The Story of Paul Boyton Part 37

Less than seven days from the time of starting, Paul landed in New York, having been escorted down the North river by a large party of friends aboard a gaily decorated tug. Fully 20,000 people saw the finish. To Wallace Ross, who rowed the reporters' boat, much of the success of the trip was due. He watched Boyton with the anxious care of a trained nurse. He stood by regardless of his own fatigue, keeping a careful eye on the tides and was ready at all times to exert his skill and muscle for the success of the undertaking. George Whistler, too, who has been Boyton's attendant for years, withstood the fatigues of the journey and attended manfully to his duties.

In March, 1888, the Captain had a thrilling experience in Lake Michigan.

For the purpose of reducing his weight, he began to take short runs through the icy water. On the 27th he left sh.o.r.e, intending to paddle a few miles out in the lake. A fresh west wind was blowing. He pushed through the ice for some time and then encountered great floes onto which he climbed. Heavy clouds obscured the sun and the wind had gathered the ice together. He struggled for a time with what he judged to be the western border of the field and then ran into a sort of pocket. Through this he pulled until he again encountered floes. A heavy fog now shut down on the lake and all trace of land had vanished, and on stopping to take his bearings, he was horrified to find that his compa.s.s was lost. There was nothing by which he could determine his position or the direction of the city. He began to get drowsy from the cold and knew he would perish if he did not labor incessantly to keep up his temperature. He concluded that he only had to pull away from the ice to reach Chicago, and for at least five hours he worked in what he considered to be the right direction. Still there was no sign of the city. Then he changed his course and pulled with all the energy of desperation. The ice gathered about him again and when night came, he was fighting it for his life. Sometimes he would dodge the drifts, at others he climbed upon the cakes and crossed them. He got a flash view of the moon when it rose and then saw that he had been working wrong. He had crossed the field in the morning when he got into what he thought was an opening and all the long day he had been driven toward Michigan. The turn he had taken sent him south. Observing the moon he changed his course, and in a couple of hours saw the glare from the furnaces of South Chicago. Taking his bearings from them, he sighted the lights at the water work's crib, where he arrived at midnight and aroused Captain McKay by a blast of the bugle and was hauled up. He was given refreshments and retired. He had been seventeen hours in the water.

During the spring, Paul made a run of eight hundred miles down the Ohio from Wheeling to Evansville for amus.e.m.e.nt, and another of two-hundred miles down the Missouri from St. Joseph to Kansas City.

Late in the winter of 1889, he again visited the Pacific coast. His object was the capture of sea lions which he knew to be plentiful on the sh.o.r.es of Oregon and Washington. He went to Astoria and located a large rookery below Tillamook Head; but found it could be reached only by a most difficult trail. He made up his mind to take chances although it was not according to his idea the best mode of traveling. It was not until the 12th of March that everything was in readiness and on that day he left Astoria accompanied by his a.s.sistant, fully supplied with nets and everything necessary to effect the capture of the lions in the easiest way. They went to Seaside where they secured pack horses and launched boldly into the trail for Tillamook. This route proved to be all that had been described and a great deal more that had not been mentioned in the way of roughness and almost insurmountable difficulties. They occupied eight long and weary hours in traversing seven miles to a ranch on the coast which they proposed to make their headquarters.

To add to the unpleasant features of the trip, they were tartly received by the owner of the ranch when they arrived there at night worn out and hungry. The proprietor was very ill natured and did not conceal his aversion to entertaining them. Boyton made several polite attempts to engage him in conversation; but was answered with frowns and monosyllables. There was no other place where food and shelter could be procured and they were obliged to put up with it.

At supper some very fine meat graced the table and was more than relished by the hungry sea lion hunters. Paul thought he could reach the rancher's heart through praising the excellence of his viands, and innocently asked:

"Is that elk meat, sir?"

The man became very much excited at the question and angrily answered:

"No, sir. Do you suppose I would kill elk out of season, and a law against it at this time of year?"

Paul apologized for having unconsciously insinuated such a thing and remarked that if he was in the woods with a gun and saw an elk, he would be likely to shoot it.

"It would be wrong to violate the law in that way, young man," replied the host, "and I would be the first one to inform on you if I caught you at it."

Next morning while Boyton was out looking over the position of the seal rocks, his a.s.sistant informed the rancher who he was. A change took place at once in the man's demeanor. He proved a most generous and entertaining host. "Why, Captain," said he, "I thought I knew you. I helped you take off your suit once at Hock Ferry, Liverpool."

The sullen host became bright and cheerful and wanted Paul to go out elk hunting with him every day. His strange conduct at first was explained; he had been under the impression that his visitors were spies in search of violators of the game laws.

The nets were finally unpacked and Boyton with his a.s.sistant and three men from the ranch, started for the rocks. As they proceeded through the forest, they could hear the lions' bellowing above the noise of the breakers.

They reached the cliff which towers several hundred feet above the beach, and from which they had a glorious view of the rocks and rookeries below that were literally alive with sea lions. Finding a break in the cliff, they made an easy descent. Paul then donned the rubber dress and taking one of the nets, succeeded in pa.s.sing the first line of breakers without much trouble; but he reached the island with considerable difficulty. His appearance did not seem to create any alarm among the horde of mammals on the rock, even when he approached near them. He went around the island to see where he could make the safest landing. Having gained the sh.o.r.e he cast loose the net and then worked cautiously toward a promising young lion, about a yearling, that was sleeping, and had no difficulty in throwing the snare over it. It beat around for a time, but quieted down as the running line was pulled that tightened the meshes. Making fast, Paul returned to the mainland where he joined a rope to the line of the snare and gave the signal for his a.s.sistants on sh.o.r.e to pull away, at the same time pushing the captured lion off the rocks. It snapped viciously at him but did not bellow or make a noise, and was landed without disturbing the others.

In half an hour another was captured and landed by the same process and two others quickly followed. Just before capturing the last one, Paul crawled into a large ravine where there were a number of lions. There was a magnificent one, about five or six years old and fully developed; but however much Boyton would have liked to capture it, he did not have confidence in the strength of the net or his own ability to hold it. He was going to make the attempt, nevertheless, when in his excitement, he arose from a rec.u.mbent position and frightened the prize away. He says he can never forget the malevolent look of those green eyes as the lion rolled off the rock and snapped at him.

The fourth net was followed ash.o.r.e and they began to devise means to get their catch up the face of the cliff. They first tried to pack them up; but the effort was futile as the earth gave way under their feet.

Finally three men went to the top of the cliff and let down a half inch cotton rope which was attached to the leading string of one of the nets.

The men pulled and succeeded in lifting it half way up, when it caught on a stunted bush that grew out from the rocks. They tried hard to free it, when the rope which had been worn weak in places, from contact with sharp rocks, parted and the sea lion dropped like a shot and was smashed into a jelly on the boulders one hundred feet below. As darkness was coming on, with a storm brewing, they decided to leave the other lions in the nets where they were until morning, when they could get the horses to the edge of the cliff to draw them up.

That night, a terrible gale, which left many wrecks on the coast, sprang up and next day the trail was impa.s.sible by reason of fallen timber.

Late in the afternoon, they reached the beach again and finding it impossible to pull the three lions up, or to get them to civilization if they did, Paul took off the traps and liberated them.

At daylight next morning, they started back across the trail to Seaside.

It was in a much worse condition than when they went in, and they were until dark traversing the seven miles. Every time they missed stepping on a root or stone, they sank in the mud to their knees, until they became so tired that they thought seriously of abandoning their apparatus.

Fishermen at the mouth of the Columbia river consider the sea lion to be more dangerous and cruel than a shark. They accuse it of mutilating in the most horrible manner, bodies that have been drowned off the bar. An incident of its vicious nature came under Boyton's notice during his stay in that vicinity. An old Indian who wished to secure the skin of a lion, went out to the rocks at low tide. He was barefooted and walked noiselessly to where a lion lay asleep. He had just raised his ax to strike it over the head when his foot slipped and he fell. In an instant the animal was awake and upon him and fastening its teeth in his shoulder, stripped his arm bare to the bone down to the finger nails.

The lion then jumped off into the sea and the Indian was rescued and carried ash.o.r.e where he died soon after.

On Paul's return to Astoria, he determined to visit the North Beach. He and his companion missed the regular steamer and as they were impatient, they decided to risk the trip across the bar and along the coast in a small boat. The trip to Ilwaco was made without any startling adventure and the next day they visited Sand Island and captured several seals. On Sunday they were storm bound; but Monday they proceeded on their voyage up the coast in the small boat. They started against the advice of the fishermen, the men at the life saving station and everybody else.

They made it all right through the heavy sea until they pa.s.sed Sand Island, when the waves struck them. To save the boat from being swamped, they had to throw her bow up and drift "nose on." They were tossed about on the turbulent water, and to add to their discomforts, they had neither food nor drink and were drenched to the skin. That night they got under Scarborough Head where they had smoother water and succeeded in making a landing. A blazing fire and a square meal put them in excellent spirits and the following day they returned to Astoria, to disprove in person a story that had been published along the coast to the effect that they were gone to "Davy Jones' Locker."

CHAPTER XXIII.

"Well, thank goodness, we are through, and I can get out for a little air once more."

Such was the remark made by Boyton when the preceding chapter, which completed the history of his adventures, was finished.

He little relished the confinement to which he had been subjected, while getting into shape such a ma.s.s of notes and memoranda. Several times he was on the point of abandoning the work altogether.

"One thing that gratifies me," he added: "I'll never have to talk about myself or my voyages again. The book tells the story."

Though before the public so many years, Paul Boyton is still in the prime of life. It is possible that he will not attempt any dangerous voyages again; still the ruling pa.s.sion is strong. He may frequently be seen poring over maps and charts of distant rivers and often discusses the probability of adventure on them.

During the summer he is almost daily in the water with his company of aquatic experts.

In the winter season, he devotes the greater part of his time to inventing and perfecting new devices in the way of water amus.e.m.e.nts.

In the large bas.e.m.e.nt of his home he has fitted up one of the most curious work-shops in the world. Water-shoes, sails, marine bicycles, torpedo and submarine boats, paddles, etc., lie around in bewildering confusion to a person unaccustomed to aquatic traps. But Boyton knows where each belongs, and insists on its being kept there, his early sailor training making him a martinet of order.

He has never lost his old love of animals. Adjoining the work-shop, is a large tank for the accommodation of his water pets. This is also a favorite spot for his three little boys who often take a plunge.

Sometimes the first mate of the home is compelled to make a clearance, when the pets become numerous and the youngsters bathe too frequent.

It may be well to state in these closing remarks that a cause of considerable business annoyance is the persistence with which many people spell his name, Boy-n-ton instead of Boyton. This mistake happens only in America.

One thing Boyton seriously regrets, is his inability to remember names and faces. Consequently he is spoken to every day by those who have met him in various parts of the world, and it is a source of much embarra.s.sment that he cannot always call their names as readily as they remember him, for being of a social disposition he is always glad to meet his acquaintances.

While keeping himself pretty busy in his shop over his charts during the winter he still finds time to make runs in his rubber dress on Lake Michigan, near his home, "Just to keep his hand in," he says.

He also goes on frequent hunting excursions.

Like most men who have led a roving life, he is fond of his home and a pleasant smile always lights his face when his little children are climbing over him asking for a story.