Juxy 17, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



483 



"NESSMUK'S" POEMS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



As you see. I have changed my spot; left Indianapolis and 

 "troops of friends" and have made a camp here— Denver. 

 The fishing was getting very feeble in White River and Fall 

 Creek. The dynamite fiend and the gentlemen with a seine 

 have done the business, and so Major Arnold removed to 

 SanAntone and I came here. He is baiting catfish with 

 paste made of Limbinger cheese and oatmeal, lie says "they 

 come right out on the bank to get it," and while there he 

 secures them; and I am waiting till Colorado law allows me 

 to fish in the neighborhood of Wagon Wheel Gap. I shall 

 have something to report. 



I reckon climate will have something to do with the weight 

 and number of the trout that I shall say 1 have taken strictly 

 with a fly. When I am by myself I do not disdain a worm, 

 a piece of pork cut in the fashion of a frog, or even a grass- 

 hopper. I am of a tolerant spirit, and am disposed to defer 

 to the wishes of fish. All the same I own the lightest fly-rod 

 in the State (four ounces), and when not entirely out of meat 

 stick to it. 



"JSTessmuk's" little book came to hand. It is too little. 1 

 read it at one sitting, and cried for more. I have had some 

 experience in camping and fire building and in cooking, all 

 along from 1862 to late in 1865, and later in forest and by 



hatchet" and "the face." 



I made the acquaintance of "Nessinuk" through your col- 

 umns, and in the spring of 1882 I dropped him a line of 

 inquiry as to the sport possible in the region of his home, 

 Wellsboro, Pa. He answered promptly in that fine writing 

 of his (he can get as much on a postal card as I can on a 

 sheet), and one day in July thereafter I appeared to him. 

 Found him at work on a boot. He rose from his seat, in- 

 formed his brother that he should be absent a week or ten 

 days, and took me over and introduced me to the canoe 

 Susan Nipper, his first love. I have not seen Sairy Gamp, 

 and when seen, I shall not ride in her— "she takes some- 

 think," and too much for my weight. 



Not soon will 1 forget the week we had in the neighbor- 

 hood of Anslcy's. I "have nothing to say of the number 

 of fish we brought in, although on occasion I can be poetic. 

 We brought in enough. The camp and fire and cooking was 

 as laid down in "Woodcraft." It was all too soon over, but 

 I still see the face of my friend and hear "the whimper of 

 the brook." 



I am of an age that I carefully disguise except to my 

 mother, but I have had no happier days than with "Ness- 

 muk" in the little camp some ten miles or so from Ansley's, 

 on a stream fished decently for a hundred years. 



"Woodcraft" and Fokest akd Stkeam have made us all 

 in love with his practical prose. How I desire to see his 

 poetry in "covers." Not simply for my own sake. I have 

 sat on a log and read enough of it to make a book. I wish 

 it made into a book for the sake of others like myself, who 

 wish that a Robert Burns would reappear on this side of the 

 Atlantic. Somebody who would sing the song of the men 

 who must, work and the women who must weep in the land 

 of the free and the home of the brave. " Woodcraft, " ex- 

 cellent as it is, is not the best and last of "Nessmuk." He 

 has concealed about his person poems of hope and patience 

 and outlook that would speak to us in mines and mills who 

 have no month or week for "woodcraft." He is as skillful 

 with the heart of man, its needs and cries, as he is with the 

 ways and appetites of the residents of forest and stream. 

 "Nessmuk" is not only a trained observer of the habits of 

 our dumb relations but a sympathetic and a powerful inter- 

 preter of the needs of man, woman and child. Please now 

 do for the people of mills and mines what you have done for 

 the people of forest and stream. Myron W. Reed. 



Denver, Col. 



FACTS AND FANCIES. 



WHILE fishing for trout during the first week in June, 

 in a pond near Umbagog Lake, I noticed a large 

 white sea gull, such as winter on our northeast coast, on her 

 nest, on an isolated rock about two feet above the water. 

 Two pairs of gulls have had nests on two separate rocks in 

 this pond during my past ten summers' observation. As I 

 neared the rock the old bird left and perched 100 yards 

 away. There were two eggs in the large and flat nest of 

 moss. Size of hen's eggs, blotched with black on a light 

 brown ground. Hearing a gentle cry or chirp, I supposed 

 it was the mother expressing her anxiety, but on my guide 

 assuring me it came from the egg, on applying my ear, found 

 it even so. My surprise was lessened when I saw the end of- 

 a bill just protruding from the shell, though my guide 

 assured me he had often heard the chirp of chicks before 

 the shell was broken. 



The same day there was heard by my friend on the same 

 pond, the unmistakable call of a moose for her calf, 200 

 yards away. We were about two miles from Middle Dam. 

 A lumber operator told me he knew cf moose in that locality 

 last winter, but dared not inform his choppers, as they 

 would prefer hunting to chopping. 



A citizen of Upton, at the mouth of the Cambridge 

 where it enters Umbagog, told me that twice during the 

 summer (having no fear of the law before his eyes) he left 

 his house at 6 P. M., went up the Cambridge, and returned 

 each time at 11 o'clock with a deer— hunted with a jack. 



There are severals pairs of bald eagles nesting near Um- 



Saw a pair of sheldrakes (if. merganser), who have a nest in 

 a hollow tree near to a pond two miles from Umbagog. 

 They do all their fishing for themselves and family in Um- 

 bagog, a pickerel lake. 



A few years since, a friend informed me he shot a shel 

 drake flying from the lake to his nest. On throwing him 

 into his boat two live pickerel, about four inches long, 

 dropped.from his mouth. This shows how pickerel may be 

 transported accidentally to waters where they are not wanted. 



Umbagog, the lower lake of the chain of the head waters 

 of the Androscoggin, while the Rangeley is at the head, was 

 once a fine trout lake. Some one, out of spite so said, 

 stocked it with pickerel, and they are abundant. Will they 

 go up Rapid River and into Richardson's Lake, passing 

 Middle Dam? A few have been taken during the past two 

 vears at the foot of the dam in Rapid River. 



Land-locked salmon appear to suffer no detriment when 

 associated with pickerel, as appears thus far in this State. 

 But woe to the trout and to Maine's great attraction for the 

 angler if ever pickerel enter Rangeley waters. Umbagog is 

 partly in New Hampshire and partly in Maine. The New 

 Hampshire Commissioners, against the opinion of the Maine 



Commissioners, have introduced black bass into Umbagog. 

 How landlocked salmon and trout will thrive with black 

 bass is an untried experiment in our waters. 



Was glad to see by your paper that landlocked salmon 

 had been introduced into Umbagog by way of Rapid River. 

 A few years since, the members of the Oxford Club, who 

 have a club house on Rapid River, deposited a few land- 

 locked salmon in the same place. 



A five-pound salmon has been taken in Umbagog. Either 

 one of the above, or one that has come down from Rangeley, 

 as many will unquestionably, 



I notice "Major Verity's" comments on my comparison of 

 his statements with others on the performance of shotguns. 

 Not being a professional in Horse Guard affairs, made a 

 needless mistake in titling him General, for there was no 

 general nor minor Statement in bis facts. All were major. 



I considered "Verity's" article the most reliable of the 

 many articles on guns, and intended that my allusion to it 

 should be so understood, and entirely complimentary. 



In his line I have a ease in point; perhaps an old one. If 

 so omit it, A friend of mine visited a pond, early one 

 autumn morning, for black ducks. The pond was thickly 

 covered with them. He blazed away both barrels for a win- 

 row. To his amazement the whole surface of the pond 

 appeared to rise— clucks and surface. The mystery was soon 

 solved; the pond was frozen over and the ducks' legs frozen 

 in, and the live ducks lifted the whole frozen sheet of ice, 

 taking the slaughtered with them. The sheet of ice made a 

 few gyrations and started southward on a migratory tour. 

 The gunner took the cars in pursuit and picked up the dead 

 ducks as they fell out of the melting ice. He picked up 128. 

 There was oakum over the powder. 



The pond is in existence and will be shown in proof to 

 any doubter. Austin. 



Maine Waters, July, 1884. 



MOOSEHEAD LAKE NOTES. 



AM back from my trouting trip to Maine. I never saw 

 so many fish taken at Moosehead Lake and vicinity as 

 this season, and I never saw such large ones before. I, indi- 

 vidually, captured nothing over two pounds, but I took a 

 companion with me and introduced him to Kineofor the first 

 time, and he had to land a four-pounder. It takes these 

 amateurs to hold the cards. A party brought in one night 

 fourteen brook trout that weighed thirty -five pounds. At 

 another time 160 trout that turned the scales (Fairbanks, not 

 fish) at 128 pounds. Among the lot were two of five and 

 quite a number of four and three-pounders. During the 

 former seasons the fishing has been the greater part of the 

 time on the west shore, but this year it seemed to be along 

 the east shore. 



The new Kineo House is almost completed and built in 

 modern style, and contains over 200 rooms. What a pretty 

 idea it would have been to have modelled it after a large log 

 house, with as many piazzas, bay windows and as elaborate 

 finish inside as you please, but to have its exterior in perfect 

 sympathy with its surroundings. It's a big hotel, but great 

 Kineo Rock, towering above it, looks none the less majestic 

 in comparison. 



The railroad is laid through to the lake, and is to be opened 

 for passengers July 14. The black flies were not numerous 

 this season, and the fisherman when out on the breezy lake 

 suffered little annoyance. 



There was fine fishing at Spencer Pond (off the bay of the 

 same name) but there are only two spring holes, and the trout 

 are small, seldom weighing over one and a half pounds each. 



On account of the lack of birch bark there is a steadily 

 increasing demand for canvas canoes, the frame and outlines 

 are the same, and the canvas is said to reduce the weight at 

 least one-fifth. 



This lack of the historic birch canoe is a great pity, as to 

 me it has remained one of the pleasantest sights about Kineo. 

 The Indian guides, however, still stick to the birch, and as 

 my old Aroostook guide, Tom Nichols, remarked, "Me not 

 so hard up yet to use canvas." 



Many fine large fish were taken at the East Outlet (Wil- 

 son's), and many more, but smaller, at Indian Pond, four 

 miles down the Kennebec. 



The success of enforcing the game and fish laws the past 

 two years can very easily be seen. When box after box of 

 trout could be forwarded to fish dealers in Boston it was an 

 object to capture more than was needed for daily consump- 

 tion at the hotels. But now all is changed, only fifty pounds 

 is allowed each sportsman, and he must accompany the box 

 in transportation. Each trout must also be over five inches 

 in length, and I sincerely hope the time will come when the 

 use of the fly will only be allowed in its capture. 



With the increase of little steamboats on Moosehead Lake 

 I think the guides are getting a trifle lazy. In former years 

 a paddle to the head of the lake and back, forty miles, was 

 considered nothing for a day's sport, but to cross the lake, 

 ten miles, to-day is quite an effort with a few of the guides. 



The weather was perfect for the enjoyment of fly-fishing, not 

 a rain or wind storm for weeks past, and although the mercury 

 ranged from 90 to 100 degrees, it wasseldom uncomfortable. 

 That box of fly ointment, made by the Bangor man, "which 

 you sent me, " was a great success. 



On my return home 1 stopped off at Portsmouth, N. H., 

 and visited the Isles of Shoals — it's just lovely out there ten 

 miles from land. I am sorry I cannot forward you some 

 photos of this year's trip, but it is the first time on record 

 since its invention that I have visited the woods without my 

 tourograph. I got it into my trunk, but on Mrs.S. remarking 

 that "she believed I had photographed the Maine woods out 

 of existence," I reluctantly took it out— a fellow does 

 have to accommodate his wife once in a while, you know. 



Hartford, Con n. T . S, STEELE. 



INTERESTING FIGURES. 



OUR esteemed Chicago contemporary, the Current, has been com- 

 paring the quantity of matter published in its columns with that 

 of other periodicals. We copy its figures, giving also those of the. 

 Forest and Stream. The typographical measurements of the several 

 periodicals for six months past are as follows: 



Ems. Words. 



The Forest and Stream 6,350,000, or about 2,500,000 



The Current 3,710,000, " 1,484,000 



The Continent 8,171,000, " 1,268,400 



The Century 2,370,000, " 950,400 



Harper's Monthly 1,626,000, ,: 650,400 



The Atlantic... 1,440,000, " 578,400 



The measurement is of the reading matter, exclusive of advertise- 

 ments. The comparison is interesting. It shows that the Forest and 

 Stream has published more than the Current and the Century com- 

 bined, nearly as much as the Current, Harper's and the Atlantic 

 combined, and more thai* the Century, Harper's and the Atlantic 

 combined. These figures are not at all surprising. 



1 



"That reminds me." 

 126. 



SEVERAL years ago at one of our military posts was a. 

 _ French half-breed guide and interpreter named Battiste. 

 One day Battiste went clown to the sutler's store and in- 

 vested in a new Winchester rifle and a flask Of fluid. The 

 latter purchase having its usual effect, Battiste returned to 

 the post feeling very happy. Not far off lie saw a pig 

 belonging to the Major; and thinking to try his new rifle, 

 fired at it and mortally wounded it. The next day the 

 Major said to him : 



''Battiste, you killed mv pig. I shall charge you $10 for 

 it." 



"Him dead?" inquired Battiste. 



"Yes." 



"Well, give him to me then, I eat him." 



"Oh I" replied the Major, "I had him for breakfast.'* 



"I no eat him I no pay you," said Battiste. 



"I have charged you $10 on the book," said the Major, 

 "and you will have to pay it. " Whereat Battiste went off 

 highly incensed, muttering, "By gar! I no eat him, I no pay 

 Mm. I fix him." 



In the winter the Major and Battiste were running buffalo, 

 and the Major's horse jumped into a deep coulee which was 

 filled with snow, and in the struggle to get out, the Major 

 was buried under the horse, only his head being visible. 



"Battiste, help!" cried the Major. 



"Yes," said Battiste, advancing to the edge of the coulee, 

 "I help you, you scratch out him pecg?" 



"Yes, yes," cried the Major, I'll scratch him out." 



"Ver good," said Battiste, "the old woman, you buy him 

 dress?" 



"Yes," said the Major, "come, hurry up." 



"Yes, I help you," said Battiste, and he proceeded to ex- 

 tricate the Major from his unenviable position. J. W. S. 

 Upper Martas River, M. T. 



137. 



Some years ago H., one of our leading dealers in sporting- 

 goods and a jolly sportsman, told his friends that he had 

 a way of loading his shells that prevented the shot from 

 scattering over more space than could be covered by a man's 

 hand. 



"O, yes," replied R., a brother sportsman, "you hold the 

 gun about six inches from the target; anybody can do that." 



"N©, you don't," says H., "you shoot at forty, fifty, sixty, 

 or even a hundred yards." 



Of course it was worth twenty-five cents to be the posses- 

 sor of such a secret, and the money was handed over. After 

 being told the "secret," R. looked very serious, and remarked: 

 "I'll get even with you or revenge myself upon somebody 

 else." For two whole days R. in turn wanted to "sell" the 

 secret, but nobody seemed to care whether his shot scattered 

 a mile or less. He even offered to give C. the information 

 gratis. But no; O, who talks of nothing but his gun, was 

 so rushed with business that he didn't even stop to say no. 

 In despair R. cried after him, "You use only one pellet in a 

 load!" When the boys gather in the shop now, H. is the 

 only one who smiles when "How to load a gun" comes up 

 before the meeting. Fbitz. 



West Dubuque, Iowa. 



in\nl tfjjiigtarg. 



•NOTES ON SHORE BIRDS. 



T"X7"HILE recently perusing the list of the "Birds of East- 

 V T era Massachusetts," as found in "Maynard's Natural- 

 ists' Guide," I could but notice the difference between some 

 of the notes there made and my own experience. 1 desire 

 simply to notice the shore birds of interest to sportsmen, 

 taking, as the first instance, the golden plover (C wrqinicus). 

 This species is given as "common spring and autumn mi- 

 grant." Now during the past twenty years I have never 

 seen one of these birds in the spring, nor did I ever hear of 

 any save once (in the spring), and then it was a single bird 

 from Cape Cod, Their appearance in the autumn is of 

 course admitted. 



The "beetle head" (8. hdvitica) I have repeatedly seen in 

 the spring; in fact I think they are seen and shot every sea- 

 son, though not in large numbers. 



The turnstone, "chicken bird" (8. interpres) is stated to 

 "frequent rocky shores." So they do, yet I think they are 

 as often shot over decoys set in pond holes on the marshes. 



The robin snipe (M. griseus) is given as "not uncommon 

 during the migrations." This is one of the waders that I 

 confidently look for any time after the 8th or 10th of July, 

 and from then to and some seasons into September, though 

 last season was an exception, it being decidedly an off year. 



The purple sandpiper {Arquatella maritima) is given as 

 "found on the coast during spring and autumn." 1 shot 

 eight in the month of December some years ago, and saw a 

 number of others. From this, and from the similar experi- 

 ence of a friend, I think they sometimes winter here. I 

 never saw any in the spring. 



The curlew sandpiper (T. subarquaia), as stated, is rare, in 

 fact a straggler from other shores. Two or three have been 

 taken on the New England coast. I shot one at Ipswich 

 in 1872. 



Tringa canukis, or as here locally kuow r n "blue plover," 

 is more, I think much more common in autumn than in 

 the spring, though I have seen it at both seasons. It is not 



fenerally met with until the last of August, or better yet in 

 eptember. 



The red-backed sandpiper (T. alpinn amcricana), one of 

 the "grass birds," is rare in the spring but comparatively 

 common in September or October, and perhaps later. 



The pectoral sandpiper (T, mmulata) is another and the 

 commonest of the so-called "grass birds" from July 10 or 15, 

 until quite late in the fall, but with us very rare in the spring. 

 There seem to be tw T o sizes of this species, and gunners com- 

 monly call them the "big" and "little grass birds." 



The stilt sandpiper (If. Mmcmtopits), known about here as 

 the "bastard yellow -leg," though why I do not know, as its 

 legs are quite dark, is given as "very rare." This certainly 

 differs from the experience of some others. As with all 

 birds, there may be years when they are without apparent 

 cause scarcer than usual, yet about every season when shoot- 

 ing shore birds I have taken them. I know of eight .shot at 

 a single discharge at Eagle Hill, Ipswich. 



The white rumped "peep" (F, bonapwiiii) is given as 



