FOREST AND STREAM. 



oracular Mr- Babbit. Our conversation woke up Johnny 

 Sharp, a lad aged sixty-eight, who, like Dogberry's old 

 friend Verges, "would be talking." He always told .of a 

 man's occupation and history before telling the story con- 

 nected with him, and frequently forgot part of it, and 

 broke down in the middle. He reminded me of Jim Henry, 

 on Broadhead's Creek, who would commence: "Well, 

 Thad, I'll tell you. There come a man a feller 'long here 

 one day, peddling tomb-stones." We chatted until three 

 o'clock in the morning, then turned in and slept until Len 

 woke us up for breakfast. 



August Uth.— We got into our boats at 9 A. M., Johnny 

 Sharp and Uncle Thad taking the first mile of the water 

 hitherto unfished; Jay and Ramsdell the second mile, and 

 Dan and Len the third, Dan returned at 3 P. M., his wells 

 full of fish. I overtook Jay, and again got the preceding 

 day's answer to my query as to his sport, "red hot." The 

 scamp, through mistake, had fished a great portion of the 

 stream allotted to me. We knocked off at 4 P. M., Jay 

 having over six dozen and I about five dozen— all over 

 half pound and averaging about three-quarters, for we re- 

 turned to the water all under a half pound. Besides what 

 we ate of them Johnny Sharp salted down— heads off and 

 entrails out— three caddies of twenty-five pounds each, and 

 we had some to put into Dan's big hamper, three by four 

 feet and eighteen inches deep, which from a luggage re- 

 ceptacle was improvised into a live box and partially sunk" 

 into the stream. 



August 15th being the Sabbath was, as I have already 

 said, a day of cessation from our sport, and was given to 

 reading, lounging, and eating. 



August 16th.— We commenced two miles below our camp, 

 where Dan had left off on Saturday, Dan taking the first 

 mile, Jay the second, and I the third. It was deadly 

 slaughter, the fish rose so freely, and yet we pricked many 

 or held them only for a few moments. By three o'clock, 

 although we had stopped at noon to take a leisurely lunch, 

 our wells were chock full, many of the fish "belly up." 

 We pushed back to camp. Johnny headed, gutted, and 

 salted another caddy of those that were "belly up," and 

 we put a goodly number of live fish into the hamper for 

 Babbit. And so it went on for four days and a half. We 

 threw back more than we put into our wells, and computed 

 that we had utilized, as already described, about nine hun- 

 dred, weighing, gross, five hundred and sixty pounds, Bab- 

 bit taking all we could not salt down or eat. We packed", 

 net weight, just one hundred and fifty pounds. We ex- 

 tended our explorations and fishing — cutting our way occa- 

 sionally through trees that had fallen from each side of the 

 river— about six miles below our camp, making in all of its 

 sinuosities and horse shoe bends, as already stated, about 

 twelve miles by water from the camp Dan made on his first 

 trip. It is hardly five miles by land. This river is much 

 obstructed by "sweepers," i. e. t white cedars, which, grow- 

 ing on the margin, their roots are gradually undermined by 

 the current, and they incline at a sharp angle from the 

 bank, causing very frequently the familiar cry from the 

 pusher "low bridge." These cedars appear never to rot; 

 if a large tree falls across a deep pool it forms an excellent 

 hiding place for the "big uns," and here we generally found 

 our best fishing, taking them "at long taw" from up stream, 

 or picking them out between the logs with little more than 

 the eight foot leader extending beyond the tip of the rod. 



Our flies -were larger than those used on the Au Sable 

 last year. I concluded that mine ancient friend Seth Green 

 has used, and, I think, recommended much smaller hooks 

 than are necessary, basing his - theory, likely, on such as he 

 fishes with on Caledonia stream in New York. We found 

 Nos. 6 and 8 (O'Shaughnessy,) with legs and wings propor- 

 tionate, equally as attractive and more certain of hooking 

 and holding. If not too gaudy, almost any fly will take. 

 I in more th,an one instance used one that had been re- 

 duced to only the hackle, and sometimes the barest cover- 

 ing of dubbing was killing. The white and lead wing 

 coachman, the silver widow, the Jewel fly, and the pro- 

 fessor, with light yellow died hackle, were mostly used. 

 In fact, any fly on the sized hooks just mentioned which 

 we use on Pennsylvania and other clear streams will kill. 

 The flies tied for Maine or. the Lake Superior region are too 

 large and too gaudy. We did not use a landing net, but 

 lifted the fish in — a brace on the droppers and frequently 

 one on the stretcher— with the feeling that if one should 

 regain its liberty there were plenty more ready to take hold 

 as soon as we offered our lures. 



Our evenings were passed in the usual jolly way, telling 

 stories and anecdotes, and discussing the known or heard- 

 of angling capabilities of the Michigan streams and lakes, 

 and then there were songs in great variety. Johnny Sharp 

 sang many doleful ditties; Uncle Thad gave the "Nigger 

 Ginral," with banjo accompaniment; Jay gave us several 

 good ones, but Dan, with his snatches of Irish song and 

 Irish manner, was inimitable. One I shall never forget, 

 the first verse of which was:— 



" Ye gerrls that are prattie, 



And lads that are wultie, 



Come list to my dittie 



While I do rela-a-a-ate 



Concarning a visit 



To fair Dunlm cettie, 



Where I was decaived 



By a damsel of la-a-a-ate." 



But we'd had a glut of grayling fishing, sowe struck 

 tents, stowed our luggage one morning, and while the boat- 

 men 'pushed up to Babbit's camp we footed thitherward 

 two miles by land. Here we passed an hour with Jones 

 and Billy, when Meade, who was cutting hay in a wild 

 meadow close by, came by appointment to the camp with 

 his wagon. We.put on two of our boats, stowing our bag- 

 gage inside, and "set out for the west side of Portage Lake, 

 three miles eastward. We soon crossed the level, sandy 

 plain and entered the woods, where Jones, being a profes- 

 sional engineer, took the lead, and Len, Meade, and Bams- 

 dell with°their axes cleared the way, chopping down sap- 

 lines and cutting off fallen logs, Jay and Johnny Sharp 

 following and pulling them aside, Meade blazing the road 

 as we went through, Dan and Uncle Thad engineering the 

 wagon and team. Within two hours from the time we left 

 Babbit's camp we came to Portage Lake and lunched on its 

 beautiful margin. Meade and Jones bade us good-by ; Rams- 

 dell cleaving a slab from a cedar log soon fashioned it 

 into a paddle, with the aid of which, and Len's setting 

 pole in one of our boats they made the passage to Rams- 

 dell's camp on the east side of the lake, and by 5 P. M. re- 

 turned after beating against a head wind with a sail boat. 

 We eni barked with our luggage, and having a fair wind 

 back lanued in less than a half hour and pitched our tents, 

 preferring them to the large log house Ramsdell has put up 

 here Jay and I trolled for half an fyour and captured 



enough bass with the spoon for supper and breakfast. This 

 is a beautiful camping place, elevated about fifteen feet 

 above the lake and surrounded by a fine park of towering 

 Norway pines. The brisk wind from the south caused the 

 mimic breakers to give forth a pleasant lullaby as they 

 broke on the gravelly shore, and soon after supper we were 

 asleep, unannoyed by mosquitoes and flies, which had 

 caused us some discomfort on the Manistee. 



We spent a day and a half here, killing as many bass as 

 reasonable men could wish, supplying our table, leaving 

 some in a live box, and taking with us for Hartwick, the 

 landlord at Grayling, fifteen bass averaging about four 

 pounds each, besides a large Northern pickerel of twelve 

 pounds, captured by Jay. He hooked, but failed to get 

 into his boat, a pickerel or maskinonge of more than twice 

 the size for want of a gaff hook; supposing that he would 

 meet only with bass he had only a wide-mouthed landing 

 net. Trolling we found dull sport after hooking and play- 

 ing grayling. We also found that the fishing in this lake had 

 been overrated. We were told,, however, that a great many 

 had been taken there during the last two Winters through 

 holes cut in the ice; for. when the snow and frost makes a 

 direct line from Grayling practicable the distance is not 

 more than three miles. During the month of May, when 

 bass and pickerel come into the shallow water near the 

 shore, and fish have not as much caution as in Summer, 

 large numbers of both kinds had been speared during the 

 Spring of 1874 and 1875. 



We made our way to Grayling wi-th our boats and camp 

 equipments one afternoon, and next morning were on our 

 way to Bay City by a poor "on^ horse" branch of the 

 Michigan Central Railroad, tfa-'udng on a freight train, (for 

 the passenger train does w»t, now run as far up that road as 

 Grayling,) stopping frequently to hitch on lumber cars, and 

 occupying nearly nine hours in running ninety-two miles— 

 a great contrast to the facilities to anglers afforded by the 

 Indiana and Grand Rapids Road on the Lake Michigan 

 side of the State. We spent a day at Bay City on our re- 

 turn, as we did before going up to Grayling, wondering at 

 its developed and still developing wealth produced from 

 lumber, salt, and gypsum, the latter burned and ground 

 producing the fertilizing plaster of paris so much used in 

 agriculture. Miles of the river shore above and below are 

 occupied by immense saw mills and their never-ending 

 piles of boards. Here John H. McGraw & Co. and W. H. 

 Sage & Co. own two of the largest mills in the world. In 

 a single day McGraw's mill has cut 400,000 feet of lumber. 

 The refuse from the saw mills is utilized for heating and 

 evaporating the salt water, which is pumped up a distance 

 of from seven to nine hundred feet below the surface. The 

 "salt blocks" of Sage & Co.'s mill produce when in full 

 operation three hundred barrels of salt in twenty-four 

 hours. 



If I should ever go to Michigan for trout or grayling 

 fishing again I would try the Western Branch of the' Ma- 

 nistee, approached from Fife Lake Station, on the Indiana 

 and Grand Rapids Railroad; for those of the east, as well 

 as the Au Sable, are being rapidly depleted for the Bay 

 City and Detroit markets, so readily do grayling rise at the 

 angler's lure or take the bait, and so soon are they fished 

 out. Most of the branches of the Manistee, on the west- 

 ern side, are not very far from the railroad last named, and 

 are still virgin waters, and around Little Travers Bay, ap- 

 proached, by the same road, the streams contain both trout 

 and grayling, and many of them are as yet unexplored. I 

 have a number of pamphlets with maps describing and il- 

 lustrating the route named,' and can supply any one wish- 

 ing to avail himself of the advantages so clearly set forth. 

 There is no State in the Union where there is so fine and so 

 great a variety of fishing, and the time and money spent in 

 a trip to that State is not any more than in going to the 

 hackneyed and overfished waters of the Adirondacks and 

 Maine. 



For Forest and Stream. 

 SPORTS IN TEXAS— A, DEAR (DEER) 

 DRIVE. 



FROM a recent article in your valuable paper, by "Mon- 

 mouth," in regard to deer hunting in Alabama, one 

 might infer that you always got venison, and that too with 

 but little effort, except that made by the dogs. Likely this 

 is a general rule, but last Thursday I found an exception 

 to it in the following manner: — 



It was on Wednesday evening that T. passed along the 

 street and called out, "get up your horses, boys; it will be 

 a good time to 'drive' in the morning, after such a rain as 

 we have had." Soon B. was driving in the horses that 

 were grazing on the fresh grass. Next morning it was 

 raining, and our zeal or the chase was- dampened, but 

 about 7 o'clock it ceased to rain, the clouds broke away, 

 and the sound of T.'s horn, and the bellowing of the dogs, 

 fired us into action. Hastily saddling our horses and 

 tying a blanket on our saddles we mounted and started for 

 the Red River Bluffs. As we passed the Western Hotel. 

 Jim, Ned, T., and Walter, called out, "go slow, boys, and 

 we will overtake you." When about four miles out, it 

 began to rain again, and we might have, turned back had 

 we not been so close to the hunting ground. We were 

 now at the head of the Smith Branch, which ran due north, 

 two and a half miles into Red River. This branch has a 

 skirt of timber and under-brush running its entire length, 

 and from one to four hundred yards in width. I dis- 

 mounted and began to lead, the water streaming off my hat 

 into my gun barrels. Breech loaders with pi epared shells 

 suggested themselves as being more suitable for such oc- 

 casions. They are not much used here yet. I should have 

 stated that ravines with timber on them intersected the 

 main branch from right and left, making it difficult to cross 

 on horseback in places. As T. fired from his left shoulder, 

 he proposed to take the west side of the branch. B. had a 

 Ballard rifle and I suggested that he go down the branch 

 some distance and take a "stand." I followed down the 

 east, or right hand side of the branch and soon came upon 

 B. sitting quietly upon his horse observing a flock of 

 turkeys on the prairie some fifty yards in front of him. I 

 called to him to shoot, and the turkeys flew. "Why the 

 thunder did'nt you kill one of them turkeys?" exclaimed I, 

 as I came up. "I was'nt hunting turkeys," was his only 

 reply. I now tried to ride into the woods, and blundered 

 into a red bud and grape vine thicket, up to my eyes. Be- 

 fore I could get out I w T as as wet as a rat. I finally got 

 back to the prairie, and up flew a half -grown turkey, and 

 bang! went a load of buck shot right over my horse's head, 

 vv ithout the least disturbing him, but the' turkey went on 

 into the thicket u worse scared than hurt." It was now 



B.'s time to laugh, and I could only say, "If I'd small sh 

 I would have sot him?" T. called over, "what- ^ 

 found?" "Turkeys, look out!" you 



We failed to start a deer on the Smith Branch and 

 turned over a ridge on to Mann's Creek, the rain still pour 

 ing. A thought struck me that if I got a chance at a deer 

 my gun would miss fire, and I suggested the propriety of 

 going home, but T. said "No, it will clear up directly " 

 There was some very dense cover on this creek and 

 the bushes were dripping with water, but rain and all else 

 was forgotten as the dogs began to make the welkin rim-- 

 with their music. Soon a louder and more exciting roar 

 from the ctegs showed that the gunner was a-foot- the 

 horses stuck up their ears, and the hunters strained their 

 eyes for a sight of the game. A spur Of prairie ran clear 

 across the valley; this stand was immediately taken posses- 

 sion of, but the hounds came up, passed through, and 

 showed that we were too late. Driving the rowef of my 

 spur into my horse, I made a considerable detour, to an- 

 other stand. This time the deer turned back up the creek 

 before it got to my stand, and I had the mortification to 

 hear the dogs going up the creek almost out of hearing 

 Over hills, rocks and gullies I followed in hot haste and' 

 could see B. and T. on the opposite side of the creek, close 

 after the dogs. I was just edging the thicket at full speed 

 when the deer burst out of it, coming down, the creek al- 

 most in my face; with a half backward bound, he sprang 

 back into the thicket, and with a sudden lurch I wheeled 

 my horse around and made for a stand. I had just passed 

 about a hundred paces; at this place I could see clear 

 across the valley, I hastily dismounted, turned my horse 

 loose and cocked both barrels of my gun. Just at this 

 juncture the deer sprang out of the brush into the opening 

 about forty paces from me. "Whack!" went my righf, 

 "whack!" went my left, and into the creek bed went the 

 deer. "Fits and blazes!" I fancy King Richard would have 

 offered his kingdom for a breech loader if he had heen ia 

 my predicament. The deer, now thoroughly scared, made 

 tremendous bounds and left the dogs far behind. .Jim, 

 Ned, and Walter coming up, observed it crossing the 

 prairie lidge, and making a bee line for the east fork of 

 Mann's Creek. It is needless to make further details; suffice 

 it to say that after about eight hour's run we put it into 

 Red River, some four miles from where we started it, and 

 called off the dogs. We got home a little before night, 

 and to say that we were tired, would'nt half express it, and 

 our poor horses looked considerably "worse for wear." 



It so happened that I was the only person that got a 

 chance to shoot, and I couid'nt. You are doubtless aware 

 to what an extent the mind can be concentrated upon the 

 game you are in search of, until every thing else is lost 

 sight of, eveu one's safety. This was verified recently in 

 T.'s case. He was hunting on a fractious horse, that did 

 not fancy firing over his head. T. was riding leisurely 

 along with his bridle down, and gun across his saddle, 

 when a turkey sprung into the air from the dense prairie 

 grass. Quick as thought T. covered him and down lie 

 came. His horse wheeled and plunged madly, T. mean- 

 while clutching at the dangling reins. Presently the horse 

 ceased plunging, and commenced running, when T. got 

 hold on the reins and brought him to a stand. 



I hope you will not understand me that we always have 

 such ill luck as in this case. Capt. Rowland and Mr. 

 Reavis, citizens of our town, on a three day's camp hunt, 

 week before last, killed six deer and more young turkeys, 

 (now nearly grown) and prairie chickens (pinnated grouse) 

 than they had any use for. 



My experience on this has taught me that cheap water 

 proof caps will do very well for dry weather, but will not 

 answer for wet weather; consequently I shall be more 

 cautious in my selections in the futnrc. 



■ ^•♦♦- — 



\ For Forest and Stream. 



A TRIP THROUGH THE ADIRONDACKS 

 —CANADIAN SPORT COMPARED. 



THE "Kahwearabejewagamog Club," II. P. Dwigbt, 

 Toronto, Ont., president; E. Wiman, N. Y-, vice 

 president, is an association of gentlemen who have for 

 many years fished and hunted on the rivers and lakes and 

 in the woods of Canada, principally in the Muskoka and 

 Hollow Lake regions. None of the members have ever 

 been through the Adirondacks. At the Hollow Lake 

 meeting last Autumn, any member who could visit the 

 Adirondacks was requested to do so and report to the club, 

 and make comparison with Canadian sport. About the 

 20th of June last, by invitation of Mr. Charles Pratt, of 

 Brooklyn, who has a fine cabin on Fourth Lake of the 

 Fulton Chain, I joined his party, and now report, with 

 your permission, to the members of the club in Canada 

 and New York, and to others who, perhaps, would like to 

 know the difference in the two places. 



We left New York at eight o'clock in the evening, 

 breakfasted in Utica the next morning. A couple of IiotfKj 

 more by rail and we were at a hotel in Boonville. Here 

 we put off our store clothes and "oiled shirts" (as our 

 guides called them), and donned our blue flannels, etc. A 

 ride of a dozen miles or so brought us to a good hotel ou 

 Moose River, where we had speckled trout for dinner. 

 The harness was taken off our horses *and saddles put on; 

 we mounted, riding about fourteen miles over an awfully 

 rough road to the Forge Hotel, on First Lake, now kept by 

 Arnold. There were a dozen guides here waiting for 

 ties. Ours we engaged beforehand, so after break 

 Saturday morning, we took boats, and got to our camp in 

 three or four hours, with a good appetite for dinner. At 

 our first meal we had speckled trout— a speckled trout, tm 

 little speckled trout of our own catching. In fact I caught 

 that one myself. It was a very fine and perfect specimen 

 of Salmo fontinalis. Ii cost me about one hundred dollars 

 a pound. 



In forty hours from New Y'ork (including twelve, a night 

 at Arnold's Hotel) we were at home in the woods. Tins is 

 about the same time it takes from Toronto to the fishi'jj? 

 grounds on the Muskoka, and a good deal less, and wait 

 half the expense, fatigue and trouble it does to get m t0 

 the Hollow Lake region. There is a large tract of country, 

 beginning about a hundred miles noith of Lake Ontario, S 

 water shed, resembling the lakes and rivers in the Adiroj* 

 dack region. The Canadian lakes, with their island*, 

 bays and points, are beautiful; but around the whole snot' 

 of many of them stand tall, black stumps, monuments o* 

 carelessness in the use of fire — desolation itself. I ^ 

 hardly any of this from First Lake to the Saranacs. W 

 land in Canada is comparatively level. If one goes us 

 ing he must fish. There is nothing else to enjoy. ** 



