Obc. l-r, 18S5.1 



FOREST AMjJ stream. 



403 



way of Tripoli and return past the "striped Uouse," for the 

 drive was to be no small part of the pleasure, and we wished 

 to make it as varied as possible. 



Tliore is no finer sceneiy about here than is to be found 

 on the drive to Podnnk Poi'kI : for four or five miles the road 

 is on 11 ridsre lliat overlooks the rh-hcsi fai-miui? lauds in the 

 county, at this time covered with the fruits of an abundant 

 harvest; on the left are the mountains of Luzerne, in front 

 French Mountain and the mountains bordering the shores 

 of Lake George, and at our riaiit the Green Mountains of 

 Vermont. The near-by hills are in a blaze of glory that the 

 October haze cannot dim, and the more distant raountauis 

 are decked as for a bridal with the thrifty valleys. The 

 endless shades of scarlet and crimson, and gold and amber, 

 and the rieli browns of the autumn foliage of the deciduous 

 trees are indiscriminately mixed with the evergreen foliage 

 of the hemlock, spruce, cedar and balsam; while the trunks 

 of (he white birches stnnd here and there in the sunlight like 

 pillars of silver, makina, uH together such a mass of gorgeous 

 coloi- that it seems futile for a simple fisherman to attempt 

 10 describe it. 



My friend silently drinks in the beauty of the scene that 

 is spread out before us until he is filled with the glory of it, 

 then rising in the carriage, for he is gallantry personified, 

 here removes his hat, and making a courtly bow to the north, 

 south, east and west, says: -'Madame Xature, in your proud- 

 est apparel, I salute you." Feeling that T am also compelled 

 to pay homage to the dame's attire. I rise, bow and remark : 

 "Miuliuiie. permit mc, althougb ]ie.rsoual comparisons are 

 ])articulatiy odious to the fair sex, I must say that the Queen 

 of Slieba with her entire wardrobe would be as an iU-fttting 

 patch upon your loveliness. You, my dear madame, are 

 'high, ' the queen is 'low,' Cleveland is jack and I am 'game'." 

 1 was pulled back with violence into my seat or I would 

 have said more. 



"We climli sandhills, loiter to gather chestnuts, and rattle 

 over stony roads until we come to a brook and pjuisr for a 

 few moments while 1 tell iny friend of tlie trout 1 have taken 

 from it. Froui the brook we go up, up. up to the Ijackbone 

 of a ridge that gives a fine view of the country we have left 

 behind and we go on through a remnant of the "forest prim- 

 eval" that is perched on this lofty neck of land; this, too, 

 we leave behind, when suddenly we get a glimpse of the 

 beyond. Tliis is the fertile county of Wasliington that 

 stretches away to llie l)lue hills of Vermont. We arc high up 

 on a narrow, ridge and on one side looking hack we see 

 the thit, rich lands of one county aud on the other the 

 rugaed iiills and rocky valleys of another. It is a 

 grand sight, and Mr. C. is so imbued with it that he even 

 forgets to sound tlie prai.ses of his beloved Lone Star State. 

 8liil we drive on, and just as we think the road is about to 

 terminate in a squirrel track up a tree, we coiue to a mill in 

 the woods and there find the gentleman who is to be our 

 host, Mr. W. P. Ostrander. It is a. mile further to the pond, 

 and when we have been warmly welcomed Mr. O. tells us 

 that we can go on and fish as long as we choose, and are 

 then to drive still another mile beyond to his house, where 

 we are to sup and pass the night. While we are speculating 

 as to whether the road will hold out for two miles more in 

 this senii-wildcrness, we discover that we forgot to get from 

 Mr. Ostrander a written order for the boat and a young man 

 in his employ to row it; so we halt, and, as I am the most 

 unintelligible writer, I formulate an order, and do it with 

 •c.onlidence, because we had been told that the young man 

 •could not read. We shortly reach the pond, and the young- 

 man was so taken with our appearance tliat be .straightway 

 went for the boat and we were not obliged to utter the 

 forged order. 



As I was bending over my tackle box on the grass I was 

 conscious of a strange presence, and looking upward out of 

 the corner of my ofl: e_ye I beheld a dog. If the tackle box 

 had been large enough I would have rolled inside of it and 

 shut the cover and locked it, for that dog liad an evil eye 

 and looked hungry. I thought it the largest dog I ever saw, 

 and besides he was disgustingly familiar, la my younger 

 days 1 have seen some large dogs hj the light of the de- 

 ceptive moon, and moonlight under certain circumstances 

 a(hls several cubits to the stature of a dog, I speak of a 

 dog's front elevation, for a rear view is not so alarming. I 

 distinctly rememlier one such case. With some boy friends 

 1 was plugging some melons one Iteautiful moonlight night 

 in a garden belonging to my father in the outskirts of the 

 town; we went into the garden the back way, over the 

 fence, so that we would not disturb the gardner, who lived 

 on the place. Louis, the gardner, liad a" little dog that in 

 the day time was about seven by nine, and it was well known 

 that he was a light sleeper, and I told the boys that I would 

 attend to tlie dog, for he knew me well .and was in deadly 

 fear of me. We had not plugged more than twenty-five 

 melons, trying to find one ripe one, before the dog appeared. 

 As he seemed a little hoarse I looked up from my occupation 

 and instantly decided that Louis had been trading dogs, for 

 the beggar that was coming was over thirty-two inches at 

 the shoulders, and 1 was the finst boy over the fence. The 

 next morning 1 found it was the familiar little dog that had 

 hastened my departure, and later when I spoke to my father 

 about the mysterious transformation he said it was my con- 

 science that made the dog look so large, but I contended 

 that it was the uncertain moonlight. 



Well, this dog that looked over my shoulder into my 

 tackle box did not require moonlight to increase his size, for 

 in laond day he was too big. At a bench .show he would be 

 entered in the class for "speed aud action — fourteen hands or 

 over." As I was looking for a tree that could be climbed 

 easily, the owner of the dog appeared in the person of a boy 

 about sixteen and about half as big as the dog, who tried to 

 assure me that the vicious look in the dog's eye was really a 

 benevolent expression ; so we chartered the boy and dog to 

 search for crayfish — at a distance. 



It was but a short walk from where we left the carriage to 

 the pond, and a tidy bit of water we found it. The wooded 

 hills encircle it, forming an amphitheatre from which the 

 beasts and the birds can look down upon the area of water 

 and witness the struggle to the death between the patient 

 fisherman and the t()Oth.some fish. Just beyond and con 

 uected with Podunk Pond by a small stream is another beau- 

 tiful sheet of water called Lake Pond. Tbis also contains 

 black bass and perch, and as it can be reached only by a 

 footpath aud boasts not of boat or other water vehicle,"we 

 were told that its fish lived to a greater age than in Podunk. 



Having admired the pond and its surroundings, we turned 

 our attention to its inhabitants, and found, first, that our 

 oarsman did not know anything about the fishing grounds 

 and, second, that a dilige"ut search among the contents of 

 my tackle box revealed not a single sign of a sounding 

 line. My dear friend aud most charming companion is the 

 president of a cotton exchange in a Southern city, and I 



imagine that while at home aud clothed in the dignity of his 

 office he has occasionally to make a "middling" speech con- 

 cerning "spots" or "futm-e delivery*' cotton; aud to keep his 

 vocal organs in condition duj-ing his summer vacation, he is 

 in the habit of working off remnants of old orations or pre- 

 paring new ones that later will be impromptu. Tins was 

 his opportunity ; for oue hour he discour.sed about sounding 

 lines and plumb leads, and i had either to swim ashore or 

 listen, until it occurred to me to ask him where Ms sounding 

 line was; then followed a silence that you could almost feel. 

 Leaviug the plumb line at home proved for me a fortunate 

 misfortune, a paradox that is explained when I say that a 

 month later I secured a sole leather tackle trunk from a New 

 York trunk maker (by direction of Mr. Cleveland); the 

 name plate bore a date that is identical with the anniversary 

 of my wedding day and the day I forgot the sounding line, 

 and inside thclnmk the largest compartment gave notice in 

 Imge letters that it was the receptacle '-for a plumb line and 

 lead, 'and don't you forget it.'" 



To forget a soundiug line and lead when tricing new 

 waters, particularly late in the season, is a stupidity that 

 brings its own punishment. The onlysubistitute in this case 

 was the anchor rope and anchor, and to find a certain bot- 

 tom with an anchor is an operation that condenses more 

 solid exercise than aU the lifting and rowing machines in- 

 vented ; but I found the place we were looking for before 

 my hands were entirely shorn of cuticle. Practice teaches 

 one so well that it is not a difiicult matter to locate certain 

 kinds of bottom in comparative shoal water where the shore 

 formation is also a guide, but fishing for rocks with a fifty- 

 pound anchor stone in forty feet of water is another aud 

 quite a different kind of prospecting. When the anchor 

 was finally down we waited long for our reward in the form 

 of a bite, and when it came it was from a perch, and not a 

 monster either. We fished faithfully until nearly dark and 

 then counted the spoils and found a total of six perch. This 

 did not depopulate the pond, but we were satisfied, and 

 would have been without a single fish. Engaging the young 

 man and the boy, minus his dog, for the next day, we 

 started in the waning twilight for the house of our host, and 

 it was quite dark when we drove to the door after climbing 

 up a hill for a mile. There was an Adirondack flavor about 

 the place, but we met with what Mr, Cleveland afterward 

 referred to a.s "thorough Southern hospitality. " Mr. Ostran- 

 der is the owner of an extensive ore bed of magnetic iron 

 ore, but the mine was not iu operation at the time of our 

 vi.sit. 



During the evening we propounded a number of geo- 

 graphical questions to our host, and learned th^twe^were 

 but an hour's walk through the woods from tlTe shore of 

 Lake George; that one mile away was another pond named 

 Sly, that contained black bass, and four miles distant was a 

 pond that our host considered the peer of any sheet of water 

 in the State. It is named Crossett, but more frequently 

 called Cross Pond, and the scenery about it is described as 

 something that must be seen to be fully appreciated. As 

 the evening wore on my partner and I announced that we 

 were both members in good standing of the Owl Club, and 

 we hoped that no one would remain up past the usual hour 

 for retiring. The Texas Club may forget a sounding line 

 and lead, or au individual member may forget his reel, but 

 there is no record that the cribbage board was ever left 

 behind, and it was a late (or, perhaps, more properly speak- 

 ing, early) hour that night when the last game was pegged 

 and the poor cards of the loser duly abused. 



We did not know the location of affairs outside the house, 

 aud before retiring sallied out to take au observation. I car- 

 ried a kerosene lamp in my hand which I held high above 

 my head as I peered into the darkness from the porch. We 

 were talking in whispers that we might not disturb the in- 

 mates of the house, when suddenly as I advanced I exploded 

 .something. What a din! I had walked into and struck 

 with the metal bars of the lamp an immense triangle sus- 

 pended from the porch roof, and used to call the men from 

 the mines. The sound struck a hill iu front of the house 

 and caromed to the left, and went around behind the barn, 

 where it must have hit something that sent it off to the 

 right. The air was full of it, aud Cleveland whispered 

 hoarsely, "Can't you snub it?" 1 put out my hand, forgetting 

 the lamp, and off it went again. The triangle seemed to be 

 a repeater loaded for all distances, and the second sound 

 chased the first around the house, while I sat down and 

 laughed, and Cleveland talked so fast that I thought he was 

 counting the reverberations, but 1 managed to separate from 

 the torrent of words these fragments: "Stop tier * * 

 just like you * * on pun)ose * * see how much of a 

 ballabaloo * * could kick up * * time of night * * 

 success * * will think * * cowboys raising * * 

 better go to bed." And we went. 



The sun was up aud at work the next morning before we 

 had finished the breakfast that was especially prepared for 

 us by Mrs, Van Wormer, the housekeeper. Mrs. Van Wor- 

 mer told us that our host had driven away on business be- 

 fore sleep had left our eyehds and left word that we were 

 to fee! perfectly at home during his absence. 



It was another perfect morning as we drove down the 

 mountain to the pond and caused us to feel that the bass 

 would bite with pleasure, simply to be hauled out to behold 

 a perfect autumn day. I h^d extemporized a .sounding lead, 

 and after cousideraiile feeling, found some broken rocks 

 nearly stiirounded by grass in thirty-five feet of water. For 

 bait we had dobsons, crayfish, minnows and crickets, and 

 these, one after another, we lowered among the rocks and 

 pulled up, one after another, six black bass of small size. 

 We moved to the grass and tried for perch, but not another 

 fish did we get that day. Six fish — and those all of one kind 

 — appeared to coastitute the limit of a day's fishing in Po- 

 dunk. 



We .sent the young man up to the house for our noon lunch 

 and continued our fishing. When the lunch boat returned 

 both boats made for a point that was evidently put there for 

 picnic purposes, and opened the two large hampers that Mrs. 

 Van W. had sent us in response to a request for "some bread 

 and slices of the cold ham you gave us for supper." Those 

 hampers yielded a hot roast chicken, with gravy, mashed 

 potatoes, llubhard squash, tea — all hot, cream, sugar, bread, 

 butter, pickles, apple pie, cake, cheese, carving knife and 

 fork, teacups and saucers, knives, forks, spoons, tablecloth 

 and napkins. My friend is a particular man, and as he 

 looked over the spread remarked, "The only thing lacking is 

 the ham we asked for." We toasted our host and we toasted 

 his housekeeper and gave thanks for the "cold bite" spread 

 out before us, aud a little later, when we had fified two large 

 pipes with Vanity Fair tobacco and were contentedly puf 

 ling at them as we reclined on a bed of autumn leaves, the 

 two boys had only empty dishes to put back into the ham- 

 pers. 



As I look from my window this chill December day and 

 see the leafless branches of the trees, through which flakes 

 of snow are fast falling, my thoughts go back to the shores 

 of Podunk Pond, and I prefer that this letter should leave 

 mc there with my friend, smoking our after-dinner pipes, 

 from which the smoke slowly rises, indicating that all is 

 peace, A. N. Cheney. 



Glens Falls, N. Y. 



CLIMATE OF THE WEST. 



Editor ForeM and Stream : 



1 observe that my statements of fact, and arguments sup'- 

 poi'ting the conclusion that the climate of the West is being 

 favorably modified by human agency, is vigorously combated 

 by Mr. W. N. Byers, of Denver, Col.," who not merely 

 differs from me in" his conclusions, as he has a perfect right 

 to, but assails me with scant courtesy for propagating views 

 which, although accepted by the "fjirmcrs aud cow-punch- 

 ers" qf the region as matters of personal experience, are 

 nevertheless in your correspondent's opinion so demonstrably 

 erroneous that they should not be propagated by "able 

 newspaper correspondents," to whom facts and figures are 

 acce.s,sible. 



Mr. Byers challenges me "with no uncertain sound" to 

 support my conclusions, "to .show one instance from human 

 history," in which the climate has changed from arid to 

 humid, from dry to wet, "aud prove it by figures, " 



This attitude is more ingenious than ingenuous. Mr. By- 

 ers, it may safely be assumed, knows as well as I that the 

 ancients recorded no meteorological observations sutflciently 

 systematized to be of any value, or that if they did no such 

 records have been handed down to us. He knows as well 

 as I that even in this country meteorological observations 

 are only of recent date; that except hi a few isolated cases 

 they have followed settlement, and consequently afford no 

 data for a comparison of ante-settlement with post-settle- 

 ment climatic couditions. If settlement in the West, as I 

 confidently believe, is modifying climate from arid to less 

 arid conditions, the figures uecessary to substantiate this 

 assertion, in so far as it dejiondsoi] increased rainfall, should 

 embrace not only the returns of rainfall for the period since 

 settlement, but a wide nmge of observations exteuding back- 

 ward at least three or four decades before settlement. From 

 such an array of figures it woidd be possible to deduce 

 sound conclusions — the considerable fluctuation of annual 

 rainfall would probably admit of the returns being tabu- 

 lated in periods of seven or ten years, indicating tolerably 

 uniform returns for the several divisional periods, and the 

 question of increase or decrease of rainfall would be tested 

 by a comparison of two or three recent septennial or decen- 

 nial averages, with the averages of the ea'-lier periods. If 

 there are any such figures lying around in ihese " diggins" I 

 appeal confidently to them, but I certainly do not know 

 where to look for'them. 



But I must do ray critic the justice to admit that if he has 

 with seeming disingeneousness tried to corner me by an 

 appeal to figures, he has not shrunk from affording me an 

 opportunity of assailing him with the same tactics. "Arid 

 regions (says Mr. Byers) are all growing dryer— none of them 

 grow wetter." Let us confine the argument to the region 

 under discu.ssion. Mr. Byers contends that it is growing 

 dryer. I challenge him to produce figures in supportof his bold 

 contention. The position certainly derives no support from the 

 array of figures cited by Mr. Byers. As above argued, a few 

 figures extending over ten or twelve years afford no conclusive 

 evidence, but as Mr. Byers has procluced them, and presum- 

 ably as evidences in support of his position, the only course 

 open to me and your readers is to analyze them for what 

 they are worth. Some of them extend over four or five 

 years only, a period too short to render them of any value, 

 but the returns extending eight years and over afford, if not 

 conclusive, at least interesting subsidiary evidence. 



To the point. Mr. Byers's table gives four .stiitions for 

 which the observations are recorded over twelve years. The 

 aggregate rainfall of these for the first six years i.s 702.83; of 

 the last six years 738.15. There are two stations in which 

 observations extend over ten years, and one of eleven years; 

 eliminating the first year of the latter I find the aggregate 

 rainfall of the first five years is 433.30; of the second period 

 464.38. There are three stations for which observatians ex- 

 tend over nine years; by eliminating the fii'st odd year I find 

 the aggregate of the first four years' rainfall is 244.11 ; of the 

 second period 354 78. Lastly the table contains one station 

 (Fort Benton) iu which, although the returns are for seven 

 years only, there is an inierval of five years in the middle 

 period. Here, too, the figures show 34.73 for the first three 

 years and 40.00 for the second corresponding period. Ag- 

 gregating the total earlier half periods we have 1379.34 and 

 for the latter half 1446.71. 



Mr. Byers appeals to figures. I accept his own compila- 

 tion as the only available data at hand. They certainly do 

 not .support his position. As far as they are of any value, 

 their evidence is in my favor. 



But Mr. Byers does not confine himself to the rainfall. 

 To my assertion that "the annual precipitation is far greater 

 now in regions recently occupied, than it was when the 

 settlers fii-st came into the couutry," and "the climate of the 

 western country is constantly being modified by human 

 agency," he replies, "I have no hesitation in saying that the 

 assertions quoted above are not true." He rails at the local 

 settlers for drawing similar conclusions from their own ex- 

 perience, offers no evidence iu support of his assertion, but 

 contents himself with offering such explanations of the 

 causes which mislead the local residents tofaLse conclusions, 

 as involves the complete surrender of his position on this 

 point. ' 'Again," he says, ' 'during these years he has planted 

 trees about his house and barn, and along the roads and 

 ditches— meadows have been estabUshed and blue grass 

 covers the door yard. In time he observes that there is dew 

 on the grass, etc." 



Dew appears where there was none before, not as an ex- 

 ceptional phenomenon, but as a daily occurrence. Does 

 Mr. Byers require to be told that where there is dew at night 

 the air is surcharged with moisture during the day, and that 

 the transition from a clear, dry atmosphere to one of nightly 

 dews is ample evidence of my contention that a change of 

 climate has followed settlement';' Mr. Byers himself attributes 

 this to human agency. lie accepts the facts that the atmos- 

 phere is charged with more moisture, he admits that the 

 same amount of water will irrigate a larger area than it 

 would at first settlement; but he denies that this constitutes 

 a change of climate. He accepts the fact that there is a 

 heaviej- dewfall, but he denies that there is greater precipita- 

 tion. It appears to me that we are in perfect accord as to 

 the facts; that Mr. Byers's objections apply only to the terms 

 employed by me to give expression to them. 



Neither Mr. Byers nor any man of ordinary intelligence 



