Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 87 



creek valley take their rise. The stream of that name flows through a 

 rugged and well-timbered region and finally empties into the Yough- 

 iogheny. 



On the western or Chestnut ridge side of the valley there is only one 

 stream known to contain trout, a creek called the Champion, but the 

 western slope of Laurel hill is celebrated for its trout runs, as they are 

 popularly called iu that section. 



AloHg the summit of the lateral ridge which connects Laurel hill with 

 the Chestnut ridge, is an old turnpike road running from Mt. Pleasant 

 to Somerset, passing through Donegal and the hamlet of Jones' mills. 

 A drive over this picturesque old pike to a point near the top of the 

 mountain, and three miles beyond the hamlet, brings one to the 

 property of the Big Springs Fishing Club, an organization composed 

 of Pittsburg gentlemen. Here is a club house and four hundred and 

 fifty acres of worked land and more than a mile of fine trouting waters. 

 This is a preserve that has been in existence for over twenty years and 

 is well-known to everyone in the western section of the state. 



Going in a southerly direction from this point one will meet with 

 many excellent trout streams flowing into the Indian creek, while 

 just over the crest of the mountain, on the eastern slope, are as 

 many equally good waters and well supplied with brook trout. In fact 

 the whole section here as far as the Youghiogheny on both slopes are 

 covered with a perfect net-work of angling streams, though none of 

 them are large. 



This section also is the home of the moonshiners, and in the past few 

 years many an honest fisherman has been spotted and marked as a spy 

 in the revenue service. Here the angler is apt to frequently meet some 

 hardy mountaineer with his hickory fish pole and horse-hair line with 

 hook and worm, and with a large bottle of mountain dew, a fluid on 

 which we may be sure no tax has been paid, in his capacious pocket. 

 To the city angler this dweller of the hUls will give a kindly greeting, 

 and when once assured that the former is there only as a fishermaji, and 

 not as a spy, his hospitality is unbounded. 



At this interesting point, where the lines of three counties, Somerset, 

 Westmoreland and Fayette, meet with the famous old Shade cieek, are 

 the favorite fishing grounds of the people of the old town of Somerset, 

 and a great resort of many people from Baltimore, who take great delight 

 in whipping the streams thereabouts with much success. 



Years ago, when that veteran angler, George Shiras, of Pittsburg, the 

 father of the present Justice of the Supreme Court of that name, 

 tramped over these hills and fished in all the streams there, that section 

 was comparatively in a primitive condition. But Mr. Shiras has lived 

 to see the country develope into a flourishing condition, with railroads 

 running through it, and large timber interests, and with the years that 

 have passed, the fame of Mr. Shiras as an angler has increased, until 



