November 10, 1881. 



WREST AND STREAM. 



285 



Fort Thompson, on tli3 old military trail. We estimated 



the distance from Okeechobee to this point at twenty mile?. 

 At Port Thompson we had our first and' last Bight fit the 

 toscUo ppoonbill, baling eight of these beautiful bird?. Ali 

 Sorts of water low,.-'. [Jin-:-.;" Liud snipe were plentiful, aud 

 our hunters for plumes laid in an ample supply. 



The river was so high that there was no evidence of the 

 rapids which at low water obstruct the channel here, and 

 Which prevented " Al. Fresco" from ascending further with 

 his boat in 1S74-. On leaving this point we dismasted our 

 vessel, as the overhanging live oaks obstructed the river for 

 many miles ; the banks were now well defined and high, 

 covered with a dense growth of palmetto and live oak. 



We reached Fort Myers on Sunday, Feb. 20, where we saw 

 cocoa tree? in full bearing. We were most hospitably re- 

 ceived by their owner, Major Evans, to whom we we had a 

 IcUerot introduction. At Fort Myers (eighteen miles from the 

 mouth of the river) we laid in a fresh supply of. provisions, 

 faded our water keg, and betook ourselves to salt water, 

 reaching Ptinta Kossa on the 21st. We spent several days 

 around the harbor aud among the beautiful islands, fishing, 

 hunting aud enjoying the line oysters, and all of us, I think, 

 remember these days ni the most delightful of our trip. For 

 more than a month it had not rained on us ; we had warm 

 aud genial sunshine every day. What a contrast to the 

 plows and blizzards holding sway in the nortli 1 



At tunta Rassa, after selling our boat, we took the steamer 

 for Key West. We spent a day in Key West, where we saw 

 at the custom House two large living manatees, and then we 

 turned our faces once more to the northward, aud on March 1 

 landed at Cedar Keys. At Jacksonville we parted, some 

 going directly north, others staying to see something of the 

 civilized part of F.orhla. 



One thing let me say to sportsmen going to Florida : Carry 

 your ammunition and fishing tackle with you from the north. 

 Do not depend on buying these things at Jacksonviile, as we 

 did. You will be charged three prices for them ; and if all 

 the dealers are like the one into whose clutches we fell, you 

 will be swindled. Wo bought several kegs of powder of 

 him, and he agreed that if we returned any kegs unopened, 

 in good condition, he would take them back. 1 had one such, 

 hut out merchant did not know me now, and denied the 

 whole thing. If the keg had been at home, a thousand miles 

 away, all right; but it was an awkward thing to carry about, 

 That dealer lied to me, and if any sportsman wants his uauie 

 1 will give it to him, 



The .South Florida Railway is now completed to Lake 

 Tohopkaliga, so the trip to the head waters of the Kissimmec 

 can be made by steamer and by rail. To go from Okeechobee 

 to the Caloosahatchie by water should only be attempted 

 during high water ; at other times it cannot be done. The 

 trip may be made a very enjoyable one, although it is not 

 without its hardships. The recollections of our expedition 

 wilt always be among the most pleasant of memories with me. 



Okeechobee is a lovely shallow lake, with little life about 

 it. There are said to be very few fl3h in it, aud its waters 

 are hardly fit to drink. There are but few spots on its bor- 

 ders where the navigator can- land, and only one over which 

 the water does not wash at times. Observation Island, in the 

 southerly end of the lake, is quite a resort for many birds 

 that arc valued for their plumage. Black ducks, blue and 

 green winged teal, with many varieties of snipe, are found 

 both on the Kissimmee and the Caloosahatchie. We had no 

 success with the fly in fishing for bats; nearly all were taken 

 with the trolling spoon or spinner. These fish were very 

 fine, equal to any I have ever seen at the north for the table, 

 and greatly exceed in size any ever taken there. 



Ko venomous snakes were seen by our party except the 

 water moccasin. Our treatment by the people that we met 

 along our route was hospitable and kind in the extreme. May 

 X live to see them again. 0. 



THE SEVEN PONDS. 



BV ANOTHER MAN WHO HAS BEEN THHKE. 



I i^ a late issue of the Fohest and Stream I noticed an 

 article by ,T. W. T. uuder the heading, " Tim Pond and 

 Seven Ponds." Now, if Mr. T. does not write for proprietors 

 why should he try to convey I he idea that it is such a long, 

 hard trip from Rangeley to Seven Ponds that only a few 

 hardy sportsmen, with brawny guides, have ever penetrated 

 these wilds? Where did he imagine that the comfortable 

 camps and boats came from, thit he must have seen if he 

 looked around the different ponds any? It is true that our 

 Seven Ponds' travel has increased much in the last two or 

 three years, but for the past ten years the Seven Ponds have 

 been as familiar to the sportsman visiting Raugeley Lake re- 

 gion and to Rangeley Lake guides as Tim Pond has been to 

 the readers of the Fohhst aso Stkkam for the past year. 

 Mr. T. mentions that a Boston lady has had courage to make 

 the attempt; this year. He don't say whether she succeeded 

 or not, A lady from the vicinity of Boston made the trip 

 from this way rive years ago and spent some time at the 

 Ponds, and came back all right. And I don't think she 

 heard a bear scream while she was there. 



I wUl tell you how to get to Seven Ponds via Rangeley. I 

 don't ask you to believe me, but just take the map of Maine 

 aud compare the distances. Leaving Boston on the 8:30 

 train from the Boston and Maine or the Eastern Depot, you 

 change at Portland to the Maine Central, and at Farmingion 

 to the Sandy River Narrow Gauge, arriving at Phillips 

 at 6 p. m. An omnibus takes you to a first-class hotel, 

 where you spend the night. Leaving Phillips next morning 

 at 7 a. m. on a good s:age coach, a twenty miles ride over a 

 guod road, where the scenery is fine, brings you to Rangeley 

 in time for dinner. After dinner, your baggage being 

 changed from the stage to a slrong wagon, you start for 

 Kennebago Lake, ten miles distant. The first three miles 

 is over a good road; after that, if you have not procured a 

 horse and saddle at Rangeley, you must walk. The time 

 usually taken for walking it by sportsmen is two and a half 

 and three hours. This brings you to the Forest Retreat 

 House at the head of Kennebago Lake. Here you hud good 

 accommodations, and as good a table as is set before the 

 sportsman anywhere in the Rangeley region. Ed. Grant, 

 Corneal and Phinias Richardson are the owners. Phin plays 

 proprietor in a manner, that is satisfactory to all, while 

 Grant and Corneal guide. Better guides and better fellows 

 do not exist; and the stranger may rest assured that what- 

 ever they tell him about fish aud game is the truth, whether 

 the dollar goeB into their pockets or somebody else's. 



To reach the Seven Ponds frojn the Forest Retreat House 

 you take a boat and row down the lake, which is five Utiles, 

 to a little way below the outlet, where you fiud a stream 

 corning in on the right. Going up this stream for a mile 

 and a half you come to Little Kennebago. Across this, one- 

 half mile and up the inlet two miles further, you reach the 



trail that leads to Seyep Ponds. ' It is a good, hard-trodden 

 path, and is eight or nine .'miles to the poptfe. Guides very 

 often g i from the Ponds down to the boat landing andtake a 

 pack' of eighty ot ninety pounds and return the" same day. 

 Spoilsmen ihs past summer have walked from the Pouds 

 down to the boat landing, taking i licit boats to the Forest 

 RetreaJ ETbu -. and then walked to Rangeley the same day. 

 »nii-weekly mail from Raugeley to the Forest Re- 

 treat House, iiud lloutoon's team makes the trip daily, over 

 iu the morning and back in the afternoon. 



I have giveu you a little idea of this "long, hird trail" 

 from Rangeley to the Seven Ponds; and, dear invalid, if you 

 have not strength enough to walk these carries, don't, for the 

 sake of the loved ones that you leave behind, imagine that 

 you have strength enough to go another way where you have 

 to ride on a buckboard. Reading about a buckboard ride 

 and taking that ride on a new road through our rough moun- 

 tainous country are two different things; and when, with a 

 good spring, the buckboard comes down and strikes a stump 

 directly under you, and you imagine that your backbone is 

 sticking a good six inches above the top of your head, then 

 you will realize the difference. 



The Seven Ponds country is a great place for fish and 

 game, whatever way you get there. Not many miles to the 

 west of the Ponds, on the first day of last December, I 

 brought down three caribouat three successive shots; and two 

 days later I saw my friend, John Danforlh, of Parmachenee 

 Lake, bring clown two more near the same place. As soon as 

 the snow gets deep enough for still-hunting John aud I will 

 be among them again. 



I was once guidiug a gentleman at Seven Pond3 in the 

 mouth of August, The flybook was lost, but we happened 

 to have two good sized bait hooks left; the ravelings from 

 my red flannel shirt made the body of one fly, and the feathers 

 of an unlucky dipper duck, wound with black linen thread 

 finished it. _ The other fly had the same kind of a body, but 

 the rest of it was a mixture of dipper aud black duck, crow, 

 owl and anything that came handy that had feathers on it. 

 The first fly we christened the Dipper, the last one the Seven 

 Pond Killer— and it was a killer. They both took well, but 

 the Killer was the best. With these we caught all the trout 

 we wanted, and they had some wear to them. 



What I started to say iu a few words I have spun out into 

 quite a letter, and I trust it will be excused by your readers, 

 as it is from the forced pen of a woodsman, who is not a 

 scholar. It is written at Camps Bemis, on the southeast 

 shore of the Mooselookmeguutic Lake, where a northwester 

 gets about an eight-mile sweep ; and it is showing us what it 

 can do this time. It has been one continual roar for two 

 days and nights. The wharf and rocks for twenty feet from 

 the water along the shore are one sheet of ice. The steam- 

 boat is anchored around in the cove, and the sides of that 

 are also covered with ice ; and if it were not for keeping up 

 a fire in her to prevent the boiler and pipes from freezing up 

 aud bursting I should have been in bed long ago and you 

 would not have been bothered with this yarn. It is twelve 

 o'clock; I'll go out and fire her up once more and then turn 

 in. I wish that the lumbermen and their supplies were safely 

 landed in their logging camps, the steamboat housed and I 

 myself at the Seven Ponds this minute. Good night. 



Capt. F. C. Barker. 



Camp Bemis, Jlangel^y La/ces, Oct. 26. 



Ali TOBIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENTS.— I. 



UEINO EXTRACTS FROM AN EDITOR'S PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Your letter was received several days ago, but I have been 

 too busy to reply to it before. Imprimis — I am not a tramp, 

 as you've had reason to suspect, but a respectable white citi- 

 zen, as 1 mean to prove if I have time to call on you before I 

 leave for Washington, which will probably be my future 

 home. 



To clear a little of the mist from j'our mind— caused by 

 my sending you contributions from nearly every part of the 

 earth — I'll' treat you to a bit of autobiography. I was born 

 in Bucks county, Pa., (where the chickens come from) about 

 110 years ago, with a gun in my mouth iustead of a silver 

 spoon (which was a blunder on my part), which I have used 

 "between meals" from the first week after birth until the 

 present time. The first game I Bhot on the wing was a crow ; 

 and from that proud time I have increased and multi- 

 plied till I grew into a No. 1 shot. In fact, my slaughtering 

 ability was great enough to entitle me to a place in the State 

 game protective association ; but I killed birds to protect them 

 from hawks aud other sportsmen. 



For some years past 1 have shed but little feathered blood, 

 and I would like to shoot a duck to revive old memories, but 

 alas ! whenever one is seen he is immediately "protected " 

 by some club or State association. 



By the way, is it the d— 1, or some other fellow, that insti- 

 gated members of legislatures to take all the sporting privi- 

 leges from the mass of the people and give them to a few rich 

 men? Is that a touch of democracy or aristocracy ? (P. S. — 

 The above is not autobiography). 



I am by profession a , and in that capacity have 



traveled over all creation except the Garden of Eden and the 

 North Pole (both doubtful places.) 



OUAPTEfi it. 



What i3 of more interest to " Forest and Streamers " — I 

 have had the reputation (over twenty years ago) of being one 

 of the best shots in the West, and many a time and oft have 

 they tried to inveigle mc into a match with the great shots of 

 the country; but thy servant was not of that stripe. 



I once made a score of 18 out of 20 double birds, from a 



trap; and when I went to I found my fame had 



preceded me, and I was as once hand and glove with the 

 hunting club. One of the members asked mc if I had ever 

 shot English snipe. 1 told him Iliad killed as many ai eight 

 or ten in a day on the Bordeutown meadows, at which they 

 " snickered right out." 



They then arranged for me to go with them up the coun- 

 try about sixty miles, to their great sniping ground, and from 

 the fact that their best shot was along, I suspected that their 

 object was to show me that I was not much of a shot ; so I 

 determined to do as they all did at that time — kill as many 

 as I could and go in for the laurels, at the risk of being 

 called "snipe hog" hy posterity. At the end of our day's 

 shooting I had 130, and their best shot had about eighty ; so 

 the matter of skill was settled. That was the only time I 

 ever shot English snipe in thick cover. Toward the close of 

 the day they got so frightened at the constant cannonade 

 of llu-m flew to the bit of woods and thick under- 

 brush near til torn that time nearly every bird 

 that was DO) killed followed him, till a great number had 

 stowed themselves'away there for safety, wheu I " went for 



them.'' The gunners all said it was folly, but I knew better. 

 One man from Louisville said he onuid kill then) fh;re it I 

 could, but he soon gave it up, aud I had them all to m ."■ :lf; 

 aud I never had more satisfactory sport, for, at that 'time, 

 the more difficult the shooting the better 1 liked it. 



That ground is all owned by a club now. bo! I've had my 

 share of it. The above is private nonsense to try your pjltieuce. 

 1 hope I'll have time to call at the " Wood and Water" 

 office before I leave. Iu the meantime I am not a tramp. 

 but your very respectable and obedient servant, A. 



THE COMING OK WINTER. 



rr HE whirling dead leaves, Mown unnumbered times ur Bttnfl, 

 A Lie heaped, or loosely scattered o'er the ground ; 

 The cawing Crows now dy from Held to fleld of stalk-ed corn 

 And Owls sound out their sweetest notes from eve till morn. 

 Look you ! swiftly to the north the wild Loon wlnga Its way, 

 While on the Eastern Shore, Plover and DUok jjllda down the hay ; 

 Tall marsh weeds are waving their heads In the breeze 

 Erewlille" Striped Wood Picas" vigorously tap, the trees, 

 Again to the northward look, and Ux your gaze ; 

 Se} the honking Wild Geese wend their tortuous ways. 

 Chill 13 the air, biting the Granger's nose with Irs freeze, 

 While Bears In their cavernous couches snore om.B.1 ias 

 But the Raccoon, where Oh where, Is he ? 

 Surely he doth not stay all winter up a tree : 

 Woodehueks, Porcupines and Babbits, ton. He i 

 Who snooze and gape, and lick smooth their hair 

 Lithe Osk-a-awah silently the tracks of deer pursues, 

 Muttering as he spies the big foot inafka ot Plpera shoes, 

 Nowthe feathery snowilakes In countless mill; oi 

 As 'Bunkum at his slletmrd sits, eating doughnuts and mine 



plea, 

 Elkribs, bearsleak, roast coon and turkey bones, 

 Anon drinking so much elder thathe fairly groaus. 

 Vai&pUte, X V. Bock-J a ",-,::■. 



♦J2. Bunkum Piper a noted hunter in PoagaUole Canyon, near Dans- 

 vllle, N. T. 



[From Harper's Magazine lor November. J 

 A WEEK m A DUG OUT. 



BY W. W. THOMAS, JR. 



A DIETJ, Moreaud," said I, and we pushed out upon the 



XX lake in our dug-out. 



"Au revoir, monsieur, et bonne chance." replied Moreaud 

 from the shore ; then lighting his pipe, he turned on his heel, 

 and disappeared in the forest. 



We were in the backwoods of Canada. We had left the 

 last house of the pioneer habitant on the further bank of the 

 river, and were now fairly under way on our voyage or a 

 hundred miles, through a forest as yet un marred by man. 

 Our route lay along the great natural thoroughfares of all 

 wooded countries— the streams and iakes — and our vehicle 

 was a dug-out. 



But why a dug-out ? 



Well, I take it that we fellows of offices, professions and 

 books go camping out for much the same reason that Ant.'cus 

 touched the earth, and that the closer we get to our common 

 mother, the stronger do we become. Our savauts have not 

 yet decided, I believe, iu what frail bark man first trusted 

 himself upon the wave; but surely, next to the log aw Tialurcl, 

 the dug-out log must have been the earliest means of trans- 

 portation upon the water. 



So, in selecting a boat for our trip, I had severely dis- 

 carded the canoe and the bateau as too intricate, complex 

 and civilized, and joyfully accepted the dug-out as nearest 

 the bosom of nature. And now I floated away In my boll >w 

 log with all the zest of an old cave-dweller with his paddle 

 and flint-headed javelin. 



Our dug-out, or pirogue, as the habitants cill it, once stood 

 a noble pine of the forest. It was a single pine log, twenty- 

 six and a half feet long and two feet four inches wide, rudely 

 hollowed out, and the ends roughly hewed into bow and 

 stern, somewhat after the model of a bark canoe. 



The crew numbered three, my two guides and mysel f . 

 The guides were brothers, James and George Dall. George, 

 the light and festive bachelor, paddled in the bow ; James, 

 the dignified, weightier father of a family, wielded his tnighy 

 paddle in the stem. I sat amidships on a buffalo-rube, witu 

 fishing-rods and a light fowling-piece on cither side. Our 

 plunder was stowed close behind me, and made a most ac- 

 ceptable backing. 



Thus we sailed across Beaver Lake— a forest-girt pool 

 dotted with lily-pads, and so shoal that we touched bottom 

 with our paddles at every stroke. We gain the outlet, and 

 glide into the dead water of Beaver Brook. Trunk* of 

 fallen trees reach out toward us from either swamy shore, 

 their withered branches covered with long moss. Then the. 

 banks grow closer and higher, the current increases, and the 

 stream changes into a rippliug brook. The guides change 

 their puddles for setting-poles. Faster runs the brook and 

 shoalcr grows the water, till at last, with a gratimr jar— a 

 sound I soon learn to hate— the dug-out grounds solidly on a 

 pebbly bar in mid-stream. 



The guides jump overboard, and haul and shove the 

 pirogue ahead. This is hard work. 1 lighten it two hun- 

 dred pounds by taking to the water myself, and abandon my 

 luxurious seat on the buffalo-robe for a chilling wade in 

 Beaver Brook. 



We toil on, floating our wooden canoe through the. deep 

 pools, lifting and shoving her over the shoal bars. I I'll worse 

 than this is iu store for us. Round a turn in the brook we 

 come upon a mass of fallen cedars lying squarely across the 

 stream. It would take too long to hew u way through them, 

 so, by putting out the last pound of muscle possessed by the 

 entire crew, we lift, shove, pull aud drag the pirogue over 

 the jam. 



Our afternoon was spent in dragging across bars and haul- 

 ing over windfalls, with now and then the breathings; 

 a depp pool, over which we thankfully Homed. Tnis rou'e 

 would hog and destroy any other kind of boat. My respect 

 for the dug-out was contiuuilly increasing. 



While shoving over a fallen cedar a foot above the wa'er, 

 the pirogue sticks in the middle. As we draw breath for a 

 fresh shove, Jim observes, gently : "A fine place for a camp 

 on the bank up there to yer right, sir. Plenty O' good wood 

 for the fire too, sir." I look at my watch- it ishulf-pist 

 six. "Mebby we mightn't find so good a chance for a camp 

 further down stream, sir. '' 



I take the hint. Pirogue hangs where she stuck. We un- 

 pack tent and needed stores, aud pitch our camp on the 

 pretty bluff. 



