July 22, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



611 



irig sprine with the aid of "Little Douglas," who yielded to 

 the power of her resistless charms; to the revolting murder 

 that closed her career in 1587. and the agony so inimitably 

 e>pvess<d in the livid pallor and contracted features of the 

 Abt otsford painting of the Queen's head after di collation— but 

 look ! that eleam through a wave's crest! Instinctively your 

 wrist turns, and the barb of your tiny hook is Bet in the hp 

 of a pound and a half Lnchlevm trout. The movement you 

 have ureamed of for years has come at last. Be cautious, 

 for your tackle is refined to the utmost, and your fish is the 

 prince of finny diplomats. His first rush is toward the 

 drifting boat. "Cutch the pirn!" cries the watchful oarsman, 

 and in rtsponse you reel madly on the slack and lead your 

 fish successf ully past the bow. Who but a brother of the 

 angle can conceive of the sublime frenzy which accom- 

 panied the rush of thai trout at the descending "teal and 

 red" — who else, that erethism, short-lived, unearthly, that 

 electrified every nerve in your frame as you twisted the steel 

 int'* bis jaw and felt him "fast" — that concentration of 

 delight in the struggle that followed, wherein the noblest 

 fish that God has made matched his brute intellect, perhaps 

 his experience, against your reason and art; wherein your 

 slight Leonard split bamboo (unknown on these waters, 

 where two-handeu sixteen-foot rods are still the rule) beauti- 

 fully responded to his desperate leaps for life and ^rctnd in 

 perfection to his wild circles —who but an angler knows of the 

 sweet calm that follows victory as you tenderly placed your 

 dying captive on the boat bottom, and wearied by the excite- 

 ment sat down to watch his colors fade, with the feeling that 

 if your life were forthwith to end, it had not been altogether 

 a failure. Aud now that he has so skillfully taken your fish 

 in out of the wet, untie your boatman's tongue with a 

 Camptoelton and Islay blend, and he will entertain you with 

 bits of history folk lore: for every hillside, each wood, each 

 ruin has its tale, and you long to make them speak of pre- 

 historic ages, of the thousand yi ars that intervened between 

 the landing of the Celt and Julius Cse-sar, when the Arch 

 Druid was absolute in the laud, even of the stone men who 

 precede d the Celt, and whose remains and implements are 

 imbedded ia the caves and river strata of Britain. Our eyes 

 have lifted from the cast to the distant mouutains, as if they 

 would indeed find voice and satisfy the craving. "There's a 

 lovely one, sor!" growls the oarsman, disgusted with our 

 pre occupation, risen while we were ditaming of by-gone 

 years. A flash of bluish silver beneath the flies, like the 

 blaze of a Brazilian diamond, and that is all. He has 

 recognized the sleave silk and feathers, and has glanced past, 

 up wind, in pursuit of the genuine Chdicidw. Let him go. 

 "You are not greedy, sor," says our boatman. We have had 

 our snare, more than our share, for many an angler spends 

 days at Lochleveu, awaiting favorable weather, without 

 killing his single trout, and our take already, to be an- 

 nounced in the Glasgow Herald ol June 30, is 10 rish, weight 

 8 pounds 12 ounces. 



As we plod our way at evening toward Harris's Hotel in 

 Kinross, the sights and scenes about us recall Tannahill's 

 picture of the close of the Scotland day. 



'•Beneath the golden gloaming sky, 

 The mavis mends her lay, 



The redbreast pours his sweetest strains 

 To charm the lingering day; 



While weary yeldrin3 seem to wall 

 Their little nestlings torn, 



The merry wren, frae deu to den, 

 Gaes jinkin' through the thorn. 



The roses fauld their silken leaves, 



The fox-glove shuts its bell, 

 The honeysuckle and the birk 



Spread h-agrance through the dell. 

 Let others crowd the giddy court 



Of mirth and revelry, 

 The simple joys that nature yields 



Are- dearer far to me." 



Adieu! Lochleven. If our venture prove a success, Ave 

 shall live over these happy hours, see again in fancv thy 

 castled isle and crumbling ruin, dream ag-un of thy Druids 

 and Culdees^ thy Picti-h princes and thy Scottish kings, as 

 we killed thy spotted children in the Lake of Sunapee. 



John D. Ql ackenbos. 



Lochleven, Scotland, June 24, 18£G. 



THE TROUT OF MONTEREY. 



BY JOHN DEAN CATON, L.L.D. 



FOR several years past I have spent a mouth or two of the 

 spring time at Monterey, California, which I tbink is 

 the most beauiiful resort for tourists of the many charming 

 places in that State. The Hotel del Monte is located in an 

 open forest of old live oaks and pines, whose appearance 

 suggests thoughts of pre historic times, and the wild and 

 gnarled appearance, especially of the live oaks, attract ad- 

 miration by their grotesque forms. Among these are the 

 pleasure grounds of the resort, where very large sums of 

 money have been and are being expended under the super- 

 vision of a skillful gardener. The Arizona Garden, as it is 

 called, which occupies but a small portion of the ground, is 

 filled with a great, variety of cacti, brought hundreds of 

 miles from the gteat sandy deserts, where the most extraor- 

 dinary forms of this plant are found, and having been suc- 

 cessfully introduced and are now vigorously flourishing in 

 this unnatural environment. 



But what interested me. most on my first visit was the 

 prospective fish pond. This was a pond or lagoon of per- 

 haps fifty acres, of about seven feet in depth, resting in a 

 bed of sand and separated from the great bay of Monterey 

 by a high bank of sand, which had been raised by the wind, 

 aud why this sand has always stepped short on that high 

 hill only partlv coven d with bushes, and had not passed on 

 and filled up this little lake whose waters extend nearly to 

 its base, is quite beyond my philosophy. The outlet of this 

 lake was a little rivulet which ran its course along parallel 

 with the sandhill for perhaps three hundred yards, where it 

 emptied itself into another pond still larger, which in turn 

 emp'ied into the bay through a considerably larger though 

 sluggish stream in the very town of Monterey, beyond the 

 sandbank which had dwindled away to a proper sea beach 

 for half a mile before the mouth of the outlet into the bay 

 was reached. This final outlet may be called a tidal stream, 

 for the tide sets up into it at times. The outlet of the upper 

 lake had been closed up and covered over, with a screen at 

 the upper end. 



For the purpose of stocking this lake with trout, a fish 

 hatchery had been erected on the grounds and placed in 

 charge of a most competent expert, Mr. Dyson, which was 

 a complete success. This was rendered possible by a great 



abundance of the purest and coldest water, which was; 

 brought in large iron pipes from the headwaters of the Car- 

 mel River in the mountain twenty five miles away. This 

 water is cold, as you will see later on, and in great abund- 

 ance, and the ovetflow makes a nice brook. A pipe is con- 

 ducted into the pond, from which a four inch yt is thrown 

 up, 1 should judge, at least forty feet when the water is 

 turned on, and as the standpipe is below the surface of the 

 water it has a pretty appearance. Ordinarily the overflow 

 ran through the fish hatchery. 



When J first visited Monterey and spent nearly two months 

 there in the spring of 1884. 1 found this fish hatchery in a 

 very prosperous condition, and so again in the spring of 1885 

 The little lake seemed to be swarming with the young trout, 

 but it was wisely determined not to turn loose the guests of 

 the hotel upon the lake for another year, and of cour.-e all 

 recogniz d the fact that to make any exception to this rule 

 would be unwise Only the California or rainbow trout were 

 introduced into the lake for the reason Mr Dyson explained, 

 that they grow more than twice as fast as the eastern brook 

 trout and that they can endure more vicissitudes as well. 



When on my way over to the same destination last March 

 I reveled in anticipation of trout fishing in this beautiful 

 lake aud I promised myself to do my share toward supplying 

 the table of the Hotel del Monte with trout. I had hardly 

 registered at the hotel when I inquired of Mr. Simmons, the 

 new manager, about the trout in the lake. He answered with 

 a sigh, that they were all gone and that there were only cat- 

 fishthere! My heart and hopes fell to a very low point very 

 quickly; 1 could not at the time even inquire the cause of 

 this misfortune. So soon as 1 could 1 commenced the inquiry 

 from what I supposed to be the best sources of information. 

 Mr Dyson was gone; the hatchery was closed; the fountain 

 was never seen flowing, the shores of the lake looked ne- 

 gltcted and the beautiful driveway around its shores was 

 dilapidated and impassable. All interest in the beauiiful 

 little sheet of water, which had promised to be one of the 

 strongest attractions of that charming place, seemed to have 

 completely died out. 



The first explanation was that the divers had caught out 

 all of the trout; and in proof of this I found a person who 

 had shot a number of the divers; in the craws of one or two 

 of the birds young trout were found. There are two or three 

 species of these aquatic birds which settle in great numbers 

 upon the ponds along the coast, especially this one, twice a 

 year, and remain for several weeks. This did not satisfy 

 me. 1 pursued my inquiries in quarters which I thought 

 must be absolutely reliable. From this source I learned that 

 the lake was full of large catfish, which was true, and that 

 they had eaten up all of the trout! This information was so 

 positive that it fairly staggered me, and I tried to get a speci- 

 men of these ferocious and nimble catfish, but they refused 

 to be taken. I was very anxious to see a catfish with its 

 stomach full of speckled trout. At length I learned that 

 Mr. Dyson was engaged stocking with fish a system of lakes 

 near Castroville, Cal. ; to him I addressed a letter containing 

 many inquiries on the subiect. I can do no better than to 

 give his answer in full. While it satisfactorily explains the 

 loss of the trout in the pond spoken of, it contains much 

 valuable information about fishculture on the Pacific Coast. 



Espinosa Lake, Castroville, May 23. 188(5. Hon. John Dean Caton, 

 Hotel uel Monte. Dear Sir— Absence from home and your letter 

 having been mislaid are the causes of your not receiving a reply 

 before this, which I tru<t you will pardon. First, as to the number 

 of trout that were put in tbe lake at the Del Monte, I have only my 

 recolhction as my authority. When I took possession of the hatchery 

 there I found some inemorinda, seemingly of the number of trout 

 put in the lake, and that number gave 183,000 eggs for Del Monte, and 

 3^,000 eggs for another place, I don't know where, so according: to 

 this, if there were 75 per cent, of the eggs hatched, there were 137,000 

 trout put in the Jake by Mr. Woodbury, who at that time attended to 

 ihe fishery. During my stay at the Dei Monte I paid particular 

 attention to the trout in the lake. I used to catch some every day 

 and examine them, and I found them in exctflent health. That was 

 from Feb 7 to July. Shortly after I left I was told that they ran a 

 seine net across the laue. but did not succeed in catching an? trout. 

 If they had caught any I should have simply said that the trout were 

 very lazy, not to be able to get out of tbe way of a net. 



I can't understana why the trout should have disappeared so 

 quickly, and the only cause I can give is, that they permitted the 

 water in the lake to get foul by not Jeiting fresh water into the lake, 

 and the fish, not having any shade from the sun, naturally sickened 

 and died. 



No douht tbe divers might have destroyed a number of these fish, 

 but tbe catfish do not eat the fish. They will destroy the spawn. My 

 opinion is tuat ihe "'diver and catfish business" is a very small excuse 

 to get through a large-sized hole. If the trout are all dead there, it 

 was neglect in not keepiug the water good. 



The iusect I used to feed the young fry on was what is commonly 

 kno.m as the water ilea and a small red water worm. I also used to 

 teed thnm on the water scorpion, also a small periwinkle that is 

 found attached to all water plants. You can find all theabove inf-ect 

 life in toe pond, juet outside the Del Monte grounds, just east of Mr. 

 Ulrich's hou e You then could see for yourself, and wutild be much 

 bttter satisfi./d than by my description. I do not know the scientific 

 names for them. 



I was very fortunate in my hatching of trout. Put into the lake 

 here 95 per cent, of eggs actually received. I fed my young fry 

 mos ly on lamb's liver boiled hard, with curdled milk," '-oonue cla- 

 ber." worked into a paste and then spread upon a flat piece of board 

 about 3.n uide and %in. thick, and then dipped in the water. Ou 

 tuis food the youug fry did remarkably well for three weeks. I then 

 gave them a little raw liver worked very fine mixing with maggots 

 At this age I began to feed them on ine insects mentioned. I also 

 fed ihem with the roo's of water vegetation, which I did by pulling 

 up a large handful from the ditch btlow the fish house and putting 

 it in the troughs with the young rish. This acted like a charm when 

 tbe fish looked aumpy and lazy. Clotted Dlood I found good for the 

 weak fish, they seemed to thrive aud grow strong very rapidly ; but 

 for healthy fish I would not advise it. for I found that it brought on 

 a kiod of ctioiera among them, although I did not lose any from it. 

 What I suffered mostly from was the fungoid growth, natural iu the 

 water. Mud baths in the troughs did a great deal to save the little 

 fellows, but I found that to get them out into the ponds was the 

 safest plan. 



Tbe temperature of the water at the Del Monte varies vpry much, 

 and ar short notice; in t le night it would be from 55° to 53°,' and at 

 JO o'clock it would run up to 65° at tunes. This I avoided In a great 

 measure by using from the main and tank, so bringing down to about 

 60° during Ihe day. Tuis temperature is far too warm for the little 

 fellows, that is. for making a strong, healthy fish; but because I put 

 on a good head of water so as to make theurf move and work, I tbink 

 was the reason I was so successful in having such a good percetitage 

 of fish. 



The trout that I placed in these lakes (near Castrovil'e), from what 

 I hdve seen of them, are doing nicely. I have not yet cast a line, but 

 next month intend doing so. I see them jumping and they appear 

 quite lively and strong. Hoping the above will ans« er your inquiries, 

 if not I shall be pleased to give you any further information that I 

 can, believe me, yours respectfully, J. H. Dyson. 



Ot the trout streams in this vicinity which invite the angler 

 to their shores, I may mention as the nearest the Carmel 

 River, which rises in the coast range of mountains and emp- 

 ties into the Pacific Ocean several miles from here, near the 

 old Carmel Mission, now fast crumbling to ruins. It is a 

 bold aod rapid stream, and, like all of the other mountain 

 torrents, of the purest cold water. Small salmon trout and 

 the brook trout are both taken in this stream, the former 

 much the most abundantly. Both rise to the fly well. The 

 best season is from May to September, depending consider- 

 ably on the rains. The fish are taken in the rapid water 

 between the pools. The stream is not bordered by overhang- 

 ing trees or tangled vines, which so often vex the angler 



when fishing the most prolific trout streams, and is so shal- 

 low that it may be waded at an ordinary stage of water. 

 Altogether it is the best stream on the coast which invites 

 the angler's visit. 



Scuth of this stream but one mile away is San Jose Creek, 

 which affords good °port. but the fish are smaller if not less 

 abundant. Ten miles further south is Garropatos Creek, 

 which, however, cannot be reached without fatigue and dif- 

 ficulty, but for this reason affords very fine sport to him 

 whose perseverance enables him to reach it, because its deni- 

 zens are so little disturbed. Still further south are several 

 other very fine trout streams, which are so inaccessible that 

 they are not much disturbed; but to him who enjoys the 

 fatigue and perseverance which enables him to reach them 

 as well as the sport after he gets there, these streams in the 

 mountain fastnesses are the most inviting of all. The first 

 of his outfit must be saddle and pack mul s and tents. What 

 a charming prospect to the hardy and energetic sportsman 

 who loves nature in its wildness, who can see beauty in the 

 rocks and the forest, whose ear loves the music of the fall- 

 ing waters, and who loves to repose in the quiet stillness of 

 nature when all around him seems to sleep. 



CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS. 



CARP LAKE, MICHIGAN.— XIX. 



THE rest of the day was passed in lazy enjoyment around 

 tbe camp till the sun was low enough to cast a shade 

 ou the water along the west shore for an hour's comfortable 

 fishing, and this hour or so in the shadows of the dying day 

 seems after all more enjoyable and restful to the "contem- 

 plative man" than all other hours between the dawn and the 

 closing in of the night. 



Some time during this lazy afternoon little Top caused a 

 ripple to disturb the dreamy languor of the camp and the 

 placid waters of the lake at the same time, by falling into it. 

 She was perched on a camp stool near the water where the 

 bank sloped a trifle, ending in an abrupt drop to the water 

 of nearly two feet. She got to laughing at something one of 

 the girls was telling, and to give free play to her tickled 

 feelings, reared back and lost her balance, and Top, camp 

 stool and all went rolling down the slope and over the bank 

 "ker splash" into the, water. As it was here only a couple of 

 feet deep she was quickly on her feet with a "whoo-s-b," and 

 Bob, who happened to be near, reached out and pulled her 

 up on the bank, looking like a wet hen. The water had 

 effectually quencbed her hilarity and she was taken to the 

 tent, stripped of her clinging garments and wrung out. I 

 beg Top's pardon, I mean her garments were wrung out and 

 spread on the grass, and when she had been rigged out in 

 dry raiment she came out looking as fresh and bright as a 

 morning glory and all the better for the ducking. I promised 

 Miss Top I would not tell about it in the Forest and 

 Stream, but the promise was given like the Sunday fishing 

 promise, with a mental reservation. But as the little lady 

 and myself are on the best of terms the affair is not likely to 

 result seriously. After this performance Top lost confidence 

 in camp stools and laughed mostly standing up. 



Since the pleasant weather had set in, the tug J. T. Ran- 

 som, belonging to the Leland Mining Company, had been 

 going up every morning to a big wood pile near the sawmill 

 with a couple of empty wood scows, and returning about 

 noon with two others loaded with cord wood, which the 

 company was shipping to Chicago; and when any of us 

 wished a ride to a point where we wanted to fish, or if any 

 one wanted to go to the village below for our mail, we had 

 only to run out in a boat and signal clever and accommodat- 

 ing Captain Dunkelow, when he would slow up and let us 

 aboard, leaving our boat to tow astern and dance over the 

 bubbles churned up by the powerful screw, for the Ransom 

 was a clipper and could reel off her six and seven miles an 

 hour towing two barges with fifty cords of wood on each. 

 Tbe crew of the little tug consisted of the captain and 

 engineer, the first also the pilot and the latter acting as his 

 own stoker. The captain was a rare good fellow, bad been 

 a good soldier in a Michigan regiment (Michigan sent out no 

 poor soldiers) and lost a hand in battle, whicb was now re- 

 placed with a miserable makeshift in the shape of an iron 

 hook strapped to the forearm ; but with this hook and his 

 one good hand he would steer the little boat, pass cord wood 

 down to the engineer, or haul in and curl away a heavy two- 

 iuch hawser with almost the neatness and dispatch of a per- 

 son with two good hands, besides accomplishing many other 

 things that looked even more difficult. He was a good 

 talker, too, and had always some entertaining information 

 for us whenever we had occasion to ride with him up or 

 down the lake. 



One day when Muller and I got aboard for a ride to tbe 

 village he spoke of the "oil well," of which we had heard 

 every day since our coming, and as we steamed alons: down 

 he told us the story of its boring and the tragic end of its 

 former owner. Some sixteen or seventeen years ago, he said, 

 a French nobleman of some means, Marquis Marchal Debe- 

 loy, came into the neighborhood for a season of recreation, 

 and was so well pieased with the surrounding country that 

 he bought quite a tract of land on the east side of the lake, 

 including the point above the Narrows (mentioned in a pre- 

 vious number of these letters); and he at once conceived the 

 idea of boring a well at the point to see if he could "strike 

 oil." It was not a very oily looking locality, perhaps, to an 

 oil man; but he had got it into his head that there was a vast 

 pocket of the oleaginous fluid lying under Carp Lake, with 

 millions in it, and he determined to bore for it. To this end 

 he brought in, at great expense, suitable machinery, set it 

 up, and went to work with a zeal that ought to have struck 

 a fortune in a short time, but it didn't. For the first 540 

 feet the drill worked through sand and gravel, and as the 

 hole progressed it was tubed with six-inch iron pipe. At this 

 depth the drill struck rock, and after laboring slowly and 

 tediously through this to a depth of something over 200 feet 

 more, one day it suddenly found nothing to work on and 

 directly up through the pipe came a rush of fluid. When 

 the stream came rushing out the workmen fled in dismay, but 

 when their scare was over they came back to have a look at 

 the fluid that looked so much like clear white oil ; but a taste 

 of it only proved it to be water, clear and cold as though just 

 escaped from a vast ice bou=e hidden in the bowels of the 

 eaith— and the dream of oil and millions was blown to the 

 winds. Moreover, the water had a taste of sulphur that 

 smacked of the infernal regions. 



Finally, when the first keen edge of disappointment had 

 worn off the drill was removed, tbe derrick taken down, and 

 when nothing was in tbe way to obstruct it, a column of water 

 shot out of the pipe full forty feet high, with a continuous 

 flow, greatly to the amazement of the simple-minded inhabi- 

 tants, who came in from miles around to see the wonderful 

 "oil well." 



