Terms, Five Dollars a Year. | 

 Ten Cents a Copy. f 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEB. 5, 1874. 



Volume I, Number 26. 

 103 Fulton Street. 



For Forest and Stream. 

 ENOCH ARDEN. 



HIS LETTER. 



SO you've "found I'm alive," and you tell ma 

 You've doubled up agin? 

 Thought the old man had petered? 

 Which allow me to say is thin. 



You say how I never writ you, 

 As is true enough I allow, 

 Being busy one way or another; 

 No matter— I'm writing now. 



I hadn't no sort of notion, 

 When I started fust out hero 

 That I shouldn't a seed you sooner 

 Than four and twenty year. 



But the cards they was stocked agin me, 

 And the best of luck will fail; 

 Was down of aguey and typus. 

 And part of a year in jail. 



Which was simple parsecution, 

 For the corpse wan't robbed or stript! 

 Then I lost an eye at a party, 

 But/n's widder allowed I whipped. 



Yes, I hev had a gay experience. 

 But I alius sighed for hum, 

 Alius did pine for the lireside, 

 And the old New Eugland rum. 



You kin sort out the cubs of the stranger 

 And gin a good fair start; 

 I might be called weak to spare 'em, 

 If I hadn't a parent's heart. 



I'm glad he's made over his plunder, 

 And done the square thing by you; 

 I could almost forgive the critter 

 If his name warn't Number Two. 



Tell him I'm coming easy, 

 Me and a smooth-bore gun: 

 Tell him to pack his coffin, 

 And look out for Number One. 



J. J. Roche. 



— «»» 



For Forest and Stream. 



V 



Un effram %n$t §nton. 



SALMON FISHING ON THE MARGAREE. 



EACH succeeding number of your most welcome paper 

 reminds me of my unfulfilled promise to give your 

 readers some notes of a trip made last summer to the island 

 of Cape Breton which may be of interest to some who 

 may be already laying out their plans as to how and where 

 they will spend their next summer vacation. Last July I 

 would have eagerly welcomed a plain, unvarnished tale, 

 such as I now propose tc give, as a great assistance in en- 

 abling me to decide the question, "Shall my vacation be 

 spent at Cape Breton or not?" 



I left Toronto in company with two friends on the 

 morning of Monday, July 8, reaching Portland on Tuesday 

 afternoon, a few hours before the departure of the steamer 

 Falmouth for Halifax. We ought to have made Halifax 

 the next night about 11 o'clock, but in consequence of a 

 heavy fog which came on during the afternoon, we had to 

 lay to outside until the morning, and therefore did not get 

 into Halifax before the departure of the morning train for 

 Pictou, and this lack of connection caused us to miss the 

 Thursday's steamer from Pictou to Hawksberry, and threw 

 us over until the next Tuesday. This was a serious disap- 

 pointment, but we made the best of the situation by taking 

 a carriage next morning from Pictou to the west branch of 

 the St, John river, about eighteen miles distant, where we 

 camped out beside the little rippling brook until the fol- 

 lowing Monday afternoon. Here we had a most enjoyable 

 time. Our tent was pitched on a knoll about two hundred 

 yards from a farm house, whose occupants furnished us 

 most kindly with daily supplies of bread, delicious butter, 

 milk and porridge, with occasional feasts of wild straw- 

 berries, "smothered in cream." In this little retreat we 

 took somewhere about 400 or 500 brook trout with the 



fly, surprising the natives there by our success, for until 

 then they had no idea that the fish were in such abund- 

 ance. 



On Monday afternoon we returned to Pictou, and at 

 noon on the following day took the steamer Princess of 

 Wales for Hawksberry on the Gut of Canso, which we 

 reached about 6 o'clock that same afternoon. We had ar- 

 ranged that one of our party should undertake to secure 

 our seats in the stage, but we needed not to have been so 

 anxious as on our arrival we found fifteen or sixteen stages 

 and a host of vociferous drivers soliciting fares. One John 

 Mcintosh, a Highland Scotchman, secured our party of 

 three, and two others filling up his old-fashioned coach, 

 which like all the others was built w T ith the body swinging 

 upon leather straps, as experience proves these to be better 

 adapted to mountain travel than any other form. 



Away then we started about 7 P. M., the second of a 

 long procession of stages, our route lying over the moun- 

 tains of the west side of Cape Breton Island for thirteen 

 miles to the west bay of Lake Bras d'Or. John Mcintosh 

 was determined to keep his advanced post, and rattled us 

 up hill and down over the narrow bridges and around 

 short curves of the gloomy road which appeared like a 

 long avenue between the green firs, at a pace which kept 

 my hair on end until we at last reached the tavern at West 

 Bay. Here we found there was no accommodation, and 

 therefore, made for the little steamer Neptune and took 

 possession of the main cabin, (size, 15x8 feet,) which was 

 soon filled up, table, seats and floor, by the tired travelers, 

 until 5 A. M., when we started to traverse Bras d'Or Lake. 



We arrived at Baddeck on the north shore of Bras d'Or 

 Lake about noon. Here we took dinner at the comfort- 

 able inn kept by Mr. Cowdis, { nd soon after started in his 

 stage for the northeast Margaree. Our route lay across 

 the mountains in a northeast direction, crossing over first 

 the Baddeck river, ivhich affords excellent trouting, but 

 up which salmon do not run until September; then over 

 Middle river, where gold has been found in limited quan- 

 tities; then skirting the western side of a little stream, and 

 of a long, narrow lake .called "Lug-a-low," or Lake of Law, 

 (which name, if either, was correct, I could not determine,) 

 which lay between us and the magnificent mountains on 

 the other side of the valley, until by an almost imperceptible 

 ascent we reached the height of land, after traversing which 

 about a mile we descended a steep hill, and found our- 

 selves at our destination in the Margaree settlement, about 

 thirty miles from Baddeck. The evening shades had com- 

 menced to close around us, and right glad were we to find 

 shelter from the pouring rain and the drenching mists 

 which had enveloped us during our whole journey, drench- 

 ing us to the skin, and much impairing the enjoyment of 

 the wondrously beautiful scenery, although the clouds of 

 mist rolling over the mountain tops and down the lovely 

 valleys, invested them with a grandeur and sublimity 

 which fair weather and sunny skies would have failed to 

 produce. The next two days, Thursday and Friday, con- 

 tinued so gloomy and wet that we were unable to perceive 

 the beauty of the valley, and although in our eagerness we 

 several times vainly attempted to entice a salmon out of 

 the swollen and muddy river, we were glad to take refuge 

 from the storm, and beside the cosy fire await the subsi- 

 dence of the torrent and the return of bright weather. 



On Saturday it cleared up, but the river was still too 

 swollen for sport, so that we had ample time to take note 

 of our surroundings. The Margaree settlement occupies a 

 level valley about seven miles long and three broad, which 

 is surrounded by mountains covered with evergreens, 

 scarcely, if at all, marred by the ruthless hand of civiliza- 

 tion. To the south this valley is closed in by a rounded 

 •'sua"ar loaf" mountain, separating it from a settlement 

 called "The Big Interval," while to the north it curves 

 eastward, and is bounded by a narrow gorge, through which 

 • the river runs to join, about three miles below, with the 

 western Margaree, descending from Lake Ainslee. This 

 valley is dotted over with farm houses, small but comfort- 

 able, inhabited by a simple, hospitable people, mainly of 

 Scotch and American descent, whose forefathers settled 



here nearly one hundred years ago, and who, shut out until 

 quite recently from all intercourse with the civilized world, 

 have been content with mere existence, and have allowed 

 their fertile plain to run to decay, until now their farms 

 consist merely of broad fields of stunted grass, smothered 

 with daisies and "rattle grass." Here and there may be 

 seen small patches of oats, but besides these not another 

 crop— no orchards, nor gardens, nor roots. Numerous 

 shade trees, principally elms and evergreens, stud the 

 plain, and through these winds the Margaree Paver, the 

 perfection of a salmon river, inasmuch as it presents a suc- 

 cession of deep pools and shallow rapids, with pebble bot- 

 tom as clear as crystal, sheltered by trees, but without any 

 impediment anywhere to the casting of a line or to the 

 landing of a fish, and above all, totally free from the bite 

 noir of the angler, the black fty or the mosquito. 



The importance of this latter recommendation will be 

 appreciated by any salmon fisherman whose enjoyment has 

 been marred or nearly annihilated by the persistent attacks 

 of these ferocious insects. I know of no other river on 

 this continent where a gentleman can find the shelter of a 

 comfortable farm house, within half a mile from a salmon 

 pool, on the banks of which his wife or daughter may re- 

 pose and join in the intense excitement of hooking and 

 landing a twelve or twenty pounder without any alloy from 

 black fly or mosquito. This is as it might be, but I am sorry 

 to be obliged to add that so little do the inhabitants appre- 

 ciate the advantages which they might derive from protec- 

 tion of the salmon that they all, with few exceptions, are 

 in the habit of regularly spearing and netting the pools, 

 to the unutterable disgust of sportsmen who have jour- 

 neyed many hundreds of miles in search of health and 

 recreation, and who would spend in the valley ten fold 

 more than is realized by the unlawful spearing. Four 

 times did these stupid people, Avith blackened faces, launch 

 their boats miles up the river and spear every pool down 

 to the very end of the valley, even in the pool at which I 

 was located with a gentleman who for three or four years 

 had been accustomed to spend the salmon season there. I 

 tried to impress upon the inhabitants that they were "kill- 

 ing the goose that laid the golden egg," and that if they 

 would stop their unlawful practice, advertise the advant- 

 ages of the locality and routes of travel, and extend a wel- 

 come to sportsmen, every house in the valley might be 

 filled with gentlemen whose expenditures would amply re- 

 pay them for the value of the fish they so unworthily 

 killed, and whose presence would stimulate thern to im- 

 provement in every respect. 



Some allowance must be made for the poor people, how- 

 ever, for when the patents for their lands were issued fish- 

 ing rights were secured to them, and as hitherto the large 

 majority of sportsmen have located in tents around the 

 forks of the river, three or four miles below the settlement 

 spending little or nothing among the settlers, these natu- 

 rally feel that protection of the salmon in no way interests 

 them, but merely protects the sport of those transient 

 pleasure seekers. 1 urged upon them, also, to try and ob- 

 tain from the government, by purchase if necessary, con- 

 trol of the river, so tnat they might (which I think every 

 sportsman must admit to be reasonable) issue licenses for rod 

 fishing, and so they wjuld have an incentive for the pro- 

 tection of the fish. With these exceptions, I am glad to 

 bear my evidence to the hospitality which I received, while 

 I lament the supineness which has allowed their beautiful 

 valley to run into such deplorable decay. It is to be hoped 

 that the opening up of the Sidney coal fields, and increas- 

 ing facilities of market with the influx of pleasure and 

 health seekers, will stimulate the Margaree people to make 

 this valley as it ought to be— a little paradise. 



.It was too late in the season for good fishing wh en I ar- 

 rived there; nevertheless, on the Monday after the river 

 subsided, so that the water reached its proper condition, I, 

 a comparative novice with salmon, secured three nVb of the 

 respective weights of twelve, fifteen,, and twenty pound's, 

 I took afterwards three more, and lost several from unskill'- 

 ful handling, so that I had no reason to complain v. L< n 

 many inexperienced fishermen are not even so successful 



