lying upon the dry leaves. My foot +was within a yard of the mother bird before she flew. I wondered what +a sharp eye would detect curious or characteristic in the ways of the +bird, so I came to the place many times and had a look. It was always +a task to separate the bird from her surroundings, though I stood +within a few feet of her, and knew exactly where to look. One had +to bear on with his eye, as it were, and refuse to be baffled. The +sticks and leaves, and bits of black or dark brown bark, were all +exactly copied in the bird's plumage. And then she did sit so close, +and simulate so well a shapeless, decaying piece of wood or bark! +Twice I brought a companion, and, guiding his eye to the spot, noted +how difficult it was for him to make out there, in full view upon the +dry leaves, any semblance to a bird. When the bird returned after +being disturbed, she would alight within a few inches of her eggs, +and then, after a moment's pause, hobble awkwardly upon them. + +After the young had appeared, all the wit of the bird came into play. I +was on hand the next day, I think. The mother bird sprang up when I was +within a pace of her, and in doing so fanned the leaves with her wings +till they sprang up, too; as the leaves started the young started, and, +being of the same color, to tell which was the leaf and which the bird +was a trying task to any eye. I came the next day, when the same +tactics were repeated. Once a leaf fell upon one of the young birds and +nearly hid it. The young are covered with a reddish down, like a young +partridge, and soon follow their mother about. When disturbed, they +gave but one leap, then settled down, perfectly motionless and stupid, +with eyes closed. The parent bird, on these occasions, made frantic +efforts to decoy me away from her young. She would fly a few paces and +fall upon her breast, and a spasm, like that of death, would run +through her tremulous outstretched wings and prostrate body. She kept a +sharp eye out the meanwhile to see if the ruse took, and, if it did +not, she was quickly cured, and, moving about to some other point, +tried to draw my attention as before. When followed she always alighted +upon the ground, dropping down in a sudden peculiar way. The second or +third day both old and young had disappeared. + +The whip-poor-will walks as awkwardly as a swallow, which is as awkward +as a man in a bag, and yet she manages to lead her young about the +woods. The latter, I think, move by leaps and sudden spurts, their +protective coloring shielding them most effectively. Wilson once came +upon the mother bird and her brood in the woods, and, though they were +at his very feet, was so baffled by the concealment of the young that +he was about to give up the search, much disappointed, when he +perceived something "like a slight mouldiness among the withered +leaves, and, on stooping down, discovered it to be a young +whip-poor-will, seemingly asleep." Wilson's description of the young +is very accurate, as its downy covering does look precisely like a +"slight mouldiness." Returning a few moments afterward to the spot to +get a pencil he had forgotten, he could find neither old nor young. + +It takes an eye to see a partridge in the woods, motionless upon the +leaves; this sense needs to be as sharp as that of smell in hounds and +pointers, and yet I know an unkempt youth that seldom fails to see the +bird and to shoot it before it takes wing. I think he sees it as soon +as it sees him, and before it suspects itself seen. What a training to +the eye is hunting! to pick out the game from its surroundings, the +grouse from the leaves, the gray squirrel from the mossy oak limb it +hugs so closely, the red fox from the ruddy or brown or gray field, the +rabbit from the stubble, or the white hare from the snow, requires the +best powers of this sense. A woodchuck motionless in the fields or upon +a rock looks very much like a large stone or boulder, yet a keen eye +knows the difference at a glance, a quarter of a mile away. + +A man has a sharper eye than a dog, or a fox, or than any of the wild +creatures, but not so sharp an ear or nose. But in the birds he finds +his match. How quickly the old turkey discovers the hawk, a mere speck +against the sky, and how quickly the hawk discovers you if you happen +to be secreted in the bushes, or behind the fence near which he +alights! One advantage the bird surely has, and that is, owing to the +form, structure, and position of the eye, it has a much larger field of +vision,--indeed, can probably see in nearly every direction at the same +instant, behind as well as before. Man's field of vision embraces less +than half a circle horizontally, and still less vertically; his brow +and brain prevent him from seeing within many degrees of the zenith +without a movement of the head; the bird, on the other hand, takes in +nearly the whole sphere at a glance. + +I find I see, almost without effort, nearly every bird within sight in +the field or wood I pass through (a flit of the wing, a flirt of the +tail are enough, though the flickering leaves do all conspire to hide +them), and that with like ease the birds see me, though unquestionably +the chances are immensely in their favor. The eye sees what it has the +means of seeing, truly. You must have the bird in your heart before you +can find it in the bush. The eye must have purpose and aim. No one ever +yet found the walking fern who did not have the walking fern in his +mind. A person whose eye is full of Indian relics picks them up in +every field he walks through. + +One season I was interested in the tree-frogs, especially the tiny +piper that one hears about the woods and brushy fields,--the hyla of +the swamps become a denizen of the trees; I had never seen him in this +new role. But this season, having hylas in mind, or rather being ripe +for them, I several times came across them. One Sunday, walking amid +some bushes, I captured two. They leaped before me, as doubtless they +had done many times before; but though not looking for or thinking of +them, yet they were quickly recognized, because the eye had been +commissioned to find them. On another occasion, not long afterward, I +was hurriedly loading my gun in the October woods in hopes of +overtaking a gray squirrel that was fast escaping through the treetops, +when one of these lilliput frogs, the color of the fast-yellowing +leaves, leaped near me. I saw him only out of the corner of my eye and +yet bagged him, because I had already made him my own. + +Nevertheless the habit of observation is the habit of clear and +decisive gazing: not by a first casual glance, but by a steady, +deliberate aim of the eye, are the rare and characteristic things +discovered. You must look intently, and hold your eye firmly to the +spot, to see more than do the rank and file of mankind. The +sharpshooter picks out his man, and knows him with fatal certainty from +a stump, or a rock, or a cap on a pole. The phrenologists do well to +locate, not only form, color, and weight, in the region of the eye, but +also a faculty which they call individuality,--that which separates, +discriminates, and sees in every object its essential character. This +is just as necessary to the naturalist as to the artist or the poet. +The sharp eye notes specific points and differences,--it seizes upon +and preserves the individuality of the thing. + +Persons frequently describe to me some bird they have seen or heard, +and ask me to name it, but in most cases the bird might be any one of a +dozen, or else it is totally unlike any bird found on this continent. +They have either seen falsely or else vaguely. Not so the farm youth +who wrote me one winter day that he had seen a single pair of strange +birds, which he describes as follows: "They were about the size of the +'chippie;' the tops of their heads were red, and the breast of the male +was of the same color, while that of the female was much lighter; their +rumps were also faintly tinged with red. If I have described them so +that you would know them, please write me their names." There can be +little doubt but the young observer had, seen a pair of redpolls,--a +bird related to the goldfinch, and that occasionally comes down to us +in the winter from the far north. Another time, the same youth wrote +that he had seen a strange bird, the color of a sparrow, that alighted +on fences and buildings as well as upon the ground, and that walked. +This last fact showed the youth's discriminating eye and settled the +case. From this and the season, and the size and color of the bird, I +knew he had seen the pipit or titlark. But how many persons would have +observed that the bird walked instead of hopped? + +Some friends of mine who lived in the country tried to describe to me a +bird that built a nest in a tree within a few feet of the house. As it +was a brown bird, I should have taken it for a wood thrush, had not the +nest been described as so thin and loose that from beneath the eggs +could be distinctly seen. The most pronounced feature in the +description was the barred appearance of the under side of the bird's +tail. I was quite at sea, until one day, when we were driving out, a +cuckoo flew across the road in front of us, when my friends exclaimed, +"There is our bird!" I had never known a cuckoo to build near a house, +and I had never noted the appearance the tail presents when viewed from +beneath; but if the bird had been described in its most obvious +features, as slender, with a long tail, cinnamon brown above and white +beneath, with a curved bill, any one who knew the bird would have +recognized the portrait. + +We think we have looked at a thing sharply until we are asked for its +specific features. I thought I knew exactly the form of the leaf of the +tulip-tree, until one day a lady asked me to draw the outlines of one. +A good observer is quick to take a hint and to follow it up. Most of +the facts of nature, especially in the life of the birds and animals, +are well screened. We do not see the play because we do not look +intently enough. The other day I was sitting with a friend upon a high +rock in the woods, near a small stream, when we saw a water-snake +swimming across a pool toward the opposite bank. Any eye would have +noted it, perhaps nothing more. A little closer and sharper gaze +revealed the fact that the snake bore something in its mouth, which, as +we went down to investigate, proved to be a small catfish, three or +four inches long. The snake had captured it in the pool, and, like any +other fisherman, wanted to get its prey to dry land, although it itself +lived mostly in the water. Here, we said, is being enacted a little +tragedy that would have escaped any but sharp eyes. The snake, which +was itself small, had the fish by the throat, the hold of vantage among +all creatures, and clung to it with great tenacity. The snake knew that +its best tactics was to get upon dry land as soon as possible. It could +not swallow its victim alive, and it could not strangle it in the +water. For a while it tried to kill its game by holding it up out of +the water, but the fish grew heavy, and every few moments its struggles +brought down the snake's head. This would not do. Compressing the +fish's throat would not shut off its breath under such circumstances, +so the wily serpent tried to get ashore with it, and after several +attempts succeeded in effecting a landing on a flat rock. But the fish +died hard. Catfish do not give up the ghost in a hurry. Its throat was +becoming congested, but the snake's distended jaws must have ached. It +was like a petrified gape. Then the spectators became very curious and +close in their scrutiny, and the snake determined to withdraw from +the public gaze and finish the business in hand to its own notions. +But, when gently but firmly remonstrated with by my friend with his +walking-stick, it dropped the fish and retreated in high dudgeon +beneath a stone in the bed of the creek. The fish, with a swollen +and angry throat, went its way also. + +Birds, I say, have wonderfully keen eyes. Throw a fresh bone or a piece +of meat upon the snow in winter, and see how soon the crows will +discover it and be on hand. If it be near the house or barn, the crow +that first discovers it will alight near it, to make sure he is not +deceived; then he will go away, and soon return with a companion. The +two alight a few yards from the bone, and after some delay, during +which the vicinity is sharply scrutinized, one of the crows advances +boldly to within a few feet of the coveted prize. Here he pauses, and +if no trick is discovered, and the meat be indeed meat, he seizes it +and makes off. + +One midwinter I cleared away the snow under an apple-tree near the +house and scattered some corn there. I had not seen a blue jay for +weeks, yet that very day one found my corn, and after that several came +daily and partook of it, holding the kernels under their feet upon the +limbs of the trees and pecking them vigorously. + +Of course the woodpecker and his kind have sharp eyes, still I was +surprised to see how quickly Downy found out some bones that were +placed in a convenient place under the shed to be pounded up for the +hens. In going out to the barn I often disturbed him making a meal off +the bits of meat that still adhered to them. + +"Look intently enough at anything," said a poet to me one day, "and you +will see something that would otherwise escape you." I thought of the +remark as I sat on a stump in an opening of the woods one spring day. I +saw a small hawk approaching; he flew to a tall tulip-tree, and +alighted on a large limb near the top. He eyed me and I eyed him. Then +the bird disclosed a trait that was new to me: he hopped along the limb +to a small cavity near the trunk, when he thrust in his head and pulled +out some small object and fell to eating it. After he had partaken of +it for some minutes he put the remainder back in his larder and flew +away. I had seen something like feathers eddying slowly down as the +hawk ate, and on approaching the spot found the feathers of a sparrow +here and there clinging to the bushes beneath the tree. The hawk, +then,--commonly called the chicken hawk,--is as provident as a mouse or +a squirrel, and lays by a store against a time of need, but I should +not have discovered the fact had I not held my eye on him. + +An observer of the birds is attracted by any unusual sound or commotion +among them. In May or June, when other birds are most vocal, the jay is +a silent bird; he goes sneaking about the orchards and the groves as +silent as a pickpocket; he is robbing birds'-nests, and he is very +anxious that nothing should be said about it, but in the fall none so +quick and loud to cry "Thief, thief!" as he. One December morning a +troop of jays discovered a little screech owl secreted in the hollow +trunk of an old apple-tree near my house. How they found the owl out is +a mystery, since it never ventures forth in the light of day; but they +did, and proclaimed the fact with great emphasis. I suspect the +bluebirds first told them, for these birds are constantly peeping into +holes and crannies both spring and fall. Some unsuspecting bird had +probably entered the cavity prospecting for a place for next year's +nest, or else looking out a likely place to pass a cold night, and then +had rushed out with important news. A boy who should unwittingly +venture into a bear's den when Bruin was at home could not be more +astonished and alarmed than a bluebird would be on finding itself in a +cavity of a decayed tree with an owl. At any rate, the bluebirds joined +the jays in calling the attention of all whom it might concern to the +fact that a culprit of some sort was hiding from the light of day in +the old apple-tree. I heard the notes of warning and alarm and +approached to within eyeshot. The bluebirds were cautious and hovered +about uttering their peculiar twittering calls; but the jays were +bolder and took turns looking in at the cavity, and deriding the poor, +shrinking owl. A jay would alight in the entrance of the hole, and +flirt and peer and attitudinize, and then fly away crying "Thief, +thief, thief!" at the top of his voice. + +I climbed up and peered into the opening, and could just descry the owl +clinging to the inside of the tree. I reached in and took him out, +giving little heed to the threatening snapping of his beak. He was as +red as a fox and as yellow-eyed as a cat. He made no effort to escape, +but planted his claws in my forefinger and clung there with a grip that +soon grew uncomfortable. I placed him in the loft of an outhouse, in +hopes of getting better acquainted with him. By day he was a very +willing prisoner, scarcely moving at all, even when approached and +touched with the hand, but looking out upon the world with half-closed, +sleepy eyes. But at night what a change! how alert, how wild, how +active! He was like another bird; he darted about with wide, fearful +eyes, and regarded me like a cornered cat. I opened the window, and +swiftly, but as silent as a shadow, he glided out into the congenial +darkness, and perhaps, ere this, has revenged himself upon the sleeping +jay or bluebird that first betrayed his hiding-place. + + + + +III + +STRAWBERRIES + + +Was it old Dr. Parr who said or sighed in his last illness, "Oh, if I +can only live till strawberries come!" The old scholar imagined that, +if he could weather it till then, the berries would carry him through. +No doubt he had turned from the drugs and the nostrums, or from the +hateful food, to the memory of the pungent, penetrating, and +unspeakably fresh quality of the strawberry with the deepest longing. +The very thought of these crimson lobes, embodying as it were the first +glow and ardor of the young summer, and with their power to unsheathe +the taste and spur the nagging appetite, made life seem possible and +desirable to him. + +The strawberry is always the hope of the invalid, and sometimes, no +doubt, his salvation. It is the first and finest relish among fruits, +and well merits Dr. Boteler's memorable saying, that "doubtless God +could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did." + +On the threshold of summer, Nature proffers us this her virgin fruit; +more rich and sumptuous are to follow, but the wild delicacy and fillip +of the strawberry are never repeated,--that keen feathered edge greets +the tongue in nothing else. + +Let me not be afraid of overpraising it, but probe and probe for words +to hint its surprising virtues. We may well celebrate it with festivals +and music. It has that indescribable quality of all first things,--that +shy, uncloying, provoking barbed sweetness. It is eager and sanguine as +youth. It is born of the copious dews, the fragrant nights, the tender +skies, the plentiful rains of the early season. The singing of birds is +in it, and the health and frolic of lusty Nature. It is the product of +liquid May touched by the June sun. It has the tartness, the briskness, +the unruliness of spring, and the aroma and intensity of summer. + +Oh, the strawberry days! how vividly they come back to one! The smell +of clover in the fields, of blooming rye on the hills, of the wild +grape beside the woods, and of the sweet honeysuckle and the spiraea +about the house. The first hot, moist days. The daisies and the +buttercups; the songs of the birds, their first reckless jollity and +love-making over; the full tender foliage of the trees; the bees +swarming, and the air strung with resonant musical chords. The time of +the sweetest and most, succulent grass, when the cows come home with +aching udders. Indeed, the strawberry belongs to the juiciest time of +the year. + +What a challenge it is to the taste! how it bites back again! and is +there any other sound like the snap and crackle with which it salutes +the ear on being plucked from the stems? It is a threat to one sense +that the other is soon to verify. It snaps to the ear as it smacks to +the tongue. All other berries are tame beside it. + +The plant is almost an evergreen; it loves the coverlid of the snow, +and will keep fresh through the severest winters with a slight +protection. The frost leaves its virtues in it. The berry is a kind of +vegetable snow. How cool, how tonic, how melting, and how perishable! +It is almost as easy to keep frost. Heat kills it, and sugar quickly +breaks up its cells. + +Is there anything like the odor of strawberries? The next best thing to +tasting them is to smell them; one may put his nose to the dish while +the fruit is yet too rare and choice for his fingers. Touch not and +taste not, but take a good smell and go mad! Last fall I potted some of +the Downer, and in the winter grew them in the house. In March the +berries were ripe, only four or five on a plant, just enough, all told, +to make one consider whether it were not worth while to kill off the +rest of the household, so that the berries need not be divided. But if +every tongue could not have a feast, every nose banqueted daily upon +them. They filled the house with perfume. The Downer is remarkable in +this respect. Grown in the open field, it surpasses in its odor any +strawberry of my acquaintance. And it is scarcely less agreeable to the +taste. It is a very beautiful berry to look upon, round, light pink, +with a delicate, fine-grained expression. Some berries shine, the +Downer glows as if there were a red bloom upon it. Its core is firm and +white, its skin thick and easily bruised, which makes it a poor market +berry, but, with its high flavor and productiveness, an admirable one +for home use. It seems to be as easily grown as the Wilson, while it is +much more palatable. The great trouble with the Wilson, as everybody +knows, is its rank acidity. When it first comes, it is difficult to eat +it without making faces. It is crabbed and acrimonious. Like some +persons, the Wilson will not ripen and sweeten till its old age. Its +largest and finest crop, if allowed to remain on the vines, will soften +and fail unregenerated, or with all its sins upon it. But wait till +toward the end of the season, after the plant gets over its hurry and +takes time to ripen its fruit. The berry will then face the sun for +days, and, if the weather is not too wet, instead of softening will +turn dark and grow rich. Out of its crabbedness and spitefulness come +the finest, choicest flavors. It is an astonishing berry. It lays hold +of the taste in a way that the aristocratic berries, like the Jocunda +or the Triumph, cannot approximate to. Its quality is as penetrating as +that of ants and wasps, but sweet. It is, indeed, a wild bee turned +into a berry, with the sting mollified and the honey disguised. A quart +of these rare-ripes I venture to say contains more of the peculiar +virtue and excellence of the strawberry kind than can be had in twice +the same quantity of any other cultivated variety. Take these berries +in a bowl of rich milk with some bread,--ah, what a dish!--too good to +set before a king! I suspect this was the food of Adam in Paradise, +only Adam did not have the Wilson strawberry; he had the wild +strawberry that Eve plucked in their hill-meadow and "hulled" with +her own hands, and that, take it all in all, even surpasses the +late-ripened Wilson. + +Adam is still extant in the taste and the appetite of most country +boys; lives there a country boy who does not like wild strawberries and +milk,--yea, prefer it to any other known dish? I am not thinking of a +dessert of strawberries and cream; this the city boy may have, too, +after a sort; but bread-and-milk, with the addition of wild +strawberries, is peculiarly a country dish, and is to the taste what a +wild bird's song is to the ear. When I was a lad, and went afield with +my hoe or with the cows, during the strawberry season, I was sure to +return at meal-time with a lining of berries in the top of my straw +hat. They were my daily food, and I could taste the liquid and gurgling +notes of the bobolink in every spoonful of them; and to this day, to +make a dinner or supper off a bowl of milk with bread and +strawberries,--plenty of strawberries,--well, is as near to being a boy +again as I ever expect to come. The golden age draws sensibly near. +Appetite becomes a kind of delicious thirst,--a gentle and subtle +craving of all parts of the mouth and throat,--and those nerves of +taste that occupy, as it were, a back seat, and take little cognizance +of grosser foods, come forth, and are played upon and set vibrating. +Indeed, I think, if there is ever rejoicing throughout one's alimentary +household,--if ever that much-abused servant, the stomach, says Amen, +or those faithful handmaidens, the liver and spleen, nudge each other +delightedly, it must be when one on a torrid summer day passes by the +solid and carnal dinner for this simple Arcadian dish. + +The wild strawberry, like the wild apple, is spicy and high-flavored, +but, unlike the apple, it is also mild and delicious. It has the true +rustic sweetness and piquancy. What it lacks in size, when compared +with the garden berry, it makes up in intensity. It is never dropsical +or overgrown, but firm-fleshed and hardy. Its great enemies are the +plow, gypsum, and the horse-rake. It dislikes a limestone soil, but +seems to prefer the detritus of the stratified rock. Where the sugar +maple abounds, I have always found plenty of wild strawberries. We have +two kinds,--the wood berry and the field berry. The former is as wild +as a partridge. It is found in open places in the woods and along the +borders, growing beside stumps and rocks, never in abundance, but very +sparsely. It is small, cone-shaped, dark red, shiny, and pimply. It +looks woody, and tastes so. It has never reached the table, nor made +the acquaintance of cream. A quart of them, at a fair price for human +labor, would be worth their weight in silver at least. (Yet a careful +observer writes me that in certain sections in the western part of New +York they are very plentiful.) + +Ovid mentions the wood strawberry, which would lead one to infer that +they were more abundant in his time and country than in ours. + +This is, perhaps, the same as the alpine strawberry, which is said to +grow in the mountains of Greece, and thence northward. This was +probably the first variety cultivated, though our native species would +seem as unpromising a subject for the garden as club-moss or +wintergreens. + +Of the field strawberry there are a great many varieties,--some growing +in meadows, some in pastures, and some upon mountain-tops. Some are +round, and stick close to the calyx or hull; some are long and pointed, +with long, tapering necks. These usually grow upon tall stems. They +are, indeed, of the slim, linear kind. Your corpulent berry keeps close +to the ground; its stem and foot-stalk are short, and neck it has none. +Its color is deeper than that of its tall brother, and of course it has +more juice. You are more apt to find the tall varieties upon knolls in +low, wet meadows, and again upon mountain-tops, growing in tussocks of +wild grass about the open summits. These latter ripen in July, and give +one his last taste of strawberries for the season. + +But the favorite haunt of the wild strawberry is an uplying meadow that +has been exempt from the plow for five or six years, and that has +little timothy and much daisy. When you go a-berrying, turn your steps +toward the milk-white meadows. The slightly bitter odor of the daisies +is very agreeable to the smell, and affords a good background for the +perfume of the fruit. The strawberry cannot cope with the rank and +deep-rooted clover, and seldom appears in a field till the clover has +had its day. But the daisy with its slender stalk does not crowd or +obstruct the plant, while its broad white flower is like a light +parasol that tempers and softens the too strong sunlight. Indeed, +daisies and strawberries are generally associated. Nature fills her +dish with the berries, then covers them with the white and yellow of +milk and cream, thus suggesting a combination we are quick to follow. +Milk alone, after it loses its animal heat, is a clod, and begets +torpidity of the brain; the berries lighten it, give wings to it, and +one is fed as by the air he breathes or the water he drinks. + +Then the delight of "picking" the wild berries! It is one of the +fragrant memories of boyhood. Indeed, for boy or man to go a-berrying +in a certain pastoral country I know of, where a passer-by along the +highway is often regaled by a breeze loaded with a perfume of the +o'er-ripe fruit, is to get nearer to June than by almost any course I +know of. Your errand is so private and confidential! You stoop low. +You part away the grass and the daisies, and would lay bare the +inmost secrets of the meadow. Everything is yet tender and succulent; +the very air is bright and new; the warm breath of the meadow comes +up in your face; to your knees you are in a sea of daisies and +clover; from your knees up, you are in a sea of solar light and +warmth. Now you are prostrate like a swimmer, or like a surf-bather +reaching for pebbles or shells, the white and green spray breaks +above you; then, like a devotee before a shrine or naming his beads, +your rosary strung with luscious berries; anon you are a grazing +Nebuchadnezzar, or an artist taking an inverted view of the landscape. + +The birds are alarmed by your close scrutiny of their domain. They +hardly know whether to sing or to cry, and do a little of both. The +bobolink follows you and circles above and in advance of you, and is +ready to give you a triumphal exit from the field, if you will only +depart. + + "Ye boys that gather flowers and strawberries, + Lo, hid within the grass, an adder lies," + +Warton makes Virgil sing; and Montaigne, in his "Journey to Italy," +says: "The children very often are afraid, on account of the snakes, to +go and pick the strawberries that grow in quantities on the mountains +and among bushes." But there is no serpent here,--at worst, only a +bumblebee's or yellow-jacket's nest. You soon find out the spring in +the corner of the field under the beechen tree. While you wipe your +brow and thank the Lord for spring water, you glance at the initials in +the bark, some of them so old that they seem runic and legendary. You +find out, also, how gregarious the strawberry is,--that the different +varieties exist in little colonies about the field. When you strike the +outskirts of one of these plantations, how quickly you work toward the +centre of it, and then from the centre out, then circumnavigate it, and +follow up all its branchings and windings! + +Then the delight in the abstract and in the concrete of strolling and +lounging about the June meadows; of lying in pickle for half a day or +more in this pastoral sea, laved by the great tide, shone upon by the +virile sun, drenched to the very marrow of your being with the warm and +wooing influences of the young summer! + +I was a famous berry-picker when a boy. It was near enough to hunting +and fishing to enlist me. Mother would always send me in preference to +any of the rest of the boys. I got the biggest berries and the most of +them. There was something of the excitement of the chase in the +occupation, and something of the charm and preciousness of game about +the trophies. The pursuit had its surprises, its expectancies, its +sudden disclosures,--in fact, its uncertainties. I went forth +adventurously. I could wander free as the wind. Then there were moments +of inspiration, for it always seemed a felicitous stroke to light upon +a particularly fine spot, as it does when one takes an old and wary +trout. You discovered the game where it was hidden. Your genius +prompted you. Another had passed that way and had missed the prize. +Indeed, the successful berry-picker, like Walton's angler, is born, not +made. It is only another kind of angling. In the same field one boy +gets big berries and plenty of them; another wanders up and down, and +finds only a few little ones. He cannot see them; he does not know +how to divine them where they lurk under the leaves and vines. The +berry-grower knows that in the cultivated patch his pickers are very +unequal, the baskets of one boy or girl having so inferior a look +that it does not seem possible they could have been filled from the +same vines with certain others. But neither blunt fingers nor blunt +eyes are hard to find; and as there are those who can see nothing +clearly, so there are those who can touch nothing deftly or gently. + +The cultivation of the strawberry is thought to be comparatively +modern. The ancients appear to have been a carnivorous race: they +gorged themselves with meat; while the modern man makes larger and +larger use of fruits and vegetables, until this generation is doubtless +better fed than any that has preceded it. The strawberry and the apple, +and such vegetables as celery, ought to lengthen human life,--at least +to correct its biliousness and make it more sweet and sanguine. + +The first impetus to strawberry culture seems to have been given by the +introduction of our field berry (_Fragaria Virginiana_) into England in +the seventeenth century, though not much progress was made till the +eighteenth. This variety is much more fragrant and aromatic than the +native berry of Europe, though less so in that climate than when grown +here. Many new seedlings sprang from it, and it was the prevailing +berry in English and French gardens, says Fuller, until the South +American species, _grandiflora,_ was introduced and supplanted it. This +berry is naturally much larger and sweeter, and better adapted to the +English climate, than our _Virginiana._ Hence the English strawberries +of to-day surpass ours in these respects, but are wanting in that +aromatic pungency that characterizes most of our berries. + +The Jocunda, Triumph, Victoria, are foreign varieties of the +Grandiflora species; while the Hovey, the Boston Pine, the Downer, are +natives of this country. + +The strawberry, in the main, repeats the form of the human heart, and +perhaps, of all the small fruits known to man, none other is so deeply +and fondly cherished, or hailed with such universal delight, as this +lowly but youth-renewing berry. + + + + +IV + +IS IT GOING TO RAIN? + + +I suspect that, like most countrymen, I was born with a chronic anxiety +about the weather. Is it going to rain or snow, be hot or cold, wet or +dry?--are inquiries upon which I would fain get the views of every man +I meet, and I find that most men are fired with the same desire to get +my views upon the same set of subjects. To a countryman the weather +means something,--to a farmer especially. The farmer has sowed and +planted and reaped and vended nothing but weather all his life. The +weather must lift the mortgage on his farm, and pay his taxes, and feed +and clothe his family. Of what use is his labor unless seconded by the +weather? Hence there is speculation in his eye whenever he looks at the +clouds, or the moon, or the sunset, or the stars; for even the Milky +Way, in his view, may point the direction of the wind to-morrow, and +hence is closely related to the price of butter. He may not take the +sage's advice to "hitch his wagon to a star," but he pins his hopes to +the moon, and plants and sows by its phases. + +Then the weather is that phase of Nature in which she appears not the +immutable fate we are so wont to regard her, but on the contrary +something quite human and changeable, not to say womanish,--a creature +of moods, of caprices, of cross purposes; gloomy and downcast to-day, +and all light and joy to-morrow; caressing and tender one moment, and +severe and frigid the next; one day iron, the next day vapor; +inconsistent, inconstant, incalculable; full of genius, full of folly, +full of extremes; to be read and understood, not by rule, but by subtle +signs and indirections,--by a look, a glance, a presence, as we read +and understand a man or a woman. Some days are like a rare poetic mood. +There is a felicity and an exhilaration about them from morning till +night. They are positive and fill one with celestial fire. Other days +are negative and drain one of his electricity. + +Sometimes the elements show a marked genius for fair weather, as in the +fall and early winter of 1877, when October, grown only a little stern, +lasted till January. Every shuffle of the cards brought these mild, +brilliant days uppermost. There was not enough frost to stop the plow, +save once perhaps, till the new year set in. Occasionally a fruit-tree +put out a blossom and developed young fruit. The warring of the +elements was chiefly done on the other side of the globe, where it +formed an accompaniment to the human war raging there. In our usually +merciless skies was written only peace and good-will to men, for +months. + +What a creature of habit, too, Nature is as she appears in the weather! +If she miscarry once she will twice and thrice, and a dozen times. In a +wet time it rains to-day because it rained yesterday, and will rain +to-morrow because it rained to-day. Are the crops in any part of the +country drowning? They shall continue to drown. Are they burning up? +They shall continue to burn. The elements get in a rut and can't get +out without a shock. I know a farmer who, in a dry time, when the +clouds gather and look threatening, gets out his watering-pot at once, +because, he says, "it won't rain, and 'tis an excellent time to apply +the water." Of course, there comes a time when the farmer is wrong, but +he is right four times out of five. + +But I am not going to abuse the weather; rather to praise it, and make +some amends for the many ill-natured things I have said, within hearing +of the clouds, when I have been caught in the rain or been parched and +withered by the drought. + +When Mr. Fields's "Village Dogmatist" was asked what caused the rain, +or the fog, he leaned upon his cane and answered, with an air of +profound wisdom, that "when the atmosphere and hemisphere come together +it causes the earth to sweat, and thereby produces the rain,"--or the +fog, as the case may be. The explanation is a little vague, as his +biographer suggests, but it is picturesque, and there can be little +doubt that two somethings do come in contact that produce a sweating +when it rains or is foggy. More than that, the philosophy is simple and +comprehensive, which Goethe said was the main matter in such things. +Goethe's explanation is still more picturesque, but I doubt if it is a +bit better philosophy. "I compare the earth and her atmosphere," he +said to Eckermann, "to a great living being perpetually inhaling and +exhaling. If she inhale she draws the atmosphere to her, so that, +coming near her surface, it is condensed to clouds and rain. This state +I call water-affirmative." The opposite state, when the earth exhales +and sends the watery vapors upward so that they are dissipated through +the whole space of the higher atmosphere, he called "water-negative." + +This is good literature, and worthy the great poet; the science of it I +would not be so willing to vouch for. + +The poets, more perhaps than the scientists, have illustrated and held +by the great law of alternation, of ebb and flow, of turn and return, +in nature. An equilibrium, or, what is the same thing, a straight line, +Nature abhors more than she does a vacuum. If the moisture of the air +were uniform, or the heat uniform, that is, _in equilibrio,_ how could +it rain? what would turn the scale? But these things are heaped up, are +in waves. There is always a preponderance one way or the other; always +"a steep inequality." Down this incline the rain comes, and up the +other side it goes. The high barometer travels like the crest of a sea, +and the low barometer like the trough. When the scale kicks the beam in +one place, it is correspondingly depressed in some other. When the east +is burning up, the west is generally drowning out. The weather, we say, +is always in extremes; it never rains but it pours: but this is only +the abuse of a law on the part of the elements which is at the bottom +of all the life and motion on the globe. + +The rain itself comes in shorter or longer waves,--now fast, now +slow--and sometimes in regular throbs or pulse-beats. The fall and +winter rains are, as a rule, the most deliberate and general, but +the spring and summer rains are always more or less impulsive and +capricious. One may see the rain stalking across the hills or coming +up the valley in single file, as it were. Another time it moves in +vast masses or solid columns, with broad open spaces between. I have +seen a spring snowstorm lasting nearly all day that swept down in +rapid intermittent sheets or gusts. The waves or pulsations of the +storm were nearly vertical and were very marked. But the great +fact about the rain is that it is the most beneficent of all the +operations of nature; more immediately than sunlight even, it means +life and growth. Moisture is the Eve of the physical world, the soft +teeming principle given to wife to Adam or heat, and the mother of +all that lives. Sunshine abounds everywhere, but only where the rain +or dew follows is there life. The earth had the sun long before it +had the humid cloud, and will doubtless continue to have it after the +last drop of moisture has perished or been dissipated. The moon has +sunshine enough, but no rain; hence it is a dead world--a lifeless +cinder. It is doubtless true that certain of the planets, as Saturn +and Jupiter, have not yet reached the condition of the cooling and +ameliorating rains, while in Mars vapor appears to be precipitated +only in the form of snow; he is probably past the period of the +summer shower. There are clouds and vapors in the sun itself,--clouds +of flaming hydrogen and metallic vapors, and a rain every drop of +which is a burning or molten meteor. Our earth itself has doubtless +passed through the period of the fiery and consuming rains. Mr. +Proctor thinks there may have been a time when its showers were +downpourings of "muriatic, nitric, and sulphuric acid, not only +intensely hot, but fiercely burning through their chemical activity." +Think of a dew that would blister and destroy like the oil of +vitriol! but that period is far behind us now. When this fearful +fever was past and the earth began to "sweat;" when these soft, +delicious drops began to come down, or this impalpable rain of +the cloudless nights to fall,--the period of organic life was +inaugurated. Then there was hope and a promise of the future. The +first rain was the turning-point, the spell was broken, relief was +at hand. Then the blazing furies of the fore world began to give +place to the gentler divinities of later times. + +The first water,--how much it means! Seven tenths of man himself is +water. Seven tenths of the human race rained down but yesterday! It is +much more probable that Alexander will flow out of a bung-hole than +that any part of his remains will ever stop one. Our life is indeed a +vapor, a breath, a little moisture condensed upon the pane. We carry +ourselves as in a phial. Cleave the flesh, and how quickly we spill +out! Man begins as a fish, and he swims in a sea of vital fluids as +long as his life lasts. His first food is milk; so is his last and all +between. He can taste and assimilate and absorb nothing but liquids. +The same is true throughout all organic nature. 'Tis water-power that +makes every wheel move. Without this great solvent, there is no life. I +admire immensely this line of Walt Whitman's:-- + + "The slumbering and liquid trees." + +The tree and its fruit are like a sponge which the rains have filled. +Through them and through all living bodies there goes on the commerce +of vital growth, tiny vessels, fleets and succession of fleets, laden +with material bound for distant shores, to build up, and repair, and +restore the waste of the physical frame. + +Then the rain means relaxation; the tension in Nature and in all her +creatures is lessened. The trees drop their leaves, or let go their +ripened fruit. The tree itself will fall in a still, damp day, when but +yesterday it withstood a gale of wind. A moist south wind penetrates +even the mind and makes its grasp less tenacious. It ought to take less +to kill a man on a rainy day than on a clear. The direct support of the +sun is withdrawn; life is under a cloud; a masculine mood gives place +to something like a feminine. In this sense, rain is the grief, the +weeping of Nature, the relief of a burdened or agonized heart. But +tears from Nature's eyelids are always remedial and prepare the way for +brighter, purer skies. + +I think rain is as necessary to the mind as to vegetation. Who does not +suffer in his spirit in a drought and feel restless and unsatisfied? My +very thoughts become thirsty and crave the moisture. It is hard work to +be generous, or neighborly, or patriotic in a dry time, and as for +growing in any of the finer graces or virtues, who can do it? One's +very manhood shrinks, and, if he is ever capable of a mean act or of +narrow views, it is then. + +Oh, the terrible drought! When the sky turns to brass; when the clouds +are like withered leaves; when the sun sucks the earth's blood like a +vampire; when rivers shrink, streams fail, springs perish; when the +grass whitens and crackles under your feet; when the turf turns to +dust; when the fields are like tinder; when the air is the breath of an +oven; when even the merciful dews are withheld, and the morning is no +fresher than the evening; when the friendly road is a desert, and the +green woods like a sick-chamber; when the sky becomes tarnished and +opaque with dust and smoke; when the shingles on the houses curl up, +the clapboards warp, the paint blisters, the joints open; when the +cattle rove disconsolate and the hive-bee comes home empty; when +the earth gapes and all nature looks widowed, and deserted, and +heart-broken,--in such a time, what thing that has life does not +sympathize and suffer with the general distress? + +The drought of the summer and early fall of 1876 was one of those +severe stresses of weather that make the oldest inhabitant search his +memory for a parallel. For nearly three months there was no rain to wet +the ground. Large forest trees withered and cast their leaves. In +spots, the mountains looked as if they had been scorched by fire. The +salt sea-water came up the Hudson ninety miles, when ordinarily it +scarcely comes forty. Toward the last, the capacity of the atmosphere +to absorb and dissipate the smoke was exhausted, and innumerable fires +in forests and peat-swamps made the days and the weeks--not blue, but a +dirty yellowish white. There was not enough moisture in the air to take +the sting out of the smoke, and it smarted the nose. The sun was red +and dim even at midday, and at his rising and setting he was as +harmless to the eye as a crimson shield or a painted moon. The +meteorological conditions seemed the farthest possible remove from +those that produce rain, or even dew. Every sign was negatived. Some +malevolent spirit seemed abroad in the air, that rendered abortive +every effort of the gentler divinities to send succor. The clouds would +gather back in the mountains, the thunder would growl, the tall masses +would rise up and advance threateningly, then suddenly cower, their +strength and purpose ooze away; they flattened out; the hot, parched +breath of the earth smote them; the dark, heavy masses were re-resolved +into thin vapor, and the sky came through where but a few moments +before there had appeared to be deep behind deep of water-logged +clouds. Sometimes a cloud would pass by, and one could see trailing +beneath and behind it a sheet of rain, like something let down that did +not quite touch the earth, the hot air vaporizing the drops before they +reached the ground. + +Two or three times the wind got in the south, and those low, dun-colored +clouds that are nothing but harmless fog came hurrying up and covered +the sky, and city folk and women folk said the rain was at last near. +But the wise ones knew better. The clouds had no backing, the clear +sky was just behind them; they were only the nightcap of the south +wind, which the sun burnt up before ten o'clock. + +Every storm has a foundation that is deeply and surely laid, and those +shallow surface-clouds that have no root in the depths of the sky +deceive none but the unwary. + +At other times, when the clouds were not reabsorbed by the sky and rain +seemed imminent, they would suddenly undergo a change that looked like +curdling, and when clouds do that no rain need be expected. Time and +again I saw their continuity broken up, saw them separate into small +masses,--in fact saw a process of disintegration and disorganization +going on, and my hope of rain was over for that day. Vast spaces would +be affected suddenly; it was like a stroke of paralysis: motion was +retarded, the breeze died down, the thunder ceased, and the storm was +blighted on the very threshold of success. + +I suppose there is some compensation in a drought; Nature doubtless +profits by it in some way. It is a good time to thin out her garden, +and give the law of the survival of the fittest a chance to come into +play. How the big trees and big plants do rob the little ones! there is +not drink enough to go around, and the strongest will have what there +is. It is a rest to vegetation, too, a kind of torrid winter that is +followed by a fresh awakening. Every tree and plant learns a lesson +from it, learns to shoot its roots down deep into the perennial +supplies of moisture and life. + +But when the rain does come, the warm, sun-distilled rain; the +far-traveling, vapor-born rain; the impartial, undiscriminating, +unstinted rain; equable, bounteous, myriad-eyed, searching out every +plant and every spear of grass, finding every hidden thing that needs +water, falling upon the just and upon the unjust, sponging off every +leaf of every tree in the forest and every growth in the fields; +music to the ear, a perfume to the smell, an enchantment to the eye; +healing the earth, cleansing the air, renewing the fountains; honey +to the bee, manna to the herds, and life to all creatures,--what +spectacle so fills the heart? "Rain, rain, O dear Zeus, down on the +plowed fields of the Athenians, and on the plains." + +There is a fine sibilant chorus audible in the sod, and in the dust of +the road, and in the porous plowed fields. Every grain of soil and +every root and rootlet purrs in satisfaction, Because something more +than water comes down when it rains; you cannot produce this effect by +simple water; the good-will of the elements, the consent and +approbation of all the skyey influences, come down; the harmony, the +adjustment, the perfect understanding of the soil beneath and the air +that swims above, are implied in the marvelous benefaction of the rain. +The earth is ready; the moist winds have wooed it and prepared it, the +electrical conditions are as they should be, and there are love and +passion in the surrender of the summer clouds. How the drops are +absorbed into the ground! You cannot, I say, succeed like this with +your hose or sprinkling-pot. There is no ardor or electricity in the +drops, no ammonia, or ozone, or other nameless properties borrowed from +the air. + +Then one has not the gentleness and patience of Nature; we puddle the +ground in our hurry, we seal it up and exclude the air, and the plants +are worse off than before. When the sky is overcast and it is getting +ready to rain, the moisture rises in the ground, the earth opens her +pores and seconds the desire of the clouds. + +Indeed, I have found there is but little virtue in a sprinkling-pot +after the drought has reached a certain pitch. The soil will not absorb +the water. 'Tis like throwing it on a hot stove. I once concentrated my +efforts upon a single hill of corn and deluged it with water night and +morning for several days, yet its leaves curled up and the ears failed +the same as the rest. Something may be done, without doubt, if one +begins in time, but the relief seems strangely inadequate to the means +often used. In rainless countries good crops are produced by +irrigation, but here man can imitate in a measure the patience and +bounty of Nature, and, with night to aid him, can make his thirsty +fields drink, or rather can pour the water down their throats. + +I have said the rain is as necessary to man as to vegetation. You +cannot have a rank, sappy race, like the English or the German, without +plenty of moisture in the air and in the soil. Good viscera and an +abundance of blood are closely related to meteorological conditions, +unction of character, and a flow of animal spirits, too; and I suspect +that much of the dry and rarefied humor of New England, as well as the +thin and sharp physiognomies, are climatic results. We have rain +enough, but not equability of temperature or moisture,--no steady, +abundant supply of humidity in the air. In places in Great Britain it +is said to rain on an average three days out of four the year through; +yet the depth of rainfall is no greater than in this country, where it +rains but the one day out of four. John Bull shows those three rainy +days both in his temper and in his bodily habit; he is better for them +in many ways, and perhaps not quite so good in a few others: they make +him juicy and vascular, and maybe a little opaque; but we in this +country could well afford a few of his negative qualities for the sake +of his stomach and full-bloodedness. + +We have such faith in the virtue of the rain, and in the capacity of +the clouds to harbor and transport material good, that we more than +half believe the stories of the strange and anomalous things that have +fallen in showers. There is no credible report that it has ever yet +rained pitchforks, but many other curious things have fallen. Fish, +flesh, and fowl, and substances that were neither, have been picked up +by veracious people after a storm. Manna, blood, and honey, frogs, +newts, and fish-worms, are among the curious things the clouds are +supposed to yield. If the clouds scooped up their water as the flying +express train does, these phenomena could be easier explained. I myself +have seen curious things. Riding along the road one day on the heels of +a violent summer tempest, I saw the ground swarming with minute hopping +creatures. I got out and captured my hands full. They proved to be +tree-toads, many of them no larger than crickets, and none of them +larger than a bumblebee. There seemed to be thousands of them. The mark +of the tree-toad was the round, flattened ends of their toes. I took +some of them home, but they died the next day. Where did they come +from? I imagined the violent wind swept them off the trees in the woods +to windward of the road. But this is only a guess; maybe they crept out +of the ground, or from under the wall near by, and were out to wet +their jackets. + +I have never yet heard of a frog coming down chimney in a shower. Some +circumstantial evidence may be pretty conclusive, Thoreau says, as when +you find a trout in the milk; and if you find a frog or toad behind the +fire-board immediately after a shower, you may well ask him to explain +himself. + +When I was a boy I used to wonder if the clouds were hollow and carried +their water as in a cask, because had we not often heard of clouds +bursting and producing havoc and ruin beneath them? The hoops gave way, +perhaps, or the head was pressed out. Goethe says that when the +barometer rises, the clouds are spun off from the top downward like a +distaff of flax; but this is more truly the process when it rains. When +fair weather is in the ascendant, the clouds are simply reabsorbed by +the air; but when it rains, they are spun off into something more +compact: 'tis like the threads that issue from the mass of flax or +roll of wool, only here there are innumerable threads, and the fingers +that hold them never tire. The great spinning-wheel, too, what a +humming it makes at times, and how the footsteps of the invisible +spinner resound through the cloud-pillared chambers! + +The clouds are thus literally spun up into water; and were they not +constantly recruited from the atmosphere as the storm-centre travels +along,--was new wool not forthcoming from the white sheep and the black +sheep that the winds herd at every point,--all rains would be brief and +local; the storm would quickly exhaust itself, as we sometimes see a +thunder-cloud do in summer. A storm will originate in the far West or +Southwest--those hatching-places of all our storms--and travel across +the continent, and across the Atlantic to Europe, pouring down +incalculable quantities of rain as it progresses and recruiting as it +wastes. It is a moving vortex, into which the outlying moisture of the +atmosphere is being constantly drawn and precipitated. It is not +properly the storm that travels, but the low pressure, the storm +impulse, the meteorological magnet that makes the storm wherever its +presence may be. The clouds are not watering-carts, that are driven all +the way from Arizona or Colorado to Europe, but growths, developments +that spring up as the Storm-deity moves his wand across the land. In +advance of the storm, you may often see the clouds grow; the +condensation of the moisture into vapor is a visible process; slender, +spiculae-like clouds expand, deepen, and lengthen; in the rear of the +low pressure, the reverse process, or the wasting of the clouds, may be +witnessed. In summer, the recruiting of a thunder-storm is often very +marked. I have seen the clouds file as straight across the sky toward a +growing storm or thunder-head in the horizon as soldiers hastening to +the point of attack or defense. They would grow more and more black and +threatening as they advanced, and actually seemed to be driven by more +urgent winds than certain other clouds. They were, no doubt, more in +the line of the storm influence. All our general storms are cyclonic in +their character, that is, rotary and progressive. Their type may be +seen in every little whirlpool that goes down the swollen current of +the river; and in our hemisphere they revolve in the same direction, +namely, from right to left, or in opposition to the hands of a watch. +When the water finds an outlet through the bottom of a dam, a suction +or whirling vortex is developed that generally goes round in the same +direction. A morning-glory or a hop-vine or a pole-bean winds around +its support in the same course, and cannot be made to wind in any +other. I am aware there are some perverse climbers among the plants +that persist in going around the pole in the other direction. In the +southern hemisphere the cyclone revolves in the other direction, or +from left to right. How do they revolve at the equator, then? They do +not revolve at all. This is the point of zero, and cyclones are never +formed nearer than the third parallel of latitude. Whether hop-vines +also refuse to wind about the pole there I am unable to say. + +All our cyclones originate in the far Southwest and travel northeast. +Why did we wait for the Weather Bureau to tell us this fact? Do not all +the filmy, hazy, cirrus and cirro-stratus clouds first appear from the +general direction of the sunset? Who ever saw them pushing their opaque +filaments over the sky from the east or north? Yet do we not have +"northeasters" both winter and summer? True, but the storm does not +come from that direction. In such a case we get that segment of the +cyclonic whirl. A northeaster in one place may be an easter, a norther, +or a souther in some other locality. See through those drifting, +drenching clouds that come hurrying out of the northeast, and there are +the boss-clouds above them, the great captains themselves, moving +serenely on in the opposite direction. + +Electricity is, of course, an important agent in storms. It is the +great organizer and ring-master. How a clap of thunder will shake down +the rain! It gives the clouds a smart rap; it jostles the vapor so that +the particles fall together more quickly; it makes the drops let go in +double and treble ranks. Nature likes to be helped in that way,--likes +to have the water agitated when she is freezing it or heating it, and +the clouds smitten when she is compressing them into rain. So does a +shock of surprise quicken the pulse in man, and in the crisis of action +help him to a decision. + +What a spur and impulse the summer shower is! How its coming quickens +and hurries up the slow, jogging country life! The traveler along the +dusty road arouses from his reverie at the warning rumble behind the +hills; the children hasten from the field or from the school; the +farmer steps lively and thinks fast. In the hay-field, at the first +signal-gun of the elements, what a commotion! How the horserake +rattles, how the pitchforks fly, how the white sleeves play and twinkle +in the sun or against the dark background of the coming storm! One man +does the work of two or three. It is a race with the elements, and the +hay-makers do not like to be beaten. The rain that is life to the grass +when growing is poison to it after it becomes cured hay, and it must be +got under shelter, or put up into snug cocks, if possible, before the +storm overtakes it. + +The rains of winter are cold and odorless. One prefers the snow, which +warms and covers; but can there be anything more delicious than the +first warm April rain,--the first offering of the softened and pacified +clouds of spring? The weather has been dry, perhaps, for two or three +weeks; we have had a touch of the dreaded drought thus early; the roads +are dusty, the streams again shrunken, and forest fires send up columns +of smoke on every hand; the frost has all been out of the ground many +days; the snow has all disappeared from the mountains; the sun is warm, +but the grass does not grow, nor the early seeds come up. The +quickening spirit of the rain is needed. Presently the wind gets in the +southwest, and, late in the day, we have our first vernal shower, +gentle and leisurely, but every drop condensed from warm tropic vapors +and charged with the very essence of spring. Then what a perfume fills +the air! One's nostrils are not half large enough to take it in. The +smoke, washed by the rain, becomes the breath of woods, and the soil +and the newly plowed fields give out an odor that dilates the sense. +How the buds of the trees swell, how the grass greens, how the birds +rejoice! Hear the robins laugh! This will bring out the worms and the +insects, and start the foliage of the trees. A summer shower has more +copiousness and power, but this has the charm of freshness and of all +first things. + +The laws of storms, up to a certain point, have come to be pretty well +understood, but there is yet no science of the weather, any more than +there is of human nature. There is about as much room for speculation +in the one case as in the other. The causes and agencies are subtle and +obscure, and we shall, perhaps, have the metaphysics of the subject +before we have the physics. + +But as there are persons who can read human nature pretty well, so +there are those who can read the weather. + +It is a masculine subject, and quite beyond the province of woman. Ask +those who spend their time in the open air,--the farmer, the sailor, +the soldier, the walker; ask the birds, the beasts, the tree-toads: +they know, if they will only tell. The farmer diagnoses the weather +daily, as the doctor a patient: he feels the pulse of the wind; he +knows when the clouds have a scurfy tongue, or when the cuticle of the +day is feverish and dry, or soft and moist. Certain days he calls +"weather-breeders," and they are usually the fairest days in the +calendar,--all sun and sky. They are too fair; they are suspiciously +so. They come in the fall and spring, and always mean mischief. When a +day of almost unnatural brightness and clearness in either of these +seasons follows immediately after a storm, it is a sure indication that +another storm follows close,--follows to-morrow. In keeping with this +fact is the rule of the barometer, that, if the mercury suddenly rises +very high, the fair weather will not last. It is a high peak that +indicates a corresponding depression close at hand. I observed one of +these angelic mischief-makers during the past October. The second day +after a heavy fall of rain was the fairest of the fair,--not a speck or +film in all the round of the sky. Where have all the clouds and vapors +gone to so suddenly? was my mute inquiry, but I suspected they were +plotting together somewhere behind the horizon. The sky was a deep +ultramarine blue; the air so transparent that distant objects seemed +near, and the afternoon shadows were sharp and clear. At night the +stars were unusually numerous and bright (a sure sign of an approaching +storm). The sky was laid bare, as the tidal wave empties the shore of +its water before it heaps it up upon it. A violent storm of wind and +rain the next day followed this delusive brightness. So the weather, +like human nature, may be suspiciously transparent. A saintly day may +undo you. A few clouds do not mean rain; but when there are absolutely +none, when even the haze and filmy vapors are suppressed or held back, +then beware. + +Then the weather-wise know there are two kinds of clouds, rain-clouds +and wind-clouds, and that the latter are always the most portentous. In +summer they are black as night; they look as if they would blot out the +very earth. They raise a great dust, and set things flying and slamming +for a moment, and that is all. They are the veritable wind-bags of +AEolus. There is something in the look of rain-clouds that is +unmistakable,--a firm, gray, tightly woven look that makes you remember +your umbrella. Not too high nor too low, not black nor blue, but the +form and hue of wet, unbleached linen. You see the river water in them; +they are heavy-laden, and move slow. Sometimes they develop what are +called "mares' tails,"--small cloud-forms here and there against a +heavy background, that look like the stroke of a brush, or the +streaming tail of a charger. Sometimes a few under-clouds will be +combed and groomed by the winds or other meteoric agencies at work, as +if for a race. I have seen coming storms develop well-defined +vertebrae,--a long backbone of cloud, with the articulations and +processes clearly marked. Any of these forms, changing, growing, denote +rain, because they show unusual agencies at work. The storm is brewing +and fermenting. "See those cowlicks," said an old farmer, pointing to +certain patches on the clouds; "they mean rain." Another time, he said +the clouds were "making bag," had growing udders, and that it would +rain before night, as it did. This reminded me that the Orientals speak +of the clouds as cows which the winds herd and milk. + +In the winter, we see the sun wading in snow. The morning has perhaps +been clear, but in the afternoon a bank of gray filmy or cirrus cloud +meets him in the west, and he sinks deeper and deeper into it, till, at +his going down, his muffled beams are entirely hidden. Then, on the +morrow, _not_ + + "Announced by all the trumpets of the sky," + +but silent as night, the white legions are here. + +The old signs seldom fail,--a red and angry sunrise, or flushed clouds +at evening. Many a hope of rain have I seen dashed by a painted sky at +sunset. There is truth in the old couplet, too:-- + + "If it rains before seven, + It will clear before eleven." + +An old Indian had a sign for winter: "If the wind blows the snow off +the trees, the next storm will be snow; if it rains off, the next storm +will be rain." + +Morning rains are usually short-lived. Better wait till ten o'clock. + +When the clouds are chilled, they turn blue and rise up. + +When the fog leaves the mountains, reaching upward, as if afraid of +being left behind, the fair weather is near. + +Shoddy clouds are of little account, and soon fall to pieces. Have your +clouds show a good strong fibre, and have them lined,--not with silver, +but with other clouds of a finer texture,--and have them wadded. It +wants two or three thicknesses to get up a good rain. Especially, +unless you have that cloud-mother, that dim, filmy, nebulous mass that +has its root in the higher regions of the air, and is the source and +backing of all storms, your rain will be light indeed. + +I fear my reader's jacket is not thoroughly soaked yet. I must give him +a final dash, a "clear-up" shower. + +We were encamping in the primitive woods, by a little trout lake which +the mountain carried high on his hip, like a soldier's canteen. There +were wives in the party, curious to know what the lure was that +annually drew their husbands to the woods. That magical writing on a +trout's back they would fain decipher, little heeding the warning that +what is written here is not given to woman to know. + +Our only tent or roof was the sheltering arms of the great birches and +maples. What was sauce for the gander should be sauce for the goose, +too, so the goose insisted. A luxurious couch of boughs upon springing +poles was prepared, and the night should be not less welcome than the +day, which had indeed been idyllic. (A trout dinner had been served by +a little spring brook, upon an improvised table covered with moss and +decked with ferns, with strawberries from a near clearing.) + +At twilight there was an ominous rumble behind the mountains. I was on +the lake, and could see what was brewing there in the west. + +As darkness came on, the rumbling increased, and the mountains and the +woods and the still air were such good conductors of sound that the ear +was vividly impressed. One seemed to feel the enormous convolutions of +the clouds in the deep and jarring tones of the thunder. The coming of +night in the woods is alone peculiarly impressive, and it is doubly so +when out of the darkness comes such a voice as this. But we fed the +fire the more industriously, and piled the logs high, and kept the +gathering gloom at bay by as large a circle of light as we could +command. The lake was a pool of ink and as still as if congealed; not a +movement or a sound, save now and then a terrific volley from the cloud +batteries now fast approaching. By nine o'clock little puffs of wind +began to steal through the woods and tease and toy with our fire. +Shortly after, an enormous electric bombshell exploded in the treetops +over our heads, and the ball was fairly opened. Then followed three +hours, with only two brief intermissions, of as lively elemental music +and as copious an outpouring of rain as it was ever my lot to witness. +It was a regular meteorological carnival, and the revelers were drunk +with the wild sport. The apparent nearness of the clouds and the +electric explosions was something remarkable. Every discharge seemed to +be in the branches immediately overhead and made us involuntarily +cower, as if the next moment the great limbs of the trees, or the trees +themselves, would come crashing down. The mountain upon which we were +encamped appeared to be the focus of three distinct but converging +storms. The last two seemed to come into collision immediately over our +camp-fire, and to contend for the right of way, until the heavens were +ready to fall and both antagonists were literally spent. We stood in +groups about the struggling fire, and when the cannonade became too +terrible would withdraw into the cover of the darkness, as if to be a +less conspicuous mark for the bolts; or did we fear that the fire, with +its currents, might attract the lightning? At any rate, some other spot +than the one where we happened to be standing seemed desirable when +those onsets of the contending elements were the most furious. +Something that one could not catch in his hat was liable to drop almost +anywhere any minute. The alarm and consternation of the wives +communicated itself to the husbands, and they looked solemn and +concerned. The air was filled with falling water. The sound upon the +myriad leaves and branches was like the roar of a cataract. We put our +backs up against the great trees, only to catch a brook on our +shoulders or in the backs of our necks. Still the storm waxed. The fire +was beaten down lower and lower. It surrendered one post after another, +like a besieged city, and finally made only a feeble resistance from +beneath a pile of charred logs and branches in the centre. Our garments +yielded to the encroachments of the rain in about the same manner. I +believe my necktie held out the longest, and carried a few dry threads +safely through. Our cunningly devised and bedecked table, which the +housekeepers had so doted on and which was ready spread for breakfast, +was washed as by the hose of a fire-engine,--only the bare poles +remained,--and the couch of springing boughs, that was to make Sleep +jealous and o'er-fond, became a bed fit only for amphibians. Still the +loosened floods came down; still the great cloud-mortars bellowed and +exploded their missiles in the treetops above us. But all nervousness +finally passed away, and we became dogged and resigned. Our minds +became water-soaked; our thoughts were heavy and bedraggled. We were +past the point of joking at one another's expense. The witticisms +failed to kindle,--indeed, failed to go, like the matches in our +pockets. About midnight the rain slackened, and by one o'clock ceased +entirely. How the rest of the night was passed beneath the dripping +trees and upon the saturated ground, I have only the dimmest +remembrance. All is watery and opaque; the fog settles down and +obscures the scene. But I suspect I tried the "wet pack" without being +a convert to hydropathy. When the morning dawned, the wives begged to +be taken home, convinced that the charms of camping-out were greatly +overrated. We, who had tasted this cup before, knew they had read at +least a part of the legend of the wary trout without knowing it. + + + + +V + +SPECKLED TROUT + + +I + +The legend of the wary trout, hinted at in the last sketch, is to be +further illustrated in this and some following chapters. We shall get +at more of the meaning of those dark water-lines, and I hope, also, not +entirely miss the significance of the gold and silver spots and the +glancing iridescent hues. The trout is dark and obscure above, but +behind this foil there are wondrous tints that reward the believing +eye. Those who seek him in his wild remote haunts are quite sure to get +the full force of the sombre and uninviting aspects,--the wet, the +cold, the toil, the broken rest, and the huge, savage, uncompromising +nature,--but the true angler sees farther than these, and is never +thwarted of his legitimate reward by them. + +I have been a seeker of trout from my boyhood, and on all the +expeditions in which this fish has been the ostensible purpose I have +brought home more game than my creel showed. In fact, in my mature +years I find I got more of nature into me, more of the woods, the wild, +nearer to bird and beast, while threading my native streams for trout, +than in almost any other way. It furnished a good excuse to go forth; +it pitched one in the right key; it sent one through the fat and +marrowy places of field and wood. Then the fisherman has a harmless, +preoccupied look; he is a kind of vagrant that nothing fears. He blends +himself with the trees and the shadows. All his approaches are gentle +and indirect. He times himself to the meandering, soliloquizing stream; +its impulse bears him along. At the foot of the waterfall he sits +sequestered and hidden in its volume of sound. The birds know he has no +designs upon them, and the animals see that his mind is in the creek. +His enthusiasm anneals him, and makes him pliable to the scenes and +influences he moves among. + +Then what acquaintance he makes with the stream! He addresses himself +to it as a lover to his mistress; he wooes it and stays with it till he +knows its most hidden secrets. It runs through his thoughts not less +than through its banks there; he feels the fret and thrust of every bar +and boulder. Where it deepens, his purpose deepens; where it is +shallow, he is indifferent. He knows how to interpret its every glance +and dimple; its beauty haunts him for days. + +I am sure I run no risk of overpraising the charm and attractiveness of +a well-fed trout stream, every drop of water in it as bright and pure +as if the nymphs had brought it all the way from its source in crystal +goblets, and as cool as if it had been hatched beneath a glacier. When +the heated and soiled and jaded refugee from the city first sees one, +he feels as if he would like to turn it into his bosom and let it flow +through him a few hours, it suggests such healing freshness and +newness. How his roily thoughts would run clear; how the sediment would +go downstream! Could he ever have an impure or an unwholesome wish +afterward? The next best thing he can do is to tramp along its banks +and surrender himself to its influence. If he reads it intently enough, +he will, in a measure, be taking it into his mind and heart, and +experiencing its salutary ministrations. + +Trout streams coursed through every valley my boyhood knew. I crossed +them, and was often lured and detained by them, on my way to and from +school. We bathed in them during the long summer noons, and felt for +the trout under their banks. A holiday was a holiday indeed that +brought permission to go fishing over on Rose's Brook, or up +Hardscrabble, or in Meeker's Hollow; all-day trips, from morning till +night, through meadows and pastures and beechen woods, wherever the +shy, limpid stream led. What an appetite it developed! a hunger that +was fierce and aboriginal, and that the wild strawberries we plucked as +we crossed the hill teased rather than allayed. When but a few hours +could be had, gained perhaps by doing some piece of work about the farm +or garden in half the allotted time, the little creek that headed in +the paternal domain was handy; when half a day was at one's disposal, +there were the hemlocks, less than a mile distant, with their +loitering, meditative, log-impeded stream and their dusky, fragrant +depths. Alert and wide-eyed, one picked his way along, startled now and +then by the sudden bursting-up of the partridge, or by the whistling +wings of the "dropping snipe," pressing through the brush and the +briers, or finding an easy passage over the trunk of a prostrate tree, +carefully letting his hook down through some tangle into a still pool, +or standing in some high, sombre avenue and watching his line float in +and out amid the moss-covered boulders. In my first essayings I used to +go to the edge of these hemlocks, seldom dipping into them beyond the +first pool where the stream swept under the roots of two large trees. +From this point I could look back into the sunlit fields where the +cattle were grazing; beyond, all was gloom and mystery; the trout were +black, and to my young imagination the silence and the shadows were +blacker. But gradually I yielded to the fascination and penetrated the +woods farther and farther on each expedition, till the heart of the +mystery was fairly plucked out. During the second or third year of my +piscatorial experience I went through them, and through the pasture and +meadow beyond, and through another strip of hemlocks, to where the +little stream joined the main creek of the valley. + +In June, when my trout fever ran pretty high, and an auspicious day +arrived, I would make a trip to a stream a couple of miles distant, +that came down out of a comparatively new settlement. It was a rapid +mountain brook presenting many difficult problems to the young angler, +but a very enticing stream for all that, with its two saw-mill dams, +its pretty cascades, its high, shelving rocks sheltering the mossy +nests of the phoebe-bird, and its general wild and forbidding aspects. + +But a meadow brook was always a favorite. The trout like meadows; +doubtless their food is more abundant there, and, usually, the good +hiding-places are more numerous. As soon as you strike a meadow the +character of the creek changes: it goes slower and lies deeper; it +tarries to enjoy the high, cool banks and to half hide beneath them; it +loves the willows, or rather the willows love it and shelter it from +the sun; its spring runs are kept cool by the overhanging grass, and +the heavy turf that faces its open banks is not cut away by the sharp +hoofs of the grazing cattle. Then there are the bobolinks and the +starlings and the meadowlarks, always interested spectators of the +angler; there are also the marsh marigolds, the buttercups, or the +spotted lilies, and the good angler is always an interested spectator +of them. In fact, the patches of meadow land that lie in the angler's +course are like the happy experiences in his own life, or like the fine +passages in the poem he is reading; the pasture oftener contains the +shallow and monotonous places. In the small streams the cattle scare +the fish, and soil their element and break down their retreats under +the banks. Woodland alternates the best with meadow: the creek loves to +burrow under the roots of a great tree, to scoop out a pool after +leaping over the prostrate trunk of one, and to pause at the foot of a +ledge of moss-covered rocks, with ice-cold water dripping down. How +straight the current goes for the rock! Note its corrugated, muscular +appearance; it strikes and glances off, but accumulates, deepens with +well-defined eddies above and to one side; on the edge of these the +trout lurk and spring upon their prey. + +The angler learns that it is generally some obstacle or hindrance that +makes a deep place in the creek, as in a brave life; and his ideal +brook is one that lies in deep, well-defined banks, yet makes many a +shift from right to left, meets with many rebuffs and adventures, +hurled back upon itself by rocks, waylaid by snags and trees, tripped +up by precipices, but sooner or later reposing under meadow banks, +deepening and eddying beneath bridges, or prosperous and strong in some +level stretch of cultivated land with great elms shading it here and +there. + +But I early learned that from almost any stream in a trout country the +true angler could take trout, and that the great secret was this, that, +whatever bait you used, worm, grasshopper, grub, or fly, there was one +thing you must always put upon your hook, namely, your heart: when you +bait your hook with your heart the fish always bite; they will jump +clear from the water after it; they will dispute with each other over +it; it is a morsel they love above everything else. With such bait I +have seen the born angler (my grandfather was one) take a noble string +of trout from the most unpromising waters, and on the most unpromising +day. He used his hook so coyly and tenderly, he approached the fish +with such address and insinuation, he divined the exact spot where they +lay: if they were not eager, he humored them and seemed to steal by +them; if they were playful and coquettish, he would suit his mood to +theirs; if they were frank and sincere, he met them halfway; he was so +patient and considerate, so entirely devoted to pleasing the critical +trout, and so successful in his efforts,--surely his heart was upon his +hook, and it was a tender, unctuous heart, too, as that of every angler +is. How nicely he would measure the distance! how dexterously he would +avoid an overhanging limb or bush and drop the line exactly in the +right spot! Of course there was a pulse of feeling and sympathy to the +extremity of that line. If your heart is a stone, however, or an empty +husk, there is no use to put it upon your hook; it will not tempt the +fish; the bait must be quick and fresh. Indeed, a certain quality of +youth is indispensable to the successful angler, a certain +unworldliness and readiness to invest yourself in an enterprise that +doesn't pay in the current coin. Not only is the angler, like the +poet, born and not made, as Walton says, but there is a deal of the +poet in him, and he is to be judged no more harshly; he is the victim +of his genius: those wild streams, how they haunt him! he will play +truant to dull care, and flee to them; their waters impart somewhat of +their own perpetual youth to him. My grandfather when he was eighty +years old would take down his pole as eagerly as any boy, and step off +with wonderful elasticity toward the beloved streams; it used to try my +young legs a good deal to follow him, specially on the return trip. And +no poet was ever more innocent of worldly success or ambition. For, to +paraphrase Tennyson,-- + + "Lusty trout to him were scrip and share, + And babbling waters more than cent for cent." + +He laid up treasures, but they were not in this world. In fact, though +the kindest of husbands, I fear he was not what the country people call +a "good provider," except in providing trout in their season, though it +is doubtful if there was always fat in the house to fry them in. But he +could tell you they were worse off than that at Valley Forge, and that +trout, or any other fish, were good roasted in the ashes under the +coals. He had the Walton requisite of loving quietness and +contemplation, and was devout withal. Indeed, in many ways he was akin +to those Galilee fishermen who were called to be fishers of men. How he +read the Book and pored over it, even at times, I suspect, nodding over +it, and laying it down only to take up his rod, over which, unless the +trout were very dilatory and the journey very fatiguing, he never +nodded! + + +II + +The Delaware is one of our minor rivers, but it is a stream beloved of +the trout. Nearly all its remote branches head in mountain springs, and +its collected waters, even when warmed by the summer sun, are as sweet +and wholesome as dew swept from the grass. The Hudson wins from it two +streams that are fathered by the mountains from whose loins most of its +beginnings issue, namely, the Rondout and the Esopus. These swell a +more illustrious current than the Delaware, but the Rondout, one of the +finest trout streams in the world, makes an uncanny alliance before it +reaches its destination, namely, with the malarious Wallkill. + +In the same nest of mountains from which they start are born the +Neversink and the Beaverkill, streams of wondrous beauty that flow +south and west into the Delaware. From my native hills I could catch +glimpses of the mountains in whose laps these creeks were cradled, but +it was not till after many years, and after dwelling in a country where +trout are not found, that I returned to pay my respects to them as an +angler. + +My first acquaintance with the Neversink was made in company with some +friends in 1869. We passed up the valley of the Big Ingin, marveling at +its copious ice-cold springs, and its immense sweep of heavy-timbered +mountain-sides. Crossing the range at its head, we struck the Neversink +quite unexpectedly about the middle of the afternoon, at a point where +it was a good-sized trout stream. It proved to be one of those black +mountain brooks born of innumerable ice-cold springs, nourished in +the shade, and shod, as it were, with thick-matted moss, that every +camper-out remembers. The fish are as black as the stream and very wild. +They dart from beneath the fringed rocks, or dive with the hook into +the dusky depths,--an integral part of the silence and the shadows. The +spell of the moss is over all. The fisherman's tread is noiseless, as +he leaps from stone to stone and from ledge to ledge along the bed of +the stream. How cool it is! He looks up the dark, silent defile, hears +the solitary voice of the water, sees the decayed trunks of fallen +trees bridging the stream, and all he has dreamed, when a boy, of the +haunts of beasts of prey--the crouching feline tribes, especially if it +be near nightfall and the gloom already deepening in the woods--comes +freshly to mind, and he presses on, wary and alert, and speaking to his +companions in low tones. + +After an hour or so the trout became less abundant, and with nearly a +hundred of the black sprites in our baskets we turned back. Here and +there I saw the abandoned nests of the pigeons, sometimes half a dozen +in one tree. In a yellow birch which the floods had uprooted, a number +of nests were still in place, little shelves or platforms of twigs +loosely arranged, and affording little or no protection to the eggs or +the young birds against inclement weather. + +Before we had reached our companions the rain set in again and forced +us to take shelter under a balsam. When it slackened we moved on and +soon came up with Aaron, who had caught his first trout, and, +considerably drenched, was making his way toward camp, which one of the +party had gone forward to build. After traveling less than a mile, we +saw a smoke struggling up through the dripping trees, and in a few +moments were all standing round a blazing fire. But the rain now +commenced again, and fairly poured down through the trees, rendering +the prospect of cooking and eating our supper there in the woods, and +of passing the night on the ground without tent or cover of any kind, +rather disheartening. We had been told of a bark shanty a couple of +miles farther down the creek, and thitherward we speedily took up our +line of march. When we were on the point of discontinuing the search, +thinking we had been misinformed or had passed it by, we came in sight +of a bark-peeling, in the midst of which a small log house lifted its +naked rafters toward the now breaking sky. It had neither floor nor +roof, and was less inviting on first sight than the open woods. But a +board partition was still standing, out of which we built a rude porch +on the east side of the house, large enough for us all to sleep under +if well packed, and eat under if we stood up. There was plenty of +well-seasoned timber lying about, and a fire was soon burning in front +of our quarters that made the scene social and picturesque, especially +when the frying-pans were brought into requisition, and the coffee, in +charge of Aaron, who was an artist in this line, mingled its aroma with +the wild-wood air. At dusk a balsam was felled, and the tips of the +branches used to make a bed, which was more fragrant than soft; hemlock +is better, because its needles are finer and its branches more elastic. + +There was a spirt or two of rain during the night, but not enough to +find out the leaks in our roof. It took the shower or series of showers +of the next day to do that. They commenced about two o'clock in the +afternoon. The forenoon had been fine, and we had brought into camp +nearly three hundred trout; but before they were half dressed, or the +first panfuls fried, the rain set in. First came short, sharp dashes, +then a gleam of treacherous sunshine, followed by more and heavier +dashes. The wind was in the southwest, and to rain seemed the easiest +thing in the world. From fitful dashes to a steady pour the transition +was natural. We stood huddled together, stark and grim, under our +cover, like hens under a cart. The fire fought bravely for a time, and +retaliated with sparks and spiteful tongues of flame; but gradually its +spirit was broken, only a heavy body of coal and half-consumed logs in +the centre holding out against all odds. The simmering fish were soon +floating about in a yellow liquid that did not look in the least +appetizing. Point after point gave way in our cover, till standing +between the drops was no longer possible. The water coursed down the +underside of the boards, and dripped in our necks and formed puddles on +our hat-brims. We shifted our guns and traps and viands, till there was +no longer any choice of position, when the loaves and the fishes, the +salt and the sugar, the pork and the butter, shared the same watery +fate. The fire was gasping its last. Little rivulets coursed about it, +and bore away the quenched but steaming coals on their bosoms. The +spring run in the rear of our camp swelled so rapidly that part of the +trout that had been hastily left lying on its banks again found +themselves quite at home. For over two hours the floods came down. +About four o'clock Orville, who had not yet come from the day's sport, +appeared. To say Orville was wet is not much; he was better than +that,--he had been washed and rinsed in at least half a dozen waters, +and the trout that he bore dangling at the end of a string hardly +knew that they had been out of their proper element. + +But he brought welcome news. He had been two or three miles down the +creek, and had seen a log building,--whether house or stable he did not +know, but it had the appearance of having a good roof, which was +inducement enough for us instantly to leave our present quarters. Our +course lay along an old wood-road, and much of the time we were to our +knees in water. The woods were literally flooded everywhere. Every +little rill and springlet ran like a mill-tail, while the main stream +rushed and roared, foaming, leaping, lashing, its volume increased +fifty-fold. The water was not roily, but of a rich coffee-color, from +the leachings of the woods. No more trout for the next three days! we +thought, as we looked upon the rampant stream. + +After we had labored and floundered along for about an hour, the road +turned to the left, and in a little stumpy clearing near the creek a +gable uprose on our view. It did not prove to be just such a place as +poets love to contemplate. It required a greater effort of the +imagination than any of us were then capable of to believe it had ever +been a favorite resort of wood-nymphs or sylvan deities. It savored +rather of the equine and the bovine. The bark-men had kept their teams +there, horses on the one side and oxen on the other, and no Hercules +had ever done duty in cleansing the stables. But there was a dry loft +overhead with some straw, where we might get some sleep, in spite of +the rain and the midges; a double layer of boards, standing at a very +acute angle, would keep off the former, while the mingled refuse hay +and muck beneath would nurse a smoke that would prove a thorough +protection against the latter. And then, when Jim, the two-handed, +mounting the trunk of a prostrate maple near by, had severed it thrice +with easy and familiar stroke, and, rolling the logs in front of the +shanty, had kindled a fire, which, getting the better of the dampness, +soon cast a bright glow over all, shedding warmth and light even into +the dingy stable, I consented to unsling my knapsack and accept the +situation. The rain had ceased, and the sun shone out behind the woods. +We had trout sufficient for present needs; and after my first meal in +an ox-stall, I strolled out on the rude log bridge to watch the angry +Neversink rush by. Its waters fell quite as rapidly as they rose, and +before sundown it looked as if we might have fishing again on the +morrow. We had better sleep that night than either night before, though +there were two disturbing causes,--the smoke in the early part of it, +and the cold in the latter. The "no-see-ems" left in disgust; and, +though disgusted myself, I swallowed the smoke as best I could, and +hugged my pallet of straw the closer. But the day dawned bright, and a +plunge in the Neversink set me all right again. The creek, to our +surprise and gratification, was only a little higher than before the +rain, and some of the finest trout we had yet seen we caught that +morning near camp. + +We tarried yet another day and night at the old stable, but taking our +meals outside squatted on the ground, which had now become quite dry. +Part of the day I spent strolling about the woods, looking up old +acquaintances among the birds, and, as always, half expectant of making +some new ones. Curiously enough, the most abundant species were among +those I had found rare in most other localities, namely, the small +water-wagtail, the mourning ground warbler, and the yellow-bellied +woodpecker. The latter seems to be the prevailing woodpecker through +the woods of this region. + +That night the midges, those motes that sting, held high carnival. We +learned afterward, in the settlement below and from the barkpeelers, +that it was the worst night ever experienced in that valley. We had +done no fishing during the day, but had anticipated some fine sport +about sundown. Accordingly Aaron and I started off between six and +seven o'clock, one going upstream and the other down. The scene was +charming. The sun shot up great spokes of light from behind the woods, +and beauty, like a presence, pervaded the atmosphere. But torment, +multiplied as the sands of the seashore, lurked in every tangle and +thicket. In a thoughtless moment I removed my shoes and socks, and +waded in the water to secure a fine trout that had accidentally slipped +from my string and was helplessly floating with the current. This +caused some delay and gave the gnats time to accumulate. Before I had +got one foot half dressed I was enveloped in a black mist that settled +upon my hands and neck and face, filling my ears with infinitesimal +pipings and covering my flesh with infinitesimal bitings. I thought I +should have to flee to the friendly fumes of the old stable, with "one +stocking off and one stocking on;" but I got my shoe on at last, though +not without many amusing interruptions and digressions. + +In a few moments after this adventure I was in rapid retreat toward +camp. Just as I reached the path leading from the shanty to the creek, +my companion in the same ignoble flight reached it also, his hat broken +and rumpled, and his sanguine countenance looking more sanguinary than +I had ever before seen it, and his speech, also, in the highest degree +inflammatory. His face and forehead were as blotched and swollen as if +he had just run his head into a hornets' nest, and his manner as +precipitate as if the whole swarm was still at his back. + +No smoke or smudge which we ourselves could endure was sufficient in +the earlier part of that evening to prevent serious annoyance from the +same cause; but later a respite was granted us. + +About ten o'clock, as we stood round our camp-fire, we were startled by +a brief but striking display of the aurora borealis. My imagination had +already been excited by talk of legends and of weird shapes and +appearances, and when, on looking up toward the sky, I saw those pale, +phantasmal waves of magnetic light chasing each other across the little +opening above our heads, and at first sight seeming barely to clear the +treetops, I was as vividly impressed as if I had caught a glimpse of a +veritable spectre of the Neversink. The sky shook and trembled like a +great white curtain. + +After we had climbed to our loft and had lain down to sleep, another +adventure befell us. This time a new and uninviting customer appeared +upon the scene, the _genius loci_ of the old stable, namely, the +"fretful porcupine." We had seen the marks and work of these animals +about the shanty, and had been careful each night to hang our traps, +guns, etc., beyond their reach, but of the prickly night-walker himself +we feared we should not get a view. + +We had lain down some half hour, and I was just on the threshold of +sleep, ready, as it were, to pass through the open door into the land +of dreams, when I heard outside somewhere that curious sound,--a sound +which I had heard every night I spent in these woods, not only on this +but on former expeditions, and which I had settled in my mind as +proceeding from the porcupine, since I knew the sounds our other common +animals were likely to make,--a sound that might be either a gnawing on +some hard, dry substance, or a grating of teeth, or a shrill grunting. + +Orville heard it also, and, raising up on his elbow, asked, "What is +that?" + +"What the hunters call a 'porcupig,'" said I. + +"Sure?" + +"Entirely so." + +"Why does he make that noise?" + +"It is a way he has of cursing our fire," I replied. "I heard him last +night also." + +"Where do you suppose he is?" inquired my companion, showing a +disposition to look him up. + +"Not far off, perhaps fifteen or twenty yards from our fire, where the +shadows begin to deepen." + +Orville slipped into his trousers, felt for my gun, and in a moment had +disappeared down through the scuttle hole. I had no disposition to +follow him, but was rather annoyed than otherwise at the disturbance. +Getting the direction of the sound, he went picking his way over the +rough, uneven ground, and, when he got where the light failed him, +poking every doubtful object with the end of his gun. Presently he +poked a light grayish object, like a large round stone, which surprised +him by moving off. On this hint he fired, making an incurable wound in +the "porcupig," which, nevertheless, tried harder than ever to escape. +I lay listening, when, close on the heels of the report of the gun, +came excited shouts for a revolver. Snatching up my Smith and Wesson, I +hastened, shoeless and hatless, to the scene of action, wondering what +was up. I found my companion struggling to detain, with the end of the +gun, an uncertain object that was trying to crawl off into the +darkness. "Look out!" said Orville, as he saw my bare feet, "the quills +are lying thick around here." + +And so they were; he had blown or beaten them nearly all off the poor +creature's back, and was in a fair way completely to disable my gun, +the ramrod of which was already broken and splintered clubbing his +victim. But a couple of shots from the revolver, sighted by a lighted +match, at the head of the animal, quickly settled him. + +He proved to be an unusually large Canada porcupine,--an old patriarch, +gray and venerable, with spines three inches long, and weighing, I +should say, twenty pounds. The build of this animal is much like that +of the woodchuck, that is, heavy and pouchy. The nose is blunter than +that of the woodchuck, the limbs stronger, and the tail broader and +heavier. Indeed, the latter appendage is quite club-like, and the +animal can, no doubt, deal a smart blow with it. An old hunter with +whom I talked thought it aided them in climbing. They are inveterate +gnawers, and spend much of their time in trees gnawing the bark. In +winter one will take up its abode in a hemlock, and continue there till +the tree is quite denuded. The carcass emitted a peculiar, offensive +odor, and, though very fat, was not in the least inviting as game. If +it is part of the economy of nature for one animal to prey upon some +other beneath it, then the poor devil has indeed a mouthful that makes +a meal off the porcupine. Panthers and lynxes have essayed it, but have +invariably left off at the first course, and have afterwards been found +dead, or nearly so, with their heads puffed up like a pincushion, and +the quills protruding on all sides. A dog that understands the business +will manoeuvre round the porcupine till he gets an opportunity to throw +it over on its back, when he fastens on its quilless underbody. Aaron +was puzzled to know how long-parted friends could embrace, when it was +suggested that the quills could be depressed or elevated at pleasure. + +The next morning boded rain; but we had become thoroughly sated with +the delights of our present quarters, outside and in, and packed up our +traps to leave. Before we had reached the clearing, three miles below, +the rain set in, keeping up a lazy, monotonous drizzle till the afternoon. + +The clearing was quite a recent one, made mostly by barkpeelers, who +followed their calling in the mountains round about in summer, and +worked in their shops making shingle in winter. The Biscuit Brook came +in here from the west,--a fine, rapid trout stream six or eight miles +in length, with plenty of deer in the mountains about its head. On its +banks we found the house of an old woodman, to whom we had been +directed for information about the section we proposed to traverse. + +"Is the way very difficult," we inquired, "across from the Neversink +into the head of the Beaver-kill?" + +"Not to me; I could go it the darkest night ever was. And I can direct +you so you can find the way without any trouble. You go down the +Neversink about a mile, when you come to Highfall Brook, the first +stream that comes down on the right. Follow up it to Jim Reed's shanty, +about three miles. Then cross the stream, and on the left bank, pretty +well up on the side of the mountain, you will find a wood-road, which +was made by a fellow below here who stole some ash logs off the top of +the ridge last winter and drew them out on the snow. When the road +first begins to tilt over the mountain, strike down to your left, and +you can reach the Beaverkill before sundown." + +As it was then after two o'clock, and as the distance was six or eight +of these terrible hunters' miles, we concluded to take a whole day to +it, and wait till next morning. The Beaverkill flowed west, the +Neversink south, and I had a mortal dread of getting entangled amid the +mountains and valleys that lie in either angle. + +Besides, I was glad of another and final opportunity to pay my respects +to the finny tribes of the Neversink. At this point it was one of the +finest trout streams I had ever beheld. It was so sparkling, its bed so +free from sediment or impurities of any kind, that it had a new look, +as if it had just come from the hand of its Creator. I tramped along +its margin upward of a mile that afternoon, part of the time wading to +my knees, and casting my hook, baited only with a trout's fin, to the +opposite bank. Trout are real cannibals, and make no bones, and break +none either, in lunching on each other. A friend of mine had several in +his spring, when one day a large female trout gulped down one of her +male friends, nearly one third her own size, and went around for two +days with the tail of her liege lord protruding from her mouth! A +fish's eye will do for bait, though the anal fin is better. One of the +natives here told me that when he wished to catch large trout (and I +judged he never fished for any other,--I never do), he used for bait +the bullhead, or dart, a little fish an inch and a half or two inches +long, that rests on the pebbles near shore and darts quickly, when +disturbed, from point to point. "Put that on your hook," said he, "and +if there is a big fish in the creek, he is bound to have it." But the +darts were not easily found; the big fish, I concluded, had cleaned +them all out; and, then, it was easy enough to supply our wants with a +fin. + +Declining the hospitable offers of the settlers, we spread our blankets +that night in a dilapidated shingle-shop on the banks of the Biscuit +Brook, first flooring the damp ground with the new shingle that lay +piled in one corner. The place had a great-throated chimney with a +tremendous expanse of fireplace within, that cried "More!" at every +morsel of wood we gave it. + +But I must hasten over this part of the ground, nor let the delicious +flavor of the milk we had that morning for breakfast, and that was so +delectable after four days of fish, linger on my tongue; nor yet tarry +to set down the talk of that honest, weatherworn passer-by who paused +before our door, and every moment on the point of resuming his way, yet +stood for an hour and recited his adventures hunting deer and bears +on these mountains. Having replenished our stock of bread and salt +pork at the house of one of the settlers, midday found us at Reed's +shanty,--one of those temporary structures erected by the bark jobber +to lodge and board his "hands" near their work. Jim not being at home, +we could gain no information from the "women folks" about the way, nor +from the men who had just come in to dinner; so we pushed on, as near +as we could, according to the instructions we had previously received. +Crossing the creek, we forced our way up the side of the mountain, +through a perfect _cheval-de-frise_ of fallen and peeled hemlocks, and, +entering the dense woods above, began to look anxiously about for the +wood-road. My companions at first could see no trace of it; but knowing +that a casual wood-road cut in winter, when there was likely to be two +or three feet of snow on the ground, would present only the slightest +indications to the eye in summer, I looked a little closer, and could +make out a mark or two here and there. The larger trees had been +avoided, and the axe used only on the small saplings and underbrush, +which had been lopped off a couple of feet from the ground. By being +constantly on the alert, we followed it till near the top of the +mountain; but, when looking to see it "tilt" over the other side, it +disappeared altogether. Some stumps of the black cherry were found, and +a solitary pair of snow-shoes was hanging high and dry on a branch, but +no further trace of human hands could we see. While we were resting +here a couple of hermit thrushes, one of them with some sad defect in +his vocal powers which barred him from uttering more than a few notes +of his song, gave voice to the solitude of the place. This was the +second instance in which I have observed a song-bird with apparently +some organic defect in its instrument. The other case was that of a +bobolink, which, hover in mid-air and inflate its throat as it might, +could only force out a few incoherent notes. But the bird in each case +presented this striking contrast to human examples of the kind, that it +was apparently just as proud of itself, and just as well satisfied with +its performance, as were its more successful rivals. + +After deliberating some time over a pocket compass which I carried, we +decided upon our course, and held on to the west. The descent was very +gradual. Traces of bear and deer were noted at different points, but +not a live animal was seen. + +About four o'clock we reached the bank of a stream flowing west. Hail +to the Beaverkill! and we pushed on along its banks. The trout were +plenty, and rose quickly to the hook; but we held on our way, designing +to go into camp about six o'clock. Many inviting places, first on one +bank, then on the other, made us linger, till finally we reached a +smooth, dry place overshadowed by balsam and hemlock, where the creek +bent around a little flat, which was so entirely to our fancy that we +unslung our knapsacks at once. While my companions were cutting wood +and making other preparations for the night, it fell to my lot, as the +most successful angler, to provide the trout for supper and breakfast. +How shall I describe that wild, beautiful stream, with features so like +those of all other mountain streams? And yet, as I saw it in the deep +twilight of those woods on that June afternoon, with its steady, even +flow, and its tranquil, many-voiced murmur, it made an impression upon +my mind distinct and peculiar, fraught in an eminent degree with the +charm of seclusion and remoteness. The solitude was perfect, and I felt +that strangeness and insignificance which the civilized man must always +feel when opposing himself to such a vast scene of silence and +wildness. The trout were quite black, like all wood trout, and took the +bait eagerly. I followed the stream till the deepening shadows warned +me to turn back. As I neared camp, the fire shone far through the +trees, dispelling the gathering gloom, but blinding my eyes to all +obstacles at my feet. I was seriously disturbed on arriving to find +that one of my companions had cut an ugly gash in his shin with the axe +while felling a tree. As we did not carry a fifth wheel, it was not +just the time or place to have any of our members crippled, and I had +bodings of evil. But, thanks to the healing virtues of the balsam which +must have adhered to the blade of the axe, and double thanks to the +court-plaster with which Orville had supplied himself before leaving +home, the wounded leg, by being favored that night and the next day, +gave us little trouble. + +That night we had our first fair and square camping out,--that is, +sleeping on the ground with no shelter over us but the trees,--and it +was in many respects the pleasantest night we spent in the woods. The +weather was perfect and the place was perfect, and for the first time +we were exempt from the midges and smoke; and then we appreciated the +clean new page we had to work on. Nothing is so acceptable to the +camper-out as a pure article in the way of woods and waters. Any +admixture of human relics mars the spirit of the scene. Yet I am +willing to confess that, before we were through those woods, the marks +of an axe in a tree were a welcome sight. On resuming our march next +day we followed the right bank of the Beaverkill, in order to strike a +stream which flowed in from the north, and which was the outlet of +Balsam Lake, the objective point of that day's march. The distance to +the lake from our camp could not have been over six or seven miles; +yet, traveling as we did, without path or guide, climbing up banks, +plunging into ravines, making detours around swampy places, and forcing +our way through woods choked up with much fallen and decayed timber, it +seemed at least twice that distance, and the mid-afternoon sun was +shining when we emerged into what is called the "Quaker Clearing," +ground that I had been over nine years before, and that lies about two +miles south of the lake. From this point we had a well-worn path that +led us up a sharp rise of ground, then through level woods till we saw +the bright gleam of the water through the trees. + +I am always struck, on approaching these little mountain lakes, with +the extensive preparation that is made for them in the conformation of +the ground. I am thinking of a depression, or natural basin, in the +side of the mountain or on its top, the brink of which I shall reach +after a little steep climbing; but instead of that, after I have +accomplished the ascent, I find a broad sweep of level or gently +undulating woodland that brings me after a half hour or so to the lake, +which lies in this vast lap like a drop of water in the palm of a man's +hand. + +Balsam Lake was oval-shaped, scarcely more than half a mile long and a +quarter of a mile wide, but presented a charming picture, with a group +of dark gray hemlocks filling the valley about its head, and the +mountains rising above and beyond. We found a bough house in good +repair, also a dug-out and paddle and several floats of logs. In the +dug-out I was soon creeping along the shady side of the lake, where the +trout were incessantly jumping for a species of black fly, that, +sheltered from the slight breeze, were dancing in swarms just above the +surface of the water. The gnats were there in swarms also, and did +their best toward balancing the accounts by preying upon me while I +preyed upon the trout which preyed upon the flies. But by dint of +keeping my hands, face, and neck constantly wet, I am convinced that +the balance of blood was on my side. The trout jumped most within a +foot or two of shore, where the water was only a few inches deep. The +shallowness of the water, perhaps, accounted for the inability of the +fish to do more than lift their heads above the surface. They came up +mouths wide open, and dropped back again in the most impotent manner. +Where there is any depth of water, a trout will jump several feet into +the air; and where there is a solid, unbroken sheet or column, they +will scale falls and dams fifteen feet high. + +We had the very cream and flower of our trout-fishing at this lake. For +the first time we could use the fly to advantage; and then the contrast +between laborious tramping along shore, on the one hand, and sitting in +one end of a dug-out and casting your line right and left with no fear +of entanglement in brush or branch, while you were gently propelled +along, on the other, was of the most pleasing character. + +There were two varieties of trout in the lake,--what it seems proper to +call silver trout and golden trout; the former were the slimmer, and +seemed to keep apart from the latter. Starting from the outlet and +working round on the eastern side toward the head, we invariably caught +these first. They glanced in the sun like bars of silver. Their sides +and bellies were indeed as white as new silver. As we neared the head, +and especially as we came near a space occupied by some kind of +watergrass that grew in the deeper part of the lake, the other variety +would begin to take the hook, their bellies a bright gold color, which +became a deep orange on their fins; and as we returned to the place of +departure with the bottom of the boat strewn with these bright forms +intermingled, it was a sight not soon to be forgotten. It pleased my +eye so, that I would fain linger over them, arranging them in rows and +studying the various hues and tints. They were of nearly a uniform +size, rarely one over ten or under eight inches in length, and it +seemed as if the hues of all the precious metals and stones were +reflected from their sides. The flesh was deep salmon-color; that of +brook trout is generally much lighter. Some hunters and fishers from +the valley of the Mill Brook, whom we met here, told us the trout were +much larger in the lake, though far less numerous than they used to be. +Brook trout do not grow large till they become scarce. It is only in +streams that have been long and much fished that I have caught them as +much as sixteen inches in length. + +The "porcupigs" were numerous about the lake, and not at all shy. One +night the heat became so intolerable in our oven-shaped bough house +that I was obliged to withdraw from under its cover and lie down a +little to one side. Just at daybreak, as I lay rolled in my blanket, +something awoke me. Lifting up my head, there was a porcupine with his +forepaws on my hips. He was apparently as much surprised as I was; and +to my inquiry as to what he at that moment might be looking for, he did +not pause to reply, but hitting me a slap with his tail which left +three or four quills in my blanket, he scampered off down the hill into +the brush. + +Being an observer of the birds, of course every curious incident +connected with them fell under my notice. Hence, as we stood about our +camp-fire one afternoon looking out over the lake, I was the only one +to see a little commotion in the water, half hidden by the near +branches, as of some tiny swimmer struggling to reach the shore. +Rushing to its rescue in the canoe, I found a yellow-rumped warbler, +quite exhausted, clinging to a twig that hung down into the water. I +brought the drenched and helpless thing to camp, and, putting it into a +basket, hung it up to dry. An hour or two afterward I heard it +fluttering in its prison, and cautiously lifted the lid to get a better +glimpse of the lucky captive, when it darted out and was gone in a +twinkling. How came it in the water? That was my wonder, and I can only +guess that it was a young bird that had never before flown over a pond +of water, and, seeing the clouds and blue sky so perfect down there, +thought it was a vast opening or gateway into another summer land, +perhaps a short cut to the tropics, and so got itself into trouble. How +my eye was delighted also with the redbird that alighted for a moment +on a dry branch above the lake, just where a ray of light from the +setting sun fell full upon it! A mere crimson point, and yet how it +offset that dark, sombre background! + +I have thus run over some of the features of an ordinary trouting +excursion to the woods. People inexperienced in such matters, sitting +in their rooms and thinking of these things, of all the poets have sung +and romancers written, are apt to get sadly taken in when they attempt +to realize their dreams. They expect to enter a sylvan paradise of +trout, cool retreats, laughing brooks, picturesque views, and balsamic +couches, instead of which they find hunger, rain, smoke, toil, gnats, +mosquitoes, dirt, broken rest, vulgar guides, and salt pork; and they +are very apt not to see where the fun comes in. But he who goes in a +right spirit will not be disappointed, and will find the taste of this +kind of life better, though bitterer, than the writers have described. + + + + +VI + +BIRDS AND BIRDS + + +I + +There is an old legend which one of our poets has made use of about the +bird in the brain,--a legend based, perhaps, upon the human +significance of our feathered neighbors. Was not Audubon's brain full +of birds, and very lively ones, too? A person who knew him says he +looked like a bird himself; keen, alert, wide-eyed. It is not unusual +to see the hawk looking out of the human countenance, and one may see +or have seen that still nobler bird, the eagle. The song-birds might +all have been brooded and hatched in the human heart. They are typical +of its highest aspirations, and nearly the whole gamut of human passion +and emotion is expressed more or less fully in their varied songs. +Among our own birds, there is the song of the hermit thrush for +devoutness and religious serenity; that of the wood thrush for the +musing, melodious thoughts of twilight; the song sparrow's for simple +faith and trust, the bobolink's for hilarity and glee, the mourning +dove's for hopeless sorrow, the vireo's for all-day and every-day +contentment, and the nocturne of the mockingbird for love. Then there +are the plaintive singers, the soaring, ecstatic singers, the confident +singers, the gushing and voluble singers, and the half-voiced, +inarticulate singers. The note of the wood pewee is a human sigh; the +chickadee has a call full of unspeakable tenderness and fidelity. There +is pride in the song of the tanager, and vanity in that of the catbird. +There is something distinctly human about the robin; his is the note of +boyhood. I have thoughts that follow the migrating fowls northward and +southward, and that go with the sea-birds into the desert of the ocean, +lonely and tireless as they. I sympathize with the watchful crow +perched yonder on that tree, or walking about the fields. I hurry +outdoors when I hear the clarion of the wild gander; his comrade in my +heart sends back the call. + + +II + +Here comes the cuckoo, the solitary, the joyless, enamored of the +privacy of his own thoughts; when did he fly away out of this brain? +The cuckoo is one of the famous birds, and is known the world over. He +is mentioned in the Bible, and is discussed by Pliny and Aristotle. +Jupiter himself once assumed the form of the cuckoo in order to take +advantage of Juno's compassion for the bird. + +We have only a reduced and modified cuckoo in this country. Our bird is +smaller, and is much more solitary and unsocial. Its color is totally +different from the Old World bird, the latter being speckled, or a kind +of dominick, while ours is of the finest cinnamon-brown or drab above, +and bluish white beneath, with a gloss and richness of texture in the +plumage that suggests silk. The bird has also mended its manners in +this country, and no longer foists its eggs and young upon other birds, +but builds a nest of its own and rears its own brood like other +well-disposed birds. + +The European cuckoo is evidently much more of a spring bird than ours +is, much more a harbinger of the early season. He comes in April, while +ours seldom appears till late in May, and hardly then appears. He is +printed, as they say, but not published. Only the alert ones know he is +here. This old English rhyme on the cuckoo does not apply this side the +Atlantic:-- + + "In April + Come he will, + In flow'ry May + He sings all day, + In leafy June + He changes his tune, + In bright July + He's ready to fly, + In August + Go he must." + +Our bird must go in August, too, but at no time does he sing all day. +Indeed, his peculiar guttural call has none of the character of a song. +It is a solitary, hermit-like sound, as if the bird were alone in the +world, and called upon the Fates to witness his desolation. I have +never seen two cuckoos together, and I have never heard their call +answered; it goes forth into the solitudes unreclaimed. Like a true +American, the bird lacks animal spirits and a genius for social +intercourse. One August night I heard one calling, calling, a long +time, not far from my house. It was a true night sound, more fitting +then than by day. + +The European cuckoo, on the other hand, seems to be a joyous, vivacious +bird. Wordsworth applies to it the adjective "blithe," and says:-- + + "I hear thee babbling to the vale + Of sunshine and of flowers." + +English writers all agree that its song is animated and pleasing, and +the outcome of a light heart. Thomas Hardy, whose touches always seem +true to nature, describes in one of his books an early summer scene +from amid which "the loud notes of three cuckoos were resounding +through the still air." This is totally unlike our bird, which does not +sing in concert, but affects remote woods, and is most frequently heard +in cloudy weather. Hence the name of rain-crow that is applied to him +in some parts of the country. I am more than half inclined to believe +that his call does indicate rain, as it is certain that of the +tree-toad does. + +The cuckoo has a slender, long-drawn-out appearance on account of the +great length of tail. It is seldom seen about farms or near human +habitations until the June canker-worm appears, when it makes frequent +visits to the orchard. It loves hairy worms, and has eaten so many of +them that its gizzard is lined with hair. + +The European cuckoo builds no nest, but puts its eggs out to be +hatched, as does our cow blackbird, and our cuckoo is master of only +the rudiments of nest-building. No other bird in the woods builds so +shabby a nest; it is the merest makeshift,--a loose scaffolding of +twigs through which the eggs can be seen. One season, I knew of a pair +that built within a few feet of a country house that stood in the midst +of a grove, but a heavy storm of rain and wind broke up the nest. + +If the Old World cuckoo had been as silent and retiring a bird as ours +is, it could never have figured so conspicuously in literature as it +does,--having a prominence that we would give only to the bobolink or +to the wood thrush,--as witness his frequent mention by Shakespeare, or +the following early English ballad (in modern guise):-- + + "Summer is come in, + Loud sings the cuckoo; + Groweth seed and bloweth mead, + And springs the wood now. + Sing, cuckoo; + The ewe bleateth for her lamb, + The cow loweth for her calf, + The bullock starteth. + The buck verteth, + Merrily sings the cuckoo, + Cuckoo, cuckoo; + Well sings the cuckoo, + Mayest thou never cease." + + +III + +I think it will be found, on the whole, that the European birds are a +more hardy and pugnacious race than ours, and that their song-birds +have more vivacity and power, and ours more melody and plaintiveness. +In the song of the skylark, for instance, there is little or no melody, +but wonderful strength and copiousness. It is a harsh strain near at +hand, but very taking when showered down from a height of several +hundred feet. + +Daines Barrington, the naturalist of the last century, to whom White of +Selborne addressed so many of his letters, gives a table of the +comparative merit of seventeen leading song-birds of Europe, marking +them under the heads of mellowness, sprightliness, plaintiveness, +compass, and execution. In the aggregate, the songsters stand highest +in sprightliness, next in compass and execution, and lowest in the +other two qualities. A similar arrangement and comparison of our +songsters, I think, would show an opposite result,--that is, a +predominance of melody and plaintiveness. The British wren, for +instance, stands in Barrington's table as destitute of both these +qualities; the reed sparrow also. Our wren-songs, on the contrary, are +gushing and lyrical, and more or less melodious,--that of the winter +wren being preeminently so. Our sparrows, too, all have sweet, +plaintive ditties, with but little sprightliness or compass. The +English house sparrow has no song at all, but a harsh chatter that is +unmatched among our birds. But what a hardy, prolific, pugnacious +little wretch it is! These birds will maintain themselves where our +birds will not live at all, and a pair of them will lie down in the +gutter and fight like dogs. Compared with this miniature John Bull, the +voice and manners of our common sparrow are gentle and retiring. The +English sparrow is a street gamin, our bird a timid rustic. + +The English robin redbreast is tallied in this country by the bluebird, +which was called by the early settlers of New England the blue robin. +The song of the British bird is bright and animated, that of our bird +soft and plaintive. + +The nightingale stands at the head in Barrington's table, and is but +little short of perfect in all the qualities. We have no one bird that +combines such strength or vivacity with such melody. The mockingbird +doubtless surpasses it in variety and profusion of notes; but falls +short, I imagine, in sweetness and effectiveness. The nightingale will +sometimes warble twenty seconds without pausing to breathe, and when +the condition of the air is favorable, its song fills a space a mile in +diameter. There are, perhaps, songs in our woods as mellow and +brilliant, as is that of the closely allied species, the water-thrush; +but our bird's song has but a mere fraction of the nightingale's volume +and power. + +Strength and volume of voice, then, seem to be characteristic of the +English birds, and mildness and delicacy of ours. How much the +thousands of years of contact with man, and familiarity with artificial +sounds, over there, have affected the bird voices, is a question. +Certain it is that their birds are much more domestic than ours, and +certain it is that all purely wild sounds are plaintive and elusive. +Even of the bark of the fox, the cry of the panther, the voice of the +coon, or the call and clang of wild geese and ducks, or the war-cry of +savage tribes, is this true; but not true in the same sense of +domesticated or semi-domesticated animals and fowls. How different the +voice of the common duck or goose from that of the wild species, or of +the tame dove from that of the turtle of the fields and groves! Where +could the English house sparrow have acquired that unmusical voice but +amid the sounds of hoofs and wheels, and the discords of the street? +And the ordinary notes and calls of so many of the British birds, +according to their biographers, are harsh and disagreeable; even the +nightingale has an ugly, guttural "chuck." The missel-thrush has a +harsh scream; the jay a note like "wrack," "wrack;" the fieldfare a +rasping chatter; the blackbird, which is our robin cut in ebony, will +sometimes crow like a cock and cackle like a hen; the flocks of +starlings make a noise like a steam saw-mill; the white-throat has a +disagreeable note; the swift a discordant scream; and the bunting a +harsh song. Among our song-birds, on the contrary, it is rare to hear a +harsh or displeasing voice. Even their notes of anger and alarm are +more or less soft. + +I would not imply that our birds are the better songsters, but +that their songs, if briefer and feebler, are also more wild and +plaintive,--in fact, that they are softer-voiced. The British birds, +as I have stated, are more domestic than ours; a much larger number +build about houses and towers and outbuildings. The titmouse with us +is exclusively a wood-bird; but in Britain three or four species of +them resort more or less to buildings in winter. Their redstart also +builds under the eaves of houses; their starling in church steeples +and in holes in walls; several thrushes resort to sheds to nest; and +jackdaws breed in the crannies of the old architecture, and this in a +much milder climate than our own. + +They have in that country no birds that answer to our tiny, lisping +wood-warblers,--genus _Dendroica,_--nor to our vireos, _Vireonidoe._ +On the other hand, they have a larger number of field-birds and +semi-game-birds. They have several species like our robin; thrushes +like him, and some of them larger, as the ring ouzel, the missel-thrush, +the fieldfare, the throstle, the redwing, White's thrush, the +blackbird,--these, besides several species in size and habits more like +our wood thrush. + +Several species of European birds sing at night besides the true +nightingale,--not fitfully and as if in their dreams, as do a few of +our birds, but continuously. They make a business of it. The sedge-bird +ceases at times as if from very weariness; but wake the bird up, says +White, by throwing a stick or stone into the bushes, and away it goes +again in full song. We have but one real nocturnal songster, and that +is the mockingbird. One can see how this habit might increase among the +birds of a long-settled country like England. With sounds and voices +about them, why should they be silent, too? The danger of betraying +themselves to their natural enemies would be less than in our woods. + +That their birds are more quarrelsome and pugnacious than ours I +think evident. Our thrushes are especially mild-mannered, but the +missel-thrush is very bold and saucy, and has been known to fly in the +face of persons who have disturbed the sitting bird. No jay nor magpie +nor crow can stand before him. The Welsh call him master of the coppice, +and he welcomes a storm with such a vigorous and hearty song that in +some countries he is known as storm-cock. He sometimes kills the young of +other birds and eats eggs,--a very unthrushlike trait. The whitethroat +sings with crest erect, and attitudes of warning and defiance. The +hooper is a great bully; so is the greenfinch. The wood-grouse--now +extinct, I believe--has been known to attack people in the woods. And +behold the grit and hardihood of that little emigrant or exile to our +shores, the English sparrow! Our birds have their tilts and spats also; +but the only really quarrelsome members in our family are confined to +the flycatchers, as the kingbird and the great crested flycatcher. None +of our song-birds are bullies. + +Many of our more vigorous species, as the butcherbird, the crossbills, +the pine grosbeak, the redpoll, the Bohemian chatterer, the shore lark, +the longspur, the snow bunting, etc., are common to both continents. + +Have the Old World creatures throughout more pluck and hardihood than +those that are indigenous to this continent? Behold the common mouse, +how he has followed man to this country and established himself here +against all opposition, overrunning our houses and barns, while the +native species is rarely seen. And when has anybody seen the American +rat, while his congener from across the water has penetrated to every +part of the continent! By the next train that takes the family to some +Western frontier, arrives this pest. Both our rat and mouse or mice are +timid, harmless, delicate creatures, compared with the cunning, filthy, +and prolific specimens that have fought their way to us from the Old +World. There is little doubt, also, that the red fox has been +transplanted to this country from Europe. He is certainly on the +increase, and is fast running out the native gray species. + +Indeed, I have thought that all forms of life in the Old World were +marked by greater prominence of type, or stronger characteristic and +fundamental qualities, than with us,--coarser and more hairy and +virile, and therefore more powerful and lasting. This opinion is still +subject to revision, but I find it easier to confirm it than to +undermine it. + + +IV + +But let me change the strain and contemplate for a few moments this +feathered bandit,--this bird with the mark of Cain upon him, _Lanius +borealis,_--the great shrike or butcher-bird. Usually the character of +a bird of prey is well defined; there is no mistaking him. His claws, +his beak, his head, his wings, in fact his whole build, point to the +fact that he subsists upon live creatures; he is armed to catch them +and to slay them. Every bird knows a hawk and knows him from the start, +and is on the lookout for him. The hawk takes life, but he does it to +maintain his own, and it is a public and universally known fact. Nature +has sent him abroad in that character, and has advised all creatures of +it. Not so with the shrike; here she has concealed the character of a +murderer under a form as innocent as that of the robin. Feet, wings, +tail, color, head, and general form and size are all those of a +songbird,--very much like that master songster, the mockingbird,--yet +this bird is a regular Bluebeard among its kind. Its only +characteristic feature is its beak, the upper mandible having two sharp +processes and a sharp hooked point. It cannot fly away to any distance +with the bird it kills, nor hold it in its claws to feed upon it. It +usually impales its victim upon a thorn, or thrusts it in the fork of a +limb. For the most part, however, its food seems to consist of +insects,--spiders, grasshoppers, beetles, etc. It is the assassin of +the small birds, whom it often destroys in pure wantonness, or merely +to sup on their brains, as the Gaucho slaughters a wild cow or bull for +its tongue. It is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Apparently its victims +are unacquainted with its true character and allow it to approach them, +when the fatal blow is given. I saw an illustration of this the other +day. A large number of goldfinches in their fall plumage, together with +snowbirds and sparrows, were feeding and chattering in some low bushes +back of the barn. I had paused by the fence and was peeping through at +them, hoping to get a glimpse of that rare sparrow, the white-crowned. +Presently I heard a rustling among the dry leaves as if some larger +bird was also among them. Then I heard one of the goldfinches cry out +as if in distress, when the whole flock of them started up in alarm, +and, circling around, settled in the tops of the larger trees. I +continued my scrutiny of the bushes, when I saw a large bird, with some +object in its beak, hopping along on a low branch near the ground. It +disappeared from my sight for a few moments, then came up through the +undergrowth into the top of a young maple where some of the finches had +alighted, and I beheld the shrike. The little birds avoided him and +flew about the tree, their pursuer following them with the motions of +his head and body as if he would fain arrest them by his murderous +gaze. The birds did not utter the cry or make the demonstration of +alarm they usually do on the appearance of a hawk, but chirruped and +called and flew about in a half-wondering, half-bewildered manner. As +they flew farther along the line of trees the shrike followed them as +if bent on further captures. I then made my way around to see what the +shrike had caught, and what he had done with his prey. As I approached +the bushes I saw the shrike hastening back. I read his intentions at +once. Seeing my movements, he had returned for his game. But I was too +quick for him, and he got up out of the brush and flew away from the +locality. On some twigs in the thickest part of the bushes I found his +victim,--a goldfinch. It was not impaled upon a thorn, but was +carefully disposed upon some horizontal twigs,--laid upon the shelf, so +to speak. It was as warm as in life, and its plumage was unruffled. On +examining it I found a large bruise or break in the skin on the back of +the neck, at the base of the skull. Here the bandit had no doubt griped +the bird with his strong beak. The shrike's blood-thirstiness was seen +in the fact that he did not stop to devour his prey, but went in quest +of more, as if opening a market of goldfinches. The thicket was his +shambles, and if not interrupted, he might have had a fine display of +titbits in a short time. + +The shrike is called a butcher from his habit of sticking his meat upon +hooks and points; further than that, he is a butcher because he devours +but a trifle of what he slays. + +A few days before, I had witnessed another little scene in which the +shrike was the chief actor. A chipmunk had his den in the side of the +terrace above the garden, and spent the mornings laying in a store of +corn which he stole from a field ten or twelve rods away. In traversing +about half this distance, the little poacher was exposed; the first +cover going from his den was a large maple, where he always brought up +and took a survey of the scene. I would see him spinning along toward +the maple, then from it by an easy stage to the fence adjoining the +corn; then back again with his booty. One morning I paused to watch him +more at my leisure. He came up out of his retreat and cocked himself up +to see what my motions meant. His forepaws were clasped to his breast +precisely as if they had been hands, and the tips of the fingers thrust +into his vest pockets. Having satisfied himself with reference to me, +he sped on toward the tree. He had nearly reached it, when he turned +tail and rushed for his hole with the greatest precipitation. As he +neared it, I saw some bluish object in the air closing in upon him with +the speed of an arrow, and, as he vanished within, a shrike brought up +in front of the spot, and with spread wings and tail stood hovering a +moment, and looking in, then turned and went away. Apparently it was a +narrow escape for the chipmunk, and, I venture to say, he stole no more +corn that morning. The shrike is said to catch mice, but it is not +known to attack squirrels. He certainly could not have strangled the +chipmunk, and I am curious to know what would have been the result had +he overtaken him. Probably it was only a kind of brag on the part of +the bird,--a bold dash where no risk was run. He simulated the hawk, +the squirrel's real enemy, and no doubt enjoyed the joke. + +On another occasion, as I was riding along a mountain road early in +April, a bird started from the fence where I was passing, and flew +heavily to the branch of a near apple-tree. It proved to be a shrike +with a small bird in his beak. He thrust his victim into a fork of a +branch, then wiped his bloody beak upon the bark. A youth who was with +me, to whom I pointed out the fact, had never heard of such a thing, +and was much incensed at the shrike. "Let me fire a stone at him," said +he, and jumping out of the wagon, he pulled off his mittens and fumbled +about for a stone. Having found one to his liking, with great +earnestness and deliberation he let drive. The bird was in more danger +than I had imagined, for he escaped only by a hair's breadth; a +guiltless bird like the robin or sparrow would surely have been slain; +the missile grazed the spot where the shrike sat, and cut the ends of +his wings as he darted behind the branch. We could see that the +murdered bird had been brained, as its head hung down toward us. + +The shrike is not a summer bird with us in the Northern States, but +mainly a fall and winter one; in summer he goes farther north. I see +him most frequently in November and December. I recall a morning during +the former month that was singularly clear and motionless; the air was +like a great drum. Apparently every sound within the compass of the +horizon was distinctly heard. The explosions back in the cement +quarries ten miles away smote the hollow and reverberating air like +giant fists. Just as the sun first showed his fiery brow above the +horizon, a gun was discharged over the river. On the instant a shrike, +perched on the topmost spray of a maple above the house, set up a loud, +harsh call or whistle, suggestive of certain notes of the blue jay. The +note presently became a crude, broken warble. Even this scalper of the +innocents had music in his soul on such a morning. He saluted the sun +as a robin might have done. After he had finished, he flew away toward +the east. + +The shrike is a citizen of the world, being found in both hemispheres. +It does not appear that the European species differs essentially from +our own. In Germany he is called the nine-killer, from the belief that +he kills and sticks upon thorns nine grasshoppers a day. + +To make my portrait of the shrike more complete, I will add another +trait of his described by an acute observer who writes me from western +New York. He saw the bird on a bright midwinter morning when the +thermometer stood at zero, and by cautious approaches succeeded in +getting under the apple-tree upon which he was perched. The shrike was +uttering a loud, clear note like _clu-eet, clu-eet, clu-eet,_ and, on +finding he had a listener who was attentive and curious, varied his +performance and kept it up continuously for fifteen minutes. He seemed +to enjoy having a spectator, and never took his eye off him. The +observer approached within twenty feet of him. "As I came near," he +says, "the shrike began to scold at me, a sharp, buzzing, squeaking +sound not easy to describe. After a little he came out on the end of +the limb nearest me, then he posed himself, and, opening his wings a +little, began to trill and warble under his breath, as it were, with an +occasional squeak, and vibrating his half-open wings in time with his +song." Some of his notes resembled those of the bluebird, and the whole +performance is described as pleasing and melodious. + +This account agrees with Thoreau's observation, where he speaks of the +shrike "with heedless and unfrozen melody bringing back summer again." +Sings Thoreau:-- + + "His steady sails he never furls + At any time o' year, + And perching now on winter's curls, + He whistles in his ear." + +But his voice is that of a savage,--strident and disagreeable. + +I have often wondered how this bird was kept in check; in the struggle +for existence it would appear to have greatly the advantage of other +birds. It cannot, for instance, be beset with one tenth of the dangers +that threaten the robin, and yet apparently there are a thousand robins +to every shrike. It builds a warm, compact nest in the mountains and +dense woods, and lays six eggs, which would indicate a rapid increase. +The pigeon lays but two eggs, and is preyed upon by both man and beast, +millions of them meeting a murderous death every year; yet always some +part of the country is swarming with untold numbers of them. [Footnote: +This is no longer the case. The passenger pigeon now seems on the verge +of extinction (1895).] But the shrike is one of our rarest birds. I +myself seldom see more than two each year, and before I became an +observer of birds I never saw any. + +In size the shrike is a little inferior to the blue jay, with much the +same form. If you see an unknown bird about your orchard or fields in +November or December of a bluish grayish complexion, with dusky wings +and tail that show markings of white, flying rather heavily from point +to point, or alighting down in the stubble occasionally, it is pretty +sure to be the shrike. + + +V + +Nature never tires of repeating and multiplying the same species. She +makes a million bees, a million birds, a million mice or rats, or other +animals, so nearly alike that no eye can tell one from another; but it +is rarely that she issues a small and a large edition, as it were, of +the same species. Yet she has done it in a few cases among the birds +with hardly more difference than a foot-note added or omitted. The +cedar-bird, for instance, is the Bohemian waxwing or chatterer in +smaller type, copied even to the minute, wax-like appendages that +bedeck the ends of the wing-quills. It is about one third smaller, and +a little lighter in color, owing perhaps to the fact that it is +confined to a warmer latitude, its northward range seeming to end about +where that of its larger brother begins. Its flight, its note, its +manners, its general character and habits, are almost identical with +those of its prototype. It is confined exclusively to this continent, +while the chatterer is an Old World bird as well, and ranges the +northern parts of both continents. The latter comes to us from the +hyperborean regions, brought down occasionally by the great cold waves +that originate in those high latitudes. It is a bird of Siberian and +Alaskan evergreens, and passes its life for the most part far beyond +the haunts of man. I have never seen the bird, but small bands of them +make excursions every winter down into our territory from British +America. Audubon, I believe, saw them in Maine; other observers have +seen them in Minnesota. It has the crest of the cedar-bird, the same +yellow border to its tail, but is marked with white on its wings, as if +a snowflake or two had adhered to it from the northern cedars and +pines. If you see about the evergreens in the coldest, snowiest weather +what appear to be a number of very large cherry-birds, observe them +well, for the chances are that visitants from the circumpolar regions +are before your door. It is a sign, also, that the frost legions of the +north are out in great force and carrying all before them. + +Our cedar or cherry bird is the most silent bird we have. Our +neutral-tinted birds, like him, as a rule are our finest songsters; +but he has no song or call, uttering only a fine bead-like note on +taking flight. This note is the cedar-berry rendered back in sound. +When the ox-heart cherries, which he has only recently become +acquainted with, have had time to enlarge his pipe and warm his +heart, I shall expect more music from him. But in lieu of music, what +a pretty compensation are those minute, almost artificial-like, +plumes of orange and vermilion that tip the ends of his wing quills! +Nature could not give him these and a song too. She has given the +hummingbird a jewel upon his throat, but no song, save the hum of his +wings. + +Another bird that is occasionally borne to us on the crest of the cold +waves from the frozen zone, and that is repeated on a smaller scale in +a permanent resident, is the pine grosbeak; his _alter ego,_ reduced in +size, is the purple finch, which abounds in the higher latitudes of the +temperate zone. The color and form of the two birds are again +essentially the same. The females and young males of both species are +of a grayish brown like the sparrow, while in the old males this tint +is imperfectly hidden beneath a coat of carmine, as if the color had +been poured upon their heads, where it is strongest, and so oozed down +and through the rest of the plumage. Their tails are considerably +forked, their beaks cone-shaped and heavy, and their flight undulating. +Those who have heard the grosbeak describe its song as similar to that +of the finch, though no doubt it is louder and stronger. The finch's +instrument is a fife tuned to love and not to war. He blows a clear, +round note, rapid and intricate, but full of sweetness and melody. His +hardier relative with that larger beak and deeper chest must fill the +woods with sounds. Audubon describes its song as exceedingly rich and +full. + +As in the case of the Bohemian waxwing, this bird is also common to +both worlds, being found through Northern Europe and Asia and the +northern parts of this continent. It is the pet of the pine-tree, and +one of its brightest denizens. Its visits to the States are irregular +and somewhat mysterious. A great flight of them occurred in the winter +of 1874-75. They attracted attention all over the country. Several +other flights of them have occurred during the century. When this bird +comes, it is so unacquainted with man that its tameness is delightful +to behold. It thrives remarkably well in captivity, and in a couple of +weeks will become so tame that it will hop down and feed out of its +master's or mistress's hand. It comes from far beyond the region of the +apple, yet it takes at once to this fruit, or rather to the seeds, +which it is quick to divine, at its core. + +Close akin to these two birds, and standing in the same relation to +each other, are two other birds that come to us from the opposite +zone,--the torrid,--namely, the blue grosbeak and his petit duplicate, +the indigo-bird. The latter is a common summer resident with us,--a +bird of the groves and bushy fields, where his bright song may be heard +all through the long summer day. I hear it in the dry and parched +August when most birds are silent, sometimes delivered on the wing and +sometimes from the perch. Indeed, with me its song is as much a +midsummer sound as is the brassy crescendo of the cicada. The memory of +its note calls to mind the flame-like quiver of the heated atmosphere +and the bright glare of the meridian sun. Its color is much more +intense than that of the common bluebird, as summer skies are deeper +than those of April, but its note is less mellow and tender. Its +original, the blue grosbeak, is an uncertain wanderer from the south, +as the pine grosbeak is from the north. I have never seen it north of +the District of Columbia. It has a loud, vivacious song, of which it is +not stingy, and which is a large and free rendering of the indigo's, +and belongs to summer more than to spring. The bird is colored the same +as its lesser brother, the males being a deep blue and the females a +modest drab. Its nest is usually placed low down, as is the indigo's, +and the male carols from the tops of the trees in its vicinity in the +same manner. Indeed, the two birds are strikingly alike in every +respect except in size and in habitat, and, as in each of the other +cases, the lesser bird is, as it were, the point, the continuation, of +the larger, carrying its form and voice forward as the reverberation +carries the sound. + +I know the ornithologists, with their hair-splittings, or rather +feather-splittings, point out many differences, but they are +unimportant. The fractions may not agree, but the whole numbers are +the same. + + + + +VII + +A BED OF BOUGHS + + +When Aaron came again to camp and tramp with me, or, as he wrote, "to +eat locusts and wild honey with me in the wilderness," It was past the +middle of August, and the festival of the season neared its close. We +were belated guests, but perhaps all the more eager on that account, +especially as the country was suffering from a terrible drought, and +the only promise of anything fresh or tonic or cool was in primitive +woods and mountain passes. + +"Now, my friend," said I, "we can go to Canada, or to the Maine woods, +or to the Adirondacks, and thus have a whole loaf and a big loaf of +this bread which you know as well as I will have heavy streaks in it, +and will not be uniformly sweet; or we can seek nearer woods, and +content ourselves with one week instead of four, with the prospect of a +keen relish to the last. Four sylvan weeks sound well, but the poetry +is mainly confined to the first one. We can take another slice or two +of the Catskills, can we not, without being sated with kills and +dividing ridges?" + +"Anywhere," replied Aaron, "so that we have a good tramp and plenty of +primitive woods. No doubt we should find good browsing on Peakamoose, +and trout enough in the streams at its base." + +So without further ado we made ready, and in due time found ourselves, +with our packs on our backs, entering upon a pass in the mountains that +led to the valley of the Rondout. + +The scenery was wild and desolate in the extreme, the mountains on +either hand looking as if they had been swept by a tornado of stone. +Stone avalanches hung suspended on their sides, or had shot down into +the chasm below. It was a kind of Alpine scenery, where crushed and +broken boulders covered the earth instead of snow. + +In the depressions in the mountains the rocky fragments seemed to have +accumulated, and to have formed what might be called stone glaciers +that were creeping slowly down. + +Two hours' march brought us into heavy timber where the stone cataclysm +had not reached, and before long the soft voice of the Rondout was +heard in the gulf below us. We paused at a spring run, and I followed +it a few yards down its mountain stairway, carpeted with black moss, +and had my first glimpse of the unknown stream. I stood upon rocks and +looked many feet down into a still, sunlit pool and saw the trout +disporting themselves in the transparent water, and I was ready to +encamp at once; but my companion, who had not been tempted by the view, +insisted upon holding to our original purpose, which was to go farther +up the stream. We passed a clearing with three or four houses and a +saw-mill. The dam of the latter was filled with such clear water that +it seemed very shallow, and not ten or twelve feet deep, as it really +was. The fish were as conspicuous as if they had been in a pail. + +Two miles farther up we suited ourselves and went into camp. + +If there ever was a stream cradled in the rocks, detained lovingly by +them, held and fondled in a rocky lap or tossed in rocky arms, that +stream is the Rondout. Its course for several miles from its head is +over the stratified rock, and into this it has worn a channel that +presents most striking and peculiar features. Now it comes silently +along on the top of the rock, spread out and flowing over that thick, +dark green moss that is found only in the coldest streams; then drawn +into a narrow canal only four or five feet wide, through which it +shoots, black and rigid, to be presently caught in a deep basin with +shelving, overhanging rocks, beneath which the phoebe-bird builds in +security, and upon which the fisherman stands and casts his twenty or +thirty feet of line without fear of being thwarted by the brush; then +into a black, well-like pool, ten or fifteen feet deep, with a smooth, +circular wall of rock on one side worn by the water through long ages; +or else into a deep, oblong pocket, into which and out of which the +water glides without a ripple. + +The surface rock is a coarse sandstone superincumbent upon a +lighter-colored conglomerate that looks like Shawangunk grits, and +when this latter is reached by the water it seems to be rapidly +disintegrated by it, thus forming the deep excavations alluded to. + +My eyes had never before beheld such beauty in a mountain stream. The +water was almost as transparent as the air,--was, indeed, like liquid +air; and as it lay in these wells and pits enveloped in shadow, or lit +up by a chance ray of the vertical sun, it was a perpetual feast to the +eye,--so cool, so deep, so pure; every reach and pool like a vast +spring. You lay down and drank or dipped the water up in your cup, and +found it just the right degree of refreshing coldness. One is never +prepared for the clearness of the water in these streams. It is always +a surprise. See them every year for a dozen years, and yet, when you +first come upon one, you will utter an exclamation. I saw nothing like +it in the Adirondacks, nor in Canada. Absolutely without stain or hint +of impurity, it seems to magnify like a lens, so that the bed of the +stream and the fish in it appear deceptively near. It is rare to find +even a trout stream that is not a little "off color," as they say of +diamonds, but the waters in the section of which I am writing have the +genuine ray; it is the undimmed and untarnished diamond. + +If I were a trout, I should ascend every stream till I found the +Rondout. It is the ideal brook. What homes these fish have, what +retreats under the rocks, what paved or flagged courts and areas, what +crystal depths where no net or snare can reach them!--no mud, no +sediment, but here and there in the clefts and seams of the rock +patches of white gravel,--spawning-beds ready-made. + +The finishing touch is given by the moss with which the rock is +everywhere carpeted. Even in the narrow grooves or channels where the +water runs the swiftest, the green lining is unbroken. It sweeps down +under the stream and up again on the other side, like some firmly woven +texture. It softens every outline and cushions every stone. At a +certain depth in the great basins and wells it of course ceases, and +only the smooth-swept flagging of the place-rock is visible. + +The trees are kept well back from the margin of the stream by the want +of soil, and the large ones unite their branches far above it, thus +forming a high winding gallery, along which the fisherman passes and +makes his long casts with scarcely an interruption from branch or twig. +In a few places he makes no cast, but sees from his rocky perch the +water twenty feet below him, and drops his hook into it as into a well. + +We made camp at a bend in the creek where there was a large surface +of mossy rock uncovered by the shrunken stream,--a clean, free space +left for us in the wilderness that was faultless as a kitchen and +dining-room, and a marvel of beauty as a lounging-room, or an open +court, or what you will. An obsolete wood or bark road conducted us +to it, and disappeared up the hill in the woods beyond. A loose +boulder lay in the middle, and on the edge next the stream were three +or four large natural wash-basins scooped out of the rock, and ever +filled ready for use. Our lair we carved out of the thick brush under +a large birch on the bank. Here we planted our flag of smoke and +feathered our nest with balsam and hemlock boughs and ferns, and +laughed at your four walls and pillows of down. + +Wherever one encamps in the woods, there is home, and every object and +feature about the place take on a new interest and assume a near and +friendly relation to one. We were at the head of the best fishing. +There was an old bark-clearing not far off which afforded us a daily +dessert of most delicious blackberries,--an important item in the +woods,--and then all the features of the place--a sort of cave above +ground--were of the right kind. + +There was not a mosquito, or gnat, or other pest in the woods, the cool +nights having already cut them off. The trout were sufficiently +abundant, and afforded us a few hours' sport daily to supply our wants. +The only drawback was, that they were out of season, and only palatable +to a woodman's keen appetite. What is this about trout spawning in +October and November, and in some cases not till March? These trout had +all spawned in August, every one of them. The coldness and purity of +the water evidently made them that much earlier. The game laws of the +State protect the fish after September 1, proceeding upon the theory +that its spawning season is later than that,--as it is in many cases, +but not in all, as we found out. + +The fish are small in these streams, seldom weighing over a few ounces. +Occasionally a large one is seen of a pound or pound and a half weight. +I remember one such, as black as night, that ran under a black rock. +But I remember much more distinctly a still larger one that I caught +and lost one eventful day. + +I had him on my hook ten minutes, and actually got my thumb in his +mouth, and yet he escaped. + +It was only the over-eagerness of the sportsman. I imagined I could +hold him by the teeth. + +The place where I struck him was a deep well-hole, and I was perched +upon a log that spanned it ten or twelve feet above the water. The +situation was all the more interesting because I saw no possible way to +land my fish. I could not lead him ashore, and my frail tackle could +not be trusted to lift him sheer from that pit to my precarious perch. +What should I do? call for help? but no help was near. I had a revolver +in my pocket and might have shot him through and through, but that +novel proceeding did not occur to me until it was too late. I would +have taken a Sam Patch leap into the water, and have wrestled with my +antagonist in his own element, but I knew the slack, thus sure to +occur, would probably free him; so I peered down upon the beautiful +creature and enjoyed my triumph as far as it went. He was caught very +lightly through his upper jaw, and I expected every struggle and +somersault would break the hold. Presently I saw a place in the rocks +where I thought it possible, with such an incentive, to get down within +reach of the water: by careful manoeuvring I slipped my pole behind me +and got hold of the line, which I cut and wound around my finger; then +I made my way toward the end of the log and the place in the rocks, +leading my fish along much exhausted on the top of the water. By an +effort worthy the occasion I got down within reach of the fish, and, as +I have already confessed, thrust my thumb into his mouth and pinched +his cheek; he made a spring and was free from my hand and the hook at +the same time; for a moment he lay panting on the top of the water, +then, recovering himself slowly, made his way down through the clear, +cruel element beyond all hope of recapture. My blind impulse to follow +and try to seize him was very strong, but I kept my hold and peered and +peered long after the fish was lost to view, then looked my +mortification in the face and laughed a bitter laugh. + +"But, hang it! I had all the fun of catching the fish, and only miss +the pleasure of eating him, which at this time would not be great." + +"The fun, I take it," said my soldier, "is in triumphing, and not in +being beaten at the last." + +"Well, have it so; but I would not exchange those ten or fifteen +minutes with that trout for the tame two hours you have spent in +catching that string of thirty. To see a big fish after days of small +fry is an event; to have a jump from one is a glimpse of the +sportsman's paradise; and to hook one, and actually have him under your +control for ten minutes,--why, that is paradise itself as long as it +lasts." + +One day I went down to the house of a settler a mill below, and engaged +the good dame to make us a couple of loaves of bread, and in the +evening we went down after them. How elastic and exhilarating the walk +was through the cool, transparent shadows! The sun was gilding the +mountains, and its yellow light seemed to be reflected through all the +woods. At one point we looked through and along a valley of deep shadow +upon a broad sweep of mountain quite near and densely clothed with +woods, flooded from base to summit by the setting sun. It was a wild, +memorable scene. What power and effectiveness in Nature, I thought, and +how rarely an artist catches her touch! Looking down upon or squarely +into a mountain covered with a heavy growth of birch and maple, and +shone upon by the sun, is a sight peculiarly agreeable to me. How +closely the swelling umbrageous heads of the trees fit together, and +how the eye revels in the flowing and easy uniformity, while the mind +feels the ruggedness and terrible power beneath! + +As we came back, the light yet lingered on the top of Slide Mountain. + + "'The last that parleys with the setting sun,'" + +said I, quoting Wordsworth. + +"That line is almost Shakespearean," said my companion. "It suggests +that great hand at least, though it has not the grit and virility of +the more primitive bard. What triumph and fresh morning power in +Shakespeare's lines that will occur to us at sunrise to-morrow!-- + + "'And jocund day + Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." + +Or in this:-- + + "'Full many a glorious morning have I seen + Flatter the mountain tops with sovran eye.' + +There is savage, perennial beauty there, the quality that Wordsworth +and nearly all the modern poets lack." + +"But Wordsworth is the poet of the mountains," said I, "and of lonely +peaks. True, he does not express the power and aboriginal grace there +is in them, nor toy with them and pluck them up by the hair of their +heads, as Shakespeare does. There is something in Peakamoose yonder, as +we see it from this point, cutting the blue vault with its dark, +serrated edge, not in the bard of Grasmere; but he expresses the +feeling of loneliness and insignificance that the cultivated man has in +the presence of mountains, and the burden of solemn emotion they give +rise to. Then there is something much more wild and merciless, much +more remote from human interests and ends, in our long, high, wooded +ranges than is expressed by the peaks and scarred groups of the lake +country of Britain. These mountains we behold and cross are not +picturesque,--they are wild and inhuman as the sea. In them you are in +a maze, in a weltering world of woods; you can see neither the earth +nor the sky, but a confusion of the growth and decay of centuries, and +must traverse them by your compass or your science of woodcraft,--a +rift through the trees giving one a glimpse of the opposite range or of +the valley beneath, and he is more at sea than ever; one does not know +his own farm or settlement when framed in these mountain treetops; all +look alike unfamiliar." + +Not the least of the charm of camping out is your camp-fire at night. +What an artist! What pictures are boldly thrown or faintly outlined +upon the canvas of the night! Every object, every attitude of your +companion is striking and memorable. You see effects and groups every +moment that you would give money to be able to carry away with you in +enduring form. How the shadows leap, and skulk, and hover about! Light +and darkness are in perpetual tilt and warfare, with first the one +unhorsed, then the other. The friendly and cheering fire, what +acquaintance we make with it! We had almost forgotten there was such an +element, we had so long known only its dark offspring, heat. Now we see +the wild beauty uncaged and note its manner and temper. How surely it +creates its own draught and sets the currents going, as force and +enthusiasm always will! It carves itself a chimney out of the fluid and +houseless air. A friend, a ministering angel, in subjection; a fiend, a +fury, a monster, ready to devour the world, if ungoverned. By day it +burrows in the ashes and sleeps; at night it comes forth and sits upon +its throne of rude logs, and rules the camp, a sovereign queen. + +Near camp stood a tall, ragged yellow birch, its partially cast-off +bark hanging in crisp sheets or dense rolls. + +"That tree needs the barber," we said, "and shall have a call from him +to-night." + +So after dark I touched a match into it, and we saw the flames creep up +and wax in fury until the whole tree and its main branches stood +wrapped in a sheet of roaring flame. It was a wild and striking +spectacle, and must have advertised our camp to every nocturnal +creature in the forest. + +What does the camper think about when lounging around the fire at +night? Not much,--of the sport of the day, of the big fish he lost and +might have saved, of the distant settlement, of to-morrow's plans. An +owl hoots off in the mountain and he thinks of him; if a wolf were to +howl or a panther to scream, he would think of him the rest of the +night. As it is, things flicker and hover through his mind, and he +hardly knows whether it is the past or the present that possesses him. +Certain it is, he feels the hush and solitude of the great forest, and, +whether he will or not, all his musings are in some way cast upon that +huge background of the night. Unless he is an old camper-out, there +will be an undercurrent of dread or half fear. My companion said he +could not help but feel all the time that there ought to be a sentinel +out there pacing up and down. One seems to require less sleep in the +woods, as if the ground and the untempered air rested and refreshed him +sooner. The balsam and the hemlock heal his aches very quickly. If one +is awakened often during the night, as he invariably is, he does not +feel that sediment of sleep in his mind next day that he does when the +same interruption occurs at home; the boughs have drawn it all out of +him. + +And it is wonderful how rarely any of the housed and tender white man's +colds or influenzas come through these open doors and windows of the +woods. It is our partial isolation from Nature that is dangerous; throw +yourself unreservedly upon her and she rarely betrays you. + +If one takes anything to the woods to read, he seldom reads it; it does +not taste good with such primitive air. + +There are very few camp poems that I know of, poems that would be at +home with one on such an expedition; there is plenty that is weird and +spectral, as in Poe, but little that is woody and wild as this scene +is. I recall a Canadian poem by the late C. D. Shanly--the only one, I +believe, the author ever wrote--that fits well the distended pupil of +the mind's eye about the camp-fire at night. It was printed many years +ago in the "Atlantic Monthly," and is called "The Walker of the Snow;" +it begins thus:-- + + "'Speed on, speed on, good master; + The camp lies far away; + We must cross the haunted valley + Before the close of day.'" + +"That has a Canadian sound," said Aaron; "give us more of it." + + "'How the snow-blight came upon me + I will tell you as we go,-- + The blight of the shadow hunter + Who walks the midnight snow.' + +And so on. The intent seems to be to personify the fearful cold that +overtakes and benumbs the traveler in the great Canadian forests in +winter. This stanza brings out the silence or desolation of the scene +very effectively,--a scene without sound or motion:-- + + "'Save the wailing of the moose-bird + With a plaintive note and low; + And the skating of the red leaf + Upon the frozen snow.' + +"The rest of the poem runs thus:-- + + "'And said I, Though dark is falling, + And far the camp must be, + Yet my heart it would be lightsome + If I had but company. + + "'And then I sang and shouted, + Keeping measure as I sped, + To the harp-twang of the snow-shoe + As it sprang beneath my tread. + + "'Nor far into the valley + Had I dipped upon my way, + When a dusky figure joined me + In a capuchin of gray, + + "'Bending upon the snow-shoes + With a long and limber stride; + And I hailed the dusky stranger, + As we traveled side by side. + + "'But no token of communion + Gave he by word or look, + And the fear-chill fell upon me + At the crossing of the brook. + + "'For I saw by the sickly moonlight, + As I followed, bending low, + That the walking of the stranger + Left no foot-marks on the snow. + + "'Then the fear-chill gathered o'er me, + Like a shroud around me cast, + As I sank upon the snow-drift + Where the shadow hunter passed. + + "'And the otter-trappers found me, + Before the break of day, + With my dark hair blanched and whitened + As the snow in which I lay. + + "'But they spoke not as they raised me; + For they knew that in the night + I had seen the shadow hunter + And had withered in his sight. + + "'Sancta Maria speed us! + The sun is fallen low: + Before us lies the valley + Of the Walker of the Snow!'" + +"Ah!" exclaimed my companion. "Let us pile on more of those dry +birch-logs; I feel both the 'fear-chill' and the 'cold-chill' +creeping over me. How far is it to the valley of the Neversink?" + +"About three or four hours' march, the man said." + +"I hope we have no haunted valleys to cross?" + +"None," said I, "but we pass an old log cabin about which there hangs a +ghostly superstition. At a certain hour in the night, during the time +the bark is loose on the hemlock, a female form is said to steal from +it and grope its way into the wilderness. The tradition runs that her +lover, who was a bark-peeler and wielded the spud, was killed by his +rival, who felled a tree upon him while they were at work. The girl, +who helped her mother cook for the 'hands,' was crazed by the shock, +and that night stole forth into the woods and was never seen or heard +of more. There are old hunters who aver that her cry may still be heard +at night at the head of the valley whenever a tree falls in the +stillness of the forest." + +"Well, I heard a tree fall not ten minutes ago," said Aaron; "a +distant, rushing sound with a subdued crash at the end of it, and the +only answering cry I heard was the shrill voice of the screech owl off +yonder against the mountain. But maybe it was not an owl," said he +after a moment; "let us help the legend along by believing it was the +voice of the lost maiden." + +"By the way," continued he, "do you remember the pretty creature we saw +seven years ago in the shanty on the West Branch, who was really +helping her mother cook for the hands, a slip of a girl twelve or +thirteen years old, with eyes as beautiful and bewitching as the waters +that flowed by her cabin? I was wrapped in admiration till she spoke; +then how the spell was broken! Such a voice! It was like the sound of +pots and pans when you expected to hear a lute." + +The next day we bade farewell to the Rondout, and set out to cross the +mountain to the east branch of the Neversink. + +"We shall find tame waters compared with these, I fear,--a shriveled +stream brawling along over loose stones, with few pools or deep +places." + +Our course was along the trail of the bark-men who had pursued the +doomed hemlock to the last tree at the head of the valley. As we passed +along, a red steer stepped out of the bushes into the road ahead of us, +where the sunshine fell full upon him, and, with a half-scared, +beautiful look, begged alms of salt. We passed the Haunted Shanty; but +both it and the legend about it looked very tame at ten o'clock in the +morning. After the road had faded out, we took to the bed of the stream +to avoid the gauntlet of the underbrush, skipping up the mountain from +boulder to boulder. Up and up we went, with frequent pauses and copious +quaffing of the cold water. My soldier declared a "haunted valley" +would be a godsend; anything but endless dragging of one's self up such +an Alpine stairway. The winter wren, common all through the woods, +peeped and scolded at us as we sat blowing near the summit, and the +oven-bird, not quite sure as to what manner of creatures we were, +hopped down a limb to within a few feet of us and had a good look, +then darted off into the woods to tell the news. I also noted the +Canada warbler, the chestnut-sided warbler, and the black-throated +blue-back,--the latter most abundant of all. Up these mountain +brooks, too, goes the belted kingfisher, swooping around through the +woods when he spies the fisherman, then wheeling into the open space +of the stream and literally making a "blue streak" down under the +branches. + +At last the stream which had been our guide was lost under the rocks, +and before long the top was gained. These mountains are horse-shaped. +There is always a broad, smooth back, more or less depressed, which the +hunter aims to bestride; rising rapidly from this is pretty sure to be +a rough, curving ridge that carries the forest up to some highest peak. +We were lucky in hitting the saddle, but we could see a little to the +south the sharp, steep neck of the steed sweeping up toward the sky +with an erect mane of balsam fir. + +These mountains are steed-like in other respects: any timid and +vacillating course with them is sure to get you into trouble. One must +strike out boldly, and not be disturbed by the curveting and shying; +the valley you want lies squarely behind them, but farther off than you +think, and if you do not go for it resolutely, you will get bewildered +and the mountain will play you a trick. + +I may say that Aaron and I kept a tight rein and a good pace till we +struck a water-course on the other side, and that we clattered down it +with no want of decision till it emptied into a larger stream which we +knew must be the East Branch. An abandoned fishpole lay on the stones, +marking the farthest point reached by some fisherman. According to our +reckoning, we were five or six miles above the settlement, with a good +depth of primitive woods all about us. + +We kept on down the stream, now and then pausing at a likely place +to take some trout for dinner, and with an eye out for a good +camping-ground. Many of the trout were full of ripe spawn, and a +few had spawned, the season with them being a little later than on +the stream we had left, perhaps because the water was less cold. +Neither had the creek here any such eventful and startling career. +It led, indeed, quite a humdrum sort of life under the roots and +fallen treetops and among the loose stones. At rare intervals it +beamed upon us from some still reach or dark cover, and won from +us our best attention in return. + +The day was quite spent before we had pitched our air-woven tent and +prepared our dinner, and we gathered boughs for our bed in the +gloaming. Breakfast had to be caught in the morning and was not served +early, so that it was nine o'clock before we were in motion. A little +bird, the red-eyed vireo, warbled most cheerily in the trees above our +camp, and, as Aaron said, "gave us a good send-off." We kept down the +stream, following the inevitable bark road. + +My companion had refused to look at another "dividing ridge" that had +neither path nor way, and henceforth I must keep to the open road or +travel alone. Two hours' tramp brought us to an old clearing with some +rude, tumble-down log buildings that many years before had been +occupied by the bark and lumber men. The prospect for trout was so good +in the stream hereabouts, and the scene so peaceful and inviting, shone +upon by the dreamy August sun, that we concluded to tarry here until +the next day. It was a page of pioneer history opened to quite +unexpectedly. A dim footpath led us a few yards to a superb spring, in +which a trout from the near creek had taken up his abode. We took +possession of what had been a shingle-shop, attracted by its huge +fireplace. We floored it with balsam boughs, hung its walls with our +"traps," and sent the smoke curling again from its disused chimney. + +The most musical and startling sound we heard in the woods greeted our +ears that evening about sundown as we sat on a log in front of our +quarters,--the sound of slow, measured pounding in the valley below us. +We did not know how near we were to human habitations, and the report +of the lumberman's mallet, like the hammering of a great woodpecker, +was music to the ear and news to the mind. The air was still and dense, +and the silence such as alone broods over these little openings in the +primitive woods. My soldier started as if he had heard a signal-gun. +The sound, coming so far through the forest, sweeping over those great +wind-harps of trees, became wild and legendary, though probably made by +a lumberman driving a wedge or working about his mill. + +We expected a friendly visit from porcupines that night, as we saw +where they had freshly gnawed all about us; hence, when a red squirrel +came and looked in upon us very early in the morning and awoke us by +his snickering and giggling, my comrade cried out, "There is your +porcupig." How the frisking red rogue seemed to enjoy what he had +found! He looked in at the door and snickered, then in at the window, +then peeked down from between the rafters and cachinnated till his +sides must have ached; then struck an attitude upon the chimney, and +fairly squealed with mirth and ridicule. In fact, he grew so +obstreperous, and so disturbed our repose, that we had to "shoo" him +away with one of our boots. He declared most plainly that he had never +before seen so preposterous a figure as we cut lying there in the +corner of that old shanty. + +The morning boded rain, the week to which we had limited ourselves drew +near its close, and we concluded to finish our holiday worthily by a +good square tramp to the railroad station, twenty-three miles distant, +as it proved. Two miles brought us to stumpy fields, and to the house +of the upper inhabitant. They told us there was a short cut across the +mountain, but my soldier shook his head. + +"Better twenty miles of Europe," said he, getting Tennyson a little +mixed, "than one of Cathay, or Slide Mountain either." + +Drops of the much-needed rain began to come down, and I hesitated in +front of the woodshed. + +"Sprinkling weather always comes to some bad end," said Aaron, with a +reminiscence of an old couplet in his mind, and so it proved, for it +did not get beyond a sprinkle, and the sun shone out before noon. + +In the next woods I picked up from the middle of the road the tail and +one hind leg of one of our native rats, the first I had ever seen +except in a museum. An owl or fox had doubtless left it the night +before. It was evident the fragments had once formed part of a very +elegant and slender creature. The fur that remained (for it was not +hair) was tipped with red. My reader doubtless knows that the common +rat is an importation, and that there is a native American rat, usually +found much farther south than the locality of which I am writing, that +lives in the woods,--a sylvan rat, very wild and nocturnal in his +habits, and seldom seen even by hunters or woodmen. Its eyes are large +and fine, and its form slender. It looks like only a far-off +undegenerate cousin of the filthy creature that has come to us from the +long-peopled Old World. Some creature ran between my feet and the fire +toward morning, the last night we slept in the woods, and I have little +doubt it was one of these wood-rats. + +The people in these back settlements are almost as shy and furtive as +the animals. Even the men look a little scared when you stop them by +your questions. The children dart behind their parents when you look at +them. As we sat on a bridge resting,--for our packs still weighed +fifteen or twenty pounds each,--two women passed us with pails on their +arms, going for blackberries. They filed by with their eyes down like +two abashed nuns. + +In due time we found an old road, to which we had been directed, that +led over the mountain to the West Branch. It was a hard pull, sweetened +by blackberries and a fine prospect. The snowbird was common along the +way, and a solitary wild pigeon shot through the woods in front of us, +recalling the nests we had seen on the East Branch,--little +scaffoldings of twigs scattered all through the trees. + +It was nearly noon when we struck the West Branch, and the sun was +scalding hot. We knew that two and three pound trout had been taken +there, and yet we wet not a line in its waters. The scene was +primitive, and carried one back to the days of his grandfather, stumpy +fields, log fences, log houses and barns. A boy twelve or thirteen +years old came out of a house ahead of us eating a piece of bread and +butter. We soon overtook him and held converse with him. He knew the +land well, and what there was in the woods and the waters. He had +walked out to the railroad station, fourteen miles distant, to see the +cars, and back the same day. I asked him about the flies and +mosquitoes, etc. He said they were all gone except the "blunder-heads;" +there were some of them left yet. + +"What are blunder-heads?" I inquired, sniffing new game. + +"The pesky little fly that gets into your eye when you are a-fishing." + +Ah, yes! I knew him well. We had got acquainted some days before, and I +thanked the boy for the name. It is an insect that hovers before your +eye as you thread the streams, and you are forever vaguely brushing at +it under the delusion that it is a little spider suspended from your +hat-brim; and just as you want to see clearest, into your eye it goes, +head and ears, and is caught between the lids. You miss your cast, but +you catch a "blunder-head." + +We paused under a bridge at the mouth of Biscuit Brook and ate our +lunch, and I can recommend it to be as good a wayside inn as the +pedestrian need look for. Better bread and milk than we had there I +never expect to find. The milk was indeed so good that Aaron went down +to the little log house under the hill a mile farther on and asked for +more; and being told they had no cow, he lingered five minutes on the +doorstone with his sooty pail in his hand, putting idle questions about +the way and distance to the mother while he refreshed himself with the +sight of a well-dressed and comely-looking young girl, her daughter. + +"I got no milk," said he, hurrying on after me, "but I got something +better, only I cannot divide it." + +"I know what it is," replied I; "I heard her voice." + +"Yes, and it was a good one, too. The sweetest sound I ever heard," he +went on, "was a girl's voice after I had been four years in the army, +and, by Jove! if I didn't experience something of the same pleasure in +hearing this young girl speak after a week in the woods. She had +evidently been out in the world and was home on a visit. It was a +different look she gave me from that of the natives. This is better +than fishing for trout," said he. "You drop in at the next house." + +But the next house looked too unpromising. + +"There is no milk there," said I, "unless they keep a goat." + +"But could we not," said my facetious companion, "go it on that?" + +A couple of miles beyond I stopped at a house that enjoyed the +distinction of being clapboarded, and had the good fortune to find both +the milk and the young lady. A mother and her daughter were again the +only occupants save a babe in the cradle, which the young woman quickly +took occasion to disclaim. + +"It has not opened its dear eyes before since its mother left. Come to +aunty," and she put out her hands. + +The daughter filled my pail and the mother replenished our stock of +bread. They asked me to sit and cool myself, and seemed glad of a +stranger to talk with. They had come from an adjoining county five +years before, and had carved their little clearing out of the solid +woods. + +"The men folks," the mother said, "came on ahead and built the house +right among the big trees," pointing to the stumps near the door. + +One no sooner sets out with his pack upon his back to tramp through the +land than all objects and persons by the way have a new and curious +interest to him. The tone of his entire being is not a little elevated, +and all his perceptions and susceptibilities quickened. I feel that +some such statement is necessary to justify the interest that I felt in +this backwoods maiden. A slightly pale face it was, strong and well +arched, with a tender, wistful expression not easy to forget. + +I had surely seen that face many times before in towns and cities, and +in other lands, but I hardly expected to meet it here amid the stumps. +What were the agencies that had given it its fine lines and its +gracious intelligence amid these simple, primitive scenes? What did my +heroine read, or think? or what were her unfulfilled destinies? She +wore a sprig of prince's pine in her hair, which gave a touch +peculiarly welcome. + +"Pretty lonely," she said, in answer to my inquiry; "only an occasional +fisherman in summer, and in winter--nobody at all." + +And the little new schoolhouse in the woods farther on, with its +half-dozen scholars and the girlish face of the teacher seen through +the open door,--nothing less than the exhilaration of a journey on +foot could have made it seem the interesting object it was. Two of the +little girls had been to the spring after a pail of water, and came +struggling out of the woods into the road with it as we passed. They +set down their pail and regarded us with a half-curious, half-alarmed +look. + +"What is your teacher's name?" asked one of us. + +"Miss Lucinde Josephine--" began the red-haired one, then hesitated, +bewildered, when the bright, dark-eyed one cut her short with "Miss +Simms," and taking hold of the pail said, "Come on." + +"Are there any scholars from above here?" I inquired. + +"Yes, Bobbie and Matie," and they hastened toward the door. + +We once more stopped under a bridge for refreshments, and took our +time, knowing the train would not go on without us. By four o'clock we +were across the mountain, having passed from the watershed of the +Delaware into that of the Hudson. The next eight miles we had a down +grade but a rough road, and during the last half of it we had blisters +on the bottoms of our feet. It is one of the rewards of the pedestrian +that, however tired he may be, he is always more or less refreshed by +his journey. His physical tenement has taken an airing. His respiration +has been deepened, his circulation quickened. A good draught has +carried off the fumes and the vapors. One's quality is intensified; the +color strikes in. At noon that day I was much fatigued; at night I was +leg-weary and footsore, but a fresh, hardy feeling had taken possession +of me that lasted for weeks. + + + + +VIII + +BIRDS'-NESTING + + +Birds's-nesting is by no means a failure, even though you find no +birds'-nests. You are sure to find other things of interest, plenty of +them. A friend of mine says that, in his youth, he used to go hunting +with his gun loaded for wild turkeys, and, though he frequently saw +plenty of smaller game, he generally came home empty-handed, because he +was loaded only for turkeys. But the student of ornithology, who is +also a lover of Nature in all her shows and forms, does not go out +loaded for turkeys merely, but for everything that moves or grows, and +is quite sure, therefore, to bag some game, if not with his gun, then +with his eye, or his nose, or his ear. Even a crow's nest is not amiss, +or a den in the rocks where the coons or the skunks live, or a log +where a partridge drums, or the partridge himself starting up with +spread tail, and walking a few yards in advance of you before he goes +humming through the woods, or a woodchuck hole, with well beaten and +worn entrance, and with the saplings gnawed and soiled about it, or the +strong, fetid smell of the fox, which a sharp nose detects here and +there, and which is a good perfume in the woods. And then it is enough +to come upon a spring in the woods and stoop down and drink of the +sweet, cold water, and bathe your hands in it, or to walk along a trout +brook, which has absorbed the shadows till it has itself become but a +denser shade. Then I am always drawn out of my way by a ledge of rocks, +and love nothing better than to explore the caverns and dens, or to sit +down under the overhanging crags and let the wild scene absorb me. + +There is a fascination about ledges! They are an unmistakable feature, +and give emphasis and character to the scene. I feel their spell, and +must pause awhile. Time, old as the hills and older, looks out of their +scarred and weather-worn face. The woods are of to-day, but the ledges, +in comparison, are of eternity. One pokes about them as he would about +ruins, and with something of the same feeling. They are ruins of the +fore world. Here the foundations of the hills were laid; here the +earth-giants wrought and builded. They constrain one to silence and +meditation; the whispering and rustling trees seem trivial and +impertinent. + +And then there are birds'-nests about ledges, too, exquisite mossy +tenements, with white, pebbly eggs, that I can never gaze upon without +emotion. The little brown bird, the phoebe, looks at you from her niche +till you are within a few feet of her, when she darts away. +Occasionally you may find the nest of some rare wood-warbler forming a +little pocket in the apron of moss that hangs down over the damp rocks. + +The sylvan folk seem to know when you are on a peaceful mission, and +are less afraid than usual. Did not that marmot to-day guess that my +errand did not concern him as he saw me approach from his cover in the +bushes? But when he saw me pause and deliberately seat myself on the +stone wall immediately over his hole, his confidence was much shaken. +He apparently deliberated awhile, for I heard the leaves rustle as if +he were making up his mind, when he suddenly broke cover and came for +his hole full tilt. Any other animal would have taken to his heels and +fled; but a woodchuck's heels do not amount to much for speed, and he +feels his only safety is in his hole. On he came in the most obstinate +and determined manner, and I dare say if I had sat down in his hole, +would have attacked me unhesitatingly. This I did not give him a chance +to do; but, not to be entirely outdone, attempted to set my feet on him +in no very gentle manner; but he whipped into his den beneath me with a +defiant snort. Farther on, a saucy chipmunk presumed upon my harmless +character to an unwonted degree also. I had paused to bathe my hands +and face in a little trout brook, and had set a tin cup, which I had +partly filled with strawberries as I crossed the field, on a stone at +my feet, when along came the chipmunk as confidently as if he knew +precisely where he was going, and, perfectly oblivious of my presence, +cocked himself up on the rim of the cup and proceeded to eat my +choicest berries. I remained motionless and observed him. He had eaten +but two when the thought seemed to occur to him that he might be doing +better, and he began to fill his pockets. Two, four, six, eight of my +berries quickly disappeared, and the cheeks of the little vagabond +swelled. But all the time he kept eating, that not a moment might be +lost. Then he hopped off the cup, and went skipping from stone to stone +till the brook was passed, when he disappeared in the woods. In two or +three minutes he was back again, and went to stuffing himself as +before; then he disappeared a second time, and I imagined told a friend +of his, for in a moment or two along came a bobtailed chipmunk, as if +in search of something, and passed up, and down, and around, but did +not quite hit the spot. Shortly, the first returned a third time, and +had now grown a little fastidious, for he began to sort over my +berries, and to bite into them, as if to taste their quality. He was +not long in loading up, however, and in making off again. But I had now +got tired of the joke, and my berries were appreciably diminishing, so +I moved away. What was most curious about the proceeding was, that the +little poacher took different directions each time, and returned from +different ways. Was this to elude pursuit, or was he distributing the +fruit to his friends and neighbors about, astonishing them with +strawberries for lunch? + +But I am making slow headway toward finding the birds'-nests, for I had +set out on this occasion in hopes of finding a rare nest,--the nest of +the black-throated blue-backed warbler, which, it seemed, with one or +two others, was still wanting to make the history of our warblers +complete. The woods were extensive, and full of deep, dark tangles, and +looking for any particular nest seemed about as hopeless a task as +searching for a needle in a haystack, as the old saying is. Where to +begin, and how? But the principle is the same as in looking for a hen's +nest,--first find your bird, then watch its movements. + +The bird is in these woods, for I have seen him scores of times, but +whether he builds high or low, on the ground or in the trees, is all +unknown to me. That is his song now,--"twe-twea-twe-e-e-a," with a +peculiar summer languor and plaintiveness, and issuing from the lower +branches and growths. Presently we--for I have been joined by a +companion--discover the bird, a male, insecting in the top of a newly +fallen hemlock. The black, white, and blue of his uniform are seen at a +glance. His movements are quite slow compared with some of the +warblers. If he will only betray the locality of that little domicile +where his plainly clad mate is evidently sitting, it is all we will ask +of him. But this he seems in no wise disposed to do. Here and there, +and up and down; we follow him, often losing him, and as often +refinding him by his song; but the clew to his nest, how shall we get +it? Does he never go home to see how things are getting on, or to see +if his presence is not needed, or to take madam a morsel of food? No +doubt he keeps within earshot, and a cry of distress or alarm from the +mother bird would bring him to the spot in an instant. Would that some +evil fate would make her cry, then! Presently he encounters a rival. +His feeding-ground infringes upon that of another, and the two birds +regard each other threateningly. This is a good sign, for their nests +are evidently near. + +Their battle-cry is a low, peculiar chirp, not very fierce, but +bantering and confident. They quickly come to blows, but it is a very +fantastic battle, and, as it would seem, indulged in more to satisfy +their sense of honor than to hurt each other, for neither party gets +the better of the other, and they separate a few paces and sing, and +squeak, and challenge each other in a very happy frame of mind. The +gauntlet is no sooner thrown down than it is again taken up by one or +the other, and in the course of fifteen or twenty minutes they have +three or four encounters, separating a little, then provoked to return +again like two cocks, till finally they withdraw beyond hearing of each +other,--both, no doubt, claiming the victory. But the secret of the +nest is still kept. Once I think I have it. I catch a glimpse of a +bird which looks like the female, and near by, in a small hemlock +about eight feet from the ground, my eye detects a nest. But as I +come up under it, I can see daylight through it, and that it is +empty,--evidently only part finished, not lined or padded yet. Now if +the bird will only return and claim it, the point will be gained. But +we wait and watch in vain. The architect has knocked off to-day, and +we must come again, or continue our search. + +While loitering about here we were much amused by three chipmunks, who +seemed to be engaged in some kind of game. It looked very much as if +they were playing tag. Round and round they would go, first one taking +the lead, then another, all good-natured and gleeful as schoolboys. +There is one thing about a chipmunk that is peculiar: he is never more +than one jump from home. Make a dive at him anywhere and in he goes. He +knows where the hole is, even when it is covered up with leaves. There +is no doubt, also, that he has his own sense of humor and fun, as what +squirrel has not? I have watched two red squirrels for a half hour +coursing through the large trees by the roadside where branches +interlocked, and engaged in a game of tag as obviously as two boys. As +soon as the pursuer had come up with the pursued, and actually touched +him, the palm was his, and away he would go, taxing his wits and his +speed to the utmost to elude his fellow. + +Despairing of finding either of the nests of the two males, we pushed +on through the woods to try our luck elsewhere. Before long, just as we +were about to plunge down a hill into a dense, swampy part of the +woods, we discovered a pair of the birds we were in quest of. They had +food in their beaks, and, as we paused, showed great signs of alarm, +indicating that the nest was in the immediate vicinity. This was +enough. We would pause here and find this nest, anyhow. To make a sure +thing of it, we determined to watch the parent birds till we had wrung +from them their secret. So we doggedly crouched down and watched them, +and they watched us. It was diamond cut diamond. But as we felt +constrained in our movements, desiring, if possible, to keep so quiet +that the birds would, after a while, see in us only two harmless stumps +or prostrate logs, we had much the worst of it. The mosquitoes were +quite taken with our quiet, and knew us from logs and stumps in a +moment. Neither were the birds deceived, not even when we tried the +Indian's tactics, and plumed ourselves with green branches. Ah, the +suspicious creatures, how they watched us with the food in their beaks, +abstaining for one whole hour from ministering that precious charge +which otherwise would have been visited every moment! Quite near us +they would come at times, between us and the nest, eying us so sharply. +Then they would move off, and apparently try to forget our presence. +Was it to deceive us, or to persuade himself and mate that there was no +serious cause for alarm, that the male would now and then strike up in +full song and move off to some distance through the trees? But the +mother bird did not allow herself to lose sight of us at all, and both +birds, after carrying the food in their beaks a long time, would +swallow it themselves. Then they would obtain another morsel and +apparently approach very near the nest, when their caution or prudence +would come to their aid, and they would swallow the food and hasten +away. I thought the young birds would cry out, but not a syllable from +them. Yet this was, no doubt, what kept the parent birds away from the +nest. The clamor the young would have set up on the approach of the old +with food would have exposed everything. + +After a time I felt sure I knew within a few feet where the nest was +concealed. Indeed, I thought I knew the identical bush. Then the birds +approached each other again and grew very confidential about another +locality some rods below. This puzzled us, and, seeing the whole +afternoon might be spent in this manner, and the mystery unsolved, we +determined to change our tactics and institute a thorough search of the +locality. This procedure soon brought things to a crisis, for, as my +companion clambered over a log by a little hemlock, a few yards from +where we had been sitting, with a cry of alarm out sprang the young +birds from their nest in the hemlock, and, scampering and fluttering +over the leaves, disappeared in different directions. This brought the +parent birds on the scene in an agony of alarm. Their distress was +pitiful. They threw themselves on the ground at our very feet, and +fluttered, and cried, and trailed themselves before us, to draw us away +from the place, or distract our attention from the helpless young. I +shall not forget the male bird, how bright he looked, how sharp the +contrast as he trailed his painted plumage there on the dry leaves. +Apparently he was seriously disabled. He would start up as if exerting +every muscle to fly away, but no use; down he would come, with a +helpless, fluttering motion, before he had gone two yards, and +apparently you had only to go and pick him up. But before you could +pick him up, he had recovered somewhat and flown a little farther; and +thus, if you were tempted to follow him, you would soon find yourself +some distance from the scene of the nest, and both old and young well +out of your reach. The female bird was not less solicious, and +practiced the same arts upon us to decoy us away, but her dull plumage +rendered her less noticeable. The male was clad in holiday attire, but +his mate in an every-day working-garb. + +The nest was built in the fork of a little hemlock, about fifteen +inches from the ground, and was a thick, firm structure, composed of +the finer material of the woods, with a lining of very delicate roots +or rootlets. There were four young birds and one addled egg. We found +it in a locality about the head-waters of the eastern branch of the +Delaware, where several other of the rarer species of warblers, such as +the mourning ground, the Blackburnian, the chestnut-sided, and the +speckled Canada, spend the summer and rear their young. + +Defunct birds'-nests are easy to find; when the leaves fall, then they +are in every bush and tree; and one wonders how he missed them; but a +live nest, how it eludes one! I have read of a noted criminal who could +hide himself pretty effectually in any room that contained the usual +furniture; he would embrace the support of a table so as to seem part +of it. The bird has studied the same art: it always blends its nest +with the surroundings, and sometimes its very openness hides it; the +light itself seems to conceal it. Then the birds build anew each year, +and so always avail themselves of the present and latest combination of +leaves and screens, of light and shade. What was very well concealed +one season may be quite exposed the next. + +Going a-fishing or a-berrying is a good introduction to the haunts of +the birds, and to their nesting-places. You put forth your hand for the +berries, and there is a nest; or your tread by the creeks starts the +sandpiper or the water-thrush from the ground where its eggs are +concealed, or some shy wood-warbler from a bush. One day, fishing down +a deep wooded gorge, my hook caught on a limb overhead, and on pulling +it down I found I had missed my trout, but had caught a hummingbird's +nest. It was saddled on the limb as nicely as if it had been a grown +part of it. + +Other collectors beside the ooelogists are looking for birds'-nests,-- +the squirrels and owls and jays and crows. The worst depredator in this +direction I know of is the fish crow, and I warn him to keep off my +premises, and charge every gunner to spare him not. He is a small +sneak-thief, and will rob the nest of every robin, wood thrush, and +oriole he can come at. I believe he fishes only when he is unable to +find birds' eggs or young birds. The genuine crow, the crow with the +honest "caw," "caw," I have never caught in such small business, though +the kingbird makes no discrimination between them, but accuses both +alike. + + + + +IX + +THE HALCYON IN CANADA + + +The halcyon or kingfisher is a good guide when you go to the woods. He +will not insure smooth water or fair weather, but he knows every stream +and lake like a book, and will take you to the wildest and most +unfrequented places. Follow his rattle and you shall see the source of +every trout and salmon stream on the continent. You shall see the Lake +of the Woods, and far-off Athabasca and Abbitibbe, and the unknown +streams that flow into Hudson's Bay, and many others. His time is the +time of the trout, too, namely, from April to September. He makes his +subterranean nest in the bank of some favorite stream, and then goes on +long excursions up and down and over woods and mountains to all the +waters within reach, always fishing alone, the true angler that he is, +his fellow keeping far ahead or behind, or taking the other branch. He +loves the sound of a waterfall, and will sit a long time on a dry limb +overhanging the pool below it, and, forgetting his occupation, brood +upon his own memories and fancies. + +The past season my friend and I took a hint from him, and, when the +dog-star began to blaze, set out for Canada, making a big detour to +touch at salt water and to take New York and Boston on our way. + +The latter city was new to me, and we paused there and angled a couple +of days and caught an editor, a philosopher, and a poet, and might have +caught more if we had had a mind to, for these waters are full of 'em, +and big ones, too. + +Coming from the mountainous regions of the Hudson, we saw little in the +way of scenery that arrested our attention until we beheld the St. +Lawrence, though one gets glimpses now and then, as he is whirled along +through New Hampshire and Vermont, that make him wish for a fuller +view. It is always a pleasure to bring to pass the geography of one's +boyhood; 'tis like the fulfilling of a dream; hence it was with partial +eyes that I looked upon the Merrimac, the Connecticut, and the +Passumpsic,--dusky, squaw-colored streams, whose names I had learned so +long ago. The traveler opens his eyes a little wider when he reaches +Lake Memphremagog, especially if he have the luck to see it under such +a sunset as we did, its burnished surface glowing like molten gold. +This lake is an immense trough that accommodates both sides of the +fence, though by far the larger and longer part of it is in Canada. Its +western shore is bold and picturesque, being skirted by a detachment of +the Green Mountains, the main range of which is seen careering along +the horizon far to the southwest; to the east and north, whither the +railroad takes you, the country is flat and monotonous. + +The first peculiarity one notices about the farms in this northern +country is the close proximity of the house and barn, in most cases the +two buildings touching at some point,--an arrangement doubtless +prompted by the deep snows and severe cold of this latitude. The +typical Canadian dwelling-house is also presently met with on entering +the Dominion,--a low, modest structure of hewn spruce logs, with a +steep roof (containing two or more dormer windows) that ends in a smart +curve, a hint taken from the Chinese pagoda. Even in the more costly +brick or stone houses in the towns and vicinity this style is adhered +to. It is so universal that one wonders if the reason of it is not in +the climate also, the outward curve of the roof shooting the sliding +snow farther away from the dwelling. It affords a wide projection, in +many cases covering a veranda, and in all cases protecting the doors +and windows without interfering with the light. In the better class of +clapboarded houses the finish beneath the projecting eaves is also a +sweeping curve, opposing and bracing that of the roof. A two-story +country house, or a Mansard roof, I do not remember to have seen in +Canada; but in places they have become so enamored of the white of the +snow that they even whitewash the roofs of their buildings, giving a +cluster of them the impression, at a distance, of an encampment of +great tents. + +As we neared Point Levi, opposite Quebec, we got our first view of the +St. Lawrence. "Iliad of rivers!" exclaimed my friend. "Yet unsung!" The +Hudson must take a back seat now, and a good way back. One of the two +or three great watercourses of the globe is before you. No other river, +I imagine, carries such a volume of pure cold water to the sea. Nearly +all its feeders are trout and salmon streams, and what an airing and +what a bleaching it gets on its course! Its history, its antecedents, +are unparalleled. The great lakes are its camping-grounds; here its +hosts repose under the sun and stars in areas like that of states and +kingdoms, and it is its waters that shake the earth at Niagara. Where +it receives the Saguenay it is twenty miles wide, and when it debouches +into the Gulf it is a hundred. Indeed, it is a chain of Homeric +sublimities from beginning to end. The great cataract is a fit sequel +to the great lakes; the spirit that is born in vast and tempestuous +Superior takes its full glut of power in that fearful chasm. If +paradise is hinted in the Thousand Islands, hell is unveiled in that +pit of terrors. + +Its last escapade is the great rapids above Montreal, down which the +steamer shoots with its breathless passengers, after which, inhaling +and exhaling its mighty tides, it flows calmly to the sea. + +The St. Lawrence is the type of nearly all the Canadian rivers, which +are strung with lakes and rapids and cataracts, and are full of peril +and adventure. + +Here we reach the oldest part of the continent, geologists tell us; and +here we encounter a fragment of the Old World civilization. Quebec +presents the anomaly of a mediaeval European city in the midst of the +American landscape. This air, this sky, these clouds, these trees, the +look of these fields, are what we have always known; but the houses, +and streets, and vehicles, and language, and physiognomy are strange. +As I walked upon the grand terrace I saw the robin and kingbird and +song sparrow, and there in the tree, by the Wolfe Monument, our summer +warbler was at home. I presently saw, also, that our republican crow +was a British subject, and that he behaved here more like his European +brother than he does in the States, being less wild and suspicious. On +the Plains of Abraham excellent timothy grass was growing and cattle +were grazing. We found a path through the meadow, and, with the +exception of a very abundant weed with a blue flower, saw nothing new +or strange,--nothing but the steep tin roofs of the city and its +frowning wall and citadel. Sweeping around the far southern horizon, we +could catch glimpses of mountains that were evidently in Maine or New +Hampshire; while twelve or fifteen miles to the north the Laurentian +ranges, dark and formidable, arrested the eye. Quebec, or the walled +part of it, is situated on a point of land shaped not unlike the human +foot, looking northeast, the higher and bolder side being next the +river, with the main part of the town on the northern slope toward the +St. Charles. Its toes are well down in the mud where this stream joins +the St. Lawrence, while the citadel is high on the instep and commands +the whole field. The grand Battery is a little below, on the brink of +the instep, so to speak, and the promenader looks down several hundred +feet into the tops of the chimneys of this part of the lower town, and +upon the great river sweeping by northeastward like another Amazon. The +heel of our misshapen foot extends indefinitely toward Montreal. Upon +it, on a level with the citadel, are the Plains of Abraham. It was up +its high, almost perpendicular, sides that Wolfe clambered with his +army, and stood in the rear of his enemy one pleasant September morning +over a hundred years ago. + +To the north and northeast of Quebec, and in full view from the upper +parts of the city, lies a rich belt of agricultural country, sloping +gently toward the river, and running parallel with it for many miles, +called the Beauport slopes. The division of the land into uniform +parallelograms, as in France, was a marked feature, and is so +throughout the Dominion. A road ran through the midst of it lined with; +trees, and leading to the falls of the Montmorenci. I imagine that this +section is the garden of Quebec. Beyond it rose the mountains. Our eyes +looked wistfully toward them, for we had decided to penetrate the +Canadian woods in that direction. + +One hundred and twenty-five miles from Quebec as the loon flies, almost +due north over unbroken spruce forests, lies Lake St. John, the cradle +of the terrible Saguenay. On the map it looks like a great cuttlefish +with its numerous arms and tentacula reaching out in all directions +into the wilds. It is a large oval body of water thirty miles in its +greatest diameter. The season here, owing to a sharp northern sweep of +the isothermal lines, is two or three weeks earlier than at Quebec. The +soil is warm and fertile, and there is a thrifty growing settlement +here with valuable agricultural produce, but no market nearer than +Quebec, two hundred and fifty miles distant by water, with a hard, +tedious land journey besides. In winter the settlement can have little +or no communication with the outside world. + +To relieve this isolated colony and encourage further development of +the St. John region, the Canadian government is building [footnote: +Written in 1877] a wagon-road through the wilderness from Quebec +directly to the lake, thus economizing half the distance, as the road +when completed will form with the old route, the Saguenay and St. +Lawrence, one side of an equilateral triangle. A railroad was projected +a few years ago over nearly the same ground, and the contract to build +it given to an enterprising Yankee, who pocketed a part of the money +and has never been heard of since. The road runs for one hundred miles +through an unbroken wilderness, and opens up scores of streams and +lakes abounding with trout, into which, until the road-makers fished +them, no white man had ever cast a hook. + +It was a good prospect, and we resolved to commit ourselves to the St. +John road. The services of a young fellow whom, by reason of his +impracticable French name, we called Joe, were secured, and after a +delay of twenty-four hours we were packed upon a Canadian buckboard +with hard-tack in one bag and oats in another, and the journey began. +It was Sunday, and we held up our heads more confidently when we got +beyond the throng of well-dressed church-goers. For ten miles we had a +good stone road and rattled along it at a lively pace. In about half +that distance we came to a large brick church, where we began to see +the rural population or _habitans._ They came mostly in two-wheeled +vehicles, some of the carts quite fancy, in which the young fellows +rode complacently beside their girls. The two-wheeler predominates in +Canada, and is of all styles and sizes. After we left the stone road, +we began to encounter the hills that are preliminary to the mountains. +The farms looked like the wilder and poorer parts of Maine or New +Hampshire. While Joe was getting a supply of hay of a farmer to take +into the woods for his horse, I walked through a field in quest of wild +strawberries. The season for them was past, it being the 20th of July, +and I found barely enough to make me think that the strawberry here is +far less pungent and high-flavored than with us. + +The cattle in the fields and by the roadside looked very small and +delicate, the effect, no doubt, of the severe climate. We saw many rude +implements of agriculture, such as wooden plows shod with iron. + +We passed several parties of men, women, and children from Quebec +picnicking in the "bush." Here it was little more than a "bush;" but +while in Canada we never heard the woods designated by any other term. +I noticed, also, that when a distance of a few miles or of a fraction +of a mile is to be designated, the French Canadian does not use the +term "miles," but says it's so many acres through, or to the next +place. + +This fondness for the "bush" at this season seems quite a marked +feature in the social life of the average Quebecker, and is one of the +original French traits that holds its own among them. Parties leave the +city in carts and wagons by midnight, or earlier, and drive out as far +as they can the remainder of the night, in order to pass the whole +Sunday in the woods, despite the mosquitoes and black flies. Those we +saw seemed a decent, harmless set, whose idea of a good time was to be +in the open air, and as far into the "bush" as possible. + +The post-road, as the new St. John's road is also called, begins twenty +miles from Quebec at Stoneham, the farthest settlement. Five miles into +the forest upon the new road is the hamlet of La Chance, the last house +till you reach the lake, one hundred and twenty miles distant. Our +destination the first night was La Chance's; this would enable us to +reach the Jacques Cartier River, forty miles farther, where we proposed +to encamp, in the afternoon of the next day. + +We were now fairly among the mountains, and the sun was well down +behind the trees when we entered upon the post-road. It proved to be a +wide, well-built highway, grass-grown, but in good condition. After an +hour's travel we began to see signs of a clearing, and about six +o'clock drew up in front of the long, low, log habitation of La Chance. +Their hearthstone was outdoor at this season, and its smoke rose +through the still atmosphere in a frail column toward the sky. The +family was gathered here and welcomed us cordially as we drew up, the +master shaking us by the hand as if we were old friends. His English +was very poor, and our French was poorer, but, with Joe as a bridge +between us, communication on a pinch was kept up. His wife could speak +no English; but her true French politeness and graciousness was a +language we could readily understand. Our supper was got ready from our +own supplies, while we sat or stood in the open air about the fire. The +clearing comprised fifty or sixty acres of rough land in the bottom of +a narrow valley, and bore indifferent crops of oats, barley, potatoes, +and timothy grass. The latter was just in bloom, being a month or more +later than with us. The primitive woods, mostly of birch with a +sprinkling of spruce, put a high cavernous wall about the scene. How +sweetly the birds sang, their notes seeming to have unusual strength +and volume in this forest-bound opening! The principal singer was the +white-throated sparrow, which we heard and saw everywhere on the route. +He is called here _le siffleur_ (the whistler), and very delightful his +whistle was. From the forest came the evening hymn of a thrush, the +olive-backed perhaps, like but less clear and full than the veery's. + +In the evening we sat about the fire in rude homemade chairs, and had +such broken and disjointed talk as we could manage. Our host had lived +in Quebec and been a school-teacher there; he had wielded the birch +until he lost his health, when he came here and the birches gave it +back to him. He was now hearty and well, and had a family of six or +seven children about him. + +We were given a good bed that night, and fared better than we expected. +About one o'clock I was awakened by suppressed voices outside the +window. Who could it be? Had a band of brigands surrounded the house? +As our outfit and supplies had not been removed from the wagon in front +of the door I got up, and, lifting one corner of the window paper, +peeped out: I saw in the dim moonlight four or five men standing about +engaged in low conversation. Presently one of the men advanced to the +door and began to rap and call the name of our host. Then I knew their +errand was not hostile; but the weird effect of that regular alternate +rapping and calling ran through my dream all the rest of the night. +Rat-tat, tat, tat,--La Chance; rat-tat, tat,--La Chance, five or six +times repeated before La Chance heard and responded. Then the door +opened and they came in, when it was jabber, jabber, jabber in the next +room till I fell asleep. + +In the morning, to my inquiry as to who the travelers were and what +they wanted, La Chance said they were old acquaintances going +a-fishing, and had stopped to have a little talk. + +Breakfast was served early, and we were upon the road before the sun. +Then began a forty-mile ride through a dense Canadian spruce forest +over the drift and boulders of the paleozoic age. Up to this point the +scenery had been quite familiar,--not much unlike that of the +Catskills,--but now there was a change; the birches disappeared, except +now and then a slender white or paper birch, and spruce everywhere +prevailed. A narrow belt on each side of the road had been blasted by +fire, and the dry, white stems of the trees stood stark and stiff. The +road ran pretty straight, skirting the mountains and threading the +valleys, and hour after hour the dark, silent woods wheeled past us. +Swarms of black flies--those insect wolves--waylaid us and hung to us +till a smart spurt of the horse, where the road favored, left them +behind. But a species of large horse-fly, black and vicious, it was not +so easy to get rid of. When they alighted upon the horse, we would +demolish them with the whip or with our felt hats, a proceeding the +horse soon came to understand and appreciate. The white and gray +Laurentian boulders lay along the roadside. The soil seemed as if made +up of decayed and pulverized rock, and doubtless contained very little +vegetable matter. It is so barren that it will never repay clearing and +cultivating. + +Our course was an up-grade toward the highlands that separate the +watershed of St. John Lake from that of the St. Lawrence, and as we +proceeded the spruce became smaller and smaller till the trees were +seldom more than eight or ten inches in diameter. Nearly all of them +terminated in a dense tuft at the top, beneath which the stem would be +bare for several feet, giving them the appearance, my friend said, as +they stood sharply defined along the crests of the mountains, of cannon +swabs. Endless, interminable successions of these cannon swabs, each +just like its fellow, came and went, came and went, all day. Sometimes +we could see the road a mile or two ahead, and it was as lonely and +solitary as a path in the desert. Periods of talk and song and jollity +were succeeded by long stretches of silence. A buckboard upon such a +road does not conduce to a continuous flow of animal spirits. A good +brace for the foot and a good hold for the hand is one's main lookout +much of the time. We walked up the steeper hills, one of them nearly a +mile long, then clung grimly to the board during the rapid descent of +the other side. + +We occasionally saw a solitary pigeon--in every instance a +cock--leading a forlorn life in the wood, a hermit of his kind, or +more probably a rejected and superfluous male. We came upon two or +three broods of spruce grouse in the road, so tame that one could have +knocked them over with poles. We passed many beautiful lakes; among +others, the Two Sisters, one on each side of the road. At noon we +paused at a lake in a deep valley, and fed the horse and had lunch. I +was not long in getting ready my fishing tackle, and, upon a raft made +of two logs pinned together, floated out upon the lake and quickly took +all the trout we wanted. + +Early in the afternoon we entered upon what is called _La Grande +Brulure,_ or Great Burning, and to the desolation of living woods +succeeded the greater desolation of a blighted forest. All the +mountains and valleys, as far as the eye could see, had been swept by +the fire, and the bleached and ghostly skeletons of the trees alone met +the gaze. The fire had come over from the Saguenay, a hundred or more +miles to the east, seven or eight years before, and had consumed or +blasted everything in its way. We saw the skull of a moose said to have +perished in the fire. For three hours we rode through this valley and +shadow of death. In the midst of it, where the trees had nearly all +disappeared, and where the ground was covered with coarse wild grass, +we came upon the Morancy River, a placid yellow stream twenty or +twenty-five yards wide, abounding with trout. We walked a short +distance along its banks and peered curiously into its waters. The +mountains on either hand had been burned by the fire until in places +their great granite bones were bare and white. + +At another point we were within ear-shot, for a mile or more, of a +brawling stream in the valley below us, and now and then caught a +glimpse of foaming rapids or cascades through the dense spruce,--a +trout stream that probably no man had ever fished, as it would be quite +impossible to do so in such a maze and tangle of woods. + +We neither met, nor passed, nor saw any travelers till late in the +afternoon, when we descried far ahead a man on horseback. It was a +welcome relief. It was like a sail at sea. When he saw us he drew rein +and awaited our approach. He, too, had probably tired of the solitude +and desolation of the road. He proved to be a young Canadian going to +join the gang of workmen at the farther end of the road. + +About four o'clock we passed another small lake, and in a few moments +more drew up at the bridge over the Jacques Cartier River, and our +forty-mile ride was finished. There was a stable here that had been +used by the road-builders, and was now used by the teams that hauled in +their supplies. This would do for the horse; a snug log shanty built by +an old trapper and hunter for use in the winter, a hundred yards below +the bridge, amid the spruces on the bank of the river, when rebedded +and refurnished, would do for us. The river at this point was a swift, +black stream from thirty to forty feet wide, with a strength and a +bound like a moose. It was not shrunken and emaciated, like similar +streams in a cleared country, but full, copious, and strong. Indeed, +one can hardly realize how the lesser water-courses have suffered by +the denuding of the land of its forest covering, until he goes into the +primitive woods and sees how bounding and athletic they are there. They +are literally well fed, and their measure of life is full. In fact, a +trout brook is as much a thing of the woods as a moose or deer, and +will not thrive well in the open country. + +Three miles above our camp was Great Lake Jacques Cartier, the source +of the river, a sheet of water nine miles long and from one to three +wide; fifty rods below was Little Lake Jacques Cartier, an irregular +body about two miles across. Stretching away on every hand, bristling +on the mountains and darkling in the valleys, was the illimitable +spruce woods. The moss in them covered the ground nearly knee-deep, and +lay like newly fallen snow, hiding rocks and logs, filling depressions, +and muffling the foot. When it was dry, one could find a most +delightful couch anywhere. + +The spruce seems to have colored the water, which is a dark amber +color, but entirely sweet and pure. There needed no better proof of the +latter fact than the trout with which it abounded, and their clear and +vivid tints. In its lower portions near the St. Lawrence, the Jacques +Cartier River is a salmon stream, but these fish have never been found +as near its source as we were, though there is no apparent reason why +they should not be. + +There is perhaps no moment in the life of an angler fraught with so +much eagerness and impatience as when he first finds himself upon the +bank of a new and long-sought stream. When I was a boy and used to go +a-fishing, I could seldom restrain my eagerness after I arrived in +sight of the brook or pond, and must needs run the rest of the way. +Then the delay in rigging my tackle was a trial my patience was never +quite equal to. After I had made a few casts, or had caught one fish, I +could pause and adjust my line properly. I found some remnant of the +old enthusiasm still in me when I sprang from the buckboard that +afternoon and saw the strange river rushing by. I would have given +something if my tackle had been rigged so that I could have tried on +the instant the temper of the trout that had just broken the surface +within easy reach of the shore. But I had anticipated this moment +coming along, and had surreptitiously undone my rod-case and got my +reel out of my bag, and was therefore a few moments ahead of my +companion in making the first cast. The trout rose readily, and almost +too soon we had more than enough for dinner, though no "rod-smashers" +had been seen or felt. Our experience the next morning, and during the +day and the next morning, in the lake, in the rapids, in the pools, was +about the same: there was a surfeit of trout eight or ten inches long, +though we rarely kept any under ten, but the big fish were lazy and +would not rise; they were in the deepest water and did not like to get +up. + +The third day, in the afternoon, we had our first and only thorough +sensation in the shape of a big trout. It came none too soon. The +interest had begun to flag. But one big fish a week will do. It is a +pinnacle of delight in the angler's experience that he may well be +three days in working up to, and, once reached, it is three days down +to the old humdrum level again. At least it is with me. It was a dull, +rainy day; the fog rested low upon the mountains, and the time hung +heavily on our hands. About three o'clock the rain slackened and we +emerged from our den, Joe going to look after his horse, which had +eaten but little since coming into the woods, the poor creature was so +disturbed by the loneliness and the black flies; I, to make +preparations for dinner, while my companion lazily took his rod and +stepped to the edge of the big pool in front of camp. At the first +introductory cast, and when his fly was not fifteen feet from him upon +the water, there was a lunge and a strike, and apparently the fisherman +had hooked a boulder. I was standing a few yards below, engaged in +washing out the coffee-pail, when I heard him call out:-- + +"I have got him now!" + +"Yes, I see you have," said I, noticing his bending pole and moveless +line; "when I am through, I will help you get loose." + +"No, but I'm not joking," said he; "I have got a big fish." + +I looked up again, but saw no reason to change my impression, and kept +on with my work. + +It is proper to say that my companion was a novice at fly-fishing, +never having cast a fly till upon this trip. + +Again he called out to me, but, deceived by his coolness and nonchalant +tones, and by the lethargy a glimpse of the fish, I gave little heed. +of the fish, I gave little heed. I knew very well that, if I had struck +a fish that held me down in that way, I should have been going through +a regular war-dance on that circle of boulder-tops, and should have +scared the game into activity if the hook had failed to wake him up. +But as the farce continued I drew near. + +"Does that look like a stone or a log?" said my friend, pointing to his +quivering line, slowly cutting the current up toward the centre of the +pool. + +My skepticism vanished in an instant, and I could hardly keep my place +on the top of the rock. + +"I can feel him breathe," said the now warming fisherman; "just feel +of that pole!" + +I put my eager hand upon the butt, and could easily imagine I felt the +throb or pant of something alive down there in the black depths. But +whatever it was moved about like a turtle. My companion was praying to +hear his reel spin, but it gave out now and then only a few hesitating +clicks. Still the situation was excitingly dramatic, and we were all +actors. I rushed for the landing-net, but being unable to find it, +shouted desperately for Joe, who came hurrying back, excited before he +had learned what the matter was. The net had been left at the lake +below, and must be had with the greatest dispatch. In the mean time I +skipped about from boulder to boulder as the fish worked this way or +that about the pool, peering into the water to catch a glimpse of him, +for he had begun to yield a little to the steady strain that was kept +upon him. Presently I saw a shadowy, unsubstantial something just +emerge from the black depths, then vanish. Then I saw it again, and +this time the huge proportions of the fish were faintly outlined by the +white facings of his fins. The sketch lasted but a twinkling; it was +only a flitting shadow upon a darker background, but it gave me the +profoundest Ike Walton thrill I ever experienced. I had been a fisher +from my earliest boyhood. I came from a race of fishers; trout streams +gurgled about the roots of the family tree, and there was a long +accumulated and transmitted tendency and desire in me that that sight +gratified. I did not wish the pole in my own hands; there was quite +enough electricity overflowing from it and filling the air for me. The +fish yielded more and more to the relentless pole, till, in about +fifteen minutes from the time he was struck, he came to the surface, +then made a little whirlpool where he disappeared again. + +But presently he was up a second time, and lashing the water into foam +as the angler led him toward the rock upon which I was perched net in +hand. As I reached toward him, down he went again, and, taking another +circle of the pool, came up still more exhausted, when, between his +paroxysms, I carefully ran the net over him and lifted him ashore, +amid, it is needless to say, the wildest enthusiasm of the spectators. +The congratulatory laughter of the loons down on the lake showed how +even the outsiders sympathized. Much larger trout have been taken in +these waters and in others, but this fish would have swallowed any +three we had ever before caught. + +"What does he weigh?" was the natural inquiry of each; and we took +turns "hefting" him. But gravity was less potent to us just then than +usual, and the fish seemed astonishingly light. + +"Four pounds," we said; but Joe said more. So we improvised a scale: a +long strip of board was balanced across a stick, and our groceries +served as weights. A four-pound package of sugar kicked the beam +quickly; a pound of coffee was added; still it went up; then a pound of +tea, and still the fish had a little the best of it. But we called it +six pounds, not to drive too sharp a bargain with fortune, and were +more than satisfied. Such a beautiful creature! marked in every respect +like a trout of six inches. We feasted our eyes upon him for half an +hour. We stretched him upon the ground and admired him; we laid him +across a log and withdrew a few paces and admired him; we hung him +against the shanty, and turned our heads from side to side as women do +when they are selecting dress goods, the better to take in the full +force of the effect. + +He graced the board or stump that afternoon, and was the sweetest +fish we had taken. The flesh was a deep salmon-color and very rich. +We had before discovered that there were two varieties of trout +in these waters, irrespective of size,--the red-fleshed and the +white-fleshed,--and that the former were the better. + +This success gave an impetus to our sport that carried us through the +rest of the week finely. We had demonstrated that there were big trout +here, and that they would rise to a fly. Henceforth big fish were +looked to as a possible result of every excursion. To me, especially, +the desire at least to match my companion, who had been my pupil in the +art, was keen and constant. We built a raft of logs and upon it I +floated out upon the lake, whipping its waters right and left, morning, +noon, and night. Many fine trout came to my hand, and were released +because they did not fill the bill. + +The lake became my favorite resort, while my companion preferred rather +the shore or the long still pool above, where there was a rude +makeshift of a boat, made of common box-boards. + +Upon the lake you had the wildness and solitude at arm's length, and +could better take their look and measure. You became something apart +from them; you emerged and had a vantage-ground like that of a mountain +peak, and could contemplate them at your ease. Seated upon my raft and +slowly carried by the current or drifted by the breeze, I had many a +long, silent look into the face of the wilderness, and found the +communion good. I was alone with the spirit of the forest-bound lakes, +and felt its presence and magnetism. I played hide-and-seek with it +about the nooks and corners, and lay in wait for it upon a little +island crowned with a clump of trees that was moored just to one side +of the current near the head of the lake. + +Indeed, there is no depth of solitude that the mind does not endow with +some human interest. As in a dead silence the ear is filled with its +own murmur, so amid these aboriginal scenes one's feelings and +sympathies become external to him, as it were, and he holds converse +with them. Then a lake is the ear as well as the eye of a forest. It is +the place to go to listen and ascertain what sounds are abroad in the +air. They all run quickly thither and report. If any creature had +called in the forest for miles about, I should have heard it. At times +I could hear the distant roar of water off beyond the outlet of the +lake. The sound of the vagrant winds purring here and there in the tops +of the spruces reached my ear. A breeze would come slowly down the +mountain, then strike the lake, and I could see its footsteps +approaching by the changed appearance of the water. How slowly the +winds move at times, sauntering like one on a Sunday walk! A breeze +always enlivens the fish; a dead calm and all pennants sink, your +activity with your fly is ill-timed, and you soon take the hint and +stop. Becalmed upon my raft, I observed, as I have often done before, +that the life of Nature ebbs and flows, comes and departs, in these +wilderness scenes; one moment her stage is thronged and the next quite +deserted. Then there is a wonderful unity of movement in the two +elements, air and water. When there is much going on in one, there is +quite sure to be much going on in the other. You have been casting, +perhaps, for an hour with scarcely a jump or any sign of life anywhere +about you, when presently the breeze freshens and the trout begin to +respond, and then of a sudden all the performers rush in: ducks come +sweeping by; loons laugh and wheel overhead, then approach the water on +a long, gentle incline, plowing deeper and deeper into its surface, +until their momentum is arrested, or converted into foam; the fish hawk +screams; the bald eagle goes flapping by, and your eyes and hands are +full. Then the tide ebbs, and both fish and fowl are gone. + +Patiently whipping the waters of the lake from my rude float, I became +an object of great interest to the loons. I had never seen these birds +before in their proper habitat, and the interest was mutual. When they +had paused on the Hudson during their spring and fall migrations, I had +pursued them in my boat to try to get near them. Now the case was +reversed; I was the interloper now, and they would come out and study +me. Sometimes six or eight of them would be swimming about watching my +movements, but they were wary and made a wide circle. One day one of +their number volunteered to make a thorough reconnoissance. I saw him +leave his comrades and swim straight toward me. He came bringing first +one eye to bear upon me, then the other. When about half the distance +was passed over he began to waver and hesitate. To encourage him I +stopped casting, and taking off my hat began to wave it slowly to and +fro, as in the act of fanning myself. This started him again,--this was +a new trait in the creature that he must scrutinize more closely. On he +came, till all his markings were distinctly seen. With one hand I +pulled a little revolver from my hip pocket, and when the loon was +about fifty yards distant, and had begun to sidle around me, I fired: +at the flash I saw two webbed feet twinkle in the air, and the loon was +gone! Lead could not have gone down so quickly. The bullet cut across +the circles where he disappeared. In a few moments he reappeared a +couple of hundred yards away. "Ha-ha-ha-a-a," said he, "ha-ha-ha-a-a," +and "ha-ha-ha-a-a," said his comrades, who had been looking on; and +"ha-ha-ha-a-a," said we all, echo included. He approached a second +time, but not so closely, and when I began to creep back toward the +shore with my heavy craft, pawing the water first upon one side, then +the other, he followed, and with ironical laughter witnessed my efforts +to stem the current at the head of the lake. I confess it was enough to +make a more solemn bird than the loon laugh, but it was no fun for me, +and generally required my last pound of steam. + +The loons flew back and forth from one lake to the other, and their +voices were about the only notable wild sounds to be heard. + +One afternoon, quite unexpectedly, I struck my big fish in the head of +the lake. I was first advised of his approach by two or three trout +jumping clear from the water to get out of his lordship's way. The +water was not deep just there, and he swam so near the surface that his +enormous back cut through. With a swirl he swept my fly under and +turned. + +My hook was too near home, and my rod too near a perpendicular to +strike well. More than that, my presence of mind came near being +unhorsed by the sudden apparition of the fish. If I could have had a +moment's notice, or if I had not seen the monster, I should have fared +better and the fish worse. I struck, but not with enough decision, and, +before I could reel up, my empty hook came back. The trout had carried +it in his jaws till the fraud was detected, and then spat it out. He +came a second time and made a grand commotion in the water, but not in +my nerves, for I was ready then, but failed to take the fly, and so to +get his weight and beauty in these pages. As my luck failed me at the +last, I will place my loss at the full extent of the law, and claim +that nothing less than a ten-pounder was spirited away from my hand +that day. I might not have saved him, netless as I was upon my cumbrous +raft; but I should at least have had the glory of the fight, and the +consolation of the fairly vanquished. + +These trout are not properly lake trout, but the common brook trout. +The largest ones are taken with live bait through the ice in winter. +The Indians and the _habitans_ bring them out of the woods from here +and from Snow Lake, on their toboggans, from two and a half to three +feet long. They have kinks and ways of their own. About half a mile +above camp we discovered a deep oval bay to one side of the main +current of the river, that evidently abounded in big fish. Here they +disported themselves. It was a favorite feeding-ground, and late every +afternoon the fish rose all about it, making those big ripples the +angler delights to see. A trout, when he comes to the surface, starts a +ring about his own length in diameter; most of the rings in the pool, +when the eye caught them, were like barrel hoops, but the haughty trout +ignored all our best efforts; not one rise did we get. We were told of +this pool on our return to Quebec, and that other anglers had a similar +experience there. But occasionally some old fisherman, like a great +advocate who loves a difficult case, would set his wits to work and +bring into camp an enormous trout taken there. + +I had been told in Quebec that I would not see a bird in the woods, not +a feather of any kind. But I knew I should, though they were not +numerous. I saw and heard a bird nearly every day, on the tops of the +trees about, that I think was one of the crossbills. The kingfisher was +there ahead of us with his loud clicking reel. The osprey was there, +too, and I saw him abusing the bald eagle, who had probably just robbed +him of a fish. The yellow-rumped warbler I saw, and one of the kinglets +was leading its lisping brood about through the spruces. In every +opening the white-throated sparrow abounded, striking up his clear +sweet whistle, at times so loud and sudden that one's momentary +impression was that some farm boy was approaching, or was secreted +there behind the logs. Many times, amid those primitive solitudes, I +was quite startled by the human tone and quality of this whistle. It is +little more than a beginning; the bird never seems to finish the strain +suggested. The Canada jay was there also, very busy about some +important private matter. + +One lowery morning, as I was standing in camp, I saw a lot of ducks +borne swiftly down by the current around the bend in the river a few +rods above. They saw me at the same instant and turned toward the +shore. On hastening up there, I found the old bird rapidly leading her +nearly grown brood through the woods, as if to go around our camp. As I +pursued them they ran squawking with outstretched stubby wings, +scattering right and left, and seeking a hiding-place under the logs +and debris. I captured one and carried it into camp. It was just what +Joe wanted; it would make a valuable decoy. So he kept it in a box, fed +it upon oats, and took it out of the woods with him. + +We found the camp we had appropriated was a favorite stopping-place +of the carmen who hauled in supplies for the gang of two hundred +road-builders. One rainy day near nightfall no less than eight carts +drew up at the old stable, and the rain-soaked drivers, after picketing +and feeding their horses, came down to our fire. We were away, and Joe +met us on our return with the unwelcome news. We kept open house so far +as the fire was concerned; but our roof was a narrow one at the best, +and one or two leaky spots made it still narrower. + +"We shall probably sleep out-of-doors to-night," said my companion, +"unless we are a match for this posse of rough teamsters." + +But the men proved to be much more peaceably disposed than the same +class at home; they apologized for intruding, pleading the inclemency +of the weather, and were quite willing, with our permission, to take up +with pot-luck about the fire and leave us the shanty. They dried their +clothes upon poles and logs, and had their fun and their bantering amid +it all. An Irishman among them did about the only growling; he invited +himself into our quarters, and before morning had Joe's blanket about +him in addition to his own. + +On Friday we made an excursion to Great Lake Jacques Cartier, paddling +and poling up the river in the rude box-boat. It was a bright, still +morning after the rain, and everything had a new, fresh appearance. +Expectation was ever on tiptoe as each turn in the river opened a new +prospect before us. How wild, and shaggy, and silent it was! What +fascinating pools, what tempting stretches of trout-haunted water! Now +and then we would catch a glimpse of long black shadows starting away +from the boat and shooting through the sunlit depths. But no sound or +motion on shore was heard or seen. Near the lake we came to a long, +shallow rapid, when we pulled off our shoes and stockings, and, with +our trousers rolled above our knees, towed the boat up it, wincing and +cringing amid the sharp, slippery stones. With benumbed feet and legs +we reached the still water that forms the stem of the lake, and +presently saw the arms of the wilderness open and the long deep blue +expanse in their embrace. We rested and bathed, and gladdened our eyes +with the singularly beautiful prospect. The shadows of summer clouds +were slowly creeping up and down the sides of the mountains that hemmed +it in. On the far eastern shore, near the head, banks of what was +doubtless white sand shone dimly in the sun, and the illusion that +there was a town nestled there haunted my mind constantly. It was like +a section of the Hudson below the Highlands, except that these waters +were bluer and colder, and these shores darker, than even those Sir +Hendrik first looked upon; but surely, one felt, a steamer will round +that point presently, or a sail drift into view! We paddled a mile or +more up the east shore, then across to the west, and found such +pleasure in simply gazing upon the scene that our rods were quite +neglected. We did some casting after a while, but raised no fish of any +consequence till we were in the outlet again, when they responded so +freely that the "disgust of trout" was soon upon us. + +At the rapids, on our return, as I was standing to my knees in the +swift, cold current, and casting into a deep hole behind a huge boulder +that rose four or five feet above the water amidstream, two trout, one +of them a large one, took my flies, and, finding the fish and the +current united too strong for my tackle, I sought to gain the top of +the boulder, in which attempt I got wet to my middle and lost my fish. +After I had gained the rock, I could not get away again with my clothes +on without swimming, which, to say nothing of wet garments the rest of +the way home, I did not like to do amid those rocks and swift currents; +so, after a vain attempt to communicate with my companion above the +roar of the water, I removed my clothing, left it together with my +tackle upon the rock, and by a strong effort stemmed the current and +reached the shore. The boat was a hundred yards above, and when I +arrived there my teeth were chattering with the cold, my feet were numb +with bruises, and the black flies were making the blood stream down my +back. We hastened back with the boat, and, by wading out into the +current again and holding it by a long rope, it swung around with my +companion aboard, and was held in the eddy behind the rock. I clambered +up, got my clothes on, and we were soon shooting downstream toward +home; but the winter of discontent that shrouded one half of me made +sad inroads upon the placid feeling of a day well spent that enveloped +the other, all the way to camp. + +That night something carried off all our fish,--doubtless a fisher or +lynx, as Joe had seen an animal of some kind about camp that day. + +I must not forget the two red squirrels that frequented the camp during +our stay, and that were so tame they would approach within a few feet +of us and take the pieces of bread or fish tossed to them. When a +particularly fine piece of hard-tack was secured, they would spin off +to their den with it somewhere near by. + +Caribou abound in these woods, but we saw only their tracks; and of +bears, which are said to be plentiful, we saw no signs. + +Saturday morning we packed up our traps and started on our return, and +found that the other side of the spruce-trees and the vista of the +lonely road going south were about the same as coming north. But we +understood the road better and the buck-board better, and our load was +lighter, hence the distance was more easily accomplished. + +I saw a solitary robin by the roadside, and wondered what could have +brought this social and half-domesticated bird so far into these wilds. +In La Grande Brulure, a hermit thrush perched upon a dry tree in a +swampy place and sang most divinely. We paused to listen to his clear, +silvery strain poured out without stint upon that unlistening solitude. +I was half persuaded I had heard him before on first entering the +woods. + +We nooned again at No Man's Inn on the banks of a trout lake, and fared +well and had no reckoning to pay. Late in the afternoon we saw a lonely +pedestrian laboring up a hill far ahead of us. When he heard us coming +he leaned his back against the bank, and was lighting his pipe as we +passed. He was an old man, an Irishman, and looked tired. He had come +from the farther end of the road, fifty miles distant, and had thirty +yet before him to reach town. He looked the dismay he evidently felt +when, in answer to his inquiry, we told him it was yet ten miles to the +first house, La Chance's. But there was a roof nearer than that, where +he doubtless passed the night, for he did not claim hospitality at the +cabin of La Chance. We arrived there betimes, but found the "spare bed" +assigned to other guests; so we were comfortably lodged upon the +haymow. One of the boys lighted us up with a candle and made level +places for us upon the hay. + +La Chance was one of the game wardens, or constables appointed by the +government to see the game laws enforced. Joe had not felt entirely at +his ease about the duck he was surreptitiously taking to town, and +when, by its "quack, quack," it called upon La Chance for protection, +he responded at once. Joe was obliged to liberate it then and there, +and to hear the law read and expounded, and be threatened till he +turned pale beside. It was evident that they follow the home government +in the absurd practice of enforcing their laws in Canada. La Chance +said he was under oath not to wink at or permit any violation of the +law, and seemed to think that made a difference. + +We were off early in the morning, and before we had gone two miles met +a party from Quebec who--must have been driving nearly all night to +give the black flies an early breakfast. Before long a slow rain set +in; we saw another party who had taken refuge in a house in a grove. +When the rain had become so brisk that we began to think of seeking +shelter ourselves, we passed a party of young men and boys--sixteen of +them--in a cart turning back to town, water-soaked and heavy (for the +poor horse had all it could pull), but merry and good-natured. We +paused awhile at the farmhouse where we had got our hay on going out, +were treated to a drink of milk and some wild red cherries, and when +the rain slackened drove on, and by ten o'clock saw the city eight +miles distant, with the sun shining upon its steep tinned roofs. + +The next morning we set out by steamer for the Saguenay, and entered +upon the second phase of our travels, but with less relish than we +could have wished. Scenery hunting is the least satisfying pursuit I +have ever engaged in. What one sees in his necessary travels, or doing +his work, or going a-fishing, seems worth while, but the famous view +you go out in cold blood to admire is quite apt to elude you. Nature +loves to enter a door another hand has opened; a mountain view, or a +waterfall, I have noticed, never looks better than when one has just +been warmed up by the capture of a big trout. If we had been bound for +some salmon stream up the Saguenay, we should perhaps have possessed +that generous and receptive frame of mind-that open house of the +heart--which makes one "eligible to any good fortune," and the grand +scenery would have come in as fit sauce to the salmon. An adventure, +a bit of experience of some kind, is what one wants when he goes +forth to admire woods and waters,--something to create a draught and +make the embers of thought and feeling brighten. Nature, like certain +wary game, is best taken by seeming to pass by her intent on other +matters. + +But without any such errand, or occupation, or indirection, we managed +to extract considerable satisfaction from the view of the lower St. +Lawrence and the Saguenay. + +We had not paid the customary visit to the falls of the Montmorenci, +but we shall see them after all, for before we are a league from Quebec +they come into view on the left. A dark glen or chasm there at the end +of the Beauport Slopes seems suddenly to have put on a long white +apron. By intently gazing, one can see the motion and falling of the +water, though it is six or seven miles away. There is no sign of the +river above or below but this trembling white curtain of foam and +spray. + +It was very sultry when we left Quebec, but about noon we struck much +clearer and cooler air, and soon after ran into an immense wave or puff +of fog that came drifting up the river and set all the fog-guns booming +along shore. We were soon through it into clear, crisp space, with room +enough for any eye to range in. On the south the shores of the great +river appear low and uninteresting, but on the north they are bold and +striking enough to make it up,--high, scarred, unpeopled mountain +ranges the whole way. The points of interest to the eye in the broad +expanse of water were the white porpoises that kept rolling, rolling in +the distance, all day. They came up like the perimeter of a great wheel +that turns slowly and then disappears. From mid-forenoon we could see +far ahead an immense column of yellow smoke rising up and flattening +out upon the sky and stretching away beyond the horizon. Its form was +that of some aquatic plant that shoots a stem up through the water, and +spreads its broad leaf upon the surface. This smoky lily-pad must have +reached nearly to Maine. It proved to be in the Indian country in the +mountains beyond the mouth of the Saguenay, and must have represented +an immense destruction of forest timber. + +The steamer is two hours crossing the St. Lawrence from Riviere du Loup +to Tadousac. The Saguenay pushes a broad sweep of dark blue water down +into its mightier brother that is sharply defined from the deck of the +steamer. The two rivers seem to touch, but not to blend, so proud and +haughty is this chieftain from the north. On the mountains above +Tadousac one could see banks of sand left by the ancient seas. Naked +rock and sterile sand are all the Tadousacker has to make his garden +of, so far as I observed. Indeed, there is no soil along the Saguenay +until you get to Ha-ha Bay, and then there is not much, and poor +quality at that. + +What the ancient fires did not burn the ancient seas have washed away. +I overheard an English resident say to a Yankee tourist, "You will +think you are approaching the end of the world up here." It certainly +did suggest something apocryphal or antemundane,--a segment of the moon +or of a cleft asteroid, matter dead or wrecked. The world-builders must +have had their foundry up in this neighborhood, and the bed of this +river was doubtless the channel through which the molten granite +flowed. Some mischief-loving god has let in the sea while things were +yet red-hot, and there has been a time here. But the channel still +seems filled with water from the mid-Atlantic, cold and blue-black, and +in places between seven and eight thousand feet deep (one and a half +miles). In fact, the enormous depth of the Saguenay is one of the +wonders of physical geography. It is as great a marvel in its way as +Niagara. + +The ascent of the river is made by night, and the traveler finds +himself in Ha-ha Bay in the morning. The steamer lies here several +hours before starting on her return trip, and takes in large quantities +of white birch wood, as she does also at Tadousac. The chief product of +the country seemed to be huckleberries, of which large quantities are +shipped to Quebec in rude board boxes holding about a peck each. Little +girls came aboard or lingered about the landing with cornucopias of +birch-bark filled with red raspberries; five cents for about half a +pint was the usual price. The village of St. Alphonse, where the +steamer tarries, is a cluster of small, humble dwellings dominated, +like all Canadian villages, by an immense church. Usually the church +will hold all the houses in the village; pile them all up and they +would hardly equal it in size; it is the one conspicuous object, and is +seen afar; and on the various lines of travel one sees many more +priests than laymen. They appear to be about the only class that stir +about and have a good time. Many of the houses were covered with +birch-bark,--the canoe birch,--held to its place by perpendicular +strips of board or split poles. + +A man with a horse and a buckboard persuaded us to give him twenty-five +cents each to take us two miles up the St. Alphonse River to see the +salmon jump. There is a high saw-mill dam there which every salmon in +his upward journey tries his hand at leaping. A raceway has been +constructed around the dam for their benefit, which it seems they do +not use till they have repeatedly tried to scale the dam. The day +before our visit three dead fish were found in the pool below, killed +by too much jumping. Those we saw had the jump about all taken out of +them; several did not get more than half their length out of the water, +and occasionally only an impotent nose would protrude from the foam. +One fish made a leap of three or four feet and landed on an apron of +the dam and tumbled helplessly back; he shot up like a bird and rolled +back like a clod. This was the only view of salmon, the buck of the +rivers, we had on our journey. + +It was a bright and flawless midsummer day that we sailed down the +Saguenay, and nothing was wanting but a good excuse for being there. +The river was as lonely as the St. John's road; not a sail or a +smokestack the whole sixty-five miles. The scenery culminates at Cape +Trinity, where the rocks rise sheer from the water to a height of +eighteen hundred feet. This view dwarfed anything I had ever before +seen. There is perhaps nothing this side the Yosemite chasm that equals +it, and, emptied of its water, this chasm would far surpass that famous +canon, as the river here is a mile and a quarter deep. The bald eagle +nests in the niches in the precipice secure from any intrusion. Immense +blocks of the rock had fallen out, leaving areas of shadow and clinging +overhanging masses that were a terror and fascination to the eye. There +was a great fall a few years ago, just as the steamer had passed from +under and blown her whistle to awake the echoes. The echo came back, +and with it a part of the mountain that astonished more than it +delighted the lookers-on. The pilot took us close around the base of +the precipice that we might fully inspect it. And here my eyes played +me a trick the like of which they had never done before. One of the +boys of the steamer brought to the forward deck his hands full of +stones, that the curious ones among the passengers might try how easy +it was to throw one ashore. "Any girl ought to do it," I said to +myself, after a man had tried and had failed to clear half the +distance. Seizing a stone, I cast it with vigor and confidence, and as +much expected to see it smite the rock as I expected to live. "It is a +good while getting there," I mused, as I watched its course: down, +down it went; there, it will ring upon the granite in half a breath; +no, down--into the water, a little more than halfway! "Has my arm lost +its cunning?" I said, and tried again and again, but with like result. +The eye was completely at fault. There was a new standard of size +before it to which it failed to adjust itself. The rock is so enormous +and towers so above you that you get the impression it is much nearer +than it actually is. When the eye is full it says, "Here we are," and +the hand is ready to prove the fact; but in this case there is an +astonishing discrepancy between what the eye reports and what the hand +finds out. + +Cape Eternity, the wife of this colossus, stands across a chasm through +which flows a small tributary of the Saguenay, and is a head or two +shorter, as becomes a wife, and less rugged and broken in outline. + +From Riviere du Loup, where we passed the night and ate our first +"Tommy-cods," our thread of travel makes a big loop around New +Brunswick to St. John, thence out and down through Maine to Boston,--a +thread upon which many delightful excursions and reminiscences might be +strung. We traversed the whole of the valley of the Metapedia, and +passed the doors of many famous salmon streams and rivers, and heard +everywhere the talk they inspire; one could not take a nap in the car +for the excitement of the big fish stories he was obliged to overhear. + +The Metapedia is a most enticing-looking stream; its waters are as +colorless as melted snow; I could easily have seen the salmon in it as +we shot along, if they had come out from their hiding-places. It was +the first white-water stream we had seen since leaving the Catskills; +for all the Canadian streams are black or brown, either from the iron +in the soil or from the leechings of the spruce swamps. But in New +Brunswick we saw only these clear, silver-shod streams; I imagined they +had a different ring or tone also. The Metapedia is deficient in good +pools in its lower portions; its limpid waters flowing with a tranquil +murmur over its wide, evenly paved bed for miles at a stretch. The +salmon pass over these shallows by night and rest in the pools by day. +The Restigouche, which it joins, and which is a famous salmon stream +and the father of famous salmon streams, is of the same complexion and +a delight to look upon. There is a noted pool where the two join, and +one can sit upon the railroad bridge and count the noble fish in the +lucid depths below. The valley here is fertile, and has a cultivated, +well-kept look. + +We passed the Jacquet, the Belledune, the Nepissisquit, the Miramichi +("happy retreat") in the night, and have only their bird-call names to +report. + + + + +INDEX + + +Anemone. + +Angler, a born; eagerness of the. + +Arbutus. + +Asters. + +Audubon, John James. + +Aurora borealis, an. + +Balsam Lake. + +Barrington, Daines, his table of English song-birds. + +Basswood, _or_ linden. + +Bear, black. + +Beaverkill, the; trouting on. + +Bee. _See_ Bumblebee _and_ Honeybee. + +Berries. + +Berrying. + +Big Ingin River. + +Birch, yellow. + +Birds, eyes of; imperfect singers among; human significance of; songs +of English; relative pugnaciousness of English and American; species +common to Europe and America; small and large editions of various +species of; their ingenuity in the concealment of their nests. + +Birds of prey. + +Biscuit Brook. + +Blackbird, European; notes of. + +Blackbird, red-winged. _See_ Starling, red-shouldered. + +Bloodroot. + +Bluebird (_Sialia sialis_), struggling with a cicada; courting; cares +of housekeeping; and screech owl; notes of; nest of. + +Blunder-heads. + +Bobolink (_Dolichonyx oryzivorus_); song of. + +Boy. + +Brooks. _See_ Trout streams. + +Buckwheat. + +Bumble-bee. + +Bunting, European, notes of. + +Bunting, indigo. _See_ Indigo-bird. + +Bunting, snow, or snowflake (_Passerina nivalis_). + +Butcher-bird, or northern shrike (_Lanius borealis_); appearance and +habits of; notes of. _See_ Shrike. + +Buttercup. + +Camp, a thunder-storm in; in the rain; books in. + +Camp-fire, the. + +Camping, by trout stream and lake; in a log stable; pleasures and +discomforts of; in the Catskills; thoughts of the camper; in Canada. + +Canada, an excursion in; dwelling-houses in; churches in. + +Cape Eternity. + +Cape Trinity. + +Caribou. + +Catbird (_Galeoscoptes carolinensis_), song of. + +Catfish and snake. + +Catnip. + +Catskill Mountains, camping in. + +Cattle, in Canada. + +Cedar-bird, _or_ cedar waxwing (_Ampelis cedrorum_), a small edition +of the Bohemian waxwing; plumage of; notes of. + +Chickadee (_Parus atricapillus_); notes of. + +Chipmunk, frightened by a shrike; stealing strawberries; playing tag; +never more than one jump from home. + +Clouds, natural history of; rain-clouds and wind-clouds. + +Clover, red. + +Clover, white. + +Coon. _See_ Raccoon. + +Corn, Indian. + +Corydalis. + +Crossbills. + +Crow, American (_Corvus brachyrhynchos_); notes of. + +Crow, fish (_Corvus ossifragus_), a sneak thief. + +Cuckoo (_Coccyzus_ sp.), parents, eggs, and young; breeding habits of; +appearance and habits of; notes of; nest of. + +Cuckoo, European; in literature; notes of. + +Daisy, ox-eye. + +Dandelion. + +Deer, Virginia. + +Delaware River. + +Dove, mourning (_Zenaidura macroura_). + +Drought. + +Ducks, wild, voices of. + +Eagle, bald (_Haliaetus leucocephalus_); nest of. + +Esopus Creek. + +Eyes, of man; of birds. + +Farmer, an observing. + +Farmers, their dependence on the weather; weather-wisdom of. + +Fieldfare; notes of. + +Finch, purple (_Carpodacus purpureus_), the alter ego of the pine +grosbeak; song of. + +Fishing. _See_ Trout-fishing. + +Flicker. _See_ High-hole. + +Flies, black. + +Flycatcher, great crested (_Myiarchus crinitus_); nest of. + +Forest, a spruce; a burnt. + +Fox, red, bark of. + +French Canadians. + +Ghost story, a. + +Girl's voice, a. + +Goethe, on the weather. + +Goldenrod. + +Goldfinch, American (_Astragalinus tristis_), a shrike in a flock of. + +Goose, wild _or_ Canada (_Branta canadensis_), notes of. + +Grande Brulure, La. + +Greenfinch. + +Grosbeak, blue (_Guiraca caerulea_), its resemblance to the indigo-bird; +song of; nest of. + +Grosbeak, pine (_Pinicola enucleator leucura_); appearance and habits of; +song of. + +Grouse, ruffed. _See_ Partridge. + +Grouse, spruce _or_ Canada (_Canachites canadensis canace_). + +Guide, a Canadian. + +Hawk, worried by the kingbird. _See_ Hen-hawk. + +Hawk, chicken, a provident. + +Hawk, fish, _or_ American osprey (_Pandion haliaetus carolinensis_). + +Hen-hawk, a love passage; in cubating habits. + +Hepatica. + +Highfall Brook. + +High-hole, _or_ golden-shafted woodpecker, _or_ flicker (_Colaptes +auratus luteus_), a household of; a tame young one; nest of. + +Honey, as an article of food; with the ancients and in mythology; of +various countries. + +Honey-bee, gathering honey and pollen; wax-making; life of the drone; +life of the queen; democratic government; description of queen and +drone; swarming; wildness of; favorite hives; mortality of; acuteness +of sight. + +Honey-locust. + +Horse-fly. + +Hummingbird, ruby-throated (_Trochilus colubris_), strange death of a; +nest of. + +Hyla, Pickering's, in the woods. + +Indigo-bird, or indigo bunting (_Cyanospiza cyanea_), a petit duplicate +of the blue grosbeak; song of; nest of. + +Jackdaw, nest of. + +Jacques Cartier River, trouting on. + +Jay, blue (_Cyanocitta cristata_); worrying a screech owl. + +Jay, Canada (_Perisoreus canadensis_). + +Jay, European, notes of. + +Junco, slate-colored. _See_ Snowbird. + +Kingbird (_Tyrannus tyrannus_), worrying hawks. + +Kingfisher, belted (_Ceryle alcyon_); notes of; nest of. + +Kinglet (_Regulus sp._). + +La Chance. + +Lake, nature as seen from a; life in and about a. + +Lake Jacques Cartier, Great; an excursion to. + +Lake Jacques Cartier, Little; trout-fishing in. + +Lake Memphremagog. + +Lake St. John. + +Lark. _See_ Skylark. + +Lark, shore _or_ horned (_Otocoris alpestris_). + +Ledges, the fascination of. + +Lily, spotted. + +Linden. _See_ Basswood. + +Locusts, as an article of food. + +Longspur, Lapland (_Calcarius lapponicus_). + +Loon (_Gavia imber_); laughter of. + +Maiden, a backwoods. + +Maple, red. + +Maple, sugar. + +Marigold, marsh. + +Marmot. _See_ Woodchuck. + +Meadowlark (_Sturnella magna_). + +Metapedia River. + +Midges. + +Mockingbird (_Mimus polyglottos_); song of. + +Montmorenci, Falls of. + +Moose. + +Morancy River. + +Mountains, poetry of. + +Mouse, common house. + +Neversink River, trouting on; trouting on the East Branch of. + +New Brunswick, journey through; streams of. + +Nightingale, notes of. + +Observation, powers and habits of. + +Oriole, Baltimore (_Icterus galbula_), nest of. + +Osprey, American. _See_ Hawk, fish. + +Ouzel, ring. + +Oven-bird (_Seiurus aurocapillus_). + +Owl, screech (_Megascops asio_), worried by other birds; in captivity; +wail of. + +Panther, American, cry of. + +Partridge, _or_ ruffed grouse (_Bonasa umbellus_). + +Peakamoose. + +Pewee, wood (_Contopus virens_), notes of. + +Phoebe-bird (_Sayornis phoebe_); nest of. + +Pigeon, passenger (_Ectopistes migratorius_); nests of. + +Pipit, American, _or_ titlark (_Anthus pensilvanicus_). + +Porcupine, Canada, adventure with a; description of; his armor of +quills; at Balsam Lake. + +Porpoise, white. + +Quebec. + +Raccoon, or coon, voice of; den of. + +Rain, waves and pulsations of; history of; relaxing effect of; +necessary to the mind; after drought; importance to man of an +abundance; curious things reported to have fallen in; the formation of; +storms; effect of electricity on; in winter and spring; signs of; in +camp. _See_ Thunder-storms and Weather. + +Raspberry, red. + +Rat. + +Rat, wood. + +Redpoll (_Acanthis linaria_). + +Redstart, European, nest of. + +Redwing. + +Restigouche River. + +Riviere du Loup. + +Robin, American (_Merula migratoria_); notes of. + +Robin redbreast, song of. + +Rondout Creek; camping and trouting on. + +Rose. + +Rye. + +Saguenay River, scenery of. + +St. Alphonse. + +St. Lawrence; down the. + +Salmon. + +Sapsucker, yellow-bellied. _See_ Woodpecker, yellow-bellied. + +Scenery-hunting. + +Schoolhouse, a country. + +Shakespeare, quotations from; power and beauty in his poetry. + +Shanly, C. D., his poem, _The Walker of the Snow._ + +Shrike (_Lanius_ sp.). + +Shrike, northern. _See_ Butcherbird. + +Silkweed. + +Skunk, den of. + +Skylark, song of. + +Snake, and catfish. + +Snapdragon. + +Snow, a sign of. + +Snowbird, _or_ slate-colored junco (_Junco hyemalis_). + +Snowflake. _See_ Bunting, snow. + +Sparrow, English (_Passer domesticus_), a comedy; notes of. + +Sparrow, reed, song of. + +Sparrow, song (_Melospiza einerea melodia_), song of. + +Sparrow, white-throated (_Zonotrichia albicollis_), song of. + +Sparrows, songs of. + +Spring-beauty. + +Spruce, a Canadian forest of. + +Squirrel, gray. + +Squirrel, red; playing tag. + +Starling, European, notes of; nest of. + +Starling, red-shouldered, _or_ red-winged blackbird (_Agelaius +phoeniceus_). + +Strawberries, Dr. Parr and Dr. Boteler on; praise of; odor of; Downer; +Wilson; wild; alpine; cultivation of. + +Sumach. + +Swallow, an albino. + +Swallows, on damp days. + +Swift, European, notes of. + +Tadousac. + +Tanager, scarlet (_Piranga erythromelas_), song of. + +Thoreau, Henry D.; quotation from. + +Throstle. + +Thrush, hermit (_Hylocichla guttata pallasii_); song of. + +Thrush, missel; pugnaciousness of; notes of. + +Thrush, White's. + +Thrush, wood (_Hylocichla mustelina_), song of. + +Thunder-storms; in the woods. + +Titlark. _See_ Pipit, American. + +Tree-toads, young. + +Trout, brook, markings of; of the Neversink; cannibals; of the +Beaverkill; jumping; of Balsam Lake; spawning of; of the Catskill +waters; an unsuccessful fight with a; a six-pound; two varieties in +Jacques Cartier River. + +Trout-fishing, as an introduction to nature; the heart the proper bait +in; on the Neversink; on the Beaverkill; in Balsam Lake; pleasures and +discomforts of an excursion; on the Rondout; on the East Branch of the +Neversink; in Canada; catching a six-pounder. + +Trout streams, beauties of; the ideal; at the headwaters of the +Delaware; clearness of; thriving only in the woods. + +Violets. + +Vireo, song of. + +Vireo, red-eyed (_Vireo olivaceus_), song of. + +_Walker of the Snow, The_, by C. D. Shanly. + +Walking, benefits of. + +Wallkill River. + +Warbler, Blackburnian (Dendroica blackburniae). + +Warbler, black-throated blue (_Dendroica caerulescens_); finding the +nest and young of; notes of; nest of. + +Warbler, Canada (_Wilsonia canadensis_). + +Warbler, chestnut-sided (_Dendroica pensylvanica_). + +Warbler, mourning (_Geothlypis philadelphia_). + +Warbler, yellow-rumped or myrtle (_Dendroica coronata_), rescue of a. + +Water, its importance in nature and in the life of man. + +Water-wagtail, small, _or_ water-thrush (_Seiurus noveboracensis_). + +Waxwing, Bohemian (_Ampelis garrulus_). + +Waxwing, cedar. _See_ Cedar-bird. + +Weather, the, the farmer's dependence on; human changeableness of; +getting into a rut; in literature; the law of alternation in; dry; laws +of. _See_ Rain and Thunder-storms. + +Weather-breeders. + +Weather-wisdom. + +Wheat. + +Whip-poor-will (_Antrostomus vociferus_), mother, eggs, and young; an +awkward walker; nest of. + +White, Gilbert. + +Whitethroat; notes of. + +Whitman, Walt, quotation from. + +Wilson, Alexander, quotation from. + +Woodchuck, or marmot; hole of. + +Wood-grouse. + +Woodpecker, downy (_Dryobates pubescens medianus_). + +Woodpecker, golden-shafted. _See_ High-hole. + +Woodpecker, yellow-bellied, _or_ yellow-bellied sapsucker (_Sphyrapicus +varius_). + +Wordsworth, William, quotations from; the poet of the mountains. + +Wren, European, song of. + +Wren, winter (_Olbiorchilus hiemalis_). + +Wrens, songs of. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Locusts and Wild Honey, by John Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY *** + +***** This file should be named 6355.txt or 6355.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/5/6355/ + +This etext was produced by Jack Eden <jackeden@yahoo.com> + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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