NEW YORK, THURSDAY, NOV. 12, 1874. 



( Volume 3, Number 14. 



) 17 Chatham Si. (CityHall Sqr.) 



For Forest and Stream. 

 LA NOCHE TRISTE. 



A SKELETON 5 



As lie wiped the dew 

 From his skull wit 



011 a mouldering tomb 

 <.virb I4a ruaty jaws, 

 the humid grave 

 is ljony claws. 



He laughed, "Do! ho!" The air is cold, 



And the midnight breeze is fresh; 

 But ray hones arc stout, for the worms were'.kind, 

 And I feel no cold 111 my flesh I" 



The glow-worm gleamed in eacli cavernous orb, 

 And the phosphorus glowed in each bono, 



And the moonlight's cold and pallid beania 

 O'er the sepulchre were thrown. 



An,l ilie skeleton sang, "I love the light 



Of the cold and ghastly moon: 

 I love, the smell of the graveyard dank 



And I love the night owl's tune. 



"Ohl 'tis merry to sit in the still churchyard, 



To laugh at the sons of men, 

 Poor worms who toil for a narrow grave 



That the worms may feed again. 



"For the good and the bad shall fare alike 



And shall feed the crawling crew ; 

 The prince with the clown shall lay him down-, 



And the false with the brave and true." 



The night owl hooted a hoarse refrain 

 To the skeleton's dismal tune; 

 re's wing swept darkly by, 



Bin! 



5 the 



\ 



All hideous things that love the night 



Joined In the goblin rout, 

 Toads, bats, and snakes, and shining shapes, 



Which danced my couch about. 



1 ■ : . midst thou view that ghoulish feast? 



Wouldst face those spectres pallid* 

 Then sup, like me, too sumptuously, 



On tiie soothing lobster salad. J. J. Roche. 



For Forest and Stream. 



gluee ffeeks an the ^Hqi\eUtvm 



SOME of your renders have hoard of the Magnetewan 

 River, hut no douht ihe majority of those who indulge 

 in the pleasures of the rod and gun have never done so ! 

 There are plenty of those who believe in, and "swear hy," 

 that imagined paradise, the Adirondaoks. Very good ! 

 If four dollars per day to a guide, Jew deer and a leaky 

 boat, be paradise, I'll have no more of it ! One can have 

 good sport, both with the deer and trout, and at far less 

 expense, in Pennsylvania, either in Pike or Elk counties, or 

 in some parts of Maine, or Xew Hampshire, but is re- 

 stricted more in regard to time and extent of grounds. I 

 speak from experience, for I know them all; but expense, 

 the cost of the fun, is with me to be taken into consider- 

 ation, a's I suppose it is with others as ardent as myself. 

 The largest trout I ever killed was taken out of the Saco 

 Kiver, within sight of the Kearsarge House, at North 

 Conway, N. H., a place fished to death, and Prank Lucy, 

 at whose house I was staying at a much cheaper rate than 

 on the fashionable side, knows that we started a herd of 

 seven deer the next day, when up at the headquarters of 

 the Swift River. That wa9 my favorite stamping ground 

 for a long time, until the infection of high charges spread, 

 and as friend Van Wyck, of Brooklyn, had killed all the 

 trout but a few to sample by, I looked out for a new field 

 to operate in. and am happy to state have found it. 



IT you have the courage to accept this manuscript, and 

 my fellow fishermen and gunners the patience to read it, 

 you and they will Bad a true, unembellished account of a 

 spot one hundred miles, or nearly so, square, that is as little 

 known to the public as if it were situated in Florida or 

 California. I allude to the country lying North of Lake 

 Rosseau, East of Georgian Bay, in Lake Superior, and 

 North as far as you care to go. My estimate of its extent 

 is merely a conjecture; look on any map of the Dominion 



of Canada West and judge for yourself; with Lake Simcoe, 

 or Rosseau for a starting point, you cannot help finding it. 

 It is known in Canada as the Magnetewan District and Free 

 Lands of Mnskoka ! 



There were two of us who left Philadelphia one Sunday 

 night at 11:35 on the Pennsylvania Railroad for Niagara; 

 tickets there and return, good until Nov. 1st, $13.50. From 

 there to Hamilton, Ontario, to spend Monday night. Up 

 and away early Tuesday morning for Toronto, reaching 

 that city Tuesday at 11 A.M. Here came up our first 

 difficulties — money value. We had to have our Yankee 

 trash discounted into the equally hard looking Canadian 

 paper money, which we preferred to silver, as being 

 lighter. My bright looking, crisp $100 greenback left me, 

 and in its place I received $90 in the raggedest, dirtiest 

 looking money 1 ever saw, resembling the Confederate 

 paper of the late war for al! the world. 



Dinner was procured at a regular English chop house for 

 thirty cents each, including a bottle of genuine Bass & Co., 

 (think of it, Horatio !) and then off on the 2 P. M. train 

 for Orillia- What curious people our English cousins are? 

 They sneer at us Americans on account of our easy famil- 

 iarity in strange places, but of the two, their habits of ex- 

 clusiveness and "keep-your-own-distance-young-fellow" 

 style, was so strange to us that w T e hardly knew whether to 

 laugh at them or be angry. My companion is accustomed 

 to be answered when he puts a question to a stranger, but 

 when on one or two occasions the only answer he received 

 to his queries was a "stony British stare." as Tennyson 

 calls it, the American wrath was aroused ; and later, when 

 we were going from Ghavenhurst to Washago, via stage, he 

 confided to me his. intention of picking a quarrel with a 

 young Englishman who was aboard, in order, as he ex- 

 pressed it, to "take it out of him for the nation I" 



We reached Orillia at 9 P. M. and put up at the Queen's 

 Hotel. Every town in Canada has a Queens, if it is only a 

 shanty with two rooms on a floor, and two floors, it is still 

 The Queen's ! After supper we, heating the click of ivory, 

 strolled into the billiard room to find a carom and a pocket 

 table in full swing. Watching our chance we each picked 

 up a Canuck for opponents, and to my friend's intense 

 gratification, succeeded in laying them out; whereat the 

 cues were put up and all gathered around to sec those 

 Yankees work the three-ball game- They seemed as if 

 they had never heard of either Joe or Cyiille Dion 1 



Wednesday at 9 A. M . we started behind a fine pair of 

 black ponies to fish Sturgeon River; why so called no one 

 can tell, except it may be that trout have been seen there 

 that have been thought to be something else from their 

 size. We had "Doc" Lawrence, of Orillia, for a guide, 

 the fisherman and horse doctor of the place; drove twenty- 

 one miles, put up at a log cabin, and came back in time for 

 dinner the next day, with three hundred and ten fine trout. 

 I cannot tell the incidents of that day, for I must get on 

 with my story. We stayed at Orillia until Saturday, dur- 

 ing which time we saw a salmon-trout brought in from one 

 of the neighboring lakes that weighed seventeen pounds 

 and three quarters. There is good trolling to be had in 

 Lake .Couchiching for bass and muskalonge. Orillia is 

 on the extreme Southern end of this lake, and Rama, the 

 Indian town, is five miles northward. Harper Bros., of 

 New York, have lately published a book, "Forest and 

 Prairie," in which mention is made of the hunting iu this 

 vicinity; but of that I can say nothing, as we were there 

 for fishing in June. 



I have seen as many as eleven Indians on the lake, within 

 sight, at once, and as their dressea were of all colors, the 

 sight was as pretty as it was novel. 



On Saturday we said farewell to Orillia and took the 

 train for Washago to spend the Sabbath on Lake Rosseau, 

 from which point I was to push still further into the wild- 

 erness, and my companion to return to Saratoga, a3 he ex- 

 pressed it, to where he could once more see a New York 

 Herald, and feel that he was an equal with his fellow men I 

 From Washago to Gravenhurst is a stage ride of fourteen 

 miles. From Gravenhurst to Rosseau you go via steamer, 



a most delightful ride through numerous islands, resemb- 

 ling Lake George; here and there rocky bluffs rising 

 straight out of the clear water. No clearings except at 

 long intervals, and that to us was the greatest novelty of 

 all. Lake George and Winnepisiogee are both fine in their 

 way, but few persons have ever known what it was to ride 

 from 5 P. M. until 12 M. on a moonlight night, as we did, 

 and see the shores of the lakes covered with forests down 

 to the very edge, just as they have stood for hundreds of 

 years. No break or sign of civilization, except at long in- 

 tervals. No house on the shores, no boats on the water, 

 except here and there a canoe with an Indian in the stern. 

 Here and there we turn into a cove wherein would be two 

 or three coveys of ducks, who would scatter and dive at 

 the sight of our great boat. I cannot say how long the 

 steamer Nipissing has been running on those lakes, but 

 certainly not over two or three years, and even if the 

 marvellous ride up and down the Muskoka River were 

 omitted, it would be worth the while of a .over of nature 

 to make the trip to Canada for that alone, even if there 

 were no deer or trout. We reached Rosseau at midnight 

 and stayed at Pratt's. Now Pratt is a Yankee, or he would 

 have called his house The Queen's. He came from Penn- 

 sylvania some years ago. He has traveled all over the 

 world in his time, and has settled in that out-of-the-way 

 spot with his wife and daughter, as ho says, for his life; he 

 is a queer case, but a capital fellow if taken in his humor; 

 and as the English people who stop there have a horror of 

 jokes and detest the joker, Pratt has a rather hard row to 

 hoc; but his independence protects rather than injures him, 

 for a more independent, thorough Yankee never lived. He 

 ia an enthusiastic sportsman, and as soon as he discovered 

 that among the arrivals were two fishermen from the 

 States, English stock was unsettled until Pennsylvania and 

 New York w T ere comfortable ! 



On Sunday two ladies objected to going to church, as a 

 bear had been seen to cross the road near the hotel, At 

 dinner one of the gentlemen said that while taking hia 

 morning walk he had seen a deer in a potato patch near 

 the house, and a real wild one at that, and it excited little 

 comment. 



On Tuesday we parted; my friend for Saratoga and New 

 York; I for the wilderness in its glory. Taking my pas- 

 sage on a buck-board, politely called the stage, I roda 

 thirty-four miles, reaching the end of the road at 9 P. M., 

 having dined on fresh venison at a log-house at noon. 

 Venison for supper and then to bed in a loft of Miller's 

 log-house — no saw mill within forty miles — sleeping on 

 straw, with three other men in the room, as soundly as if 

 at home. The Ornic Falls sang me to sleep, for the Mag- 

 netewan runs within ten rods of the house. I was up 

 early, and out into the chill air, traveling with my split 

 bamboo rod in the direction of the falling water. There 

 were two falls on my side of the river, where the water 

 foamed and eddied like miniature whirlpools. The bank 

 was steep, and as some brush prevented my obtaining a 

 good cast at the lower fall, I made a detour through the 

 woods and came out at the upper one. Here was good 

 casting room, and here I knew would be some big fish. 

 Jointing my rod and noosing on two flies I stepped out on 

 a little ledge and away they went to where the water was 

 coming round in a second eddy. A dark object turned over 

 on the tail fly and made for the bank on my side, the line 

 being thirty feet out. Heavy trout, thought I, but before 

 I could think anything else, there was a terrific rush, and 

 up came a black bass out of the current, shaking his head 

 like a terrier to free himself of the hook. He succeeded, 

 and reeling up and casting again, I hooked another. I 

 landed him, and as soon as possible pitched him in again, 

 for I wanted trout and n<jt bass. I suppose I caught eight 

 or ten as fast as I could disengage them and cast again. I 

 knew there were trout in the pool, and big ones, too, for I 

 had seen one rise, and there were no indications why there 

 should not be others, but it seemed as if the bass were out 

 in force and kept the trout away. So, instead of throwing 

 out into the middle of the pool, i drew the line in and let 



