Gaut Gurley

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"Such was one of Wright's intuitive grasps at the truth, hid under the
false notions of the times, or the artificial theories of books, which he
was wasting his life to master, and often only mastering to despise. And I,
being now earnestly in search of the best means of health, eagerly caught
at his notion, which placed the matter in a light in which I had never
before seriously viewed it, and, indeed, struck me with a force that soon
brought me to a dead stand in all my calculations for the future. 'What is
it,' thought I, running into a sort of mental dialogue with myself, and
calling in what little true science I had learned, to aid me in fully
testing the soundness of the notion, before I finally gave in to it; 'what
is it that hardens the muscles, and compacts the human system?'--'Thorough
exercise, and constant use.'--'Can these be had in the study-room?'
'No.'--'And what is the invigorating and fattening principle of the air we
breathe?'--'Oxygen.'--'Can this be had in the close or artificially-heated
room?'--'No, except in stinted and uncertain proportions. It can be
breathed in the open fields, but much more abundantly in the
woods.'--'Well, what do I need?'--'Only hardening and invigorating.'--'But
shall I go to the relaxing clime of the South for this?'--'No; the northern
wilderness were a hundred times better.'--'It is settled,
then.'--'Landlord,' I cried aloud, as I saw that personage at that moment
passing by my partly open door, 'when does the first stage, going north,
start?'

"'In twenty minutes, and from my door.'

"'Order on my luggage, here; make out your bill; and I will be on hand.'

"And I was on hand at the time, and the next hour on my way home, which I
duly reached, but only to start off immediately to the residence of a
hunter acquaintance, a dozen miles off, who, I knew, was about to start for
the head-waters of the Connecticut, on his annual fall hunting expedition.
I found him, joined him, and within ten days was entering, with pack and
rifle, the unbroken wilderness, by his side, though with many misgivings.
But my first night out tested and settled the matter forever. We had had a
fatiguing march, at least to me, and the last part of it in the rain. We
had to lay down in a leaking camp, and I counted myself a dead man. But, to
my astonishment, I awoke the next morning, unhurt, and even feeling better
than I had for a month. And I constantly grew better and hardier, through
that and my next year's campaign in that region, and through the two
succeeding ones I made on the Great Megantic; where the incident which I
propose to relate to you, it being my best strike in moose-hunting,
occurred, and which happened in this wise:

"It was a raw, gloomy day in November, and I had been lazily lying in my
solitary camp, on the borders of this magnificent lake, all the forenoon.
But, after dinner, I began to feel a little more like action, and soon
concluded I would explore a sort of creek-looking stream, four or five rods
wide, which I had noticed entering the lake about a mile off, but which I
had never entered. Accordingly, I loaded my rifle, took my powder-horn, put
two spare bullets in my vest-pocket, not supposing I could have use for
more, entered my canoe, and pulled leisurely away for the place. After
reaching and entering this sluggish stream, I went on paddling and pushing
my way along through and under the overhanging bushes and treetops,
something like half a mile, when I came to higher banks and a series of
knolls jutting down to the stream, which, with frequent sharp curves and
crooks, wound its way among them. On turning one of these sharp points, my
eyes suddenly encountered a sight that made my heart jump. On a high, open,
and almost bare bluff, directly before me, and not fifteen rods distant,
stood two tremendous moose, as unconcernedly as a pair of oxen chewing
their cuds, or dozing in a pasture. The last was unusually large, the
biggest a monster, appearing, to my wide-opened eyes, with his eight or
nine foot height, and ten or eleven foot spread of antlers, as he stood up
there against the sky, like some reproduced mastodon of the old legends.
Quietly falling back and running in under a screening treetop, I pulled
down a branch and put in under my foot to hold and steady my canoe. When I
raised my rifle, I aimed it for the heart of the big moose, and fired. But,
to my great surprise, the animal never stirred nor moved a muscle.
Supposing I had somehow unaccountably missed hitting him, even at all, I
fell, with nervous haste, to reloading my piece; and, having got all right,
as I supposed, I raised it this time towards the smaller moose, standing a
little nearer and presenting a fairer mark; took a long and careful aim,
and again let drive; but again without the least effect. Utterly confounded
to have missed a second time, with so fair a shot, I stood half confused a
moment, first querying whether something was not the matter with my eyes,
and then thinking of stories I had heard of witches turning away bullets
from their object. But I soon mechanically began to load up again; and,
having got in my powder, I put my hand in my pocket for a bullet, when I
found there both the balls I had brought with me from camp, and
consequently knew that in my eager haste in loading for my last shot, I had
neglected to put in any bullet at all! But I now put in the bullet, looked
at it after it was entered, to make sure it was there, and then felt it all
the way down, till I had rammed it home. I then raised the luckless piece
once more, uncertain at first which of the two moose I should take, this
time. But, seeing the smaller one beginning to move his head and lay back
his horns, which I well enough knew was his signal for running, I instantly
decided to take _him_, took a quick, good aim, and fired. With three
dashing bounds forward, the animal plunged headlong to the ground. Knowing
that one to be secure, at least, I then turned my attention to the big one.
To my astonishment, he was still there, and, notwithstanding all the
firing, had not moved an inch. But, before I got loaded for another trial
upon him, I looked up again, when a motion in his body had become plainly
visible. Presently he began to sway to and fro, like a rocking tower, and,
the next moment, went over broadside, with a thundering crash, into the
bushes. My first shot, it appeared, had, after all, done the business,
having pierced his lungs and caused an inward flow of blood, that stopped
his breath at the time he fell. All was now explained, except the wonder
that such shy animals should stand so much firing without running. But the
probability is, that, not seeing me, they took the reports of my rifle for
some natural sound, such as that of thunder, or the falling of a tree;
while, perhaps, the great one, when he was hit, was too much paralyzed to
move, by the rupture of some important nerve. But, however that may be, you
have the facts by which to judge for yourselves. And I have now only to
add, that, having gone to the spot, bled, partially dressed the animals,
and got them into a condition to be left, I went off to the nearest camps
and rallied out help; when, after much toil and tugging, we got the
carcases home to my shanty, for present eating, curing, and distributing
among the neighboring hunters, who soon flocked in to congratulate me on my
singular good luck, and receive their ever freely-bestowed portions, and
who unanimously pronounced my big prize the largest moose ever slain in all
the regions of the Great Megantic."

THE TRAPPER'S STORY.

"My story," commenced the trapper, who was next called on for his promised
contribution to the entertainment of the evening, "my story is of a
different character from the one you have just heard. It don't run so much
to the great and terrible as the small and curious. It may appear to you
perhaps a little queer, in some parts; but which, after the modest drafts
that have been made on my credulity, you will, of course, have the good
manners to believe. It relates to an adventure in beaver-hunting, which I
met with, many years ago, on Moosehead Lake, where I served my
apprenticeship at trapping. I had established myself in camp, the last of
August, about the time the beavers, after having collected in communities,
and established their never-failing democratic government, generally get
fairly at work on their dams and dwelling-houses, for the ensuing cold
months, in places along the small streams, which they have looked out and
decided on for the purpose. I was thus early on the ground, in order to
have time, before I went to other hunting, to look up the localities of the
different societies, so that I need not blunder on them and disturb them,
in the chase for other animals, and so that I should know where to find
them, when their fur got thick enough to warrant the onslaught upon them
which I designed to make.

"In hunting for these localities in the vicinity around me, I soon
unexpectedly discovered marks of what I thought must be a very promising
one, situated on a small stream, not over half a mile in a bee-line over
the hills from my camp. When I discovered the place,--as I did from
encountering, at short intervals in the woods, two wolverines, always the
great enemy and generally the prowling attendant of assembled
beavers,--these curious creatures had just begun to lay the foundation of
their dam. And the place being so near, and the nights moon-light, I
concluded I would go over occasionally, evenings,--the night being the only
time when they can ever be seen engaged on their work,--and see if I could
gain some covert near the bank, where, unperceived, I might watch their
operations, and obtain some new knowledge of their habits, of which I might
thereafter avail myself, when the season for hunting them arrived.
Accordingly, I went over that very evening, in the twilight, secured a
favorable lookout, and laid in wait for the appearance of the beavers.
Presently I was startled by a loud rap, as of a small paddle struck
flatwise on the water, then another, and another, in quick succession. It
was the signal of the master workman, for all the workers to leave their
hiding-places in the banks, and repair to their labors in making the dam.
The next moment the whole stream seemed to be alive with the numbers in
motion. I could hear them, sousing and plunging in the water, in every
direction,--then swimming and puffing across or up and down the
stream,--then scrambling up the banks,--then the auger-like sound of their
sharp teeth, at work on the small trees,--then soon the falling of the
trees,--then the rustling and tugging of the creatures, in getting the
fallen trees out of the water,--and, finally, the surging and splashing
with which they came swimming towards the ground-work of the dam, with the
butt end of those trees in their mouths. The line of the dam they had
begun, passed with a curve up stream in the middle, so as to give it more
strength to resist the current; across the low-water bed of the river some
five rods; and extended up over the first low bank, about as much farther,
to a second and higher bank, which must have bounded the water at the
greatest floods. They had already cut, drawn on, and put down, a double
layer of trees, with their butts brought up evenly to the central line, and
their tops pointing in opposite directions,--those of one layer, or row,
pointing up, and those of the other, down stream. Among and under this line
of butts had been worked in an extra quantity of limbs, old wood, and short
bushes, so as to give the centre an elevation of a foot or two, over the
lowest part of the sides, which, of course, fell off considerably each way
in the lessening of the tops of the trees, thus put down. Over all these
they had plastered mud, mixed in with stones, grass, and moss, so thick as
not only to hold down securely the bodies of the trees, but nearly conceal
them from sight.

"Scarcely had I time to glance over these works, which I had not approached
near enough to inspect much, before the beavers from below, and above came
tugging along, by dozens on a side to the lower edges of their embankment,
with the loads or rafts of trees which they had respectively drawn to the
spot. Lodging these on the solid ground, with the ends just out of water,
they relinquished their holds, mounted the slopes, paused a minute to take
breath, and then, seizing these ends again, drew them, with the seeming
strength of horses, out of the water and up to the central line on top;
laid the stems or bodies of the trees parallel, and as near together as
they could be got; and adjusted the butt ends, as I have stated they did
with the foundation layers, so as to bring them to a sort of joint on the
top. They then all went off for new loads, with the exception of a small
squad, a part of which were still holding their trees in a small space in
the dam, where the current had not been checked, and the other part
bringing stones, till they had confined the trees down to the bottom, so
that they would not be swept away. This task of filling the gap, however,
after some severe struggling with the current, was before long
accomplished; when those engaged upon it joined in the common work, in
which they steadily persevered till this second double layer of trees, with
the large quantities of short bushes which they brought and wove into the
chinks, near the top, was completed, through the whole length of their dam.
They then collected along on the top of the dam, and seemed to hold a sort
of consultation, after which they scattered for the banks of the stream,
but soon returned, walking on their hind legs, and each bringing a load of
mud or stones, held between his fore paws and throat. These loads were
successively deposited, as they came up, among the stems and interlacing
branches of the trees and bushes they had just laid down, giving each
deposited pile, as they turned to go back, a smart blow with the flat of
their broad thick tails, producing the same sound as the one I have
mentioned as the signal-raps for calling them out to work, only far less
loud and sharp, since the former raps were struck on water, and the latter
on mud or rubbish. Thus they continued to work,--and work, too, with a
will, if any creatures ever did,--till I had seen nearly the whole of the
last layers plastered over.

"Thinking now I had seen all that would be new and useful to me, I
noiselessly crept away and returned to camp, to lay awake half the night,
in my excitement, and to dream, the other half, about this magnificent
society of beavers, whose numbers I could not make less than three dozen.
I did not go to steal another view of the place for nearly a week, and then
went in the daytime, there now being no moon, till late,--when, to my
surprise, I found the dam finished, and the river flowed into a pond of
several acres, while on each side, ranged along, one after another, stood
three family dwellings in different states of progress; some of them only
rising to the surface of the water, showing the nature of the structure,
which, you know, is built up with short, small logs, and mud, in a squarish
form, of about the size of a large chimney; while others, having been built
up a foot or two above the water, and the windows fashioned, had been
arched over with mud and sticks, and were already nearly finished.

"Knowing that the establishment was now so nearly completed that the
beavers would not relinquish it without being disturbed by the presence of
a human foe,--which they will sometimes detect, I think, at nearly a
quarter of a mile distance,--I concluded to keep entirely away from them
till the time of my contemplated onslaught, which I finally decided to
begin on one of the first days of the coming November.

"Well, what with hunting deer, bear, and so on, for food, and lynx, otter,
and sable, for furs, the next two months passed away, and the long
anticipated November at length arrived; when, one dark, cloudy day, having
cut a lot of bits of green wood for bait, got out my vial of castor to
scent them with, and got my steel traps in order, with these equipments and
my rifle I set off, for the purpose of commencing operations, of some kind,
on my community of beavers. On reaching the spot, I crept to my old covert
with the same precautions I had used on my former visits, thinking it
likely enough that, on so dark a day, some of the beavers might be out;
and, wishing to know how this was, before proceeding openly along, the
banks to look out the right places to set my traps, I listened a while, but
could hear no splashing about the pond, or detect any _other_ sounds
indicating that the creatures were astir; but, on peering out, I saw a
large, old beaver perched in a window of one of the beaver-houses on the
opposite shore. I instinctively drew up my rifle,--for it was a fair shot,
and I knew I could draw him,--but I forbore, and contented myself with
watching his motions. I might have lain there ten minutes, perhaps, when
this leader, or judge in the beaver Israel, as he soon showed himself to
be, quietly slid out into the water, swam into a central part of the pond,
and, after swimming twice or three times round in a small circle, lifted
his tail on high, and slowly and deliberately gave three of those same old
loud and startling raps on the water. He then swam back to his cabin, and
ascended an open flat on the bank, where all the underbrush had been cut
and cleared off in building the dam. In a few minutes more, a large number
of beavers might be seen hastening to the spot, where they ranged
themselves in a sort of circle, so as just to inclose the old beaver which
came first, and which had now taken his stand on a little moss hillock, on
the farther side of the little opening, to which he had thus called them,
and, evidently, for some important public purpose. Soon another small band
of the creatures made their appearance on the bank above, seeming to have
in custody two great, lubberly, cowed-down looking beavers, that they were
hunching and driving along, as legal officers sometimes have to do with
_their_ prisoners, when taking them to some dreaded punishment. When this
last band reached the place, with these two culprit-looking fellows, they
pushed them forward in front of the judge, as we will call him, and then
fell into the ranks, so as to close up the circle. There was then a long,
solemn pause, in which they all kept still in their places round the
prisoners, which had crouched sneaking down, without stirring an inch from
the places where they had been put. Soon, however, a great, fierce,
gruff-appearing beaver left the ranks, and, advancing a few steps within
them, reared himself on his haunches, and began to sputter and gibber away
at a great rate, making his fore-paws go like the hands of some over-heated
orator; now motioning respectfully towards the judge, and now spitefully
towards the prisoners, as if he was making bitter accusations, and
demanding judgment against them. After this old fellow had got through, two
or three others, in turn, came forward, and appeared also to be holding
forth about the matter, but in a far milder manner than the other, which I
now began much to dislike for his spitefulness, and in the same proportion
to pity the two poor objects of his evident malice. There was then another
long and silent pause, after which, the judge proceeded to utter what
appeared to be his sentence; and, having brought it to a conclusion, he
gave a rap with his tail on the ground. At this signal, the beavers in the
ranks advanced, one after another, in rapid succession toward the
prisoners, and, circling round them once, turned and gave each one of them
a tremendous blow with their tails over the head and shoulders; and so the
heavy blows rapidly fell, whack, whack, whack, till every beaver had taken
his part in the punishment, and till the poor prisoners keeled over, and
lay nearly or quite dead on the ground. The judge beaver then quietly left
his stand and went off; and, following his example, all the rest scattered
and disappeared, except the spiteful old fellow that had so raised my
dislike, by the rancor he displayed in pressing his accusations, and,
afterwards, by giving the culprits an extra blow, when it came his turn to
strike them. He now remained on the ground till all the rest were out of
sight, when,--as if to make sure of finishing what little remains of life
the others, in their compunction, might have left in the victims, so as to
give them, if they were not quite killed by the terrible bastinadoing they
had received, a chance to revive and crawl off,--he ran up, and began to
belabor them with the greatest fury over the head. This mean and malicious
addition to the old fellow's previously unfair conduct was too much for me
to witness, and I instantly drew my rifle and laid him dead beside the
bodies he was so rancorously beating. Wading the stream below the dam, I
hastened to my prizes, finished their last struggles with a stick, seized
them by their tails, and dragged them to the spot I had just left; and
then, after concealing my traps, with the view of waiting a few days before
I set them, so as to give the society a chance to get settled, I tugged the
game I had so strangely come by, home to camp, where a more particular
examination showed them to be the three largest and best-furred beavers I
had ever taken.

"This brings me to the end of the unaccountable affair, and all I can say
in explanation of it; for how these creatures, ingenious and knowing as
they are, should have the intelligence to make laws,--as this case seems to
pre-suppose,--get up a regular court, try, sentence, and execute offenders;
what these offenders had done,--whether they were thievish interlopers from
some other society, or whether they had committed some crime, such as
burglary, bigamy, or adultery, or high treason, or whether they had been
dishonest office-holders in the society and plundered the common treasury,
is a mystery which you can solve as well as I. Certainly you cannot be more
puzzled than I have always been, in giving the matter a satisfactory
explanation.

"And now, in conclusion, if you wish to know how I afterwards succeeded in
taking more of this notable society of beavers, I have only to say, that,
having soon commenced operations anew, I took, before I quit the ground
that fall, by rifle, by traps, by digging or hooking them out of their
hiding places in the banks, and, finally, by breaking up their
dwelling-houses, twenty-one beavers in all; making the best lot which I
ever had the pleasure of carrying out of the woods, and for which, a month
or two after, I was paid, in market, one hundred and sixty-eight hard
dollars."

THE OLD HUNTER'S STORY.

"I never but once," commenced the hunter, who had announced himself ready
with the last story, when called on for that purpose by his comrades, after
they had commented to their liking on the trapper's strange adventure,--"I
never but once, in my whole life, became afraid of encountering a wild
beast, or was too much unnerved in the presence of one to fire my rifle
with certainty and effect. But that, in one event, I _was_ in such a sorry
condition for a hunter, I freely confess. And, as you called for our most
remarkable adventures, and as the occurrence I allude to was certainly the
most remarkable one _I_ ever met with in _my_ hunting experience, I will
relate it for the story you assign me.

"It was about a dozen years ago, and on the borders of lake Parmagena, a
squarish-shaped body of water, four or five miles in extent, lying
twenty-five miles or so over these mountains to the northwest of us, and
making up the chief head-water of the river Magalloway. My camp was at the
mouth of the principal inlet, and my most frequented hunting route up along
its bank. On my excursions up that river, I had often noticed a
deeply-wooded, rough, and singularly-shaped mountain, which, at the
distance of four or five miles from the nearest point of the stream,
westward, reared its shaggy sides over the surrounding wilderness, and
which I thought must make one of the best haunts for bear and moose that I
had seen in that region. So, once having a leisure day, and my fresh
provisions being low, I concluded I would take a jaunt up to this mountain,
thinking that I should stand a good chance to find something there, or on
the way, to replenish my larder. And accordingly I rigged up, after
breakfast, and, setting my course in what I judged would prove a bee-line
for the place, in order to save distance over the river route, I took up my
march through the woods, without path, trail, or marked trees to guide me.

"After a rough and toilsome walk of about three hours, I reached the foot
of the mountain of which I was in search, and seated myself on a fallen
tree, to rest and look about me. The side of the eminence next to me was
made up of a succession of rocky, heavily-timbered steeps and shelves, that
rose like battlements before me, while, about midway, it was pierced or
notched down by a dark, wild, thicket-tangled gorge, which extended along
back up the mountain, as far as the eye could penetrate beneath, or
overlook above the tops of the overhanging trees.

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