The engineer, or, How to travel in the woods

Front matter

T V f

THE EXPEDITION PREPARING TO START,

A SERIES OF NARRATIVES, DIALOGUES, BIOGRAPHIES, AND TALES, FOR THE INSTRUCTION AND ENTERTAINMENT OF THE YOUNG.

Preface

This book is intended to teach you how hunters, emigrants, and travelers manage in the long journeys they have to take in the wild regions of the Western country of America, where there are no roads, no towns, and no civilized people. The parties, large and small, that are continually moving to and fro over those vast regions, are innumerable, and they are increasing every year ; and it is very interesting to us, as we sit by our quiet firesides at home on the winter evenings, to read of their adventures, and of the various means and contrivances which they resort to in the absence of all the usual comforts and conveniences of civilized life. At least, Bell, Stanley, and Dorie were much interested in looking at the drawings which their father made for them, and in hearing his explanations of them ; and I hope the readers of the Story Books may be interested too, in perusing the conversations and looking at the engravings as they are reproduced here.

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Contents

CHAPTER

I. COMMISSIONS

II. RIVER-CROSSING

Chapter I. Commissions

Colonel Markham’s study. The surveying instruments. The work-shop.

rpHE name of the engineer was Colonel Markham. He lived in a beautiful house on the banks of the North River. He had a study in his house, with a large bow window in it, which looked out upon the river. He used to spend a great deal of time in this study when he was at home, reading books of mathematics and engineering, and drawing plans of the work that he had surveyed when he was away on his expeditions.

Colonel Markham had a great many curious instruments which he used in his surveying. These instruments he kept, when he was at home, in a large glass case, like a book-case, in his study. When he went away on his surveying expeditions he used to take many of them with him. Those that he thus took with him were always packed in nice mahogany boxes, made expressly for them. Each instrument fitted into its own box exactly.

Colonel Markham had a small shop in a sort of closet, with a large window in it, that opened out of his study. This little shop was very elegantly furnished, and the tools in it were very costly and very beautiful. There was a lathe in it. The lathe was of commissions.

The turning-lathe. Stanley had a shop of his own. Colonel Markham’s business.

the most complete and highly-finished workmanship, and it was mounted on a mahogany bench. There was a lid to shut down over it when it was not in use, to keep the dust out. This shop and these tools the colonel used for making repairs and adjustments upon his instruments, and for other nice operations of the sort.

Stanley Markham, the colonel’s son, would have liked very much to go into his father’s shop, and to use those beautiful tools in making boats, and boxes, and cages for birds and squirrels ; but the tools were too valuable to be used by such a boy. Stanley was only about ten years old.

But, though Colonel Markham was not willing that Stanley should use his nice and costly tools, he provided him with a shop and tools of his own. Stanley’s shop was in a corner of the shed. It was provided with saws, and planes, and other such tools suitable for a boy, and also with nails, and screws, and boards of various thicknesses, and other similar materials. There was also an abundant supply of wire, and nippers and pliers to cut and bend it with." This wire Stanley used for the purpose of making traps and cages for birds and squirrels.

Colonel Markham remained at home generally during the winter, or at least during some portion of the winter. In the summer he was out on surveying expeditions. Once, when he went to the Far West to survey the rail-road route across the prairies there, he went in the fall, and remained through the winter and nearly through the next summer.

When the colonel went away on this occasion, he asked the

COMMISSIONS.

Colonel Markham leaving home. Stanley’s request. What Dorie wanted.

children what he should bring them home. He had always been accustomed, when he went to New York on any business, to bring home to them such little presents of books and toys as they might send for, and now, though he was going, not into a great city, but far away into the western wilderness, he asked them the usual question.

“Well, children,” said he, “what shall I bring you home this time ?”

“Shoot me a great black bear, father,” said Stanley, “and bring me home his skin.”

The colonel laughed at this request, but made no answer.

“And what shall I bring you, Dorie, my dear?”

Dorie was a bright and active little child five years of age. Her name in full was Dorinda.

Dorie looked up a moment into her father’s face, and seemed to be thinking. What she wanted was. a picture-book, but she was not quite certain whether picture-books could easily be obtained or not in the backwoods.

“ Could you get me a little picture-book, think ?” said she, looking up timidly at her father.

“ I am afraid not,” said the colonel.

“ Then perhaps you could bring home some flowers,” said Dorie. “Flowers grow in the woods.”

“Yes, but they would all fade before I could get them home,” said the colonel.

“ Then bring me a little bird — a bright little bird,” said Dorie. “Birds don’t fade bringing home, do they, father?”

COMMISSIONS.

Some account of Bell.

Bell would like some pictures.

“No,” replied the colonel, “they would not fade if they lived, but perhaps they might die.”

“If you give them some crumbs of bread, father, every day, they won’t die. I’ll go and get a piece of bread for you to carry.”

So Dorie ran off to get a piece of bread.

“ And what shall I bring for you, Bell ?” said the colonel.

Bell was about twelve years old. She was a very quiet and gentle girl. She was in feeble health, and not strong. She accordingly did not like active plays, and did not go out much with other children, but remained quietly at home with her mother. She was very fond of reading, drawing, and other such intellectual pleasures. She had a little garden, and was much occupied with her flowers, but she was not strong enough to do much in cultivating them. Patrick, the Irishman who lived at Colonel Markham’s, took care of her garden for her.

Bell was sitting on the step of the front door when her father asked her what he should bring home for her. The colonel was standing near, waiting for the carriage to come round.

“ If you have time to draw me some pictures of what you see,” said Bell, “I should like that very much.”

“ What kind of pictures ?” asked her father. “ Shall they be pictures of the scenery, or of what the people in the woods are doing ?”

“ Of what the people are doing,” said Bell. “ I should like that a great deal better than the scenery.”

“I can put some of the scenery in the background, perhaps,” said the colonel ; “ then you can have both.”

COMMISSIONS.

The colonel’s departure. His return. The bearskin, the bird, and the pictures.

“Yes, sir,” said Bell, “I should like that very much indeed.”

“Well, ” said the colonel, “ I will see what I can do.”

Just at this moment Patrick was seen approaching with the horse and carriage round to the front door, and at the same moment Dorie came running in from the kitchen with a piece of bread rolled up in a paper.

“Here, father,” said she, “here’s for the little bird.”

The colonel took the parcel and put it carefully in his pocket, and then bidding them all good-by, he got into his carriage, and Patrick drove him away. His instruments were packed in two iron-bound chests, which, together with his trunk, were strapped on behind. Patrick, however, was not going very far. He was only going to take the colonel and his baggage down to the Hudson River Rail-road station.

It was September when the colonel left home on this expedition, and he did not return again until the following June.

When he came he brought a large black bearskin for Stanley, and a pretty little black and yellow bird for Dorie.

“ And, Bell,” said he, “ I made some drawings for you, and I have got them in a portfolio in my trunk. I am going to show them to you by-and-by, and explain them to you. Or would you rather have them all now, without waiting for the explanations ?”

“I would rather wait,” said Bell, “and have them explained.”

“And you must let me be there too,” said Stanley, “to hear the explanations/’

“Yes,” said the colonel, “I will.”

“And me too,” said Dorie.

Explaining the pictures.

Woodsmen building a raft.

Chapter II. River-crossing

The first picture which Colonel Markham showed to the children was a picture of men building a raft to cross a river.

In the foreground of the picture there were seen five men employed in building a raft. They had laid down one tier of logs in the water, and were now placing another tier crosswise over them. The logs were chiefly in the water, but one end of the raft rested on the shore, to prevent its floating away while they were building it. Two of the men were at work on the outer corner of the raft, lashing the logs together. One of them was standing in the water. The other was kneeling down upon the raft.

At the other corner of the raft two men were employed in bringing a new log to put across.

The fifth man was on the shore. He wTas employed in rolling another log along, so as to have it ready. A gun was lying down upon the ground by the side of him.

The scenery around was very pretty. The river was near, with beautiful copses of trees upon the banks of it. In the distance was a high, conical-shaped mountain. The summit of the mountain rose above the clouds.

The men had obtained the logs by felling trees in the woods that grew along the bank of a river. A part of the company were still in the woods felling more trees.

Raft-building on a Western river.

BUILDING A RAFT.

Here you see the picture, with the river, the men at work upon the raft, the woods on the shores, and the distant mountain.

The place where the rest of the company are at work getting more logs is on the left. They are far in the woods, and are entirely out of view.

RIVER-CROSSIN Gr.

What the children thought about the picture. Swimming the river.

The children looked at the picture for some time in silence. The colonel always allowed them to look at the pictures first themselves before he began to explain them.

“Well, children, what do you observe?” said he, at length.

“I observe,” said Dorie, “that there are some men and some logs. What are the men doing with the logs ?”

“ They are building a raft,” said Stanley. “ Don’t you see?”

“Yes,” said the colonel, “they are building a raft to cross a river. One of the greatest difficulties that we have to encounter in traveling about in a wild country is to get across the rivers and streams, because, you see, there are no roads and no bridges. Nor are there usually any boats. Sometimes there are Indians who have boats, but not often. So, if we can, we make rafts to float ourselves and our baggage across.”

“ Can’t you always make rafts ?” asked Stanley.

“No,” said the colonel, “for sometimes there are no trees.”

“And then what do you do?” asked Stanley.

“We swim if we can,” said the colonel. “ I have seldom had occasion to do that myself, but the emigrants and backwoodsmen very often do it. If there is a party, two or three of them swim over first. Then they drive their horses or oxen into the water, and compel them to swim over.”

“I should not think they would go,” said Stanley.

“ They are often unwilling to go at first,” said the colonel, “ but the men drive them in, and if they turn round and comb toward the shore again, the men drive them back with sticks and stones. After a while, one of them begins to see the people on the other

RIVER-CROSSING.

Various expedients for crossing rivers without a boat or raft.

shore who have already gone over, and as he finds he can not get back, he pushes on across the water, and then the rest follow him. Thus they all get over.

“ But the greatest difficulty in such cases is about the baggage. If the men have a cart, they sometimes have the body of it made water-tight, and then they can use it for a boat to float the baggage over in. It is true that in this way they can only take over a little at a time, but by going several times they can get it all over. In such cases, if the stream is not very wide, they can draw the cart-body back and forth by means of ropes. To do this, part of the men stand on the farther side of the river, to draw it over with a load by means of one rope, and the rest stand on the hither side, to pull it back again by another, after it has been emptied. In this way, after a time, they get every thing ferried across.

“ If any of the men can not swim, they have to be towed across,” continued the colonel. “ They get into the water, and take hold of the end of the cart, and when the cart is pulled over, they are drawn over too.”

“ But suppose they have not any cart,” asked Bell, “ what do they do then ?”

“ Then,” replied her father, “ they are obliged to resort to some other contrivance. One way is to shoot some large animal, such as a deer or a buffalo, and then make a sort of frame, and stretch his skin over it. This makes quite a good boat. The skin itself is water-tight, and the frame keeps it distended. Such a boat will carry a very considerable burden.

RIVER-CROSSING.

The canvas boat.

How to stop it from leaking.

Story of the sailors.

“ Sometimes, when no skins can be obtained to make a boat of, ingenious men have made them of canvas. They make a frame of poles and withes, and then stretch canvas over it. They make the canvas water-tight, or almost water-tight, by smearing it all over with tallow, or some other such substance impervious to water. By this means they get a sort of boat, which helps them very much in transporting their baggage and provisions, though it is not sufficient to carry men.

“ Once, though, I read a story of some sailors from a ship who went ashore in a boat, and while they were on the shore in a tent which they had pitched there, a party of savages came and stole their boat. At first the sailors were greatly at a loss to know what they should do, but finally they built a boat-frame of poles and basket-work, and covered it outside with the canvas of their tent. Then, to prevent the water from oozing through too fast, they plastered the inside of the boat all over with clay.' They all got into this boat when it was finished, and put out to sea. The water came in a little through the clay, but not faster than they could bail it out. They were eighteen hours in this boat before they regained their ship.”

“ I never thought of clay,” said Stanley. “ The next time I get into a leaky boat, I mean to stop up the cracks with clay.”

“Clay is very good for stopping water,” said the colonel. “People use it to line the bottoms of artificial ponds with. If the bottom is formed of sand, the water soaks through into the ground.”

“But sand is a better bottom to walk on,” said Stanley.

“ Yes,” said the colonel, “ that is true, and so people, after lining

RIVER-CROSSING.

The way to make artificial ponds. Stanley’s plan for a duck-pond. Floats.

the bottom of the pond with a coating of clay, well pounded down to keep the water in, generally put a layer of sand over it for a covering. Thus they have a tight pond and a sandy bottom both.”

“ That’s an excellent way,” said Stanley. “ I mean to make a little pond so some day for my ducks.”

“That will be a very good plan,” said the colonel; “but now about boats again. Boats made of basket-work, covered with canvas or skins, are usually not large enough to carry the men as well as the baggage. The men have to swim.

“ When there are men that can not swim,” continued the colonel, “they may be sometimes helped very much by means of floats put under their arms to buoy them up. Bladders make excellent floats ; so do any of the other internal organs of animals that can be inflated. Sometimes the whole skins of small animals are used. They use such skins a great deal on the Tigris and Euphrates, in Asia, and have done so from time immemorial. In the old sculptures dug up at Nineveh, there are representations which were carved thousands of years ago, representing men swimming over rivers, with small inflated skins under them to buoy them up. They make rafts, too, at the present day, on the Tigris, with a row of inflated skins on each side, underneath. The skin is taken off from the animal as nearly whole as possible. Of course, the neck and the legs will be open. These are all tied up, however, but one leg, and through that the skin is inflated. Then that is tied up too.

“When the raft is made, the leg of each skin by which the skin is inflated is left out on the top of the raft, and I have seen it

RIVER-CROSSING.

The raft supported by an inflated skin. Difficulty of inflating the float.

stated in books that when the air begins to get out of the skins, which the men know is the case by the raft settling down too much into the water, they can go all around and open the ends of these legs, and blow them all up ; but I should think that to do this would require pretty hard blowing.”

“ So should I,” said Stanley.

“It would be much easier,” said the colonel, “to inflate the skins when they are out of the water than when they are in it. This is obviously so, because, when a skin is below the surface of the water, it is pressed by the water on every side, so that, in blowing into it, you not only have to force the sides of the skin open, but you also have to force the water away which presses against the sides. You could try the experiment some time.”

“ But I have not got any skin to blow up,” said Stanley.

“You could try it with a bladder,” said the colonel.

“ Yes,” said Stanley, “ so I could.”

“ Try it with a bladder,” said the colonel, “the next time you go in a swimming. Put the bladder under a board, so as to keep it down beneath the surface, and then blow into it with a straw. Of course, you will let the neck of the bladder come up by the side of the board. You will find it much harder to inflate the bladder while it is beneath the surface of the water than it is while it is in the air.

“ If the bladder were down deep in the water,” continued the colonel, “the difficulty would be greater still, for the pressure increases very fast as you go down ; but you can not try the experiment in that form very well, for I don’t see how you would man-

RIVER-CROSSING.

Colonel Markham’s storites about adventures in crossing rivers.

age to keep the bladder down. Then, besides, you could not get _a straw long enough to inflate it with.”

“Well, now, father, tell us some more about getting across the rivers,” said Stanley.

“At one time,” said the colonel, “I had several rivers and streams to cross when I was making an examination of some country where I was going to locate a rail-road. I had two assistants with me, and we went on horseback. We had to go about ten miles and back the same day. There were several streams to cross, so we each took an India-rubber bag.”

“What was that for?” asked Stanley.

“You will see,” said the colonel. “We rode on across a great prairie, and at length, about ten o’clock, we came to the first stream. We all undressed ourselves on the bank, and put our clothes in our India-rubber bags. We tied the necks of our bags up tight, and then made a loop in the end of a long string, and after tying one end of the string to the neck of our bag, we put the loop over our arm and shoulder, so as that when we were swimming in the water the bag would come along behind us.

“ When we were all ready, we drove our horses into the water, and then came in ourselves after them, taking hold of their long tails with our hands. The horses did not like to go very well, but we whipped them a little with sticks, and made them go, and if they attempted to turn round, we spattered water in their faces, and made them keep on.”

Stanley laughed aloud at this comical way of getting across a river, and even Bell seemed quite amused with it.

RIVER-CROSSING.

How the travelers make water-proof bundles. Raft-building.

“ So the horses went on,” continued the colonel, “ drawing us by their tails, and we drawing our clothes-bags. When we got across, we opened our bags, took out our clothes, and dressed ourselves, and so went on.”

4 4 What would you have done if you had not had any India-rubber bags ?” asked Stanley.

44 Sometimes,” said the colonel, 4 4 we take cotton cloth and wax it, and that answers almost as well, especially if we roll up our clothes in it over and over quite tight, and so as to have several thicknesses of cloth over the bundle. Then we cord up the bundle with twine, and scarcely a drop of water can get through. We generally have cotton cloth in the camp. If not, we can take some sort of cotton garment, and use that for the purpose.”

44 And how do you get the wax?” asked Bell.

44 Oh, we can get wax enough in the backwoods,” said the colonel. 44 There are plenty of bees. They make their honey in hollow trees, and the hunters cut the trees down and get it ; and they can save as much wax as they want.”

44 Well,” said Stanley, after drawing a very long breath, “that is a funny way of getting across a river ; but, for my part, I would much rather go in a boat or on a raft.”

44 Yes,” said his father, 44 it is much more comfortable to go on a raft even ; but it takes some time, and it requires some skill to make a good raft. A raft not made well is very apt to come to pieces.”

44 Yes,” said Stanley. “All our rafts that we boys make are almost always coming to pieces.”

RIVER-CROSSING.

Difference between nailing and lashing the logs.

“I suppose so,” said the colonel.

“ Even if we nail the hoards together,” said Stanley, “they still come to pieces.”

“True,” said the colonel. “The motion of the water works the joints of the raft so much that the nails soon get loose and come out. In the woods we generally lash the parts together with some sort of cord or line. We first notch the logs at the parts where they are to come together, so as to make them fit each other, and then we lash them at the joints. Lashing is much better than nailing, for it gives a little.”

“ Gives ?” said Stanley ; “ but you don’t want it to give : you want it to hold.”

“ Yes,” replied the colonel, “ that is true ; but the lashing gives a little to hold the more. That is the reason why they use ropes for rigging at sea instead of a frame of wood or iron. The ropes give a little in the beginning, but hold the more in the end. We may learn a useful lesson from that in respect to the conduct of life.”

“What lesson?” asked Stanley.

“ I can not stop to explain it to you now,” said the colonel, “ but I will do so at some future time, when I have a good opportunity. And now I can not talk with you any more. Make believe that Dorie is your horse, and that you are making him swim across a river, and so drive her out of the room.”

Stanley accordingly drove Dorie out of the room, leaving Bell alone in the study with her father. The colonel was very willing that Bell should remain, because she was always so quiet and still.

THE LESSON OF THE RAFT.

Bell’s drawing lesson. The selection of presents.

Indeed, Bell had a desk near one of the windows in the study, and she now went to her desk, taking with her the drawing which her father had made for her of the men building the raft, and set herself at work to copy it.