203 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 5, la8S. 



tu mxi Hirer fishing. 



Address all a mnimicatfom to the Forest and Strewn Pub. Co. 



Every person who is sufficiently interested in the National 

 Park to do his share toward securing protection for it, is in- 

 vited to send for one of the FobeoT and Stream's petition 

 blanks. They are sent free. 



A PISCATORIAL ROUND-UP.-II. 



THE morning following our arrival was fine, and we 

 did not linger at the breakfast table. One haul of 

 the minnow seine supplied our bait buckets with small 

 perch, chubs and a few crayfish. Mr. Byington and 

 Steele started up and across the bay to fish and spy out 

 the water, while Mr. Cleveland and I, with Joe. went up 

 the bay in the direction of Northport for plain fishing. 

 A point made out into the water witb indications of rock 

 bottom, and while I got out a sounding 1 ne Cleveland 

 put out a bait, and in a second he was playing a 3-pound 

 black bass of the real old fighting stock. The water was 

 scant 12ft., with a bottom of boulder*. As soon as I was 

 baited I had a bite and lost the fish, and this I did five 

 times in succession, while Cleveland was taking bass after 

 bass as rapidly as was polite. I had tied a few hooks of 

 a new pattern to test them in bass fishing with bait, and 

 though they are a perfect hook for a fly, the point is so 

 inclined toward the shank that on this occasion, at least, 

 the bait fish choked the hook and I could not hook my 

 bass. At the fifth failure I changed to an O'Shaughnessy 

 hook, and peace reigned in Warsaw. To be perfectly 

 candid, I had not the greatest faith that we would have 

 the very best fishing, as I feared it might be rather late 

 in the season; but here the fish were in shoal water, and 

 as plentiful and as full of fight as the most exacting bass 

 fisher could wish. Almost at the outset of our actual 

 fishing we were placed in a quandary. The bass seized 

 our baits with a dash almost as soon as they were placed 

 in the water, and a half hour of this work sufficed to tell 

 us that we had no means of disposing of the fish we would 

 have t ken pleasure in catching. They were all large 

 fish, and in little more than an hour's time we had in the 

 boat seven bass averaging 31bs. each, and had returned to 

 the water uninjured at least an equal number. We could 

 not eat more than we had killed (Byington w r ould also 

 kill some bass, for he took two into the boat before he 

 ■was out of our sight), and we had no wish to continue 

 fishing with the s< le object of giving as many bass as 

 possible a sore mouth as a reminder of our visit, so we 

 returned to the yacht. 



Charley expressed regrt t that we had not brought in all 

 the bass we caught, as the men were hoping to have 

 the surplus fish to salt down for family use the coming 

 winter. We were told that it would be an hour before 

 dinner could be served, and C. i ropo^ed that we fish from 

 the deck of the yacht until dinner was ready and see how 

 many biss we could catch in the time. We fished rather 

 more than an hour, because in five minutes after we 

 began Joe, Charley and Eugene were on deck with land- 

 ing nets, and the dinner preparations were forgotten. I 

 am afraid that two mim whose hair (what there is of it) 

 is streaked with gray, performed on that deck very like 

 two boys in a spirited contest, each trying: to excel the 

 other. If I now go to Cleveland in a penitent mood at 

 the thought of the slaughter on that day, 1 find him thor- 

 oughly hardened, and always with the same reply: "I'll 

 give one hundred dollars spot c sh for another whack at 

 that same fishing for an even hour," 



We finished the contest with twelve bass each, and 

 each bass of the twenty-four was not far from 31bs. in 

 weight. They went as high as 4lbs. and as low as Sflbs. 

 Cleveland began fishing with a new split-bamboo bait- 

 rod of lOoz., supposed to be worth $35, and finished with 

 a split-bamboo thing w T orth 35 cents. My rod was like 

 his in size and weight, but by a different maker, and it 

 came out as good as it went in. There were several 

 leaders and hooks and things missing, but one of the men 

 started after dinner for Deseronto for a barrel and a sack 

 of salt. 



Byington did not return to dinner, and after that meal 

 Cleveland - nd I resumed fi-hing from the deck of the 

 yacht, but in a more dignified, leisurely manner. We 

 had a number of oilers in the afternoon from the neigh- 

 boring farms, including both sexes, and we entertained 

 them with the best the cabin afforded. The yacht and 

 its furnishings interested the ladies, and the men thought 

 it quite an extensive outfit for pleasure alone. All were 

 curious to see the large bass taken with our light tackle, 

 and we were only too willing to gratify them. While the 

 guests were seated on deck and we fished we exchanged 

 a little information regarding our respective homes. My 

 good old grandmother once told me to endeavor to leam 

 at least une new thing each day of my life, and that 

 afternoon I learned several new things, which made up 

 for misfires on previous days. Acro-s the bay we could 

 see a church spire and were told it was on the Mohawk 

 Indian reservation, which consisted of "two concessions 

 and a broken front," but I do not yet know how big the 

 reservation is. I learned that Houston, Texas, was the 

 Hub of the Universe and the balance of the United States 

 a suburb; that the sun rose earlier, shone brighter and 

 set later in Texas than any other part of the known globe. 

 I learned that it was the width of a certain numher 

 of acres to Northport, which was almost as con- 

 fusing as the "broken front."' I learned that one of 

 the poles of the earth was in Harris county, .Texas, 

 and the other up in the Pan Handle. I learned that in 

 Canada a pike-perch, or a wall-eyed pike, was a pickerel, 

 and I learned that tame ducks were worth but twenty- 

 five cents each when dressed and delivered to all cooks; 

 chickens twenty-five cents, and butter, milk and eggs 

 cortespondlingly low in price. The most expensive 

 article we struck was kerosene and coal oil, and in this 

 we did not invest. 



Bvington came in from his day's fishing with twenty 

 bass, and Cleveland and I had forty- five, or a total of 

 sixty-five for the two skiffs. After an elaborate supper, 

 drift wood was thrown on the fire, and by its fight the 

 men dressed aud salted the bass that were left after re- 

 serving a pair for breakfast. The roaring fire, around 

 which we sat or lounged and smoked, was an institution 

 that we supported generously. There was drift wood in 

 abundance, except in one place, where we purchased a 

 oouj?le o£ cwds of day wood piled near, the dock to which i 



we made fast. For the second night we went to our 

 farmer friend's to sleep, and in the night were awakened > 

 by the howling of the wind, which seemed to indicate , 

 a check to our pleasant weather. In the morning the 

 clouds were piled up dark and forbidding in the north. 

 It was cold, and the wind was blowing half a gale. 

 When we went down to the water we found that the men 

 had had to get up in the night and warp the yacht around 

 inside the arm of the dock, which was much easier to do 

 than to get her out again, as it proved. While breakfast 

 was being prepared we caught a few bass from the dock, 

 but the wind was too keen to fish with comfort. After 

 breakfast it was decided to move up the bay nearer to 

 Belville. to a more sheltered dock that Byington had dis- 

 covered the day before. It was thought to be but three 

 or four miles, and Byington and Cleveland determined 

 to walk and I determined to ride, provided the yacht did 

 not blow ashore on tbe rocks. The yacht's bow was 

 warped out from behind the pier and an anchor carried 

 out into the bay, and then it was as much as ever that 

 she swung clear of the rocks as she rounded. She was 

 kedged out (I think that is the proper term, but I am not 

 an "old sea dog," and depend for a revision of my nauti- 

 cal phrases upon Mr. Cleveland , who is not present at this 

 writing, although when he reads the letter he may wish 

 that he had been. The mill of the newspaper contributor 

 grinds exceeding slow, but "it gets there all the same") 

 into the bay and the sail hoisted with double reef, and 

 with one rail under we made for the new port, which 

 was Gilman's dock. 



In the afternoon we fished in comparative comfort, 

 catching twenty -eight bass equal in size to those we 

 ca,ught below; the fish were everywhere, on rocks, on 

 gravel and in the grass. In starting out in the skiff it 

 drifted inshore before Joe got his oars in hand, and we 

 put out our hooks and caught bass close inshore in 3ft. 

 of water. All of our fishing, except in one instance, was 

 done in water less than loft. deep. While we were fish- 

 ing in the afternoon two of the men went out and killed 

 some teal, black ducks and plover, and we bought some 

 pike-perch of a net fisherman for our supper. That night 

 C. and I slept at Mr. Gilman's. When we were shown to 

 our ioom, after being entertained in the parlor, late 

 though it was, with music by the young ladies in the 

 family, I noticed that there was an open door leading 

 from it to another room evidently, but did not even look 

 into it. Cleveland was the last into bed, and I asked him, 

 as he put out the lamp, if he had left matches on the 

 bureau, and he said he had. I awakened thinking it 

 must be morning, but the room was in total darkness, not 

 a ray of light from any source. 1 thought I could go 

 straight to the bureau and light the lamp, but when I 

 found the buieau I could not find the matches. I tried 

 to find the chair on which I had placed my clothes, and 

 walked carfully toward the supposed spot, sawing the air 

 before me, behind me and all around me with both arms 

 to prevent a possible collision between my nose and 

 something. I was thinking it was a very long room, 

 when suddenly Cleveland's snoring ceased and I was con- 

 scious of a more modest, more refined breathing, that 

 could not be called a snore, and which was in front of 

 me. while I was almost positive that Cleveland v\as be- 

 hind me. I turned round to make sure, and that did the 

 business; I was lost. Of one. thing I was dead sure: 

 I was out of my room, but where? If I had 

 t>een suddenly transplanted to the middle of the 

 Dark Continent instead of trying to see in the 

 darkest room on earth since the Christian era, I 

 could not have been more completely lost and extin- 

 guished. All that I could see was with my prophetic 

 eye, and before and around me were open trap doors; an 

 angry father with a shotgun loaded with buckshot; stairs 

 without any guard, that went down instead of up, and a 

 dog about 48in. at the shoulder, labeled "dangerous." I 

 did not have a single thing to give, except my night 

 shirt, and I would have given that if Cleveland had 

 snored once more in a way that I have kicked against 

 many a time. I was cold, and getting colder. I called 

 to Cleveland as loudly as I dared while haunted by the 

 fear of disturbing that other breathing, which I could 

 hear only too plainly, and which combined with my sim- 

 ple, unaffected dress prevented me from shouting fire at 

 the top of my lungs. An inch at a time I shivered for- 

 ward, and finally to my great relief my hand touched a 

 wall; slowly I felt along it and came to a door and put 

 my head in and listened. That was the sanctuary. My 

 well-loved friend was again getting in his work with a 

 snort and a gurgle of strangulation: but for once it was 

 inexpressibly sweet and charmed me as never the Lurlei 

 enchanted the Rhine boatmen with her voice. I entered 

 the room and feeling round the wall came to a chair with 

 some clothes, which I went through, finding a match box 

 which I knew to be a gold one of Cleveland's, and which 

 never contained a match. Continuing my search I found 

 my own clothes and match box, lighted a lamp, dis- 

 covered that I had been wandering in an unoccupied 

 room, then took a pillow and fell upon that sleeping pil- 

 grim and smote him hip and thigh. Then I went to 

 bed, without looking at my watch, and left a lamp 

 burning. 



The day that followed the night was warm and the 

 wind was not so emphatic, and we caught twenty-one 

 bass in the forenoon, and the men killed more ducks. As 

 several articles were running low in the larder, and it 

 being Saturday, Cleveland and I in the afternoon went 

 with Joe in the skiff under sail to Deseronto for supplies, 

 mail and telegrams. On our way down the bay we 

 anchored at the scene of our fishing the first day, and 

 caught eleven bass. We had a rattling sail in the skiff, 

 having to go ashore once to let out the water that had 

 washed over the gunwale, and reached Deseronto at dusk. 

 We went to the Empress Hotel, which I think is the only 

 hotel, but of this I am not sure, and found the proprietor, 

 Wm, Jamieson, who had himself just arrived from Hay 

 Bay with a lot of ducks, one of those clever men anxious 

 to do everything in his power to aid a fellow sportsman. 

 Breakfast bacon in Deseronto was about the price of the 

 same article elsewhere, but lamb chops, just the loins cut 

 up, w r ere ten cents per pound, so if a man could eat nine- 

 teen chops for supper it would be a cheap meal. I 



The settlement of Deseronto is on a branch of the 

 Grand Trunk E. E., and was created by the lumber trade, 

 which is its principal industry. A sportsman to get to 

 the waters that we fished should go by rail to Deseronto 

 or Belleville, and with a skiff visit the waters between. 

 Since our vi-it Mr. Jamieson has purchased a farm quite 

 neai? the scene of our fir&t day's fishing, and he writes rue 



that anglers will be accommodated at the farmhouse* 

 After sleeping at Deseronto we had a head wind, and a ' 

 fairly stiff one, in which to return to the yacht, but the 

 return was accompli-hed in a leisurely manner by the 

 middle of the afternoon. During our absence Mr. Bying- 

 ton had made a considerable contribution of bass to the 

 salting barrel and the men had added more ducks to our 

 lardsr. Mr. Jamieson had insisted upon dividing his 

 ducks with us until we told him that w r e had a supply. 



Monday morning the two fishing skill's with a lunch 

 started for new watt r, fishing abovp Northport, which 

 is on tbe south shore, and opposite Belleville, which is j 

 on the north shore. A steamer runs from Kingston to 

 Deseronto, Northport and Belleville, and an angler can 

 avail himself of it if he prefers the water to rail in getting 

 to tbe places that we fished. I do not know what Belle- 

 ville furnishes in the way of fishing boats, but a boat- 

 man and skiff can be taken on the steamer from Clayton 

 or Cape Vincent to Kingston, and from Kingston to - 

 Deseronto, Northport or Belleville. The waters that we 

 fished Monday were new to us all, but it did not require 

 more than ordinary judgment, gained from previous ex- 

 perience in bass fishing, in the selection of fishing places 

 for us to catch over ninety bass. The chief requisites 

 w T ere to put down an anchor and cast a baited hook into 

 the water. Soon after noon it began to rain, but it was 

 a mild, inoffensive sort of shower which did not inter- 

 fere materially with the biting of the bass. Returning 

 toward the yacht we fished at several points which indi- 

 cated rock on gravel bottom, and while moving from ono 

 such place to another and with his bait dragging on the 

 surface, Mr. Cleveland caught the largest b ss of the 

 trip, 4£lbs. Bass of 4jlbs, had been so cften taken by the 

 party that we expected to touch the 51bs. notch before 

 we returned home, but were perfectly satisfied when we 

 did not. That evening when we reached the yacht we 

 built such a large fire that if the ram continued I made 

 no mention of it in my journal. 



We had many visitors to the Zaidee and to our camp- I 

 fire, and one old gentleman, Mr. Rantz, was very amus- 

 ing. He could not quite understand how a boat of the 

 size of our yacht could be a mere instrument of pleasure 

 without at the same time being the cause of scandalous 

 extravagance and waste, and it was evident that the old 

 gentleman was a little bilious or soured, and that he did 

 not consider his lot a happy one. He had to work, and 

 work hard, and had no time for any such idleness as was 

 exemplified by our party. As politely and as gently as 

 possible I told him that there were people on board who 

 probably worked harder in one month than he did in six 

 full moons; and that, from necessity, having condensed 

 into nine months the work of a year, thev had earnpd a 

 vacation of three months in which to rest and recuperate 

 tired brains and bodies As for myself, that I was 

 haunted by remorse because I had not killed a man— a 

 bosom friend — who had knifed me when I was down; and 

 could I till a farm, shear sheep (if they woul I stand it), 

 water hens and drive pigs to pasture, it would not appease 

 the constant gnawing in my breast; so v\hat was plea-ure 

 or toil to me! The old gentleman wished the particulars 

 of the ought-to- have-been tragedy, and I told him that I 

 had been a corporal in the crusade against the vile habit 

 of chewing tobacco in put lie, and that when 1 thought I 

 had fought a good fight aud was in the line of promotion, 

 I was talking with a young and beautiful woman with 

 whom I was but slightly acquainted, and had turned 

 from her, but not out of ber bearing, when this man, and 

 friend, came up, and in a stage whisper like a diseased 

 fog horn said, k, If you will cease the filthy habit of chew- 

 ing tobacco I will give you an interest in my stock ranch 

 in Texas." The lady never agam spoke to me. 



Another matter found lodgment in the esophagus of 

 Mr. Rantz. He thought the game laws were framed 

 solely for the convenience of the rich. He did not care 

 much for fishing, in fact never fished, nor would he ac- 

 cept fresh fish from us, but at the only season he could 

 fish the law said he must not. When the law did permit 

 fishing, a lot of fishermen from the cities or somewhere 

 came in a big sloop with a crew of men and fishing tackle 

 such as he had never seen, and in a week caught more 

 fish than he could catch in a month, if he fished. For 

 his part he should catch fish whenever he wanted them 

 to eat; that was what the Lord put them in the water for, 

 and there was no sense in making laws as to when and 

 wdien not to catch what belonged to the people. 



I asked him if he kept chickens, ducks, turkeys, pigs 

 and cattle, and he said he did. I asked if he killed his 

 poultry when frhey were laying eggs, or his pigs, sheep 

 and cattle when they were nur.-ing their your g. He said 

 no, that any fool knew that these animals wtre not in 

 condition to eat as human food at such a time, and any 

 farmer who practiced such fool business would find him- 

 self a town charge hi shoit order. I told him that the 

 fish until reduced, to possessiou by the catching belonged 

 to the Dominion or State, and that the Dominion or State, 

 like a wise and prudent farmer, threw around its stock 

 of fish the safeguard of the game laws, instead of fences, 

 stables, locks and watchdogs, only and simply to protect 

 it during the time of laying eggs and raising young; 

 that the laws were founded upon a proper regard for the 

 increase of the fish and justice to all law-abiding people; 

 that without such laws a bountiful nature wculd be 

 robbed, pillaged and outraged by the ignorant, the ma- 

 licious and those who have not the fear of the Lord before 

 their eyes, If I can read a man's thoughts from the ex- 

 pression of his face, Mr. Rantz thought I wns crazy. 



Glens Falls, N . Y. A. N. CHENEY. 



"Harry" Prichard.— The many friends of Henry 

 Prichard, better known as "Harry,'' will regret to learn 

 that he died of pneumonia at his home in Brooklyn, on 

 Sunday, March 35. He was well known as one of the 

 most expert fly-fishermen about New York, as well as an 

 extraordinary caster of the fly in tournaments. In 1883 

 he won the prize for single-handed casting with what was 

 then considered the unprecedented distance of 91 feet, 

 w T ith a 10ft. 3in. rod weighing eight ounces, and this catt 

 was not exceeded until 1S85. Mr. Prichard was born in 

 Wales in L837, and was consequently Gl years old. He 

 came to this country in 1845 and worked as a newspaper 

 carrier. In 18G0 he' started in business making fishing 

 rods, in partnership with his bro her Thomas, in Fulton 

 street, New York, He was a good mechanic and obtained 

 several patents on fishing tackle, but his generosity kept 

 him always poor. His skill in. repairing rods brought h.m 

 much of the work left at various fishing tackle houses. 

 He was buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery on Friday. 



