The Philipsburg mail., 1899-03-10

1fNMA Mr.. Boris
|EMM1sl4NM Mich aeloff,
lEWTzAmSN who had en-
u:G3E1gXg1MZNA1 gagged me
MsSS1ssss".sss .S .s 1m',s1 1rn z1, and four 9th
99Sika? 9e9SiIII2fka? !: :5.'i;:: s! !;::: ;:.::: /:
sSAANNNSMls s b err ian
49, Railway, 1
had no idea that was going to the
country of the most powerful of all
beasts of prey, but when I come home
I will bring with me a most convinc-
ing skin, for which have already re-
fused four hundred dollars.
Throughout October and November,
1897, was "leveling''in in the Yablonoi
Mountains, beyond Chita, one of the
roughest regions through which the
road passes, and survey work pro-
gressed slowly through the thick, tan
gled brush on the slopes. Before we
could use instruments twas often nec-
essary to send axemen, convicts, in ad-
vance, and frequently we could do moth
ing on the line for day or two, or even
three together. At such idle times I
commonly went prospecting, for there
is a good deal of mineral wealth in
this district, which will be far more
valuable after the completion Of the
railway.
On one of these jaunts in Ncvem-
Der, I climbed the long, low, rocky
ridge opposite Mount Kathluan, and
descended into the valley beyond it, a
distance OF seven or eight versts from
camp. A verst is about two-thirds of
mile. Then I was in fiue, wild
country, wholly uninhabited and de-
void Of heavy forests, though there
were scattered birch and larch copses.
Pheasants abounded; with double
barrelled gun could have shot thirty
brace, but had taken only my Amer.
ican carbine that day, thinking that I
might fall in with bears, and never
imagining anything worse to be in the
neighborhood.
In the valley of a clear, mountain
river, tributary of the Shilka, the
steady roar of falling waters led me
half mile or more to where cataract
of twenty or thirty feet pours owe,
break of the strata into an opales
cent pool which shoals out on pebble
bars less than a hundred yards be
low. On the south side, where T ap
preached, the pool is walled in b,
abrupt, smooth lodges of granite tel
or twelve feet in height, and such I
tangle of evergreen shrubbery grow
on it's brink that I could not get neal
enough to look down into the pool un
til had crawled under the boughs
There lay, outstretched on the mar
gin of the hoary, lichen-clad rock
looking down on the foam-faced poo
and up to the milk-white fall.
" Directly below the rock where lay
the water of the pool seemed no NOR
than three or four feet in depth. I
lay over yellow gravel, and present..
I noticed large fish lying almos
motionless, as if brooding on thei
spawning -beds-fsh of five or si
pounds each. At first I thought then
carp, but soon I concluded that the,
were large variety of river trout
Earlier in the season I might hav
supposed them salmon, since the Shilk
is tributary of the Amur, which flow
into the Northern Pacific Ocean.
About twenty of these fine fish were
lying so that with hook and line
might easily have dropped bait befor
their noses, and I was thinking t
shoot one of the largest with my cal
bine, when throaty scream from
fellow-sportsman fish-hawk
perched on large, leadess tree acros
the pool-caused me to look in tina
direction. A minute later the haw
took wing, and with two or three clap
of his powerful pinions came sailin
across the pool and circled overhead
one round, red eye turned downward
I thought him about to plung
down for a fish, but soon perceive
that his attention was fixed on som
object in the thicket, either on me {
on some object near me, something O
the brink Of the very crag where + Ia.
"He has seen me-" I thought, "an
resents my intrusion on his fish pr
serve;" and I was on the point of ri
ing up to punish his incivility with
shot, when I heard slight, stealth
crackle in the thick brush few yar(
away.
Whatever it was, it seemed to be c
my track, hunting me, and l WI
much startled, although I lay qui
and held myself ready to fire the i
atant I caught sight of its head. b
Iauickly perceived that the ripplir
movement of the boughs was not &
rectly approaching me, but pasais
toward part of the brink of Il
ledge that was twenty or thirty fe
away, and a moment later I caught
puzzling CLEAN Of yellow, black al
white among the less thickly- -growii