Feb. 31, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



63 



August is the dough-bird, soou followed by the jack curlew, 

 and by a large variety of" the different sorts of shore birds, 

 plover' and sandpipers. The first northerly winds after the 

 10th of September bring a few geese, often in clutches of 

 two to ten, but occasionally in Hocks of from thirty to 

 fifty, and as (he weather becomes colder- they arrive in larger 

 numbers and remain till driven away by ice. With the geese 

 freell ducks come, dusky ducks, gadwalls, blue and green- 

 winged teal, scaup, and the non-edible and therefore not 

 game birds, cormorants, loons, shelldrakes and grebes. Large 

 flocks of golden plover are early mixed with the curlews, al- 

 though they always seem to be a little later in arriving. With 

 the first real cold of October the brant appear, and by this 

 time the curlew and plover have mostly departed south. 



Come and visit, us for a, few days' sport, but as you land 

 from your boat be a little careful in entering the precincts of 

 our oasis, for the two Chesapeake Cays, stretched in the sun 

 in front of our tent, have quick ears and sharp eyes, and, al- 

 though perfectly good-natured at home, when they get away 

 into the wilderness seem to think it, their duty to guard us 

 against all intrusion. Down Hippie! Down Rogue! Now 

 come in and go through the canine introduction of being 

 smelt, and you are all right, only do not touch anything. It 

 is a bright sunny day, with a moderate breeze from the west- 

 ward. At sunrise we saw several hundred ducks come dowu 

 from the ponds into the next bay, where they are still feed- 

 ing on the seeds of the eel-grass, but in a couple of hours the 

 tide will begin to make there, and when the water becomes 

 too deep for comfortable feeding they will go up to drink 

 and preen themselves at the same pond from which they 

 came in the morning. Meantime John will get us an early 

 dinner. The walking is very heavy ; at every step the foot 

 sinks several inches, but fortunately our destination to-day 

 enables us to use boats. We row about a. mile, then cross on 

 foot from the bay to the shores of a large lake, and launch- 

 ing a birch canoe which was hidden in the bushes, paddle to 

 the opposite shore. As we g» you see at a glance the whole, 

 geology of the island; the banks, almost perpendicular, show 

 each successive layer of peat, and the traces of fire are dis- 

 tinctly visible in many of them. Having crossed the lake, 

 about a mile, we walk some forty rods and come to the sus- 

 pected pond. An examination of its shores proves that we 

 were right : the wet moss on the edges shows many little 

 oval depressions where the ducks have rested, and the edges 

 of the water are covered with dry feathers, the refuse of the 

 toilets of many birds which slept here the night before. In 

 those two clusters of dwarfed junipers we conceal ourselves, 

 and soon see a host of birds arise from the bay two miles 

 away, bid after circling once or twice they all pitch again; 

 no, not. all either, for a half dozen separate and start straight 

 for their drinking place. As they get over the Big Lake 

 they leave and are lost to view, but "suddenly appear over 

 the bank and pitch into our poud, where, just as they are 

 touching the water, we drop two and wound a third. The 

 two dead are readily retrieved, but the wounded one disap- 

 pears beneath the surface and does not again show himself. 



With the dog we begin the circuit of the pond, he is still 

 a puppy and has not learned to do it himself, when suddenly 

 with a single "quack" the. duck springs from the bushes on 

 the bank into the water and immediately dives, but the dog- 

 saw him, and springing with his wliole strength on to the spot 

 where the last bubbles appear, he vanishes for an instant 

 as completely as the cluck had done, and emerges with the 

 bird in his mouth. For the next two hours the ducks aie 

 continually leaving the bay, some come our way, some go to 

 other ponds. By the time it is high tide in the bays all will 

 have left their feeding grounds and have settled in fresh 

 Water. We shoot with variable success; some are easy shots, 

 many arc difficult, for the birds may appear on the right, 

 left or directly overhead, and the misses are frequent enough 

 to take all the conceit out of us. As the sun is sinking be- 

 hind the forest we start for camp. Our bag is not large, a 

 dozen black ducks only, which would make a Long Pointer 

 or Chesapeake Bay gunner smile with contempt, but it will 

 feed the camp for two or three days, and as we set the sail 

 of our canoe and dance' across the Jake with a fair wind we 

 think we have had our fill of enjoyment in the scenery, the 

 air, the dogs and the game. 



To-morrow with favorable weather we will try for a 

 goose. They are in- fair numbers, have not yet been dis- 

 turbed and have got into their regular courses, feeding at 

 night, in the small bays on the roots of the young eel-grass, 

 and as the tides rise in the morning, they go to the Great Lake 

 to drink, thence to the large outside bays for the forenoon 

 low tide, and as the next flood comes return t© the lake to 

 drink and then again to the small bays for the night. A 

 strong head wind is necessary to bring them down within 

 gunshot, the stronger the better, up to half a gale. If it is 

 from the westward we will try to meet them as they enter 

 the lake in the morning; if from the eastward we must meet 

 them on their return in the afternoon. The pocket aneroid 

 shows a fall of thirty-bundredths since noon and a small 

 bank of clouds is visible on the sea horizon, but considerable 

 changes of the barometer often occur here without much 

 meaning, and the glorious, clear sunset looks like fair 

 weather. The geese also do not believe there is to be a 

 change, for although feeding in hundreds, not a quarter of 

 a mile from camp, there is a general conversation among 

 them, but only an occasional slight quarrel between two young 

 ganders. 



John's axe wakes us the next morning, and untying the 

 flap of the tent we look out. It is a dead calm ; the bay in 

 front of the camp and the ocean beyond are absolutely 

 without a ripple, and the fiery rays of the rising sun are 

 shooting far up toward the zenith from behind the bank of 

 clouds which has not risen perceptibly since last night. On 

 the further side of the bay the geese and ducks seem twice 

 their natural size through the almost imperceptible mist over 

 the water. There is no need of hurry this morning; the 

 birds will not move till forced by the tide, and when they do 

 they will- fly sky high. A luxurious bath in an excavation 

 of the brook with just a suspicion of smudge from a couple 

 of brands from the camp-fire to keep off the mosquitoes, 

 and a leisurely breakfast, of boiled teal, "whack," eggs, 

 coffee and toast fill up two hours without giving any "im- 

 provement in the weather. But the off-shore wind of yester- 

 day and the calm this morning have given the striped bass 

 a chance to cross the bars and get at the sand eels, smelt and 

 other small fish which abound among the eel-grass of the 

 bays; the water in the bays is just right, turbid enough 

 from the intermixture of sand to prevent the fish seeing iis 

 even though the sun is bright, and yet not so roily as to 

 prevent their seeing the bait. 



Taking our rods and light guns we walk across the neck 

 to the next bay where we have another canoe, and in twenty 

 minutes are at. the gully, picking up a few redbreasts and 

 sanderhngs from the flats on each side of the channel as we 



The fish here, with this slightly turbid water, are not 

 fastidious; a single shrimp on a five-gut sued, even if the 



go. 



shrimp could be obtained, would get you but small fish. We 

 rig our two hundred yards of braided linen line with a 

 double gut leader, and a large hook with double snell, so as 

 to use a sliver of fresh herring three inches long. If the 

 water is sluggish a small sinker and float are advisable, but 

 as the current increases with the tide, the float can be dis- 

 pensed with. We take a few fish at the gully, bul 

 sive swirls up the channel above us show that, the fish tire 

 rapidly passing, and we hasten to get to the forks of the 

 channel half a mile above, where every fish must pass within 

 sight of our bait. Anchored here, we have our hands busy 

 for the last two hours of flood tide, each rod with a fish on 

 almost all the time, and sometimes eighty yards of line out 

 on each side of the canoe at once. Twenty-four fish to two 

 rods is a fair morning's work; the largest is sixteen pounds, 

 the smallest three. Exceptional states of weather and tide, 

 however, only give such full scores. On our way home we 

 get a crack at a flock of golden plover, and of the four 

 brought to bag three are young birds as shown by the plum 

 age, about the same proportion winch we have generally 

 found here. 



Meantime a southeast wind has sprung up. the bank of 

 clouds to the eastward has risen so as to obscure the noonday 

 sun, the barometer is down another half inch, and we are 

 evidently in for a storm. Rain keeps up in camp the rest of 

 the day,' and by night we have a southeast gale and apeifcct 

 flood of rain, but our tents arc absolutely waterproof from a 

 soaking witb parafine wax, and our only risk is from the 

 wind, in some of its sudden gusts, "blowing everything out 

 of the gaskets." However, we make a fair night of it, and 

 lookout the next morning on leaden skies filled with low- 

 flying scud, heavy rain and no abatement of the gale; the 

 outer shore lined with foaming breakers, and the air filled 

 with their roar. Not a bird is to be seen, but we know they 

 are gathered under the lee of the high banks and will not stir 

 in such weather, the whole ocean becomes a fresh-water pond 

 in such rain, and if we could get near enough we should see 

 the geese, twisting their long necks till they could seize the 

 feathers between the shoulders in their bills and then run- 

 ning their bills along the whole back scoop the fresh water 

 off the feathers by the mouthful, while others, more dainty, 

 take their drink by skimming the fresh water from the sur- 

 face of the bay as the housewife skims off cream from the 

 milk. After noon the scud begins to fly higher, the clouds 

 are to be seen through it, the rain ceases, the wind hauls 

 into the east and becomes only a stiff breeze. Toward sun- 

 set the clouds partially break up, and a streak of sunshine 

 appears, but beneath the clear sky in the west is a dense. 

 leaden cloud, and the barometer sticks at 29.30. Having 

 finished supper and congratulated ourselves on the stars 

 which are appearing through the clouds, we look again at 

 the aneroid to find 29.20; fatilu est (lesi-enms Averni, in ten 

 minutes more we have 29.12. We call all hands, and, not- 

 withstanding the loudly expressed willingness of John to 

 take the aneroid for his 'share of breakfast if the storm is not 

 over, we settle the tent pins and posts more firmly, and 

 stretch every rope taut, Not a useless precaution, for in half 

 an hour, as suddenly as though discharged from some im- 

 mense cannon, a gale from the north is upon us, in compari- 

 son with which that of the previous night seems a zephyr. 

 We turn in, but you might as well try to sleep in Bedlam; 

 the creaking of the trees, the hissing of the wind through the 

 branches, and the flapping of the flv and back of the tent 

 render it impossible, but thanks to thorough workmanship 

 and new ropes, everything holds, and as' the gale abates 

 toward lrsoming we get a nap. 



The rising sun gives us clear skies, and 29.90 on the 

 aneroid insures us a heavy northwest wind. It is such a 

 perfect goose day we will take all the chances and, sending 

 canoes into each bay, we turn out every goose there, know- 

 ing they will go outside and return to the lake at the next 

 flood tide with the wind in their teeth. The wind has raised 

 such a swell on the lake that we must walk to-day, and the 

 three miles we have to cover is equal to ten of ordinary 

 travel so far as fatigue is concerned, for the footing is very 

 soft, We make the circuit of the Great Lake and take our 

 stands on a sand beach of the lake toward which a little 

 "sag" in the plain leads, with a bank five feet high in front 

 of us. The beach is in a little bay which projects a few rods 

 toward, the spot at which the geese are feeding two miles 

 away, but lies a considerable distance to leeward of their 

 direct course to the lake. Your goose, or at least our geese, 

 when pressed by head wind, and flying low, prefer the lowest 

 laud and make for the nearest bit of water, recoscnizins: that 

 their enemies are all terrestrial. One old gunner who has 

 studied them for fifty years, is confident we are within forty 

 rods of the place where every goose will pass into the lake 

 if the wind only holds steady, and by crouching under the 

 bank we can shift our position by ten rods in either direc- 

 tion. This ought to give us some good chances. 



Peeping over the bank we see the first flock rise and head 

 far up-wind, but as they approach nearer they fall off, then 

 again head up; thus by a sort of tacking they get near, and 

 as they recognize the vicinity of the lake, lower till they are 

 not more than ten feet above the plain, and head directly for 

 us. Wait till they are abreast of you, aim about the end of 

 the beak, and a little above if they are to windward, a little 

 below if they are to leeward, old \Y. says, for they will 

 swerve when you put up the gun. We try it and one drops; 

 I make a clean miss at the leader, not having calculated the 

 swerve properly, but as he is rising almost perpendicularly 

 the second barrel, thrown fully three feet above him, brings 

 him into the lake with a splash, and Rogue with a yelp of 

 enthusiasm carries him into the long grass. No command 

 or coaxing will make him bring the bird in; it is the puppy's 

 first goose, and, laying it dowu, with long-drawn breath he 

 revels in the (to him) delicious aroma, and mouths and noses 

 it till the feathers stand out in every shape, and I, dreading 

 what I shall find, hasten to get it from him ; but the skin is 

 not even broken. Soon another flock rises in the distance, 

 then another and another till a dozen or more are headed 

 for us. The first of these is a little high, and W. whispers 

 to us to let them pass, for just behind are two or three flocks 

 which are lowering every minute. They pass over our heads, 

 and getting above the lake set their wings and begin tum- 

 bling, using their outstretched pinions as a parachute. The 

 next two flocks give us some good shots, but those beliind 

 see the smoke and rise beyond our range. Once over the 

 lake, however, they tumble like the others with a sense of 

 perfect security. 



Ripple is off in the stormy lake after a wounded goose a 

 quarter of a mile out, which she secures; Rogue is sent for 

 another in the calm water under the bank; it is good prac- 

 tice for him, as the goose is only wing-tipped and will prob- 

 ably dive, but as he approaches the true goose nature is 



seen, for instead of disappearing, she contents herself with 

 stretching her head and neck along the surface of the water, 

 and keeps still till he seizes her by the rump and tows her 

 ashore, where he lays her down to shake himself. But if 

 goose stupidity was shown before, we now see goose slyness. 

 for as soon as the dog's eye is off her she slides into the 

 water and disappears with the dog after her, who in an 

 instant has her again on the bank, and a pin inserted at the 

 base of the skull severs the cerebellum and ends the "cir- 

 cus." 



The next flock passes to windward about two hundred 

 yards, audit is evident the wind is falling. We shift our 

 places also to windward and .set two or three more shots. 

 Then as the wind dies out the birds fly high, and their 

 course cannot be calculated; we give it up, and sending a 

 man for the canoe, ferry ourselves and bag across the lake, 

 thus saving two-thirds of the walk back, no inconsiderable 

 saving with a load of eight geese. Two wounded geese in 

 the lake will undoubtedly climb the bank, be caught and 

 devoured by foxes before, morning. With the canoe we 

 might even now And them, but with an eye to the future, 

 we prefer not to disturb the hundreds of geese yet in the 

 lake. Let us hope the foxes are grateful. 



Such are a few samples of our days; the bags are never 

 large; our best day yet is thirty ducks, but the variety of 

 the game and the'uncertainty of what is coming next, makes 

 the sport interesting, and nature in her milder and in some 

 of her sternest moods is seen here to great advantage. 



Tootooo I SE. 



BETWEEN THE LAKES. 

 Fifth Paper. 



THK HETUBN TO CIVILIZATION. 



THE morning following our arrival of our young friends, 

 Cox and Weller, it was proposed by them to go in 

 search of a trout stream, of which they had heard from the 

 lips of an old land-looker, who had gone through the country 

 some time before, in the interest of some one of the numer- 

 ous lumber companies that operate in the pine woods. The 

 Greek Professor declined to go, as he purposed jerking a 

 part of his deer killed the day before, in order that he might 

 carry it home and show to his friends and especially to the 

 president and faculty of his college that he had killed a deer. 

 And, I may add in this connection, that he not only took 

 the jerked meat home with him, but the skin of the deer 

 also; and I have it on good authority, that his "Liddell and 

 Scott," the very one he uses in his recitation room, is 

 covered with that identical skin; and it is further reported, 

 that wdienever a rascally student slips up on a particularly 

 difficult rendering of a passage in Homer or Xenophon, and 

 the patience of the preceptor is put to the strain in con- 

 sequence, that student adroitly manages in some way to in- 

 troduce the lexicon cover, when the professional frowns are 

 removed and the delinquency is overlooked. 



I do not vouch for this, however. 



The particular place we set out for that morning was a 

 widening in a stream constituting a small lake in the woods 

 about three miles from our camp, and I was much impressed 

 with the skill in woodcraft displayed by our friends. We 

 went in the Wawa to the east end * of Beaver Lake, where, 

 after inspecting the map, young Weller went ahead with 

 compass in hand for the new trouting grounds. 1 do not 

 think I ever had quite so ugly a tramp as that morning's. 

 Tne compass bearer started on a line, and the success of his 

 leadership depending on keeping that line, he swerved from 

 his course for nothing. No matter what the obstacle, it 

 must he surmounted. Nor did he dally on his way. He 

 had been connected with the lumbering interests from his 

 youth up, and locating pine lands was a familiar business to 

 him, and he had been trained to celerity of movement. 

 Down tree lops were climbed over or crawled under: 

 swampy places were waded; brush thickets were squeezed 

 through. The Judge, who went in advance of me, found 

 his 220 pounds a greater inconvenience I han ever before, 

 and he went crashing his way through tree top and brush 

 thicket, and floundering over logs and swampy places like 

 a wounded buck. A half a mile of cedar swamp brought 

 us to a high hill, the ancient lake shore, which we climbed, 

 and our guide, after taking his bearings, next led us through 

 a comparatively level brushy, woodland, and finally brought 

 us out as nearly the center of a little lake— the result no 

 doubt of an ancient beaver dam on a small creek — as we 

 possibly could have come. The correctness of judgment in 

 locating the lake, which neither one of the young men had 

 ever visited, and the accuracy with which they had held to 

 the right line through swamp and woods, was a marvel 

 to me. 



The first thing we took notice of on emerging from the 

 thicket, was a large buck with wide-branching antlers, 

 standing on the further shore of the lake. He was no doubt 

 an old inhabitant of these woods, and had visited this lake 

 hundreds of times before, and for the first time he saw men 

 on its shore, He was greatly amazed at the sight, and as he 

 lifted his head aloft, at not to exceed seventy-five yards dis- 

 tance, and gazed wonderingly at us, I thought he was one 

 of the most beautiful animals I ever saw. Although we 

 carried two rifles, not a shot was fired. We had venison in 

 camp, and so when the lordly fellow threw his great wide- 

 spreading tail over his saddle and disappeared in the thicket, 

 our riflemen were glad he was gone. 



The little lake was found to be about an eighth of a mile 

 in length by about seventy-five yards in width, and it was 

 literally swarming with brook trout. Fishermen who have 

 never seen the trout save in swiftly running streams, will 

 reluctantly give credit to my story when I say they went in 

 schools of hundreds like minnows. At the low end of the 

 little lake, under some old logs, we took them, running from 

 eight ounces to a pouud; elsewhere they were from five 

 to ten ounces, a few running to fourteen ounces. After 

 three or four hours' fishing we returned to camp, taking 

 with us 305 trouts, and getting there in time to witness the 

 most gorgeous sunset I think I evei saw. 



The sun at that season went down in the northwest, over 

 the broad lake, and on this evening the waters were as 

 smooth as glass. A bank of purple clouds lay in the track 

 of the descending luminary of sufficient density* to destroy its 

 dazzling brightness. For twenty minutes before it disap- 

 peared it shone like a great rose-colored ball of fire, and a 

 luminous track, equal to the sun's apparent, diameter, ran 

 from the shore at our feet, out and up to the sun itself. As 

 the sun neared the lake's surface it assumed an elongated 

 appearance, due to atmospheric effect. In its neighborhood 

 the heavens were aflame, and the waters beneath reflected 

 hack like roseate hues. Presently it touched the wave and 

 slowly passed out of sight. When half gone it resembled a 

 crimson crown set far out in the bosom of the still waters, 



