March, 1 88a
42
but t a man who in filing for the
market, or prerving, or for his din
ner, lime be-in an object there in
plenty of joy and sport in throwing seventy-five
to a hundred fine ones on the
gravel from a tingle net cabling. The
excitement in more intense lhan fly fish
ing fir you are playing for biggerstakes,
even though it be true you do not give
the "speckled beauties" the tame chance
ofetcapc. Some men like to make a
labor of everything they undertake,
and othert try to escape the Creator's
mandate about our kind, being com
pelled to earn bread by the sweat of
our brown, It it the tame thing with
(lulling.
Our ramping place on the sand spit,
reached from Garibaldi by tail-boat,
confuted of a tnug house, sheltered
among a grove of pine and fir trees on
the land tide of the ridge that runs the
entire length of the spit. In one f
the two rooms of this Robinson Crusoe
abode was a large bed for a Portland
companion and the writer, and scattered
about in bachelor confusion were rifles,
thotgunt, ammunition (wet and dry),
fuhing poles, Salmon nctt and clam
tpadet. In the parlor (so called by cour
tesy and to distinguish it from the com
bined armory and sleeping apartment)
was an immense fire place that devoured
logs "like a thing of life," and thrown
around with the same chaotic indif
fcrcncc that distinguished the bed-room,
were shooting tuits, a big iron pot, rub
lcr Iwott, farming implements, some
skint, oart, boxes, dried fith and meats,
a couple of chairs, a table and a for
midable array of empty beer bottles for
candlesticks. The front door opened
on a potato patch, and looked out up
on the waters of Tillamook bav. and th
Coast range of mountains beyond; the
lak door lid not exist. This was
our castle, and no feudal lord ever made
the Gothic arches of his manor hall
ring with more hilarious laughter than
echoed through the timbers of thii
place at we three congenial souls talked
over the present, the future and our
porting experiences of the past few
bout.
The f.n4 day't sport was devoted to
claru and cockle digging, ou the flats in
the bay at low tide, and to those not
to the manner born, it U not the easiest
ay in the world of earning a living,
or securing a meal. However we had
fto difficult in loading our boat (thanka
to a kindly disposed Indian), and al
though we gave
of them to the entire
. . l i ,. cnnnlv of clams nev-
neiUliDoriiuw, rrv
. . .. u.i!. far the entire
cr ceaseu, we utns.v,
month we stopped in Tillamook, wur
boarding place was with an Indian wo
man named Hoxhurst, who was a first-
class cook and had a large mmi.y u.
half-breed children and grand children
around her. Eggs, chickens, new po
tatoes, fresh butter, butter milk, sweet
milk, strawberries, mussels, oysters,
trout, clams, flounders, salmon, crabf",
and home made bread, were the princi
pal features of our bill of fare, and I
know that the appetites we brought to
bear on our landlady's table independ
ent of her very low rates for boarding
were ruinous to her financially, and
it was no surprise to me (though it
struck me with remorse) to hear since
my return to Portland that she has of
fered her little farm for sale. The
summit of the sand spit ridge is covered
with tangled under-growth and gnarled
pines, and is but fifty yards from our
camp, and from which point a conver
sation could be easily kept up with a
man standing on the ocean beach on
one side and with a man on the bay
beach on the other,
The surf bathing here is delightful,
and I experienced no signs of the un
dertow that is so dangerous at Long
Branch and Ilwaco. I discovered, how
ever, a clover knoll on the bay side at
the edge of the water that made bath
ing there preferable. The beach is
strewn with beautiful shells and sea
mosses, and a day might be profitably
and pleasantly spent in their search
alone. But gathering shells, for a big
strong man to exercise himself with, is
poor business when there are no ladies
to help him in his scientific pursuits.
and in this respect Tillamook county ig
not prolific. Ladies are at an immense
premium. Where the sand soit begins.
...
that cling to the rocks, and emit water
and close up when prodded witn a suck.
A short distance beyond the caves, to
the westward, is a large rock, standing
In the ocean, which is a favorite breed
ing place for gulls and shags, and
where egfs can be obtained in abund-
-r . i l .L. U1..AP frt tht
ance. jusi Deyunu ub iuu v
south a splendid trout stream empties
into the sea, and the beach is covered
with all kinds of succulent shell fish.
Several bears have been killed not a
quarter of a mile from Mrs. Hoxhurst
house, one of which fell a victim to
the unerring rifle of our jovial host.
Elk and deer abound in the mountains
whose feet are bathed in Tillamook
bay, and pheasant find a security in.
the woods that clothe their sides. In
n DAaenn Jnflrc frAPBA fJ II
r t 1 1
swans swarm in the bay, and on moon
light nights treignr, tne wontea suuness
of the air with a wild screaming and
quacking that becomes a perfect pandemonium.
A good day's sport can be had during
the summer by engaging an Indian
with his canoe for the purpose of seal
shooting. When the salmon begin
running, seals follow them in over the
bar into the bay, and for a good rifle
shot who can hit a seals head at fifty
yards, when they come up for air and
reconnoitreing purposes, it is no diffi-1
cult thing to kill enough of the bright
eyed bullet-headed fellows in a day, to
supply the entire county with oil for
the winter. One of my principal
amusements at this place was to fill my
pockets with cartridges, and after secur
ing good cover on the ridge, shotgun
in hand, there, to kill time, if nothing
else, blazing away at the flocks of
"Shags" as they flew over from the
ocean rocks to their breeding grounds
on the bay. It .was in this way that
we obtained our bait tor crabbine and
crabbing as we carried it on, was per-
.1 i . . " ' I o " " is Wl, wis per-
2 f" w,""r?Ck!rb,uffl,bout S8 never surpassed in the world for
three hundred feet high, down which
a sparkling waterfall empties its virgin
puiuy mio me roaring ocean below,
and burrowing far into which are deep
cavet, crowing one another in all sorts
of ways. The walls of these sea cav
ems are solidly lined with mussels, so
compact that they look as if nature had
attempted the Byzantine style of mosaic.
At the base of the caves are star fish,
and a peculiar creation looking not un!
like roses, soraefereen and some pink,
actual results. We got a carriage wheel
tire and knit a net to fit it; then skinned
our birds, tied them fast into the bot
tom of the net, and sailed out into the
stream, where we anchored and threw
overboard our crab trap. People who
have gone crabbing in Jersey, or even
those who have seen the Chinese catch
them with nets knit around small bar
rel hoops, on Meiggs' Wharf in San
Francisco, can form no idea of the suc
cess of our scheme. We allowed our