The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 12, 1896, Page 24

24 THE - SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 12, 1896. — IN THE FASTNESS OF NATURE THE WONDER.S OF A NEW LAND Game Limitless and Nature Prodigal A STRANGE QUADRUPED What a San Francisco Man Dis- covered in the Heart of the Olympian Mount- ains J. E. Becker of 47 Russ street this City has returned from, a long exploring ex- pedition through Northwestern Washing- ton. He was away from settlements al- most two years. He pronounces the coun- try a true terra incognita. He says all descriptions of the country that he has. seen are faulty and misleading. A recent account of» an expedition which entered the country in the fall, and returned in the spring with stories of hardship and | wonderfal discoveries, he characterizes as | wholly inadeqguate and uncertain. Mr. Becker was accompanied by J.C. | Burke, Frank Jones, William Pool, Henry ‘Wechter and 8. C. Williams. The party | was seeking for gold, and Becker claims that they found it in paying quantities. Just where he does not choose to say to | the public. At any rate they have formed | the Hurricane Hill Mining Company. | One of their number remains in the | mountains and the others have scattered. | Williams, the engineer and surveyor of the expedition, has returned to San Jose, where his father is president or superin- tendent of the city water works. | “It is something of a wonder,” said Mr. Becker yesterday, ‘‘that in this country of pioneers and adventurous spirits a ter- | ritory so large, so beautiful and so bounti- | ful should have remained to this day | within our borders practically unknown. | But so it is. | “Between Puget Sound on the east and | the Straits of Juan de Fuca on the north, | the Pacific Ocean on the west and a line | drawn westward from Tacoma to the ocean on the south there isa country as | large as the State of Massachusetts, where | there is magnificent timber, coal and iron | and great reaches of grazing country, and | fish and game without limit. When 1 tell | people of what I saw up there they do not believe me. So what is the use? “We started into the country from Port | Angeles and followed the county road | south to the Government trail. The Gov- | ernment trail is a path blazed by Govera- | ment engineers many years ago from Port | Angeles on tbe Straits of Fuca to Grays | any partof the California seacoast, because | Harbor. The trail begins at the Eiwah River, twelve miles south of Port Angeles. We followed the trail over the first range of mountains and then struck off, blazing our own trail southward to Hurricane Hill. | of mountains we | ley. sheepherders are quarreling over each other's claims just east of the Cascades. “The ascent from Elwah River to the mountain top is so gradual as to be scarcely noticeable. After traveling for a long time with very little labor we looked back to discover to our surprise that we were far above the river. The timber there is wonderfully open and free from under- growth. We could see long distances in all directions through the woods. The trees are immense. We cut down a cedar that measured 300 feet. “Game of every sort was most plentiful. | There were black bears, cougars and a large gray wolf almost the size of a Newfound- land dog. This seems to be the last resort of the elk, and from the manner with which it is slaughtered it will not remain | long there. We found an animal! whicn I bad never before seen. I have looked it up in the books, but have been unable to find any exact description of it. There is an animal called the mermit‘which an- swers something of its description. We found it only above the timber line in the mountains. dog. It lives in holes, dug straight down- ward, and is almost never seen except as it sits on the edge of the hole. It whistles like a man and deceived us contiuunally. As we passed along the trail we could hear this whistle, as of some man hailing us, Turning, we would, if the conditions were right, discover the little whistling mer- | mit, as we have agreed to call it, sitting perfectly motionless above its nest. 1f we moved on he would hail us again with his sharp, shrill cry. If we shot at him the bullet must kill instantly .r we would lose” | him, for if he had one kick of life remain- ing it would drop him into his hole. We | caught quite a number, however, and found them very fine eating. The animal has a long fur, which is very fine. Itis | very fat and yields an excellent oil. There were great quantities of game birds, grouse and pheasants in particular, and the streams were filled with fish. “On the north slope of the second range found two glaciers, which were ten miles across and contain- | ing crevasses into which you could drop a house. ““We found several mineral springs con- taining iron and sulphur water, which | even the horses seemed to like. “Qur first definite stop out from Port Angeles was at a place called Death Val- It is on the Government trail, and is a desolate and depressing place. The next was at Starvation Flat, 4500 feet up the mountain. It was marked and so named by the Government engineers. From there we moved on to Government Pass over | the mountains, to where we finally located and remained. We found in our prospect- ing a veritable mountain of iron. After- ward we located what we consider a very valuable lead of gold and silver ore, which we are making arrangements to work.” SANTA MONIGA'S FORESTRY STATION The Forestry Station at Santa Monica, in Southern California, occupies a most in- teresting and picturesqus site. The town, Santa Monica, is perhaps as well known as t is particularly accessible from Los An- eles by railroad, and has become the | leading watering-place between Coronado | and Monterey. A long sweep of seashore, bold, high cliffs, and an almost level plain It is about the size of a pug- ! “‘We passed through forests of fir, yellow | above them, rising north and northeast to | pine, hemlock, red cedsr and Alaska |the bluest of mountain ranges, and trav- cedar—a very hard wood. We crossed over | ersed by deep barrancas, or straight-sided | two ranges of mountains, the south slope | canyons—such is the general aspect of the of eash of which was covered with lux- | great Santa Monica Rancho. Fifty years | uriant blue bunch grass of an excellent | ago, 100,000 acres here, the estate of an old nutritious quality. The north slope of the | Spanish pioneer, supported vast herds of mountains was more barren and toward | horses and cattle. Then came the railroad | the top was covered with snow. The |and the American town-builders. timber exiended within a quarter of a mile | The greatest and deepest barranca in of the top. In the valleys the grass grew | this entire Santa Monica plain is that| knec-deep, while the tops of the moun- known as the Santa Monica Canyon. It tains are wide plateaus covered with a | is not really a canyon in the sirict inter- sort of fir brush. And all this vast area | pretation of the Spanish word, which re- | remains yet uninvaded by the cattleman | fers to mountain ravines, but more nearly or sheepherder. It is wonderful to me | conforms to the Spanish idea of a bar- | that it is so, considering how men stam- | Tanca—a wide cleft across the plains from pede into far less fertile regions when | the mountains to the sea. In reality, | taken from the Indians of the plains and | there are two large barrancas there, run- | | niug in a direction somewhat paralle!l for | | fowr or five miles, although they are some- | times close together and at other times | | wide apart. The narrow tongue of and | 1 | THE NEW JINKS AND OLD JINKS Midnight Programmes in the Forest ON THE RUSSIAN RIVER {The First Event Was Given to | Honor Harry Edwards—The t 0id Sires and Their Guests The origin of the midsummer high jinks in the majestic redwoods is mot veiled in mystery. Since the first outing of the Bo- hemian Club, which took place in July, 1878, the magazines and newspapers of two continents Have published and illus- trated stories of the summer festival of Bohemia. Fred M. Somers and Frank M. Pixley described the outing scenes for the Argonaut. Harper’s Monthly reproduced Tavernier's celebrated cartoon of the sec- ond Guerneville jinks, sired by James F. Bowman, .one of the founders of the ciub. To Harper's Weekly Henry J, | Brady and Marcus P. Wiggin con- | tributed articles descriptive of the doings in the redwoods. The fame of the jinks has spread abroad until every scrap of intelligence regarding itsorigin and action | is eagerly sought for. Gertrude Atherton | in one of her novels depicts the scene as she saw it as a summer guest at Cazadero. The Bohemian Club was a very lively institution after it moved from the original quarters on Sacramento street, at the corner of Webb, to the “‘spacious apartments” over the California market | on Pinestreet. New members cameinand las the rooms were all on the | same floor companionships were readily | formed. The recruits were as eager as the | veterans to promote high-jinks revels, and so when the suggestion came to give an | all-night picnic or an outdoor jinksas a | send-off to Harry Edwards, who was then | breaking away irom old-time associations | at the California Theater to try his for- tunes in the Atlantic cities, the club thought something novel should be done | to testify its regard for Harry. Surely no one had done more for | the club from its infancy until that time than Harry Edwards. 'Thomas Newcomb, one of the early city editors of Tue CAzy, and the first president of the club, had perhaps done quite as much for the institution as the zenial actor, but the | latter, while not jealous or unwilling to acknowledge the worth of others, still | clung to the cherished faith that he was | nearer and dearer to the hearts of Bo- | hemia by reason of devoted service 1o her cause than any other man. | Recurring to the all-night picnic Frank Pixley wanted it to take place on the La- gunitas, I. Gutte had a plan for a Sausalito outing aboard the yachts. Joseph Tilden, Fred Somers and Hugh Burke were in | favor of a far-away, secinded place in the forest. The subject was discussed all around, but as Mr. Tilden was chief of subsistence he determined to establish his camp near a base of supplies known as Taylor’s sum- mer hotel, on Paper mill Creek. The outing was a success, but some | schoolteachers and other demure campers who had pitched their tents in that region for summer solace hardly knew what to think of the night programme. There was a high jinks, it is true, but there wasno | platiorm or music, other than vocal chorus, | A campfire was lighted and around it gath- ered the club members. Harry Edwards was the central figure. His talk was pa- thetic and full of the poetry inspired by the sublimity of the forest. Jaore than that, he was impressed by the dissolution between them extends to within an eighth | ! of a mile of the ocean. The two streams | and his separation from John McCullough, that flow through these deep and well- | Barton Hill, Stephen Leach, Thomas wooded depressions unite at the foot of | Keene, William Mestayer, Walter Leman this gradually sloping tongue of land that | and others of the famous organization. overlooks the sea beaches. Here, on the i He was going East to recast hislot in sides and summit of this narrow, central | life among strangers. Harcy Eawards, plateau, between two deep gorges, the | with all of his excellent qualities, could Santa Monica Forestry Station is situated. | gush, and when once started in this direc- It is 2almost completely hidder from the | tion no one could outgush him. Tiecamp- town and the watering-place. It is greatly ‘ fire scene took a sympathetic bent, but joy of the old California Theater Company | sheltered from storms, and yet the view from its heights is wonderfully extensive. reigned in the precincts of the bar not far distant. Charles Warren BStoddard, The twenty acres belongitg to the For- | the poet, was there, and he was quite as estry Station, aiittle arboretum tract, with | sad as Harry Edwards, and quite as poet- hardly any waste upon it, extends from | ical in his sadness. Dr. Swan prescribed the bottom of the northern Santa Monica | a special punch for the jinks, as the mel- Canyon, up slopes and across levels to the ‘ ancholy seemed to be deepening, and very top of the'mesa, on the same plane as | Joseph D. Strong was delegated to mix the the town itself, and looks down from |ingredients of the beverage. The memory | there to the bottom of ,the south canyon. | of that punch was not obliterated. It still A ViEw FroM HURRICANE HiILL IN THE HEART OF THE OLYMPIAN MOUNTAI NS IN NORT HWESTERN WASHINGTON—A TERRA INCOGNITA. | | 1 | IN THE HEART OF BOHEMIA. — { lives in Strong’s cartoon of . the first mid- | summer high jinks. The first outing on Paper-mili Creek was successful. The second high jinks, a year later, among the great redwood forest | trees was not only a success, but it was a | revelation, Preparations were made in |'due time for transportation by special | train and for subsistence and shelter. | Hugh M. Burke was appointed sire, and | Joseph Tilden superintended the commis- | sary department. John W. Taylor, the | Superintendent of Schools, Theodore F. : Payne, Walter G. Holmas and Dr. Benja- i min Swan constituted & committee, along with the sire and Mr. Tilden, to select a site. An amphitheater or space, covered with towering trees of the largest size and high walled by a densely wooded canyon, was found on the south side of the Rus- sian River, a mile or more from Duncan’s Mills. A short distance from the camp a stream of water tumbling down ledges of the rock made a beaatiful cascade in the | forest, and when Jules Tavernier had the | cascade illuminated with lanterns the ef- fect was enchanting. Several days in advance Joseph Tilden | procured the necessary supplies, and, tak- | ing with him a corp of helpers, promised | & good dinner, served by the club, on the arrival of the train with the jinks crowd. Every club hasits kickers, and the kickers {said the journey to the Russian River, | twice the distance of the previous year's journey, was too great; that no food could be obtained, and that the whole thing would prove a dismal failure. The train, with a hundred members or more, arrived oa time. The march through the woods a half- | mile to camp disclosed forest scenes new and wonderful to many of the party. ‘When the selected amphitheater was reached the members of the advance com- mittee were hailed as heroes. The magni- tude of the giant trees of the forest, their stately symmetry and solemn maj- esty caused a feeling of reverence to min- gle with the sentiment of admiration. Joe Tilden was the hero of the night. The dinner that he served was delicious. The onion soup of the breakfasi became historic. The night scene was of surpass- {ing beauty. The artists Jules Tavernier, Toby Rosenthal and Julian Rix were in ecstacy. The cartoon to commemorate the event, to picture the trees, the cascade and the general scene wasto be a joy for- ever. Sketches were made of the cascade and the striking incidents of the jinks; but so many artists were doing the work that the cartoon was never finished, and on the walls of the Bohemian Club no rec- ord can be tound of this early but famous midsummer high jinks. John W. Taylor has some of theoriginal sketches made by Toby Rosenthal, and there is in some piace the original sketch of the illuminated cascade by Tavernier The sire’s subject was “As You Like It,” and ove of the chief contributors was John F. Bwift. The members were reluctant to leave the famous grove. ‘Many were soenthusi- astic that & meeting was called and quite a sum of money subscribed to purchase the property for the ciub. It was then and there resolved fo hold all the midsummer jinks in the cascade forest, but when the committee went to look at the place a year later all the trees had been cut away. Only a forest of stumps and the cascade remained. A grove equal in beauty, with the ad- vantage of a softer climate, was found for the third jinks in 1880. Thecrowning suc- cess of the preceding jinks in the Russian River had silenced all the kickers, No resistance has since been offered to the annual outing, and it is significant that all the outings since have been held in the Russian River belt, with the excep- tion of one departure, Fred Somers’ Buddha jinks in Mill Valley, The first jinks at the Guerneville forest was sired by General ‘W. H. L. Barnes and the second there by James F. Bowman. It was in the Guerneville forest that | Paul Neumann, 1883; Stuart M. Tay Fred M. Somers introduced the idea of the i Engene Dewey, Casper Schenck, Charles cremation of Care, which Tayernier's fa- mous painting so accurately illustrates. This was the fourth jinks of the midsum- ‘ Jobn mer series in the woods, Ta the regular order from the beginning the series was sired: Harry Edwards, 1878; Hugh M. Burke, 1879; W. H. L. Barnes, 1880; James F. Bowman, 1881; George T. Bromley, A.G. Hawes, 1882; | 1884; Andrew McF. Davis, 1885; Geor Chismore, 1886; Peter Robertson, 188 James D. Phelan, 1888; Daniel O’Connell, 1889; E. B.. Pomroy, 1890; :J. Dennis Arnold, 1891; F. M. Somers, 1892; Joseph | D. Redding, 1893; Peter Robertson, 18%4; Vanderiynn Stow, 1895. Among the artists whose cartoons com- memorate jinks in the woods may be men- tioned J. D, Strong, Jules Tavernier, Barkhaus, John Stanton, A. Jouillin, Latimer, Thomas Hill and Julian Rix. F. Marion Wells, sculptor, construoted | of gunny-bags and plaster the statue of the patron saint of Bohemia which stood three years in Meeker's Grove. He made also the Buddha figure for the jinks in Mill Vailey, where a grove was, in faect, purchased. From its inception In its development the artists ir» music { Dungan, James A. Thompson, A. Henry Marshall, Hewston _Jr., Stewart George W. Granniss, Grismer, A. D. Bradley, Williams, John Hodge, Jerome | Hawes, Men- | zies, | R. i gil | Hart, Ed Ruehling, Ted Locke, Harry Gil- | { lig, Charles Foster, Charies Stone, James i A. Robinson, Captain McDonald, Dan 0'Connetl, Peter Robertson, Theodore Payne, Walter Holmes, Robert C. Rogers, ; Paul Neumann, Henry Eickoff, George | Hickox, Ned Peters, E. L. G. Bteele, Ben | Clark, J. H. Simpson, Charles Leonard, A. McF. Davis, Selim Woodworth, | Fred Woodworth, Harry Brady, Harry Dam, Kred Crocker, George Crocker, Raoul Martinez, Dr. Powers, A. C. Niles, Charles G. Yale, Ed H. Hamilton, Jobn L. Lathrop, Dr.Younger, Barbour T. Lathrop, J. H. N. Irwin, Alexander Hamilton, | Henry Heyman, C. A. Low, N. J. Brittan, Theodore Wores, Teddy Hoiden, George | W. Nagle, George Bayley, Sidney M. | Smith, John H. Boalt, Charles Elliott, Joe i Strong, Jules Tavernier, and Paul, the real American. Oi the eighteen sires thirteen survive, | and ten live in San Francisco. Paul Neu- the midsummer | mann dwells in Hawaii, J. D. Redding in | high jinks has been a growing institution. | New York and Andrew McFarland Davis | | in Boston. The five on whom the cares of G. | Leon Weill, | Joseph | Vir- | bave been active and efficient, Stephen | life no longer rest are: Harry Edwards, Leach and Ben Clark in the early days | Stuart Taylor, James F. Bowman, E. B. gained special recognition. Joseph D.|Pomroy and Fred M. Somers. Of the Redding ava H. J. Stewart coming later | living sires Hugh M. Burke s made music a leading feature. The club | the senior and Vanderlynn Stow the quartet and chorus of the early outings | junior. Joseph Tilden, Jules Taver- were succeeded in time by the complete | nier and . Jobn Hodge, - who were orchestra and the full band. active spirits in the early jinks, have gone Nowadays special trains and boats are | over the river. General John Hewston Jr. engaged for the Bohemians. Instead of | is still yery muchalive and ready to re- A GLIMPSE - \AT THE HEART OF BOHEMIA | The Immortal Hush of | the Redwoods THE REVELS SCENE OF 1 Z |A Picturesque Bit of Nature That | Is Worth Grossing the Continent to View To thelover of the wild and picturesque | in nature, a trip down the Russian Rgver to **Bohemia’’—the grove of redwoods just out from the old mill town of Guerne- ville—is well worth crossing a contlneqt | to see. This noble congregation of coni- fers—Sequoia sempervirens—is altogether the most magniticent forest accessible by railroad from San Francisco, the trip thgr‘e and back being made in one day, with three vast noon hours to wander at will in ©@God’'s first temples.” The entire way from Santa Rosa, a distance of twenty-five miles, is one of unimagined beauty— broken hillchains set to orchard and vine- yard or left to nature’s unpruned forestry, | and canyon and vale between, green with | hop gardens or scented haycocks bulging to the sun. A little beyond the town and tbe track skirts a dizzy wall which overlooks a sweeping curve of river. The rails q@ ahead make steely ribbons through the tutted grass and blowing wild oats. We have left behind the dwellings of men, but the house of an eagle is made out high up on the topmost spire of a splint- ered pine—an “airy cartload of fagots’— near which, on a bare limb, we discover one of the nestlings preening its feathers | in the sun. The ‘‘chopped-out’’ district is now wholly passed, and we experience the indescribable exhilaration that comes with the sight of primeval woods. And | such wooas, pine and fir, and, kingliest of all, the redwood, towering in unscathed majesty. A mountain covered with these | giant conifers is inconceivably sublime, | and no words can depict tue solemn im- pressivenes of a deep gorge filled with the black, upright shafts. Never do I behold these matchless trees without an instine- tive stretching out of my arms in greeting. The end of the track is the gateway to Bohemia proper, the central group of red- | woods belonging to a reservea tract of ten acres. It is thechosen grounds for the | annual jinks of the Bohemian Club, and from this fact derives its name. A grander grove cannot be pictured. The columnar | trees are marshaled on a level depression of glen, with a margin of precipitous mountain sides. Glimpses of these cir- cling walis, seen through the somber shade, are like the stained windows in some splendid cathedral—so. rich and | varied is the coloring. One arched hiil space shows the twisted red of madrono | outlined on a ground of varnished laurel. | Another is a rock face painted with metallic oxides and veined with white quartz; then a bank superbly noduled with moss and lichens, a briery patch sunburnished, a stucco of wild flowers, and everywhere an exquisite tracery of poison oak—Rhbus toxicodendron—on a dark sur- face of bark. The redwoods of Bohemia are not so large as those of the Montgomery woad in Mendocino, but they are colossal enough to inspire reverentawe in the beholder. The largest measures fifty feet in circum- ference, and, like all its fellows, the short, | bristling limbs do not begin for nearly a | hundred feet up the bole. While our feet | pressed soundlessly on the russet leaf mats we drank in the balsamic air like a cor- dial, and for the time being shared the vigor and perennialness of these living towers. * Who shall put into words the penetrat- ing hush and immortal tenderness of the redwoods, where nature seems ever at | prayer or too profoundly happy to break the stiliness save by the faint tinkle of water dropping over the smoothed round- | ness of stones or the soft stir of an occa- sional songless bird? The usual feathered or farry creature shuns the perpetual twi- light of the redwoods, and if found there tents for a night the camp is established for a month. In the forest for weeks pre- ceding the annual event ‘‘the nights are filled with music” and no cares infest the day. In the Bohemia of the early period, which now seems a summertime in sunny long ago, the leadin: high jinks spirits were: Frank Pixley, Clay Greene, Frank Unger, Ed Townsend, Raphael Weill, sume his annual duty of building the cof- | has no voice for greeting. Only enormous | fin for the cremation of Care. TUncle George Bromley holds the office of high priest of Rohemia, and when other duties slugs make iridescent trails over the moist leaves underfoot. ‘Chere were ferns of various species in call him away he directs the eloquent Gen- eral Barnes to take his place. The next midsummer high jinks will be sired by Albert Gerberding. The predic- tion goes that he will prove equal to the oceasion. » the grove, but no flowers except a faded pink oxalis, which invariably grows under the sequoia. Where a streamlet loses it- self in a reedy dip a tiny lake is formed, its bosom floating a variety of semi- aquatic vegetation, Ninerra Eames. AT SANTA MONICA—“WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE.”