Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-05-22
A QUEER COUNTRY.
Where Wildcats Flock to Feas ST
on Fish.
THE WILD REGIONS OF ARKANSAS
A Place Whore Much Game Abounds-
Bullet-Proof Turtles and Big Catfish
of the 0uachita.

northwest the tenderfoot from Arkan-
sas who throws his lot among the cow
punchers is sure to have to take rather
more than his share of jokes and rough
usage. writes a correspondent of the
New York Sun. So thoroughly is this
fact understood in the grazing country
that the greenhorn from Arkansas who
strikes out for the ranges Of Colorado
and Wyoming does not betray to his
newly made acquaintances on the
frontier the name of his native state.
but keeps the place of his birth very
much in the dark. There is story
often told ON the plains that shows
how the man from Arkansas is rated
by the cow-punchers. 1t is to the
effect that the foreman of big ranch
near Cheyenne, having engaged a ten
derfoot to work for him. asked him
where he was from. Receiving no
answer from the youth. the foreman
began to interrogate him in this fash
ion:
"Are you from Missouri"
mo"
"Are you from Kansas?"
"No."
"Are you from far east"
"No."
'..Then where in tt under do you hail
from?" shouted the foreman at the
same time aiming his shooting iron in
the direction of the stranger.
"Well, replied the tenderfoot, II IN
from Arkansaw. Now, blame you,
laugh"
IL any one wants to find an excuse
for the man from Arkansas all he has
got to do is to look at the country.
After turning his back upon the pleas
ures and excitements of Hot Springs.
for which, by the way, the native
Arkansan is not responsible, and hav-
ing passed hurriedly through Little
Rock, which is an attractive and pros
porous looking town. it is good idea
for the tourist who has too high an
opinion of the state to go Summing
the word suits the case among the
wilds of southern Arkansas. With a
companion of an equally adventurous
disposition and stimulated into un-
wonted energy by twenty-one baths at
Hot Springs, the writer left the train
on the st. Louis, Iron Mountain e,
Southern railroad at Camden and
boarded one of the freight boats that
travel the Ouachita river, between
New Orleans ON the south and every
landing for which they have consign-
ment on the north. These boats carry
no freight for points on the Missis-
sippi. They leave that stream at a
little place known as Red River land
ing, where in series Of bayous the
Ouachita river joins the Mississippi
The trip down the Ouachita river
from Ouachita county, in Arkansas, of
which Camden is the county seat to
Ouachita parish in northern Louisiana
affords sufficient explanation of the
fact that the people of the far west like
to have their little joke about Arkansas.
For miles on either side Of the river
the low, marshy land stretches away
into the distance. scarcely higher thar
the river itself. Here and there is a
little forest, the trunks Of the trees
submerged in mud and stagnant water
The few houses that mark little village.
like Ouachita City, Log Town and
Garlic ", are for the most part frame
boxes raised aloft on four poles, aftel
the plan adopted by New York farmer,
to keep their granaries out of reach o.
the rats. This plan is followed as 6
protection against the spring floods
The cabins along the banks of the riyel
are wretched-looking novels, inhabited
by negroes or by what are known
throughout the cotton country as pool
white trash. The valleys of the ri ver'
of Arkansas are known as the bottoms
and the soil is rich and fertile
Maize and cotton are grown in abund
snce, but the people. if those in th'
Ouachita district can be taken as speci
mems. are unambitious and unthrifty
The negroes, both sexes of whom worl
on the plantations, receive their pay
for the most part in molasses and to
bacco, and at the end of the season .ar
in debt to their employers.
1t is the wilderness of the countr.
that makes the trip an interesting one
Even at this season those signs of ami
NAL life which abound in the tropic
and Throughout the lowlands of south
ern Arkansas and Louisiana coul
scarcely fail to arouse the enthusiasm
of the sportsman. The bayous forme
by the widening Of the river from tim
to time are fairly alive with lizards an
many varieties of snakes. The mos
striking thing is the vast number c
turtles. On every side at midday on
can see hundreds of them in the stag
: nant pools near the banks, floating a
the surface with their black necks eS
tended as far as possible from thei
shells. Occasionally the boat woul
pass floating log or piece of driftwoo
i on which turtles were occupying ever