Notes and Queries 



43 



drop our bait in without a shadow, except our 

 rods. We did so, and simultaneously landed 

 two large ones. We then turned on our backs 

 like a pair of skirmishers in front of the enemy, 

 and instead of loading, we baited, turned on 

 our faces again and threw in, and out came 

 two beautiful fish. 



We were as much excited as a fellow who 

 was about to " pop the question " to his sweet- 

 heart; our hearts were beating fearfully; our 

 breath coming quick and fast ; our nerves at 

 their utmost tension, for we had never exper- 

 ienced anything like it before. We did not 

 know there were such beauties in the streams. 

 After eating our lunch we took a nap and then 

 renewed the attack. Fish after fish were 

 landed in quick succession, some through the 

 tail and some through the side, they were so 

 thick. We positively did not draw once in 

 that place without landing a beauty. Those 

 struck in the tail and side were in the way of 

 the biting fish, and were hooked instead of the 

 fish we missed. Your angler reader will 

 readily take in the situation, while the novice 

 will shrug his shoulders, look wise, and say 

 " that's a snake story that Maryland fellow is 

 telling." 



Well, to continue. We did not leave the 

 beautiful shade of the beeches till near sun- 

 down, when the fish stopped biting. 



"Ned," I said, "I believe we've caught 

 every fine fish in old Stony. They came down 

 stream and up stream to this cool, still water 

 in the shade of the old beeches to play among 

 the roots and keep out of the way, that's my 

 opinion ; but if you want to move down stream 

 I'll stick to ' my leader,' and go home after 

 night." 



"No!" said my cousin, "we will go home 

 now, Tom, with the biggest pile of white fish 

 ever caught in Haulings river or the Patu-xent, 

 much less Stony branch, and everyone caught 

 with small ripe blackberries." 



My cousin's big fish measured eighteen 

 inches and a fraction, while my largest meas- 

 ured about seventeen inches ; many of them 

 were twelve, fourteen and fifteen inches or 

 thereabout. 



Dear old " Stony branch ! " Dear, because 

 it rises on the farm called "Brook Grove," 

 formerly owned by a beloved relative of ours, 

 Mr. Roger Brook, a broad brimmed Quaker, a 

 gentleman universally loved ; a man of great 

 nobility of character, and named after Roger 

 Brook Taney, the chief justice of the United 



States. The farm is now owned by his son, 

 Mr. George Brook, a stalwart gentleman of 

 83, a splendid second edition of his honored 

 father. A more loveable man does not live in 

 old Maryland. W. S. Stabler. 



From Montana — An Apolinaris Spring. 



I have been spending the summer and fall 

 on Trail Creek, about eighteen miles up the 

 Yellowstone above Livingston, and have had 

 one of the hnest times among the birds and 

 trout. I took a trip up one of the streams that 

 helps to supply the river fifteen miles above 

 Livingston on the east side, and I went into 

 the mountains ten or twelve miles. I found 

 the finest trout-fishing I ever struck, and was 

 never so surprised in my life as I was to see 

 such fishing; my bait was the two-legged 

 grasshopper, that being the number of legs 

 most of our hoppers have in this section. I 

 had a pole cut from brush along the stream, 

 and the first trout I got was more than i 

 pound, and in the first four hours' hshing I got 

 twenty-eight, and not one among them less 

 than ^ lb., and from that to over 2 lbs. I 

 had never heard of any one fishing up so far. 

 The mountains rose up thousands of feet high 

 on each side of the stream for miles. 



I found a camp where a party spent the 

 summer, and also several old friends hunting 

 game and gold, who were making it their 

 headquarters, and I put in six days with them. 

 I would have enjoyed it more, if you or some 

 other trouter had been along; the pleasure 

 and fun was too much for one to enjoy alone. 

 I would catch hoppers in the forenoon and fish 

 as long as I could, so as to make camp before 

 dark, and in all the time I never even saw any 

 small trout, and did not get one as small as 



I found a place where there had been a big 

 snow and landslide, and thousands of pine 

 trees had been swept down into the gulch and 

 stream, and the old hunters told me that the 

 former was piled more than fifty feet high, 

 with the trees swept from the mountain side, 

 and when they were dry had been burned, so 

 that for forty rods or more the channel was 

 covered with burned logs, with the water run- 

 ning under them. At the upper end was a 

 short level place, where the current was 

 checked by the logs, and right there I had fun 

 a yard long and a foot high. I stood on a big 

 boulder and let my hopper go nearly to the 



