FOREST AND STREAM. 



387 



in a ]ine of scattered houses that face and overlook the bay. 

 A part of this line of houses is known as Bay City. It was 

 settled very many years ago, and being founded on underly- 

 ing rock has not settled much since, It is supported cbieiiy 

 by a large lumber interest. There is a road along the cliff, 

 but as it is not more than tolerable, visitors seldom travel it ; 

 but boating parties often land at the mill aud inspect the huts 

 of the aborigines which are scattered along the beach, con- 

 structed of pilfered slabs and drift-wood. After a careful in- 

 spection of these Indian waifs none but the benevolent take 

 much stock in them as materials for a romance. They do 

 not even use birch canoes any longer about this section, and 

 the dug-outs they own are always leaky, cracked and cranky. 

 I notice they are to sent! a collection of Indian fabrics and 

 manufactures to the Paris Exposition, but I incline to the 

 belief that the birch canoes, ornamental mats and baskets, 

 mocucks, and curved stone pipes, are as great curiosities in 

 many parts of Lake Superior as they will be in Paris, and 

 that a premium will have to be offered to stir the aboriginal 

 pride to hunt them out, if not to make new ones for the oc- 

 casion. The red man will not work except for great induce- 

 ments. The only exercise or labor which he does not ask pay 

 to perform is eating and digestion. To the first he devotes 

 unwonted energy ; the latter is only a function which runs 

 itself wdhle the Indian lies still and waits for results. The 

 patience he shows herein is commendable. Sometimes these 

 fellows bring a string of whitefish to the hotel at Ashland, a 

 bit of commercial enterprise stimulated only by dire necessity 

 and an appetite for fire-water. The little papooses are always 

 objects of interest to ladies, to whom their stolid and 

 lumpy physiognomy affords a morning study. Episodes of 

 this sort make variety for those passive guests who do not 

 ramble nor go boating, in the intervals of looking out over the 

 lawn and verge of the cliff upon the blue waters of the spark- 

 ling bay and the wooded range of hills that borders the fur- 

 ther shore. The site of the Chequamegoh House is well- 

 chosen. Two years ago the plateau where it stands was a 

 forest, now it is a well-kept lawn with incipient shade trees 

 and beds of verbenas and geraniums. Next year we shall 

 have water all through the house, and a fountain to play in 

 front of the piazza. There is a well-graded carriage-drive one 

 hundred feet wide between the house and the edge of the 

 bluff, which already extends westwardly to the end of the 

 village. As this drive is all the time in full view of the bay, 

 and crosses three bridges that span romantic ravines, it is 

 very pleasant. The prettiest summer residences in the place 

 front on the road, and a plank sidewalk runs the whole dis- 

 tance. In a ravine at the ' end of the drive is a lager beer 

 brewery, so that the pedestrian or rider can have an object in 

 view if thirsty. Physiologists say that the value of exercise 

 is much promoted by having an object in view. The turn- 

 spit takes plenty of exercise, but his life is brief ; so also the 

 poor horse which saws wood in the railroad shed, is forever 

 climbing his inclined plane, forever moving on, but getting 

 nowhere, and so dies of monotony and disappointment, before 

 he has lived out half his days or the full measure of his use- 

 fulness. This part of Ashland is laid out in three parallel 

 streets with a number of streets intersecting. There are a 

 goodly number of stores, a bank, a printing office aud plenty 

 of ci-devant hotels .which accommodated the very consider- 

 able number of visitors who resorted hither before the large 

 hotel was built, tempted by the attraction of the place. The 

 printing office is owned by Hon. Sam Fifield, Esq., ex- repre- 

 sentative in the Wisconsin Legislature, who prints a weekly 

 paper called the Ashland Press. Mr. Fifield's varied abilities 

 shine forth through its attractive columns, which are advan- 

 tageously employed in promoting the local interests of his 

 town and county. I have heard it stated that he holds a sort 

 of territorial jurisdiction over the county, and that no editor 

 can leave by the Wisconsin Central road without his pass 

 beiDg vised by his Excellency. 



At the foot of the bluff below Mr. Eifield's residence is his 

 boat-house, and a half a mile above and a half a mile below 

 long piers make out from the shelving shore into deep water. 

 One of these piers belongs to the "Wisconsin Central Railroad 

 Company, and cost a large sum of money. On the end of 

 each pier is a large warehouse, at which the largest lake 

 steamersland their cargoes and passengers. At regular intervals 

 Capt. Patrick's little steam -yacht, which plies between Ash- 

 land and Bayfield, can be seen at her moorings. Captain 

 Blank's yacht lies at the lower pier ; several Mackinaw 

 boats and skiffs are seen along shore, so that the little land 

 scape is quite enlivened at all times. The great events of the 

 week, however, are when the large lake steamers from Chica- 

 go and Duluth touch at the landing at night. Then the 

 long rows of cabin lights beam forth brilliantly, the guests of 

 the Chequamegon House go on board, and the sound of mu- 

 sic and dancing mingles with the escape of the steam. 



Below the village of Ashland, and all around the circuit of 

 the bay, an almost unbroken forest remains. At the head of 

 the bay is a little fish bouse, then comes Pish Creek, one of 

 the best trout streams in the vicinity ; directly opposite Ash- 

 land is a hay-meadow and barn, with a deserted farm-house, 

 and through the premises a considerable trout-brook runs, 

 where one can throw the fly without obstruction and have the 

 newly-mown fidld for a carpet to stand on. Three miles fur- 

 ther north, on the same side, is an old landiug and a mill site, 

 with a road winding up a very steep bluff to the sue of a paper 

 town called Houghton, which a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 once fondly hoped to transform into a watering-place. There 

 are three deserted houses there— two erect and one fallen. 

 The locality iB well chosen and is much visited by picnic par- 



ties from Bayfield and Ashland. Prom this point to the 

 mouth of the Bay and eight miles beyond to Bayfield, there 

 is nothing to interrupt the line of forest. Opposite the mouth 

 of the bay is the Indian village and old mission station, known 

 as La Pointe, a tumble-down, half-deserted place, which offers 

 an objective point to sight-seers, but of which little need be 

 said. 



Bayfield is the loveliest town imaginable. Its pretty GOt- 

 tages and private residences of summer visitors are orna- 

 mented with court-yards, flower gardens, and gushing fount- 

 ains, whose perennial supply of water is brought down in 

 pipes from a high ridge of hills behind the town. The streets 

 are wide and regularly laid out. The Island House, kept by 

 William Knight, whose brother is a surgeon in the United 

 States Navy, affords every comfort and convenience, and if 

 one wishes a private boarding-house he can make his selection 

 among the half score that offer. Little piers and private boat- 

 houses dot the crescent shore ; yachts lie at anchor here and 

 there ; fishing-boats are moving about the foreground ,- the 

 smoke of a steamer looms up in the distance, and the little 

 village of La Pointe, whose beauty is enhanced by the dis- 

 tance, gleams in the sun like a line of silver on the horizon. 

 Set like a jewel in its amphitheatre of hills, it is encompassed 

 and landlocked by the twenty-two. Apoatle Islands, whose 

 wooded crowns, resting oh their pedestals of red sandstone, 

 seem like emeralds set in garnet, the whole forming a cincture 

 almost unrivalled in physical ornamentation. Right up to 

 their bold, perpendicular shores the largest steamers can run 

 aud lie alongside, and when the passenger would go ashore 

 he must land from the hurricane deck. Among the maples 

 and deciduous trees above, the visitors can ramble, while 

 those below can wonder at and explore the caves and crevices 

 cut out of the rock by the waves, which have washed them 

 into fantastic shapes. Every day Captain Patrick's steam- 

 yacht makes its excursion trip among these islands, and where 

 in the world can an excursion more delightful be found ? I 

 am pleased with Ashland, but I am in love with Bayfield. Situ- 

 ated only sixteen miles apart, the two villages combined con- 

 stitute a fulness of attraction seldom found anywhere, and the 

 interchange of visits from either place affords greater pleasure 

 and variety to guests than if the interest were concentrated 

 and not divided. I could write a book on this delightful 

 nook of the famed Lake Superior shore, and when I reached 

 the end and turned back the leaves would find a dozen 

 themes suggested for other books, which persons fond of 

 nature would never tire of studying. Next year I shall visit 

 the spot again (D. V.), and see what new charms have de- 

 veloped since I reluctantly left its delightful shores. 



All along the rocky shores of Chequamegon and the Apostle 

 Islands, which I have so cursorily referred to lie, in spring 

 time, the great speckled trout whose fame is widespread. In 

 the deeper water swim the Salma namayciuh, the huge lake 

 trout, which weigh fifty pounds and more. They can be 

 taken by trolling in June in vast numbers. As to white fish, 

 those only know their excellence who have tasted them fresh 

 from the pure cold waters round about. There are not less 

 than fifty trout streams along these shores, of easy access by 

 steamer, while accessible interior lakes abound ip black bass, 

 rock bass, perch, pike and mascalonge, all of which are keen 

 for bait or spoon. A map which gives the names of all the 

 trout streams can be obtained from Mr. Knight, of the Island 

 House, or from Isaac H. Wing, Esq., land agent, at Bayfield. 

 Many of these streams have scarcely been fished by sportsmen. 



Although smaller than the speckled trout of the Nepigon 

 River, on the north shore of Lake Superior, they run from one 

 to four lbs. in weight. They are certainly large enough to afford 

 amusement to the most ambitious angler. As "it is not all 

 of life to live," so it is not all of fishing to fish, here. The 

 mind is constantly diverted and occupied by the strange sights 

 one sees, and as the angler's skiff passes from point to point 

 along the base of the sandstone cliff, he seems to move in some 

 enchanted realm, where the caprice of weird beings has 

 created strange shapes, and hewn out abodes for gnomes and 

 genii and inhabitants who live not as men live. The whole 

 face of the perpendicular wall is scarred and seamed and 

 broken ; huge rocks, riven by the intense frosts of winter, 

 have been split off from the main body and hurled into the 

 lake, where they lie in monoliths or ragged piles ; caves pene- 

 trate far into the rock, in whose recesses the waves swash with 

 a mournful cadence, and if one listens on a calm day at some 

 chance crevice he can hear the inner chamber give forth a 

 sonorous and uncertain sound, as if from depths unmeasured. 

 In a storm the great billows roll into the caves and thunder 

 with reverberations that deafen and appal, surging upward and 

 around the concave space, scouring its surface, wearing 

 and enlarging it year by year, until perchance a million tons 

 of rock undermined, give way at last and fall in promiscuous 

 ruin. In many places the cliff is stained with oxides that 

 exude from unknown mineral deposits within, and the fres- 

 coes are scarcely less striking than those of the much visited 

 Pictured Rocks further east toward Marquette. High above 

 the level of the lake the unbroken forest waves its fronds, 

 resting on its cliff foundation, great trees clinging to the verge 

 and protruding their naked roots into space, like the tentacles 

 of an octopus reaching out in search of nourishment and find- 

 ing none; and sometimes when a huge mass of rock splits off 

 the trees fall with it and are hurled into the lake below, 

 where they afford new lurking places for the fish that con- 

 gregate among their branches and hide undtr their trunk and 

 roots. The water immediately along shore varies from four 

 to eight feet in depth ; two rods away it is four fathoms ; a 

 little further out fifteen fathoms and more. It is among these 



broken rocks and debris that the trout are found, and it will 

 be seen from the nature of the case that the angler's best 

 method is to sit in his skiff and cast his line in shore, while a 

 comrade uses the paddle when required. * There is no lack of 

 casting-room. The whole eight miles of the bay is behind 

 his back, and there is no chance of his line beiDg hung up on 

 the farther bank. Very often excellent opportunities arc ob- 

 tained by getting out upon the piles of rocks ; coignes of 

 vantage are also secured by stepping on ledges and hugging 

 the face of the cliff, steadying the poise by grasping a bush 

 with one hand while the other hand dexterously tosses a fly 

 into the mouth of some shadowy cave, and persuades the 

 trout from his element. But it is delicate work to catch fish 

 when the sun shines. The water is clear as crystal. One 

 cau see twenty feet into its depths, and the fish can see the 

 angler equally well, and better, for the refraction from the 

 face of the rock reveals every outline of his approaching 

 figure so distinctly that even the expression of his face is 

 limned in the picture, and the wary trout fears Machiavelian 

 arts. 



When I went over from Ashland to the rocks in my 

 friend's yacht, I knew well that my skill was under severest 

 scrutiny. They had wagered on shore that I would not lift a 

 trout with flies, but I had no other lure whatever, aud so I 

 convinced them. If there were no virtue in soft persuasives, 

 I determined not to use more positive measures. The wind 

 blew a stiff breeze from the southwest, right over the cliffs of 

 the further shore, but our schooner was staunch, some thirty 

 feet in keel, and ro we carried all sail bravely until three- 

 fourths of the distance had been accomplished. Then the 

 winds became at once flawy and baffling, sometimes swoopiDg 

 over the cliff in spiteful spurts and heading us off from all 

 points of the compass in succession, and anon dying away to a 

 dead calm; then, all at once, while the sails hung limp and 

 listless, a cafs-paw would jump aboard us, right over the 

 waist. Giving as little sheet as possible, the lively craft 

 would eat up into the wind on the edge of her combings, 

 cutting a semi-circle like a comet. So we would gain a little ; 

 but presently the wind would fall again, and the little breath 

 which was vouchsafed us would head us off from the north- 

 ward. So the capricious breezes continued to piay strange 

 antics, alternately giving and taking, until the monotony of 

 our effort to make the shore became tedious. Still the water- 

 was too deep for anchoring, and we did not care to raise a 

 white-ash breeze with the skiff and tow-line, so we hung on, 

 my friend to the jib and fore-sheets and I to my main-sheet 

 and tiller, hoping for an inch or two more of advantage, the 

 calm dead as a door-nail, and not a ripple to be seen between • 

 ourselves and shore. It looked like an all-day's drift, when 

 suddenly, without any admonition whatever, another flaw 

 jumped over the cliff, and in a twinkling our craft was heeled 

 over, taking water over her combings by the barrel, shifting 

 sand-bags and mixing things generally. It was the work of 

 not more than two seconds. The flaw had come and gone 

 and all was still. We had barely escaped a capsize. Right- 

 ing things in a few moments we let go our anchor, and ' 

 giving all the scope we had, found bottom in eighteen 

 fathoms of water. Making all snug, we took to the skiff and 

 pulled for shore with our lunch and fishiDg tackle, discussing 

 meanwhile the character of the Lake Superior breezes, which 

 are always either treacherous or stormy. 



I had nc success at first with my flies, and soon discovered 

 that it was useless to fish in that bright sun and clear water. 

 There was not one favoring condition in the case. So we 

 paddled into a cavern whose roof rose some seven feet above 

 the water, and getting into its shadow twenty feet back from 

 the entrance, lay quiet for a while. Presently a trout came 

 out from under a rock in front of us, and, droppiug a fly in 

 the water as if it had fallen from the roof above, we had the 

 satisfaction to see the trout seize it. It was a little six-inch 

 fish, but we had him in the boat in a twinkling, and thereby 

 proved that trout could be taken then and there with flies. 

 Then we addressed ourselves systematically to the business 

 before us. Pushing the skiff quietly to the entrance of the 

 cavern, I cautiously tossed my fly hither and yon among the 

 scattered rocks and along the side of the cliff. No response. 

 Then we pushed out and felt our way little by little, testing 

 every likely place. Presently our reward came. We hung 

 a noble fish, and as he fastened, we backed carefully into 

 deep water and let him play. It was the luxury of sport to 

 follow him wherever his moods led. There was little anxiety 

 about losing him, for we had the whole bay for a circus, and 

 all that was necessary was to keep him well in hand as the 

 rider does his steed, barely feeling his mouth, but having him 

 always in control. When we finally added him to his little 

 mate in the bottom of our craft, I felt that I had triumphed. 

 We afterward caught six more, and then employed our 

 time in rambles about the shore. We were satisfied, and 

 so were our friends after we returned and showed our 

 trophies. 



I would like much to fill a doable letter with my experience 

 in rock-fishing, and perhaps my readers will blame me for 

 not saying more ; but I do hot see that I have anything essen- 

 tial to add in the way of needed information, ttaoug'-, I could 

 weave a pleasant story to my own delight, if not to thr-irs. 



After a week or more of pleasant sojourn pi this delightful 

 region, I took passage one day on the steamer that plies to 

 Duluth, and after a voyage of seventy milts or so, found my- 

 self in the territory of Prootor Knott, and under the charge 

 of Col. Hull, who keeps a popular hotel on the best town lot. 



Of Wisconsin it may ue remarked that its physical features 

 and its fauna are much like those of the Aroostook in north- 



