HUNTING AND FISHING @ROUNDS AND PLEASURE RESORTS. 
155 
but its charms to the enthusiastic fisherman 
or hunter are not surpassing. From Menasha 
the line runs west by north through a mag- 
nificent agricultural country, but in which we 
failed to find any trace of a sportsman’s para- 
dise. The ruffed grouse has been almost ex- 
terminated with the disappearing forests and 
has not yet been replaced by the musical Bob 
White or prairie chicken. This condition is 
maintained almost to Stevens’ Point, a now 
thriving and busy town of some 5,000 inhav - 
tants. From ten to twelve miles fram ue 
may be obtained some fair deer hunting, com- 
bined with ruffed grouse shooting, and In- 
dians can be procurea as guides to lead the 
hunter to the best known resorts. Five 
miles south, on the Portage line, there is a 
splendid wild fowl marsh and the duck 
shooter may here revel in his favorite sport. 
Of course with so large a population it can- 
not be expected that Stevens’ Point can afford 
the very best of sport close at hand, but still 
it is an admirable base of operations for lay- 
ing in a stock of groceries and heavy baggage 
for further progress up country. The pro- 
prietor of the Central Hotel, where the rail- 
road traveler stops for his meals, is a sports- 
man at heart, and will give anxious enquirers 
his knowledge of what to do, how, and where 
to do it. 
Some two years ago, Stevens’ Point was 
the north-westerly bourne of civilization in 
this State, but the clearing hand of man has 
worked onward till for many miles the 
neighborhood of the railroad is fairly under 
tillage. But beyond the immediate neighbor- 
hood of the railway, the dark forests of pines 
rise to shut in the view, and as civilization is 
left behind, the prospects of the deer hunter 
increase. Up to Wisconsin Valley Junction 
the pine holds sway, except where the tamer- 
ack rises from the swamps, which are fairly 
numerous to this point; but hence the land 
rises and the hardwood trees begin to assert 
their territorial right, and gradually gain the 
supremacy of the forests, which now become 
| very fine. Yet the pine and hemlock are not 
altogether absent and force themselves into 
prominent notice wherever the soil is suitable 
for their aggression. ~All along here the deer 
shooting is reported to be good, with some 
| chance of bagging sharp-tail and spruce 
| groxise; bia the best of the Fall and Winter 
\ 
| 
deer ground begins at Spencer, a smail sta- 
tion with a few stores. To the west of Spen- 
cer there are some farmers settled and from 
them we derived the news that deer are num- 
~ erous all about the woods. 
From Spencer to Chelsea is the happy hunt- 
ing ground—a fine hardwood country. After 
the Summer heat is over it is said to teem with 
deer, as they all come from the swamp lands 
and pine forests. A sportsman may stop off 
at any of the stations, especially at Spencer, 
Unity, Colby, Dorchester, Medford, or Chelsea, 
between the Ist of September and Ist of Jan- 
uary, with the assurance that there are deer 
in fair quantities anywhere out of the clearing; 
we have been assured that within four miles 
of any of these stations good deer shooting 
can be had, and it is the hunter’s fault if a 
haunch does not return with him to camp 
after every sally forth into the woods. Here, 
too, ruffed grouse are to be found. There is 
very little shooting done, as there are few 
local hunters, aud the farmers, railroad men, 
and lumberers have not much time for hunt- 
ing; yet when they want ‘deer meat” they 
have no trouble in procuring it. This part 
of the country is noteworthy for the infre- 
queney of marshes and the number of crystal 
springs of perennial flow. Besides the shoot- 
ing, there is fair fishing to be had on the Little 
Bau Plaine and Black rivers; in fue, there is 
fishing to be got of some sort or other on all 
the many rivers that run through thiscounrry, 
and as the railroad runs along the dividing 
ridge there are streams running both ways to 
choose from. 
Westboro, however, is the first really good 
fishing point on the road. Three miles east 
of this station a chain of lakes begins with 
Silver Lake, which is the head water of Silver 
Creek that runs westward. Olose beyond 
Silver Lake are the Rib River Lakes, which 
are the headwaters of the Rib River, one of 
the feeders of the Wisconsin River. In some 
of these lakes are splendid black bass and 
perch, and further on in the Spirit Lakes, are 
black bass and muskalonge. The fish are 
large and numerous, and at most times bite 
rapidly. Mr, A. S. Russell, of Westboro’, is 
acquainted with the entire neighborhood, 
knows the best fishing lakes, and can tell any 
of our readers what actual weights of fish he 
has hauled into town, ourselves, know 
