The Cecil Whig., 1874-10-24

where we lived, and extending two or three
miles. Among these islands the bed of the
river was beautiful white sand and quite
shallow. Many places we had to wade and
shove the canoe over it, at play, all
amongst these islands, we saw many fine
fish They seemed to be preparing to bed
and deposit their eggs. They were the
fine large boneless sucker, the red horse.
We got home i'll time to put handles to our
gigs that evening, and having every thing
in nice order for big frolic, except the
old fashioned British musket that kicked
worse than mule. We were at the place
by a little after ten clock; too soon-they
had not yet began to play out. We moored
our craft in the shade and waited for them.
About elven o'clock they surprised us by
. streaming up from tine deep water below.
They seemed to be clashing each other and
we kept still until they had all gone by.
We found them in the sand not far above
us; we fell in with our gigs and soon had
as many as we wanted of them. And now
we thought, to keep our fish from spelling,
we would return home. We were wet all
over; chasing the fish had splashed the water
and completely saturated our garments.
We towed our now heavier canoe beyond
the shallow water and being wet we seated
ourselves in the sunshine to dry, and let
the craft float. We got along merrily until
the river at a short bend, bagged out at the
elbow of the bend forming wide, deep
circling pool of water. Here the canoe was
making but little headway. When just
as we were becoming impatient, we heard
the cracking of the dry cane on shore, and
in came monster bear. 1t was very
warm day, and from the way he had ha' aed
ha' med, he was enjoying it finely. We
both got our guns and at the distance of
forty feet aiming at the butt of his ear, the
gun having had water spashed on her flint
! lock, had got wet and missed fire. BY this
time my brother was up sighting away
with the old musket, and leaning forward
to receive and counteract the expected
/ heavy kick, hauled down the hard trigger
she didn't kick-but man, gun and all
went head foremost into that deep water.
And now the bear who had not noticed US
before, turned and hastily ran up the bank
while | kept swapping at his broad back
until he was out of sight. We didn't get
him.
By this time my brother had come up
and was clinging to the gunwale of the
boat l asked, ''Where is the gun?' 81
left her at the bottom,' said he. There
were great many bears in the canebrake,
but we had no bear dogs, and it was only
once in while that some rare accident
would throw one in our way.
We found plenty of honey. One very
remarkable tree which | will try to de-
scribe. 1t was an exceedingly large and
very tall swamp pine Pinus taedd) stem
about five feet in diameter, and seventy
| feet to the first limbs. About fifty feet
from the ground was round hole, three
inches in diameter; had been made by the
red head log cocks; at this hole the bees
| passed out and in, and they were so numer
Gus that at the time of day when they were
at work, the stream of bees pouring in and
out, gave the idea of the smoke of cook
| ing stove.
! We felled the big pine one day. with the
hole to one side. We took out a large chip
opposite to the hole and found the hollow
of the tree large in width as a flour bar
rel, and perhaps twenty feet in length. 1t
was packed full of honeycomb where we
cut in, and after we had got out about five
feet, at each end of which was a strong
partition of dirt and wax, which we thought
was the boundary Of the honey; and SO it
was, for that community of bees. On
closer examination we discovered leading
from the hole two sets of waXen tubes,
three in each set, with open ends, just at
| the inner edge of the hole, one set leading
| down on the inside of the hollow and pass
ing into the partition of dirt and wax
| The other set of tubes passed upwards in
the same manner, and entered the other
partition. We cut away the shell of the
log above and below the partition; found
| that the tubes had passed through them
and into two other cavities or departments
of rich honey comb, the upper about five
! feet in length and the lower about six, but
of seemingly more recent date than the
| middle section.
! In this large hollow pine were three dis
| tinct swarms, or communities of bees, and
! as it is law amongst honey bees that no
bee of another tribe shall enter the hive,
the construction of those partitions and
hangway tubes must have been conven-
tional-done by treaty. The tubes were
! large enough to let the bees pass each other
! in them three in number; two feet and
ahalf in length, the construction of which
amounted to a considerable job of work,
which would not have been permitted by
the center kingdom, except by some treaty
arrangement The fact that their passage
through part of the center hive was only
permitted under substantially covered
ways, is sufficient evidence to substantiate
my theory on the subject.
After all hands ate as much as they
wanted, and there was smart waste be-
|
honey. ! never saw but one better bee
uce-that was cyprus (cuprcSsus Me0tdes)
| tree.
All this time-since our arrival on the
Tombecbee river-I have neglected to men
| ton our good friends the Choctaw Indians.
| Two of them came the third day after we
! had arrived and with all the indications of
familiar friendship introduced themselves
| OF course | didn't know word OF their
language, and our communication was
altogether by signs. They admired my
new glittelng Lancaster rifle greatly, and
| begged me to let them shoot it. They are
| good marksmen. They invited me to visit
them, which did; and it wasn't long until
we were familiar hunting companions. |
soon learned the language, so | could eX-
change thought with them. and we found
them high order of neighbors. They
were very kind to us.
In July that year, the United States laid
off road from Nashville, Tennessee, to
Natchez, Mississippi.
1t crossed the river three miles below
where / lived, at magnificent bluff. |
went down and examined the place and
decided it to be a natural town site, and
| marked a place where | intended, soon as
possible, to build good log cabin. The
spot | selected for the house was about fifty
yards west of the big pine had gashed
with my bloody knife, at the root of which
had killed the big buck ten months before.
Immediately went to work to get some
good clapboards. They were very wide
and four and ahalf feet long, and put a
thousand of them on a raft and tloated
them down to the military crossing, as the
place was called.
The fact that the road surveyors had
crossed the Tombecbee at that point was
soon widely known. Other men had been
there and had decided that it was proper
place to locate city; and at the same time
| landed at the bluff with the boards, a
man by the name of Caldwell, with keel
boat load of Indian goods made the land
1t was with difficulty that got in the
mouth of the little creek first.
had made the acquaintance of this man
Caldwell while | resided at Tuscaloosa the
year before. He was good man and we
were glad to meet. Very soon he inquired
if knew Cornelius Snider at Tuscaloosa q?
| replied yes. did look upon him as a
reliable man." he asked. Irepled promptly,
! No But WHY do YOU ask me these ones