THE 



AMERICAN 



SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



(Entered According' to Act of Congress, In tbo year 1879, by the Forest and Stream Publishing Company, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at 'Washington. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS 333 



Private Practice Club ! ACatuleugre Still Open; Archery at 

 Prospect Part 331 



Cricket :— 

 Notes and Reports 332 



Bditoiuai.:— 



The lutoruarinrial Kwli'iniie ; Tli» Toam Solor.ti. m ; Profes- 

 sional RUtaiuen; Types of Au^ler-i; Beaver River Club; 

 Our Western Latter ; Pennsylvania Field Trials 331 



Fish Culture:— 

 The International Fishery Exhibition at Berlin; Diseased 

 Fish in Kentucky; Oregon - ., 329 



Game Bag and Gun:— 



The State Convention ; Pennsylvania Association ; Alabama 

 State Association ; Capture of an Owl; Oregon; The Afc- 

 talcapas Kesriou of Louisiana; Trap Shooting; Shooting 

 Matches 335 



Tre Kjb.vnel :— 

 Departure of the. English Judges'; Entries for the Derby; 

 Eastern Field Trials Kales; Training Foxhounds; Kennel 

 Note3 330 



MtSOl-LLANY:— 



Fly-Fishing on the Nephron ; The Eoute to Grand Falls 327 



Natural History:— 

 Spring Notes troir. Minneapolis; Bits add Bod Bugs; When 



Boars Bring Forth 328 



Notes and Queries 332 



Publishhrs' Department 311 



THE RlFf.E :— 

 Range and Gallery , 337 



Bea and River Fiskino :— 

 The Blsby Club ; Treating- in the Oatstills: Virginia; Basa 

 In Texas; The RichaiMoijii-R.ui^.iley Lakes; The Old Scout. 

 Goes Fishing 329 



YA0HTINO AND CANOEINO :— 



Vachting Nows; Now York Bav Regatta; The Canoe Re- 

 gattas; San Francisco YcvAu Chili's Opening Cruise) Fix- 

 tures 33S 



4$}U S^hing an the S> e #iq an > 



CHICAGO LAWYERS IN THE BRITISH WILDERNESS. 



K No. H. 



WE are becoming sated with trout flailing. When we 

 cam capture a three or four-pound trout as surely 

 as a boy can take a six-ounce perch from the Govern- 

 ment Breakwater, and quietly drop back into the water 

 fish which would constitute the pieae de resistance on the 

 choicest table iu Chicago, we plan greater variety for 

 our sport. Bonfield and myself did not give up the 

 sport until Tuesday afternoon, fishing from a point of 

 rooks just below the camp, in the edge of the whirl of 

 water from the rapids opposite, Standing on the farth- 

 est rock, we could easily see the trout in six or eight feet 

 of water in front of us, and, after the first few had been 

 caught, we established the rule that the one who stood 

 on the point should, as soon as he struck a fish, tow it up 

 into the stiller water, and give the place on the point to 

 the other, who, in turn, stepped back when he had 

 hooked his fish. Each used the landing net for the 

 other's fish, and thus the fun proceeded in regular rota- 

 tion. Occasionally both would have a fish at the same 

 time, which made some confusion. They ordinarily 

 weighed from two to three pounds, a few overrunning 

 the latter figure, and some falling below the former. As 

 we already had in camp all the fish we could eat, we 

 handled each new captive gently, carefully weighed him, 

 and dropped him quiotly into the water again, watching 

 him strike out for the lowest rocks. But these trout did 

 not Beem to understand their favored position ; that they 

 were not to be thrown in a heap on the shore, nor handed 

 over to the ravenous Indian, but were being caught 

 etriotly in the interest of science, that we might obtain 

 the fair average weight of the fish in this stream. Sev- 

 eral times I attempted to explain to some poor, deluded 

 trout, who was struggling manfully with adversity at the 

 end of a line, that we meant him no harm, and if he 

 would come up quietly and like a gentlemen, and be 

 weighed, he would be allowed forthwith to depart in 

 peace. But these explanations never seemed to give sat- 

 isfaction, and the game creaturea fought for liberty as 

 determinedly as though fearing their destination was the 

 frying-pan. Lake the victims in De Quincy's " Murder 

 Considered as One of the Fine Arts," they really had the 

 temerity to object to their proposed fate, 



TROUT CORRALS, 



We have things better arranged now. We have es- 

 tablished three corrals ; one at the camp, and one 

 on each of the fishing points below. By moving a few 

 rocks at the edge of the water, and building a semi- 

 circular breakwater outside, we have a pond several feet 

 in diameter, and twelve or fifteen inches deep, through 

 which the cold river water runs as fresh and pure as in 

 the main current ; and there our happy family lie as 

 quietly and peacefully as their ardent natures will per- 

 mit. Wa have about thirty domiciled now ; and unless 

 some party should come by who we are short of trout, 

 and will promise to use and not waste them, we shall, on 

 breaking camp, open the rocky barriers, and enjoy the 

 sight of the vanishing tails taking an unceremonious de- 

 parture. The Indians take turns with us in going down 

 to the camp corral to watch and play with these tempo- 

 rary captives. Some of these are already quite tame, 

 and make no objection to being quietly stroked and pet- 

 ted, though at any sudden motion the whole party unite 

 in making the water boil with their frantic struggles, 

 while the surface is cut with their high dorsal fins. We 

 are all becoming adepts in. the science of 



FISH PATHOLOGY, 



for when one of them is so unfortunate as to be caught 

 at a considerable distance from the corral, he does not 

 seem to relish the necessary aerial transportation, and on 

 hk arrival does not immediately display his customary 

 high spirits. The science of pathology requires that he 

 should then be gently held by the hand in his natural 

 position, or with his mouth toward the entering stream 

 of water. If he does not then appear to revive rapidly 

 enough, a few mild shakes in the water will assist him, 

 and, unless he is like Cassio, " past all surgery," ha will 

 begin to show his appreciation of your efforts by the 

 movements of his mouth and fins. Last evening High 

 and Pratt brought in five handsome fish in a comatose 

 condition, all of which lay on their sides without making 

 any more of an effort than could have been expected of 

 the late respected Mrs. Dombey. The proper manipula- 

 tion, however, began to have its effect at once ; as soon 

 as they were turned upright, they began to move, and in 

 a few moments all but one were swimming about 

 handsomelv. That one, a four-pounder, seemed almost 

 human in "his desire for life. After having been once 

 placed with his back up, he used every endeavor to re- 

 main so, and, whenever he fell over on to his side, he 

 would look up and turn his head toward me in a sort of 

 mute appeal to be righted : and when assisted, he held 

 his own as long as possible ; and on feeling himself sink- 

 ing again on to his side, he would make a desperate 

 effort to regain his true fishy position. And so all the 

 evening he hovered between life and death. But his 

 wound proved like Mercutio's, and in the morning we 

 found hiui lying like Red Murdock, " stark and stiff." 



We have learned also to individualize the trout, and 

 so recognize them accordingly. They are as different as 

 the sheep in a flock, every one of whom the shepherd can 

 distinguish. One has a long, slender head ; another, a 

 peculiar coloring to the fins ; a third has his dorsal flu 

 tipped with white ; a fourth, a peculiarly brilliant red 

 belly ; a fifth, the markings on his back so clear and 

 tine that they seem almost one continuous color ; and a 

 sixth, though small, has zigzag stripes broader than 

 others of three tunes his weight. 



LANDING TROUT. 



If I were to say that these trout were game I would 

 be saying simply what every one knows to be true of all 

 trout. The correct statement is that these show more 

 vigor and determination after a few moments than when 

 first hooked. The acquaintance with an eight-ounce rod 

 seems to develop a wonderful amount of iatent energy, 

 and I have had a three-pounder make a run of over fifty 

 feet after playing him for half an hour, nnd then repeat 

 the same process a few moments later. The smaller trout 

 on the Brule and many other streams not only jump clean 

 out of water in striking the fly, but afterwards do the 

 same and shake themselves in the air after the manner 

 of black bas3, in hope to get the hook out of their mouths. 

 These larger fish, however, seldom rise clear of the water 

 in striking, and the heavier ones frequently do not show 

 a single fin : and as they choose the rougher water the 

 first evidence of his size is the rapid running of the line 

 from the reel, and the further proof is the persistence 

 with which he strikes to the bottom and refuses to display 

 his proportions. In the pool at the foot of the Palls yes- 

 terday one good fish threw himself clean out of water six 

 times, each time shaking liimsolf in mid-air vigorously, 

 but in vain ; but as a rule not one fish in ten will come 

 near the surface for a light rod until really tired. For an 

 Indian's rod, however, the case is different. As we were 

 having some fine sport a few miles below, one of our In- 

 dians seemed anxious to participate, and fastening about 

 ten feet of stout line to the end of a setting pole he baited 

 with a piece of bacon, and at the first bite a three-pound 

 trout went sailing through the air in a manner as laugh- 

 able to us as it must have been surprising to the trout. 



Lest some doubting Thomas, accustomed to the little 

 hooks and diminutive trout of the AUeghanieB, may su* 



pect that these threo, four and five pounders belong to 

 some different species and are not the genuine brook 

 trout, I will add that It is a well-established and un- 

 doubted fact among all experienced men familiar with 

 these Nepigon fish, that they are precisely the same a3 the 

 trout of New England and the Adirondack.? — the genuine 

 Salvelinus fontinalis of the naturalist. 



LAKE NEPIGON. 



Yesterday we organized an expedition to Lake Nepigon, 

 which lies beyona the domain of whoever does not chance 

 to have the eye of the tourist or the artist. The fisher- 

 man's paradise ends at these Victoria Falls. A fairer 

 paradise lies beyond, and a touch of its beauty seemed 

 even to fall upon the unromantic Indian. Bonfield, King 

 and myself, in eur character of excursionists, bid farewell 

 to High and Pratt, who had assumed the literary charac- 

 ter — so far at least as one of Trollope's novels and a mag- 

 azine would admit— and started northward. If these Falls 

 are to be considered as the gateways of the paradise on 

 either side, they are deserving of mention as such, and 

 also for their intrinsic beauty. The broad expanse of 

 Lake Nepigon is suddenly contracted through a wedge of 

 islands and shot over a ledge of rocks between two points 

 not two hundred feet apart. The dark purple cast, which 

 I do not remember to have seen in other waters, forms a 

 striking contrast with the dazzling silver whiteness of the 

 spray into which all seems to be converted, and one ever- 

 opening, ever-closing gulf of foam seems yawning for 

 more water to grind upon its lowest rocks and throw up 

 in silver drops for the rainbow, which spans the horizon 

 above the seething torrent, Below all is turmoil; above all is 

 peace. Below the fierce current boils and rages through 

 the narrow channel and around the wide rock-bound 

 pool, from which it escapes only to form two lesser rap- 

 ids just below. Above are islands, widening shores, the 

 unruffled surface of the lake and perfect solitude. For 

 two miles our canoe glided between islands, gradually 

 opening wider views and revealing more distant capes 

 and peaks, until on rounding a little point the fair lake 

 opened before us — not one vast unbroken expanse like 

 Michigan, but showing at one point only her waters 

 meeting the sky, leaving a hundred islands equal honor 

 in the beauty of the scene. Right in the center of our 

 line of furthest view rose an island ship. Her solitary 

 pine tree stood as the towering mainmast, with sails 

 spread to the breeze. Two smaller birches furnished 

 other masts, yards and sails, while the bare body of the 

 rock rose just high enough to complete a well-propor- 

 tioned vessel. Nature could furnish no better one, and 

 man has not yet built upon these waters any other to 

 dispute her supremacy. 



After the first burst of enthusiasm we lay enchanted 

 with the scene. Before us the open lake ; to our right 

 the main land, gradually receding and rising to the height 

 of several hundred feet, The forest was thick, but the 

 trees small, as natural in this high latitude. But upon 

 one range of hills, at least five miles away, one great tree 

 rose majestic against the sky, as though to re-assert 

 the dignity of richer soil and more southern climes. At 

 our left island succeeded island, until in the distance they 

 seemed a mainland, though our guides told us that the 

 furthest land we could see was island still. 



Slowly we paddled out to our desert island ship. It was 

 rock-formed, rock-anchored and rock-encircled, as though 

 to laugh to scorn a thousand Atlantic storms ; and three 

 massive stones showed that her prow was pointed toward 

 the north to meet and brave the roughest winds sweeping 

 from the Pole. The rock ship was all massive trap, and 

 the treasure which she seemed ko bear was one great 

 granite boulder, worn round and smooth ages ago in its 

 perilous journey with the icebergs, perhaps, down from 

 the Arctic zone, and now rejoicing in its haven of 

 refuge on the safest spot on this rock-ribbed island. 



Our Indians at ouce turned their attention to a pair of 

 loons swimming opposite another island half a mile to our 

 right, and borrowing Bonfield's gun one of them hid be- 

 hind the rocks at the point, and the other commenced 

 calling them up by imitating their well-known cry. The 

 loons answered and commenced swimming toward us, 

 and in ten minutes were within a hundred yards of the 

 gunner ; but they wisely declined to come nearer and 

 soon sailed away, still uttering their plaintivr- oaniao 

 cry. 



VIEW OF THE LAKE. 



To the right of the entrance to the lake rose a sugar- 

 loaf hdl, evidently commanding a good view of the sur- 

 rounding country. From a series of observations we 

 convinced ourselves that it was less thou a mile from 

 the water i while on the lake side it displayed a rocky 

 bluff, which told us that in ascending it we should not 

 be treated as other ambitious tourists have been who 

 have climbed high hills only to find them so thickly 

 wooded on summit aa wnll as side, as to furnish no point 

 for a view. Drawing up the canoe on a gravelly beach— a 

 rare thing here — we started inward and upward some- 

 times through rough woods and tangled underbush, some- 

 times sinking ankle deep in the yielding moss. 



The first view over the lake was exultant enthusiasm jtha 

 second was rapturous admiration. Our party gathere4 



