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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41925 ***
+
+[Illustration: To Doctor & Mrs. M. G. Slutter with cordial greetings of
+the author, Geo. H. Warren
+Minneapolis, Aug. 19, 1919]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Geo. H. Warren]
+
+
+
+
+    THE
+    PIONEER WOODSMAN
+    AS HE IS RELATED TO
+    LUMBERING IN THE
+    NORTHWEST
+
+    _By_
+
+    GEORGE HENRY WARREN
+
+    MINNEAPOLIS
+    PRESS OF HAHN & HARMON COMPANY
+    1914
+
+
+
+
+    Copyright 1914
+    By George Henry Warren
+
+
+
+
+    I DEDICATE
+    THIS BOOK TO THE MEMORY OF
+    WILLIAM S. PATRICK,
+    GUIDING FRIEND AND HELPFUL COUNSELOR
+    OF MY EARLIER MANHOOD YEARS.
+
+
+
+
+Foreword.
+
+
+The aim will be to take the reader along on the journey of the pioneer
+woodsman, from comfortable hearthstone, from family, friends, books,
+magazines, and daily papers, and to disappear with him from all
+evidences of civilization and from all human companionship save,
+ordinarily, that of one helper who not infrequently is an Indian, and to
+live for weeks at a time in the unbroken forest, seldom sleeping more
+than a single night in one place.
+
+The woodsman and his one companion must carry cooking utensils, axes,
+raw provisions of flour, meat, beans, coffee, sugar, rice, pepper, and
+salt; maps, plats, books for field notes; the simplest and lightest
+possible equipment of surveying implements; and, lastly, tent and
+blankets for shelter and covering at night to protect them from storm
+and cold.
+
+Incidents of the daily life of these two voluntary reclusionists, as
+they occurred to the author, and some of the results obtained, will be
+told to the reader in the pages which are to follow.
+
+
+
+
+Table of Contents.
+
+
+  Chapter                                                         Page
+
+     I.  Sowing the Germ That I Knew Not.                           13
+    II.  Preparations for the Wilds of Wisconsin.                   15
+   III.  Entering the Wilds of Wisconsin.                           18
+    IV.  Surveying and Selecting Government Timber Lands.           22
+     V.  Gaining Experience--Getting Wet.                           28
+    VI.  A Birthday Supper.                                         33
+   VII.  A New Contract--Obstacles.                                 40
+  VIII.  A Few Experiences in the New and More Prosperous Field.    47
+    IX.  Tracing Gentlemen Timber Thieves--Getting Wet--Fawn.       56
+     X.  Does It Pay to Rest on Sunday?                             63
+    XI.  Indian Traits--Dog Team.                                   69
+   XII.  Wolves--Log Riding.                                        73
+  XIII.  Entering Minnesota, the New Field.                         77
+   XIV.  An Evening Guest--Not Mother's Bread.                      94
+    XV.  A Hurried Round Trip to Minneapolis--Many Incidents.      101
+   XVI.  The Entire Party Moves to Swan River.                     117
+  XVII.  Methods of Acquiring Government Land--An Abandoned Squaw. 125
+  XVIII. United States Land Sale at Duluth--Joe LaGarde.           129
+    XIX. Six Hundred Miles in a Birch Canoe.                       135
+     XX. Effect of Discovery of Iron Ore on Timber Industry.       142
+    XXI. Forest Fires.                                             159
+   XXII. White Pine--What of Our Future Supply?                    174
+  XXIII. Retrospect--Meed of Praise.                               178
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations.
+
+
+  George H. Warren.                                     _Frontispiece_
+                                                           Facing Page
+  W. S. Patrick.                                                    16
+  The "V" shaped baker is a valuable part of the cook's outfit      22
+  "The almost saucy, yet sociable red squirrel".                    28
+  "I found several families of Indians camping at the end of
+      the portage."                                                 34
+  "In the Vermilion country, dog trains could sometimes be
+      advantageously used."                                         40
+  S. D. Patrick.                                                    44
+  "There were many waterfalls".                                     52
+  "We succeeded in crossing Burnt Side Lake".                       58
+  "We started out with two birch canoes".                           64
+  "The party subsisted well, until it arrived at Ely".              70
+  "My three companions and I ... had gone to survey and
+      estimate a tract of pine timber."                             74
+  The journey had to be made with the use of toboggans.             82
+  "Our camp was established on the shores of Kekekabic Lake".       88
+  "The memorable fire ... which swept Hinckley".                    94
+  "The fire ... destroyed millions of dollars worth of
+      standing pine timber".                                       102
+          This illustration kindly loaned by
+          Department of Forestry, State of Minnesota.
+  "One of the horses balked frequently".                           106
+  "Our camp was made in a fine grove of pig-iron Norway".          112
+  "These little animals were numerous".                            118
+  "We saw racks in Minnesota made by the Indians".                 122
+  "The roots of the lilies are much relished as a food
+      by the moose."                                               130
+  "We have seen the moose standing out in the bays
+      of the lakes."                                               136
+  "White Pine--What of Our Future Supply?"                         142
+  "He motors over the fairly good roads of the
+      northern frontier."                                          148
+  "Friends whom he had known in the city who are ready
+      to welcome him."                                             154
+  "He camps by the roadside on the shore of a lake".               160
+  The midday luncheon is welcomed by the automobile tourists.      166
+  "Here he brings his family and friends to fish".                 172
+  "Prepare their fish just caught for the meal, by the
+      open camp fire."                                             178
+  "He continues his journey ... to the very source of the
+      Mississippi River".                                          182
+
+
+
+
+    THE PIONEER WOODSMAN AS HE IS
+    RELATED TO LUMBERING IN
+    THE NORTHWEST.
+    _By_ GEORGE HENRY WARREN
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Sowing the Germ That I Knew Not.
+
+"This superficial tale is but a preface of her worthy praise."
+
+
+Early environment sometimes paints colors on the canvas of one's later
+life.
+
+Fifty years ago in western New York, there were thousands of acres of
+valuable timber. The country was well watered, and, on some of the
+streams, mills and factories had sprung into existence. On one of these
+were three sawmills of one upright saw each, and all did custom sawing.
+
+My father was a manufacturer, especially of carriages, wagons, and
+sleighs. There were no factories then engaged in making spokes, felloes,
+whiffletrees, bent carriage poles, thills or shafts, and bent runners
+for cutters and sleighs. These all had to be made at the shop where the
+cutter, wagon, or carriage was being built. Consequently the
+manufacturer was obliged to provide himself with seasoned planks and
+boards of the various kinds of wood that entered into the construction
+of each vehicle. Trips were made to the woods to examine trees of birch,
+maple, oak, ash, beech, hickory, rock elm, butternut, basswood,
+whitewood, and sometimes hemlock and pine. The timber desired having
+been selected, the trees were converted into logs which in turn were
+taken to the custom mill and sawed into such dimensions required, as far
+as was possible at that period to have done at these rather primitive
+sawmills. Beyond this the resawing was done at the shop.
+
+Thus, almost unconsciously, at an early age, by reason of the assistance
+rendered to my father in selecting and securing this manufactured lumber
+from the tree in the forest to the sawed product of the mill, I became
+familiar with the names and the textures of many kinds of woods, the
+knowledge of which stood me in good turn in later years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Preparations for the Wilds of Wisconsin.
+
+
+In the city of Detroit, early in June, 1871, was gathered a group of
+four veteran woodsmen of the lumbermen's craft, and two raw recruits,
+one, a student fresh from his father's law office in Bay City, and the
+other, myself, whose frontier experiences were yet to be gained.
+
+A contract, by William S. Patrick of Bay City, the principal of this
+group, had been made with Henry W. Sage, of Brooklyn, New York, to
+select and to secure by purchase from the United States and from the
+state of Wisconsin, valuable pine lands believed to be located in the
+wilds of northern Wisconsin. Tents, blankets, axes, extra clothing,
+cooking utensils, compasses, and other surveying implements were
+ordered, and soon the party was ready for the start.
+
+At that time no passable roads penetrated the northern woods of
+Wisconsin from the south. The country to be examined for available pine
+lands at the commencement of our work was tributary to the head waters
+of the Flambeau River. To reach this point in the forest it was thought
+best to enter the woods from the south shore of Lake Superior. Also, the
+United States land office controlling a part of this territory, was
+located at Bayfield, Wisconsin, and at that office must be selected such
+township plats as would be needed in the examining of lands in that
+portion of the Bayfield Land District.
+
+The quickest line of transit at that date was by railroad to Chicago,
+and thence to St. Paul over the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway,
+crossing the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, to
+McGregor, Iowa, and thence north to St. Paul. There was no other
+railroad then completed from Chicago to St. Paul. The only railroad from
+St. Paul to Lake Superior was the St. Paul and Duluth. From Duluth,
+passage was taken by steamer to Bayfield. Township plats were here
+obtained from the government land office. Provisions of pork, flour,
+beans, coffee, rice, sugar, baking powder, dried apples, pepper and
+salt, tobacco, etc., for one month's living in the woods for nine men,
+were bought and put into cloth sacks. Our original number of six men was
+here augmented by three half-breed Indians of the Bad River Indian
+Reservation, who were hired as packers and guides over a trail to be
+followed to the Flambeau Indian Reservation. A Lake Superior fisherman
+was then engaged to take the party and its outfit in his sailing boat
+from Bayfield to the mouth of Montreal River, which is the boundary
+between Wisconsin and Michigan. The distance was about thirty-five
+miles.
+
+[Illustration: W. S. Patrick]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Entering the Wilds of Wisconsin.
+
+
+The party disembarked at a sand beach, but the sailboat drew too much
+water to permit a close landing. Here it was that the two tenderfeet got
+their first experience with Lake Superior's cold water, since all were
+obliged to climb or jump overboard into three feet of the almost icy
+water, and to carry on heads and shoulders portions of the luggage to
+the dry land. Here was to begin the first night of my camp life. Dry
+wood was sought, and camp fires were kindled to be used, first, to dry
+the wet clothing, and second, to cook the food for the first out-of-door
+supper.
+
+To avoid mosquitoes, orders were given to prepare beds for the night on
+the sand beach away from the friendly tall trees that stood near by. One
+mattress served for the whole party and consisted of as level a strip of
+the sandy shore as could be selected. Promise of fair weather rendered
+unnecessary the raising of tents which were made to serve as so much
+thickness to keep the body from contact with the sand.
+
+That night the stars shone brightly above the sleepers' faces, the
+waters of Superior broke gently along the beach, and the tall pines lent
+their first lullaby to willingly listening ears.
+
+    "The waves have a story to tell me,
+      As I lie on the lonely beach;
+    Chanting aloft in the pine-tops,
+      The wind has a lesson to teach;
+    But the stars sing an anthem of glory
+      I cannot put into speech.
+
+    They sing of the Mighty Master,
+      Of the loom His fingers span,
+    Where a star or a soul is a part of the whole,
+      And weft in the wondrous plan."
+
+The next morning broke bright and clear, and the sun sent a sheen upon
+the dimpled waters of old Superior that gave us a touch of regret at the
+parting of the ways; for the members, one by one, after a well relished
+breakfast, shouldered their packs and fell into single file behind the
+Indian guide who led the way to the trail through the woods, forty miles
+long, to the Flambeau Reservation.
+
+Two days and the morning of the third brought the party, footsore in new
+boots and eaten by mosquitoes, to the end of the trail. Now, lakes must
+be crossed, and the Flambeau River navigated for many days. In the
+Indian village were many wigwams, occupied by the usually large
+families of two or three generations of bucks, squaws, children, from
+the eldest down to the liquid-nosed papoose, and their numerous dogs
+that never fail to announce the approach of "kitchimokoman," the white
+man.
+
+Some of the old men were building birch canoes, and many birch crafts of
+different ages and of previous service were to be seen in the camp. From
+among them, enough were bought to carry all of the men of the party and
+their outfits. The last canoe bought was a three-man canoe, which leaked
+and must be "pitched" before it could be used.
+
+At this point let it be explained that every woodsman, trapper, pioneer,
+settler, or camper who depends upon a birch canoe for navigation should,
+and generally does, provide himself with a quantity of commercial resin
+and a fireproof dish in which to melt it. The resin is then tempered by
+adding just enough grease to prevent the mixture, when applied to the
+dry surface of a leaky spot on the canoe, and cooled in the water of the
+lake or river at the time of using, from cracking by reason of too great
+hardness. The surface must be dry or the "pitch" will not adhere firmly
+to the leaky seam or knot in the bark of the canoe. The drying is
+quickly done by holding a live ember or firebrand close to the surface
+of the wet bark.
+
+Mr. Patrick had bought the canoes from different owners and had paid for
+them all except the leaky three-man canoe. It was the property of a fat
+squaw of uncertain age. The price agreed upon for this canoe was twenty
+dollars. Mr. Patrick and the squaw were standing on opposite sides of
+the canoe as Mr. Patrick took from his pocket a twenty dollar bill to
+hand her in payment. Just then he discovered that the pan of pitch
+(resin), which had been previously placed over the live coals, was on
+fire. He placed the twenty dollar bill on the canoe in front of the
+squaw, and quickly ran to extinguish the fire in the burning pitch. When
+he returned to the canoe, the bill had disappeared, and the wise old
+squaw claimed to know nothing of its whereabouts. A second twenty dollar
+bill was produced and handed to the squaw, when Mr. Patrick became the
+owner of a forty dollar birch canoe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Surveying and Selecting Government Timber Lands.
+
+
+Our party of land surveyors, or "land lookers" as they were often
+called, being thus supplied with water transports, proceeded in their
+canoes a short distance down the Flambeau River, where the work of
+selecting government or state lands timbered with pine trees was to
+begin.
+
+The questions have been so often asked, "How do you know where you are
+when in the dense forest away from all roads and trails, and many miles
+from any human habitation?", "How can you tell one tract of land from
+another tract?", and "How can you tell what land belongs to the United
+States and what to the State?", that it seems desirable to try to make
+these points clear to the reader.
+
+[Illustration: The "V" shaped baker is a valuable part of the cook's
+outfit. (Page 36.)]
+
+The Continental Congress, through its committee appointed expressly for
+the work, inaugurated the present system of survey of the public lands
+in 1784. For the purposes of this explanation it will be sufficient to
+recite that the system consists of parallel lines six miles apart
+running north and south, designated as "range lines"; also of other
+parallel lines, six miles apart running east and west, designated as
+"township lines". Any six miles square bounded by four of these lines
+constitutes a "township". The territory within these two range lines and
+two township lines is subdivided into "sections", each one mile square,
+by running five parallel lines north and south across the township, each
+one mile from its nearest parallel line, and, in like manner, by running
+five other parallel lines east and west across the township from the
+east range line to the west range line, each line one mile from its
+nearest parallel line. In this manner, the township is subdivided into
+thirty-six sections each one mile square. The four township corners are
+marked by posts, squared at the upper end, and marked on the four sides
+by the proper letters and figures cut into the four flat faces by
+"marking irons", each flat surface facing the township for which it is
+marked.
+
+In addition, one tree in each of the four township corners is blazed (a
+smooth surface exposed by chopping through the bark into the wood) on
+the side of the tree facing the stake, and the same letters and figures
+as are on the nearest face of the stake are marked thereon. These
+letters and figures give the number of the township, range and section
+touching that corner. On another blaze below the first, and near the
+ground, are marked the letters "B T", meaning "bearing tree".
+
+The surveyor writes in his field book the kind and diameter of tree, the
+distance and direction of each bearing tree from the corner post, and
+these notes of the surveyor are recorded in the United States land
+office at Washington.
+
+Even if the stake and three of the bearing trees should be destroyed, so
+that but one tree be left, with a copy of the notes, one could relocate
+the township corner.
+
+The section corners within the township are marked in a similar manner.
+
+Midway between adjacent section corners is located a "quarter corner",
+on the line between the two adjacent sections. This is marked by a post
+blazed flat on opposite sides and marked "¼ S". There are also two
+"witness trees" or bearing trees marked "¼ S".
+
+By running straight lines through a section, east and west and north and
+south, connecting the quarter corners, the section of six hundred and
+forty acres may be divided into four quarter sections of one hundred and
+sixty acres each. These may in turn be divided into four similar shaped
+quarters of forty acres each called "forties", which constitute the
+smallest regular government subdivisions, except fractional acreages
+caused by lakes and rivers which may cut out part of what might
+otherwise have been a forty. In such cases the government surveyor
+"meanders" or measures the winding courses, and the fractional forties
+thus measured are marked with the number of acres each contains. Each is
+called a "lot" and is given a number. These lots are noted and numbered
+on the surveyor's map or plat which is later recorded.
+
+The subdivision of the mile square section is the work of the land
+looker, as the government ceases its work when the exterior lines are
+run.
+
+On the township plat which one buys at the local United States land
+office, are designated by some character, the lands belonging to the
+United States, and, by a different character, the lands owned by the
+State.
+
+The country presented an unbroken forest of the various kinds of trees
+and underbrush indigenous to this northern climate. The deer, bear,
+lynx, porcupine, and wolf were the rightful and principal occupants.
+Crossing occasionally, the trail of the first named, served only to
+remind us of our complete isolation from the outside, busy world.
+
+The provisions yet remaining were sufficient to feed our party for less
+than three weeks. In the meantime two of the Indians had gone down the
+river in a canoe with Mr. Patrick to the mouth of the Flambeau, to await
+the arrival of fresh supplies which he was to send up to that point from
+Eau Claire by team. The experienced and skilled woodsmen had divided the
+working force into small crews, which began subdividing the sections
+within the townships where there were government or state lands, to
+ascertain whether there were any forty acre tracts that contained enough
+valuable pine to make the land profitable to purchase at the land
+offices. Two thousand acres were thus selected during the first cruise,
+but, on our agent reaching the land office where the lands had to be
+entered, only twelve hundred acres were still vacant (unentered), other
+land lookers having preceded our representative and arrived first at the
+land office with eight hundred acres of the same descriptions as our
+own.
+
+As there were many land lookers at this time in the woods, all anxious
+to buy the good pine lands from the government and the state, conflicts
+like the above were not unusual.
+
+Through a misunderstanding of orders, our working party, now nearly out
+of everything to eat, assembled at The Forks, a point forty-five miles
+above the mouth of the Flambeau, and waited for the Indians to bring up
+fresh supplies. They did not come, and, after waiting three days, while
+each man subsisted on rations of three small baking powder biscuits per
+day, all hands pushed down to the mouth of the river where the Indians
+were awaiting us with plenty of raw materials, some of which were soon
+converted into cooked food of which all partook most heartily.
+
+Corrected plats, showing the unentered lands of each township which we
+were directed to examine, were sent to us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Gaining Experience--Getting Wet.
+
+
+Some field experience which I had acquired in surveying when a sophomore
+in college, assisted me greatly in quickly learning how to subdivide the
+sections, while my knowledge of timber gained at an early age, when
+assisting my father in choosing trees in the forest suitable for his
+uses as a manufacturer, aided me greatly in judging the quality and
+quantity of the pine timber growing in the greater forests of the
+Northwest.
+
+Freshly equipped with provisions, and with plats corrected up to date,
+we returned to the deep woods. There we divided into parties of only
+two--the land looker and his assistant. The latter's duty was chiefly to
+help carry the supplies of uncooked foods, blankets, tent, etc., to
+pitch tent at night, and, ordinarily, to do the most of the cooking,
+though seldom all of it. On some days much good vacant (unentered) pine
+was found, and on other days none at all. Several miles of woods were at
+times laboriously passed through, without seeing any timber worth
+entering (buying). Some portions would consist of hardwood ridges of
+maple, oak, elm; some of poplar, birch, basswood; others of long
+stretches of tamarack and spruce swamps, sections of which would be
+almost without wooded growth, so marshy and wet that the moss-covered
+bottom would scarcely support our weight, encumbered as we always were
+by pack sacks upon our backs, which weighed when starting as much as
+sixty pounds and sometimes more. Their weight diminished daily as we
+cooked and ate from our store which they contained.
+
+[Illustration: "The almost saucy, yet sociable red squirrel". (Page
+48.)]
+
+Windfalls--places where cyclones or hurricanes had passed--were
+sometimes encountered. The cyclones left the trees twisted and broken,
+their trunks and branches pointing in various directions; the hurricanes
+generally left the trees tipped partly or entirely to the ground, their
+roots turned up and their trunks pointing quite uniformly in the same
+relative direction. The getting through, over, under, and _beyond_ these
+places, which vary from a few rods to a possible mile across, especially
+in winter when the mantle of snow hides the pitfalls and screens the
+rotten trunks and limbs from view, tries the courage, patience, and
+endurance of the woodsman. All of the time he must use his compass and
+keep his true direction as well as measure the distance, otherwise he
+would not know where he was located. Without this knowledge his work
+could not proceed.
+
+Sometimes we would come to a natural meadow grown up with alders, around
+the borders of which stood much young poplar. A stream of water flowed
+through the meadow, and the beavers had discovered that it was eminently
+fitted, if not designed, for their necessities. Accordingly, they had
+selected an advantageous spot where nature had kindly thrown up a bank
+of earth on each side and drawn the ends down comparatively near to the
+stream. Small trees were near by, and these they had cut down, and then
+cut into such lengths as were right, in their judgment, for constructing
+a water-tight dam across the narrow channel between the two opposite
+banks of earth. The flow of water being thus checked by the beaver dam,
+the water set-back and overflowed the meadow to its remotest confines,
+and even submerged some of the trunks of the trees to perhaps a depth of
+two feet. Out further in the meadow and amongst the alders where had
+flowed the natural stream, the water in the pond was much deeper.
+
+These ponds sometimes lay directly across the line of our survey and
+inconvenienced us greatly. We disliked to make "offsets" in our lines
+and thus go around the dam, for the traveling in such places was usually
+very slow and tedious. The saving of time is always important to the
+land hunter, since he must carry his provisions, and wishes to
+accomplish all that is possible before the last day's rations are
+reached. It was not strange, then, if we first tried the depth of the
+water in the pond by wading and feeling our way. While we could keep our
+pack sacks from becoming wet, we continued to wade toward the opposite
+shore, meantime remembering or keeping in sight some object on the
+opposite shore, in the direct course we must travel, which we had
+located by means of our compass before entering the water. Sometimes a
+retreat had to be made by reason of too great depth of water. During the
+summer months we did not mind simply getting wet clothes by wading; but
+once in the fall just before ice had formed, this chilly proposition of
+wading across, was undertaken voluntarily, and was only one of many
+uncomfortable things that entered into the woodsman's life.
+
+Subjected thus to much inconvenience and discomfort by those valuable
+little animals, we could but admire their wisdom in choosing places for
+their subaqueous homes. They feed upon the bark of the alder, the
+poplar, the birch, and of some other trees. These grew where they
+constructed their dam and along the margin of the pond of water thus
+formed. They cut down these trees by gnawing entirely around their
+trunks, then they cut off branches and sections of the trunks of the
+trees, and drew them into their houses under the ice. Most trees cut by
+the beaver are of small diameter. I once measured one beaver stump and
+found it to be fourteen inches in diameter. I still have in my
+possession a section of a white cedar stump measuring seventeen inches
+in circumference that had been gnawed off by beavers. It is the only
+cedar tree I have ever known to have been cut down by these wise little
+creatures.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A Birthday Supper.
+
+
+Flambeau Farm was located on the right bank of Chippewa River opposite
+the mouth of Flambeau River. There old man Butler kept a ranch for the
+especial accommodation of lumbermen and land hunters, who included
+nearly everyone who came that way. It was at the end of the wagon road
+leading from Chippewa Falls and from other civilized places. Canoes,
+dugouts, batteaus--all started from Butler's ranch at Flambeau Farm for
+operations up the Flambeau and its tributaries, or for either up or down
+the Chippewa and its branches.
+
+One rainy afternoon in October our party of three started from Butler's
+ranch in a dugout (a long, narrow canoe hewn out of a pine tree), to
+pole down the Chippewa River to the mouth of Jump River, a distance of
+about ten miles. Notwithstanding the rain, everything went smoothly for
+the first hour, when, without warning, the bow of the canoe struck the
+edge of a sand bar which caused the tottlish craft to tip. The man in
+the stern jumped overboard to save it from capsizing, expecting to
+strike his feet on the sand bar, but, in the meantime, the frail craft
+had drifted away from the bar, and we were floating over deep water
+which resulted in our comrade's disappearing under the surface. He soon
+rose hatless, and with a few strokes swam to where he seized the stern
+of the boat to which he was obliged to cling until we could paddle to
+the shore, as any attempt on his part to have climbed in would have
+resulted in capsizing the boat, and would have cost us all of our
+supplies.
+
+We built a fire, and partly dried his wet garments, after which we
+proceeded on our journey. Entering the mouth of Jump River, we flushed a
+small flock of wild geese, one of which we shot and gathered into our
+dugout. A little farther on, we were fortunate in bringing down a fine
+mallard. By this time the snow had begun to fall very rapidly, so that
+when we had reached a suitable place to camp for the night, the snow was
+fully three inches deep. Here, near the bank of the river, we found an
+unoccupied claim shanty built of logs, and containing a very serviceable
+fireplace. We took possession of it for the night, in consequence of
+which it was unnecessary to pitch our tents. We began the usual
+preparations for our evening meal and for comfortable beds upon which to
+lie. The latter were soon prepared by going outside into a thicket of
+balsam fir trees, felling a few with our axes, and breaking off the
+soft, springy boughs which were stacked in bunches, carried into camp,
+and spread in the convenient bunks to constitute the mattresses over
+which the blankets were later laid.
+
+[Illustration: "I found several families of Indians camping at the end
+of the portage." (Page 106.)]
+
+While thus busy, an Indian hunter clad in a buckskin suit came down the
+trail by the river bank, bringing with him a saddle of venison. Owing to
+the Indian's natural fondness for pork, it was very easy to exchange a
+small piece of the latter for some nice venison steaks. I remember that
+because of the wet condition of the snow, the Indian's buckskin pants
+had become saturated with water, causing them to elongate to such an
+extent that he was literally walking on the bottom ends of them. His
+wigwam was not far down the river, to which point he soon repaired. Then
+the cook made a short calculation of the menu he would serve us for our
+supper after the very disagreeable experiences of travel during the day.
+He decided to broil the mallard and cook some venison steak. Besides
+this, he boiled rice, some potatoes, some dried peaches, and baked a few
+tins of baking powder biscuits.
+
+The land hunter's or surveyor's outfit of cooking utensils invariably
+includes a nest of tin pails or kettles of different sizes fitted one
+within the other, and sufficient in number to supply the needs of the
+camp; also a tin baker, so constructed that when set up before an open
+fire, it is a tilted "V" shaped trough of sufficient length to place
+within it a good sized baking tin, placed horizontally and supported
+midway between the two sides of the "V" shaped baker, so that the fire
+is reflected on the bright tin equally above the baking pan and below
+it.
+
+The snow had ceased falling, and, by building a rousing camp fire
+outside of the claim shanty, we were soon able to dry our clothing.
+Having partaken of a sumptuous meal, we "rolled in", contented and
+happy, for a night's rest. To me, this 14th day of October was a red
+letter day, and in memory ever since has been because it was the
+birthday of my then fiancée, who, not many years subsequent, became and
+ever since has remained my faithful and loving wife.
+
+The second and final trip of that season in open water was made several
+weeks later when we again poled up the Chippewa River in a dugout,
+taking with us our supplies for the cruise in the forest.
+
+The current in that part of the river was so swift, not infrequently
+forming rapids, that we were obliged always to use long poles made from
+small spruce trees from which the bark had been removed, and an iron
+spike fastened at one end to aid in securing a hold when pushed down
+among the rocks. The water was so nearly at the freezing point that
+small flakes of ice were floating, and the atmosphere was so cold, that,
+as the pole was lifted from the water, ice would form on it unless the
+pole at each stroke was reversed, thus allowing the film of ice formed
+on the pole to be thawed when immersed in the slightly warmer water
+beneath. The day spent in this manner was attended with very great
+discomfort, and when night came, each man found himself tired and
+hungry, and glad that the day had come to an end. We camped that night
+at a French-Canadian logging camp. Our party was too fatigued to pitch
+its own tents and prepare its own meal, and gladly accepted the
+foreman's hospitality at the rate of two dollars a day each, for some of
+his fat pork, pea soup, and fairly good bread.
+
+On the morning following, we found the ice had so formed in the river
+that further journeying in the dugout was impossible, so the latter was
+pulled up on shore, covered with some brush, and abandoned, at least for
+the winter, and, as it proved in this instance, for always, so far as
+it concerned our party. We finished this cruise on foot, and returned
+about two weeks later to Eau Claire.
+
+There were not many men living on government lands in that part of
+Wisconsin. Those who had taken claims and were living on them depended
+on their rifles for all of their fresh meat. Some of them made a
+practice of placing "set guns" pointing across deer trails. One end of a
+strong cord was first fastened to a tree, or to a stake driven into the
+ground some distance from the deer trail. The cord was then carried
+across the trail which was in the snow, for a distance of one hundred
+feet or less. Here, the gun was set firmly, pointing directly in line
+with the cord or string. The barrel of the gun was sighted at such an
+elevation as to send the bullet, when fired, across the deer trail at a
+height from the trail sufficient to penetrate the body of the deer. The
+string was then carried around some stationary object and fastened to
+the trigger of the gun, the hammer of which had been raised. The
+pressure of the deer's body or legs against the string would be pretty
+sure to discharge the gun, thus causing the innocent and unsuspecting
+deer to shoot itself.
+
+While running a compass line one day, we discovered, just ahead of us, a
+cord or string at right angles to our line of travel. I stopped
+immediately, while my companion, Tom Carney, followed the cord to its
+end which he found fastened to the trigger of a rifle. He carefully cut
+the cord, raised the rifle to his shoulder, and fired it into the air.
+He next broke the gun over the roots of a tree. Further examination
+showed that the cord was stretched across a deer trail which we would
+have reached in a minute more.
+
+With the return of winter the Sage-Patrick contract was about
+completed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A New Contract--Obstacles.
+
+    "To him who in the love of Nature holds
+    Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
+    A various language; for his gayer hours
+    She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
+    And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
+    Into his darker musings, with a mild
+    And healing sympathy, that steals away
+    Their sharpness, ere he is aware."
+
+
+My life, up to the time of my contract with Mr. Patrick to go with him
+into the wilds of Wisconsin as an apprenticed land hunter and timber
+examiner, had been spent on the farm, in my father's shop, at school and
+college, and in teaching. The change of occupation and manner of living
+will therefore be seen to have been radical. In six months of contact
+with nature, I had been born into a new life, a life of initiative, of
+daring, and of hardships, insuring health and inspiring hope of
+financial success in a way honorable and helpful. I loved the forms of
+nature all about me, untouched by the hand of man. I therefore sought
+for and found an associate with capital sufficient to permit me to
+continue in the same line of work. The late Robert B. Langdon then
+became my partner, and this relationship was most pleasantly continued
+to the end of Mr. Langdon's life.
+
+[Illustration: "In the Vermilion country, dog trains could sometimes be
+advantageously used." (Page 130.)]
+
+Late in December, 1871, my first trip under the new contract for
+securing pine timber, was undertaken. The ice in the rivers and lakes
+had now become firm and safe for travel thereon. Considerable snow had
+already fallen, and the roads were heavy in consequence.
+
+Our work, as planned, lay many miles up the Chippewa River. In order to
+reach the desired locality with sufficient supplies to enable us to be
+gone a month or six weeks, it was necessary to take them on a toboggan
+made expressly for the uses of this proposed trip. Four men were needed
+to push and pull the load. After a week of hard labor, our party arrived
+at the point where the work of surveying the lands was to begin. A place
+to camp was chosen in the thick woods not far from the river bank, where
+water would be near by and convenient for the use of the camp. A small,
+but strong warehouse of logs was first constructed, in which to store
+the supplies not necessary for immediate use.
+
+Having thus secured the supplies for future use from the reach of any
+wild beasts roaming in the forests, we put enough of them into our pack
+sacks to last for a ten days' absence from our storehouse camp. We were
+about to start, when Abbot, one of our axmen, in chopping a stick of
+wood, had the misfortune to send the sharp blade of the ax into his
+foot, deep to the bone. The gash was an ugly one and at once disabled
+him for further usefulness on this trip. The man must be taken out of
+the woods where his foot could receive proper care. How was this to be
+accomplished? Two men alone could possibly have hauled him on the
+toboggan. The distance to the nearest habitation where a team of horses
+could be obtained was seventy-five miles. There was but one tent in the
+outfit and not sufficient blankets to permit of dividing our party of
+four men. It seemed, therefore, that there was nothing possible to do
+but for the whole party to retrace its steps to the point where it had
+been obliged to leave the team behind. The wound in Abbot's foot was
+cleansed and some balsam having been gathered from the fir trees, the
+same was laid on a clean piece of white cotton cloth, which, used as a
+bandage, was placed over the wound and made secure. The wound having
+been thus protected, Abbot was placed on the toboggan and hauled to the
+ranch seventy-five miles down the river.
+
+Cruising in the woods is always expensive, even when everything moves on
+smoothly and without accident. The men's wages are the highest paid for
+common labor, while the wages of compassmen are much more. The wages of
+the man of experience and knowledge sufficient to conduct a survey, as
+well as to judge correctly of the quality and quantity of timber on each
+subdivision of land selected for purchase, are from seven dollars to ten
+dollars a day. He must determine the feasibility of bringing the pine
+logs to water sufficient to float them when cut, and the best and
+shortest routes for the logging roads to reach the banks of the rivers,
+or possibly the lakes where the logs are unloaded; and, in these modern
+days of building logging railroads, he must also locate the lines of the
+railroads and determine their grades. At the time above alluded to, no
+logging railroads were in existence, and that part of the expense did
+not have to be borne. The trip proved to be a very expensive one, and
+there had not been time before the accident to choose one forty-acre
+tract of land for entry.
+
+After arriving at Eau Claire where the land office was located, and
+being delayed some days by other business, we found on going to the
+land office, that many entries had just been made of lands within the
+townships in which we had planned to do our work, when the accident to
+Abbot occurred. This fact necessitated the choosing of other townships
+in which to go to search for vacant lands on our next trip.
+
+Having acquired from the land office the necessary plats, and having
+secured a new stock of provisions, we started again to penetrate another
+part of the pine woods. This trip occupied several weeks in which we
+were more than ordinarily successful in finding desirable lands, and we
+hastened to Eau Claire in order that we might secure these by purchase
+at the land office.
+
+Rumors had been afloat for some time previous, that there were
+irregularities in the conduct of the office at Eau Claire. These rumors
+had grown until action was taken by the general land office at
+Washington, resulting in the temporary closing of the Eau Claire land
+office for the purpose, as reported, of examining the books of that
+office.
+
+[Illustration: S. D. Patrick]
+
+Many crews of men came out of the woods in the days that followed, with
+minutes or descriptions of lands which they desired to enter, each in
+turn to find the land office closed against them. In this dilemma,
+advice was taken as to what course to pursue. After having taken
+counsel, I, as well as several others, sent my minutes, together with
+the necessary cash, to the general land office at Washington, with
+application to have the same entered for patents. Our minutes and our
+money, however, were returned to us from Washington with the information
+that the entry could not be thus made, and that public notice would be
+given of the future day when the land office at Eau Claire would reopen
+for the transaction of the government's business. All land hunters of
+the Eau Claire district were therefore obliged to suspend operations
+until the time of the reopening of the land office. This occurred on the
+first of May following.
+
+I was there early and in line to enter the office when its doors should
+be open at nine o'clock in the morning, and reached the desk
+simultaneously with the first few to arrive. All were told that in due
+time, possibly later in that day, they could call for their duplicate
+receipts of such lands as they were able to secure. There was present
+that morning, a man by the name of Gilmore, from Washington, who, so far
+as my knowledge goes, had never before been seen at the Eau Claire land
+office. My descriptions which I had applied for at the land office on
+that morning had all been entered by the man from Washington, resulting
+in the loss of all of my work from January until May. I was not alone in
+this unlooked for experience, as I was informed by others that they had
+shared the same fate.
+
+Thus baffled, and believing that there was no prospect of fair treatment
+in that land office district, I determined to change my seat of
+operations and to go into some other district. I did so, going next onto
+the waters of the Wisconsin River, the United States land office for
+which district, was then located at Stevens Point. Here I remained for
+many months, operating with a good degree of success, and found the land
+office most honorably and fairly conducted for all.
+
+The registrar of the land office was Horace Alban, and the receiver was
+David Quaw. It was always a pleasure to do business with these two
+gentlemen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A Few Experiences in the New and More Prosperous Field.
+
+
+The life of the land hunter is at nearly all times a strenuous one. He
+daily experiences hardships such as working his way up rivers with many
+swift waters, and crossing lakes in birch-bark canoes, in wind storms
+and in rain; fording streams when he has no boat and when the banks are
+too far apart to make a temporary bridge by felling trees across the
+channel; building rafts to cross rivers and lakes; climbing through
+windfalls; crossing miles of swamp where the bog bottom will scarcely
+support his weight, and where, when night overtakes him he must
+temporize a bed of poles on which to lay his weary body to protect it
+from the wet beneath him; and traveling sometimes all day in an open and
+burnt country with his bed and board upon his back, the sun's hot rays
+pressing like a heavy weight upon his head, while myriads of black flies
+swarm about him and attack every exposed inch of his skin, even
+penetrating through the hair of his head. These are a few of his
+experiences, and, if these had not their offsets at certain times, his
+life would become indeed unbearable. His health, however, and his
+appetite are generally as good as are enjoyed by any class of the human
+family. Possessing these advantages gives him much buoyancy of spirit,
+and, when a good piece of country in the timber is encountered, he is
+quick to forget the trials and the hardships of the hour before, and to
+enjoy the improved prospects.
+
+There is doubt whether or not anything finer enters into the joy of
+living than being in the solitude of the great unbroken forest,
+surrounded by magnificent, tall, straight, beautiful pine trees, on a
+day when the sun is casting shadows through their waving tops, listening
+to the whisperings, formed almost into words, of the needle-like fingers
+of their leafy boughs, to the warbling of the songsters, and to the
+chirping of the almost saucy, yet sociable red squirrel who is sure to
+let one know that he has invaded his dominion. Such days, with such
+scenes and emotions, do come in the life of the woodsman, the land
+hunter, who is alone in the forest, except that if he be at all
+sentimental, he approaches nearer to the Great Creator than at almost
+any other time in his life's experiences. Those who have read the books
+of John Borroughs, John Muir, or Ernest Thompson Seton, may appreciate
+somewhat the joy that comes to the woodsman in his solitude, if he be a
+lover of nature.
+
+Those only, who have been through the experience, can fully realize how
+anxious the land looker is to secure the descriptions of valuable lands
+that he has found when out on one of his cruises, for he knows full well
+that it is probable that he is not the only man who is in the woods at
+that time, for the same objects as his own. Sometimes, but rarely, two
+such men may meet in the forest while at their work. When this occurs,
+it is a courteous meeting, but attended with much concealed
+embarrassment, for each knows that the other has found him out, and, if
+either is in possession of a valuable lot of minutes which he hopes to
+secure when he reaches the land office, he assumes that the other is
+probably in possession of the same descriptions, or, at least, a part of
+them. It then becomes a question which one shall outwit or outtravel the
+other, from that moment, in a race to the land office where his minutes
+must be entered, and to the victor belong the spoils, which means in
+this instance, to the one who is first there to apply for the entry of
+his land descriptions.
+
+While on one of these cruises on a tributary of the Wisconsin River,
+with one man only for help and companion, I had left my man, Charlie, on
+the section line with the two pack sacks, while I had gone into the
+interior of the section, to survey some of its forties, and to make an
+estimate of the feet of pine timber standing on each forty. It was in
+midsummer and in a beautiful piece of forest. Thrifty pine trees were
+growing amongst the hard woods of maple, birch, and rock elm. Having
+completed my work in the interior of the section, and having returned,
+as I believed, to a point within a hundred yards of where Charlie was, I
+gave the woodsman's call, then listened for Charlie's answer, in order
+that I might go directly to the point whence it should come. On reaching
+Charlie, I picked up my pack and started following the section line. We
+had traveled less than a quarter of a mile on the line, when I saw on
+the ground, a pigeon stripped of its feathers. I picked up the bird and
+found that its body was warm. Immediately I knew that other land lookers
+were in the same field and had undoubtedly been resting on that section
+line at the time I had called for Charlie, and they, hearing our voices,
+had hastily picked up their packs and started on their way out.
+
+There was much pine timber in this township that yet belonged to the
+government and to the state of Wisconsin. I, at this time, had
+descriptions of more than four thousand acres of these lands which I was
+anxious to buy. My interest and anxiety, therefore, became intense when
+I knew that my presence had been discovered by the parties who had so
+unintentionally left that bird on their trail. There were no railroads
+in that part of the country at that time, and Stevens Point, the
+location of the government land office, lay more than sixty-five miles
+south of where we then were. Twenty-five miles of this distance was
+mostly through the woods and must be traveled on foot. It was then late
+in the afternoon and neither party could make progress after dark. The
+route through the woods led through a swamp, and, upon reaching it, the
+tracks of two men were plainly to be seen in the moss, and in places in
+the wet ground. One man wore heavy boots, with the soles well driven
+with hobnails, which left their imprints in the moist soil. Coming to a
+trail that led off into a small settlement, we saw the tracks of one of
+the two men following that trail. The tracks of the man with the
+hobnails kept directly on in the course leading to the nearest highway
+that would take him to Wausau, a thriving lumber town, forty miles
+distant from Stevens Point. We reached this road at about three o'clock
+in the afternoon of the next day. We called at the first house
+approached, and asked the woman if she could give us some bread and
+milk, and, being answered in the affirmative, we sat down for a rest,
+and inquired of her if she had seen a woodsman pass. She replied that
+she had, and that he had left there within an hour of the time of our
+arrival. The tracks of the boots with the hobnails could be seen
+occasionally along the road, and, knowing that the stage, the only
+public conveyance from Wausau to Stevens Point, was not due to leave
+Wausau for Stevens Point until four o'clock the next morning, we had no
+further anxiety about overtaking the woodsman who had left there an hour
+in advance, since we reasoned that he would probably take the stage at
+its usual hour of leaving, the next day.
+
+[Illustration: "There were many waterfalls". (Page 136.)]
+
+From that time on, the journey was leisurely made, and we entered Wausau
+at a late hour, when most of the laboring community had retired for the
+night. Having gone to my accustomed hotel, and changed my clothes, I
+next walked over to a livery stable and hired a team which I drove to
+Stevens Point during the night, arriving there in time for breakfast. I
+then went to the home of the land officer before eating my breakfast,
+told him that I wished to make some entries that morning, and asked him
+at what hour the land office would be open; and, seeing that my time
+agreed with that of the land officer, told him that I would be there
+promptly at nine o'clock, the legal hour for opening the office. I made
+entry of the list of lands belonging to the United States government,
+and was told to return at eleven o'clock to compare the duplicate
+receipts with my application to enter the lands. While I was thus
+engaged, the stage from Wausau arrived, and a man came into the land
+office, wearing a pair of boots with hobnails that looked very much the
+size of the tracks that I had been previously observing on my way out
+from the woods to Wausau. He immediately asked for the township plat
+which represented the lands which I had been so anxious to secure. He
+began reading the descriptions of the lands he wished to enter, and, as
+he read them, I heard with much interest, the same descriptions that
+were in my own list, but there were some that were different. Whenever a
+description was read that checked with one in my list, the land officer
+replied that those lands were entered. This occurred so many times that
+he soon inquired when the lands had been entered. He was told, "At nine
+o'clock this morning." In his perplexity he had also read some of the
+descriptions that belonged to the state of Wisconsin and which had to be
+purchased at the land office at Madison, the capital of the state.
+
+"Well," he remarked, "this is hard luck, but I may secure my state land
+descriptions."
+
+I always kept a balance of money with the state treasurer at Madison,
+with which to pay for lands whenever I should send a list by mail or
+otherwise, when I did not care to go personally with the descriptions.
+
+The man having left the land office, I repaired immediately to the
+telegraph office and wired the descriptions of the lands I wished to
+enter, to the chief clerk of the land office at Madison, authorizing him
+to draw on my account with the state treasurer, to pay for the same. The
+train left Stevens Point that afternoon for Madison, and both interested
+parties were passengers. Arriving at the land office, I found the lands
+telegraphed for, to have been duly secured.
+
+This instance is given to show by how slender a thread a matter of
+great interest sometimes hangs. Had the pigeon not been left on the
+section line, or had it not been discovered by the competing land
+hunter, the man with the hobnails in his boots would have been the
+victor, and his would have been the joy of having won that which he had
+striven hard to attain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Tracing Gentlemen Timber Thieves--Getting Wet--Fawn.
+
+
+I have said that the country tributary to the waters of the Wisconsin
+River constituted a good field for the selection of valuable government
+pine-timbered lands. It is equally true that it was a country where the
+custom had grown among lumbermen to enter a few forties of government
+land, sufficient at least to make a show of owning a tract of timber on
+which to conduct a winter's operation of logging, and then to cut the
+timber from adjacent or near by forty-acre tracts of land yet belonging
+to the government.
+
+This method of trespassing upon the timber not owned by the operator,
+but being the property of the United States, was carried on to a greater
+extent there than in any other section of the state in which I was
+familiar with the methods and practices of logging pine timber. Many
+logging jobbers having formed this habit of helping themselves to
+government timber, found it difficult, after the government lands had
+been entered by private purchase of others than themselves, to
+discontinue their practice of taking timber that was not their own.
+Reforms of such habits do not come voluntarily nor easily, as a rule,
+but generally under some sort of pressure.
+
+In the years following my purchase of considerable tracts of timber on
+these waters, I found it necessary, annually, to make a trip into the
+country where our timber lands were situated, to ascertain whether or
+not there had been near-by logging camps during the preceding winter,
+and if so, to carefully run out the lines around our own timber, to
+determine whether or not trespass had been committed on any of them. In
+many instances I found that this was the fact. One spring I found a very
+considerable number of the best pine trees cut from the interior of
+forty acres of excellent timber, so that the selling value of the whole
+tract was injured far more than the full value of the amount of timber
+that had been unlawfully cut and hauled away. The trespass had been
+committed by a man prominent in the community and well-known among the
+lumbermen of the Wisconsin River. The late Gust Wilson of Wisconsin, a
+fine man, a lawyer of much experience in lumber cases in that state,
+and whose counsel was considered of a high order, was retained to bring
+suit to recover the value of the timber trespassed. Not only that, but,
+annoyed at the boldness of the trespass, I wished also to have him
+prosecuted criminally for theft. Mr. Wilson said in reply to the
+request, "Now, don't try that. All of those fellows have had 'some of
+them hams,' and you can't get a jury in all that country that will bring
+you in a verdict of guilty, no matter how great and strong your evidence
+may be." There was nothing left to do under Mr. Wilson's advice but to
+cool off, keep smiling, and collect the best price for the stumpage
+taken (not stolen), so as to be polite to the gentlemanly wrongdoer.
+
+One spring, accompanied by Mr. W. B. Buckingham, cashier of one of the
+national banks at Stevens Point, who also owned interests in valuable
+pine timber lands adjacent to, or near by those in which I owned
+interests, I went into the countries of the Spirit and Willow Rivers.
+The snow was melting and the waters nearly filled the banks of the
+respective streams. Wishing to cross the Spirit River, we found a point
+where an island occupied the near center of the stream, on which was a
+little standing timber. A tree was felled, the top of which landed on
+the island. Having crossed on the tree to the island, we felled another
+tree which reached from the island to the farther shore. It was not
+large in diameter, and, under the weight of Mr. Buckingham, who first
+proceeded, it swayed until he lost his balance and fell into the water
+and was obliged to swim to the opposite shore. I was more fortunate in
+this instance, and stayed on the tree until I reached the shore.
+
+[Illustration: "We succeeded in crossing Burnt Side Lake". (Page
+146.)]
+
+Swimming in ice water is never found comfortable, and we hurried to a
+close at hand, deserted logging camp, where, fortunately, we found a
+large heating stove set up and ready for use, and near by a fine pile of
+dry wood for the stove, which had been left over from the recent
+winter's operations of logging. In a few minutes, a rousing fire was
+made, and, after removing his garments and wringing them as dry as
+possible, we hung them on lines about the stove and quickly dried them
+and made them ready for use. This was necessary, as no change of
+clothing had been provided for this intended short excursion into the
+woods.
+
+By the time our work was finished, the snow had mostly melted away. The
+ice was all out of the rivers, and we found ourselves one morning on
+the banks of the Tomahawk River, wondering how we were to cross it, if
+possible, without the delay of constructing a raft sufficiently large to
+carry us. The tote-road leading to Merrill, which we wished to follow,
+was on the opposite side of the Tomahawk from where we approached it. We
+finally discovered an old birch canoe hidden in the brush. It was leaky
+and in very bad repair, so we set ourselves to work gathering pitch from
+the ends of a pile of freshly cut pine logs lying on the bank of the
+river, banked there to be pushed into the stream by the log drivers.
+This we put into a dish with a little grease and boiled until it was of
+the right consistency to stick to the bark of the canoe. Patches of
+cloth were laid over the riven places in the bark, and pitched until the
+boat was made waterproof--for temporary use at least.
+
+With our small belongings, we got into the canoe and started down the
+Tomahawk, intending to stay in it as long as it would hold together and
+take us on our journey, saving us that much walking. Unfortunately,
+however, for us, we soon came to a long strip of rapids with which we
+were not familiar. Selecting what we believed to be the best water, we
+permitted the frail craft to float into the rapids, and our fast journey
+down stream had begun almost before we realized the fact. All went well
+until nearly to the lower end of the rapids, when the old canoe struck a
+sharp rock slightly hidden under the water, and split in two. Partly by
+swimming and partly by wading, we reached the coveted shore, wetter and
+wiser than when an hour before we had taken an old canoe that was not
+our own, in which to cross the stream, instead of spending considerably
+more time to construct a raft on which we could safely and with dry
+clothes, have reached the opposite shore. The usual woodsman's process
+of drying clothes was again gone through with, since it was too cold, at
+that season of the year, to travel all day in our wet garments.
+
+One early summer day while traveling through a part of this same
+country, watered by the Willow River, my companion and I stopped in a
+majestic forest of towering white pine trees, interspersed with the more
+spreading hemlocks. It was nearing twelve o'clock, and we were both
+hungry. While my companion was collecting wood for a fire, I went in
+search of water with which to make a pail of hot coffee. Returning, I
+climbed over a large hemlock tree that had fallen, probably, from old
+age. There, nestled in the moss and leaves, lay a spotted fawn. It made
+no effort to get up and run from me, so I carefully approached it and
+gently caressed it. Then I lifted the handsome little creature, with its
+great, trusting brown eyes, into my arms, and carried it near to our
+camp fire. While my helper was preparing dinner, I fondled this
+beautiful infant of the forest that yet knew no fear. I sweetened some
+water to which I added just a sprinkle of meal, then fed it from a spoon
+to this confiding baby animal. After this, when I moved, the trusting
+little creature followed me. When it came time for us to resume our work
+I carried my little newly found friend back to the spot where its mother
+had probably left it and put it down in its mossy, leafy bed, and,
+carefully climbing over the log, left it to be better cared for than it
+was possible for me to do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Does It Pay to Rest on Sunday?
+
+    "With what a feeling deep
+    Does Nature speak to us! Oh, how divine
+    The flame that glows on her eternal shrine!
+    What knowledge can we reap
+    From her great pages if we read aright!
+    Through her God shows His wisdom and His might."
+
+
+It was in the summer of 1872, while I was at the United States land
+office at Bayfield, Wisconsin, and was having some township plats
+corrected previous to going into the woods in that district to hunt for
+pine timber, that John Buffalo, chief of the Red Cliff band of Chippewa
+Indians, a friend of the United States land officers, made his quiet
+appearance at the land office. I had asked where I could find a
+reliable, trustworthy, and capable man to accompany me on this cruise,
+planned to cover a period of not less than two weeks. Captain Wing,
+receiver of the land office, asked the Indian chief, "John, wouldn't you
+like to earn a little money by going into the woods to help this man for
+a couple of weeks or more?" To this the chief gave his consent with the
+usual Indian "Ugh."
+
+During that day provisions were bought and placed in individual cloth
+sacks. A strong rowboat was secured and the journey begun. Camp was made
+the first night on one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. The day
+following, our destination was reached at the mouth of the Cranberry
+River, where our boat was carefully cached.
+
+It rained for several days, in consequence of which the underbrush was
+wet most of the time, and in passing through it we became wet to the
+skin. Before leaving home I had bought for use on the trip what I
+believed to be a fine pair of corduroy trousers. They looked well, and
+the brush did not cling to them, a desirable condition when traveling
+through thickets often encountered in the woods. It rained the first day
+that we were out. At night we pitched our tent, prepared the evening
+meal, and at an early hour retired. On retiring, it is usually the
+custom for men camping, to remove their outer garments and put them out
+of the way at one side of the tent. Both were very tired and soon fell
+asleep. I was awakened by a very disagreeable odor within the tent and
+walked out into the fresh air. Returning, I lay down and remained thus
+until early daylight, experiencing only a disturbed sleep during the
+night. My feeling was that I had chosen an undesirable bedfellow, and,
+as later developments proved, it would have been reasonable if the
+Indian chief had arrived at the same conclusion.
+
+[Illustration: "We started out with two birch canoes". (Page 148.)]
+
+During the next day it again rained. After the rain the sun came out
+bright and warm, causing a rapid evaporation to take place on our wet
+garments. It was under these circumstances that the discovery was made
+that the very disagreeable odor experienced during the preceding night
+was again present, and was emanating from the wet coloring matter that
+had been used in the manufacture of the corduroy trousers. The best
+possible defense--which I felt it was necessary to make--was to call
+attention to the fact that the strong odor was coming forth from the
+corduroy cloth. On reaching camp that evening, the new corduroys were
+hung out on the limb of a tree where they were last seen by our small
+camping party.
+
+It is not customary for land hunters to work less on Sunday than on
+other days, for the principal reason that all of their provisions must
+be carried with them on their backs, and, that by resting on Sunday, the
+provisions would disappear as rapidly, or more so, than they would if
+work continued on that day. However, toward the end of our trip which
+had been a very successful one in point of finding desirable government
+timber lands to enter, we decided that we would rest on the next day,
+which was Sunday, just previous to our taking our boat to make our
+return trip on Lake Superior waters to the land office at Bayfield. As a
+precaution, lest other land lookers should discover our presence, our
+camping ground was selected in the interior of the section. We had eaten
+our dinner, and were enjoying a siesta when we heard voices. Listening,
+we heard men discussing the most direct line to take to reach their
+boat, hidden somewhere on the shore of the lake. Time sufficient was
+given to allow them to get so far in our advance, that any movement on
+our part would not be heard by them. Soon, thereafter, we packed our
+tent and all of our belongings and started for our boat. We did not
+reach it until nine o'clock the following morning. We were then
+forty-five miles from Bayfield by water.
+
+Soon after we had rowed out into the lake, a northeasterly wind began to
+blow and did not cease blowing during the entire day. The sandstone
+bluffs around that portion of the south shore of Lake Superior in many
+places are nearly vertical and rise to very considerable heights,
+preventing any possible way of escape from the water's edge for miles in
+extent. It was with the greatest effort that we, pulling with all our
+might, could keep the boat out into the lake, so powerful was the wind,
+and so increasingly great were the waves. Besides, it was not possible
+to take a rest from our labors for, the moment we ceased rowing, our
+boat began rapidly drifting toward the rocks on the south shore. Thus we
+labored until near the middle of the afternoon, when we got under cover
+of the first of the friendly Apostle Islands. After resting awhile,
+before dark we were able to reach the Red Cliff Indian Agency, where we
+spent the night at the chief's wigwam.
+
+The next morning early, we resumed our boat and rowed into Bayfield,
+arriving in time to be present at the opening of the land office. With
+much anxiety, I made application to enter the vacant lands that had been
+selected on this trip, fearing that the men whom we had overheard
+talking in the woods two days before, might have arrived in advance of
+me and have secured at least a part of the same descriptions. With great
+satisfaction, however, I found the lands to be still vacant, and all of
+the minutes chosen while on this strenuous cruise, I bought.
+
+A little before noon of this same day, two well-known land hunters from
+Chippewa Falls came in, in their boat, off the lake, and, on going to
+the land office, applied to enter nearly all of the lands which I had
+secured a few hours before.
+
+The moralist might point with justification to the fact that had we not
+rested on Sunday, more than likely we should not have known of the
+presence of any competitors in the field, and should not, therefore,
+have worked so many long hours in our boat on that windy day, nor should
+we likely have reached the land office in advance of the two men who
+arrived there only a few hours later than ourselves.
+
+    "By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
+    By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
+    Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
+    Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
+    Dark behind it rose the forest,
+    Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
+    Rose the firs with cones upon them;
+    Bright before it beat the water,
+    Beat the clear and sunny water,
+    Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Indian Traits--Dog Team.
+
+
+Chief John Buffalo was a superior Indian, always pleasant,
+companionable, and willing to do a full day's work. He seemed to prefer
+the society of the white men, and therefore spent much of his time with
+them. The Indian grows to manhood schooled in superstition. I recall
+that during the first long trip from the mouth of Montreal River to the
+Flambeau Reservation, and thence to the mouth of the Flambeau River, on
+one evening the party camped near by a natural meadow where the grass
+had ripened and was dry. Our three Indians went out with their knives,
+to gather armfuls of the grass to spread in our tents to soften our beds
+for the night. While thus engaged, Antoine, one of the Indians,
+encountered a blow-snake. This reptile, when defending itself, emits an
+odor which is sickening, but among white men is not considered very
+dangerous. There was no question but that Antoine was made sick for that
+evening by the snake, which had not touched him but had been very near
+to him. Ed and Frank, the other two Indians of the party, told us that
+evening that it was too bad, for Antoine surely would die within the
+year as a result of his having gotten this odor from the blow-snake. Two
+years subsequently, I landed at Bayfield from a Lake Superior steamer,
+and one of the first persons I met on the dock was Antoine, who looked
+as hale and hearty and well as he was before his experience with the
+blow-snake. On congratulating him for his victory over the dire calamity
+predicted, because of his encounter two years previous with the
+blow-snake, he was considerably embarrassed, but made no explanation why
+he was yet alive.
+
+During the first half of the seventies, there was no railroad to the
+shores of Lake Superior in Bayfield County. In January, 1876, it was
+necessary for me to reach Bayfield on important business. A very poor
+road had been cut through the woods from Old Superior to Bayfield,
+crossing the streams running north into Lake Superior. United States
+mail was carried on toboggans drawn by dogs, and conducted by Indian
+runners.
+
+[Illustration: "The party subsisted well, until it arrived at Ely".
+(Page 150.)]
+
+The snow was deep, and no trail was broken on the morning that I arrived
+at Superior hoping to secure some kind of conveyance to take me through
+to Bayfield, but I found no one who would volunteer to make the journey.
+In this dilemma I sought the owners of dog teams, and succeeded in
+purchasing two rather small dogs that were young and full of life, as
+well as well trained. These I hitched to a toboggan and started on my
+journey of ninety-five miles to Bayfield. The morning was mostly gone
+when the start was made, and that night was spent in a small cabin on
+the Brule River. The cabin had been erected for the use of the Indian
+mail carriers, and was unoccupied. It contained a stove, however, and
+wood was handy outside. The next morning an early start was made, and
+our train reached Bayfield, as I remember, about one o'clock in the
+afternoon.
+
+The return journey was made by the same route. I had become acquainted
+with the smart dog team, so that the return journey was rather enjoyable
+than otherwise. I took advantage of the down grades to get a little rest
+by throwing myself flat upon the toboggan, dismounting as soon as the up
+grades were reached. I had become greatly attached to the dogs,
+therefore I put them in the express car, on my return from Duluth, and
+brought them with me to Minneapolis. The thought to do this was prompted
+by thinking of the little daughter at home, then two and one-half years
+old, and of her baby brother, yet in arms. A suitable sled was at once
+ordered made, with a seat for little sister. To the sled, the dogs were
+harnessed abreast, and the dogs and child were never happier than when
+out on the streets for exercise.
+
+There were only two miles of street car track in Minneapolis at that
+time, and that little track was remote from the family home. The city
+was then small. Passing teams on the streets were infrequent, so that it
+was perfectly safe for her to be out in her tiny conveyance, accompanied
+always either by her father or by her admiring uncle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Wolves--Log Riding.
+
+
+Many experiences of meeting or seeing the more dangerous of the wild
+animals have been related by men whose occupation as woodsmen has made
+it necessary at times to go for days, unaccompanied into the woods, and
+miles distant from any human habitation. Personal experience leads me to
+believe that man is safe, nearly always, except when such animals are
+suffering from hunger.
+
+Early one spring, while the snow was yet deep in the woods, I was
+scaling some trespass of timber that lay about three miles away from my
+headquarters camp. In going to my work, mornings, I passed along a trail
+near to which, in the deep snow, was the carcass of a horse which had
+belonged to the owner of a near-by lumber camp. I noticed, one morning,
+that it had been visited during the night by a pack of wolves that had
+fed upon it and had gone away, using the trail for a short distance and
+then leaving it, their tracks disappearing into the unbroken forest. The
+following morning, having gotten an early start, on passing this same
+place, I saw the wolves leaving their feeding place and disappearing by
+the same route as the tracks indicated on the preceding morning. The
+animals seemed to be as anxious to get out of my sight, as I was willing
+to have them. Had it not been for their full stomachs, their actions,
+likely, would have been different.
+
+Returning, on a subsequent day just before nightfall, tired from a long
+day's work, and, probably, because of the late hour, thinking of my near
+by neighbors, the wolves, I committed an act that came near costing me
+my life. The ice had gone out of the streams, and the spring drive of
+logs was at its height. To reach camp by the usual way, it was necessary
+to follow up the stream one mile and cross on a dam that had been
+constructed by the lumbermen to hold back water to use in driving logs
+out of this stream, which at this point was about two hundred and fifty
+feet wide. The gates were open, and the water was running high within
+the banks of the stream. Seeing, in the eddy close to the bank of the
+river, a large log that would scale at least one thousand feet board
+measure, I was seized with the idea that I could, with the assistance of
+a pole, step onto that log, push it out from shore, and guide it across
+the stream to the opposite shore. It was a log that had been skidded to
+the bank of the river and rolled in. On such logs, the bark on the under
+side is always removed to reduce the amount of friction produced by one
+end of the log dragging, while it is being hauled to the water's edge.
+The "log driver" belongs to a class of men that has produced many
+heroes, and some of their exploits are among the most thrilling recorded
+among the exigencies of a hazardous occupation. I never was of that
+class, and was almost entirely without experience in trying to ride logs
+in open water. I had pushed the log out into the stream some distance
+and all was lovely, as every minute it was approaching nearer to the
+opposite shore. Suddenly it entered the current of the river which
+quickly revolved the log under my feet, bringing the peeled side
+uppermost, at which instance I was dropped into the stream. The first
+thing I did on rising to the surface, was to swim for my hat, which had
+been pulled off as I sank under the water. Having secured it, I
+commenced swimming for the opposite shore. My clothing was heavy and
+grew more so as it became soaked with water, so that by the time I had
+attained the further shore--in the meantime watching constantly to see
+that no floating log bumped me, thereby rendering me unconscious--I was
+nearly exhausted.
+
+[Illustration: "My three companions and I ... had gone to survey and
+estimate a tract of pine timber." (Page 150.)]
+
+During these years from 1871 to 1874, the woods of Wisconsin were
+thoroughly traveled over by land hunters, and nearly all of the
+desirable timber was entered at the respective land offices, so that
+there remained no further field for exploit. A new field was therefore
+looked for, and this I found in Minnesota.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Entering Minnesota, the New Field.
+
+
+In the summer of 1874, I went to the head waters of the Big Fork River
+with a party of hardy frontiersmen, in search of a section of country
+which was as yet unsurveyed by the United States government, and which
+should contain a valuable body of pine timber. Having found such a tract
+of land, we made arrangements through the surveyor-general's office,
+then located in St. Paul, to have the land surveyed. The contract for
+the survey was let by the United States government to Mr. Fendall G.
+Winston of Minneapolis.
+
+The logging operations on the Mississippi River in Minnesota at this
+period extended from a short distance above Princeton on the Rum River,
+one of the tributaries of the Mississippi River, to a little above Grand
+Rapids. To reach Grand Rapids from Minneapolis, the traveled route was
+by way of the St. Paul and Duluth railroad to Northern Pacific Junction,
+thence, over the Northern Pacific Railroad, west to Aitkin. From this
+point the steamboat Pokegama plied the Mississippi to Grand Rapids, the
+head of navigation at that time. For many years this steamboat was owned
+and operated by Captain Houghton, almost wholly in the interest of the
+lumber trade. Later, Captain Fred W. Bonnes became its owner.
+Subsequently, the old Pokegama burned, when Captain Bonnes built a new
+boat, using the machinery of the Pokegama, and naming it Aitkin City. At
+a still later period he built the larger steamer, Andy Gibson.
+
+In those days, the lumber-jack was a very interesting type of man. Men
+from Maine and New Brunswick were numerous. Scotchmen, Irish-Americans,
+and French-Canadians constituted a considerable portion of all the labor
+that went to the logging camps of Minnesota. As early as the month of
+July, they began their exodus from Minneapolis to the woods for the
+purpose of building new camps, cutting the wild grass that grew along
+the natural meadows, and making it into hay for the winter's use for
+oxen and horses. Some of these men worked at the sawmills in summer, but
+there was not employment for all at this work, and many spent their time
+in idleness and not infrequently in drunken carousal. On leaving the
+city for the logging camps, they were pretty sure to start out, each
+with one or two bottles of whiskey stored away in his tussock, which was
+ordinarily a two bushel, seamless sack, with a piece of small rope tied
+from one of its lower corners to the upper end of the sack. In this were
+placed all of the lumber-jack's belongings, except what were carried in
+his pockets, including one or two additional bottles of whiskey. Not all
+of the lumber-jacks drank whiskey, but this was the habit of very many
+of them. By the time the train had arrived at Northern Pacific Junction,
+where a change of cars was made, and where the arrival of the Northern
+Pacific train from Duluth, west bound, was awaited, many of our
+lumber-jacks were well under the influence of John Barleycorn. Disputes
+would frequently arise while waiting for the train. These would be
+settled by fist fights between the disputants, their comrades standing
+about to see that each man had fair play.
+
+On one of our trips to the pine forests north of Grand Rapids, we
+arrived at Aitkin on a train loaded with this class of men, as well as
+their bosses, and proprietors of the lumber camps. Aitkin at that time
+was not much more than a railroad station for the transfer of the
+lumbermen and merchandise to the steamboat. A few men had preempted
+lands from the government and had made their homes where now is the city
+of Aitkin. The late Warren Potter was one of them. He kept a large store
+which was well stocked with lumbermen's supplies, and which was the
+rendezvous for the lumbermen. His preemption claim was only a short
+distance in the woods from his store. He had been East to buy goods and
+had returned by train that day. He found that his preemption claim had
+been "jumped" by one, Nat Tibbetts, whom he found occupying the Potter
+cabin. An altercation took place between the two men, resulting in
+Tibbetts blacking Potter's eye. The only representative of the law was a
+justice of the peace, a man whose name was Williams. Before him, Potter
+swore out a warrant for the arrest of Tibbetts, charging Tibbetts with
+assault with intent to do bodily harm. Potter asked me to act as his
+attorney to prosecute his case. This honor was politely declined, and I
+assured him that he would find a better man for the occasion in the
+person of S. S. Brown, the well-known log jobber, who was in town.
+
+Mr. Brown having consented to act in the interest of Mr. Potter, and Mr.
+Tibbetts having secured some other layman to defend his case, all
+parties repaired, as I remember, to an unoccupied building which was
+temporarily used as a court of justice. As almost the entire community
+that evening was a floating population of lumbermen of various sorts,
+waiting for an opportunity to start up the river on the steamboat the
+following day, it will readily be seen by the reader that this occasion
+was one of unusual interest and bade fair to furnish an interesting
+entertainment for a part of the long evening.
+
+Tibbetts demanded a jury trial. The jury was chosen, and the prosecution
+opened the case by putting on the stand, a witness who had seen the
+encounter, and who proved to be a good witness for Mr. Potter. The case
+proceeded until the evidence was nearly all presented. At this juncture,
+in the back end of the improvised court room, a tall lumber-jack who was
+leaning against the wall, and who was considerably the worse for
+whiskey, cried out, "Your honor! your honor! I object to these
+proceedings." Everything was still for a moment, and all eyes turned
+toward the half drunk lumber-jack. Justice Williams attempted to
+proceed, when the lumber-jack repeated his calls and his demands to be
+heard. Every one present knew that any attempt on the part of the
+constable to quiet this man would have resulted in starting a general
+fight, where there were so many who were under the influence of liquor.
+Some one, therefore, said to the justice, "Your honor, you had better
+hear the man's objections." Justice Williams then said, "You may state
+your objections, sir." The lumber-jack replied, "I object, your honor,
+because that jury has not been sworn." This was true. The jury was then
+sworn, and the trial of the case was begun anew. The witnesses having
+again given their evidence under oath, the case was soon argued by the
+improvised lawyers. The justice gave a short charge to the jury, and,
+without leaving their seats, and while the spectators waited, they
+notified the justice that they had agreed upon a verdict of guilty. The
+justice fined Mr. Tibbetts one dollar, and this frontier court of
+justice adjourned.
+
+The question of the ownership of the claim was not before the court. My
+recollection, however, concerning it, is that Mr. Potter ever after had
+peaceful possession of the land.
+
+[Illustration: The journey had to be made with the use of toboggans.
+(Page 150.)]
+
+The ride up the Mississippi to Grand Rapids on the steamer Pokegama,
+which tied up each night, occupied two days and a half. The distance was
+one hundred and ninety-five miles. The steamer was crowded, and men
+slept everywhere on the deck, on their blankets or without them, as best
+fitted their condition. Whiskey and cards were plentiful. The table was
+well supplied with good things to eat. Grand Rapids at that time
+consisted of a steamboat landing, a warehouse, and a ranch or stopping
+place kept by Low Seavey, whose wife was a half-breed. These were on the
+left bank of the river just below the falls or rapids. On the opposite
+side of the river was a small store, a new enterprise, and owned by a
+man whose name was Knox.
+
+I met Mr. Winston and his assistant surveyors at Grand Rapids about the
+middle of August. There were no roads leading into the country that we
+were to survey, and, as our work would extend nearly through the winter,
+it was necessary to get our supplies in sufficient quantity to last for
+our entire campaign, and take them near to our work. This was
+accomplished by taking them in canoes and boats of various sorts. Our
+first water route took us up the Mississippi River, into Lake
+Winnibigoshish, and from that lake on its northeasterly shore, we went
+into Cut-foot Sioux, or Keeskeesdaypon Lake. From this point we were
+obliged to make a four mile portage into the Big Fork River, crossing
+the Winnibigoshish Indian Reservation. From an Indian encampment on
+this reservation, at the southwest shore of Bow String Lake, we hired
+some Indians to help pack our supplies across the four mile portage.
+Before half of our supplies had been carried across the portage, the
+Indian chief sent word to us by one of his braves, that he wished to see
+us in council and forbade our moving any more of our supplies until we
+had counseled with him. Although the surveyors were the agents of the
+United States government, for the sake of harmony, it was thought best
+to ascertain at once what was uppermost in the chief's mind.
+
+That evening, a conference was held in the wigwam of the chief. First,
+the chief filled full of tobacco, a large, very long stemmed pipe, and,
+having lighted it with a live coal from the fire, took the first whiff
+of smoke; then immediately passed it to the nearest one of our delegates
+to his right, and thus the pipe went round, until it came back to the
+chief, before anything had been said. The chief then began a long
+recital, telling us that the great father would protect them in their
+rights to the exclusive use of these lands. The chief said that he was
+averse neither to the white man using the trail of his people nor to his
+using the waters of the rivers or lakes within the boundaries of the
+reservation, but, if he did so, he must pay tribute. In answer to his
+speech, the chief surveyor of our party, Fendall G. Winston, replied
+that he and his men had been sent to survey the lands that belonged to
+the great father; and, that in order to reach those lands, it was
+necessary that his people should cross the reservation which the great
+father had granted to his tribe; nevertheless, that they felt friendly
+to the Indians; that if they were treated kindly by himself and his
+tribesmen, they should have an opportunity to give them considerable
+work for many days, while they were getting their supplies across his
+country to that of the great father, where they were going to work
+during the fall and winter; and that they would also make him a present
+of a sack of flour, some pork, some tea, and some tobacco. He was told,
+too, that this was not necessary for the great father's men to do, but
+that they were willing to do it, provided that this should end all
+claims of every nature of the chief, against any and all of the great
+father's white men, whom he had sent into that country to do his work.
+This having been sealed with the chief's emphatic "Ugh," he again
+lighted the pipe, took the first whiff of smoke, and passed it around.
+Each, in token of friendship, did as the chief had already done. This
+ended the conference, and we were not again questioned as to our rights
+to pass over this long portage trail, which we continued to use until
+our supplies were all in.
+
+As nearly as I can now recall, our force was made up of the following
+men: Fendall G. Winston, in whose name the contract for the survey was
+issued; Philip B. Winston, brother of Fendall G. Winston; Hdye, a young
+engineer from the University of Minnesota; Brown, civil engineer from
+Boston; Coe, from the Troy Polytechnic School of Engineering; Charlie, a
+half-breed Indian; Franklin, the cook; Jim Flemming, Frank Hoyt, Charlie
+Berg, Tom Jenkins, George Fenimore, Tom Laughlin, Joe Lyon, Will
+Brackett, Miller, and myself.
+
+Flemming, poor fellow, was suffering with dysentery when he started on
+the trip. On reaching Grand Rapids, he was no better, and it was thought
+best not to take him along to the frontier, so he was allowed to go
+home. Miller was not of a peace loving disposition, and, having shown
+this characteristic early, was also allowed to leave the party. It was
+best that all weaklings and quarrelsome ones should be left behind,
+because it was easily foreseen that when winter closed in upon the band
+of frontiersmen, it would be difficult to reach the outer world, and it
+would be unpleasant to have any in the party that were not, in some
+sense, companionable.
+
+Considerable time was consumed in getting all of our supplies to
+headquarters camp, which consisted of a log cabin. The first misfortune
+that befell any one of our party came to Frank Hoyt, who one day cut an
+ugly gash in the calf of his leg with a glancing blow of the ax. The cut
+required stitching, but there was no surgeon in the party. Will
+Brackett, the youngest of the party, a brother of George A. Brackett,
+and a student from the university, volunteered to sew up the wound. This
+he did with an ordinary needle and a piece of white thread. The patient
+submitted with fortitude creditable to an Indian. Some plastic salve was
+put on a cloth and placed over the wound, which resulted in its healing
+too rapidly. Proud flesh appeared, and then the wisdom of the party was
+called into requisition, to learn what thing or things available could
+be applied to destroy it. Goose quill scrapings were suggested, there
+being a few quills in the possession of the party. Brackett, however,
+suggested the use of some of the cook's baking powder, because, he
+argued, there was sufficient alum in it to remove the proud flesh from
+the wound. "Dr." Brackett was considered authority, and his prescription
+proved effectual. Hoyt was left to guard the provision camp against
+possible visits from the Indians, or from bears, which sometimes were
+known to break in and to carry away provisions.
+
+It is never necessary for surveyors whose work is in the timber, nor for
+timber hunters, to carry tent poles, because these are easily chosen
+from among the small trees; yet nine of our party one time in October,
+with the rain falling fast and cold, found themselves, at the end of the
+four mile Cut-foot Sioux Portage, on a point of land where there were no
+poles. All of the timber of every description had been cut down and used
+by the Indians. The Indian chief and several of his family relations
+lived on this point. They had built the house of poles and cedar bark,
+in the shape of a rectangle. Its dimensions on the ground were about
+twelve by twenty feet; its walls rose to a height of about five feet;
+and it was covered by a hip roof.
+
+[Illustration: "Our camp was established on the shores of Kekekabic
+Lake". (Page 151.)]
+
+Our party must either obtain shelter under this roof or must get into
+the canoes and paddle nearly two miles to find a place where it could
+pitch its tents. At this juncture the hospitality of the Indians was
+demonstrated. The chief sent out word that we should come into his
+dwelling and remain for the night. The proffer was gladly accepted. When
+we had all assembled, we found within, the chief and his squaw, his
+daughter and her husband, the hunter, his squaw and two daughters,
+besides our party of nine, making a total of seventeen human beings
+within this small enclosure. A small fire occupied a place on the ground
+at the center of the structure, an ample opening in the roof having been
+left for the escape of the smoke and live sparks. Indians can always
+teach their white brothers a lesson of economy in the use of fuel. They
+build only a small fire, around which, when inside their wigwams, they
+all gather with their usually naked feet to the fire. It is a
+physiological fact that when one's extremities are warm, one's bodily
+sufferings from cold are at their minimum. Our party boiled some rice
+and made a pail of coffee, without causing any especial inconvenience to
+our hosts, and, after having satisfied hunger and thirst, the usual camp
+fire smoke of pipes was indulged in, before planning for any sleep. Our
+party had been assigned a portion of the space around the open fire,
+and our blankets were brought in and spread upon the mats that lay upon
+the earth floor.
+
+The additional presence of nine Indian dogs has not previously been
+mentioned. Before morning, however, they were found to be live factors,
+and should be counted as part of the dwellers within the walls of this
+single room. They seemed to be nocturnal in habit, and to take an
+especial delight in crossing and recrossing our feet, or in trying to
+find especially cozy places between our feet and near to the fire, where
+they might curl down for their own especial comfort. It was not for us,
+however, to complain, inasmuch as the hospitality that had been extended
+was sincere; and it was to be remembered by us that it was in no way any
+advantage to the Indians to have taken us in for the night. Therefore,
+we were truly thankful that our copper colored friends had once more
+demonstrated their feelings of humanity toward their white brothers.
+They had been subjected to more or less inconvenience by our presence,
+but in no way did they make this fact manifest by their actions or by
+their words. The rain continued at intervals during the entire night,
+and it was with a feeling of real gratitude, as we lay upon the ground,
+and listened to it, that we thought of the kindly treatment we were
+receiving from these aborigines. In the morning we offered to pay them
+money for our accommodations, but this they declined. They did, however,
+accept some meat and some flour.
+
+While we were crossing the lake, one day, in canoes loaded with supplies
+of various descriptions, an amusing, yet rather expensive, incident
+happened in connection with one of the canoes. Its occupants were George
+Fenimore, a Mainite Yankee, and Joe Lyon, a French-Canadian. Both were
+good canoemen, but only Fenimore knew how to swim. They had become
+grouchy over some subject while crossing the lake, and, as they neared
+the opposite shore from which they had started, in some manner which I
+have never understood, the canoe was overturned. Little of its contents
+was permanently lost, except one box of new axes. The water was about
+eight feet deep under them. Each man grasped an end of the overturned
+canoe, and clung to it. Then an argument began between the two
+disgruntled men, about getting to shore. Lyon wanted Fenimore to let go
+of the canoe and swim ashore; but this, the latter refused to do.
+Finally, after considerable loss of time, Joe Lyon, who was nearest to
+shore, turned his body about, with his face toward the shore, and,
+letting go of the canoe, went to the bottom of the lake and floundered
+to gain the shore. He had only to go a short distance before the water
+became sufficiently shallow for his head to appear, but he was winded,
+and thoroughly mad. I have always believed that Fenimore purposely
+overturned the canoe, but if so, he never admitted the fact.
+
+The pine timber lying east of Bow String Lake, and included in the
+survey of 1874 and 1875, was all tributary to waters running north, into
+the Big Fork River, which empties into the Rainy River. Levels were run
+across from Bow String Lake into Cut-foot Sioux River, and considerable
+fall was found. The distance, nearly all the way, was over a marsh. It
+was shown that a dam could easily be thrown across from bank to bank of
+the river at the outlet of Bow String Lake, and by thus slightly raising
+the water in the lake, plus a little work of cleaning out portions of
+the distance across the marsh, from Bow String Lake to Cut-foot Sioux,
+the timber could be driven across and into the waters of the Mississippi
+River. All of this engineering was before the advent of logging
+railroads. However, before the timber was needed for the Minneapolis
+market, many logging railroads had been built in various localities in
+the northern woods, and their practical utility had been demonstrated.
+When the time came for cutting this timber, a logging railroad was
+constructed to reach it; and over its tracks, the timber was brought
+out, thus obviating the necessity of impounding the waters of Bow String
+Lake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+An Evening Guest--Not Mother's Bread.
+
+
+I have previously mentioned the presence of nine dogs at an Indian camp,
+where members of our party spent a night. One of these animals is
+deserving of special mention, for the reason that he was a stranger
+among a strange people, and he was evidently so against his own choice.
+He had at one time been a fine, large mastiff. His history was never
+learned in full, but from an account of the animal, gained by
+questioning the Indians who had him in captivity, it was learned that
+the dog had belonged at some lumber camp. It often happens that the
+midday meal for most of the men in a large logging crew must be taken
+out on a sled, usually drawn by a single horse, for a distance of not
+infrequently three or four miles from the cook's camp. This is the work
+of the cookee; and, at the logging camp where the mastiff had belonged,
+the animal had been used instead of a horse, to pull the load of the
+midday meal out to the men at work. In what manner he had been left
+behind when the camp broke in the spring, was not learned.
+
+[Illustration: "The memorable fire ... which swept Hinckley". (Page
+160.)]
+
+He was about the size of two or three ordinary Indian dogs, and was
+correspondingly less sprightly in his movements. He was very poor when
+members of our party first saw him. Indian dogs never get enough to eat,
+and this poor fellow with his large frame, had the appearance of not
+receiving any more for his portion of food than an average Indian dog,
+if as much. He looked as though he were hungry, and probably was, every
+day. The particular action that impressed itself upon every member of
+our party, was this animal's almost human desire for sympathy that he
+sought from this party of white men, when he and they first met at the
+Indian camp. He wagged his tail and passed from one member of our party
+to another, with an expression of unusual joy. He rubbed against us and
+almost begged to be caressed. Every man of our party pitied him and
+would gladly have sent him out to the white man's country, had it been
+at all practicable to have done so.
+
+Later in the fall, I was camped for a single night, some three hundred
+yards distant from the Indian encampment, on the shore of a lake that I
+must cross the following morning. While I was preparing my evening
+meal, this mastiff made his appearance, wagging his tail, and wishing by
+his actions to say, "I am glad to see you, and have come to call on
+you." It is the custom of the land hunter, as well as other
+frontiersmen, when paddling his canoe across a lake, to throw out a
+trolling line; and not infrequently, in those northern lakes, a catch of
+several fish may thus be made. On that day, such had been my experience,
+and I had in my possession, several fine wall-eyed pike that I intended
+to take through to the main camp, which I should reach on the following
+day. I also had a small bag of corn meal, which I sometimes used as a
+substitute for oatmeal, in cooking a porridge for my own use. While
+preparing my supper, I took the largest kettle, filled it with water,
+and placed it over the fire. I then cut into small pieces, a number of
+the fish, and put them in the kettle to boil. Later I added some corn
+meal and cooked all together. When it was sufficiently done, I removed
+one-half of the pail's contents and spread it out on a large piece of
+birch bark to cool. When it had cooled sufficiently, I invited my
+welcome guest, the mastiff, to partake of the food. Every mouthful eaten
+was accompanied by a friendly wag of the animal's tail. The portion
+remaining in the pail I hung on a limb, high enough up in the tree to be
+out of reach. The dog remained about the camp, and when I lay down in my
+blankets for the night, he curled down at my feet and there remained
+until morning.
+
+While I was preparing my own breakfast, I took the pail from the tree
+and placed it over a small fire, that I might give my guest a warm
+breakfast. I spread out on the same birch bark, all that remained in the
+pail, and it was eaten to the last morsel by the grateful animal.
+
+Having placed all my belongings in my birch canoe, I pushed out into the
+lake without the dog, who tried hard to follow, and, as the canoe went
+farther from the shore, the homesick animal commenced to whine at his
+loss of companionship. By every means possible to a dumb beast, this dog
+had expressed his dislike for his enforced environment and his longing
+to be back with the white man. I could not help but believe that the
+feelings expressed by this dog were akin to those of many a captive man
+or woman who had fallen into the hands of the aborigines.
+
+Our frail birch canoes had been abandoned as cold weather approached,
+and we had settled down to the work of surveying. Sometimes, however,
+we came to lakes that must be crossed. This was accomplished by cutting
+some logs, and making rafts by tying them together with withes.
+Sometimes these rafts were found insufficiently buoyant to float above
+water all who got onto them, so that when they were pushed along there
+were no visible signs of anything that the men were standing on. When on
+a raft, Hyde was always afraid of falling off, and would invariably sit
+down upon it. This subjected him to greater discomfort than other
+members, but as it was of his own choosing, no one raised any objection.
+
+One day, several of the party had gone to the supply camp to bring back
+some provisions which the cook had asked for. Returning, not by any
+trail, but directly through the unbroken forest, we found ourselves in a
+wet tamarack and spruce swamp; and, although we believed we were not far
+from the camp where we had left the cook in the morning, we were not
+certain of its exact location. Mr. F. G. Winston said he thought he
+could reach it in a very short time, and suggested that we remain where
+we were. He started in what he believed to be the direction of the camp,
+saying that he would return in a little while. We waited until the
+shades of night began to fall; and yet he did not come. Preparations
+were then made to stay in the swamp all night. The ground was wet all
+around us, nor could we see far enough to discern any dry land. We
+commenced cutting down the smaller trees that were like poles, and with
+these poles, constructed a platform of sufficient dimensions to afford
+room for four men to lie down. Then another foundation of wet logs was
+made, on which a fire was kindled, and by the fire, we baked our bread
+and fried some bacon, which constituted our evening meal. A sack of
+flour was opened, a small place within it hollowed out, a little water
+poured in, and the flour mixed with the water until a dough was formed.
+Each man was told to provide himself with a chip large enough on which
+to lay the piece of dough, which was rolled out by hand, made flat, and
+then, having been placed in a nearly upright position against the chip
+in front of the fire, was baked on one side; then turned over and baked
+on the other. In the meantime, each man was told to provide himself with
+a forked stick, which he should cut with his jackknife, and on it to
+place his piece of bacon and cook it in front of the fire; thus each man
+became his own cook and prepared his own meal. There was no baking
+powder or other ingredient to leaven the loaf--not even a pinch of salt
+to flavor it. But the owner of each piece of dough was hungry, and, by
+eating it immediately after it was baked and before it got cold, it was
+much better than going without any supper. The following morning, the
+party resumed its journey, and met Mr. Winston coming out to find it. He
+had found the cook's camp, but at so late an hour that it was not
+possible for him to return that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A Hurried Round Trip to Minneapolis--Many Instances.
+
+
+After leaving Grand Rapids about the middle of August, we saw very few
+white men for many months following. In October, on our survey, local
+attraction was so strong on part of our work, that it was necessary to
+use a solar compass. This emergency had not been anticipated; it,
+therefore, became necessary to go to Minneapolis to secure that special
+instrument. Philip B. Winston, afterwards mayor of Minneapolis, and I
+started in a birch canoe, and in it, made the whole distance from our
+camp on Bow String Lake to Aitkin, Minnesota, on the Mississippi, the
+nearest railroad station. We were in Minneapolis but two days, when we
+returned, catching the steamer at Aitkin, and going up the Mississippi
+to Grand Rapids, the head of navigation for steamboats.
+
+Captain John Martin of Minneapolis, the well-known lumberman and banker,
+wished to return with us for his final fishing trip in open water, for
+that season. He fished successfully for a number of days, and, at the
+end of each day, personally prepared and cooked as fine a fish chowder
+as anyone would ever wish to eat. On the day of his departure, I took
+the Captain in my canoe, and landed him on the four-mile portage with an
+Indian escort who was to take him to Grand Rapids, whence he would
+return by steamer to Aitkin, a station on the line of the Northern
+Pacific Railroad.
+
+I was left alone in my canoe and must return to camp, crossing the open
+water of Bow String Lake. On my arrival at the main lake, the wind had
+increased its velocity, and the whitecaps were breaking. I hired an
+Indian, known as "the hunter," to help me paddle across the lake and up
+a rapid on a river flowing into Bow String, up and over which it was not
+possible for one man to push his canoe alone.
+
+The annual payment to the Indians by the United States government was to
+occur a few days subsequently, at Leach Lake, and the Indians were busy
+getting ready to leave, to attend the payment. The hunter's people were
+to start that day, and he seemed to realize when half way across the
+lake, that, owing to our slow progress, because of the heavy sea, he
+would be late in returning to his people at camp. He said so, and wished
+to turn back, but I told him that he must take me above the rapid, which
+was my principal object in hiring him. After sitting stoically in the
+bow of the canoe for a few moments, he suddenly turned about, and,
+drawing his long knife, said in Chippewa, that he must go back. I drew
+my revolver and told him to get down in the canoe and paddle, and that
+if he did not, he would get shot. There was no further threat by the
+Indian, and we made as rapid progress as possible over the rapid,
+landing my canoe--his own having been trailed to the foot of the rapid.
+Both stepped ashore. Then he said in Chippewa, "Me bad Chippewa; white
+man all right"; and bidding me good-by, hurried off to his canoe at the
+foot of the rapid.
+
+[Illustration: "The fire ... destroyed millions of dollars worth of
+standing pine timber". (Page 160.)]
+
+Once more, during the fall of 1874, I had to reckon with this wily
+Indian, the hunter, as will soon appear in this narrative.
+
+Perhaps the most convenient pack strap used by the woodsman when on an
+all day's tramp, is one that is commonly known as the Indian pack strap.
+It consists of a strap of leather about three inches wide and about
+three feet long, from each end of which, a tapering piece of leather,
+either sewed or buckled to it, extends finally to a narrow point no
+wider than a whip-lash. Each of these added narrow strips is from five
+to six feet in length, so that the whole strap is about fourteen feet
+long when straightened out. A blanket or a tent is folded into shape,
+about four feet by six feet. This is laid on the ground, and the strap
+is folded double with a spread at the wide part, of about three feet,
+which is the length of the wide strap. The narrow ends are then drawn
+straight back over the blanket, across its narrow dimension, leaving the
+wide strap, which in use becomes the head strap, at the outer edge of
+the blanket. Then the blanket is folded from each end over the narrow
+straps, the two ends of which project out and beyond the blanket at the
+opposite side from the head strap. The articles to be placed within the
+blanket, which generally consist of small sacks of beans, flour, pork,
+sugar, coffee, and wearing apparel, and blankets, are then carefully
+stacked upon the blanket, within the spread of the two narrow lines of
+the pack strap. When this is done, the blanket is folded over, and the
+two outer edges are brought as near to the center of the pile of things
+to be carried within it, as is possible. Then the two tapering ends of
+the pack strap are brought up and over, to meet the opposite ends of the
+narrow straps, which, as has been explained, are either sewed to, or
+buckled onto the wide head strap. Drawing these ends firmly together
+puckers the outer edge of the blanket on either side, and draws the
+blanket completely over the contents piled in the center, and makes,
+ordinarily, nearly a round bundle. This load, or pack, the man then
+throws over his shoulder, onto his back, and brings the wide strap
+across his forehead, or across his breast, or across the top of his
+head, when he is ready to begin his journey. Before he has traveled long
+with this load, which weighs ordinarily from fifty to one hundred
+pounds, according to the ability of the man to bear the burden, he will
+be found shifting that wide strap to any one of the three positions
+named, and will have used all of those positions many times before the
+party as a whole, stops for a moment's rest.
+
+I had taken with me, on going north on this long campaign, an extra fine
+red leather pack strap that I had had made to order at a Minneapolis
+harness shop. I had kept it coiled up, and carefully stored in my
+belongings, waiting for an emergency when the more common straps would
+no longer be of service. A number of times the Indians had seen this
+strap and had admired it, and, as it later proved, not always without
+envy.
+
+One day the strap was missing, and I could find it, neither by
+searching, nor by open inquiry of my fellow white men, nor of the
+Indians, whom I occasionally met. On one occasion, while portaging my
+canoe to another lake, I found several families of Indians camping at
+the end of the portage. Among them was the hunter who has been
+previously mentioned. While stopping a moment for a friendly talk with
+the Indians, I saw protruding from under the coat of the hunter, nearly
+two feet of one end of my missing pack strap. I knew it so well that I
+was sure that it was no other pack strap. Nevertheless, I deliberated
+slowly what action I should take to recover the strap, not wishing by
+any possibility to make a mistake. Having surely concluded that the
+strap was mine, and that the hunter had not come into possession of it
+honestly--he having previously denied, when questioned, that he knew
+anything of the whereabouts of the strap--I decided upon a course of
+action. Going up quietly behind the hunter, and twisting the end of the
+protruding strap twice around my wrist, and grasping it firmly in my
+hand, I started with all my might to run with the strap. The effect was
+to make a temporary top of my friend, the hunter, who whirled about
+until the other end of the pack strap was released from his body. It was
+too good a joke, even for the Indians to remain unmoved, and the
+majority of them broke into merriment. The hunter at first was disposed
+to take it seriously but soon looked sheepish and ashamed, and tried to
+smile with the rest of his tribe, as well as with myself.
+
+[Illustration: "One of the horses balked frequently". (Page 167.)]
+
+Having wound the strap carefully around my own body, and having made
+sure that the ends did not protrude, I bade my friends, including the
+hunter, good day, got into my canoe and pushed out into the lake. This
+proved to be the last time I ever saw the hunter, but it was not the
+last time that I ever thought of the incident.
+
+In justice to the Indians as compared with white men, I am glad to be
+able to say, that, after mingling with them more or less for many years,
+and becoming sufficiently familiar with their language to be able to use
+it on all necessary occasions, I believe that the Indians are as honest
+and as honorable as the men with whom they mingle, who have not a copper
+skin.
+
+Captain Martin was the last white man whom any one of our party saw for
+four months. Winter closed in on us before the beginning of November.
+The snow became very deep, so that it was absolutely necessary to
+perform all of our work on snowshoes. The winter of 1874 and 1875 is
+shown to have been the coldest winter in Minnesota, of which there is
+any record, beginning with 1819 up to, and including, 1913.
+
+The party was mostly composed of men who had had years of experience on
+the frontier, and who were inured to hardship. With a few, however, the
+experience was entirely new, and, except that they were looked after by
+the more hardy, they might have perished. As it was, however, not one
+man became seriously ill at any time during this severe winter's
+campaign.
+
+All of the principal men of the party wore light duck suits, made large
+enough to admit of wearing heavy flannel underwear beneath them. Either
+boot-packs or buckskin moccasins, inside of which were several pairs of
+woolen socks, composed the footwear. Boot-packs or larigans, as they are
+commonly called by the lumber-jack, are tanned in a manner that makes
+them very susceptible to heat, and the leather will shrivel quickly if
+near an open fire. It cost one of the party several pairs of boot-packs
+before he could learn to keep sufficiently far away from the open fire,
+on returning to camp from his work. It will be surmised by the reader
+that he was one of the inexperienced of the party.
+
+Many incidents, amusing to others, happened during the winter to this
+same man. He had started on the trip in the summer months, with a supply
+of shoe blacking and paper collars. The crossing of one or two portages
+with his loaded pack sack on his back was sufficient to convince him
+that there was no need of carrying either shoe blacking or paper
+collars, and they were thrown out to reduce weight. Each man carried a
+hank or skein of thread, a paper of needles, and a supply of buttons.
+Soon after winter set in, this man, who might ordinarily be termed a
+tenderfoot, complained of lameness in one of his feet. As the weather
+became more severe, he added from time to time, another pair of socks to
+those he already had on, never removing any of previous service. This
+necessitated, not infrequently, his choosing a larger sized boot-pack.
+Before the campaign was over, although he was a man of low stature and
+light weight, his feet presented the appearance of being the largest in
+the party. Still he complained of lameness in the hollow of his foot,
+and no relief came until March, when the work was completed. Arriving
+once more back in civilization, he removed his much accumulated
+footwear. There, under this accumulation of socks, and against the
+hollow of his foot, was found his skein of thread, the absence of which,
+from its usual place, had necessitated his borrowing, whenever he had
+need of it, from some one of his companions. Before starting out on this
+campaign, he had been one of the tidiest of men about his personal
+appearance.
+
+One evening in midwinter, when sitting around the camp fire, by reason
+of the pile of wood for the evening being largely composed of dry
+balsam, we were kept more or less busy, extinguishing sparks that are
+always thrown out from this kind of wood when burning. Sometimes one
+would light on the side of the tent near by, and unless immediately
+extinguished, would eat a large hole in the cloth. That evening, Fendall
+G. Winston and I were sitting side by side, when we saw a live spark
+more than a quarter of an inch in diameter light in the ear of our
+friend who sat a little way from, and in front of us. It did not go out
+immediately, neither did it disturb the tranquillity of the young man.
+Mr. Winston and I exchanged glances and smilingly watched the ember
+slowly die. The time to clean up had not yet arrived for at least one of
+the party.
+
+The compassman's work that winter was rendered very laborious from the
+fact that his occupation made it necessary for him, from morning until
+night of every day, to break his own path through the untrodden snow,
+for it was he who was locating the line of the survey. I was all of the
+time running lines in the interior of the sections, following the work
+of the surveyors, and choosing desirable pine timber that was found
+within each section. I had no companion in this work, and thus was
+separated most of each day from other members of the party, but returned
+to the same camp at night.
+
+In the morning, each man was furnished by the cook, with a cloth sack in
+which were placed one or two or more biscuits, containing within, slices
+of fried bacon and sometimes slices of corned beef, also, perhaps, a
+doughnut or two. This he tied to the belt of his jacket on his back and
+carried until the lunch hour. Ordinarily a small fire was then kindled,
+and the luncheon, which generally was frozen, thawed out and eaten.
+Under such mode of living, every one returned at night bringing an
+appetite of ample dimensions.
+
+One of the most acceptable of foods to such men at the supper hour was
+bean soup, of a kind and quality such as a cook on the frontier, alone,
+knows how to prepare. Plenty of good bread was always in abundance at
+such time. Usually there was also either corned beef or boiled pork to
+be had by those who wished it; generally also boiled rice or apple
+dumplings, besides tea and coffee.
+
+In a well-regulated camp, where men are living entirely out of doors in
+tents, a bean hole is pretty sure to be demanded. The bean hole is
+prepared by first digging a hole in the ground, sufficiently large, not
+only to make room for the pail, but also for several inches of live
+coals with which it must be surrounded. After supper is over, the beans
+are put into a large pail made of the best material, with ears always
+riveted on, so that the action of heat will not separate any of its
+parts. The beans are first parboiled with a pinch of soda in the water.
+As soon as the skins of the beans become broken, the water is poured
+off; then the beans are placed in the bean pail, a small quantity of hot
+water is added together with a sufficiently large piece of pork; and,
+when a tight cover has been put on the pail, it is placed in the bean
+hole. The live coals are placed around it, until the hole is completely
+filled and the pail entirely covered several inches deep. Then ashes or
+earth are put on the top of it all, to exclude the air. Thus the pail
+remains all night, and, in the morning when the cook calls the men to
+breakfast, the beans, thoroughly cooked and steaming, are served hot and
+furnish an acceptable foundation for the arduous day's work about to
+begin.
+
+[Illustration: "Our camp was made in a fine grove of pig-iron Norway".
+(Page 167.)]
+
+The work of the frontiersman is more or less hazardous in its nature,
+and yet bad accidents are rare. Occasionally a man is struck by a
+falling limb, or he may be cut by the glancing blow of an ax, though he
+learns to be very careful when using tools, well knowing that there is
+no surgeon or hospital near at hand. Sometimes in the early winter, men
+unaccompanied, yet obliged to travel alone, drop through the treacherous
+ice and are drowned. Few winters pass in a lumber country where
+instances of this kind do not occur. One day, when alone, I came near
+enough to such an experience. I was obliged to cross a lake, known to
+have air holes probably caused by warm springs. The ice was covered by a
+heavy layer of snow, consequently I wore snowshoes, and before starting
+to cross, cut a long, stout pole. Taking this firmly in my hands, I made
+my way out onto the ice. All went well until I was near the opposite
+shore, when suddenly the bottom went out from under me and I fell into
+the water, through an unseen air hole which the snow covered. The pole I
+carried was sufficient in length to reach the firm ice on either side,
+which alone enabled me, after much labor, impeded as I was by the
+cumbersome snowshoes, to gain the surface. The next absolutely necessary
+thing to do, was to make a fire as quickly as possible, before I should
+become benumbed by my wet garments.
+
+The survey went steadily on, the snow and cold increased, and rarely was
+it possible to make an advance of more than four miles in a day. Frank
+Hoyt remained at the warehouse and watched the supplies which were
+steadily diminishing. One day, Philip B. Winston, two men of the crew,
+and I, set out to the supply camp to bring some provisions to the cook's
+camp. The first day at nightfall, we reached an Indian wigwam that we
+knew of, situated in a grove of hardwood timber, near the shore of a
+lake, directly on our route to the supply camp. Our little party stayed
+with the Indians and shared their hospitality. It was a large wigwam,
+covered principally with cedar bark, and there was an additional smaller
+wigwam so close to it, that a passage way was made from one wigwam to
+the other.
+
+In the smaller wigwam lived a young Indian, his squaw, and the squaw's
+mother; in the larger wigwam lived the chief, his wife, his daughter,
+son-in-law, and the hunter, his wife, and two daughters, all of whom
+were present except the hunter. There was an air of expectancy
+noticeable as we sat on the mats around the fire in the wigwam, after
+having made some coffee and eaten our supper outside. Presently the
+chief informed us that an heir was looked for that evening in the
+adjoining tent. Before nine o'clock it was announced that a young
+warrior had made his appearance, and all were happy over his arrival.
+The large pipe was brought forth, filled with tobacco, and, after the
+chief had taken the first smoke, it was passed around to their guests,
+and all the men smoked, as well as the married women.
+
+The next morning, we continued our journey across the lake and on to
+Hoyt's camp, where, it is needless to say, he was glad to see some white
+men. Their visits were rare at his camp. Filling our packs with things
+the cook had ordered, we started on our return journey, arriving at the
+Indian camp at nightfall. As we left the ice to go up to the wigwams, we
+met the mother of the young warrior who had made his first appearance
+the preceding night, going down to the lake with a pail in each hand to
+bring some water to her wigwam. The healthy young child was brought into
+the wigwam and shown to the members of our party, who complimented the
+young mother and wished that he might grow to be a brave, worthy to be
+chieftain of their tribe.
+
+That evening a feast had been prepared at the chief's wigwam, in honor
+of the birth of the child, to which our party was invited. The menu
+consisted principally of boiled rice, boiled muskrat, and boiled rabbit.
+The three principal foods having been cooked in one kettle and at the
+same time, it was served as one course, but the guests were invited to
+repeat the course as often as they desired. This invitation was accepted
+by some, while others seemed satisfied to take the course but once. I
+have always found the hospitality of the Chippewa Indian unsurpassed,
+and more than once, in my frontier experiences, I have found that
+hospitality a godsend to me and to my party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The Entire Party Moves to Swan River.
+
+
+It Was in the month of February, 1875, when the surveying party
+completed its work east of Bow String Lake, and finished, one afternoon,
+closing its last lines on the Third Guide Meridian. At the camp, that
+afternoon, preparations were being made for a general move of
+considerable distance. It is not always possible for the frontiersman to
+reach his goal on the day that he has planned to do so. An instance in
+point occurred next day, when our surveying party was moving out to
+Grand Rapids. The snow was deep and the weather intensely cold when we
+broke camp that morning, hoping before nightfall to reach one of Hill
+Lawrence's logging camps. Some Indians had been hired to help pack out
+our belongings. Our course lay directly through the unbroken forest,
+without trail or blazed line, and the right direction was kept only by
+the constant use of the compass. All were on snowshoes, and those of the
+party who could be depended upon to correctly use the compass, took
+turns in breaking road. Each compassman would break the way through the
+snow for half an hour, then another would step in and break the way for
+another half hour, and he in turn would be succeeded by a third
+compassman. This change of leadership was continued all the way during
+that day.
+
+About the middle of the afternoon, the Indians threw down their packs
+and left our party altogether, having become tired of their jobs. This
+necessitated dividing up the Indians' packs and each man sufficiently
+able-bodied taking a part of these abandoned loads in addition to his
+own pack; and thus we continued the journey.
+
+Night was fast approaching, and the distance was too great to reach the
+Lawrence camp that night. Fortunately, there were some Indian wigwams
+not far in advance. These we reached after nightfall, and, as our party
+was very tired and carried no prepared food, we asked for shelter during
+the night, with the Indians. They soon made places where our men could
+spread their blankets around the small fire in the center of the
+wigwams. Then we asked if we could be served with something to eat. We
+received an affirmative "Ugh," and the squaws commenced preparing food,
+which consisted solely of a boiled rabbit stew with a little wild rice.
+It was once more demonstrated that hunger is a good cook. After having
+partaken of the unselfishly proffered food, and, after most of our party
+had smoked their pipes, all lay down about the fire, and fell asleep.
+Even the presence of Indian dogs, occasionally walking over us in the
+night, interfered but little with our slumbers. The next morning our
+party started out without breakfast, and by ten o'clock reached the
+Lawrence camp, where the cook set out, in a few minutes' time, a great
+variety of food, and an abundance of it, of which each man partook to
+his great satisfaction.
+
+[Illustration: "These little animals were numerous". (Page 169.)]
+
+From Lawrence camp we were able to secure the services of the tote team
+that was going out for supplies, which took our equipment through to
+Grand Rapids. From that point, we were able, also, to hire a team to
+take our supplies to the Swan River. Crossing this we went north to
+survey two townships, which would complete the winter's contract.
+
+It has been stated that this winter of 1874 and 1875 was the coldest of
+which the Weather Bureau for Minnesota furnishes any history. Besides
+the intense cold, there were heavy snows. Nevertheless, no serious
+injury or physical suffering of long duration befell any member of our
+band of hardy woodsmen. Not one of our number was yet thirty years old,
+the youngest one being eighteen. Two only of the party were married,
+Fendall G. Winston, and myself. On leaving Grand Rapids in August, we
+separated ourselves from all other white men. The party was as
+completely separated from the outside world as though it had been aboard
+a whaling vessel in the Northern Seas. No letters nor communications of
+any kind reached us after winter set in, until our arrival in Grand
+Rapids in the month of February following. Letters were occasionally
+written and kept in readiness to send out by any Indian who might be
+going to the nearest logging camp, whence they might by chance be
+carried out to some post office. Whether these letters reached their
+destinations or not, could not be known by the writers as long as they
+remained on their work, hidden in the forest.
+
+I had left my young wife and infant daughter, not yet a year old, in
+Minneapolis. Either, or both might have died and been buried before any
+word could have reached me. It was not possible at all times to keep
+such thoughts out of my mind. Of course every day was a busy one,
+completely filled with the duties of the hour, and the greatest solace
+was found in believing that all was well even though we could not
+communicate with each other. As I recall, no ill befell any one of the
+party nor of the party's dear ones, during all these long weeks and
+months of separation. Every man of the party seemed to become more
+rugged and to possess greater endurance as the cold increased. It became
+the common practice to let the camp fire burn down and die, as we rolled
+into our blankets to sleep till the morning hour of arising.
+
+Not every night was spent in comfort, however, though ordinarily that
+was the average experience. The less robust ones, of whom there were
+very few, sometimes received special attention.
+
+It was during the arduous journey, getting away from the scene of our
+first survey to that of the upper waters of Swan River, that one of our
+men fell behind all of the others, on a hard day's tramp. P. B. Winston,
+who had all the time been very considerate of him, observing that he was
+not keeping up to the party, but was quite a long way back on the trail
+which the men were breaking through the snow, said that he would wait
+for him until he should catch up. Concealing himself behind a thicket
+close to the trail, he quietly awaited our friend's arrival. He told the
+following incident of the poor fellow's condition:
+
+Mr. Winston allowed him to pass him on the trail, unobserved, and heard
+him saying, as he rubbed one of his legs, "Oh Lord, my God, what ever
+made me leave my comfortable home and friends, and come out into this
+wilderness!" At this instant Mr. Winston called out, "What is the matter
+----?" "Oh, I'm freezing, and I don't know that I shall ever be of any
+use if I ever get out," he replied. He did live to get out and to reach
+his friends, none the worse for his doleful experience. He did not
+again, however, go north into the forest, but tried another portion of
+the western country, where he became very prosperous.
+
+Long living around the open camp fire in the winter months, standing
+around in the smoke, and accumulating more or less of the odors from
+foods of various kinds being cooked by the open fire, invariably result
+in all of one's clothing and all of one's bedding becoming more or less
+saturated with the smell of the camp. This condition one does not notice
+while living in it from day to day, but he does not need to be out and
+away from such environments for more than a few hours, before he becomes
+personally conscious, to some degree, that such odors are not of a
+quality that would constitute a marketable article for cash. On arriving
+in Minneapolis at the close of the winter's campaign, without having
+changed our garments--as we had none with us that had not shared with us
+one and the same fate--Mr. P. B. Winston and I engaged a hack at the
+railroad station, and drove to our respective homes.
+
+[Illustration: "We saw racks in Minnesota made by the Indians". (Page
+172.)]
+
+It was Mr. Winston's domicile that was first reached, and it happened,
+as the driver stopped in front of his house, that his fiancée, Miss
+Kittie Stevens (the first white child born in Minneapolis), chanced to
+be passing by. Of course their meeting was unexpected to either, but was
+a pleasant and joyous one, though somewhat embarrassing to Mr. Winston.
+The wind was blowing, and I noticed that he took the precaution to keep
+his own person out of the windward. He had been a soldier in the
+Confederate Army, and I smiled with much satisfaction as I observed his
+splendid maneuver.
+
+On meeting me next day, Mr. Winston inquired whether his tactics had
+been observed, and, being assured that they had, he said that that was
+the embarrassing moment for him, for he did not know but that the young
+lady might have considered that she had just grounds for breaking the
+engagement. Both of us, however, knew better, for she was a young lady
+possessed of a large degree of common sense and loveliness. The young
+people later were married, Mr. Winston becoming mayor of Minneapolis,
+remaining always, one of its best citizens. Often, afterwards, incidents
+of that winter's experience, a few of which have been herein recorded,
+were gone over together with great pleasure by the parties interested.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Methods of Acquiring Government Land--An Abandoned Squaw.
+
+
+For many years it was the practice of the United States government,
+after its lands had been surveyed, to advertise them for sale at public
+auction on a date fixed by the government. Time sufficient was always
+given to allow parties interested to go themselves, or send men into the
+woods, to examine the lands, and thus to be prepared on the day of sale,
+to bid as high a price on any description as each was willing to pay.
+After the time advertised for the lands to be thus offered, had expired,
+and after the land sale had been held, all lands not bought in at that
+sale became subject to private entry at the local land office. It was
+this class of lands that I bought in Wisconsin.
+
+After the Civil War, by act of Congress, each Union soldier was given
+the right to homestead one hundred and sixty acres of land, the
+government price of which was one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.
+It sometimes happened that the soldier found only forty acres, or
+possibly eighty acres, or one hundred and twenty acres, lying
+contiguous, that he cared to take as a homestead. Later, Congress passed
+another law enabling the soldier, who had thus previously entered fewer
+than one hundred and sixty acres, to take an additional homestead claim
+of enough acres, which, when added to his previous homestead, would make
+a total of one hundred and sixty acres. The soldier was not obliged to
+live on this additional piece of land, but had the right to sell his
+certificate or scrip from the government, to anyone who might choose to
+buy it, and the purchaser, by power of attorney from the soldier, could
+with this scrip, himself enter the land. This became a common practice,
+covering a period of several years, and it was with the use of this kind
+of scrip that very much of the land that was surveyed about the time I
+have been describing, was entered.
+
+In the following winter--that of 1875 and 1876--I was in the woods of
+Minnesota west of Cloquet, accompanied by an Indian named Antoine, and,
+while breaking trail on snowshoes in the deep snow along an obscure road
+that had been cut through to Grand Rapids, on the Mississippi, I came to
+a small Indian tepee close by the side of the road. A little smoke was
+curling from its peak, and a piece of an old blanket was hanging over
+its entrance. Calling aloud, I heard a faint voice of a woman answering
+from within. Entering the wigwam, we found there an impoverished,
+half-clad, half-frozen, perishing squaw. She told us that her feet had
+been frozen so that she could not walk, and that her family had left her
+to die. She had food enough, and possibly fuel enough, to last her about
+two more days. I was at a loss to know what was the wisest and most
+humane thing to do. We were far in the woods, and away from every human
+inhabitant. It was as easy to proceed to Grand Rapids as it was to
+retrace our steps to Duluth. A decision was soon made, and that was,
+that we would cut and split, and bring inside the wigwam a large pile of
+good wood, with plenty of kindling, and would leave the poor woman
+supplies from our pack sacks, of things most suitable and most
+convenient for her to use, as whatever she did, must be done on her
+hands and knees.
+
+Having provided her with a liberal supply of rice, pork, crackers, some
+flour, sugar, tea, and a package of smoking tobacco--for all squaws
+smoke--besides melting snow until we had filled an old pail with water,
+we felt that she could keep herself alive and comfortable for several
+days, at least. I then took out of my pack, a new pair of North Star
+camping blankets, and cutting them in two, left one-half to provide
+additional warmth for the unfortunate squaw. As is the custom of her
+people when something much appreciated has been done for one of them,
+she took my hand and kissed it. Leaving her plenty of matches, we bade
+her good-by, and resumed our journey toward Grand Rapids.
+
+Once more on the trail, I asked Antoine how old he believed the squaw to
+be. He said maybe forty; I should have judged her to have been seventy,
+but no doubt I was mistaken, and the Indian's judgment was far better.
+Arriving at Grand Rapids, I wrote the authorities at Duluth, and at Fond
+du Lac Indian Reservation, telling them of the poor woman's situation
+and where she was located. I afterwards learned that she had been sent
+for, and brought out by team, and that she had been subsequently taken
+to her band of Indians.
+
+I have been told by different Indians, that the sick and the aged are
+sometimes abandoned when the band is very short of provisions, and when
+to take the helpless with them, would prove a great burden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+United States Land Sale at Duluth--Joe LaGarde.
+
+
+During the summer of 1882, the United States government had advertised
+that it would offer at public auction, many townships of land lying
+along the border between Minnesota and Canada, in Cook, Lake, St. Louis,
+and Itasca Counties. This country was difficult to reach. The distance
+from Duluth to Lake Vermilion was upwards of ninety miles. There was not
+even a road through the woods, over which a loaded team could be driven.
+Men were obliged to take their supplies upon their backs and carry them
+over a trail, all of this distance. From Lake Vermilion, it was possible
+to work both eastward and westward, by using canoes and making numerous
+portages from one lake to another, and so on for seventy-five miles in
+either direction along the boundary. Supplies were soon exhausted, so
+that it was necessary to keep packers on the trail, bringing in on their
+backs, fresh supplies from Duluth to Vermilion, where now is located the
+city of Tower. In the Vermilion country, dog trains could sometimes be
+advantageously used.
+
+Estimators of timber were employed either for themselves or for others,
+in surveying the lands, and in estimating the pine timber in these
+various townships that were to be offered at public sale in the month of
+December. This work continued almost to the day when the sale was to
+begin. That sale was held at the local land office at Duluth, and there
+were present men interested in the purchase of pine timber, from Maine,
+Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and some men
+representing Canadian capital. The competition was vigorous, and Uncle
+Sam's lands were bid in at a round price.
+
+During the fall of 1882, while preparing for the approaching land sale
+at Duluth, the only son of William S. Patrick, Simeon D. Patrick, a
+veteran land examiner in my employ, and I, made a short trip west of
+Duluth, exploring a section of country south of where now is the station
+of Cornwall, on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Our packer and handy man
+who carried part of our supplies, was an Indian of considerable note, by
+the name of John LaGarde, familiarly known as Joe LaGarde. He was a fine
+specimen of Chippewa Indian trapper, tall, straight, muscular, and a
+good burden bearer, but rather averse to long days' work. He was handy
+about camp, but, being an Indian, and accustomed to lying down at night
+with his feet close to a few live embers, he did not share with the
+white man the wish for large piles of wood to last through the cold
+nights that prevailed during this trip.
+
+[Illustration: "The roots of the lilies are much relished as a food by
+the moose." (Page 172.)]
+
+It happened that one evening we pitched our tent near a small stream, in
+a grove composed principally of young birch, but interspersed with large
+and shaggy ones. Everyone at all familiar with the birch knows there is
+much of it, on which the outer bark peels naturally, and it is no
+uncommon thing to be able to peel, with the use of the hands only, large
+quantities of the bark. There was almost an inexhaustible supply of just
+such bark near this camping ground. Joe was either tired or indisposed
+to work that evening, and when bedtime arrived, the pile of wood looked
+very scant for the long hours of the night. No one likes a little
+innocent fun better than my friend Patrick. Looking at the small
+woodpile, then at Joe, Patrick gave me a twinkle of his eye, started out
+into the semidarkness, and commenced peeling bark off the birch trees.
+He busied himself thus, until he had peeled off and brought in near our
+tent, a huge pile of this beautiful birch bark.
+
+No matter how rainy the weather may be, or how deep the snow in winter,
+if the frontiersman is fortunate enough to be camped in a grove of live
+birch, he knows that this ever friendly and useful birch bark will
+afford him a sure means of kindling a fire. It carries much oil and
+burns readily when a match is applied to it. The fire was fixed for the
+night, and Patrick and I lay down in our tent under our blankets to
+sleep. Joe, as was his custom, curled up at the foot of the tent and
+left his bare feet sticking out toward the fire. His requirement of
+blanket was less than half of what would satisfy a white man. As long as
+his feet were warm, the Indian did not suffer from cold. About midnight
+the fire had burned very low, when Patrick emerged from the tent and
+commenced dropping pieces of birch bark on the fast consuming fire logs.
+I was well back in the tent, propped up a little on my elbows, enjoying
+the glow of the fire, and watching it, as well as watching the Indian.
+As the fire increased and the flames rose higher, the Indian's feet
+began to twitch, and to draw up closer to his body. Soon the heat was so
+tremendous that the tent was in danger, when, like a missile, thrown by
+a strong spring, the Indian shot out of his blanket and into the woods,
+muttering his imprecations in Chippewa. He did not swear, for praise be
+to the Chippewa language, it contains no such words; but a madder Indian
+and a happier white man are seldom seen. The sequel to this episode was
+plenty of good fuel to burn during all of the following nights of this
+cruise in the forest.
+
+We employed LaGarde on other and later trips, and his services were
+always satisfactory. He has since gone to the happy hunting ground, and,
+with his passing, a tinge of sadness steals over us, for his memory is
+dear, and we have no right or wish to count him as other than our
+brother. He was always true to the white man, and deserves his meed of
+praise.
+
+An account of his death appeared in the Duluth Herald, February 28th,
+1911, from which the following summary is gathered:
+
+His age is given in the death certificate, as one hundred years. He was
+born on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, near Thief River Falls. His
+mother was a full-blooded Chippewa, and his father a half-breed with a
+French-Canadian name. In 1834, when about twenty-four years old, he came
+with his mother, to the Head of the Lakes, and settled at the historic
+John Jacob Astor Trading Post, at Fond du Lac. Three years later, while
+trading at Madeleine Island, near Bayfield, he met Liola Chievier, a
+half-breed, whom he afterwards married and brought to Fond du Lac. There
+were seven children to this union, but only three are now living. The
+youngest, aged fifty-five, lived at Fond du Lac with his father. The
+other two were located on the White Earth Reservation. They were Moses
+and Simon. The old man's wife died about thirty-eight years ago. LaGarde
+lived in Fond du Lac about seventy-seven years. He possessed a
+remarkable physique. His chest was well developed, his body straight as
+an arrow, and he stood six feet two inches in height. Being a Chippewa,
+LaGarde loved peace more than war, and he never took part in any Indian
+outbreak. As far back as the memory of any white man of the suburb goes,
+he had a reputation of being honest in all his transactions with the
+white traders. His body was buried in the Indian burying grounds, at the
+Fond du Lac Indian Reservation near Cloquet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Six Hundred Miles in a Birch Canoe.
+
+
+The following summer, I hired a number of men to pack some supplies from
+Duluth to the shores of Lake Vermilion. I had with me one white man to
+assist me in a reestimate of the pine timber that I had bought at the
+land sale in December. Canoes were purchased of the Indians, and I
+employed some of them to go as packers and canoemen.
+
+The work first took the party eastward a distance of fifty miles. Not
+only was the timber reexamined, but the character of the streams was
+carefully noted, with reference to their feasibility for floating out
+the timber, whenever the time should come for it to be cut and brought
+to market. All of that country is very rugged and much broken. The
+shores of the lakes are bold and rock-bound. Islands exist in nearly all
+of the lakes, and at that time they were thoroughly wooded, many of them
+containing fine bunches of pine timber. The country was picturesque and
+the scenery most enchanting. Aquatic birds of various species were
+frequently startled from the water as our canoes came in sight of them.
+Fish were abundant and could be taken in almost any one of the lakes, by
+throwing out a line. There were caribou and moose in the country, but no
+deer at that time.
+
+Bands of Indians were living along these waters, most of them belonging
+to the United States, but, as we turned and went westward, on the waters
+of Lake La Croix we met many Canadian Indians. They all spoke the same
+language, though sometimes with great difference in accent. There were
+many waterfalls, and around these, in every instance, a portage had to
+be made of all our supplies and of our canoes. One day's experience was
+much like that of its predecessor or like that of the one to follow. On
+the whole, the work was less arduous than that in a country which is
+mostly land and not cut up by numerous lakes, as is the condition in all
+of the northern woods in Minnesota. A camping ground would be selected
+on a shore of a lake, and, from this one camp, it was often our
+experience that several days' work could be economically accomplished
+before it was necessary to again move. The timber that we wished to
+examine often lay on either side of the lake on the shore of which the
+camping ground had been selected. Thus the work continued until the
+party reached Rainy Lake. This lake is fifty-five miles long, and at its
+foot, at that time, on the Canadian side, was Fort Francis. Much of this
+water route was then known as the Dawson Route. It had been used by the
+Canadian government to reach the Canadian Northwest with its soldiers,
+at the time of the Riel Rebellion. The shattered remains of a number of
+French batteaus were seen on the rapids between different lakes, where
+an attempt had been made to navigate the waters, which had disastrously
+failed.
+
+[Illustration: "We have seen the moose standing out in the bays of the
+lakes". (Page 172.)]
+
+Just below Fort Francis, which is at the beginning of the Rainy River
+which flows into Lake of the Woods, we found a Canadian farmer. He had
+been an engineer on board a Canadian steamer that plied from Rat Portage
+to Fort Francis. When the rebellion was over, and there was no longer
+use for steamboating, this man determined to take a homestead under the
+Canadian land laws. This was at the latter end of July. While our party
+was preparing dinner on the bank of the river at the edge of the
+settler's meadow, he came down to see us. It was seldom that he saw any
+of the white race, and, when one chanced to pass by, he was always glad,
+he said, to see him and learn something of the outside world. He
+invited us to go back into his meadow where, he assured us, we should
+find an abundance of ripe, wild strawberries. This we found to be true,
+and the berries were indeed a luxury to a lot of men who had been living
+on nothing better than dried peaches or dried apples, stewed and made
+into sauce.
+
+The work of examining lands was now completed for this trip, but the
+easiest way out was to continue down Rainy River into Lake of the Woods,
+and across Lake of the Woods to Rat Portage, where a train on the
+Canadian Pacific could be boarded and the journey continued to Winnipeg,
+and from thence by rail back to Minneapolis. At that time no logs had
+been driven down the Rainy River to mar the beauty of its shore lines
+which were the most beautiful of any river I have ever seen in Minnesota
+or in Canada. In some places for half a mile at a stretch there would be
+a continuous gravel shore. Its waters were deep and clear.
+
+Near the mouth of Rainy River, our party overtook Colonel Eaton and his
+helper, a man from Wisconsin, whose name, I believe, was Davis. Colonel
+Eaton was United States government inspector of lands, and was on a
+tour of inspection to ascertain to what extent the land laws relating
+to homestead entries were being complied with. Each was glad to meet the
+other, and in company, we traveled from that time until we finally
+arrived at Rat Portage.
+
+Lake of the Woods is a very large body of water, and not everywhere is
+it safe to venture out upon it in small boats or canoes. Colonel Eaton
+had a staunch rowboat. At Rainy Lake I had paid off and dismissed most
+of my helpers, so that I had but one canoe remaining. This was occupied
+by myself and the white man, my assistant, whom I had taken at the
+beginning of the journey. For a considerable distance, the party was
+able to keep behind the islands and away from the open lake, until it
+arrived at a point that is known as a traverse, a wide opening between
+islands, where the westerly winds, if blowing heavily, have a tremendous
+sweep. Our party found the whitecaps rolling in across this traverse, on
+the top of waves so high that neither of our crafts could possibly live,
+if out in them. Here, on this island, we went ashore and made our camp
+as comfortable as possible while waiting for the wind and waves to
+subside.
+
+Both parties had been long from home, and were practically without food
+to eat. We were obliged to stay on that island three nights and two days
+before the water had calmed sufficiently for us to cross the traverse.
+In the meantime, we had eaten the last of our supplies, and were
+subsisting wholly upon what blueberries we were able to find growing on
+the island. Some public work was about to begin up the Rainy River, and
+we had been informed that a steamer from Rat Portage, loaded with
+various articles of merchandise, was liable to come up the lake to enter
+the river at almost any time; consequently we were continually on the
+lookout for the steamer, it being the only source from which we could
+hope to get anything to eat, before we should arrive at Rat Portage.
+Finally the steamer was spied on the afternoon of the second day of our
+unforeseen residence on the island. With towels tied to poles, our
+party, hoping to be able to signal the passing steamer, went to the
+shore of the island. It was well out on the lake from our shore, and our
+hopes began to wane as we saw it steam by us, not having given us any
+indication that it had seen our signal. Suddenly, however, our fears
+were turned to hope and joy as we saw its bow turning in our direction.
+It made a long sweep on account of the high sea, and came in behind our
+island where the water was deep, and the nose of the steamer was brought
+almost to our shore. We quickly told the captain our plight, and asked
+only that we might purchase of him a little flour and a little meat, a
+little tea and a little coffee, sufficient to take us to Rat Portage,
+including a possible longer delay on the island because of the wind that
+was yet blowing. This he gladly gave us, refusing to accept any
+compensation; and with grateful hearts, we waved him adieu as the boat
+resumed its course. The following morning, early, the lake was quite
+calm; and, after a hasty breakfast, we pulled out from shore, crossed
+the traverse, and once more got behind the friendly islands. From this
+time on to Rat Portage, our journey was without special interest, the
+party returning together by rail to Minneapolis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Effect of Discovery of Iron Ore on Timber Industry.
+
+
+During the same year that the United States government offered its lands
+in the northern counties of Minnesota at public auction, new interests
+effecting the market for pine timber were created by the discovery of
+iron ore of a marketable quality, near the south shore of Lake
+Vermilion, where now is the city of Tower, Minnesota.
+
+Historically, the first mention of iron ore in northern Minnesota dates
+back to the report of J. G. Norwood, made in 1850, in which he mentioned
+the occurrence of iron ore at Gunflint Lake, but claimed no commercial
+importance in his discovery. The Geological and Natural History Survey
+of Minnesota, Volume 4, page 583, records the following: "H. H. Eames,
+state geologist of Minnesota in 1865 and 1866, was the first to observe
+and report iron ore on both the Vermilion and Mesabi ranges, and to
+consider it of any value. In his report for 1866, he describes the ore
+outcroppings near the southern shore of Lake Vermilion, and in his
+report, published the following year, is an account of the ore at
+Prairie River Falls, on the western end of the Mesabi, and several
+analyses showing it to be of good quality."
+
+[Illustration: "White Pine--What of Our Future Supply?" (Page 174.)]
+
+As early as 1880, Professor A. H. Chester, in the interest of private
+parties, made a personal examination of the Vermilion Iron Range, and
+predicted that an iron ore district of immense value and importance
+would be found to exist on that range. George C. Stone of Duluth, one of
+the parties who had employed Chester to make the examination for iron
+ore, was elected a member of the Minnesota legislature, and, through his
+instrumentality, in 1881, a law was passed, "to encourage mining in this
+state, by providing a uniform rate for the taxing of mining properties
+and products." This law provided for a payment of a tax of fifty cents
+for each ton of copper, and one cent for each ton of iron ore, mined and
+shipped or disposed of; each ton to be estimated as containing two
+thousand two hundred and forty pounds. The Duluth and Iron Range
+Railroad was constructed from Two Harbors, on Lake Superior, to Tower,
+Minnesota; and in August, 1884, the first shipment of iron ore was made
+from the Minnesota Mine at Tower.
+
+Promising outcrops of iron ore bearing rocks were found east of Tower,
+where now is the flourishing town of Ely. Work was begun on these
+outcrops, resulting in the finding of the Chandler Mine, by Captain John
+Pengilly, from which, in 1888, the first shipment of iron ore was made,
+the railroad having been extended from Tower to Ely, for the purpose,
+primarily, of shipping the iron ore to Two Harbors, and thence to the
+eastern markets. Other mines were later found in this vicinity. The
+building and equipping of this railroad created a demand for
+manufactured lumber, for railroad ties, and for telegraph poles.
+Sawmills were built at different points along the line of the railroad
+and at its terminals, so that the years immediately following were busy
+ones for those dealing in standing timber and its manufactured products.
+
+My associates and I had acquired interests in these localities, so that
+much of my time for nearly a decade, was actively employed along the
+line of the Vermilion Range. During these years from 1882 to 1888, the
+most practical modes of travel, and almost the only ones, were either by
+birch canoe and portaging from lake to lake in summer, or by dog train
+during the winter. Sometimes these trips were pleasant ones, but quite
+as often they were attended by incidents not always agreeable.
+
+On one of these occasions late in October, accompanied by one white man
+known only as "Buffalo," I started to travel east from Tower, on Lake
+Vermilion, along the route followed by the Indians, to the foot of Fall
+Lake, a distance of forty-five miles. It was some time after noon when
+we pulled out from shore in our two-man canoe, a small craft, affording
+just room for two men to sit, and to carry their pack sacks and scant
+supplies. Soon it began to rain, and the wind commenced blowing. We were
+approaching an island, when Buffalo, who had had much experience on the
+Great Lakes as a sailor, insisted that we could not reach our landing at
+the easterly end of the lake, before dark, without the use of a sail.
+Arriving at an island, we pulled our canoe ashore, and Buffalo quickly
+improvised a sail, which was hoisted in the bow of the canoe and the
+boat was again launched. In this manner we sailed and paddled at a much
+accelerated speed, but all of the time we were in imminent danger of
+being capsized, it being my first experience of riding in a birch canoe
+carrying a sail. Fortune favored the undertaking, however, and we made a
+safe landing in time to pitch our tent and make our camp for the night.
+
+During the night the cold increased, and when we arose in the morning,
+we found that ice had formed on the water in the little bay of the lake.
+We made a number of portages that day, the cold increasing so that in
+all of the little bays, ice was forming. We succeeded in crossing Burnt
+Side Lake and entering the river leading to Long Lake as it was getting
+dark. We were then six miles from what we knew to be a comfortable ranch
+near the lower end of Long Lake, which Buffalo strongly urged we should
+try to reach that night, although to do so meant that we must pass
+between some islands where, in places, we knew the rocks projected out
+of the water, and therefore were perilous to our birch canoe. We decided
+to make the effort, and soon after pushing out from shore, we were only
+able to faintly discern the outlines of the islands that we must pass.
+Fortunately, these were soon alongside of us, and we had passed the last
+dangerous reef of rocks. Then, to our great satisfaction, we saw the
+light from the lantern which had been hung out on a pile driven close by
+the outer end of the dock at the foot of the lake, about four miles
+distant, where the ranch, that we hoped to reach that night, was
+located. The wind had died down so that the surface of the lake was
+comparatively smooth, but we noticed that our mittens, which had become
+thoroughly wet, were freezing on our hands. For one hour we paddled in
+silence, when the light toward which we had been steering, became much
+more visible, and soon we landed at the little dock, thankful that we
+had made our journey safely. Our appetites were keen for the good,
+broiled steak and hot potatoes that previous experience had taught us we
+were pretty sure to receive, and in this we were not disappointed.
+
+The following summer, I passed over this same canoe route under quite
+different circumstances. My work of examining lands and timber all lay
+near to the shores of several lakes. My wife's father, J. H. Conkey, and
+her brother, Frank L. Conkey, had often expressed a wish to see that
+northern country. Accompanied by them and also by my son, Frank Merton,
+who was then a boy in short pants, we journeyed by rail to Tower. Before
+leaving Duluth for Tower, Mose Perrault was added to our number.
+
+Perrault was a fine specimen of man, six feet in height,
+well-proportioned, of middle age, and thoroughly familiar with frontier
+life. At Tower, we started out with two birch canoes, and after dinner,
+on a pleasant afternoon in August, we pushed our canoes out into the
+waters of Lake Vermilion, from the same point from which we had left in
+the rain, the previous October. We reached the east end of Vermilion
+early, portaged into Mud Lake, went up the river, and camped on the high
+ground west of Burnt Side Lake, in a pine grove where we were surrounded
+by blueberry bushes laden with their large, ripe fruit.
+
+[Illustration: "He motors over the fairly good roads of the northern
+frontier." (Page 180.)]
+
+Our party was made up of two classes of people; one out to examine
+timber, the other, to fish and have a good time. While crossing one of
+the portages, my brother-in-law, Frank L. Conkey, who knew almost
+nothing about canoeing or portaging, but was willing, and full of hard
+days' work, picked up two pack sacks, one of which was strapped to his
+shoulders, and the other was placed on top of his shoulders and the back
+of his head. Thus burdened, he started across Mud Portage, the footing
+of which, in places, was very insecure. At an unfortunate moment, he
+caught his foot in a root and tumbled, the top pack sack shooting over
+his head and breaking open at its fastenings, thus spilling its contents
+on the ground. All that could be found of these, were gathered together
+and replaced in the pack sack, and the journey was resumed. Mose
+Perrault was the cook, and on arriving at the camping ground at night,
+he began preparations for making bread and getting the evening meal. The
+pack sack that had broken open, originally contained two tin cans, one
+filled with baking powder, and the other, with fresh live worms buried
+in earth, that had been gathered for bait for the fishing party.
+Perrault wanted the baking powder with which to leaven the dough. The
+fishermen wanted their worms with which to bait their hooks. The latter
+were gratified, but nowhere could the baking powder be found, and we
+were forced to the conclusion that it was one of the lost articles on
+the portage. That night and the next day, we lived on bread made without
+any leaven, which from a number of experiences, I feel competent to
+state, is never a great success. The fishing, however, was good, and on
+the portages enough partridges were shot within revolver range to afford
+plenty of good meat for the party. These we cooked with bacon and
+dressed with butter, of which we had a goodly supply. There were plenty
+of crackers and Carolina rice, with blueberries close at hand for the
+picking, so that the party subsisted well, until it arrived at Ely,
+where the three fishermen bade Perrault and me farewell, returning to
+their homes by railroad train, after a pleasant outing.
+
+In February, 1891, my three companions and I had a very different
+experience, away east of Ely, where we had gone to survey and estimate a
+tract of pine timber. The snow was deep, and the journey, which had to
+be made with the use of toboggans, was a hard one. I had, as my
+associate and chief timber estimator, S. D. Patrick. In addition were
+the cook, and Buffalo, a man whose name has appeared on a previous page.
+This man is worthy of more than passing notice. His true name I never
+knew. He always said, "Call me 'Buffalo'." He claimed to have been born
+at Buffalo, New York, and to have spent his childhood and early youth in
+that city. He was an Irish-American and was possessed of the typical
+Irish wit on all occasions. He was never angry to the extent of being
+disagreeable, but he had no patience for any man in the party who
+refused or neglected to do his full share of the work. He claimed that
+when a boy, he had earned money at the steamboat landings at Buffalo, by
+diving under the water for coins thrown to him by passengers on board
+the ships at anchor in the harbor, as did also the late Daniel O'Day of
+the Standard Oil Company. He too, was an Irish-American, born and raised
+near Buffalo, and at his death left millions of dollars. He once told me
+that when a youth he had earned many dimes and quarters by diving for
+them alongside the passenger ships in Buffalo Harbor.
+
+Buffalo was always ready to act promptly and to do, or to undertake to
+do, anything that was requested of him. On this occasion he had an
+opportunity to demonstrate these good qualities. The trip was attended
+with the greatest of hardships, of heavy work, and of exposure to
+intense cold. Buffalo was a good axman, and not one night did he fail to
+cut and pile near to the camp, enough wood to last until after breakfast
+the next morning.
+
+Our camp was established on the shores of Kekekabic Lake, in Township 64
+N., Range 7 W., for several days and nights. There were many partridges
+in this section of the forest. They would come out on the borders of the
+woods next to the lake. It was possible to shoot one or more nearly
+every day, so that the camp was supplied with fresh game. The cook and
+Buffalo remained at the camp, while Mr. Patrick and I went out each day
+to examine timber, returning at night. The daylight covered none too
+many hours, so that we arose early and started on our journey after
+breakfast, as soon as we could see to travel, in order that the day's
+work might be accomplished, and the return to camp made before dark. It
+was not possible to calculate the day's work so as to be sure that we
+could reach camp before nightfall, but, owing to the intense cold that
+prevailed at this time, it was only the part of wisdom to plan so as to
+return to camp while we could yet see where to travel. Nearly every
+day's work was, in part at least, over a new tract of land, to which a
+new trail must be broken in the morning as we went out to the work.
+
+One day our work lay directly north of our camp, through the woods, out
+onto a small lake, and again into the woods. We knew, before leaving
+camp in the morning, that it would require our best efforts to
+accomplish the work and to return before nightfall. For this reason, we
+started at daybreak, and, after having done our best, it was night
+before we commenced to retrace our steps. The cold had increased all
+day, so that we were obliged to summon our courage at times, to keep our
+feet and hands from freezing. We were only two miles from camp when our
+return journey began; but two miles in an unbroken wilderness, in deep
+snow, with the only path to follow being the tracks made by two men
+passing once over it, is a long distance to travel when daylight has
+disappeared, and when to leave those tracks at such a temperature, would
+probably prove fatal.
+
+Within a few minutes from the time of our beginning to retrace our
+steps, each step was taken by the sense of feeling. We were both clad in
+moccasins, which made it possible, through the sense of feeling, to
+distinguish between the unbroken snow and that which had been stepped
+upon during the morning hours of that day. Being in darkness, we dared
+not proceed whenever we were not certain that our feet were in the path
+that we had made on going out to our work. A few times we lost the path.
+Immediately we stopped, one man standing still, in order that we might
+not lose our location, while the other felt around until the path was
+regained. We knew that if we should lose it, the one thing remaining for
+us would be to walk around a tree, if it were possible to do so, until
+morning light should appear. We went slowly on, never giving up hope.
+
+It was getting late in the evening, so that Buffalo, at camp, became
+alarmed for our safety. His wits were at work, and he commenced to build
+a large fire. Then he found, near by, a dead pine stub. About this he
+piled kindling until he got it on fire. It is not possible to write
+words describing the satisfaction and joy with which we two lonely
+travelers finally spied the illumination, penetrating the dark forest
+for a short distance only, it is true, yet far enough. Soon we walked
+into camp, to the joy of all of the party, and there we found an
+excellent supper awaiting us. Buffalo's big wood pile was in waiting at
+all the hours of that night, and some one was astir to keep the fire
+going. It was the only night of my long experience of living in the
+woods, when it was impossible, for more than a short period, to be
+comfortable away from the fire, and even then, we each in turn revolved
+our bodies about the open fire, first warming one side, and then the
+other, and slept but little.
+
+After our work was completed, and we had gotten back in touch with the
+civilized world, we were told by residents at Tower, that the
+thermometer on that night, had indicated from 48° to 52° below zero.
+
+[Illustration: "Friends whom he had known in the city who are ready to
+welcome him." (Page 180.)]
+
+The following summer, on one of my trips to this then picturesque
+country in northeastern Minnesota, I tried the experiment of taking my
+wife, who had long been an invalid, and my son, Frank Merton, then a boy
+in his early teens, with me, in the hope that the trip would prove
+beneficial to the wife and mother. The experiment was in no way
+disappointing, although on one occasion when the rain had poured
+incessantly, leaving the woods drenched, in crossing a rather blind and
+unavoidable portage, Mrs. Warren's clothing became thoroughly wet. In
+the absence of a wardrobe from which to choose a change of garments, the
+expedient was resorted to of requesting her to remove one garment at a
+time, which Vincent De Foe, a half-breed, and James O'Neill, an old and
+trusty friend, held to the open fire, until it was dry. This she
+replaced, when another wet garment went through the same process, until
+all had been dried. No ill effects followed; on the contrary, Mrs.
+Warren's health continued to improve.
+
+At the end of the trip I was so happy over the results that I sent the
+following account of some of its incidents to Dr. Albert Shaw, then of
+the Minneapolis Tribune, and at present, editor of the Review of
+Reviews. This little account appeared in the Tribune of Saturday,
+September 6, 1890:
+
+    "IN THE WILDS OF MINNESOTA.
+    Mrs. G. H. Warren's Travels in the Northeastern Part of the State.
+
+Mrs. G. H. Warren and her son Frank returned to the city Monday from a
+two weeks' tour of the Vermilion Iron Range, north of Lake Superior.
+Their trip was both interesting and novel. From Ely, the eastern
+terminus of the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad, they embarked in birch
+canoes, traversing ten lakes, thirteen portages and three small rivers
+as far as they were navigable for birch canoes. The whole distance thus
+traveled included over one hundred miles. Pike, pickerel, bass, white
+fish, or landlocked salmon abound in all these lakes of rugged shores.
+Master Frank reports the capture of a twenty-seven inch pike and a
+thirty-seven inch pickerel. In one of the bays of Basswood Lake--a
+beautiful body of clear water thirty miles in length and extending
+several miles into Canada--the Indians were seen gathering wild rice.
+This is accomplished by the male Indian standing upright in the bow of
+his canoe, and paddling it forward through the field of rice, the stalks
+of which grow from three to four feet above the water; while his squaw
+sits in the stern of the canoe, and with two round sticks about the
+size, and half the length of a broom handle, dexterously bends the long
+heads of the rice over the gunwale of the canoe with one stick, while at
+the same instant, she strikes the well filled heads a sharp, quick blow
+with the other, threshing out the kernels of rice, which fall into the
+middle portion of the canoe. This middle portion is provided, for the
+occasion, with a cloth apron, into which the rice kernels fall. The
+apron will hold about two bushels, and is filled in the manner above
+described in less than three hours' time. The rice is next picked over
+to free it from chaff and straw, after which it is placed in brass
+kettles and parched over a slow fire; then it is winnowed, and is ready
+for future use.
+
+Mrs. Warren is the first white woman to penetrate so far on the frontier
+of wild Northeastern Minnesota, and though never before subjected to
+uncivilized life, or the primitive mode of travel, she endured the walks
+over the portages, slept soundly on beds of balsam fir boughs, ate with
+a relish the excellent fish and wild game cooked at the camp fire, and
+returns to her home in the city with health much improved, and
+enthusiastic over the many beauties of nature in this yet wild, but
+attractive portion of Minnesota."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Forest Fires.
+
+
+The terrible forest fires that swept over much of Wisconsin and
+Minnesota during the summer of 1894, resulting in such an appalling loss
+of life at Hinckley and vicinity, will always be remembered by the
+people living in the northern half of Minnesota.
+
+One who has never been in the forest at a time when the fires within it
+extended over many miles of area, cannot appreciate the danger and the
+anxiety of those who are thus placed. I vividly recall two days during
+the summer of the Peshtigo fire, when I was in the burning woods of
+Wisconsin. The sun was either entirely obscured, or it hung like a red
+ball above the earth, now penetrating the clouds of smoke, now again
+being hidden by them. The smoke came at times in great rolls at the
+surface of the earth, then was caught up by the breeze and lifted to
+higher altitudes, and at all times was bewildering to those whom it
+surrounded.
+
+No one could tell from what point of the compass the distant fire was
+most dangerous, nor in what direction it was making most rapid progress
+toward the point where he was located. At times one became choked by the
+thick smoke. For many hours, during one of these days, I moved with my
+face close to the ground, that I might get air sufficient to breathe.
+When finally I came to an open country where the currents of wind could
+lift the smoke, I experienced a feeling of the greatest thankfulness
+that I was delivered from the condition of the two last days, surrounded
+with so much uncertainty as to my safety.
+
+The memorable fire of September 1st, 1894, which swept Hinckley and all
+its surrounding country, resulted in the death of four hundred and
+seventeen human beings, left destitute two thousand two hundred, and
+extended over an area of four hundred square miles. The financial loss
+was upwards of one million dollars.
+
+That loss does not include the great losses of timber situated in the
+northeastern part of Minnesota, extending all along its boundary and
+reaching into Canada. The fire in northeastern Minnesota destroyed
+millions of dollars worth of standing pine timber, much of which was
+entirely consumed, while portions of it were killed at the root. Such
+timber as was thus killed, but not destroyed, had most of its value yet
+remaining, provided that it were cut and put in the water, during the
+first one or two seasons following. Later than that, most of its value
+would have been destroyed by worms boring into the dead timber. On
+account of these fires, it was necessary for all timber owners to make a
+careful examination of all timber lands within the burnt district. For
+this purpose, accompanied by S. D. Patrick, and E. A. White, timber
+examiners to assist in the work, and my son, Frank Merton, then a senior
+in the University of Minnesota, besides packers, I went, in 1897, into
+the burnt districts in northeastern Minnesota.
+
+[Illustration: "He camps by the roadside on the shore of a lake." (Page
+180.)]
+
+As a result of these forest fires, one of the worst pests that the
+frontiersman meets is the black fly, which flourishes in a burnt
+country. This little insect is apparently always hungry, is never tired,
+and wages a relentless fight upon every inch of the white man's
+epidermis that is exposed to its reach, even penetrating the hair and
+beard of a man, and leaving the effects of its poisonous bite. So
+terrible were these little pests, and so numerous were they on two days
+of the excursion, that one eye of each of three of the white men in the
+party was so badly swollen by the bites of the insects, that it was
+closed. No remedy has ever been offered that effectually protects the
+woodsman from injuries inflicted by this insect.
+
+While our party was on that expedition that summer, reestimating the
+timber in the burnt district, Mr. Patrick came close to a large bull
+moose standing in some thick woods. The animal had not yet discovered
+Mr. Patrick's presence, consequently he was able to carefully examine
+and study this great beast of our northern woods. Below the animal's
+hips, on either side, at a point where he could in no wise protect
+himself from the ravages of this insect pest, the poor beast's flesh was
+raw and was bleeding. The Indians claim that their dogs frequently go
+mad and have to be killed as a result of the bites inflicted by these
+insects.
+
+In proof of the wide range of their activities I will briefly relate one
+experience with them in Wisconsin. Joseph McEwen and I left Wausau one
+morning, riding out behind a livery team twenty miles to the Big Eau
+Plaine River, in search of desirable cranberry marsh lands. The country
+we traveled over was flat. Fires had recently killed the timber, and
+black flies formed one vast colony over this territory.
+
+Our driver had trouble controlling the horses, so fierce was the attack
+of the black flies upon them. We arrived at the nearest point of our
+work that could be reached by team about ten o'clock in the forenoon,
+and dismissed our driver. We then proceeded on foot into this burnt,
+marshy country, attacked continuously by swarms of flies. They
+penetrated our ears, our noses, and our mouths if we opened them. They
+worked themselves into our hair, up our sleeves, under our collar bands,
+over the tops of our socks and down into them until they found the end
+of our drawers where, next, was our naked skin.
+
+We camped at night in the marsh. The next morning the attack was renewed
+as vigorously as it had been waged on the previous day. At eleven
+o'clock we stopped for our dinner. McEwen wore a heavy beard all over
+his face; my face was bare. He looked at me as we were eating our
+dinner, then dryly remarked, "I don't know how I look, but you look like
+the devil; the black flies have bitten you everywhere; your face is a
+fright." We went out to the main road, and secured a conveyance by which
+we reached Wausau about five o'clock that afternoon.
+
+I went immediately to my accustomed hotel, owned and managed by Charles
+Winkley. He had known me well for years, and I had left him less than
+forty-eight hours previous to my entering on that afternoon. Mr.
+Winkley was behind his desk. I greeted him and asked him how business
+was. He answered me quite independently that his house was full, and
+that he had not a vacant room. I then asked him if there was any mail
+for me, giving him my full name. He looked at me in astonishment, then
+exclaimed, "My God! What is the matter of you?" I said, "Black flies."
+Then he continued, "I mistook you for some man with the small-pox and
+was planning to notify the authorities and have you cared for. Go right
+to your room and stay there. Mrs. Winkley will care for you and have
+your meals brought to you. I will go to the postoffice every day for
+your mail." My face was one blotch of raw sores. My eyes were nearly
+closed because of the poison from the black flies.
+
+The best remedy or preventive we have ever found against all insect
+pests of the northern woods, is smoked bacon rubbed onto the bare skin
+in generous quantities. Its presence is not essentially disagreeable.
+Objection to its use is prejudice, since it is no less pleasant than is
+the oil of cedar or pennyroyal which are often prescribed by druggists
+for the same purpose, and which are not half as continuous in their
+efficacy, because a little perspiration will neutralize all of the good
+effects of the latter named remedies. Soap and water will remove the
+bacon grease when protection from flying insects is no longer desired.
+
+There are other and more interesting living things in the northern woods
+than black flies, to which statement I am willing to testify. I had been
+running some lines one summer, for the purpose of locating a tote road
+to some camps where work was to be prosecuted the following fall. It was
+known among the homesteaders, as well as trappers, that a large bear
+lived in that vicinity. On one occasion he had been caught in a
+"dead-fall" that had been set for him, and he had gotten out of it,
+leaving only some tufts of his hair.
+
+Alone, and while blazing a line for this proposed road, one sunny
+afternoon, I came onto a table-rock, in a little opening in the woods,
+where fifty feet in front of me lay a large pine tree that had blown
+down. As some small brush crackled under my feet, a bear, which I have
+ever since believed from descriptions that had previously been given me,
+was the much wanted great bear, stood up in front of me, close by the
+fallen tree. Presumably he had been awakened from an afternoon nap. The
+only weapon that I possessed was what is known as a boy's ax, the size
+and kind usually carried by land examiners. I had not sought this new
+acquaintance, nor did I at that moment desire a closer one, but mentally
+decided, and that quickly, that the wrong thing to do would be to make
+any effort to get to a place of safety. I therefore decided to stand my
+ground and to put up the best fight possible with my small ax, in case
+the bear insisted on a closer acquaintance. Why I should have laughed on
+such an occasion as this, I never have known, but the perfect
+helplessness of my situation seemed so ridiculous, that I broke into a
+loud laugh. I have often wondered why that bear at that moment seemed to
+think that he had seen enough of the man whom he faced. Certain it was,
+that he turned on his hind legs, leaped over the log, and disappeared,
+leaving only the occasional sound of a twig breaking under his feet. So
+well pleased was I with the less distinct notes of the breaking twigs,
+that I waited and listened until I could no longer hear any of the
+welcome, receding music. The excitement having subsided, an inspection
+of the little ax revealed the fact that the head was nearly, but not
+quite off its handle. This incident has always been sufficient to
+convince me that I have no desire to approach nearer to this animal of
+the northern woods.
+
+[Illustration: The midday luncheon is welcomed by the automobile
+tourists. (Page 180.)]
+
+In the summer of 1899, some special work was required north of Grand
+Rapids, Minnesota. Accompanied by my son, Frank Merton, and a cook named
+Fred Easthagen, I left Grand Rapids on a buckboard drawn by two horses
+and driven by Dan Gunn, the popular proprietor of the Pokegama Hotel.
+Our route was over a new road where stumps and pitch holes were
+plentiful. The team of horses was said to have been raised on the
+western plains, and objected strenuously to being driven over this stump
+road. One of the horses balked frequently, and, when not standing still,
+insisted on running. The passengers, except Easthagen, became tired of
+this uneven mode of travel, and preferred to walk, being able to cover
+the ground equally as fast as the team. Easthagen, however, sat tight
+through it all; he having come from the far West, refused to walk when
+there was a team to pull him.
+
+Our camp was made in a fine grove of pig-iron Norway, near to which
+dwelt Mr. and Mrs. Sandy Owens, settlers upon government land. From this
+camp we were able to prosecute our work for a long period of time. The
+late summer and autumn were very dry. Both wolves and deer abounded in
+this vicinity, and not far away ranged many moose. Large lumbering camps
+were about ten miles away. Oxen had been turned loose for the summer, to
+pasture in the woods and cut-over lands. Passing, one day, a root house
+built into the side of a hill, we pushed open the door, and in there
+found the remains of an ox. The animal had probably entered the root
+house to get away from the flies, and, the door having closed behind
+him, he had no means of escape, so that the poor beast had perished of
+hunger and thirst. The ground was dry, and all the brush, and twigs, and
+leaves lying thereon, had become brittle and crackled under the feet of
+every walking creature. This interfered much with the ability of the
+wolves to surprise the deer, rabbits, or other animals on which they are
+accustomed to feed, so that they were hungry. On this account they had
+become emboldened, so much so, that they would, at nightfall or toward
+evening, venture near enough to show themselves.
+
+My son was coming in alone, from work one evening, when a pack of wolves
+followed him for some distance, occasionally snapping out their short
+yelp, and had he been less near the camp, he might have been in great
+danger. As it was, however, they kept back from him in the woods, but
+not so far as to prevent his hearing them.
+
+An interesting article appeared in one of the numbers of "Country Life
+in America," on the subject of breeding skunks for profit. From their
+pelts is made and sold a fine quality of fur, known, to the purchaser,
+at least, as stone martin. The nearest approach to a natural farm of
+these animals that I have ever known was that existing at Sandy Owen's
+cabin, and immediately adjacent to it. These little animals were
+numerous in the Norway grove in which we were camped.
+
+My son and I slept in a small "A" tent which at night was closed. On one
+occasion I was awakened by feeling something moving across my feet on
+the blankets, covering us. I spoke quietly to my son, requesting him to
+be careful not to move, for something was in the tent, and probably,
+that something was a skunk. With the gentlest of motions, I moved just
+sufficiently to let the animal know that I was aware of its presence in
+the tent. Immediately the animal retreated off of my legs, while we
+remained quiet for some time in the tent. Then a match was struck and
+with it a candle lighted, when a small hole was discovered at the foot
+of the tent where evidently the animal had nosed its way in, and through
+which it had retreated. In the morning when my son and I arose,
+unmistakable evidence was discovered, near where our heads had lain,
+that his skunkship had visited us during the night.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Owens left their cabin to visit another settler, several
+miles distant, leaving the key with the cook, and telling him that he
+could use it if he had occasion to do so. Coming in one evening from a
+cruise, the cook went to the cabin to make and bake some bread in Mrs.
+Owen's stove. A small hole had been cut in the door, to admit the Owens'
+cat. On entering, Easthagen saw a skunk sitting in the middle of the
+floor. The animal retreated under the bed, while the cook kindled a fire
+in the stove and began mixing the dough for the bread. He baked the
+bread and cooked the evening meal for three persons, considerately
+tossing some bits of bread and meat near to where the skunk was
+concealed. Our party ate supper outside the door a short distance from
+the cabin. The animal remained in the cabin that night and until after
+breakfast, a portion of which latter the cook fed to it, when taking the
+broom, he, by easy and gentle stages, pushed the skunk toward the door,
+removing the animal without accident.
+
+The state of Minnesota has some excellent laws to prevent the
+destruction of game animals by the pothunter. Notwithstanding this fact,
+a greater or less number of market hunters have been able to subsist by
+killing unlawful game and selling the meat to the lumber camps at about
+five cents per pound. Many men interested in the ownership of timber
+lands, have been aware of this fact and have been desirous of preventing
+the unlawful killing of moose and deer. Some lumbermen, also, have
+refused to buy the meat from these market hunters. It has not been safe,
+however, for such people to offer evidence against these hunters. There
+have been two principal reasons that have deterred them from so doing.
+One is, that the informant's personal safety would have become
+endangered, and the other reason is, that his timber would have been in
+danger of being set on fire. It rests, therefore, with the game wardens,
+to ferret out and prosecute to the best of their ability, all offenders
+against the game law.
+
+In the latter part of the season of 1905, my son and I, accompanied by
+James O'Neill, a frontiersman and trusty employee, made a canoe trip
+from Winton down the chain of lakes on the boundary line between
+Minnesota and Canada, as far as Lake La Croix. We camped at night and
+traveled by day, being always in Minnesota. We saw racks in Minnesota
+made by the Indians, on which to smoke the meat of the moose they had
+killed. We counted twenty-one moose hides hung up to dry. The moose had
+doubtless been killed as they came to the lakes to get away from flies
+and mosquitoes. All these animals were unlawfully killed.
+
+A more pleasant sight than the one just related was once accorded us
+while working in this same country. We were quietly pushing our canoes
+up a sluggish stream that had found its bed in a spruce swamp. There, in
+many places, pond lilies were growing, their wide leaves resting on the
+surface of the water. The roots of the lilies are much relished as a
+food by the moose. We have seen the moose standing out in the bays of
+the lakes, and in the almost currentless streams, where the water was up
+to the animal's flanks, or where its body was half immersed, and poking
+its head deep below the surface in search of the succulent roots of the
+lilies. On this day, a mother moose and her twin calves had come to this
+stream to feed. She was in the act of reaching down under the water for
+a lily root, as we pushed our canoes quietly over the surface of the
+water into her very presence. The first to observe us was one of the
+young calves not more than two days old, that rose to its feet, close by
+on the shore. The mother looked toward her calf before she saw us; then,
+without undue haste, waded ashore. At this moment the second calf arose,
+shook itself, then, with the other twin, joined its mother. The three
+moved off into the spruce swamp as we sat quietly in our canoes,
+enjoying to the fullest this most unusual opportunity of the experienced
+woodsman, accustomed as he is to surprises. Our only regret on this
+occasion was, that we had no camera with us.
+
+[Illustration: "Here he brings his family and friends to fish". (Page
+180.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+White Pine--What of Our Future Supply?
+
+
+It is claimed that where Dartmouth College is, in the town of Hanover,
+New Hampshire, on the bank of the Connecticut River, there once stood a
+white pine tree two hundred and seventy feet in height. That is said to
+have been the tallest white pine of which there is a record.
+
+Of the thirty-seven species of pine that grow in the United States, the
+white pine is the best. Nature was lavish in distributing this beautiful
+and useful tree on American soil, for it has been found growing in
+twenty-four states of the Union.
+
+The following quotation is from Bulletin 99 of the Forest Service of the
+United States:
+
+"White pine occurred originally in commercial quantities in Connecticut,
+Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland,
+Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
+North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina,
+Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The cut has
+probably exceeded that of any other species. Several timber trees have a
+wider commercial range, and at the present time two yield more lumber
+yearly--Douglas fir and longleaf pine--but white pine was the leader in
+the market for two hundred and fifty years. Though to-day the original
+forests of this species are mere fragments of what they once were, the
+second growth in small regions is meeting heavy demand. In
+Massachusetts, for example, the cut in 1908 was two hundred and
+thirty-eight million feet, and practically all of it was second growth.
+It is not improbable that a similar cut can be made every year in the
+future from the natural growth of white pine in that state. It might be
+shown by a simple calculation that if one-tenth of the original white
+pine region were kept in well-protected second growth, like that in
+Massachusetts, it would yield annual crops, successfully for all time,
+as large as the white pine cut in the United States in 1908. To do this
+would require the growth of only twenty-five cubic feet of wood per acre
+each year, and good white pine growth will easily double that amount.
+The supply of white pine lumber need never fail in this country,
+provided a moderate area is kept producing as a result of proper care.
+
+"During the past thirty years the largest cut of white pine has come
+from the Lake States, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota."
+
+It is shown in the government's reports that forty-eight per cent of the
+total lumber output of the United States in 1908 was pine. If something
+near this ratio is to be maintained, it must be by planting and growing
+the trees. Under the present system of taxation, neither individuals nor
+corporations will undertake the work. The investment, at the shortest,
+is one of thirty years before returns may be looked for, while twice
+that time is better business. Owners of pine forests are obliged now,
+and have been in past years, to cut their timber lands clean because of
+excessive taxation. To encourage the planting and cultivation of new
+pine forests, it would be better to levy no tax upon the individual's or
+corporation's young trees until the time that the timber has grown to a
+size fit to be marketed, and then only on that portion which is cut into
+lumber. Even with this encouragement it is an enterprise that belongs
+largely to the state, and from it must emanate the aggressive movement
+upon land belonging to the state.
+
+On the subject of "Reforestation with White Pine," Prof. E. G. Cheyney,
+Director of the College of Forestry in the University of Minnesota,
+states: "Like everything else, a tree does better on good soil, but the
+pine tree has the faculty of growing well on soil too poor for any other
+crop.... On the best quality of soil the white pine tree has produced
+100 M feet per acre in Europe. On the third quality soil it makes from
+40 to 60 M feet. Our forest soils are, on the whole, of better quality
+than those devoted to forests in Europe.
+
+"The Forest Experiment Station at Cloquet, under the control of the
+College of Forestry, is now studying this reforestation policy, and the
+State Forest Service is looking after the forest fires and expects to
+begin the reforestation of our State Forests this spring.
+
+"There are now two National Forests in Minnesota aggregating about
+1,300,000 acres and only 50,000 acres of State Forest. These State
+Forests should be increased to at least 3,000,000 acres."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Retrospect--Meed of Praise.
+
+
+It is hoped that the foregoing pages have thrown some light upon the
+peculiar occupation of the pioneer woodsman as he is related to
+lumbering in the Northwest. There has been no attempt to do more than to
+give a plain recital of some of the events that have occurred in the
+experiences of one man while pioneering in this special field of the
+great timber and lumbering industry of the Northwest. Another, engaged
+in the same pursuit, might easily relate his personal experiences of
+equal or greater scope than have been herein portrayed, for not all has
+been said that might be of the woodsman's secluded life.
+
+The occupation of this type of man is fast being eliminated, and soon
+his place will be known no more. In fact, the time has already arrived
+when there is no longer any primeval forest in the Northwest into which
+he may enter and separate himself from others of his own race. Railroads
+have been built in many directions into these vast forests, and the
+fine, stately pine trees have been cut down and sent out over the lines
+of these railroads. Men and their families have come from various states
+and from foreign countries, and are still coming to make for themselves
+homes on the lands now denuded of their once majestic forest trees
+towering high, and overshadowing all the earth beneath with their green
+branches and waving plumage.
+
+[Illustration: "Prepare their fish just caught for the meal, by the open
+camp fire." (Page 180.)]
+
+The neigh of the horse, the low of the cow or the ox, and the laugh or
+song of the child is now heard where twenty years ago in summer time,
+stalked fearlessly the moose and the deer, where roamed the bear at
+will, unmolested, safe from the crack of the white man's rifle.
+
+The schoolhouse springs into existence, where a year ago were stumps and
+trees. The faithful teacher, fresh from one of the normal schools or
+colleges of the state, comes into the settlement to train the minds and
+to help mould the characters of the future farmers, mechanics,
+statesmen, or financiers; of the doctors, lawyers, judges; or honored
+wives and mothers. From this ever increasing supply of the newly-born
+Northwest, are coming and will continue to come, some of the most valued
+accretions of good citizens to the commonwealth of Minnesota.
+
+Farms are yielding their first crops to the sturdy husbandman. Pleasant,
+comfortable homes meet the eye of the tourist from the city in summer as
+he motors over the fairly good roads of the northern frontier. He enters
+little towns carved out of the woods, and finds, now living happily,
+friends whom he had known in the city, who are ready to welcome him. He
+camps by the roadside on the shore of a lake, or on the bank of the
+Mississippi whose waters flowed on unobstructed in the earlier days
+herein recorded, but now are harnessed for the better service of man.
+Here he brings his family and friends to fish and to lunch, or, better
+still, to prepare their fish just caught for the meal, by the open camp
+fire. He continues his journey through this unbroken wilderness of less
+than a generation ago, over improving roads, to the very source of the
+Mississippi River that is within five minutes' walk of Lake Itasca. Here
+is a refreshing bit of natural pine forest, owned and preserved by the
+state of Minnesota, where he and his friends may find shelter for the
+night, and for a longer period if desired.
+
+In concluding this subject, I am actuated by a desire to manifest my
+appreciation of the fine manhood possessed by many men whom I have
+known, the best part of whose lives has been spent similarly to my own,
+in the extensive forests that once beautified and adorned the great
+Northwest.
+
+The occupation is one which demands many of the highest attributes of
+man. He must be skillful enough as a surveyor to always know which
+description of land he is on, and where he is on that description. He
+must be a good judge of timber, able to discern the difference between a
+sound tree and a defective one, as well as to estimate closely the
+quantity and quality of lumber, reckoned in feet, board measure, each
+tree will likely produce when sawed at the mill. He must examine the
+contour of the country where the timber is, and make calculations how
+the timber is to be gotten out, either by water or by rail, and estimate
+how much money per thousand feet it will cost, to bring the logs to
+market. The value of the standing pine or other timber in the woods is
+dependent on all of these conditions, which must be reckoned in arriving
+at an estimate of the desirability of each tract of timber as an
+investment for himself, or for whomsoever he may represent.
+
+Possessing these qualifications, he must also be honest; he must be
+industrious; he must be courageous. He must gain the other side of
+rivers that have no bridges over them, and he must cross lakes on which
+there are no boats. He must find shelter when he has no tent, and make
+moccasins when his shoes are worn and no longer of service, and new ones
+are not to be obtained; he must be indefatigable, for he will often be
+tempted to leave some work half finished rather than overcome the
+physical obstacles that lay between him and the completion of his task.
+
+On the character of this man and on his faithfulness, his honesty, his
+conscientiousness, and on the correctness of his knowledge concerning
+the quality, quantity, and situation as to marketing the timber he
+examines, depends the value of the investments. Hundreds of thousands of
+dollars are invested on the word of this man, after he has disappeared
+into the wilderness and emerged with his report of what he has seen. The
+requisitions of manhood for this work are of a very high degree, and,
+when such a man is found, he is entitled to all of the esteem that is
+ever accorded to an honest, faithful, conscientious cashier, banker, or
+administrator of a large estate.
+
+[Illustration: "He continues his journey ... to the very source of the
+Mississippi River". (Page 180.)]
+
+Is he required to furnish an illustrious example to prove the worthiness
+of his chosen occupation, let him cite to the inquirer the early manhood
+days of George Washington, who penetrated the forests from his home in
+Virginia, traveling through a country where savages roamed, pushing his
+course westward to the Ohio River in his search for valuable tracts of
+land for investment, and surveying lands for others than himself.
+
+His occupation is an honorable one, and those who pursue it with an
+honest purpose, are accorded a high place in the esteem of those whom
+they serve, and with whom they associate.
+
+
+  The Pines.
+
+  "We sleep in the sleep of ages, the bleak, barbarian pines;
+  The gray moss drapes us like sages, and closer we lock our lines,
+  And deeper we clutch through the gelid gloom where never
+      a sunbeam shines.
+
+  Wind of the East, Wind of the West, wandering to and fro,
+  Chant your songs in our topmost boughs, that the sons of men may know
+  The peerless pine was the first to come, and the pine will be
+      last to go!
+
+  We spring from the gloom of the canyon's womb; in the valley's lap
+      we lie;
+  From the white foam-fringe, where the breakers cringe, to the peaks
+      that tusk the sky,
+  We climb, and we peer in the crag-locked mere that gleams like
+      a golden eye.
+
+  Gain to the verge of the hog-back ridge where the vision ranges free;
+  Pines and pines and the shadow of pines as far as the eye can see;
+  A steadfast legion of stalwart knights in dominant empery.
+
+  Sun, moon and stars give answer; shall we not staunchly stand
+  Even as now, forever, wards of the wilder strand,
+  Sentinels of the stillness, lords of the last, lone land?"
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+Inconsistencies in the placement of quotes before or after periods have
+not been changed.
+
+Pp. 36, 123: "fiancé" changed to "fiancée".
+
+P. 93: "empounding" changed to "impounding" (the necessity of impounding
+the waters).
+
+P. 169: "sufciently" changed to "sufficiently" (I moved just
+sufficiently).
+
+P. 181: "similarily" changed to "similarly" (similarly to my own).
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pioneer Woodsman as He is Related
+to Lumbering in the Northwest, by George Henry Warren
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41925 ***