"As the night set in, came hail and snow,
And the air grew sharp and chill,
And the warning roar of a terrible blow
Was heard on the distant hill;
And the norther,--see, on the mountain peak,
In his breath, how the old trees writhe and shriek!
He shouts along o'er the plain, ho, ho!
He drives from his nostrils the blinding snow,
And growls with a savage will."
C. G. EASTMAN.
We will now take the reader to the wild and secluded banks of Dead river,
the great southwesterly tributary of the lordly Kennebec, the larger twin
brother of the Androscoggin, both of which, after being born of the same
parent range of mountains, and wandering off widely apart, at length find,
at the end of their courses, like many a pair of long estranged brothers,
their final rest in a common estuary at the seaboard. At a point on the
banks of the tributary above named, where its long southward sweep brings
it nearest, and within twenty miles of the Oquossak, and within a quarter
of that distance from the terminating camps of the outward ranges of the
hunters, two men in hunting-suits might have been seen, in the fore part of
one of the last days of November, in the season of the eventful expedition
we have been describing, intently engaged in inspecting some fragments of
wrought wood, which, from the clue of some protruding piece, they had
kicked up from the leaves and decayed brushwood that had nearly concealed
them from view. One of these men was past the middle age, of a hardy but
somewhat worn appearance. The other was in the prime of young manhood, of a
finely-moulded form and an unusually prepossessing face and countenance.
But we may as well let the dialogue that ensued between them disclose their
identity; the matter that was now engaging their attention; and their
reasons for thus appearing in this remote position.
"This piece," said the elder, closely scanning the fragment he held in his
hand, "is evidently oak, and looks mightily as if it was once the stave of
an oak keg or half-barrel. Yes, and here is another that will settle the
question," he continued, pulling from its concealment a larger and sounder
fragment. "There! can't you trace the chine across the end of this?"
"Yes, quite distinctly, and I should not hesitate to pronounce all these
fragments the remains of an oak barrel that had once been opened, or left
here, if I could conceive how such a thing could come here, in the heart of
this extensive wilderness. How do you solve the mystery Mr. Phillips?"
"Well, Claud, I am as much at fault as you. Barrels don't float up stream;
and to suppose this came down stream, and still farther from any
inhabitants, wouldn't help on the explanation any more; while to suppose it
was brought here by hunters through the woods, where they could have no use
for it even if they could get it here, is scarcely more probable."
"True; but can't we get a clue from something else about the place? This
open space, hereabouts, wears something of the aspect of a place from which
the trees have been once cut away, or greatly thinned, out, for some great
encampment, for instance. Did you ever hear of any expedition of men
through this region, in such numbers as would require the transportation of
large quantities of provisions, drawn possibly by oxen, or more probably by
men on light sledges?"
"Well, now, come to think of it, I have. And I guess you have blundered
right smack on the truth, at the first go off; which is more than I can
claim for myself, I admit. Yes, nearly fifty years ago, at the beginning of
the old war, as you must have often read, an army _did_ pass somewhere
through the wilderness of Maine to Quebec. It was under the command of that
fiery Satan, Benedict Arnold,--the only man in America, may be, who could
have pushed an army, at that time of the year, some weeks later in the
season than it is now, through a hundred and fifty miles' reach of such
woods as these are, between our last and the first Canadian settlement. My
father was one of that army of bold and hardy men. They passed up the
Kennebec some distance, and, then, according to his account, left it, and,
with the view of getting over the Highlands on to the Great Megantic more
easily, turned up a branch, which must have been this very stream. Yes, I
see, now. You are right about the appearance of this spot. There _was_ once
a great encampment here, and doubtless that of Arnold's army, staying over
night, and breaking open a barrel of meat, conveyed here in some such way
as you suggested."
"It is an interesting discovery; for that was a remarkable expedition, and
must have been one of great hardship and suffering."
"Hardship and suffering! Why, they fell short of provisions long before
they got out of the wilderness, and, besides the hardships of cold and
fatigue, came near starving to death! I have heard my father tell how he
was one of a party of thirteen, who, with other like squads, were permitted
to scatter forward in search of some inhabitants, for food, lest they all
perished together; how, after going two days without putting a morsel into
their mouths, except their shoe-strings or the inner bark of trees, they at
length were gladdened by the sight of an opening, with a log house, and a
cow standing before the door; how, the instant their eyes fell on the cow,
they ran like blood-hounds for the spot, seized an axe, brought the animal
to the ground, ripped up the hide on one thigh, cut off slices of the
quivering flesh, and, by the time the aroused family had got out into the
yard, were munching and gobbling them down raw, with the desperate
eagerness of ravenous beasts." [Footnote: A historical fact, once related
to the author by an old soldier who was one of the party here described.]
"Horrible! but they paid the poor people for their cow, I trust?"
"Yes, twice-over, but that did not reconcile them to the loss of their only
cow, where it was so difficult to get another. The children screamed, and
even the man and his wife wrung their hands and cried as if their hearts
would break."
"That incident is to me a new feature among the horrors of war, which I
probably should have never heard of but for coming here and making this
curious discovery of one of the relics of that terrible and fruitless
campaign of our Revolution. I am glad we concluded to come."
"So am I; for that, and the other reason that I wanted to see the lay of
the country, round this river, where, as it happened, I had never been. But
my mind misgave me several times, on the way."
"Why so, pray?"
"I can hardly tell, myself, but I began to kinder feel as if something
wrong was going on somewhere, and that, though this place could not be more
than five miles from our upper camp, where we stayed last night, we had yet
better be making our way directly back to the lake. Besides that, I haven't
liked the symptoms of the weather, to-day."
"I don't know that I have noticed any thing peculiar in the weather, except
a chilliness of the air that I have not felt before this season."
"That's the thing," rejoined the hunter, glancing uneasily up through the
treetops, to try to get a view of the sky. "But there are other indications
I don't fancy. There is a peculiar raw dampness in the air, and a sort of
low, moaning sound heard once in a while murmuring along through the
forest, such as I have often noticed before great storms, and sudden
changes from fall to winter weather, this time of the year. And hush!
hark!" he exclaimed, suddenly cutting short his remark, as the well-known,
solemn, and quickly-repeated _konk! konk!_ of wild geese, on their passage,
greeted their ears.
They ran down to the water's edge to get a view of the open sky, when,
looking up, they saw a large flock of these winged, semi-annual voyagers of
the air, coming in view over the forest, in their usual widespread,
harrow-shaped battalions, and with seemingly hurried flight, pitching down
from the British highlands toward the lower regions to the south. And that
flock had scarcely receded beyond hearing, when another, and yet another,
with the same uneasy cries and rapid flight, passed, in quick succession,
over the open reach of sky above them.
"How far do you calculate the nearest shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is
from here?" asked the hunter, musingly.
"O, not so very great a distance,--three hundred miles, perhaps," replied
Claud, looking inquiringly at the other.
"Well," slowly responded the hunter, "those God-taught creatures know more
about the coming changes of the weather than all the philosophers in the
world. These are but the advanced detachments of armies yet behind them,
already, doubtless, on their way from Labrador, and even more northern
coasts beyond. In the unusual mild November we have had, they never
received their warning till this morning. And these, being on the southern
outposts of their summer quarters, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, started at
daylight, I presume,--about four hours ago, just about the time I perceived
a change in the atmosphere myself. This, at the rapid headway you perceive
they are making, would give them time to get here by this hour of the day."
"Then you take this as an indication of the approach of winter weather?"
"I do. And the evident hurriedness of their flight, and the sort of
quickened, anxious tone of their cries, show that _they_, at least, think
it is not far behind them. But let us put all the signs together. I must
get to some place where I can see more of the sky. I noticed, as I was
coming in sight of the river, a short way back in the woods, a high, sharp
hill, with a bare, open top, rising from the river, about a hundred rods up
along here to the left. What suppose we pack up, and go and ascend it? We
can, there, besides getting the view we want of the lay of the country,
see, probably, the horizon nearly all round. And, all this done, we will
then hold a council of war, and decide on our next movement."
This proposal meeting the ready approval of the young man, the two took
their rifles, and proceeded to the foot of the eminence in question, which
they found to be a steep, conical hill, rising abruptly three or four
hundred feet above the general level of the surrounding forest, with a
small, pointed apex, from which some tornado had hurled every standing tree
except a tall, slender green pine, that shot up eighty or ninety feet, as
straight as a flagstaff, from the centre. After a severe scramble up the
steeps, in some places almost perpendicular, they at length reached the
summit, and commenced leisurely walking round the verge, looking down on
the variegated wilderness, which, with its thousand dotted hills and
undulating ridges, lay stretched in cold solitude around them. With only a
general glance, however, over the surrounding forests, the gaze of the
hunter was anxiously lifted upwards, to study the omens of the heavens. The
sun, by this time, was scarcely visible beneath the cold, lurid haze which
had for some hours been gradually stealing over it; while around the
horizon lay piled long, motionless banks of leaden clouds, thick and heavy
enough evidently to be dark, but yet of that light, dead, glazed, uncertain
hue, which the close observer may have often noted as the precursor of
winter-storms. After a long and attentive survey of every visible part of
the heavens, the hunter, with an ominous shake of the head, dropped his
eyes to the ground, and said:
"I was right, but didn't want to believe it when I got up this morning; and
the wild geese are right. We are on the eve of winter, and our best hope is
that it may come gently. But even that favor, I greatly fear, we shall not
be permitted to realize."
"Well, sir, with that view of the case, in which I am inclined to concur,
what do you propose now?" asked Claud.
"Why, I propose, seeing we have all the fur pelts we took from the traps
yesterday put up in packs, and have left nothing in our upper camp of any
consequence,--I propose, that, instead of going back to our nearest marked
line, as we talked of, we strike directly across the woods, by the nearest
route, to our lake camp; or, if you are willing to put up with two or three
miles additional travel, we will steer so as to take the upper camp of your
father and Carvil in our way. We might find them there, perhaps."
"Then let us steer for their camp; I can stand the jaunt. But can you
determine the direction to be taken to strike it?"
"Nearly, I think. Their camp, you know, is on the neck or connecting piece
of river, between two long ponds, lying about southwest of us. I rather
expected to be able to get a glimpse of one of those ponds from the
hilltop, but find I can't. I presume I could, however, from the top of this
pine tree."
"Yes, but to climb it would be a long, and perhaps dangerous task, would it
not?"
"No, neither. We woodsmen are often compelled to resort to such a course,
to take our latitude and bearings. And, on the whole, I think in this case
it might be the cheapest way. So I will up it, and you may be watching for
wild geese, that are still, I perceive, every few minutes, somewhere in
sight. Very likely some flock may soon come over us near enough for a
shot."
So saying, the resolute and active hunter, casting aside coat, cap, and
boots, sprang up several feet on to the clasped trunk of the pine, over
whose rough bark he now, by means of the vigorous clenches of his arms and
legs, fast made his way upwards. It was a hard struggle for him, however,
till he reached the lower limbs, some fifty feet from the ground, when,
swinging himself up by a grappled limb, he quickly disappeared among the
thick, mantling boughs, on his now doubly-rapid ascent; and, in a few
minutes more, he was heard by his companion below, breaking off the
obstructing tiptop branches, and, as he gazed abroad from his dizzy height,
shouting out the discoveries which were the object of his bold attempt.
"Make ready there, below!" he startlingly exclaimed, all at once, after a
long pause, in which he seemed to be silently noting the distant objects in
the forest; "make ready there, below, for a famous large flock of wild
geese, just heaving in sight over the hills, and coming directly to this
spot."
The next moment the expected flock, spread out in columns answering to the
two sides of a triangle, each a quarter of a mile in extent, and the
nearest nearly in a line with the summit where the young huntsman stood,
with raised rifle, awaiting their approach, came in full view, making the
forest resound with their multitudinous and mingling cries, and the loud
beating of their long wings on the air, as they swept onward in their close
proximity to the earth. Singling out the nearest goose of the nearest
column, Claud quickly caught his aim, and fired; when the struck bird, with
a convulsive start, suddenly clasped its wings, and, in its onward impulse,
came down like lightning into the bushes, within five rods from its
exulting captor.
"Done like a marksman,--plumped through and through under the wing. You are
improving, young man," exclaimed the hunter, who now, rapidly coming down,
had reached the foot of the tree, as Claud came forward from the bushes,
with his prize. "It is a fine fat one, ain't it?" he continued, glancing at
the heavy bird, as he was pulling on his boots. "We will take it along with
us for our supper."
"Yes, rather a lucky shot," returned the other, self-complacently. "But
what discoveries did you make up there, that will aid us in our course, Mr.
Phillips?"
"O, that is all settled," answered the latter, putting on his pack, and
buttoning up, preparatory to an immediate start. "I caught glimpses of both
the ponds, noted all the hilltops, ridges, and other noticeable landmarks,
in the line between here and there, and can lead you as straight as a gun
to the spot, for which we will now be off; and the sooner the better, as it
is fast growing colder and colder, and the whole heavens are every moment
growing more dark and dubious."
They then, after making their way down the precipitous side of the hill to
its western foot, struck off, under the lead of the hunter, in a line
through the forest, preserving their points of compass, when none of their
general landmarks were visible, by noting the peculiar weather-beaten
appearance of the mosses on the north sides of the trees, and the usual
inclination of the tips of the hemlocks from west to east. And for the next
hour and a half, on, on they tramped, in Indian file, and almost unbroken
silence, making headway with their long, loping steps, notwithstanding the
obstructing fallen trees, brushwood, and constantly occurring inequalities
of the ground, with a speed which none but practised woodsmen can attain in
the forest, and which is scarcely equalled by the fastest foot-travellers
on the smooth and beaten highways of the open country.
At length they were gratified by an indistinct sight of some body of water,
gleaming dimly through the trees from some point in front; and the walk of
a few hundred yards more brought them out, as it luckily happened, directly
to the camp of which they were in search. It was, however, tenantless;
their companions had already departed; but the bed of live coals in the
usual place, from which the thin vapor was still perceptibly ascending,
showed that they could not have left more than an hour before. In glancing
into the deserted shanty, they descried a clean strip of white birch bark,
lying conspicuously on the ground, a few feet within the entrance. On
picking it up, they were soon enabled to read the following words, traced
with the charred end of a twig:
"Thinking something unusual to be brewing overhead, we
are off for the lake about 10 A. M. CARVIL."
"A very observing, considerate man, that Mr. Carvil," said the hunter,
still musingly keeping his eyes on the unique dispatch. "He is one of the
few book-learned men I have ever known, who could apply science to the
natural philosophy of the woods. I can see how justly he reasoned out this
case: knowing that we had some thought of a jaunt to Dead river this trip,
he judged we should notice the signs of the weather just as we did, and, as
it seems, _he_ did; and that, in consequence, when we got there, we should
decide on the nearest route back, which would bring us so near their camp
that we should be tempted to come to it; and so he left this notice for us
that they thought it wisdom to depart."
While the hunter was thus delivering himself, as he stood by the fire
before the entrance, spreading out his hands over the coals, Claud went
inside, and, returning with two fine, fresh trout, which the late occupants
had, for some cause, left behind them, held them up to his musing
companion, and exclaimed:
"Look here, Mr. Phillips,--see what they have left for us!"
"Good!" cried the hunter, rousing himself, "for, whether they left them by
design or mistake, they come equally well in play at this time. You out
with your knife and split them through the back, and I will prepare the
coals. We will roast them for a lunch, which will refresh and strengthen us
for the ten or twelve miles walk that is still to be accomplished, before
reaching the lake."
After dispatching the welcome meal, which in this primitive fashion they
had prepared for themselves out of the material thus unexpectedly come to
hand, and enjoying the half-hour's rest consequent on the grateful
occupation, they again swung on their packs, and, striking into one of the
marked lines of their companions, set forth with fresh vigor on their
journey. Their walk, however, was a long and dreary one. Contrary to what
they had ever before experienced, in jaunts of this length through the
woods, not a single hunting adventure occurred, to enliven the tedium of
the way. For, although the heavens above were made vocal with the screams
of wild geese, still pouring along in their hurried flight to the south, to
escape the elemental foe behind, like the rapidly succeeding detachments of
some retreating army, yet not a living creature, biped or quadruped, was
anywhere to be heard or seen in the forest beneath. All seemed to have
instinctively shrunk away and fled, as from the presence of some impending
evil, to their dens and coverts, there to await, cowering and silent, the
dreaded outbreak. Slowly, but steadily, the lurid storm-clouds were
gathering in the heavens, bringing shade after shade over the darkening
wilderness. Low, hollow murmurs in the troubled air were now heard,
ominously stealing along the wooded hills; and now, in the sharp, momentary
rattling of the seared beech-leaves, the whole forest seemed shivering in
the dead chill that was settling over the earth. The cold, indeed, was now
becoming so intense as to congeal and skim over all the pools and still
eddies of the river, and make solid ice along the shores of the rapid
currents of the stream; while even the ground was fast becoming so frozen
as to clumper and sound beneath the hurrying tread of our anxious
travellers. By three in the afternoon, it had become so dark that they
could scarcely see the white blazings on the sides of the trees, by which
they were guided in their course; and in less than another hour, they were
stumbling along almost in utter darkness, uncertain of their way, and
nearly despairing of reaching their destination that night. But, while they
were on the point of giving up the attempt, the bright glare of an
ascending blaze, shooting fiercely through the thickets before them,
greeted their gladdened eyes, and put them on exertions that soon brought
them rejoicing into the comfortable quarters of their almost equally
gratified friends and comrades; where it was at once decided that, instead
of proceeding to their own camp, to build a fire and lodge, they should
turn in for the night.
After some time passed in the animated and cheery interchange of inquiries
and opinions, which usually succeeds on the meeting of anxiously-sought or
expected friends, Claud and Phillips, having by this time warmed and
measurably rested themselves, took hold with Carvil and Mark Elwood in
dressing and cooking for supper and for breakfast the next morning, Claud's
goose, and a pair of fine ducks from a flock which the two latter had
encountered just before reaching camp that afternoon; and, after completing
this process with their good supply of game, and the more agreeable one of
eating so much of it as served for a hearty supper, they drew up an extra
quantity of fuel for the large fire which they felt it would be necessary
to keep up through the night; and then, seating themselves in camp, went
into an earnest consultation on the measures and movements next to be
taken. When, in view of the lateness of the season, coupled as it was with
the alarming portents of an immediate storm, which they had all noticed, it
was unanimously determined that they should embark, early next morning, for
head-quarters on the Maguntic, where Gaut Gurley, instead of preparing to
come round again, as was now nearly his usual time to do, would, under the
altered aspect of things, doubtless be awaiting them, and making
arrangements for the return of all to the settlement. Then, building up a
fire of solid logs, for long burning, the tired woodsmen drew up their
bough-pillows towards the entrance of the camp, so as to bring their feet
near the fire, closely wrapped their thick blankets around them, lay down,
and were soon buried in sound slumber. And it was well for them that they
were thus early taking their needed rest; for, soon after midnight, they
were awakened by the lively undulations of the piercing cold air that was
driving and whistling through the sides of their camp, and by the puffs of
suffocating smoke that the eddying winds were ever and anon driving from
their fire directly into their faces. One after another they rose, and ran
out to see what had caused the, to them, sudden change that had occurred in
the air since they went to sleep. And they were not long in ascertaining
the truth. The expected storm had set in, with that low, deep commotion of
the elements, and that slowly gathering impetus, which, as may often be
noted at the commencement of great storms, was but the too certain prelude
of its increase and duration. The fine snow was sifting down apace to the
already whitened ground, and the rising wind, even in their mountain-hemmed
nook, was whirling in fierce and fitful eddies about their camp, and
shrilly piping among the strained branches of the vexed forest around;
while its loud and awful roar, as it careered along the sides of the
distant mountains, told with what strength and fury the storm was
commencing over the country at large. In the situation in which the company
now found themselves, neither sleep, comfort, nor quiet were to be expected
for the remainder of the night. They therefore piled high the wood on their
fire, and gathered round the hot blaze, to protect them from the cold, that
had now not only grown more intense, but become doubly difficult to
withstand, from the force with which it was brought by the driving blasts
in contact with their shivering persons. And thus,--in alternately turning
their backs and fronts to the fire, while standing in one place, and often
shifting places from one side of the fire to the other; in now taking
refuge within their camp when the constantly veering gusts bore the smoke
and flame outward, and then fleeing out of it when the stifling column was
driven inward; but finding no peace nor rest anywhere, among those shifts
and commotions of the battling elements,--they wore away the long and
comfortless hours of that dreary night, till the return of morning light,
which, after many a vain prayer for its speedier appearance, at length
gradually broke over the storm-invested wilderness.
As soon as it was light enough to see objects abroad, or see them as well
as they can ever be discerned through the fast-falling snow of such a
driving storm, Phillips and Carvil sallied out through the snow, already
eight inches deep, and made their way down to the nearest shore of the
lake, about a quarter of a mile distant, to ascertain the condition of the
water before embarking upon it in their canoes, as they had designed to do
immediately after breakfast. On reaching the shore, they found the narrow
bay, before mentioned as forming the estuary of the two rivers on which
they had been located, comparatively calm, though filled with congealing
snow and floating ice from the rivers. But all beyond the line of the two
points of land inclosing the bay was rolling and tumbling in wild
commotion, madly lashing the rocky headlands with the foaming waters, and
resounding abroad over the hills with the deep, hoarse roar of the
tempest-beaten breakers of the ocean.
"Do you see and hear that?" exclaimed Phillips, pointing to the lake.
"Yes, yes; but what was that I just caught a glimpse of, out there in the
offing, to the right?" hastily cried Carvil.
They both peered forward intently; and the next moment they saw a canoe,
containing a single rower, low bending to his oar, shoot by the northern
headland with the speed of an arrow, strike obliquely out of the white line
of rolling waves into the bay, and make towards the point where they stood.
"Who can it be?" inquired Carvil, after watching a while in silence the
slow approach of the obstructed canoe.
"In a minute more we shall see," replied the hunter, bending forward to get
a view of the man's face, which, being seen the next moment, he added, with
a shout: "Hallo, there, Codman, is that you? Why didn't you crow, to let us
know who was coming?"
"Crow?" exclaimed the trapper, driving through the ice to the shore; "did
you ever hear a rooster crow in a time like this? There! I am safe, at
last," he added, leaping out upon the shore, and glancing back with a
dubious shake of the head towards the scene from which he had thus escaped.
"Yes, safe now, for all my fright; but I would not be out another hour on
that terrible lake for all the beaver in the province of Maine! I started
at daylight, got out a mile or two, tolerably, but after that, Heaven only
knows how I rode on those wild waves without swamping! But no matter,--I am
here."
"But where is Tomah, the Indian?" asked the hunter.
"Tomah!" said Codman, in surprise. "Why, haven't you seen him? He went off
three days ago, saying he must return to the settlement, to be training his
moose to the sledge, so as to start for Boston with him, the first snow. He
said he should leave it with Gaut Gurley to see to his share of the furs. I
supposed he would call at one of your camps. But come, move on. I suppose
you have a fire at camp, and something to eat; I am frozen to death, and
starved to death, besides being more than half-dead from the great scaring
I've had; but that's all over now, and I'm keen for breakfast. So troop
along back to your camp, I say."
To return to camp, take their cold and comfortless breakfast, and decide on
the now hard alternatives of remaining where they were, to await the event
of the storm, without provisions, and with their imperfect means of
protection from the rigor of the elements, or of starting off through the
cumbering snow beneath their feet, and the driving tempest above their
heads, with the hope of reaching head-quarters by land, before another
night should overtake them, was but the work of half an hour. To remain,
with the foretaste of the past and the prospects of the future, was a
thought so forbidding that none of them could for a moment entertain it;
and to set out to travel by land, with such prospects, over the mountains,
by the long, winding route on the eastern side of the lake,--which was the
only one left to them, and which could not be less than fifteen miles in
extent,--was a scarcely less forbidding alternative. But it must be
adopted. So, gathering in their steel traps and iron utensils, they buried
them all, except their lightest hatchet, under a log, that they should not
be encumbered with more weight than was absolutely necessary; snugly
packing up the few peltries they had taken since Gaut Gurley had been
round, and putting the scanty remains of their food into their pockets, for
a lunch on the way, they set forth on their formidable undertaking.
Led on and guided by the calm and resolute hunter,--who at different times
had been over the whole way, and in whose skill and discretion, as a
woodsman, for conducting them by the nearest and easiest route, they all
had undoubting confidence,--they vigorously made their way onwards through
the accumulating snows and natural obstructions of the forest; now
threading the thickets of the valleys; now skirting the sides of the hills;
now crossing deep ravines; and now climbing high mountains in their
toilsome march. And, though the storm seemed to rage more and more fiercely
with the advancing hours of the day,--whirling clouds of blinding snow in
their faces, hurling the decayed limbs and trunks of the older tenants of
the wood to the earth around them, in the fury of its blasts, and rattling
and creaking through the colliding branches of the writhing green trees, as
it swept over the wilderness,--yet, for all these difficulties of the way
and commotions of the elements, they faltered not, but continued to move
forward in stern and moody silence, hour after hour, in the footsteps of
their indomitable leader, until they reached the extreme eastern point of
the lake, where their destination required them to turn round it, in a
sharp angle to the west. Here, at the suggestion of their leader, who made
the encouraging announcement that the worst half of their journey was
accomplished, they made a halt, under the lee of a sheltering mountain, for
rest and refreshment. And, sitting down on a fallen tree, from whose
barkless trunk they brushed off the snow, they took out and commenced
chewing their stale and frozen bread, with a few small pieces of duck-meat,
remaining from their breakfast, and comprising the last of their
provisions. The animal heat, produced by their great and continued
exertions in travelling, had thus far prevented them, from suffering much
from the cold, or perceiving its actual intensity. But they had been at
rest scarcely long enough to finish their meagre repast, when they were
driven from their seats by the chill of the invading element, and were
eagerly demanding, as a lesser annoyance, again to be led forward on their
journey. The snow by this time had accumulated to the depth of a foot and a
half, and still came swiftly sifting down aslant to the earth, without the
least sign of abatement; while the wind, which was before a gale, had now
risen to a hurricane, causing the smitten earth to tremble and shake under
the force of the terrible blasts that went shrieking and howling through
the bowed, bending, and twisting forests, where
"The sturdiest birch its strength was feeling,
And pine trees dark and tall
To and fro were madly reeling,
Or dashing headlong in their fall."
But, still undismayed by these manifestations of elemental power around
them, or the prospects before them, all terrific and disheartening as they
were, and nerved by the consciousness that their only chance of escape from
a fearful death depended on their exertions, the bold and hardy woodsmen
again started out into the trackless waste, and labored desperately onward,
mile after mile, through the impeding snow; sometimes taken to the armpits
in its gathering drifts, and sometimes thrown at full length beneath its
submerging depths by stepping into some hole or chasm it had concealed from
their sight. And thus resolutely did they beat and buffet their rough way
through the perplexed and roaring wilderness, and thus stoutly did they
bear up against the constantly thickening dangers that environed them
during the last part of that dreadful day. But, as night drew on, their
strength and spirits began to flag and give way. The cold was increasing in
intensity. The tempest howled louder than ever over their heads, and the
snow had become so deep and drifted that furlongs became as miles in their
progress. And yet, as they supposed, they were miles from their
destination. At length, one after another, they faltered and stopped. The
strong men quailed at the fate which seemed staring them in the face, and
they were on the point of giving up in despair. But hark! that cheery shout
which rises above the roaring of the wind, from their more hardy and
hopeful leader, who, while all others stopped, had pushed on some thirty
rods in advance. It comes again!
"Courage, men! We have struck the river, at whose mouth stands our camp,
now not half a mile distant."
Aroused by the glad tidings, that sent a thrill of joy through their
sinking hearts, they sprang forward, with the revivified energies which new
and suddenly-lighted hope will sometimes so strangely impart, and were soon
by the side of the exulting hunter; when together they rushed and
floundered along down the banks of the stream towards the place, in joyful
excitement at the thought that their troubles were now so nearly over, and
with visions of the comfortable quarters, warm fires, and smoking suppers,
which they confidently expected were awaiting them at camp, brightly
dancing before them. Joy and hope lent wings to their speed; and, in a
short time, they could discern the open place and the well-remembered
outlines of the locality where the camp was situated. But no bright light
greeted their expectant eyes. They were now at the spot, but, to their
utter consternation, no camp was to be seen! Could they be mistaken in the
place? No; there was the open path leading to the structure; there rose the
steep side of the hill; and there, at the foot of it, stood the
perpendicular rock against which it was erected! What could it mean? After
standing a moment in mute amazement, peering inquiringly at each other, in
the fading twilight, they started forward for the rock, and, in so doing,
came upon the two front posts, still standing up some feet out of the snow.
They were black and charred! The sad truth then flashed over their minds.
Their camp had been burnt to the ground, and with it, also, probably, their
rich collection of furs,--nearly the whole fruit of all the toils and
fatigues of their expedition! O death, death! what shall save the poor
trappers, now?
"Great God! I have had a presentiment of this," exclaimed Phillips, the
first to find utterance, in a voice trembling with unwonted emotion.
"How could it have happened?" and "Where is Gaut Gurley?" simultaneously
burst from the lips of the others.
"Well may you, ask those questions, and well couple them together, I
fancy," responded the hunter, with bitter significance. "But away with all
speculations about _that_, now. We have something that more nearly concerns
us to attend to, in this strait, than forming conjectures about the loss of
our property: our lives are at stake! If you will mind me, however, you may
all yet be saved."
"Direct us, direct us, and we will obey," eagerly responded one and all.
"Two of you follow me, then, for something dry, if we can find it, for a
fire, and the rest go to kicking away and treading down the snow under the
rock, with all your might!" sharply commanded the hunter, dashing his way
towards the thickets, with hatchet in hand.
With that ready obedience which a superior in energy and experience will
always command among his fellows, in emergencies like this, the men went to
work in earnest. In a short time the snow was cleared away or beat down
compactly over a space some yards in extent along the side of the rock,
while the others soon returned with a supply of the driest wood to be
found, together with an armfull of hemlock boughs, to strew over the beaten
snow. The next thing requiring their attention was the all-important object
of starting a fire. But in this they were doomed to sad disappointment.
Their punk-wood tinder had been so dampened by the snow sifting into their
coat-pockets, where they had deposited it, that it could not be made to
catch the sparks of the smitten steel. They then tried the flashing of
their guns; but they had no paper, and could find no dry leaves or fleecy
bark of the birch, and the finest splinters or shavings they could whittle,
in the dark, from the clefts of the imperfectly dry pine, would not take
fire from the light, evanescent flash of the powder in their pans. Again
and again did they renew the doubtful experiment; but every succeeding
trial, from the dampness of their material in the driving snow, and from
the unmanageable condition of their benumbed fingers and shivering frames,
became more and more hopeless, till at length they were compelled to
relinquish wholly the fruitless attempt.
"This is a calamity, indeed!" exclaimed the hunter. "I feared it might be
so from the first. Could we have foreseen the want, so as to have been on
the lookout for material coming along, or have got here before dark, it
might have been averted. But as it is, there is one resort left for us, if
we would live in this terrible wind and cold till morning, and that is, to
keep in constant and lively motion. Whoever lies down to sleep is a dead
man!"
But he found it difficult to impress on the minds of most of them his idea
of the danger of ceasing motion. They began to say they felt more
comfortable now, and, being very tired, must lay down to take a little
rest. Sharply forbidding the indulgence, the hunter sallied out, cut and
trimmed two or three green beech switches, and returned with them to his
wondering companions; when, finding Mark Elwood, in disregard of his
warning, already down and dozing on a bunch of boughs under the rock, he
sternly exclaimed:
"Up, there, in an instant!"
"O, let me lie," begged the unconsciously freezing man: "do let me lie a
little while. I am almost warm, now, but very, very sleepy," he added,
sinking away again into a doze.
Instantly a smart blow from the tough and closely-setting switch of the
hunter fell upon the outstretched legs of the dozer, who cringed and
groaned, but did not start. Another and another, and yet another, fell with
the quickness and force of a pedagogue's rod on the legs of an offending
urchin, till the aroused, maddened and enraged victim of the seeming
cruelty leaped to his feet, and, with doubled fists, rushed upon the
assailant, who darted off into the snow and led his pursuer a doubling race
of several hundred yards before he returned to the spot.
"There are some spare switches," resumed the active and stout-hearted
hunter, as he came in a little ahead of the puffing, reanimated, and now
pacified Elwood; "take them in hand, and do the same by me, if you see me
going the same way; it is our only salvation!"
But, notwithstanding all this preaching, and the obvious effects of this
wholesome example, others of the company, deceived by the insidious
sensation which steals upon the unsuspecting victims of such exposures, as
the treacherous herald of their death,--others, in turn, required and
promptly received the application of the same strange remedy. But this
could not always last. The fatigue of their previously overtasked systems
prevented them from keeping up their exertions many hours more; and,
declaring they could bear up no longer, one after another sunk down under
the rock; and even their hitherto indomitable leader himself now visibly
relaxed, and at length threw himself down with the rest, feebly murmuring:
"I know what this feeling means; but it is so sweet! let us all die
together!"
At that instant a shock, quickly followed by the loud, gathering rumblings
of an earthquake, somewhere above them, suddenly aroused and brought every
man to his feet. And the next moment an avalanche of snow, sweeping down
the steep side of the rock-faced declivity above, shot obliquely over their
heads to the level below, leaving them unharmed, but buried twenty feet
beneath the outward surface.
"Now, God be praised!" cried the hunter, at once comprehending what had
happened, and starting forward to feel out what space was left them between
their shielding rock in the rear and the wedged and compact slant snow-wall
in front, which, with the no less deeply blocked ends, formed the roof and
sides of their new and thus strangely built prison-house. "This is the work
of Providence! We are now, at least, safe from the cold, as you will all, I
think, soon have the pleasure of perceiving."
"You are right, Mr. Phillips," responded Carvil; "and it is strange some of
us did not think of building a snow-house at the outset. Even the wild
partridges, that in coldest weather protect themselves by burrowing in the
snow, might have taught us the lesson."
"Yes, but it has been far better done in the way God has provided for us.
And we have only now to get our blood into full circulation to insure us
safety and rest through the night; and let us do this by shaking out our
boughs, and treading down the snow, as smooth as a floor, to receive them
for our bedding."
"It may be as you say about its being mild here, Mr. Phillips," doubtingly
observed Mark Elwood; "but it seems strange philosophy to me, that being
inclosed in snow, the coldest substance in nature, should make us warmer
than in the open air."
"And still I suspect it is a fact, father," said Claud. "The Esquimaux, and
other nations of the extreme north, it is known, live in snow-houses,
without fire, the whole of their long and rigorous winters."
"O, Phillips is right enough about _that_," added Codman, now evidently
fast regaining his usual buoyancy of spirits; "yes, right enough about
_that_, whether he was about that plaguey switching he gave us, or not.
Why, I can feel a great change in the air here already! warm enough, soon;
safe, at any rate; so, hurra for life and home, which, being once so
honestly lost, will now be clear gain. Hurra! whoo-rah! whoo-rah-ee!
Kuk-kuk-ke-o-ho!"
And the hunter _was_ right, and the trapper was right. Their perils and
physical sufferings were over. They were not only safe, but fast becoming
comfortable. And, by the time they had trod down the snow as hard and
smooth as had been proposed, and shaken out the boughs and distributed them
for their respective beds, the air seemed as warm as that of a mild day in
October. Their clothes were smoking and becoming dry by the evaporation of
the dampness caused by the snow. Their limbs had become pliant, and their
whole systems restored to their wonted warmth and circulation. And,
wrapping themselves in their blankets, they laid down--as they knew they
could now safely do--and were soon lost in refreshing slumber, from which
they did not awake till a late hour the next morning.
When they awoke, after their deep slumbers, they at once concluded, from
the altered and lighter hue of all around them, as well as by their own
feelings, that it must be day without; and with one accord commenced, with
their hatchets, cutting and digging a hole through the wall of their snowy
prison-house, in the place where they judged it most likely to be thinnest.
After working by turns some thirty or forty minutes, and cutting or beating
out an upward passage eight or ten yards in extent, they suddenly broke
through into the open air. The roaring of the storm no longer greeted their
ears. The terrible conflict of the elements, which yesterday kept the
heavens and earth in such hideous commotion, was over and gone. Though it
was as cold as in the depths of winter, the sky was almost cloudless; and
the sun, already far on his diurnal circuit, was glimmering brightly over
the dreary wastes of the snow-covered wilderness. By common consent, they
then packed up, and immediately commenced beating their slow and toilsome
way towards the nearest habitation, which was that of the old chief, now
only about five miles distant, over land, on the shore of the lake below.
With far less fatigue and other suffering, save that of hunger, than they
had anticipated, they reached the hospitable cabin of Wenongonet before
night. Here their wants were supplied; here an earnest discussion--in which
they were aided by the shrewd surmises of the chief--was held, respecting
the burning of their camp and the probable loss of their common property;
and, finally, here, though the "_Light of the Lodge_" was absent at her
city home, they were agreeably entertained through the night and succeeding
day,--when, the lakes having become frozen over sufficiently strong to make
travelling on the ice as safe as it was convenient and easy, they, on the
second morning after their arrival at his house, bade their entertainer
good-by, and set out for their homes in the settlement, which they
respectively reached by daylight, to the great relief of their anxious and
now overjoyed families and friends.