[Entered According- to Act of Congress, in the year 1379, by the Forest and Stream Publishing Company, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1,1880. 
Original, 
THE DEATH OF GENIO C. SCOTT, 
TAEAR Genio, as the passing bell 
-* r Above thy ashes peals its kueil, 
Let me beside thy sable bier 
Prop votive wreath and saered tear; 
Strike the sad lyre, that it may pour 
A requiem on my friend of yore. 
With sorrowing heart I pause, I turn 
Prom silent dust and funeral urn, 
O'er the long-vanish’d years to muse, 
Still bright with light and fresh with dews: 
O’er the departed years to trace 
Our mutual footsteps in life's race. 
I once again with thee explore 
The windiugs of the stroamlot shore, 
To east the line and draw the prey 
Prom the clear ripples where they play; 
Or track the coast-line where the spoil 
Rewards the patient angler’s toil; 
Or brush the dew from shrub and grass, 
As on from stream to stream we pass. 
From memory's blurr’d and blotted shoot 
I wipe the effacing dust, and meet 
In shining lines the record dear, 
Dear Genio, of thy life’s career. 
And those who lov’d thee long and well 
O’er thoso past years will fondly dwoll, 
Remembering still thy cheerful ways, 
And all the Joys of other days. 
Ah! the lost dead "may never die! 
From the blue fields of air they call, 
From the green hillocks where they lie, 
O’er which the woodland shadows fall. 
From tho white cloud—a floating speck 
in ether—they leap O’er and heck, 
Wave their bright pinions and extend 
Their palms, whither they’d have us tend. 
’TIs only when tho long grass grows 
Or when the curling billow flows 
Above the lost and lov’d of earth 
That wc can measure all their worth. 
Tnen only with unclouded eyes 
The brightness of their life we prize, 
When ’tis too late to crown with praise 
Tho crys tal sweetness of their ways: 
When look and word and deed shiue back 
Like sunbeams o’er life's trodden track.; 
O! that we might again behold 
Those features, seinilchrcd in mould! 
Shelter lelahd, Dee. 22d. Isaac McLelcan. 
s$£epigon |p the and $mr. 
NUMBER IV, 
N EPIGON HOUSE is an old established post of the 
Hudson’s Bay Company. It lias been, as nearly as 
we could ascertain, a recognized “house” fully a hun¬ 
dred years. Probably it is much older, as from its posi¬ 
tion in the centre of an extensive fur country it would 
soon be appropriated as a point for a depot of supplies 
and trade. It stands in latitude 49 deg. 55 min. north, 
being a degree north in latitude aud about thirty miles 
west of the longitude of Red Rock. The canoe and por¬ 
tage route between the two posts is called one hundred 
miles. There are three or four frame and log buildings 
at Nepigon House (not including a substantial if not orna¬ 
mental cattle stable and farm) buildings) used as store and 
warehouses, and the agent’s residence. The permanent 
population is small, consisting of the company’s agent 
and employes and their families. When we reached the 
post a fine brigade boat lay at the little doek-and a larger 
one rather the worse .for wear and age was beached near 
by, undergoing repairs. These boats had been pulled and 
tracked up the practicable rapids and taken over the por¬ 
tages on rollers from Red Rock at an immense expendi¬ 
ture of Indian labor. But once in the lake they save 
much hazardous cauoe transportation. 
The Indian population right about the post did not ex¬ 
ceed twenty-live families at the time of our visit. But in 
spring time, when the hunters flock in to dispose of the 
winter’s “ take,” the number is largely increased and the 
imm ediate vicinity must present a busy appearance. 
After the spring trading is over, and the brigades havo 
carried down to Red Rock the thousands of pounds of 
furs which have been gradually accumulated, and 
brought back to the post the stores and supplies for the 
ensuing year, the Indians gradually disappear from the 
neighborhood, to return the following spring. They go 
off up the rivers to their various favorite hunting grounds, 
where game is plenty and fish may be bad for the taking. 
Many go hundreds of miles and thread the vast net-work 
of lakes and streams which lies to tbe west, north aud 
east of Nepigon. About two hundred trappors and hunt¬ 
ers, being the industrial basis of a thousand people, as I 
estimate their numbers, are dependent upon this post for 
trade and supplies. Occasionally during the long season 
of quiet some light canoe, an 1 ‘ express” I should call it, 
with its two men comes dashing up. Some tobacco, flour, 
or tea are purchased, aud after a day’s rest canoe and 
men disappear in the shades of the interior woodland 
region. 
The company furnishes the outfits of the hunters al¬ 
most always upon credit. Few Indians are so thrifty as 
to be able to buy and pay at the same time. An ‘‘outfit" 
book is kept by the post (I might say by every such post), 
in which the state of any debtor’s account is accurately 
registered. Payment is made the following spring in 
furs. When one reflects that from the time the outfit is 
procured six to ten months elapse before the agent sees 
his customer again, and that the latter is all of that time 
hundreds of miles away in the wilderness, the fact that 
he does return and pay his scores speaks volumes in favor 
of Indian honesty. Certainly, in point of personal integ¬ 
rity the Indian should be placed on a higher plane than 
the average white. But with the existing system of com¬ 
munication between posts a defaulter would soon be 
found out and further supplies cut off, So that between 
native honesty and the company’s care few losses result, 
and these in the main as a necessary consequence of 
death or sickness. I believe no civilization has yet been 
developed where losses do not sometimes occur from a 
credit system. 
The goods furnished by the company are of an excel¬ 
lent quality always. Prices seem high, but taking into 
consideration the nature of the business, the extent of 
credits, the cost of transportation and service, I am of 
opinion that the goods could not well be afforded at less 
rates. Sometimes, when from any cause the yield of furs 
is light and debts cannot be paid, the company, by judi¬ 
cious distribution of the necessaries of life, without im¬ 
mediate reward, saves the poor, poverty-stricken redman 
from starvation at least, if not from suffering. A wise 
policy, it is true, for the death of the Indian would be a 
loss of future business, but these things ought in fairness 
to be taken into consideration in adjusting the equities 
of the fur trade. From my study of what was written of 
these regions a hundred and more years ago, and from 
present information and observation, I believe the native 
population has within that period increased in numbers 
ana advanced in comfort under the influence of the com¬ 
pany. There is no doubt whatever of an actual advance 
in the physical condition of the population. 
The Nepigon Lake Indians wo found in an excellent 
condition as to health and comfort. They were well fed 
and well clothed, and with considerable development of 
good looks. Their canoes, though not large—for the riv¬ 
ers in which they spend most of their time are too shal¬ 
low for other than small ones—were the finest as to light¬ 
ness and beauty I have ever seen. As the “ canoe Indian" 
is graded in his wealth by the number of his canoes—like 
the “prairie Indian” by his horses—these were wealthy. 
It was not uncommon to see three or four beautiful birch 
bark shells drawn up at on© wigwam. They sat upon 
the water like feathers, and the speed at which two small 
paddles would impel them spoke well for the efficiency 
of the model upon which they all seemed to he built. 
It was Saturday evening when we arrived at Nepigon 
House. On Sunday mo rning we had eighteen fine capa¬ 
ble and pleasant aborigines to assist us in disposing of 
onr repast. They were willing souls aud very friendly, 
and took most kindly to unlimited pork, potatoes, hard 
bread and tea with sugar in it. Bat after that meal, 
which with our limited kitchen appliances lasted well 
into the afternoon, we felt called upon to give orders to 
draw the lines more closely. A few days of this and star¬ 
vation would stare in ourfaces ; still, in spite of cautions 
aud orders, a few extra hands would find their way into 
our trenches every time it was produced. 
Early Monday morning we started out for trout. Grass¬ 
hoppers being plenty on tbe liayfield of the post, we cap¬ 
tured a bottle full for distribution in likely places. But 
no trout would rise to them, and whipping the shores 
and points with our fly rods was without result, except 
one four-inch trout right at the mouth of a trickling 
stream; so. dually abandoning all hope of speckled, or. 
as some at Nepigon House called them, “ swamp ” trout, 
we took our spoons, and liy trolling close to the bottom in 
deep water, added a few lake trout to our larder. While 
so fishing, R, attached to his rod a small metal spinning 
minnow, hoping to have a little “brush"with a lake 
trout, when, after dragging it slowly around for a few 
3 Volume 13 -No. S3, 
I No. Ill Fulton Street., New Vo, k 
minutes in sixty feetof water, a vigorous strike rewarded 
him. In due time, he landed his fish, and it proved a 
four and a half pound salmo fonliualia. Ho was hooked 
at least half a mile from shore. This was a new experi¬ 
ence to all of us. 
Mr. Le Ronde had been at this post more than twenty 
years. His brother Alexander had had his home 
here nearly all his life, although he had spent much time 
ill the United States naval and mercantile marine ser¬ 
vice, and was a very intelligent man. They both assured 
us that trout spawned in the sandy bays of the lake close 
to the shore, about the middle of October, and that quan¬ 
tities were sometimes, aud always could be, taken atsuch 
places and times by hauling seines ; that they were 
larger than the Nepigon River trout, and had been taken 
weighing everywhere from five to seventeen pounds. 
The latter was the largest either of them had ever 
weighed. In the fall of 1878 the largest taken weighed 
on the company’s scales nine pounds. Trout are never 
intentionally taken by the Indians in their gill nets, 
because they fight so vigorously as to injure the nets 
beyond the value of the fish. The men at the post, how¬ 
ever, desiring a change of diet, sometimes in the fall 
make a haul with a strong net, when the trout are 
Spawning, with the results I have named. These gentle¬ 
men are men in whose statements I place great confi¬ 
dence ; and, added to this, are those of an intelligent 
Indian, independently obtained by inquiries made by 
Louis at my suggestion, in full oorroboratiou. Of course 
the Indian could not give weights, but his description of 
sizes would indicate weights substantially as above given. 
We saw some trout on the other side of the lake, taken 
in gill nets near one of the islands. The largest measured, 
as he lay upon a rock, twenty-four and a half inches long, 
by a girth of thirteen and a half inches. When I say 
that these measurements were taken many hours after 
the fish had been cleaned, and after being taken eight or 
ten miles to the mainland, the experienced fisherman 
will be able to arrive at some idea of the actual size of 
the fish. My estimate of the weight when the fish was 
first taken from the water, and before removal Of the 
viscera, would he not far from seventeen pounds. 
Upon the evidence as it stands, the existence of huge 
trout in Lake Nepigon cannot reasonably be disputed. 
But where by lure of the fly they can be taken is yet to 
be found. That they can be so taken is reasonably cer¬ 
tain, from another fact learned from tlie Indian who had 
taken the fish last named. lie said their stomachs con¬ 
tained both minnows and flies —such flies as were occa¬ 
sionally to be seen upon the watei-. 
As to trout spawning in the shallow sandy bay3, the 
facts stated were new to me. I had long doubted the 
general theory that trout in Lake Superior had their 
breeding places in the rivers. I have taken trout in 
places miles from any stream. They are, I have been in¬ 
formed, caught where to reach a stream there must be a 
long travel through to reach deep water, I have never 
seen their bones in Indian encampments at tire mouth of 
streams where trout could not be taken at all times in 
season. We know they seek for breeding grounds where 
the water is cool and in motion. These conditions are 
constant along the shores of Lake Superior, and presum¬ 
ably, though to a less degree, along the shores of Nepi¬ 
gon. The latter lake is closed by ice in winter, so that 
one condition of motion cannot constantly exist along its 
shores, Yet the fact (for so I consider it) remains that 
the trout does go to its shores at the spawning season. 
There is abundant food for trout in the lake. It swarms 
with minnows and small fry of different kinds, though, 
there is no especial exuberance of insect life that we 
observed, such as exists along the river. From my obser¬ 
vation and information, X am strongly inclined to the 
belief that the places where fly fishing will succeed, 
will be found where tho conditions of deep water and 
rocky island shores co-exist in the northern half of the 
j a | cc . The southern part lias oeen pretty fairly tested, 
and many of the points along the mainland also. I may 
add that white fish and lake trout are abundant in the 
Take. Your readers will pardon this digression from the 
straight line of my story, I trust, for it will save other 
reference to this subject, about which so little has 
hitherto been known. 1 am sorry I cannot give more de¬ 
finite information. Your readers may be assured we 
sought faithfully for it. . 
We stocked up in pork, flour, sugar and tea at Nepigon 
House, and on Monday afternoon, alter a friendly good¬ 
bye to Mr. Le Ronde and bis brother, we moved north 
along the western shore of the lake. Of course we had 
had our canoes thoroughly re-pitched before the new 
start, and felt prepared for leaving this last, reminder of 
distant civilization. We were not alone in leaving it, lor 
we shortly came in sight of two other canoes, bound for 
the same Wabeiioosh river with ourselves, andin the lint 
sun slowly puddling along the coast. One of them held 
a young Indian with a single wife (older ones are not 
always so restricted) anil their papoose. She was engaged 
when we passed in administering maternal nourishment, 
the bow of the papoose frame over her shoulder, and in 
paddling with vigor and skill. Whatever spare energy 
she had she was using in cheynug spruce gum as de- 
