182 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



to run before we got down to Walton, where the Grand 

 Kapids road crossed it, we resumed our journey. Since 

 the Navigator had placed himself in Capt. Jack's shoes, or 

 rather in his India-rubber leggins, he utterly refused to re- 

 linquish them, but accompanied Taber and Egan in lifting 

 the Modpc — which, by-the-bye, drew ten or twelve inches 

 — over logs and sunken sweepers, and worked with a will. 

 Capt. Jack and I occupied the smaller boat, which bad but 

 a light load. It was very encouraging when we came to 

 twenty rods or so of open water, and then Capt. Jack, 

 would exultingly exclaim, "sailing on summer seas," but 

 the next bend of the river wouid bring us again on the 

 sweepers. An hour or so after lunch, however, we did 

 get clear of them. The bright, swift, noiseless, smoothly- 

 gliding stream, with its yellow sand and pebbly bottom 

 eped onward, the graceful cedars fringed the bank, while 

 towering white and Norway pines backed them in their 

 majesty where the rising ground retreated from the river, 

 and we were happy. 



About 5 p. m. we came to an enlargement of the river 

 which might have passed for a lake; but it was quite shal- 

 low, had reedy islands in it, and we had much difficulty in 

 pushing over sand-bars. Then the river narrowed some- 

 what, and was hi ill free of sweepers, and it was time to 

 camp for the night. I had put my rod together an hour 

 before, aud taken a few fruitless casts as we pushed rap- 

 idly along. Now I saw diverging circles as the fish rose, 

 and determined to have grayling for supper. So coming to 

 the lower point of an islaud, my cast of flies dangling in 

 the water, a grayling took hold nearly under the boat. I 

 "whopped him in." "We have got to them at last," said 

 the Cap lain; "now fish for the larder." They took the fly 

 "like mad," these unsophisticated grayling. To them it 

 was "a delusion aud a snare," which had never been 

 dreamed of in their philosophy, or that of their progeni- 

 tors. It was a virgin stream. No My had heretofore been 

 case on its waters. In less than a quarter of an hour, for 

 I used no landing net, but pulled them right in, Ca^t, Jack 

 had counted 20 fish. "That will do now," he said, "we 

 have plenty tor supper and breakfast; we will tarry here a 

 day or so and pay our respects to them in the morning. 



As we were to iemain at this camp for at least two 

 nig L hts, the Navigator, who was always solicitous as to "the 

 old man's ' comfort, was determined to have a softer bed 

 than usual. All around on fallen trees and stumps grew 

 that beautiful moss so common to this part of Michigan. 

 It was soft, thick and long, and on the stumps which it en- 

 tirely obscured, gave the appearance of high rounded 

 green mounds. \v hat ornaments these would have been 

 to a gentleman's lawn. My young friend tore the sods 

 from where they had grown aud piled them doubly deep; 

 on them we stretched our India ruober blankets and then 

 our buffalo robes. 



On Monday (August 28th), after breakfasting on fat little 

 gaud snipe, which the Navigator had nagged on the small 

 islands of the shallow lake auove, we tackled the grayling, 

 Captain Jack aud Uncle Thad in the Mouoc with E tgau to 

 hold her steady, and the Navigator wiih Taber in the small 

 craft. We slew tuem ad nau*eum. We dined at 2 o'cloek, 

 and went at them again wueu the sun had shaded ihe camp 

 side cf the river. It required no skill; all one had to co 

 was to pitcn his flies towards them; and the Navigator, 

 who h<id never cast a fly before, tar outnumbered a cer- 

 tain old fellow wiio had win ten a book on angling. I laid 

 aside my rod in uisgust at their lameness, and was well 

 contented to see the tyros enjoy the sport, and by sundown 

 the live boxes of both boats dad as many fish in them as 

 could possibly be kept alive. 



Alter a single day's sport here we started on Tuesday 

 morning (August 29th) and, as we had feared from an early 

 survey by the Navigator, lound our course again obstruct- 

 ed bv laden logs and sweepers. We made about two miles 

 by the river, however, resumed our chopping the next day, 

 and at about 4 p. m. came to open water once more; a 

 wide, deep water surrounded by swampy land, and remind 

 ing one ot the bayous of Louisina. W hen we pitched our 

 tenisEgan was quite unwell from wacnug in the cola 

 water. The next morning he was feverish and chilly by 

 turns, so we determined to leave him asleep in his tent 

 while we enjoyed a cay's fishing. 



On August tne 81st we once more put our rods together 

 for a raid on ThymaUus *nc for, Captain J a k and tne 

 Navigator in ihe smalt boat and Uncle Thad with Taber in 

 the Modoc. The hsh were not as numerous as on the first 

 day above, but sufilciently so to satisfy the most greedy 

 angler, .below our own we found a camp occupied earlier 

 in tne summer, and as evidences around indicated, by a 

 party of Ohicagoaus. A copy of the Times of Juiy oth 

 was found among their relics. 



On Friday September let), Egan having recovered from 

 his illness, we loaded our boats once more, "bailing on 

 summer seas" \vas the oft repeated quotation of Captain 

 Jack and Uncle Thad as they glided uown the beauuiui 

 river. An hour or so after starting a boat of Dan Fitz 

 hugh's model came around a bend, and 1 recognized the 

 sturdy fellow who with his setting pole diove it against the 

 Strong current as Kamsdeil, wiio was one of our party tne 

 previous summer, lie had wnh him an angler setting on 

 ihe cover ot the fisn well. "Mr. Norris," said iiainsdeil, 

 "this is Mr. Trout, or Mercer county, Pennsylvania." 



We lit our pipes, aud then i questioned Kamsdell: 

 "How's the hshing over in your branch of the Manistee?" 

 "My branch! VV hy this is my branch." 

 "Where did you come trout?" 

 "Eioin Ci aw ford." 



"And aid you moss another stream to get here, and do 

 you mean to say mis is the east branch— the branch Fitz- 

 hugh and iownsend and 1 and you and Leu Jewel and 

 Johnny Sharp were on fast summer?" 

 "Weil it ain't any other." 



I turned around to Captain Jack, who sat in the stern. 

 "The mystery is solved, I know now where we are, and 

 you are ngnt that we are on the main branch, although 

 the east branch." Kamsdell informed me that we were 

 some ten milts above Babbit's Camp, where Jones and his 

 bear "iitiiy" had their quarters ihe previous summer. 

 That J ones had taken to trapping, that Babbitt was 

 not fishing for the market this summer, but working at 

 his trade of shoeniakiug at Crawford. _ " _,, T 



Onward we floated, passing the camp of the liiver Im- 

 provement gang, where we iuncned and the friendly 

 lei lows replenished our stores ot pork, butter, potatoes 

 and Onions in exchange for fi»h. Then we passed Babbitt s 

 old camp, now occupied by Jones, whom we met a lew 

 miles below. He saiu he had captured and killed fourteen 

 bears besides smaller furred animals last winter. Presently 

 we passed our old camp, where we had spent five happy 



days of the summer of 1875, and camped two or three 

 miles below. Seated in the bow of the small boat, while 

 under full headway, I had, by casting on eiiher side as 

 Captain Jack paddled and directed its course, killed a good 

 many grayling. 



Saturday (September 2d) we devoted to fishing as we 

 floated down the river, stopping at the most likely places, 

 and when we stopped to camp had captured about two hun- 

 dred fish, which we put into an old live box that we found 

 at a deserted camp. 



September 3d being Sunday, Captain Jack packed away 

 his rod, but the Navigator and Uncle Thad could not resist 

 the temptation to toss their flies to the grayling as we ran 

 the stream, and by lunch time had scored over a hundred. 

 Then the river became a perfect torrent, running in many 

 places five or six miles an hour, and this with its many 

 sharp bends forced us to give undivided attention to our 

 navigation. At 5 p. m. we landed at Hawley's camp, eighty 

 miles or so above Walton where we expected to leave the 

 river. 



Hawley I found to be a fine specimen of a boss lumber- 

 man, and has the credit of keeping one of the best ordered 

 camps on the river. In winter he employs forty or fifty 

 men. He has occupied his present camp for about two 

 years, has an immense log house for cooking and for board- 

 ing his men, another for a lodging house, and a large barn, 

 stable, grainery, storeroom, and an office. Adjoining the 

 latter he had a comfortable room, and a bed which he in- 

 sisted on mv Taking possession of for the night. 



A European or East tin State laborer would open his eyes 

 if he sat ouwii to a table provided at a well managed lum- 

 bering camp on a Michigan river. Besides the usual neces- 

 saries, pork, flour, potatoes, and tea, I found at Hawley's, 

 aud also*at the camp of the River Improvement Company, 

 good butter, good coffee, pies, cakes, cookies, etc. Egan, 

 whose usual occupation is to cook for lumber camps, inform- 

 ed me that such fare was customary, that no boss could get 

 or keep good hands if he did not feed them well and even 

 luxuriously; that fish could generally be had for the cast- 

 ing of a line or spear, and venison and bear meat in season 

 were quite common, and that men were frequently employed 

 to fish and hunt for the camps. Provisions are cheap, 

 however, in Michigan. At Grand Rapids potatoes are 

 being sold in quantity at 15 cents per bushel, good butter 

 at 15 cents.a pound, choice cuts of" beef at ten cents, and 

 the wnole beef dreessed at four or five cents. Hawley re- 

 fused to take pay for the butter, potatoes, pork, and onions, 

 with which he furnished us and treated us in the most hos- 

 pitable mauuer. 



Monday (September 4th) our host volunteered to help us 

 transport our boats over a long jam of logs a mile below 

 his camp, then to start two shorter jams fatther down, and 

 lent us his cant-hook in case we should meet with others 

 on our way. Atter supplying his moderate wants in the 

 way of flies, leaders, and lines, that he might have an oc- 

 casional mess of grayling, and giving him some of our own 

 fish, we leluctanlly babe him good bye about 1 p. m. We 

 still continued to fish, casting in shore and hooking many 

 a lusty grayling as we lapidly ran the river. The stream, 

 as we descended was not appreciably wider than forty 

 miles above, but deeper, and the current stronger, 

 with the exception ot some wide still pools, as if river had 

 been piled upon river until in many places the setting pole 

 failed to find ihe bottom. As we passed along we noted 

 ihe influx of the stream from Portage Lake, the branches 

 on the western, and the minor tributaries on either side. 

 An hour beiore sundown we were stopped by a jam of long 

 small timber a hundred yards below a roll-way, and camped 

 by the side of a brook not much in temperature, above ice 

 water. 



Tuesday (September 5th). With the aid of Hawley's 

 cant-hook, Taber had the jam opposite our camp started by 

 9 a. m., and then we threaded our way through, and had 

 many a l ace with logs that floated sometimes lengthwise and 

 sometimes crosswi-e, - 1 the imminent risk of having our 

 boats stoven or crushed. As it was, we succeeded after a 

 few squeezes in slipping in between, and then at last 

 in out-running them. At noon we lunched at the State 

 road bridge, aud about an hour by sun weie stopped by an- 

 other jam about two miles lrom Walton Station. Here 

 Captain Jack, who had been absent his allotted lime (two 

 weeks) prevailed on a man at a lumber camp, near by, for 

 a fee of two dollars to pilot him in the dark to Walton, 

 from whence he started in the night train for Grand 

 Rapids; ieaving the Navigator and uncle Thad with Taber 

 and Egan to procure a team and transport boats, luggage, 

 aud fish to the station next morning. Our provisions were 

 again exhausted, butter,- lard, pork, all gone, so we had to 

 content ourselves with a supper of boiled grayling, tea, and 

 potatoes. 



W ednesday (September 7tb). After a frugal meal like 

 that we had partaken of the night before, Egan stained in the 

 rain to a lumber shanty a mile off to procure a wagon. By 

 the time we had transported our disconnected boats, our 

 baggage and fish from the bank of the river to the high 

 grounu, a distance of 20 rods, he returned with a long 

 uodied vehicle drawn by a pair of horses. At 1 p. m. we 

 were ^at Walton station, and next morning at a.m., 

 with our fi*b packed in ice at Grand Rapids. We had 

 been feeding on grayling for ten days. Taking them at an 

 average oi a halt pound, aud each of the five men eating 

 ,-ix per d-iy, the consumption per diem was 15 pounds or 

 150 pounds for ten days, ifce, moreover, gave aw ay a good 

 many fish to the river men, and my two young friends had 

 a bountiful supply for their iamilies and friends at Grand 

 Rapids. 



We found that since Mr. Fitzhugh, and then our party 

 subsequently with him, in the summer of 1875, had ex- 

 ploreu aud fished the east or main branch of the Manistee, 

 it had become known to anglers from various parts of 

 the West, and as we ran the river found vestiges cf several 

 camps that had bteu occupied by anglers earlier in the sea- 

 sou, and at one of them unmistaiiabie signs that ladies had 

 been of the party. 



One peculiarity of the Michigan rivers is their many short 

 turns and windings. Ihe distance from where we launched 

 our boats to W alton by water could not have been less than 

 a hundred and fifty miles, by land not a fourth ot that dis- 

 tance. Prom Waliou to the town of Manistee, on Lake 

 Michigan, it is said lo be 300 miles by the river and only 

 GO by land, and we are told of one of the bends below 

 Walton which is en miles around aud only 40 rods across 

 by land, ihe River Improvement Company, which is a 

 chaitered corporation ana charges a toll or royalty, on all 

 logs ihat are floated to market, had scarcely worked up as 

 far as Walton, uutil a little over two years ago. The lum- 

 bermen are an independent, rough, hardy set of lellows. 



It is somewhat wonderful to an Eastern man to see one of 

 them — and sometimes a mere boy— when he has an errand 

 down stream, jump on a log and after dancing about on it 

 a few moments to keep it from rolling, get it "on an even 

 keel," and with his setting pole direct its coarse as skill, 

 fully as if it was a canoe. 



There is no State more accessible to the sportsman, par- 

 ticularly those of the West, than Michigan. One can 'leave 

 Cincinnati at 7 a. m., sup at Grand Rapids and by n fcX t, 

 morning find himself nearly up at the straits of Mackinaw 

 Nearly every station above Grand Rapids has a lake witu 

 bass and pickerel, or a stream with grayling or trout 

 within a few miles. The pamphlet circulars with maps 

 accompanying, issued by the Grand Rapids and Indiana R. 

 R., and to be had at the office of Fokest and Stream' 

 give full particulars of them. 



I was the guest of Captain jack on this excursion, as I 

 was also for a few days of •his hospitable family at Grand 

 Rapids, and saw much of that flourishing young city and 

 the neighborhood around. It is a railroad center of i ra . 

 portance, and I was surprised at the extent of its manufac- 

 tures, particularly of househould furniture; the Grand river 

 which is here nearly a hundred yards wide, supplying an 

 abundant w r ater power. The soil of this section "of the 

 State is a sandy loam, containing an abundant admixture of 

 vegetable deposit. 1 admired gieatly the rich pasture lands 

 and thrifty cornfields and orchards. At last I had to bid 

 Captain Jack adieu, and to parody the lines of the author 

 of John Gilpin: 



"Ntixt time he doth a fishing go, 

 May 1 be there to e,«e." 



Thapdeus Norrii. 



THE THOUSAND 



For Forest and Strtam. 

 ISLANDS. 



WE shall doubtless, cease to wonder, before our Cen- 

 tennial summer is ended, that baneho Panza re- 

 garded eating and sleeping as the greatest of human 

 inventions. The excursiou is an invention of later date, and 

 "Cook's Tourist" was then unknown to fame. Now, 

 however, there is no doubt, but that the men who invented 

 excursions, have supeiior claims to immortality. We are 

 not only convinced that they are good things to have, but 

 we know they are easy things to have. They are plenti- 

 ful — they are various. There are excursions by moon- 

 light, big ones and little ones, long ones and short ones, 

 and the ever-graced round Ones. No one need go excur- 

 sionless. Out here on the holders of the famous old St. 

 Lawrence (which the Indians called "Sweet Water" to 

 distinguish it from the bitter briny ocean) theieis a ^ranu 

 store house of excursions, devoio of mummies, but redo- 

 lent of "fresh muscalouge." No pickled, dried, smoked, 

 or salted heresies will answer here. Everyihiug must be 

 newly caught and as fresh as the green waters, which 

 Cooper's British Captain called the "Sailors bane." The 

 fish that lauguisheth is not the fish for the educated palate 

 of the Thousand Islander. It must flounce from the shin- 

 ing fishing hook straight into the smoking frying pan, or 

 it is fit only for the wayside cat. If one can only manage 

 to escape from the "Centennial," here is a pleasant refuge 

 where he rnay have his vie»vs widened. Wandering 

 through Cook's circular paviliiou will of course give one 

 a notion that there are no excursions left; that Cook has 

 cooked them all up. To dispel this illusion, you need only 

 to be set down at the foot of the Great Ontario, that "one 

 gun" among the lesser lakes, and behold for the first time 

 the gay little excursion steamer, T. tt. Faxton, nodding ut 

 you through the mist-destroying sunshine. As you scramble 

 on deck with 499 other feiiuw excursionists, with traveling 

 bag or lunch basket in hand, the fresh blood will surge 

 thiough the veins and possibly send up its batch of inter- 

 fections, which explode like "the foam on the wave" into 

 Oh's and Ah,s, and Spiendid! Charming! For here be it 

 known there are no drawbacks, no weary miles of vessel- 

 lined shores like the New York Harbor, no "purgatory" 

 of a dreary channel to plunge through; at one bound you 

 are in paradise, sailing among the green "islands ot 

 the blest," and feasting the eye on the happy hunting 

 grounds of the defrauded Indian. The Faxton, herself, 

 makes no poor show. A splendid set of colors stretches 

 far out and waves its crimson stripes over the water as 

 though endeavoring to outstrip the green waves beneath. 

 Another flag with forked ends exhioits her monogram in 

 national colors, and a third has the portrait of the unselfish 

 muscalonge who is waiting to be eaten at your pleasure. 

 Last but not least of all, standing squarely on the lofty 

 summit of the wheel house is the brassy lion, with hoisted 

 flag-like tail which "latter" must have been counted in by 

 the truthful Sunday school lad, who informed his mother 

 that there were four flags on the Faxton. By the way, 

 this lion reminds us of another lion— the Hon. Caleb Lyon, 

 of poetical as well as practical proclivities, who sang 

 '•The Thousand Isles, the Thousand Isles, 

 Their Charm from every cire beguiles.'.' 



Once afloat on the St. Lawrence and you are as much be- 

 guiled as any cousistant human being need to be. Ihe 

 stimulating breeze scented with the fragrant pine anu ceciai, 

 brightens the eye and unloads the care-lreighted brain. 

 You cease to puzzle over the Eastern difficulty, you forget 

 the Bulgarian atrocities, and lose all interest in the hh 

 campaign." As you ll%k down into the green, t™" 81 ^ 6 * 1 

 waters you will perhaps be reminded of the Russian JMJ* 

 chites at the Exhibition; but "our centennial" is no longer 

 a tiresome melting leality— it has become a dim, motueu 

 picture, pleasing to memory's eye; and if you shou 

 chance to have a nervous feeling, that you are drifting w 

 far away from it, a gentle-look will set you right in a mo- 

 ment. For it will inform you that there are V6 ways to go 

 back to it, and that each one is more rapid and deligm 

 than the other. Perhaps you have visited Niagara xn 

 years ago and been awed by its mighty cataract, it b0 « 

 will smile at the superfluous editor who assures you i 

 you can "derive far more pleasure trom the exquisite scene j 

 of the Thousand Islands than from any such watering pi» 

 as Saratoga or Niagara Falls." It is a pleasant conte 

 truly, but you ate forced to admit that you had nevei^ 

 fore thought of Niagara Falls as a "watering P 1 *^' 

 though there is undoubtedly more water there to tne 

 thau any other part of the world cau boast of. As . l0 

 pleasure to be derived, you are deriving it already in b 

 nificent doses, and expect to continue to derive it, su & 

 as this lovely flock of islands flits past. There is u*" 

 Island, with its long low line of shore, remm ^ mg n ;" nce 

 the Jersey flats. Only recently it has had its little ronw 

 At its head was found a corked bottle containing ww 



