162 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sept. 87, 1883. 



in this way, at slight, expense. To increase the shooting ter- 

 ritory by such means is quitewithin the province of such an 

 organization as the New York State Association for the Pro- 

 tection oC Fish and Game, and in any default or other live 

 topics to engage the attention of the convention at Saratoga 

 next week, the planting of wild rice might profitably be con- 

 sidered. 



Another favorite food of the wildfowl, especially the 

 mallard, is the wild celery ( YalUsneria spiralis), which is 

 sometimes called tape grass and eel grass. Oiiginaiing in 

 Southern Europe it has been introduced into England and 

 the United Stales. It grows in immense quantities in 

 Ohesapeake Bay, Sandusky Bay, and elsewhere. The celery 

 is a stemless plant growing entirely under water. A lateral 

 shoot branches from the stalk near the roots, producing a 

 bulb; it is this bulb upon which the ducks feed. A long 

 spiral stem ascends from the rool, upon which is a pod 

 filled with countless little seeds, which, placed in the water, 

 will speedily germinate. We know of an instance, where a 

 number of these seeds were, one autumn, placed in a jar of 

 water and put away in a cellar. In the spring, when the 

 seed was sought, nothing was found in the jar but a thick 

 mass of vegetation. 



Wilson wrote in his "American Ornithology:" "As the 

 Vallimnria will grow in all our fresh-water rivers in coves or 

 places not affected by the current, it would be worth the ex- 

 periment to transplant this vegetable in those waters where 

 His at present unknown. There is little doubt the canvas- 

 backs would by this means lie attracted, and thus would 

 afford the lovers of good eating an opportunity of tasting a 

 delicacy Which, in the opinion of many, is unrivalled by the 

 whole feathered race." We are not aware that Wilson's sug- 

 gestion was ever acted upon, until a year or two ago there was 

 some speculation in these columns as to the practicability 

 of transplanting and cultivating the wild celery, for the 

 purpose of creating new feeding grounds for the choice 

 varieties of ducks. 



It will be remembered that in the pages of this journa 

 Mr. D. W. Cross, of Cleveland, Ohio, very courteously vol- 

 unteered to supply to those who might wish for them, seeds 

 aud bulbs from the grounds of the Winous Point Olub, in 

 Sandusky Bay. Among those who tried the experiment of 

 cultivating the celery, were the gentlemen of Springfield to 

 whom we have already alluded, and it will be learned with 

 pleasure that their efforis in this line have also been 

 rewarded by success. Tliey planted both seeds aud roots 

 in the Connecticut Biver, and each have grown. 



THE BIG TROUT. 



T\ASHIN'G, splashing, runs the stream, 

 -^ O'er the mill-wheel's dripping beam; 



Hurls in air the whitening spray 

 And glistens bounding- on its way. 



Underneath the old stone bridge. 

 Where the daucing gnat aud midge 

 Tempt the pboebe from her nest, 

 Eddies give a moment's rest. 



There the big trout lives alone, 

 'Neath the deepest shelvi. g stone; 

 Handsomest or all his Inn, 

 Of scarlet spot and white-ribbed fin. 



If a flntw 



UlillM 



From the vra 



iug tern fron-1 tip. 



Frightened u 



innows glaneing out 



Mark tiie flr„t 



rush of the trout, 



SNAP SHOTS, 



ALL are ready to decry sporting and fishing for count, and 

 all condemn the trout hog and the pot-hunter; yet how 

 many, who go hunting aud fishing, do not delight to bragthal 

 they have killed or caught more than another? Verily, the 

 mote in our neighbor's eye is more grievous to us than the 

 beam in our own. 



Nothing is easier than to make good scores with the 

 tongue or the pen, except to miss a fair shot or lose a big 

 fish— aud nothing is harder than to tell truly one's own mis- 

 haps in these matters. 



It is a comfort to get a really truthful account of a day's 

 shooting or fishing, when little or nothing was killed or 

 caught, even though the chances were good. Such days 

 come to the best shot and the skill fullest angler, and it is re- 

 freshing to have the naked truth reported of them. It is a 

 comfort to know that (heir mishaps have befallen others, to 

 the good shot and the bad, to the man who can cast his fly 

 Within the compass of his h.it fifty yards off, and to him who 

 cannot hit a pond with his lure of feathers, though hestands 

 on the brink, with a meadow behind him. Send in the re- 

 ports of the unsuccessful days, along with the scores made 

 in those red letter days, when no shot was missed, nor big 

 fish lost. 



Alas for the man who loveth not, nor is beloved by a dog. 

 Let all good men and all good dogs avoid him, for there is 

 something amiss with his head, or his heart, or with both. 

 It is the fashion wi h some agriculturists, perhaps those who 

 plough paper more than soil, 1o rail against the clog as the 

 farmer's enemy — but we have found that most real farmers 

 count good dogs as good friends, and value them accordingly. 

 Indeed, wc know one farmer who thinks it pays to keep a 

 "yaller dog," for the sake of having something to kick when 

 he gets mad. And the "yaller dog" loves him. 



Pkofkssionai. Men and Game.— We publish on another 

 page two communications respecting the large game of 

 Maine, and the New England professional men who go to 

 Maine to hunt. The two letters fairly represent the attitudes 

 assumed by Maine tourists. One writer heartily respects 

 the law; the other prefers to be classed as a breaker of it. 



Mr. W. H, II. Mikkay, who has been for some years in 

 retirement, is about to resume public work. He has pre- 

 pared a series of lectures on the topics of the day, and will 

 deliver the first of these tit Chickering Hall in this city next 

 Sunday evening. We believe it to beMr. Murray's intention 

 to enter upon Ihe practice of law in New York. 



Which Would you Rathee, wield the scepter of a Czar 

 or the fly-rod of a President? 



Then with all his might aud main 

 Springing surfacoward again, 

 Turning somersaults In air, 

 He easts the clear drops everywhere. 



Foam fleelcs circle slowly by, 

 Water spiders graceful lie 

 Near the dippmg mosses green, 

 Where one white torn wing is seen. 



■__ Mahk West. 



HAMLET WAS NOT AN ANGLER. 



MANY moons have passed, as our aboriginal fishermen 

 say, since 1 wrote to Fokebt and Stream an ac- 

 count of some fishing experiences in Finland. Some of my 

 New York fishing friends opened their eyes wide at my 

 story of thirteen, sixteen, and eighteen pound brook trout, 

 the very Sitlmo fonti/atlis himself. They wpre too polite 

 to express disbelief , but evidently thought I hey would like 

 tc see the fish, before giving to my assertions unqualified 

 assent. 



After waiting my letter to Forest abb Stream, I killed 

 another fish of twenty-two pounds Russian, or twenty 

 pounds English. His portrait adorns the back piazza of ihe 

 club house at Haraka. The fortunate killer of any ten- 

 pound fish, may carve his form in enduring wood on the 

 sides of the back porch, but the center, the Walhalla, the 

 inner temple, is reserved for the twenty-pounders. Nothing 

 less may appear within that sacred inelosure. When 1 was 

 last at the elub house, but six fish were pictured there, and 

 I had three of them. Among them was my twenty-two- 

 pounder. No bigger brook trout lias ever been taken in 

 those waters, anil but one as big. He was killed by Her 

 British Jiajesty's Consul at Cliristiania — a good fisherman, 

 and therefore necessarily a good Consul. 



It is somewhat of a leap from Finland to Denmark, and 

 from Haraka to Elsiaore. We gain in interest, but we lose 

 in fish. Hamlet was evidently a poor fisherman, or he would 

 never have fixed bis residence here. He would have taken 

 to Norway, or even to the Swedish coast opposite, where 

 salmon run. But he was a crazy sort of a fellow, and fisher 

 men are never crazy. He had a "bee in his bonnet," and 

 no fisherman ever had more than a fly in his hat. Then 

 Ophelia's brook, too, should have been a trout brook; but it 

 is not. It must have required a great deal of bonne volenti, 

 as the Frenchmen say, on the part of that young woman to 

 drown herself in that little rivulet. Two or thiec inches ol 

 water in a pretty ravine seiru to have been sufficient lor her. 

 As for the willow from which she dropped, willows are con- 

 spicuous by their absence in Denmark. There are none at 

 Elsinore, 



1 wish that Richard Grant White, or some other distin- 

 guished Shakespearian commentator, would discover that 

 tor "brook," we should read tarn, and for "willow," read 

 'chestnut. Shakespeaie's commentators have got over much 

 greater difficulties without wincing. They should make 

 nothing "f this. Then all would be plain. For we have 

 here a dark and deep tarn, a short mile from the castle, the 

 very place lor a suicide. The trees overhang the water, and 

 if a poor crazy girl were to climb one to hang her flowers 

 thereon, a branch might easily break and diop her into the 

 pool. 



But to return to our muttons— that is, to our fish. 



Directly off Kronborg Castle, a pistol shot from the "plat- 

 form" where Hamlet's tathei's ghost appeared to that, weaU 

 young man, is a bank where the codfish dwell. I went there 

 with ihe French Consul tit this post, a -good fisherman, and 

 verv fond of the sport. Unfortunately the wind hail been 

 blowing for several clays from the south and had just veered 

 to the north. There w'ere, consequently, two currents, ihe 

 under current running with gnat velocity. We fish here- 

 with a curious kind of an apparatus, a handlme. heavy 

 enough to haul iu a seven-pound bluefish, attached to hall 

 Of a wire hoop. From each end of the half hoop dangles a 

 hook. To this adda half pound or more of lead, and you 

 have the apparatus. 1 threw mine overboard, and my hall 

 pouudof lead was carried "Westward, Ho!" full speed for 

 New York. I hauled in, aud cast well ahead toward 

 EUssia. but it never touched bottom and started again for 

 New York. 1 suggested to the Consul thai we could not 

 expect lo catch cou link ss we could get our hooks some- 

 where near the bottom, and he agreeing with me, we drew up 

 anchor and here away for quieter waters. 



At Elsinore the distance between Denmaik and Sweden is 

 only two miles. There is no tide here, but Ihe current sets 

 in or out, according to the wind, and with a great velocity. 

 Sailing ships cannot stem it without a favorable wind; it is 

 impossible to make headway in beating against, it. 'Ihe con- 

 sequence is that two or three hundred vessels, of all rigs, 

 often anchor at Elsinore waiting for a change of wind, 'i he 

 change comes and they all set sail through mis narrow chan- 

 nel. The sight is a beautiful one, and unique perhaps in th 

 world. Gibraltar approaches it mos I nearly, but a; Uibralbi 

 the straits are many times wider than these, and iu »uminc 

 more vessels probably pass through the CutU-gal, bound t 

 pmts in the Bailie, and in the gulls of Finland and Bothnia, 

 than enter the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar 



Deft myself Sailing from Kronborgfor "quieter waters. 1 

 We soen found them, and had very.good spoil therein, if it 

 be spoil, to haul up a couple of little fish of three or tour 

 ounces each. My luck was with ihe "nurlans" or whiting, 

 a delicious pan fish. I caught two or three dozen of them 

 in an hour, and often two at a time. With half a pound of 

 lead and a good deal of heavy line out, 1 had some difficulty 



in ascertaining whether I had hooked my fish or not. I 

 never felt quite sure till I had hauled in and seen him; then, 

 following the Consul's method, I stuck my half pound of 

 lead into a thole-pin hole, and let one fi«h dangle overboard 

 while I look off the other. I must say, to the credit of 

 Danish fish, that my overboard whiting "never betrayed my 

 Confidence by getting away. 



The Consul's catch was mostly little cod. He took a 

 great many of them. 1 saw one unmistakable salt-water 

 perch, and several wide-moutned, 'prickly -backed fellows 

 that the fishermen say are poisonous, and Ihiew them im- 



■diutely overboard. The Frenchman, on the contrary, 

 maintains that they are good eating, and that it is all preju- 

 dice on the fishermen's part. 



We look a number of "red spots," to translate literally 

 .he Danish word. It is a flounder with red spots on his 

 back, and is remarkably good. The same fish with gray 

 ijiols is not particularly palatable. 



Occasionally salmon' are seen bete, and the Consul caught 

 two a day or two since o f a pound each. 



Ourb.it is sea worms. They look very much like our 

 garden angle worm, but larger and redder." The fishermen 

 rake for them in shallow sea waters very much as we rake 

 foi oysters. Salmon will sometimes take them. In a week 

 we expect the mackerel, and then I hope to do a little fish- 

 ing after the manner of bluefish fishing. 



Wicioiam Hoffman. 

 Elsinore, Denmark, Sept. 8. 1SB8, 



CRUISE OF THE SAIRY GAMP.-VI. 



IT was on the morning nf August. 17, at 5 A. M., that 1 

 paddled out from the Whitney camp, intending to make 

 lite Forge House by evening, distance iwenty-seveu miles, 

 about four miles of it carries. I made the first eight miles 

 before stopping for breakfast, but was caught in a shower 

 and spent a couple of hours drying out. 1 had slopped at 

 Alvah Dunning's island on Eighth Lake, and had depended 

 on finding the key to his camp, as he told me where to look 

 for it when, I met* him at Baguette Falls. But, the key was 

 gone and I was obliged to take an outside ticket. So I stole 

 a couple of Alvah's snooks, impioviseda dry platform, made 

 a rousing fire on the lee side of his camp, also a pot of green 

 tea— the kind that raises the bair— got out the old shelter 

 tent for a bed, and, having had breakfast, was lounging and 

 smoking, when, at the landing above, 1 saw a blue boil I on a 

 pair of blue legs walk down to the water, and prepare to 

 launch out. The legs had the balance of a guide-looking 

 man above them, and Ihe man shipped his oars in a business- 

 like nay, headed for the island, auu came speedil} abreast of 

 the camp. 

 I hailed, "Would he land?" 



He hesitated a moment, backed water, and came to the 

 lauding. He proved to be Fred Lovcland, landlord of the 

 Bores River House, and one of the old-time guides. He 

 bound for the PorgU House, and was iu no hurry. That 

 just my ease. I propp+ed that we kepp uqmpany, and 

 he readi'y agreed. And so, by the brisrht green solitary shores 

 Of the Eighth Lake, and over to the clean sandy landing, we 

 went together, or rather he went ahead, and Hollowed after 

 with such speed as a nine-toot canoe can make, with a head 

 wind and a shor., snappy sea to beat with lire broad double 

 blade. 



At the landing he lied in, and asked me to hold up the 

 stern while he crept under and adjusted the neck-yoke. 

 "She is a brute of a boat," he added. "Iu twenty-fire years 

 of Ruiding 1 never carried but one such boat, and 1 never 

 will carry another. Once 1 get her to the Forge, she may go 

 10- the fool that built her. "She weighs over one hundred 

 pounds." And she did. Once we stopped to rest on the 

 mile carry from Eighth down lo Seventh, and, as 1 held up 

 the prow again, his remarks were terse and sharp on a "boat 

 that it look two men to shoulder." 



Over ihe carry, down the dismal swamp (wherel hungup 

 nil night Iwo years ago), sometimes in the channel, some- 

 times out, and we began to feel the swell at the head of 

 Seventh. 



J had kept good pace with the guide down the crooked 

 channel, but when I saw the white caps on the Seventh it 

 sLiuck me as rather au unsocial way of traveling, that one 

 should go ahead with a long, shaTp boat, ami his companion 

 come puffing along in the rear with a eanoe little larger than a 

 bread tray. When fore, 1 fell in readily with the suggestion 

 that Ihe larger boat would "Irim" belter with two than oue. 

 Also, 1 ma v have had some doubts as to whether 1 could 

 make the opposite shore at all. Lovcland adjusted his stats 

 for two, I got into the stern and took hold ol the bit of fish 

 line that serves the Sairy for a painter. She danced along 

 like a cork, and we crossed the Seventh, with its dreary 

 shore hues of dead timber, with scarcely a spoken word. 

 Down the crooKtd outlet to the more dismal Sixth, with its 

 accursed, ili-smelliug dam. Here we "took out" for the last 

 carry, ti\.m Sixth lo Filth; it is nearly threequailcrs of a 

 mile", but is rocky, ton uous and hilly. One cuing can be 

 said of the Filth "it is still about as nature loimett it. Also. 

 it is good "frogging" ground, but only a pug-hole of nine 

 acres. 



Coming down the shallow outlet of the Fifth, the wis- 

 dom of having good company became very apparent— to me 

 at least. There was a slilf lopsail breeze blowing directly 

 up the lake, and Ihe white-crested waves at the head of the 

 '-.stormy Fourth" were piling up in a way that would have 

 made it iinoossible tor the Sairy to advance u rod iu au hour-. 

 Not that i think the sea would have swamped her. But 

 every wave would have lifted half her length out of water, 

 the wind would have caught under her lull bearings, also 

 on the broad blades; aud anj pi ogress would have been out 

 ot the question. Even the si ul'dv guide, with a well-handled 

 pair ot oars and a sharp, narrow boat, was sometimes 

 brought to a stundstUl as we rounded an exposed point. 

 Then there would come a hill, and we would go ahe:.d again. 

 1 Hi ink we were nearly two hours making the first ihree miles. 

 There was no boat in Bight but ours. Boats mostly avoid 

 the head of Ihe Fourth in a stiff wind. 



When about half way clown the hike we swung into a 

 shallow bay to avoid the wind, and 1 saw, on the port bow, 

 a neat, lresh-looking bark camp, that appeared unoccupied. 

 I called Lovciaud's attention to it, unci, giving it om- K.ok, 

 he turned aud pulled straight for the landing without a word. 

 In ten minutes the bonis were hauled up, 1 had a bright 

 fire burning, aim he had cleaned up au empty quart can tor 

 tea. He went to his boat and look out an oolong package 

 which I noticed he had been very careful of, ami the pack- 

 ftge developed into sandwiches, biead and cheese My knap- 

 sack was capable of tea, sugar, butter and bacon, with tin- 

 ware for cooking. There was a bed of fresh hi owse in the 

 camp, and a fine spring near by, with a rough table outside. 

 Best of all, we were both wolf-hungry. 



