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THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



, Four Dollar* it Yeai 



; O month*, S3 ; 3 i 



rs it Year I 

 lopy. i- 



omhB, SI. J 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY.. APRIL iO, 1879. 



For Forest and Stream and Hod anil Oun. 



loivn tf(t 



itver. 



V 



ON the 23d of May I started from Rock Island, 111., with 

 one companion — a young man named Charles Cay- 

 wood— in a sixteen-foot flat-bottomed skill. The boat was 

 provided with a wooden cover, which could be taken down 

 when not wanted, and the front end was partitioned off to 

 form a sort of chest, in which were stored provisions and 

 such other truck as is usually carried on such or similar ex- 

 peditions. 



During the first week of our voyage we passed through the 

 most uninteresting part of our journey. Between the mouths 

 of the Rock and Illinois rivers the Mississippi possesses few 

 elements of attractiveness. The shores are low, or, when 

 rising higher, slope up into rounded bluffs, which have little 

 or nothing of the picturesque about them. Oaks and willows 

 alone meet the eye, the numerous small islands being usually 

 covered with the latter tree. The game, with the exception 

 of quail, which are everywhere, consists solely of squirrels 

 and young rabbits ; and the fish, though abundant , have few 

 attractions for the sportsman, for most of them refuse to be 

 taken, save by the unsportsmanlike methods of seine, trot- 

 line and hoop-net. 



There are, in my opinion, a great many varieties of game 

 food less palatable than young rabbits and fox-squirrels. 

 Every day for a week we managed to secure enough of these 

 for our supper, while for breakfast, nice wheat "slapjacks," 

 sweetened with maple syrup and washed down with warm 

 coffee, supplied us with a satisfying breakfast. Occasionally 

 we had fish, procured from some ot the many fishermen who 

 ply their calling along this river, for none would take the 

 well-baited hooks I nightly set before them. The mosquitoes 

 did not bother us much, and though head winds delayed our 

 progress and rain visited us two nights out of every three, 

 we considered ourselves enjoying life immensely. 



With the exception of the rounded hills before mentioned, 

 and an occasional stretch of rocky bluff, the banks of the 

 river are from one to ten feet above the water's edge, com- 

 posed of pure, rich alluvium. As we float along, we see 

 many times a day large masses of these banks, loaded with 

 wheat or corn, undermined by the current, give way and fall 

 with a splash into the water. Sometimes several lengths of 

 fence tumble over. Old cabins and out-buildings lie on their 

 beam-ends. Large trees are everywhere prone, sometimes 

 floating clear, but oftener clinging by their long roots. For 

 miles at a stretch, the Bhores presented the appearance of an 

 abbatis of huge trunks. It was not always safe floating too 

 ■near such banks, for it was impossible to tell at what moment 

 some trees might topple over and smash the boat. We had 

 one narrow escape from such a fate. A storm bad sprung up 

 suddenly when we were in mid-stream, and we turned shore- 

 ward to fasten the boat and erect our cover. Cay wood pulled 

 with all bis strength, while I steered toward the" ragged roots 

 of a large tree standing close to the bank, which was here 

 too high and steep to climb upon from the boat. The current 

 was very strong and swift, and swept us past to another 

 smaller one, about a rod below. The circumstance proved 

 our salvation. We had barely reached the shore when 

 the big tree fell over with a splash, some of the spray falling 

 onus. 



Many queer characters dwell at intervals along these banks. 

 I remember once, just above Quincy, Illinois, we had slopped 

 pulling and let the boat drift near the shore. At that point 

 an old farmer was engaged in planting corn. As soon as he 

 eaunht sight of us, he halted his old bony horse and hailed : 



""Hillo, Mister! Where yeboun'?" 



"Down South!" 



"I don't think ye'll find any work in St. Louis," (he evi- 

 dently took us for tramps I) "and I'm mighty sure ye won't 

 find any this side. Ye'd a-better waited till harvest. They're 

 fighting like the devil in St. Louis now." 



•' Fighting ! Who P What for ?" 



"The tramps and the perlice and the milisher. The poo- 

 pie are fighting for bread and the cussed monopolists are fight- 

 ing to keep 'em down and starve 'em. They're breaking 

 open warehouses, and day before yesterday 'they burned 

 down the Post Office and three blocks next to it j and they've 

 called on the Gov'nor for help," 



" Are they lighting now ?" 



"I reckon they are, Mister. 'T all events, tain't safe for a 

 working man to go there, Tou'd better stop this side and 

 wait for harvest. There's a hundred thousand tramps in St. 

 Louis, and they swear they'll have enough to eat for once if 

 they have to Back the whole city." 



By this time the boat had swept too far down for further 

 conversation. We were then not far from Quincy, and on 

 arriving at that place, I hastened ashore and bought a St. 



Louis paper to learn the details of the riot, and to my sur- 

 prise learned that there had been no fighting in that city for 

 a year and that none was apprehended. Probably some 

 tramp had happened along, and finding the old farmer one of 

 the gullible sort, had stuffed him to overflowing. 



A day or two later, early in the morning, a man in red shirt 

 and drawers and wearing a nightcap, hailed us from an old 

 flat-boat : 



" Hillo, Mister 1 What'B the river doing up above ?" 



I answered at random that when we lef i it was all running 

 down stream. 



" It's rising like the devil here," he shouted;back. " Rose 

 three feet in the last ten hours. If it keeps on it'll flood us 

 all out!" 



I thought of the old covey who had fooled us about the St. 

 Louis riots and determined on a revanclie. I shouted : 



"If that's what you mean, you'd better yet your small 

 boats ready. The water was fifteen feet above high water 

 mark at New Boston, and twenty feet above at Oquawka, and 

 still rising. They've had a terrible storm up around Dubuque, 

 and the water rose twenty-five feet in fifteen minutes!" I 

 was now out of hearing without, straining my throat, audi left 

 him to ponder over the terrible news. 



What is it that impels a countryman to yearn so anxiously 

 after the private affairs of persons on whom he never set eyes 

 till that moment, and on whom, in all probability, he will 

 never set eyes again ? When, in the Garden, the luckless 

 first-ones had by their overweening curiosity aroused the uot 

 unreasonable ire of their Creator, was it not a part of the con- 

 sequences that the tillers of the soil and all dwellers in the 

 rural districts should be forever after more curious than 

 wise ? I have never yet met a person raised outside the 

 shadow of city walls who could not and would not ply a 

 stranger with more questions concerning subjects in which 

 the questioner had not the slightest interest than Job and all 

 his descendants would have patience to answer. The East- 

 ern Question never troubles the farmer so long as the price of 

 wheat is not affected, and his " Turkeys " are not forced to 

 undergo a tripartite division' between himself and the two 

 negro preachers living across the slough. He doesn't care a 

 nickel whether we have war with Mexico or not, and as for 

 the transit of Venus and Edison's bottled 60und, if any one 

 had the patience to explain these wonders to him, his first 

 thought would probably be whether they would in any way 

 affect the price of "crops." But when you come to the per- 

 sonal affairs of the chance passer-by — ah ! that is something 

 worth talking about— that is knowledge it pays a man to 

 acquire. 



Colonel Marcy has given the world a chapter on this char- 

 acteristic of the backwoodsman as seen in Arkansas, and a 

 very amusing chapter it is, and, as I know from experience, 

 true to life as a photograph. Day after day, and dozens of 

 times every day we were catechised, until I became so nervous 

 that I finally would not approach the shore at all if any human 

 beings were in sight. 



As we floated by the cities we often beheld that institution 

 peculiar to these waters denominated the " gunboat." Out 

 of the sickly light of their dimly lighted recesses the sounds 

 of song and dance and midnight revelry came floating over 

 the waters, and the men of the world, and the women of the 

 world, know from whence and where they came. 



The fishermen along this river make a fair livelihood by 

 their vocation. The fish are very abundant, and can be seen 

 jumping everywhere at all hours. The principal species 

 fished for by the market fishermen are the silver cat, sunfish, 

 buffalo, perch, carp, eel and sturgeon. Of these last there is 

 one species worthy a brief notice. It is called the spoonbill 

 sturgeon. So far as my experience went on this trip it is the 

 only fish that will take the worm— that is, it is the only fish 1 

 succeeded in catching with such bait. All tbespecimens I saw 

 were about two feet in length. Their upper jaw is hard and 

 bony, and is elongated and" flattened till it resembles a table- 

 spoon flattened out. Their mouth is round as a circle, and 

 an inch in diameter, and Tesembles the mouth of a sucker save 

 in being more directly under the throat. The body is en- 

 cased in a tough skin with a bony ridge along the back, like 

 the ridge of an alligator. The tail is onesided, like that of a 

 fox shark, and the body next the tail is very small in propor- 

 tion. The bones are all on the outside. The flesh is very 

 white and palatable, but there is very little of it. To skin it, 

 it is tirnl necessary to lay it. on the fire until the skin cracks 

 open, when it easily peels off. The sturgeon proper is a very 

 marketable fish in some of the river cities, but I have never 

 seen this species offered for sale. 



I have mentioned two kinds of catfish. The silver cat is a 

 fac simile of the bullhead of Eastern ponds, while the channel 

 cat is of a duller slatish color, aud attains an immenBc size, 

 sometimes being caught weighing as much as one hundred 

 and fifty pounds. Think of that, ye boyish manipulators of 

 pin hook and cotton line, as ye pull some half-doz^n five-inch 

 bullheads from some Eastern mill-poad ! Think of one of 

 those five-inch bull-heads growing till it out measures you iu 

 every way, and the next dark night steal yoi ir mother 'a clothes- 

 line and bend round the tine of a hay rake fur a book and bid 

 farewell to the parental rooftree and start clandestinely for 

 the setting suu and the river of the big cattish. 



Neither as bullhead nor cat can this fish be called game, 

 but in my humble opinion, with the exception of trout and 

 6had, there are few more toothsome fishes, fresh or salt. 



GUX RlYEIiS. 



For Forest and Stream and Hod and Gun. 

 ON THE WHITE RIVER TROUT1NG 

 GROUNDS. 



Bs Sam S. Fiitbld. 

 H TS there anything else to be done ?" asked Doc, as Prince 

 -*- finished packing the camp chest, and we all stood 

 looking on and giving him sage advice. 



" Nothing, except to call the roll," said Prince. And so 

 the roll was called : 



Dr. E. R. E. Carpenter, Chicago, Captain ; Silas Hum- 

 phrey, Stillman "Valley, 111., First Lieutenant; Eugene 

 Prince, Orderly Sergeant; Sam S. Fifield, Commissary; 

 Alec Welcom, alias " Buckshot," Guide ; John Me-qua-gon, 

 cook, and Stoddard and Whitebird, boatmen. 



Thus was our party made up, fully equipped and fur- 

 nished with twenty days' rations, our destination being the 

 headwaters of White River, one of the famous trout streams 

 that flow into Lake Superior after winding down the North- 

 ern Watershed through Bayfield and Ashland counties ; our 

 mission, to take from its crystal waters the speckled brook 

 trout and enjoy a season of camp life. Our preparations be- 

 gan during the last days of August, and we were all ready 

 for the start on the first day of September. Charley Allen 

 and John Herrick, of Wirt Dexter's law firm, Chicago, were 

 to join us ; but at the last moment were disappointed, and 

 left us sad in heart, indeed. 



Doc and the men, with a team and the outfit, were to go 

 across lots to White River Crossing, seven miles from Ash- 

 land, where " Buck " kept his batteaux, and from there pole 

 up over the rapids, a distance of twenty-five miles, while 

 Prince, "Uncle Sile"and I were to take the train on the 

 Wisconsin Central, go to Marengo Station, and there take 

 the wagon road up the Marengo Valley as far as the Keohra 

 place, a distance of four miles, where we were to spend a 

 day whipping the Marengo for red trout aud then follow on 

 the. next day and meet the " boys " at Stavely's Camp. To 

 do this involved a tramp of thirteen miles, but the proBpect 

 of a fine day's sport on the river lightened the task. Prince 

 had been on the Marengo several times during the season, 

 and the marvelous stories he and Ed Curtis, of Madison, and 

 Capt. Rich, of Ashland, had told me, as well as the fine 

 catches exhibited at "The Chequamegon" made me eager 

 to try my luck. So the tramp was made with a light heart, 

 and by eleven o'clock we were at Reohm's, with the beauti- 

 ful Marengo whirling past us at our feet. 



After a hearty lunch we made our arrangements. Prince 

 and I were to go up the stream, and " Uncle Sile " and Billy 

 Reohm were to go down, both parties to return to the start- 

 ing point at six in the evening. Prince led off and we soon 

 struck the stream half a mile up, and, taking to the water, 

 we began our work. It was a bright, cloudless day and 

 high noon ; the trout were shy, and we did not meet with 

 much encouragement. One six-ounce trout alone rewarded 

 our patience. We did our best, but we could hardly get a 

 " flash." Prince was as dumb as an c-yster, and, after fish- 

 ing awhile, coolly left the stream and bade us to follow him. 

 Up the river through the woods for a full mile we tramped, 

 aud then to the water again. Here Prince sat down on a 

 log and fixed up one of his patent baits, known only to him- 

 self, muttering all the while a charm that sounded to me 

 like the chant of Macbeth's witches, but which, he said, was 

 a sort of an Indian prayer for something to eat ; then, with 

 the stealthy step of a Sioux warrior, he crept up to a mass 

 of driftwood and threw his hook into a dark hole no larger 



f foam spun around like a top. 

 gular commotion," and a quick, 

 a ongnt-spotted two-pounder out of the 

 drift that formed it aud into the stream 

 Lb scarcely a splash, it was lowered to its 

 native element. Then the reel spun out with a vim, and 

 Prince began to play his captive with a scienceSthat would 

 have done old Izaak's heart good to witness. It was too 

 heavy and too smart a trout to land by main strength or in a 

 " trust, to luck " way ; but in a few moments he was safely 

 secured. 



That's for Doe's dinner to-morrow," said Prince, as he 

 gathered grass and moss in which to lay it away in his 

 creel- 

 it with o, "strike," and captured a 

 , quickly followed by others. We 

 iwn as far as Reolini's, and there 

 Billy. Uncle had been quite suc- 

 eighed over a pound, and we found 

 ile it only numbered twenty-nine, 

 weighed fourteen pounds. It was no fair afternoon's work 

 for the Marengo, but we had enough for supper and afew over 

 for Doc and the boys, so we were satisfied. Billy got us a 

 good supper, and, after spending the evening pleasantly ,_ we 

 retired to rest on a straw bed and slept the sleep of the tired 

 man. 

 Next morning we were off for White River bright and 



than a hat, where 8 

 In an instant there 

 steady pull lifted a 

 bole just, over the 

 again, where, 



1 was the tie: 



fine sixteen-oui 

 whipped the 

 joined "Uncle 

 cessful, taking 

 that our total catch, 



