The Red Cloud chief., 1889-10-18
THE FROG At HOME.

THE FROG At HOME.
The Cradle oe the E~srth-Fleroer wInda
Than Cyclones-x:Msn who Caught Biz
Observation-Disclosures tho Gauntlet with
IN Eel-How to Casch Frogs-A Battle
Of Frogs.
Especial Correspondence
In CAxP IN NORTHERN ADIRONDACK
The most rocky region ON the globe IS CON-
prised in the northeastern section of this
State, with a majority in favor of st. Law
renee County. Tho Western Rockies are
nothing in comparison: they may poise
their heads higher, be more replete in met
ais and rave perpetual crests of snow, but
in those respects only are they more re-
marSable., The rocks hero pile up on a
-Otherin enormous masses and break up into
yawning prccipfces which seem to threat
en- TO fall at any moment. They arc twisted
into fantastic shapes which put to shame all
other attempts of dame nature. At one
time- according to Ncwberry, great glaciers
stood in the basins now occupied by the
Great Lakes. Que Of these slid down
through the Mohawk valley, cut its way
through the present channel of the Hudson
to the sea and left as its deposit and mOnu-
ment the present Long Island. Its path in
those prehistoric days became the outlet OF
the Great Lake region. Then another gla-
cier followed, closed up the entrance and
swept out the bed Of the st. Lawrence river.
TIE glaciers AYE run almost entirely over
this continent There are few peaks Of
the Rocky Mountain range but have had
ore On top of them. The glaciers on the
Grand Teton Mountains, Wyoming. are the
only ones left within the United States. But
these Northern Adirondack rocks escaped
the glaciers in part except at their bases.
Talk about age! Time is only q local term
after all. These Adirondack rocks were
the first ever manufactured on this globe.
Here are the blue-gray hypersthene and
contorted gneiss rocks, the very first
creation known 20 man, SO old that we can
only speak OF their origin in cycles of past
lime. Here then is the very cradle OF the
earth where it was rocked in the infancy
OF chaos. One can only look in awe on these
powders that are affected by neither
moisture. air or atmospheric conditions;
that exhibit: the same big, bare, white walls
that stood there and said goOd-by to the
lroon three hundred million years ago when
it was broken of the earth and hurled into
space.
lis a mighty curious thing, the mar'ler
in which the soil is tucked in among these
rocks so rich in some places that vegetation
gror-s luXuriousiy upon il and so barren in
others that man has been driven out in
despair, unable to make it support him.
.Che rich soil. after all, is only its barren
neighbor, washed down by rains n
mo1l,ain streams and enriched by decayed
vegetable matter. In back of Herm"n !
met IN Old farmer who said:
Talk ABOUT hanging gardens, stranger.
they amt no comparison to my farm. 1t
jest spreads in, among. around and about
Tie laid headest Did rocks what ever Spit
= cloud in two. Tn soil is so thin in places,
noighbor, that the roots of the grass has to
bore holes IL the cussed rocks to hang Oh to
when the tarnal wind blows. Never seed
the wind blow yup ere, did We! Well, right
THAI rits 200 feet above the st. Lawrence
liver. Hhen the wind blows it isn't one of
them common Western cyclones. nothing
SO e.ssy as that, but a regular snifter what
would blow the whole Adirondacks into the
river if them rocks wasn't stuck clear
through % China and clinched on the under
side"
Greeks in this region are numerous and
they have a convenient way of spreading
out over the terraces into little ponds aud
lakes, and then dashiug away down hill at
breakneck speed, making o thousand som-
ersaults a minute. Here and there are
deep holes. some of which seem bottomless.
in which builheads and cells grow to en0r-
NOUS size. while in ponds the mountain
frogs are the most delicious in the world.
l found the fishing here eudlessly anus
ing. When I first came the guide in refer
.ence to the big.eels and bullheads said:
A:I'vc tried my luck catchin' p~atriarchs
ever since l was a boy, but never could get
the ~whoppers on land. They take hold Of
thchook, come up to the surface. kinder
laugh at yer, drop the bait and walk away"
laughed and replied that I was accus-
toned to feed IN patriarchs and would
show him how to ''yank EN-" We went
down to a deep pond at dusk and l began
operations by pulling out my pistol and kill
ing the muskrats in the vicinity. After
catching small fish for q time l became dis
gusted. Then l took q number of worms
and made. them into a ball SO big that only
the large~builhcads could take it in their
mouths. The minute the worms touched
bottom afour-pound bullhead took hold and