Dec. 34. 1885;] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



425 



tbe branches of the "Delaware, and all this at the expense 

 aud through the efforts of the managemeut of the above- 

 mentioned line, which is thus endeavoring to maintain the 

 repntation of its trout streams. We understand that in the 

 future the stocking process will be kept up hy tlie addition 

 of five hundred thousand trout annually to these streams. 

 In the coining year lishiug and camping cars, provided with 

 sleeping apartments, saloons, kitchens, and a tent or two to 

 each, are to be placed upon this line for the use of fisher- 

 len, and that can be engaged by the day and left upon 

 .dings at such places as a'party may desire. The cars can 

 be used for living pui^joses by those who fish in the streams 

 near by, while those in whom the camping instinct is strong 

 can make trips to more distant streams and live out in genu- 

 ine camping style. This system is much like that of the 

 hunting cars on Western lines; and in enabling anglers to 

 reach grounds which have been almost inaccessible, ought to 

 be a grand success. Tf the yearly system of stocking the 

 wild mountain streams of Sullivan, Delaware and Ulster are 

 persevered in, the grand old days of sport wDl come back 

 again to stay, and Livingston Manor, Cook's Falls, East 

 Branch and Walton will become Meccas for anglers from 

 the city. 



But our trysting place was not among these famous trout 

 streams. In spite of them all, our thoughts outran the train 

 and buried themselves in far-off forests where two white 

 tents would be the only signs of the habitat of man, and 

 where once more the coon and whippoorwill would be oui- 

 nightly companions. It was a tired and dusty trio that dis- 

 embarked from the cars at Oswego at 11 P. M. that night 

 and sought the hospitulity of the Doohttle House and slum- 

 ber. An early breakfast was necessary that we might take 

 the morning train for Cape Vincent, and for it an order was 

 given. With morning came the first botheration of the 

 angle]-. The genius who presided over the culinary depart- 

 ment kept us waiting at the table without service until within 

 five minutes of train time, and we had barely time to swal- 

 low a cup of coffee before the call of "train ready! ' came 

 from the corridor. In none the best of humor we reached 

 the depot of the Rome, Ogdensburg and Watertown road, 

 purchased tickets and approached the almost unapproach- 

 able being who presided over the baggage-smashing depart- 

 ment. Here we were met with a curt refusal to check a bag 

 of blankets, for it was "agin orders" and they "couldn't go," 

 There was no time for a parley, so we had a private inter- 

 view with the master of the situation and saw our luegage 

 safe on the train and, but for the loss of our breakfast, would 

 have been content. Fortunately there was a balance to our 

 credit in the lunch basket which filled the void, and we 

 braced ourselves for another day. Men and women, youths 

 and maidens came and went; earnest-eyed anglers with rods 

 and baskets boarded the train with shortened breath, indica- 

 tive of their having had a run for it, stopped a while and 

 disembarked, bent on their quest, A change of cars and a 

 reshipment of baggage came, then another, through both of 

 which we kept a tender, anxious eye upon our all in all — 

 that precious troublesome bag of blankets. But "our faith 

 in time was large," and before noon we were standing on 

 the aeck of the little steamer bound up the river for King- 

 ston. _ Here we had determined to begin our inquiries 

 touching the best camping and fishing places. We were 

 recommended to go in every direction, north, east and west, 

 to places near and far, on the Eideau, to Clayton, Sharbot 

 Lake, the Brothers, and a score of inland lakes. One pro- 

 posed our taking the Kingston and Pembroke Railroad to 

 Sharbot Lake, and the Canadian Pacific thence to Arden, a 

 journey of eighty miles to the northwest, where, in a chain 

 of lakes, lonely enough to suit the most fastidious camper, 

 mascalonge and trout were taken, and the black bass was to 

 be found in the glory of his perfection. It was an enticing 

 proposal, and we made a memorandum for the trip, deter- 

 mined to give the place a trial. But the madame had been 

 captivated by "Podgers"' Paradise, which that writer had 

 located on Wolf Island, and some inquiry must be made 

 concerning the same. The ardor of the madame was soon 

 cooled, for she was informed by what seemed to be good 

 angling authority that Kingston fishermen no longer resorted 

 to the place described by "Podgers" for sport, that the time 

 was when the fishing was good, but that its glory had de- 

 parted. The article in Forest and Steeaji concerning the 

 Paradise, we were told, excited some comment at the time 

 in Kingston, and it was asserted that its author had been 

 imposed upon by stories of catches which had no truth in 

 them. The camping question having been duly investigated, 

 we set out for the base where we had left our dufile on 

 breaking camp last year. We soon found the driver of the 

 ancient tally-ho, and engaged a seat beside him for the jour- 

 ney. He proved to be an acquaintance of last year a 



young jovial fellow by the name of Stoness. Some one in 

 the backwoods settlement was dead and the stage driver had 

 been commissioned to take back a coflan, for which purpose 

 an extra team had been brought in. 



In the middle of the afternoon we started, with our lug- 

 gage fastened upon the coflan which followed close behind. 

 Before we had made half a dozen miles there was a break- 

 down, aud one of the hind wheels was found to be minus a 

 tire. There were no houses within sight and no aid at hand, 

 so we walked alongside the cumbersome vehicle for a couple 

 of miles in the vain hope of conserving its energy for the 

 last twelve miles of its journey. At last we came to the 

 house of a farmer, who loaned us a heavy lumber wagon 

 innocent of springs, in which we were bumped and tumbled 

 about for the remainder of the afternoon and into the night. 

 The coflln, with our baggage, had passed us in the mean' 

 time, and now led the way. A little beyond, upon a rise 

 of ground, stood a dilapidated church in the midst of a 

 graveyard, the white stones of which were gleaming in the 

 last fight of the day. Was it an omen? When we passed it 

 on our return a fresh mound marked the spot where the 

 strong, ruddy hands which had held the reins were lying, 

 folded "to be and abide, forever and aye in the dust by his 

 side. ' Altogether it was an ill-starred, ghastly ride, though en 

 livened by the wit and good humor of the young driver whose 

 sun was so near its setting. Thed and depressed we reached 

 Bathersea and were received in the modest inn, the Queen's 

 Own, kept by Van Alstyne. After a well-provided supper 

 we were greeted and welcomed by our deer-hunter friends 

 and the acquamtances of a yeai- ago. We soon found that 

 our tents and traps were safe and in good condition, and we 

 began to feel that our ontiug had commenced. Where we 

 might drive our tent pegs was still uncertain, but we had 

 placed the border between ourselves and care, and were 

 determined, come what might, we would for the coming two 

 months lord over time itself. Om aspirations had no bounds 

 The Ottawa was within reach by water, the Madawaska I 

 only a day away, while Rice and Stony lakes seemed at our 

 door; we would try them all. Added to these, there were ^ 



lakes abounding in bass in every direction about us, con- 

 nected b3' waterways or only separated by short carries. It 

 was too weighty a matter to settle at once, so we concluded 

 to "sleep on it." The morning found us as far from a 

 decision as ever, but with plenty of tune on our hands in 

 which to plan a campaign, for the rain was falling in tor- 

 rents and outdoor work was impossible. There had been a 

 considerable fall in the temperature during the night and a 

 fevtr loungers were gathered about the huge iron box stove, 

 which, under the "inspiration of an armful of wood, was 

 pouring out fierce gusts of heat. A single clay pipe fur- 

 nished solace for the party, and this was passed about from 

 one to another, each waiting in patience for his neighbor to 

 consume the chai-ge of plug, with a supply of which every 

 one seemed to be provided. A wooden settee, a table, wash- 

 stand and half a dozen chairs, with our trunks, constituted 

 the furniture of the sitting room, where all were assembled 

 to pass a rainy day. The landlord was popular with his 

 neighbors, the company was sociable, and the environment, 

 with its novelty, was far from being unpleasant. The con- 

 versation was mainly of farming, with now and then a 

 digi-ession into politics, in which "Grits," "Conservatives" 

 and "Sir John" came in for their share of praise and blame. 

 It was Hindoostanee to us, and we failed to get the attributes 

 of either, except that it struck us that the main difference 

 between them was that which always exists between the 

 successful aud the unsuccessful, those who have aud those 

 who want — the eternal strife between the ins and outs. 



Sometimes a deer story would draw forth a few comments, 

 but nothing lower in the range of sports was accorded a 

 hearing. With waters about them abounding in bass, lake 

 trout and pike, no one thought or spoke of fishing, nor 

 could we learn whether any of the former had been taken 

 during the season. It was apparent that the native was not 

 an angler. 



All day long the clay pipe rolled out its volumes of smoke, 

 the fire in the bos stove roared and the rain beat against the 

 eastern window panes. As night came on the group gath- 

 ered closer about the stove, one or two more dropped in, and 

 politics aud deer, with an occasional dash of Riel and the 

 rebellion filled up the evening. The hands of the clock went 

 round to eleven before the door closed upon the last visitor 

 and we sought the feather bed prepared for us in the little 

 room which looked upon a hill crowned with stately pines, 

 the sobbing and sighing of which came to us through the 

 darkness like the wail of lost spirits which were being hur- 

 ried to their doom before the storm. 



In the morning, though the rain had ceased, the sky was 

 still threatening, and the day promised to be anything but 

 pleasant. After a late breakfast, preferring a drenching to 

 being cooped up for another day, we carried the boat to the 

 creek and pulled up the stream toward the lake. Again we 

 breathed the odor of the white lilies which lined the shores 

 and lay before us, an expanse of purity and beauty. It 

 seemed as tliough time had stood still and that the flowers 

 which had faded with the summer of the bygone year wore 

 yet around us. Softly and tenderly we pressed them back 

 from the edge of the narrow channel and left them dancing 

 unharmed in our wake. A short turn in the stream and the 

 long familiar stretch of waters were before us. In front 

 Garden Island rose in all its olden emerald beauty, while far 

 down to the right an opening among the pines on the bluff 

 marked the site of last year's camp. The granite cliffs 

 looked a grim, silent welcome, aud a pair of loons sitting in 

 our course, just out of gun shot, greeted us with their ho, 

 ho, ho. No other signs of life were visible on the lake; it 

 was as lonely as on the morning when the fires of the Lau- 

 rentian age hollowed the basin and thrust up the still un- 

 named islands of Loughborough. 



With steady stroke we held' on our course; the loons dis- 

 appeared beneath the water and emerged a hundred yards 

 away to the right; a blue crane that had been wading in the 

 shallows of the island in front rose as we drew near and 

 slowly winged his way to the woods on the southern shore. 

 As we rounded the island, we caught sight of a solitary 

 fisherman sitting low in his skiff, a half a mile away, and 

 toward him we turned the bow. We were within a dozen 

 boat lengths of him before he was aware of our approach, 

 when suddenly he turned and we were face to face with our 

 ancient friend Sabattis. We pulled alongside and were 

 greeted with a stolidity the same as though only a day 

 instead of a year had intervened since our last meeting. A 

 single "How?" and the old man's interest in our coming was 

 apparently at an end, and he resumed his fishing. A dozen 

 or more two-pound small-mouths were hanging on a string 

 from the oar pin, the fruits of an hour's fishing. We waited 

 to see no more, but headed our craft toward the outlet, 

 where our rods and tackle were lying, still unpacked. From 

 that moment Rice Lake and all the rest w^ere forgotten ; we 

 were in the midst of the haunts of the lordly micropterus, 

 from which nothing but a batch of affidavits, proving, to a 

 dead certainty, better sport in another quarter, could entice 

 us. 



Before our boat touched the shore the rain was upsn us 

 again, and we hastened to shelter, with the prospects of 

 getting settled in camp or fishing as far oft' as ever. 



W awayanda. 



THE DEVIL FISH OF ESTERO BAY. 



IT has been suggested to the writer by our mutual friend. 

 Dr. Ferber, that some of the incidents which occurred 

 during a certain trip made last season down the western 

 coast of the peninsula of Florida were worth preserving. If 

 it were possible to picture to your readers the events of such 

 a day as vividly as memory presents them to the actors, then 

 might this communication justify itself. The day selected 

 for the experiment is March 10, 1885. The boat is the sloop 

 Ella M. Little, of about eight tons. Captain and owner 

 Alfred P. Jones. Pilot, Wilson; Christian name omitted' 

 as a suspicion exists that he was never properly baptized. 

 Able seaman, Abram. Supernumeraries, Messrs. Blank and 

 Black, otnerwise the "big" and "little" doctor, well- 

 known physicians of Chicago, genial companions and ardent 

 sportsmen ; and lastly the writer. Time, sunrise. (Note.— 

 The big doctor has taken a contract to have us always under 

 way by daylight, and proposes to keep it up if he kills us. 

 True, he occasionally makes the mistake of routing us out at 

 midnight, but he means well, and we forgive him.) Loca- 

 tion, a few miles south of Puuta Rassa, and iust opposite the 

 entrance to Estro Bay. 



The day is a perfect one, the air soft, balmy, and inspired 

 by a gentle breeze from the west. One of the party is seated 

 upon the cabin .sweeping the horizon with his omnipresent 

 field glass. 



"PUot, what's that big fin half a mile away on the weather 

 bow?" 

 "Devilfish." 



"Devil fish! Pilot, that's what we are here for. We 

 want that fish." 



"Yuu don't want to fool with no devil fish; there ain't no 

 child H play about them." 

 "Pilot, we want that fish." 



"Yes," adds the little doctor; "we will have him if we 

 have to follow him home." 



"Well, if I must, I must; but you've got to tend line, and 

 the others get into the cockpit out of the way, I don't want 

 any one killed by this blanked foolishness." 



"We will do as we are told, if it is to jump overboard- 

 only, strike that fish!" 



Off come the pilot's coat, shoes and stockings,, the anchors 

 are carried aft, everything movable taken from the forward 

 deck, and three or four hundred feet of half inch manilla 

 rope coiled there. The jib is hauled down and carefully 



the 

 d, hij 



— just attached firmly 



to the harpoon. The hand of the capt,aiii is on the tiller, 

 while his eyes follow every motion of the pilot. Abram 

 stands liy the halUards ready for the expected order. One 

 of the passengers, with hands trembling with excitement, 

 holds the line, prepared to give it a turn around the windlass 

 or his own neck, as he may be instructed. The other two 

 sit with their rifles on the top of the cabin, equally ready to 

 jump overboard or down among the coils of line, according 

 as the one or the other gives promise of most excitement. 

 "Port." 

 "Port it is." 

 "Steady." 

 "Steady it is," 

 "Starboard." 

 "Starboard." 



"Keep her oft" a little more, now luff." 

 Thud ! Crash ! A young waterspout under the bow, a 

 line whizzing through torn and blistered fingers. 



"Down mainsail. Give that line a turn round the wind- 

 lass. Hard down your helm. Catch that pole." But 

 everything cannot be done at once. The line has a double 

 turn around the windlass; the sloop is already plowing 

 the water in the direction of the great fish, and the harpoon 

 pole is fifty yards astern. Into the skiff tumbles one of the 

 party, and, pulbng vigorously, soon recovers the pole. To 

 return is less easy, and when, after a long pull, our friend 

 is within forty yards of the sloop, the monster, suddenly 

 changing his course, swims straight for the little boat. For 

 a moment the occupant contemplates the sport of the chase 

 from an unusual standpoint (for a man), but happily his 

 boat is barely touched by one of the great wings of the 

 gigantic "sea bat," and he soon finds himself safe (and 

 warm) on board. Back comes the fish, aud a casual blow 

 makes our craft shiver from stem to stern, and suggests that 

 we owe much to the ignorance of our prey. 



Somebody's rifle cracks and the spouting blood and crim- 

 son wake promise to our inexperience the approaching ter- 

 mination of resistance aud consequently of sport. But; 

 neither one bullet nor the score that follow it avail in 

 the direction of our anticipations. Deeper and deeper 

 swims the fish, now probably forty feet below the surface, 

 but straight out into the Gulf and with increasing velocity. 

 The occupants of a pleasure yacht which we pass.'^gaze with 

 wonder upon a sloop bowling along against wind and wave 

 without a sail set. The wind is increasing; waves rising; 

 hours passing. The weight of three men "is constantly on 

 the line hauliug in as opportunity offers, paying out as the 

 vagaries of the fish demand. An occasional foot planted 

 within the coils of line on the deck elicits a caution from 

 the pilot in language which, although sometimes theological, 

 is not deficient in vigor. One by one we steal into the cabin 

 and come out with a mouthful of doughnut... 



Our captain, after a glance in the direction of the now in- 

 visible shore and another toward some fast gathering clouds, 

 incidentally observes, "That devil fish is bound for Mexico." 

 "Then so are we, Captain." 



And yet something must be done. To openly suggest cut- 

 ting the line would expose one to the risk of assassination. 



So another turn of the fine around the windlass, the bars 

 inserted, and the sloop walked up toward the fish until the 

 parting of one of the strands of the rope warns us we must 

 draw the line of mechanical force somewhere. 



But now the back of the monster is again seen near the 

 surface and some thirty feet beyond the bowsprit. Another 

 harpoon is hastily prepared, another thud, flurry, and 

 renewed excitement. Now we have two lines on the wind- 

 lass. Soon the devil fish is swimming directly under the 

 bow, but vyith undiminished energy. A great shark hook ia 

 soon cast in his cavernous mouth, its heavy chain carried 

 aft aud made fast, the big mainsail and jib hoisted, and our 

 bow pointed away from the heavy wind now blowing straight 

 for Estero Bay. We sit upon the stern of the sloop watching 

 the great mouth, the curious horn-hke flippers, and the won- 

 derful power and grace of the propeller-like wings, as witli 

 oft-loosening chain the great fish swims easily after us. 



As we reach the entrance to Estero Bay, and are about 

 entering it, our captive suddenly awakens to the possibility 

 that perhaps he is after all not carrying out liis own ideas. 

 His powerful propellers are worked backward, the spray 

 oovers us, the commotion in the water is tremendous, and. 

 for a moment the result seems doubtful. But wind and sail 

 prevail, it is a dying flurry. Soon we have him anchored 

 as near the shore as six men aided by pulleys can bring him; 

 his broad back (eighteen feet from wing to wing) above the 

 water so that we can safely ventm-e on it. We examine the 

 curious half fish and half leeches which have domiciled 

 themselves upon the back of our victim, and are greedily 

 sucking the wounds made by our rifles. We remove a 

 square yard or so of the tough and rasp-like hide with a view 

 to future slippers, and proceed to sink a shaft through gristle 

 and flesh (bone there is none) into the creature's interior. 

 This at the instance of our medical companions, who insist 

 that autopsy naturally follows death. The peculiar organism 

 disclosed, the information obtained from a medical and 

 scientific standpoint are subjects partaking too much of the 

 character of useful information for this paper. It is already 

 sunset, and our caterer invites us to indicate our preferences 

 in the matter of a proposed supper. The firm flesh of the 

 fish with its steaks of bright red and pure white suggests the 

 answer, and we try a gastronomic experiment, which is as 

 successful as we believe it to be unique. A W D 



New Yobk, Dec. 15, 1885. ... 



Lost in the Snow.— Wausau, Wis., Dec. 11.— The body 

 of Forest McKay was found yesterday in the southern part 

 of the city, only ten rods from a pubhc thoroughfare. He 

 had been out hunting the day before, and had evidently 

 become lost in the bhnding snow storm of Wednesday night, 

 and been frozen to death. 



