Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-04-02
Old Times.
Ed. Register-


saw the fall was married, on t prair-
les of Illinois and along the lakes and
bayous of the Mississippi and Illinois riv.
ers. There is, all up and down these
rivers, way back against the bluffs
series OF lakes, from a few acres in extent
to lakes miles long, where. at some early
| period, the river has flown. For, at diff
ferent periods of time the river has
changed its channel. Some forty years
ago | was shown where a steamboat was
sunk some twenty years before, with a
| hundred thousand dollars in silver dollars
on board At the time it was shown me.
it was about three miles from the bank OF
| the river, and deuse forest of cotton
| wood was growing over the boat. Since
my knowledge. the Missouri river has
| changed its bed ten miles north of where
1t run when | first knew the river.
Around these lakes grow the rankest
weeds and tall rice, such as all wild fowls
| love. | have seen around the lakes on
the Illinois river bottoms, beggar' slice
and spanish needles grow so thick you
NouINi iioI kolCt oti way lhiois tIlC LII
and so tall as to hide the lake from view.
| remember one day in the fall of 1850.
| and my wife were on visit to ''my
wife's folks and. as spent month or
two, | put IN good share of my time
hunting. l took my gun and went to
the river to hunt geese and ducks, When
| reached the chain of lakes, | found the
weeds SO thick and tall | could not see the
lakes; but [ could hear thousands and
millions of geese and ducks quacking,
and now and then the trumpeting of
swan. They made such noise it was
almost deafning | tried every way to
get to see them. l tried to force my way
through the dense growth of weeds: but
the tops were so high and interlocked,
they looked like a solid wall. Before
had pushed myself through [ came to
water among the weeds. 1t had come oD
fall rains, and the lakes We're filling up
with water. Just then | had reached
fringe of willow trees. Some of them
were one or two feet through, and cover
ed from top to bottom with limbs.
thought, NOW, will climb one of these
willows, and maybe | can look over the
tops of the weeds and see open water.
[ did not know much about the nature of
the willow trees. They looked as though
it would be an easy task to climb one
said to myself. II am going up that tree,
and see what can see.'' | found it very
| easy getting up with my gun in one hand.
had got up about twenty feet from the
| ground, and was standing with my feet
on some limbs on each side OF the body
of the tree, and such a sight as L saw !.
| Out in the lake were acres and acres oi
swans and geese, pelicans and ducks. OF
all sorts and sizes [ never saw such
sight: it almost took my breath away.
And such a racket those ducks made !.
J And now and then swan would raise
his head and trumpet. 1t made me feel
| so little as I stood contemplating the
scene. All at once. for some cause, all
that immense mass of fowls gave warm
| ing cry and all as one rose on the wing,
with noise like thunder. and every fowl
squaking and trumpeting. 1t gave me
| such start, I Involuntary moved, ana
the limbs on each side of the tree gave
way. and l never stopped until reached
the ground, and had taken every limb
off as went down. | landed square and
solid on my feet, none the worse for my
descent. and L did not let my gun get
| away from me. AS stood at the foot
of the tree, looking up to see how the
thing looked, think | must have looked
as lelt: little foolish. said to my
self. well you couldn't do that again if
You were to try forty times.' All who
know anything about a willow, know
that the limbs are not set on the tree like
any otffer tree. They are just buds from
the outside OF the tree and bark. They
do not penetrate the body of the tree. as
other kinds of wood, and they are small.
There was not limb on that tree more
than an inch in diameter. | haye never
tried to climb willow since that time.
In those lakes there is plant, some
thing like a lily, called the yoker root.
The root is sought after by the swans;
they will dive down in the water, aud.
with their strong bills, Dig the roots out
OF the mud. and feast Or them. On the
top of the plant is large head or capsule,
filled with a dark nut like tilbert, and
they are as good to eat as the filbert.
One day had killed some ducks on one
of those lakes. and the only way to get
them out was to strip and wade after
them. [ had gone but a few feet when
one of my feet went down III one of those
swan holes, and | went. souse. to the
bottom. | found the bottom of the lake
completely honey-combed with swan
holes; and those beggar-lice make fine
pasture tor geese and ducks; tney are
very fond of the seeds.
Sand hill cranes: in the after noon,
just before night, you can see great t1ocks
of them coming. flying high up in the
air, every Grain croaking land such a
noise as they make coming home to roost!
For they Ioost standing on the ground,
first on one leg, then on the other.
When they get above their roosting- place
they commenced clrcling around and
round; then they, one after an other.
drop slowly down to the ground with
wings spread, and legs hanging down.
rhey look so funny. ] have seen, on
the Illinois river bottoms, acres and acres
of rbe,,, ar q timp T saw i'm the last Reg