346 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 28 1885. 



» 



THE BUCKTAIL IN FLORIDA, 



YI. 



LET rue commence this letter by answering several in- 

 quiries (by letter) concerning the double-bitted pocket 

 axe, an article of much value to any hunter, camper-out or 

 canoeist, but hard to obtain in anything like perfection. 

 First as to dimensions : 



Entire length 11% inches. 



Width of blade at eye 3 inches. 



Width at cutting edge, corner to corner 2% iuches. 



Length of blade, center to center of cutting 



edge o% inches. 



Weight when ready for use 18 ounces. 



I have written to several axe-making companies with a 

 view to having such hatchets made in quantity, that I might 

 supply them to the hundreds who would be glad to get them 

 at any reasonable price, but I have found none who cared to 

 undertake the job. There is, however, an old hunter, 

 angler and mechanical genius away up on the headwaters of 

 Pine Creek who makes all my hatchets, fish spears and 

 grains, and he does it well. I presume if one should send 

 him an order with about two dollars cash for a double- 

 bitted hatchet and mention me, he would, if not too badly 

 driven with hunting and fishing, turn out something that 

 would do to keep, and one such hatchet would last a life- 

 time. His address is, Gabe McKinney, Pike Mills, Potter 

 county, Pa. And 1 will write him to-morrow, putting him 

 up to "make pocket axes. 



Also, I want another pair of grains. For he made me the 

 lightest and best grains just before I started on this trip that 

 1 ever handled, which the same went off down the bayou 

 this very week, sticking in an immense sheepshead that I 

 struck at the Springs. And you may take my word for it, 

 there is sport to be had on this coast throwing the grains, 

 equal, in my opinion, to the best fly-fishing. But tastes 

 differ. I should say, however, that a tarpon of 100 pounds 

 with the grains in him, flying for his life at the end of 200 

 feet of line backed by a small pine log by way of steadier, 

 and to mark his course, would afford as exciting sport as an 

 eight-ounce speckled minnow at the end of a light leader 

 backed by a four-ounce rod; for the silver king is a hand- 

 somer, stronger, quicker fish, and a harder fighter than the 

 lordliest salmon that ever ran up from the sea. 



The silver king does not take kindly to the lures of the 

 angler. He has no need. His favorite food, the mullet, is 

 never far to seek, and his great speed enables him to follow 

 up a school quite at his leisure, snapping up a mullet as often 

 as he likes. And yet he will take the hook when properly 

 baited and handled. When he finds himself hooked the fun 

 commences. He makes a lightning-like, straight-away dash 

 for open water, springing high in air every few yards, glis- 

 tening, glittering in the sunlight like a streak of burnished 

 silver, and bound to free himself from the hooks though he 

 tears his under jaw to shreds, as he sometimes does. Said 

 an old Florida fisherman to me a few days ago: "I have 

 fished this coast for twenty-five years, and never caught but 

 one tarpon with hook and line. I was fishing for sharks 

 with a powerful double hook, and he got it deep down, in 

 his gills, and he tore them all to pieces tryin' to get away. 

 1 have harpooned a good many, mostly with a lilly iron, 

 which is the sure way to kill them." 



I have not tried my hand on the silver king as yet. But 

 the season for him is just on, and I have a strong pair of 

 grains sharpened and bent on purposely for him. Also a 

 train of hooks on a line that would bold a wild hog, and 1 

 humbly hope to have some hefty sport before the season is 

 over, for I have spent seven weeks of the off season in the 

 camp where I now write, and it is time to swing the double 

 blade for the new grounds. 



Not that there is any lack of interest in the region, or that 

 I have cruised it out (it would take a year to do that). But 

 "Tarpon" and I have two new canoes en route that we wish 

 to try along the coast among the keys and up some of the 

 rivers. Notably the Weikawatchee and the Cootie (Pithlo- 

 chascottee of the maps). The Weikawatchee is a deep, clear 

 stream, only twelve miles in length, born of an immense 

 crystal' spring and full grown at its birth. It abounds in 

 large black bass (called trout here) and is not deficient in 

 other fish or alligators. It was a noted place during the 

 Seminole war, and there are many interesting points con- 

 nected with its history. 



Then, if plans do not "gang agley," we have a cruise of 

 200 miles down the coast to make in "Tarpon's" yawl-rigged 

 sharpie, 33 feet long and able for outside work. She has a 

 comfortable cabin and plenty of room to stow our canoes, 

 with which we propose to do that mythical and mysterious 

 region put down on the maps as the Ten Thousand Islands, 

 and bed about in the loosest manner by the natives, who 

 will tell you they "have no use for such a dogonedmudhole." 

 And when you mention wildfowl and fish, they will say, 

 "A man can fill his boat with fish and birds quicker than he 

 can work his way in and out of that hole for three miles, 

 and do it outside in safe, pleasant cruising, too. Stranger, 

 it's a place no white man wants to go projec'in' around in. 

 There's 'gators among them islands more'n eighteen foot 

 Ion"', and they ain't used to being shot at, aud would just as 

 soon charge on your boat as not; and if you get in there and 

 had your boat wrecked, you might as well be a cat without 

 claws. As to mosquitoes and big gnats, they'll just eat a 

 man alive." That is about the way an ol«i sponger put it up 

 to me. and he added that the "island.," were about fifty 

 miles across, and no man had ever fairly gone through them 

 —unless he were an Indian. All of which gave an added 

 interest to the projected cruise, but was not all true. 



The unsurveyed and unmapped portion of the Ten Thou- 

 sand Islands is about thirty miles long in a S. W. by N. E. 

 direction, and about eighteen miles wide. The Indians cross 

 it in two days, and, as they take no water, it is evident that 

 fresh water is to be found among the islands. Whether a 

 boat 33 feet long can be worked through is a question. But 

 she can be worked in a far as she will go, and she can come 

 out where she went in. Cruising and "projec'in' " among 

 the islands can be done with the canoe. 



I dare say all romance and mysteiy connected with the 

 region will fade to a muddy, marshy, uninteresting reality 

 when tested by a little sound horse sense, as it did with 

 Ponce de Leon, who once sought his fountain of perpetual 

 youth in that very bay, which still bears his name. Still, it 

 is new ground, and cannot fail to contain much that is novel 

 and interesting. At any rate it will be a capital place to test 

 the efficacy of the fly -medicine. And "that reminds me." 



A correspondent of Forest and Stream, whose signa- 

 ture 1 forget, some time ago criticised the recipe for fly 

 medicine in "Woodcraft," on the ground that oil of penny- 



royal, being volatile, would not evaporate when simmered 

 with oil of tar and castor oil. In the first place, there is no 

 oil of tar in the recipe, but simply pure pine tar of the North 

 Carolina stamp; secondly, the evaporation theory is quite 

 correct from a scientific standpoint. Practically, 1 made 

 just twelve ounces of the medicine last spring according to 

 the recipe, and it did not shrink perceptibly in simmering. 

 I gave some away, used a little in cruising on the Tiadatton, 

 and have used more this spring. It is the only dope I have 

 yet tried that just fills the bill, and I have tried several kinds. 

 Most of them, when freshly applied, are good as against 

 mosquitoes, black flies and red bugs (or mooquims). But the 

 punkie dope is the only thing that beats the multitudinous 

 sand fly, and he is the worst of all. 



Just now aud here we are suffering from a six weeks' 

 drouth, and the hot white sand is dry for a foot in depth; 

 and the sand flies are numerous almost past belief. I have 

 a notion that, if I were to measure accurately a peck of this 

 sand and let it stand in the sun for an hour or so till the sand 

 flies could escape, it would fall short about three pints. 

 When I attempt to write by candle light they get into the 

 ink on my pen, blot the paper, and swarm out my light. 

 Kerosene light is worse. I was trying to write this morniug 

 at 2 A. M., thinking to get the cool of the day ; but they 

 swarmed me out. And now (10 A. M.) the air looks aort 

 o' fuzzy with them. I am going to suspend literary effort 

 until a smart rain drowns them partially out ; and meanwhile 

 turn my attention to the new canoe, weighing, as Rushton 

 writes me, "a little less than ten pounds." How is that for 

 a clinker built cedar to cruise the Gulf Coast? 



Tn Camp, May 13. 



Nessmttk. 



THE ADIRONDACKS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



By far the best and most feasible route by which to enter 

 this health-giving resort is as follows; it is easy and quick, 

 with good boats, good guides, good roads, good hotels, good 

 accommodations, good fishing and hunting. This section 

 has been comparatively unexplored by sportsman, and, as in 

 St. Lawrence county, hounding at all seasons of the year is 

 prohibited. Deer are plenty, while in other sections, by rea- 

 son of hounding, venison has become scarce and hard to get. 

 Leave New York on the evening train via N. Y. C. & H. 

 R. B. R. to Rome, thence via R. W. t% O. R. R. to Potsdam, 

 at which place you will arrive about 12 M. the next day. 

 Leave Potsdam by stage or livery conveyance. Passing 

 over a good road twenty-one miles, three and a half hours' 

 ride brings vou to Munger's hotel, called Forest House, 

 which, by the way, is a first-class woods hotel. This house 

 is located at the foot of the "Bog," where you are to all in- 

 tents and purposes essentially in the woods, and can go into 

 camp anywhere along the banks of the Bog. This is a bog 

 only in name. In fact, it is as fine a stretch of still water 

 as can be found within the North Woods. At Munger's one 

 can procure good boats and guides; and, as you are at the 

 foot of navigation on the Raquette River, you can reach any 

 point by boat, or if you desire, by stage, in the Adirondack 

 Wilderness. 



Six miles by water or seven miles by land brings you to 

 the head of the Bog, where a good hotel is kept by Geo. G. 

 Orton, called Jordan House. Mr. Orton also keeps boats, 

 guides and teams, which can be had at reasonable rates, and 

 holds himself in readiness to transport you to any point you 

 may desire to reach. Six miles further (via stage or Orton's 

 teams) brings you to John Sevey's, a good, old-fashioned 

 farmhouse hotel with the very best kind of good, old-fashi- 

 oned folks inside of it. John knows the woods like a book, 

 and is every inch a gentleman and sportsman, and can take 

 you where the deer feed and the trout do congregate. Four 

 miles further on you arrive at ChildwakVa small hamlet 

 named after its founder, Mr. Addison Childs. Two miles 

 further brings one to Massiwepi Lake or Gale's Pond View 

 House, one of the best, if not the very best location for hunt- 

 ing and fishing that can be found in the State of New York, 

 and when you consider that this point can be reached in 

 forty-eight hours from New York city via routes as above 

 described, we think that we are fully warranted in saying 

 that this is the shortest, easiest, and beyond all odds, the best 

 route to the Adirondacks. From Gale's one may swing to 

 the right via Cat Pond, Massiwepi Lake (which, by the way, 

 is one of the finest little lakes in the Wilderness) down the 

 outlet of that lake to Grass River, up this river to Burnt 

 Bridge Dog, Lily Pad ponds and Silver Lake, all first-class 

 point's for hunting and fishing. Or should you desire, to 

 push on up the Raquettee to Tupper's Lake, one and one- 

 half miles over a good road to the left brings you to Gale's 

 Landing on the Raquette River, where you can take boats 

 up or down, as you like. If up, six hours' time will land 

 you at Tupper's "Lake or Mark Moodus's hotel. But as this 

 locality has almost a national reputation, it needs no com- 

 mendation from me, but should you conclude to go down 

 stream, as you undoubtedly will if you desire good hunting, 

 as the grounds below are unequalled for sporting, you can 

 paddle your canoe over alternate rapids and still water back 

 to the place of starting, to wit, head of the Bog. 



Having arrived at. the Jordan House again, if you are in 

 for a tramp and do not mind roughing it a little, you can 

 swine to the right, taking in Church, Blue, Beaver, Clear, 

 Wolf* Lem, Crooked, Sampson and Three Brothers ponds, 

 with the last branch of Grass River, also Dead Creek, a 

 small tributary of that river, all of which are equalled by 

 few and excelled by none for fishing and hunting grounds. 

 Or should you desire to look in at one of the finest and best 

 arranged camps that can be found anywhere in the Adiron- 

 dacks, a drive af six miles over a fair woods road due east 

 brines you to Jordan Lake, as fine a little lake as the sun 

 shines on, located on the bank of which stands the famous 

 Webb Vanderbilt camp, or the camp of the "Kildare Club," 

 and should you be so fortunate as to find any of that gentle- 

 manly club 'present, you will be entertained in right royal 



In and about this locality one may spend a month and 

 have new fields every day. The small streams in this section 

 are well stocked with trout, and if you desire you can visit 

 Rock Deer, Willis, Windfall, Mountain, Big Wolf, Little 

 Wolf and McDonald ponds, together with the west branch 

 of St. Regis River, all of which furnish comparatively an 

 undisturbed home for trout and venison. Should any of 

 your readers desire further information, I will be only too 

 glad to furnish such information as may be required by ap- 

 plying personally or addressing, Martw V. B. Ives. 



POTTSDAM, N. Y. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In the Forest ano Stream from time to time during the 

 past six years I have recommended its readers to that portion 

 of the Adirondacks bordering on the headwaters of the three 



branches of the St. Regis River, in the vicinity of Blue 

 Mountains, as a locality where good sport could still be had 

 with both rod and gun. But I can no longer so recommend 

 it. A large portion of these waters, including the Sixteen- 

 mile Level on which I have camped for the past seven sea- 

 sons, has been nearly if not quite ruined for hunting and 

 fishing during the past year by the lumbermen. In August 

 last the lumbermen cut down and cleared away from be 

 banks of the level, its whole length, all trees and shrub'' 

 growing or standing within fifteen or twenty yards r 

 water, and cleared the stream of all obstacles in t> 

 running logs and timber. There were waiting 

 informed, 400,000 logs, scattered along the 

 level, ready to be run down at the breaking t . ut the i r 



During the past three years no less tntm five laVr 

 mills have been erected on the middle branch " i 



Sixteen-mile Level, and during the coming «•- r 



large mill will be built at its head, to w 1 .j railroad 



(now running within five miles of its foot; is to be extend I. 

 Several large mills will also be built on the East Brar h 

 during the summer. Work on them has already commen !. 

 The point at the head of the level, where the railroad „ Jl 

 terminate for the present, is only eight miles west of the ' t- 

 let of St. Regis Lake, on the shores of which Paul *" 's 

 hotel stands. A wagon road between these two «s 



already been surveyed and marked out and wuik on it will 

 commence as soon as the frost gets out of the ground. 



With all these things going on in this region, and with 

 from two to three hundred workmen scattered along the 

 river banks, and as many more on the line of the railroad, 

 the prospect for sportsmen and anglers cannot be very en- 

 couraging in this part of the Wilderness. Without doubt 

 the whole of this district will soon be ruined for sport with 

 rod and gun. The time is not far distant when the whole 

 Adirondack region, with the exception perhaps of those 

 tracts bought up by the wealthy game clubs and private indi- 

 viduals for game preserves, will be like the St. Regis and 

 many other districts in them, ruined for the sportsman and 

 angler. But for those who visit the Wilderness merely for 

 recreation, or those who seek the woods and mountains in 

 the hopes of regaining or improving their health, the above 

 statements will not be unwelcome news. The railroad when 

 it is completed will enable them to reach the heart of the 

 Wilderness with but only eight or ten miles of travel by stage 

 or wagon, or to reach within that distance by rail a point 

 from which they can travel by water or boat through the 

 greater portion of the Adirondack region. 



Adiroi? Ondack. 



NOTES OF A SOUTHERN PILGRIMAGE. 



THE Forest and Stream abounds in descriptions of 

 Southern grounds and sport. Naturally one of its 

 readers, on turning his face toward the Great Gulf, would be 

 alert for signs of successful sport in the land of mild 

 winters. In the States through which I passed on the way 

 to and from New Orleans, the streams seemed too muddy 

 for any game fish save the ubiquitous black bass. Perhaps 

 in summer these yellow streams change their complexion. 

 The pine forests of Central and Southern Alabama look as 

 if they might harbor plenty of game. A citizen of a way- 

 side station told me on the depot platform that he reckoned 

 a man might get a deer every day in the woods if he had a 

 dog. And if hounding would be justifiable anywhere from 

 a sportsman's standpoint, it would be among these pines, 

 where every little distance there is a swamp thicket to block 

 up the way of the hunter. Few wagon roads cross the rail- 

 road, showing that there are wide ranges of uninhabited 

 country. 



A visit to the market in Mobile, and the French marKet in 

 New Orleans, showed the splendid variety of fish from 

 which the epicure may choose his brain food, and in whose 

 capture the angler may tax his skill. Chief in size and most 

 striking in appearance is the "red snapper." This fish looks 

 a royal fellow— a king both for the hook and the pan. His 

 dainty white flesh is much finer in grain than that of other 

 fish of equal size. 



I had expected to see plenty of wildfowl in the salt 

 marshes east of New Orleans, but there was n 'thing to be 

 seen, save a few teal and coots. The latter i Mica omeri- 

 cana) were numerous in the markets. In 111. ois they are 

 not considered fit for food, but since coming home I have 

 had one cooked for the purpose of testing the flavor of the 

 flesh, and found it passable, equal to several of the kinds of 

 duck commonly eaten. 



As our train swept through the marshes east of New Or- 

 leans an exciting race took place. A small hawk, swift of 

 wing, kept abreast of the train watching for the small birds 

 that were startled from their coverts by the noise. Every 

 now and then the hawk would dart away in pursuit of one 

 of these, and failing to take it, back he would come to skim 

 along the surface of the water in the wide ditch beside the 

 track. For at least a dozen miles he continued the chase, 

 the passengers watching him with no little interest. 



A.t the Exposition more display of stuffed birds and ani- 

 mals is made than at the Centennial Exposition. The finest 

 of these of course are from the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Notable among them is a white heron trying to pull an 

 arrow from its breast, a fight between two hawks, frogs in 

 the following characters: The dancers, th mini major, the 

 shoemaker, a bridal couple, the duel, an old smoker and a 

 bootblack. One huere case holds fine specimens of all the 

 game birds of the United States. Everywhere in the great 

 Government building are magnificent specimens of water, 

 woods and field fauna. ,»«-.* 



From Nevada there is a huge piece of ark stuck lull ot 

 acorns by woodpeckers— stores laid up foi winter. Just the 

 points of the acorns show, holes having been bored to receive 



In the Texas display I saw two stags' heads with antlers 

 interlocked, to which was attached the following very inter- 

 esting description: "This curiosity, altogether unique, is a 

 pair of stags' heads, with one horn of each antler so en- 

 twined and interlocked that the united strength of two men 

 cannot pull them asunder. The capture of this trophy was 

 made about six years ago by Mr. Willis Blue, who, in Rich- 

 land Creek bottom, coming upon the place where the en- 

 counter had occurred between the two bucks, followed the 

 trail caused bv one dragging the body of his dead enemy to 

 where the town of Kerens now stands, a distance of fifteen 

 miles and finding the victor still alive, dispatched him with 

 a hunting knife. Both stags were full grown, their antlers 

 indicating them to be at least five years old, of equal size, 

 and the battle must have been a long and terrible one, as 

 both were in a badly lacerated condition, and the victory of 

 the stronger a worse fate than that of his dead antagonist. 

 Deer aTe still plentiful in Richland and Trinity bottoms, in 

 Navarro county." Richard Gear Hobbb. 



