The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-07-01

could not see even the loftiest SUBMITS
and gladly gathered round our cosy
hearthstone, where the spruce boughs
cracked like salt and coils of black
smoke writhed up from the resinous
logs. '' +
The night effect,'' as painters phase
it. OF such bivouac as this, is weirdly
curious. One need not be afraid to
walk away from it into the gloom; the
Prince of Darkness is said to be q
gentleman. And, in fact, it is not dark
out there in the open air; for under
the lamps of the considerations and in
that strange light from the north, even
midnight in the high mountains is only
gray. Bnt beneath the star-proof trees
there is the blackness os plagued Egypt
"a darkness which may be felt in thrusts
from thousand needle-pointed leaves
and rough cones, if one pushes too heed
lessly into the recesses of the woods.
The blaze is orange-colored, the smoke
heavy and black, illumined redly under
meath. The pillars of the smooth fir
trunks within reach of the fire-light
stand like a stockade about the camp,
but the shifting light penetrates be-
tween them and summons from the
darkness new boles, that step out and
retreat again as the capricious flame is
waited by the wind toward or away
from that side.
While the centers Of the great. gum
my logs are eaten by the blaze, and
while we sit on their ends and smoke
our pipes, what soul-inspiring talk is
heard! The stories flow as naturally as
the sparks explore the dark arch over
head, but it is no more possible to COM
municate the point and living fun of
these narratives, told with the Western
freedom of language and usually apropos
OF some previous tale, than it is to tickle
your senses with the sizzle and delecta-
BILE flavor of the deer's juicy ribs roasting
in those ashes. Shut in by the shadowy
forest, we seem to inhabit little world
all by ourselves, with sky, sun, moon
and stars of our own; and we converse
OF you in New York as Proctor does of
the inhabitants of other planets, and
speculate upon the movements of armies
along the Danube as the Greeks dis
cussed the life OF souls across the Styx.
The affairs of the outside world have
lost interest for us since we are no long,
er spurred by the heel of the morning
newspaper. In simplifying our life to
a primitive measure we have ceased to
trouble ourselves about problems of pol
ities or social economy, and are Begin
ming to discover that the universe is less
complex than we made it. Thus we
conduct a sort of mental exploration
parallel with the geodetic survey.
Sometimes signs of previous occupan-
cy added to the attractions of a camp,
when it was made near some trail, and
we speculated on the kind of man who
had been there before us. How long
before? What was his object? And
whittier was he bound? In a region so
wild and utterly untenanted as this,
anything pertaining to humanity is in
vested with extraordinary interest. From
these foundation sticks we could tell the
size and kind of tent he had; from the
tracks could decide that his one animal
was a horse, not a mule (which makes
smaller, narrower track), and knew
that at this stake he picketed him at
night, and by that path led him to the
water; from this stump we guessed the
sharpness of his AK; that wadding told
the size of his rifle; here was his fire;
there, where the grass is trampled he
piled his nights wood. Where this
hunter or beaver-trapper has camped
and left his history on few chips there
remains a civilized aspect which nature
must work long to efface.
Similarly. if we remained long, our
own halting-ground became dirty and
bedraggled, SO that we We're glad to
change often. Yet strange familiari-
ty attaches even to bit of brook and
mountain side, and knowing there is
no better representation of home with
in many hundred miles, you easily give
it that name. Let us wander where
we will. the universe is built round
about us, and we are central still.''
Nowhere did this homelike feeling at
tach itself more (and with less GOOD
reason) than to one July camp high up
on the Wind River Peak, at the very
sources of the great Sweetwater. Per-
haps because we invaded angry soli-
tudes and boldly held our own, in
spite of every effort on the part of the
well-roused spirits of the place. The
trees were all pines and stood thickly,
but were not of great size, though
straight and tall. Many lay at full
length upon the ground, for they had
shallow root hold among the boulders,
and the very first night the forest
treated us to an exhibition of its power
to injure, as a hint, perhaps, that we
would better not violate its sacred
shades with our presence, and consume
its royal timber in our paltry campfire.
Z" When / want fire." the forest seemed
to say, :" rub my limbs together and
the flames sweep for miles through my
oily cones and dry tops, that love the
blaze" The trunks began to fall all
around us-dozens at time, while the
air was full of tremendous concessions
and the screams of rending fibers But
none of these mighty bolts harmed us,
beyond the crushing of a single tent,
and when the hurricane was over we
found our fire-wood close at hand
ready cut and SO profited by the anger
Of the resentful gods.
There was some of the hardest work
done in the history of the survey from
the headquarters of this camp, but one
night when the snow drifted steadily
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