Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-08-12

1iOIE--h LAY.
81 have my little fad as well as other
people said 4 prosperous. fat and jolly
commission merchant the other day, but
/ dare say you would guess a long time
without hitting on it, so l viii confess it
without putting you to the trouble. 1t is
my collection of birds eggs The making
OF that collection gave me many hours of
rare sport when / was an adventurous
young fellow and had none of this load of
fat 70 carry about, and the chief use OF IL
now Is 10 recall pleasant memories OF those
days that viii never come again. When
you're old you'll know how that is your
self and the old gentleman took a strong
pull at his cigar and let the smoke out in
a long and noisy sigh.
Il was a traveller in those days for big
export house which was pushing into Mex
leo and South America for trade, and 50 1t
came about that most OF my eggs are those
of birds Of those countries Tell you
about some of them2 Don't mind if do.
Well, for want Of knowing which one TO
pick on, III tell You how / came 10 cap
Iure the biggest though no. the rarest one
in the collection. 1t Is Il vulf'-. 5 egg. 1
was in Mexico when 1 got T. 70. and 1
thought once or twice while WAS secUr-
Ing it that / would never get out of
Mexico again.
.'Vultures are shy of mankind. and their
nests are exceedingly hard 20 find, and so
when / met hunter who knew where one
was l hired him, with couple of assist
ants 10 show me IL and help me get the
eggs. We arrived at the spot about noon,
and almost wished had not come The
guide pointed out to me a precipitous and
beetling cliff. which looked to me TO be
about 500 feet high, overhanging a deep
lake. About 100 feet from the top of the
cliff there was a rent or hole, which from
l-nl - h,I l.<,,,%
as much room inside it as an empty flour
barrel. In there, the guide said, the vul-
lures had their nest. and the only way to
reach it was to let me down from the top
at the end of long rope.
1T was a perilous descent but making
a sort of chair at the end of a stout raw
hide rope 1 swung myself over the cliff
and two men lowered me slowly while
the third lay on his face and peered over
into the abyss watching me. When
got about twenty feet below the hole in
tn, cliff signaled them to stop. The hole
hfound was as big around at the entrance
as a barn door: but the top of the cliff pro-
jected that l hung fully twenty feet
away from the face of the rock. Nothing
daunted, / began to swing myself, slowly
at first, and with gradually increasing
force, till my body at last swung in against
the face of the cliff and finally into the
hole itself. Catching projecting corner
of rock, l gained my feet, and was nearly
knocked off them again by the horrible
stencil which greeted me.
THE floor of the hole was strewed with
6ecayed flesh and fish and feathers and
bones, and in the middle OF it all lay the
nest of long grass and as dirty any pig
sly and in it two young vultures and one
unmatched egg. The egg was a grateful
sight, but the youngsters were an unpleas-
ant surprise, for they at once threw them
hafr
like mad. ! secured the egg, but not with
out getting n couple of bad scratches from
the sharp claws of the young birds. which
were about as big as hens. / was wrap
ping the egg in my coat and the young
birds were filling the air with their clamor
when suddenly there was whir of wings,
the entrance was darkened, and / got a
blow on the head that knocked me down
in the unspeakable filth and filled my eyes
with blood.
1.-THE old birds were upon me. I recog-
niZed that fact in an instant, and having
nothing to defend myself with, I expected
to be knocked down the cliff or at least
have my eyes pccked out. was always
pretty ready of resource. and in this bad
plight the thought flashed through my
mind that these unusually timid birds
were only fierce because they thought /
wanted to harm their young. Quickly I'M
rolling the egg from my coat, threw the
garment over the squalling brats, and
their sharp claws striking into the cloth
at once tangled them inextricably in it.
Guarding my eyes from the old birds with
one arm, / dragged the coat with the two
young ones attached to it to the mouth of
the hole, only step or two, and hurled
them far out and down into the lake.
"As i expected the old vultures followed
their young ct once and their efforts to lift
them out of the water were so ludicrous
II Io,I Io1 oil No lon
quickly shut off, however, for in the next
moment, as / thrust the egg into my
bosom and gave the rope n tug as n signal
to my men to pull me up, the rawhide
came down from the top of the cliff with
run. Great Scott How was / to get back?
What had those stupid fools at the top
done? / did not know that they had
watched me disappear into the hole, had
seen the old vultures follow me, and had
then seen what they thought must be me,
as they distinctly recognized my coat,
come flying out again and fall into the
lake pursued by the two vultures, whom
they could see pecking at me in the
waves
"They let go the rope and hurried away
around and down to the lakes edge to res
my manGled body from being entirely
eaten up by the birds After some tedious
hours of climbing they found out their
mistake and proceeded to climb back
again. BY this time it was growing dark,
and as / sat hour after hour in that foul
hole, between heaven and earth, not know
ing what had happened, you can imagine
my feelings Just 1 in absolute
despair. I saw a stone tied to thin cord
swing down in front of me. l clutched at
1t with ecstasy and nearly fell over the
sdge in my eagerness. Tying the end of
my rope to the cord, gave a pull and
away it went up the cliff again. After
due time gave pull on the rope, and