Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1857-04-09

we continued to descend f0r ABOUT an nour,
and had made no mean progress, when it be-
came SO dark that we determined to stop and
8 camp out" But we soon became painfully
conscious of the dlGcu ties W should have to
encounter in dcing SO with any sort of satis-
faction The ground was so wet as to be almost
boggy. Not single dry spot. could be found.
All the leaves, twigs, dead Jrecs, and other
combustibles, were thoroughly impregnated
with water and how to maG n fire with such
materials was mystery to 10th Of us. We
attacked some birch trees, hs'sssyer and, after
the labor OF some fifteen t,iittdSes, made quite
a respectable little heap Of the finer shreds of
birch bark, which we thought would burn, and
gathered large pile of branches. larger and
smaller, the least wa,er-logged we could dis
cover; which done we llattered ourselves that il
we could once start the birch birk, we might
yet have fire in spite of the prevailing powers
of humidity. Tom then produced his stock of
matches, which, alas amounted to but fUe.
proposed starting off all five together, think
ing they might encourage each other to burn.
But it was thought rash to risk our whole
chance on one venture so The attempt was
made in detail. The operation was performed
on the inside of the crown Of Toms hat,
in which the match was to be held to pre-
serve it from tie ruder breath of the open
atmosphere, until the dubious fame could be
communicated to large rolls of twisted news
paper which we had ready. Tom offered me
the responsibility of producing the friction,
but declined. The first match he tried was IL
failure, The second gave but gentle riff,
and expired The third threw out spitef full
Jet of blue light that fixed for an instant, and
then the inside of the hat was again as dark rs
u pocket. now insisted upon his trying the
last two together, as our only chance for
matches were evidently bad, and were proba'
bly, affected by the dampness of the spot be-
sides This time our faces lighted up with a
gleam of hope. The two lueifers went of
we'll at first the blue stage of the welcome in
hhiHHIubiOi WAC ipoluuoiJ uiiA EShoiVHD'g w
veloped, and was just on the verge of passing
over it into the Yellow had my paper close
over it, and in the rapidity Of imagination We
a lready fancied we saw the birch all in a
blaze when suddenly the fame of our feeble
: matches rolled up from the under side to the
upper, and before. the paper could catch the
fugitive combustion, it had elopcd into The
arms Of Night, cannot sey that we looked
blask at this result, far-4las, those huge Ole
trees, and down in that x damp hollow
there was not light enough left for US to Sc,
how we looked. ."Well we've got one chance
yet," said Tom. Maybe we can strike ;
light with the gum" sit will do no harm tc
lry,' said land accordingly; the gun wa
tried. Here it must be confessed that knew
, little more about the management Of fowl
, ingpiece, at least for such purpose, than di
about the precise mode in which Old Archimede
set the Romans ships on fire at distance in
r comprehensive to convex lens cs And if
9 were to confess the truth, should admit that
! to the best of my knowledge and belief, ToI
{ did not know ten times as much as l. did so
Q should not wonder il our moduS 0perand' mad
old sportsmen laugh heartily He was tn
performer, of course. We inserted a larg
: quantity of wad, in the shape of slips of news
paper and shreds Of birch bark, loosely twisted
e as to catch the more readily, and then pointin
g the muzzle Of the gun close up at the heap c
It birch bark, which we hoped to arrest the light
n ed wad. Tom bazed away The result wa
s an extensive scatleration among the shreds (
C birch bark A few portions of the waddin
If retained some specks of incandescence for a
d instant, but the dampness extinguished theI
before we could lay hands upon them. W
If collected the birch bark again as we'll as W
could, and repeated the experiment with vari'
i tions now holding the muzzle higher, no.
lower, now nearer, now further off, now ran
It ming the wadding tighter, now leaving it Loo
J. er but all with one unvarying result LII
e powder was wasted, and the birch bark pile wa
!. steadily diminishing, while the chances of
'e fire grew more and more hopeless with ever
d discharge nay the echoes Of the report ree
e ularly rumbled up the ravine, deliberatel
p saying No you don't !" with surly empha
j. sis that was perfectly conclusive. We mac
le up our minds to spend the night wthot
Vt fire. ~
" The next point to be settled was the postur
,t in which we should court the drowsy GOO
c. There was not,a dry spot to be discovered, as
pt have said We did not like the notion of \
is clining ou the wet and oozy sponge of whiC
as all the ground seemed to be composed, an
re therefore, seeing we could not well lie down
h. the arms of Morpheus, we resolved to attem
he sitting on the lap of Somuus, thinking '
s- could find spot at the root Of some tree whe
se we could manufacture dryness enough to a
wv swer for chair, if not for couch. The lar
tn trees near US had roots Of u most uncomprol
or Using character They were so much in o
l way that we could not lean against them or t
nd trunks of the trees they belonged to, and J
ne so Grabbed in shape as to afford a comlortal
,st resting-placc to none buta man. utterly de
we to all sense of honor. There was only one
lily all practicable, and that had grown so mu
Ter on the principle of an inclined plane, th
Or. when seated on it, il needed constant EXERT
ks of muscular power to prevent the sitter fir
m sliding off "a posture by no means favoura
zen to an easy transit into the land of Nod.
lp- therefore chose small tree, and commend
tlh operations. We broke up the branches we b
lily COTTON together in hope of fire, into pie
gh about foot in length and laid them down
of u foundaton,-a sort Of a 6ne-grained cor,
ble roy. Over these we spread all the remains
scd could scrape together of that pile of birch b,