190 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



mina on the Animas. Wo had mat two who bad spent font 

 davs at the bike, who warned us in advance not only of the 

 jftSat difficulty wo would experience in crossing the range, 

 bill also o ■ ie fact that the fcrtrat -were not "on* at the- lake. 

 Vf, m i Bnafl r« rd we had not then turned hack 



Wj cjuI.1 sea the liue fellows by hundreds under and about 

 our rift A3 we d*ifl - I I lake, but wo tried every liy ivs 



had, tried grasshoppera, tried crickets, black and green, 

 trio liny Arkansas spoon, but after two days' honest work 

 we summed up one two-pound trout, hooked in the belly 

 whil i "fhoIiQg around" (which, by the way, fell through the 

 raft and cleared ontl, and one half-pound trout, hooked 

 a lie Iv iu the mouth. To say that we recrossed the moun- 

 tain in extreme disgust but faintly conveys the idea— the 

 . i bi ttveyed, One must have the experience. 



But this li rifled the mountain in the early morning 



i ifi i ■■;• thawing i ■■ 1 fairly set in, and crossed over with com- 

 parative ease. " But it may be well to add that two days after 

 our departure two friends of ours visited the lake and caught 

 the finest trout in such abundance as to be actually surfeited. 

 Another blow to my early vanity. 



I lert the Animas valley on the 16th day of July, in com- 

 pany with a Swede, to come out by a new and shorter trail. 

 About, two o'clock in the afternoon we were overtaken by a 

 must terrible hail storm, which so completely buried our 

 trail we lost it, became confused, wandered about till night- 

 fall, struck lire on a mountain side under the shelter of some 

 pines, staked out our beasts, tried to dry the clothes we had 

 on and those in my valise, and at last lay down on the 

 wet groun 1, with wet blankets, to'be nearly inundated with 

 a rain storm during the night. The next day we reached 

 the head of Antelope Park, where Mr. Galloway and his 

 most excellent lady entertain most excellently for that far- 

 away country. Here 1 rested three days and "again tried the 

 trout. Galloway's is within a mile of the Bio Grande. A 

 mile in that country appeal's as if only a few steps. I had 

 Mrs. Galloway excuse her little boy from milking that even- 

 ing and got hku to go with me. At this date my recollection 

 is that, the little fellow beat me iu numbers, while I beat him 

 Iglrt, But neither one of us had much to brag of. 

 T i :,i isive rains had made the river muddy, and the fish 

 did not rise readily to anything. 



While fishing here I saw a party camped about a mile 

 above. I had heard that some young men— the sons of Mr. 

 H. B. Olaflin, the big dry-goods merchant of your city — com- 

 posed the party, and had been out some time hunting and 

 fishing. From their constant firing I presume they did a 

 large amount of practicing. But directly one of them, not a 

 very robust young man, wearing spectacles, came down and 

 3d for asking me to tell him the day of the week. 

 I replied that according to my reckoning it was Monday. 

 He thought it was Sunday and seemed to have lost a day, 

 though he had his rod and was growding at his poor luck. 

 Two days later I saw the same party. They were breaking 

 camp at the south fork of the Rio Grande, and were going 

 down to Bel Norte, en route to one of the parks. The same 

 gentleman told me he had had fine sport in the south fork, 

 it being clear and the trout rising to the fly and grasshopper 



'■'. : iiiv. Hi assured me he had caught thirty in that 



many minutes. .My passage having been paid there in a 

 wagon and a stop-over check out of the question, I could 

 not stop to test my skill. But I fell in lovo with the gentle- 

 man's rod, and if this falls under his notice and he is mag- 

 nanimous enough to make me a present of it, and should 

 inquire for my address, don't be "mealy mouthed" about 

 giving it to him. I think I could catch" fish with that rod 

 in any water. 



Before leaving Antelope Bark, in company with an English- 

 man who owned the ranch at its head, I went ever to Clear 

 Creek, about two miles distant, and had some fine sport. 

 \Ve used grasshoppers altogether, catching them on our way 

 over in the early morning while they were stiff with cold 

 and could not fly far. An active grasshopper at noonday is 

 rather hard to capture, even after you have knocked off both 

 legs and one wing with a brush. The Englishman beat me, 

 but not so badly that I cried about it. He was on his own 

 territory, knew the ground, and I must confess he was not 

 . ish of any information extra beneficial to me. We 

 killed near thirty, some of them weighing three pounds. 

 And this was my last day's sport in Colorado. 



It is safe to say the streams out there are full of trout. 

 But they won't last long. In going along the roads one will 

 see a willow polo or two protruding from nearly every wagon. 

 A camp is haretly pitched near a stream before some member 

 of the party is lashing it with his rude rigging for trout. 

 But the erection of saw mills all over the country will exter- 

 minate the fish sooner than all other causes combined. 

 Bums and sawdust play the deuce with trout. They can't. 

 stand it. They either leave the water or get choked to death. 

 Colorado is healthy almost beyond belief. Its scenery, 

 anfl especially that in the territory I have spoken of, for 

 variety, grandeur and sublimity, has no superior, perhaps, 

 on this continent. The mines of San Juan promise the 

 most tabulouw results, and the tourist or seeker after health 

 who can submit to bear a little hardship and be deprived of 

 some of the comforts of life, oould hardly find a more attrac- 

 tive or more romantic trip than one to the country where 

 head the Bio Grande, the Arkansas, and the Colorado Bivers. 



B. H. P. 

 ■«■» 



THE RANGELEY LAKE REGION, 



M THOMAS SBUOWlCS STEELE. 



(Continued from our last issue.) 



M „„,»„*, EiNQEEEY, Maine. 



OOSELTJCMAGtJNTIO Lake, which affords such rare 

 SpOJt with the great Rangely brook trout, is about 

 twelve miles long and four wide, surrounded by lovely, 

 although J cannot say bold, mountains. Prom this lake 

 looking to the southwest the White Mountains can be dis- 

 tinctly seen on a clear morning, but one of the loveliest of 

 the whole number is West Kennebago Mountain, which lies 

 to the north, and whose general shape reminds one of Sit. 

 Washington as seen from the main street in Bethlehem, 

 New Hampshire. 



The building of the "Upper Dam," which lies between 



Mooselucmaguutie and Moleohiirjltemuuh Lakes (a place, by 



if much resort, by BoBtonlans) has caused a rise in 



the upper lake of about fifteen feet, and ft peninsula at the 



Kangeley River which divides tb 



theCupsi , ui .. !... ... ... i lUirelv ovarrmwHrl. 



forming one targi h idy of 

 length, with only a few d 

 Twelve miles from our cu 

 tic Lake, is to be four 



water, some eighteen miles in 



left to tell the story. 



i Foot of Mnoxelucumgum 



the Kangek-y Troui Hatching 



Association and the Oquossoe Angimg' Association, The 



camps are at the mouth of Bemn stream, but the hatching 

 house is some two miles above, and tine fishing at this time 

 of the year can be found in this \icinity. They will deliver 

 eggs of the trout from October loth to February 1st, and 

 young fry from February 1st to June 1st. They charge. $5 

 per thousand for the eggs, S18 per thousand for young fry, 

 half pound trout 525 per hundred, one pound trout $1 each, 

 two jiouud trout $3 each, and larger fish according to size, 

 and they insure safe delivery of eggs or fish. Their office is 

 at No. K102 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C. 



Professor Agassiz is authority for the statement "that 

 no other waters in the world produce such large brook trout 

 as these pure, cold streams in the wilderness of Maine," and 

 they grew very rapidly in the first few years of their Bves, 

 but', of course, like man, do not continue in the same ratio. 

 Many of them have, been liberated after capture with weight 

 and year stamped on a platina tag inserted in the dorsal tin, 

 and Thomas Moran (the artist of the Yellowstone), who was 

 of our party in June, 1873, captured a two and a quarter 

 pound fish -with one of those tags attached, stamped 1871, 

 showing that the trout had increased one pound and three- 

 quarters in two years. 



At, camp Kennebago there is a book in which a record of 

 all large trout is kept, with dates, place and weight affixed, 

 so that any time we can turn over its pages and note the 

 heroes of the association. This book dates as far back as 

 18G8, at which time, if I mistake not, the association was 

 organized. A record was recently published of thirty trout 

 which weighed 181| pounds in the aggregate. 



Mr. Page, the president of the Bangeley Hatching Asso- 

 ciation, some seasons ago took with a fly on the Bangeley 

 River a brook trout weighing ten pounds, and if the reader 

 Iuib any doubts of this statement, the next time he is in New 

 York, if he will call on Mr. Page at No. 10 Warren Street 

 (second floor), he will be permitted to examine the fish, now 

 at rest under a glass shade. 



One of our party last spring, Mr. R. G. AUerlon, of New 

 York City, took in two weeks 175 trout weighing 232 pounds, 

 and among the lot were fish which turned the scales at three, 

 four, five, six, six and a half and eight pounds. This gentle- 

 man, although a member of the association, has a camp 

 some five miles down the lake, and near his camxi is a large 

 spring hole where he keeps all his fish alive during the 

 entire time he is at camp. 



To bo the hero of landing a trout over four pounds is 

 quite an object at this camp, and to recount the tale of its 

 capture, to the envious ears of your brother anglers a delight 

 in which one never tires. It was the writer's good fortune 

 to land one of these monster trout weighing «V pounds, 

 June 14th, 1873. Under the shadows of old Bald Mountain, 

 which lies to the northeast of Lake Mooselucmaguntio I first 

 felt that magic pull that went liko an electric thrill to the 

 ends of my fingers. I had been trolling with about one 

 -hundred and twenty-five feet of line, and had caught a few 

 small trout from a half to one pound each, but had about 

 decided that my last day at camp would be the poorest of all. 

 You are apt to get a little careless when trolling for some 

 time without success. In fact I was so interested in the 

 landscape that I had just returned my book to my pocket, 

 having made a rough, hasty outline-sketch of the White 

 Mountains, which were in full view. Just then a trout 

 struck and aroused me from my reverie. Before I had re- 

 covered from the first shock another followed, until I had no 

 doubt of the quality of my game. Theu all was quiet again, 

 and wondering what had happened I gently reeled up a few- 

 feet of the line, my guide remarking that he thought I had 

 lost him. But I vervsoon discovered that it was not so, 

 but, thid, his lordship had taken the matter into his own 

 hands and was heading directly for the boat, thinking, as I 

 suppose, that our shadow in the water was a lone rock under 

 whose protection hu might find rest. For a while it was 

 about an even chance whether the line would be gathered 

 on to my repeating reel as fast as the fish droppod the slack 

 of it into the Water, for it was with the greatest difficulty I 

 could Tetain a consciousness of the fish. But finally, after a 

 hundred feet of the line had been stowed away on "the reel, 

 and twenty-five feet only remained, the trout became motion- 

 less as a rock. Now came the time to see which should be 

 master. Nervously I hold him, expecting some new freak 

 would start him the next moment, and I had not long to 

 wait, for the next instant he shot like on. arrow for under the 

 boat: 



"Quick ! guide, quick !" I shouted, and with a sudden dip 

 of the paddle we shot out into the lake, the trout coming up 

 on the other side of us, but not in a way ha most desired. 

 Before I had reoovered sufficiently from this movement he 

 plunged for the bottom. I endeavored to check him by 

 "giving him the butt," but it was of no use, for in less time 

 than it has takeu to toll it, I had lost fifty feet of line and he 

 was not contented even wdth that. Slowly again I reeled him 

 in, foot by foot, inch by inch, and drew "him so near that I 

 could see'his entire length. Guide said "he would weigh 

 hard onto four and a half pounds," but never having caught 

 a trout weighing oyer two and a quarter pounds, I did not 

 offer my opinion. Backward and forward I swayed the 

 giant until four feet of my single gut leader showed itself 

 above the water, and I could see the mottled sides of the 

 trout, and in my anticipation he was as good as mine. With 

 head down and his caudal appendage moving slowly back- 

 ward and forward, he lay, stubborn and obstinate. My 

 guide dropped a stone, into the landing net to keep it in the 

 right position, and slipped it overboard, but his majesty was 

 not so fagged out as we had anticipated, for with another tug 

 at the line he sought the bottom, doubling in this way again 

 and again, one moment seeming to be mine and the next 

 knocking over all my air castles by running fifty feet awav. 

 Finally, finding all efforts to get It. -..became 



again to the surface, and with a dexterous movement of the 

 net he was safely landed in the boat. Quickly seizing my 

 scales I held him up to my guide's admiring gaze. Imme- 

 diately the indicator marked six puumls, and passing around 

 his body a cord he measured fourteen inches at the dorsal 

 fin and twenty-live and a half inches in length. Looking at 

 my watch, just twenty-sis minutes had been spent, in his 

 capture. As he lay there in die net still heaving with ex- 

 citement, his sides spotted with gold and rubies, his giUs 

 distended, and his dark fins edged with snowy white, to say- 

 that I was happy would but tell half the story, for such an 

 experience is but one of a life time. 



These large trout are not quite so plenty as five years ago; 

 still, you can perceive that they hold their averageiarge size 

 well. But it has been thought that, with their decrease, fish 

 weighing from one to two pounds have greatly i 

 and such is undoubtedly the ease. 



Large trout weighing from six to ten pounds will average 

 fi ! i twenty-three to thirty inches in length, and the width 

 at the tail is from five to eight inches. 



They have all the beautiful spots, tints and r 

 peculiarities of brook trjoul sum] ... 

 the Inside of the mouth : 



I are no doubt the gelnn 



trout are not known in this locality. Some epicure will ask 

 regarding the enste of these large trout in comparison with 

 those under a pound in weight, and 1 would say that having 

 tasted of two trout weighing six pounds each and one weigh- 

 ing seven pounds; I see but very little difference, that little 

 1 " ' r favor of small trout. 



cge trout are often very quiet and sulky 

 they strike the hook, and one is often deceived by thinkingha 



1 ' . ' to a log, but when once they move, they carry 

 all before them. The "log drivers" and lumbermen in tins 

 vicinity fish in and out of season, and a moment's cessation 

 of turning the windlass used in "booming out" the logs is 

 devoted to this pastime, and it is for their restriction that 

 the laws are to I ■•■■ rigidly enforced. 



By the way, these "log drivers" are a queer set of fellows, 

 ana when paddling across the lake., iu their shark-like 

 bateaus (or "bats," asthey oall them), chanting their- strange 

 songs at evening, they look more like the inhabitants of an- 

 other world than of this. In the spring huge trout Weigh- 

 ing over four pounds are caught by trolling, but at this time 

 the fly has the preference. Our flies are very large, and would 

 astonish almost all those who patronize "the Aili: 

 Some of them are really salmon flies, and have plenty of red 

 and yellow in their composition, but with a nine foot leader 

 and an eight ounce rod we find no difficulty in managing 

 them. 



(To be. continued J. 



For Forest and stream. 

 WOODCOCK HUNTING IN CANADA. 



ONE bright day oarly in October I met a congonial 

 friend of the gun, und the conversation turning to 

 woodcock hunting, I mentioned having lately heard of '.<„■, 1 

 Shooting in Canada, and expressed a desire to try that 

 ground. "Nothing easier," said my companion, "I have a 

 Canadian friend to whom I will be glad to give you a bitter 

 of introduction. I cannot go myself, but have no doubt 

 you will be well received and enjoy a good hunt, though I 

 am a little dubious about the birds being as abundant as 

 you imagine; still, you may find some iu that vicinity." 



So the next morning found me crossing the Suspension 

 Bridge, aud the same evening brought me to the door of a 

 thrifty farmhouse, a few miles if om St. Catherines. My host, 

 a fine old gentleman, was glad to see me, and soon made me 

 feel perfectly at home. In answer to my inquiries about 

 woodcock, ho said, to my delight, that "the woods Were full of 

 them;" and then asked, "but what do ,\ou do with Hem — 

 you don't tut them, do you?" Here teas native simplicity 

 indeed. I hastened to enlighten the household, and descant* d 

 in such glowing terms about the glory of a properly Cooked 

 October woodcock that the whole family bt-i-aiui quite in- 

 terested, and its head declared that the next birds which the 

 boys shot should certainly be cooked, and no more of them 

 thrown away as worthless. 



I retired to rest early, but not to sleep. For hours I was 

 making splendid snap shots in all directions, and rejoicing 

 in a well filled bag: but the sharp whistle of swifi wings 

 gradually grew fainter, and fainter-uutil, after making an 

 unusually tine shot, all was lost in oblivion. At sunrise I 

 was up, and after breakfast, having assured my hostess that 

 she should that day sup on broiled woodcock, I left for the 

 fields to begin my hunt. 



I tried field after field without success, and carefully 

 quartered the most favorable ground to no 

 hot a bird was flushed. I began to grow anxious, and 

 leaving the lo\y ground betook myself to the woods, 

 thinking that this erratic bird might perhaps be feeding 

 there instead of in the open country. I thoroughly ex- 

 plored all the woods and fields within a radius of two miles 

 without finding the object of my search. A few wild. 



gigeons were seen and a solitary snipe was brought to bag. 

 nly this, and nothing more. At high uoon I stopped, hot, 

 tired, and disgusted, with a well defined suspicion that cither 

 I was the victim of a practical joke, or that the truth was not 

 in the Canadians. I returned to the house in no peaceful 

 mood, but the calm and guileless countenance of my host 

 which greeted my arrival, and his honest inquiry concern- 

 ing my luck, soon dispelled my distrust. I answered that 

 it was. my firm conviction that there was not a woodcock in 

 the Canadian Provinces. He seemed surprised, and offered 

 to go with me after dinner, and promised to show me a 

 dozen in less than an hour. He appeared so confident that 

 I soon regained my spirits. Dinner dispatched, we were 

 speedily on our way to*the nearest woods, where the old 

 gentleman declared "lie had seen several a few days before. 

 We were just entering the timber when he stopped and 

 said, "Hark! I hoar one now." Hsp/r a woodcock in October ? 

 Who ever did hear this most silent of birds make any sound 

 Out of the breeding season, except with its wings as it 

 swiftly darted out of sight? Somewhat puzzled in regard to 

 strange habits which appeared to be developed bj 

 deuce across the Niagara, I moved thoughtfully on, wonder- 

 ing what would turn up next. After going a few yards 

 farther the old gentleman suddenly stopped, and pointing 

 excitedly up in the trees, said "There he is, shoot him quick." 

 In open-mouthed amazement I gazed in the direction indi- 

 cated, and there, shades of Audubon and Wilson ! was a 

 red-headed woodpecker, vigorously hammering at an old 

 dead limb. "Ain't you going to shoot, him ?" said my guide, 

 I managed to say that it was not a woodcock. Not a wood- 

 crock J Certainly it was. Bid I suppose they do not know 

 what o woodcock is in that country? Slowly and sadly I 

 broke mv gun, and as I replaced the shells in my pocket, I 

 mildly replied that, was not the kind of woodcock I was 

 after, and turned toward the house. I quickly departed 

 from that uncanny neighborhood, and when I again 

 Suspension Bridge I had added an item to my store of 

 ornithological lore, although no woodcock to my bag, 



[afterward learned that this was a common name for the 

 red-headed woodpecker in that region. W. h. 0. 



For Forest ai.d Stream. 

 LAKE ST. PETER. 



The travels having occasion to follow the north 



the Kiver st. tjarwren . . . ei ■!....; am I i ■■ 



crosses below the vUlag. ivei of that. 



. .!., . ■ '■'.!'. . i i bat point, 



its Blow length along to Lake St. Peter, distant, a 

 I 



The parish of T'Maehiohc, throii:! I ivfi* hows, 



is one of the finest i he Province, its soil m a 



lluvial deposit of niarynl- 

 ous fertility. The 



, 

 origin, and signifies mudrj the river with tin: 



muddy '■ 



