The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-05-13

ourselves, we found out that it had been
a very severe gale, and that the Sound
steamer Umatilla had suffered considera-
bly,, and If a Sound steamer would suffer
at such a time, what could you expect of
an unsound one? But we will let that
pass.
The mouth of the Columbia is one of
the most active and dangerous, if we
cept that OF the Corporal Tanner, per-
haps, that L have ever met up with.
Looking into it on that Sabbath morning
/ judged the river to be about fourteen
thousand years of age. And yet its teeth
are very good. We could see them dis
tinctly.
At daybreak | rose, as is my custom, to
examine the sun, and also to see the prac-
tical joker busting off the coating Of his
stomach by means of a whisk broom, and
to u left the the shaggy brow Of Cape
Disappointment doomed up in the cold
gray of the early morning. The yellow
waters of the Columbia came down to
salute the deep blue of the Pacific, and
over the bar the white breakers mingled
their spray W tn the threatening sky.
1t is a nasty place to ride over even
when you are feeling we'll, but if one has
been i'll and has not yet recovered, n
almost wishes that the ship would go to
the bottom, and not be too dilatory about
it, either. So the practical joker told me,
for I was not i'll at all. l took my meals
frequently and ate hem in his room. At
night I would, before going to bed, eat
some crackers and Swiss cheese by his
bedside, while I read to him page after
page of "Robert Elsmere." When he
reads [ fear sometimes that he will almost
hate me. And yet | am not malicious
myself. [ love everybody. Almost.
And I try to make their lives happier, if
I can. I shed sunshine wherever I 60,
sometimes.
We rode along with a primary school
of whales the last day. There must have
beensa dozen of them. A man who knew
everything, having been associated two
or three weeks with the Rev. Joseph
Cook, said they were right whales. I do
not know how he could tell, for you
couldn't see a particle of. the whale ex-
cept the squirt of water which marked
his locality. But some men are so able
that at times it must give them great
physical pain.
He told me all about whales and every
thing else. l did not knew that whales
were right and lefts, but it seems that
they are. Whale oil is not used in salad
dressing any more. The whale is a NAM
NAL. I would rather be a right whale
than to be president. The female whale
does not lay eggs like the fish, but pro-
duces her young alive like the Piute In
dian and other brutes. She nurses her
own young, especially if help should be
scarce, and sometimes becomes the head
of quite a family.
The father, however, is quite migratory
and irresponsible to a degree. Whales
live to a great age and lead a very wet
and uneventful life. They are taken with
the harpoOn.
The whaler, while singing, accompanies
himself to this instrument. My ancestors
were whalers and men Of uldaunted
They went into the whaling BUSINESS at
that time in the history of the country
when the pirate business became too dull
along the high seas. It was a poor sub
~stitute, but it was the best they could do.
If they had lived alittle longer they could
have gone into the grand larceny publish
ing business or lobbied at Washington
against the copyright bill.
The Columbia river sturgeon is also a
large water fowl, frequently growing to
a great size. He attains a weight of 600
pounds and has a head that looks like that
of Goliath of Gath after lis two round
set-to with David.
| saw one of these surgeons laying on
the dock at Kalama the other day. He
was dead, and looked like a fat man /
saw in the Paris morgue last summer
His head weighed 100 poundS-the stur-
geon's head, | mean. And there isn't a
brain into it either. The sturgeon gives
very little thought to his future. Or his
past for that matter.
An honest resident of Oregon tod me
how the surgeons, during the high
waters, got into his cellar and ate sixty
bushels of his potatoes. At night they
would also come up stairs and bite the
children. They plagued him a good deal
Often they would chase the cattle around
the yard and frighten his wife. They al
most ate him out Of house and home
but in the midst of their wild orgies in
the cellar they struck a jar of Pompadou1
Yamhill butter, and death was swift and
painless.
When the Columbia river fisherman
:, succeeds in his days work by catching
seven or eight of these 600 pound stur,
geons he puts them on a willow striDgel
, and as he trudges gayly home with then
. in his hand it is a gladstone sight.
+ The sturgeon dies hard, often refusing
to ascend the golden stair for twenty,
, four hours after he is removed from the
water. Although his head often weigh;
over 100 pounds, he is not a deep thinker
I and it takes a day or two to get it through
his head that he is a corpse. Aside from
the greenback party and Thompson's colt
. he probably does more to discourage the
overworked fool killer than anybody O.
, whom history has informed us.
, He likes very much, also, to wrap the
drapery of a large salmon net about hin
and lie down to pleasant dreams. Wher
! he is rudely awakened he hears strange
voices. They are fshermen's voices
. They are employed in swearing. I hearC
them doing this one day, down toward