FOREST AND STREAM. 



ffi 



Adirondack scenery of itself pays well for a trip; but I 

 don't mind paying a little more to catch two or three trout. 

 Everybody has heard of the mountains of the Adiron- 

 dacks, but no. one can have a correct idea of their grand- 

 eur without seeing them. 



Colvin, in his most interesting report to the New York 

 Legislature— "Topographical Survey of the Adirondack 

 Wilderness" — gives the names and measurements of three 

 mountains, each more than 5,000 feet high, to wit— Marcy, 

 Maclntyre, and Haystack; seven more above 4,900; twelve 

 more above 4,000; four more above 3,900, and nine more 

 above 3,700. These high peaks, of course, are only one 

 ' here and there, among many smaller ones. The view from 

 almost any — even of the smaller ones — is beyond descrip- 

 tion. You see range back of range, like tremendous 

 waves of the sea, one after another, until in the far dis- 

 tance the last is hardly distinguishable from the blue sky 

 itself. Pratt and Parsons went up from Third Lake to the 

 top of the Bald Mountain. The number of peaks visible 

 to the naked eye from that point by actual count (accord- 

 ing to the last time I heard Parsons tell it), is one hundred 

 and forty. 



I am not much of a flshist or shootist, but I know that 

 the change that we have from the time that we leave civi- 

 lization until we get back again — boating, tramping, eating,. 

 (don't forget the onions and bacon) and sleeping in the 

 w r oods, does me an immense deal of good, and 1 like it. 

 But if Pratt, Dwight, or Tom Townsend, who pride them- 

 selves on throwing a fly* want to get up with the punkies 

 in the morning, or spend their twilights with the musqui- 

 toes and black liies at the "spring holes," they may do so. 

 I shall, if I like, pull the net over my head, put on my 

 buckskin glomes, or sit with my head in the smoke of the 

 camp fire and admire old "Nipple-top," which is right in 

 front of our cabin. This is altogether the most fascinating 

 mountain in the whole region. The Deacon, after a week 

 in camp, would put on the "dope," (tar and oil.) and sit 

 the whole of a moonlight evening looking at it. Colvin 

 gives its height at 4,684 feet above tide water, or about 

 3,000 feet above Fourth Lake. You boys who enjoy fine 

 scenery fool away your time when you go to Canada. By 

 the way, we were annoyed by mosquitoes and flies very 

 little indeed, much less than at any time when I have been 

 in the Canadian woods this season of the year. The water 

 in the Canadian lakes as a general thing is clear and blue, 

 like clear spring water, much nicer than the dark water of 

 most of the Adirondack lakes and rivers. 



The beauty of Seventh Lake is impressed upon my mind 

 more strikingly than any .other. It is nearly round, from 

 three to four miles across, and almost completely surround- 

 e'd by high mountains. I happened to see it first in the 

 light of a most gorgeous suuset. The clouds were in col- 

 ors more brilliant and beautiful than can be painted on 

 canvas, and the mountains were tinted as if by fire. The 

 lake like a mirror, so that looking down upon the w r ater it 

 seemed fathomless, like the heavens, reflecting all the glo- 

 rious scenery around and bright clouds above. Thus sur- 

 rounded, one feels in his heart to say: "Praise the Lord for 

 His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children 

 of men." There is a novelty about the Cauadian birch 

 bark canoes which one enjoys; but the Adirondack boats 

 are preferable. They are from fourteen to sixteen feet 

 long, about three feet beam, and weigh only from sixty to 

 eighty pounds. The}'' are as easily carried across portages 

 as a canoe, and a guide with his oars" will pull a heavier 

 load a greater distance and in rougher water than he could 

 paddle a canoe. 



Our guides were excellent — the best I ever had. They 

 were pleasant and williDg, and did not drink a drop of 

 liquor during our trip. I have had the whole pleasure of a 

 trip spoiled by aguzzling guide. One of them was a most 

 excellent cook, keeping us in fresh bread of different 

 kinds, griddle cakes, (maple syrup) etc., etc. Anybody 

 who can get Jack Sheppard or Dick Creigo (P. O. address, 

 Boonville), or those whom they recommend, will be for- 

 tunate. 



In Canada we always carry along our tent. There is no 

 need of it in the Adirondacks. On all the principal lakes 

 there are plenty of cabins, or bark camps, built like ashed, 

 one side open. On Third and Fourth Lakes there are 

 several very fine private cottages, none better adapted to 

 make one feel like staying all Sirmmer there than Mr. 

 Pratt's— a log hut. On the first floor is a sitting, bed room 

 and a store room. Up stairs are four beds, a dining room 

 and kitchen in the extension. Close by is an ice house, 

 well tilled. The only objection to such an establishment 

 is, it affords too many luxuries. You are not likely to be 

 nearly as glad to get home. Jack Sheppard also has a 

 large and very nice cabin on Fourth Lake, and is prepared 

 to entertain parties and furnish all supplies for the table 

 for about one dollar a day. It would have been a great 

 accommodation and saving of money if we had known it 

 before we went in. Guides get three three dollars a day 

 in the busy season. As only one of our guides had ever 

 been in there before, after staying about a week on Fourth 

 Lake, we packed up in light marching order, sending all 

 our traps we could spare back via Boonville, a guide and 

 boat for each of us, and continued our trip through the 

 Fulton Chain of eight lakes, then Raquette, Forked and 

 Long Lake (stopping at Kellogg's, about half way down, 

 the first night) down the Raquette River, by Mother John- 

 son's and Corry's, across the Opper Saranac, by Bartlett's 

 and across Round Lake, and through the Lower Saranac 

 to Martin's— altogether some eighty or ninety miles— a 

 most delightful trip. From Martin's, the next day, we had 

 a pleasant ride on a four horse Concord coach to Ausable, 

 thirty-eight miles; then cars to Pittsburgh, where we 

 took steamer the same evening, arriving in JSfew York the 

 next day. I hardly need mention the luxurious steamers 

 .on Lake Champlain, or the Saratoga express, rushing 

 through with only three stops, for there is nothing in Can- 

 ada to compare with them. 



"Well, did you get any trout?" 



Yes we did, a few — enough to eat some at. every meal, 

 not a great many, nor very large ones; should be glad to 

 have caught more; plenty of salmon trout. It is all non- 

 sense to expect to cat^. many or very large trout in the 

 main lakes and streams of the Adirondacks. There are 

 too many fishing for them. Paul* Smith can accommodate 

 three hundred guests; Martin half as many more, to say 

 nothing of smaller hotels. Thousands go in and out every 

 season. The best way is to make vour headquarters at a 

 convenient place on some of the larger lakes, then go off 

 across, several miles, to less frequented lakes and streams, 

 and you will get plenty of trout. 

 ~"Did you get any deer?" 



No, we did not; don't bother me with so many questions. 

 It is against the law to kill them now; but they do it, and 

 a great shame it is. We had venison all the time in camp, 

 and at every hotel from First Lake to Martin's. I don't 

 know where it came from. None of our party killed it. 

 (We could'nt.) I did all I could to keep anybody from 

 shooting one on Sixth Lake one night. Young Comachio 

 said he got near enough with a guide from Martin's to hear 

 a deer stamping in the water one night, at a cost of only 

 seven dollars and a quarter. His guide blandly remarked 

 that it was customary to drop a ten dollar bill, if they 

 killed a deer; but as he did'nt intimate that he should so 

 drop, he did'nt get a deer. 



My conclusion of the whole matter is — it pays well to 

 take a trip to the Adirondacks, and I don't know how you 

 can improve on the route we took. But if you have 

 plenty of time, and want to get a good many fine fish and 

 game in season, go to Canada. Kobert Jackson. 



. Brooklyn, Angus /, 4th, 1875. 



«*.♦♦. 



CLAM BAKES AND BARECUES. 



THESE old time feasts are indigenous to Rhode Island 

 and Virginia, both of these States being jealous of 

 their prestige, and allowing no other to assume first place. 

 A Rhode Island correspondent writes us, with a pardon- 

 able degree of native pride, giving this description of a 

 Narragansett Clam Bake par excellence: — 



"A clam bake gotten ud after the old Rhode Island style is something 

 that cannot be had outside of this State. Many clam bakes are made in 

 Massachusetts and Connecticut, but are nothing but impositions and 

 frauds. An old-fashioned clam bake years ago consisted of a few clams, 

 say two or three bushels, baked upon the shore upon stones made red 

 hot by burning wcod upon them; then a little seaweed thrown on, and 

 the whole covered closely up and left to steam away for an hour more; 

 then stools and big stones would be collected around the clam pile and 

 the clams would be eaten. That was years ago. Now I will tell you 

 how our friend Hiram Maxfield, at Silver Spring, a short way down the 

 bay, feeds thousands every year from 12 o'clock noon until late in the 

 afternoon. Hiram puts into one bake from twenty-five to fifty bushels 

 of clams, and sometimes double the number of bushels. The round 

 paving stones, forming a circle of ten feet in diameter, are made hot by 

 burning wood upon them until they become so hot that they crack and 

 snap. Seaweed is then thrown upon the stones; then the clams are 

 poured upon the seaweed; then comes more seaweed; next the bluefish, 

 all dressed and stuffed full of nice dressiug, the sweet potatoes and green 

 corn, all left well covered up with seaweed and canvas for about forty 

 minutes; and then the signal is given! Hot clams served by more than a 

 hundred waiters direct from the bake, on nice clean tables, in a dining 

 room cool and comfortable. Clams, clam chowder, (soup, sometimes 

 called,) clam cakes, fish, (baked or boiled.) fish chowder, sweet corn, cu- 

 cumbers, sweet potatoes, and water melons-this constitutes a dinner 

 from a Rhode Island improved clam bake point of view. Thousands 

 upon thousands visit these shore resorts, and live upon clams from July 

 1st until September 15 r h. Oakland Beach, Rocky Point, Silver Spring, 

 Field's Point, aud Ocean Cottage, all connected by steamers running 

 half hourly, and now steam cars land you at all of the places, with ono 

 or two exceptions, where you can obtain the salt air, good shade, and. 

 clams. Our hard-working merchants and business men who cannot leave 

 their business for a vacation frequently visit these places, taking a 

 steamer for Silver Spring, get dinner, and step aboard a boat going down 

 the bay. They consider Saratoga, Long Branch, and first-class hi^h- 

 toned Summer resorts nowhere compared with our healthy aud beautiful 

 Narragansett Bay. M." 



Speaking of clam bakes, the ninth annual- "clam bake of 

 the Fat Men's Association of America took place last week 

 at Gregory's Point, near Norwalk, Conn. The pounds 

 weight of solid men was 24,617, divided among 108 per- 

 sons. Eighty bushels of clams, oysters, bluefish, lobsters, 

 green corn and sweet potatoes were cooked on the hot 

 stones under^seaweed, and the quantity of lager beer pro- 

 vided was 800 kegs. 



Now for the Virginia Barbecue. Our correspondent is 

 our old friend, Capt. John M. Taylor, now a permanent 

 resident of the Old Dojgiinion. He says: — 



"I attended a barbecue which took place lately on the estate of Dr. 

 Booth, of Shenstone. The invitation was for a barbecue and fish fry, 

 which is somewhat interesting to the uninitiated. These fetes generally 

 take place in the woods, close to a small lake or stream on the planta- 

 tion of the host, where the neighbors are invited to m'eet. We drove up 

 to a grove of pines oq the estate, in the centre of which was a long in - 

 provised pine hoard table covered witli a clean cloth. At the head was 

 a barbecued lamb, roasted whole; at the bottom a barbecued shoat, also 

 roasted whole, with fixings of vinegar, butter, red peppers, and other 

 tasty ingredients. These immense dishes were flanked by tureens of 

 vegetables, water melons, and cantaloupes, and the appearance of the 

 table reminded one of the olden times. Before proceeding to eat these 

 nice things the fish have to be caught, so a long net is furnished by one 

 of the guests and handed to an old white-wooled negro, who is eminently 

 respectful and understands his business, being at the head of a gang of 

 five others, all of whom seem to take great delight in walking into the 

 1 ike and hauling the seine. When sufficient fish are caught, (small perch, 

 catfish and pike,) for the present "fry," the gentlemen proceed to clean 

 and fry the fish as quickly as possible, the negroes continue hauling, and 

 the invited guests to demolish this rustic meal, many of whom handle 

 the knife and fork with a good deal of gusto and precision. This spec- 

 tacle at its height presents a very animated scene, the group of friends 

 on the wooded knoll above the lake, encircled by numerous horses and 

 mules, hitched to the surrounding trees. The negroes in the lake beyond 

 up to their necks singing and howling their weird nondescript songs, 

 floundering in the water and mud as they haul the nets gradually to the 

 shore, the rush of the guests from above to see the number of the catchi 

 the peach and apple brandy passing around, conversation flowing, and 

 the fete is closed by the assembled company collecting their horses and 

 forming a cavalcade, and so riding through the beautiful woods to their 

 respective homes. Altogether, these "barbecues and fries" present one 

 of the charming phases of the interior life of Southern Virginia, and are 

 one of the many methods by which the planters, (who are gentlemen of 

 refinement and culture,) vary the monotony of their lives, which, to say 

 the least, is harmless and recreative. Captain." 



FISH CULTURE : 



♦ 



PLANNING, LAYING OUT, AND TITE CONSTRUCTION OF 



PONDS. 



vY 



Seasonable Hints. — The Scientific American says: If 

 mosquitoes or other blood-suckers " infest our sleeping- 

 rooms at night, we uncork a bottle of the oil of penny- 

 royal and these animals leave in great haste, nor will thev 

 return so long as the air in the room is loaded with the 

 fumes of that aromatic herb. If rats enter the cellar, a little 

 powdered potash, thrown in their holes or mixed with meal 

 and scattered in their runaways, never fails to drive them 

 away. Cayenne pepper will keep the buttery and store- 

 room free from ants and cockroaches. If a mouse makes 

 an entrance into any part of your dwelling, saturate a rag with 

 cayenne in solution, and stuff it into the hole, which then- 

 can be repaired with either wood or mortar. No rat or 

 mouse will eat the rag for the purpose of opening com- 

 munication with the depot of supplies. 



BY ICRTHYOS. — NUMBER SIX. 

 ■ ♦ 



A SITE having been procured, the next step is the 

 planning of the series of ponds necessary for the 

 different ages of fish. Any mistake in the initial work 

 will always prove a source of embarrassment to the pisci- 

 culturist, entailing constant perplexity, if not ultimate 

 disaster. It is an easy matter for a man who is skilled in 

 fish breeding, to plan, lay out and construct ponds; but 

 with the beginner it is a matter about which he knows 

 very little, therefore, the expenditure of a few dollars, 

 paid to a competent instructor in fish culture, or to a scien- 

 tific piscicultural engineer, will be likely in the end to save 

 thousands of dollars. A well arranged and productive es- 

 tablishment may be taken as a model, but in each new ap- 

 plication of the art, as applied to the development of anew 

 site, the plan must of course vary with the ground, in fact, it 

 would be difficult to apply one model to all localities, for it 

 is quite impossible to find two or more sites so alike as to 

 admit of the systematic use of one plan. But the experi- 

 enced eye can discern at a glance what disposition of 

 ponds and hatching house will be most feasible, for the 

 successful, and above all, the economical working of them. 

 But in the projection of what is known in modern par- 

 lance as a fish farm, it is a great mistake, that in order to 

 be productive, its appointments must be elaborate and ex- 

 pensive. Such an idea is likely to have been borrowed 

 from Roman pisciculturists,- who laid out and constructed 

 pondo and preserves regardless of expense. Indeed they 

 were often made of expensive materials and were not 

 only large but elaborately wrought, and constituted one of 

 the many attractions of a nobleman's estate. Ponds must 

 be substantially built, especially the banks, which consti- 

 tute the principle wear and chief expense of the work 

 of preparation in the establishment of a fish farm. 



For successful fish culture, and with a view to the arti- 

 ficial production of fish for commercial purposes, three 

 ponds are essential. In shaping and arranging them most 

 conveniently, all depends upon the water supply, whether 

 it be spring or rivulet, and how these sources of water are 

 situated in reference to height above the ponds and hatch- 

 ing house to be projected. Four feet is the least fall con- 

 sistent with the distribution of water through the series of 

 ponds, rapidly enough to keep the water in the most dis- 

 tant of them cool enough for the health of the fish. The 

 shape of the ponds has a very unimportant bearing upon 

 the success of fish raising. Some pisciculturists aver that 

 the ponds are more convenient if oblong, while others ad- 

 vise them to be pyriform, or pear shape". There might be 

 such a conformation of the surface of the ground as to 

 demand other shapes, long, narrow and deep, rather than 

 wide and shallow in depth. • Mr. Seth Green, whose judg- 

 ment in all piscicultural matters is authority, says: "It is 

 better for any one wishing to raise a, large number of fish 

 to have several series of ponds, than to * attempt raising a 

 larger number by increasing the size of the ponds. Fish 

 do not feed so well in large ponds, are not so easily taken 

 care of, and eat each other more.'' In order to give the 

 reader an idea of the arrangement of a fish farm a plan is 

 introduced, the prototype in part, representing the arrange- 

 ment of ponds, etc., at Troutdale, N. J. 



The spring marked S on the plan constitutes the source 

 of all the water of the establishment, and has a capacity of 

 twelve hundred gallons per minute, constant- and undi- 

 minished in flow throughout the year. "The temperature 

 of the water is 50°, which never varies more than one 

 degree in the heat of Summer or depth of Winter." 



The water from the spring passing down a raceway fifty- 

 five feet long, (A) four wide and six inches deep, enters 

 pond No. 1, and following the course of the arrows, passes 

 successively through 1, 2 and 3, and is* discharged at the 

 point C into No. 5. This. pond is not used for fishes, but 

 for the cultivation of watercress, a cruciferous plant much 

 used in eating houses, which finds ready sale in the markets 

 of all large cities. It may be well to state that the ponds 

 for cress culture may be multiplied to any extent; for the 

 profits in this direction are truly great, and many fish cul- 

 turists derive a large revenue from this specialty. At those 

 points in the cut marked x are sluice gates in which are 

 placed screens of wire cloth,' which are arranged in pairs 

 or sets, and each perform a seperate duty, the one highest 

 up arrests the leaves and other floating o ejects which "blow 

 or float into the ponds, while the lower screen prevents 

 fish of different ages from mixing. When the small fry 

 are first placed in pond No. 1, if the whole volume of the 

 stream was permitted to pass through, the fishes would be 

 driven against the lower screen with such violence as to 

 cause them to perish, but by the provision of a cross race 

 )c) the amount of water supply can be so easily graduated 

 as to be harmless. H represents the hatching house, near 

 the spring, where sufficient cold water passes into :}he 



