Sept. 1, 1887. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



109 



"Then why, in the name of Izaak "Walton, don't you get 

 there without delay?" 



"Oui, oui, me git dare; plenty feesh dare, my fren." 



Arrived at the spot where the gulls had been most in- 

 dustrious, I supplied my tackle with the most killing bait 

 and quietly dropped the same into the gently rippling 

 waters, within sight of the memorable spot where Perry's 

 fleet made it sultry for the enemy, though this fact has 

 no direct bearing on this narrative. I played the bait in 

 the most approved manner, and rather congratulated 

 myself on the superior style with which it was done. The 

 fish apparently were lost in admiration, for they didn't 

 disturb the operation. This proceeded for fifty-seven 

 minutes by the watch, and was becoming somewhat 

 monotonous, when I observed to Francois: 



'•Do you think that there is any possibility of being 

 mistaken about the gull business?" for I had a suspicion 

 that I had been gulled. 



"Meestake from ze gull ! Oh no, my fren, not meestake 

 — plenty feesh — s'pose you put string a leetle lower down, 

 ze feesh dey stay sometimes not on top de lak." 



This looked very reasonable, thereupon I paid out more 

 line, estimated at" 9ft., the Frenchman meanwhile taking 

 his bamboo pole, 7ft. Sin. long, with a cotton line 15ft. 

 long and a rusty hook, the like of which it seemed to me 

 would disgust if not terrify any fish having any self-re- 

 spect whatever. Frenchy put on two big worms, spit on 

 them (he chewed plug tobacco at that) and heaved this 

 heathenish contrivance over the opposite side of the boat. 

 Exactly five minutes and forty-one seconds elapsed when 

 I observed a disturbance in the neighborhood of Frenchy's 

 line. The hubbub increased and was in a fair way to be- 

 come a riot, when hauling in the line a huge black bass 

 came struggling into view. He was turning handsprings 

 and somersets and performing all sorts of gymnastics, but 

 Frenchy yanked him into the boat. He was as big as a 

 cod fish (I was going to say skark). I admit I was con- 

 scious of a mean creeping feeling of envy. I didn't even 

 let on but what I was in the habit of killing bigger fish 

 every day in the week. 



• 'Dat's good feesh , eh, my fren? dat's beeg feesh . Sackry- 

 mogee ! affaire flainbee pour le poisson n'ware? 



"Pretty fair, pretty fair fish, Francois, but after all we 

 should get much larger ones here — " 



Swish ! whiz ! went the line from the reel, as if hitched 

 to the stick of a. rocket, provided rockets ever took a 

 notion to navigating the water instead of the atmosphere; 

 away went the 345ft. of it, and I was just calculating the 

 chances of retaining possession of the rod, when the thing 

 on the other end of the line appeared to set the air brake 

 and come to a sudden halt. I thereupon began reeling 

 in the line, and it seemed so very slack that I reluctantly 

 concluded that the fish or whatever it was had taken a 

 fancy to hook and bait and decided to take it home. 



I had reeled in and recovered 246ft. of the line, 104ft. 

 being still out, when, without previous warning, or any 

 indication whatever of such an intention, the fish (it was, 

 practically, a fish doing all this) darted off at an angle of 

 forty-five degrees from its previous course, and at the 

 rate of three miles a minute. This was the exact speed, 

 as I learned from Francois, who exclaimed, throwing 

 down his rod: 



'•Mon Dieu! parbleu! golly but she's fast feesh! My! 

 she go more fast as ze bote on ze glace!" 



Comparison was made, obviously, to the ice yacht, the 

 best speed known being two and three quarter miles in a 

 minute. "Do you really think so, Francois, that this fish 

 goes more rapidly than the ice boat ? What species do 

 you think it is ?" 



"What kind she is? Mebby muskalonge, mebby cat- 

 feesh — can't tell; if she's black bass must be two, tree 

 of it." 



"What! two or three black bass on one hook! Francois, 

 what sort of romancing is this ?" 



"You not never hear 'bout ketch two, free feesh on one 

 hook? My! My! las' fall I ketch one pike and one black 

 bass bose to oncet, at de same time on mai hook, and de 

 bass she weigh seven pound free ounce by de stillyed." 



I realized at once that it would be useless and vexatious 

 to get into any controversy over this stupendous fable, so 

 I treated it with silence, "in fact, the fish was now en- 

 grossing my attention. Away whizzed the line, 287-^ft. 

 of it, when the fish suddenly changed direction again and 

 went like lightning for 62ft. , and stopped to take breath. 

 I improved this interval of inaction on his part by reeling 

 in the line and recovering 342ft. , bringing the game with- 

 in 8ft. I cautiously brought him 3ft. nearer, then 4ft. 

 Finally the dorsal fin protruded above the water, and his 

 black, shining back next appeared. "Now, Frangois, 

 with your landing net! In with him." 



"Ma fois! Wat a feesh! She beeg like a hog! Quar- 

 ante livres sure, mai fren, sure!" 



"There! that is what one might call a fish. Some sense 

 in that." 



I had no more than got the words out of my mouth 

 than the fish made a spring and landed square across the 

 Frenchman's mouth, knocking him flat on his back in the 

 bottom of the boat, yelling like a Sioux warrior: "I am 

 kill! Mai head! mai head! Tek ze gun, shoot queek! It 

 mus' be ze — what you call— devil fish!" 



Without hesitating to reflect upon the unsportsmanlike 

 method of procedure I snatched up the gun and blazed 

 away. I killed the fish, and came within an inch and a 

 half of killing the Frenchman also; as it was he got 

 eleven shot in his right leg below the knee, but it being a 

 wooden one the damage was not so serious as it might 

 have been. The fish was a black bass which weighed 

 181bs. 7oz.; that is, Francois weighed it on the "stillyed" 

 and reported these figures. We stayed in that vicinity 

 for two hours and twenty-two minutes, and caught black 

 bass, pickerel and pike until our boat settled into the 

 water at an alarming rate, when, fortunately, our bait 

 gave out, and we were obliged to leave. It was a pretty 

 fair catch for two rods, 6391bs. lloz. I was obliged to 

 use the gun but twice in addition to the instance already 

 noticed. 



We returned to the boat house at 5:45 P. M. I have 

 been careful to give exact figures in connection with the 

 facts narrated, because the custom of using the words 

 "about," "approximately," "nearly" and so on by fisher- 

 men has had the effect of unsettling the confidence of 

 people in all fish stories. It is a very tempting way of 

 easing the conscience of the narrators, but it is too in- 

 definite, too suggestive. I like good round facts and 

 figures; give me the pounds and ounces; the day, hour 

 and minute; the exact distances, that gives one assurance 

 of reality. If a thing is so, say so, • Asa Spades. 



SUMMER ANGLING AND CAMPING. 



WORCESTER, Mass.— Editor Forest and Stream: It 

 strikes me that the article by "Special" in your 

 issue of Aug. 4, was a well written and interesting clear 

 statement of facts. 



A person fishing in the summer months must be con- 

 tented to catch a small amount of fish generally, and a 

 person must make his surroundings a part of his fishing. 

 I have in mind a party of boys who went to a New Hamp- 

 shire lake, expecting to do a lot of fishing, rowing and so 

 forth. The result was that one of them overworked and 

 permanently injured lnmself , and the party left with a 

 poor opinion of one of the most attractive lakes in New 

 England. 



They did not go at it right. Camp life is made up not 

 of fishing alone. It takes fisMng, rowing and a love of 

 nature, a fair amount of each, to make a perfect camp 

 life. When the fishing is poor, one should be contented 

 with a catch of twenty-five trout a day, and not call his 

 summer a failure because he did not have an enormous 

 record to show his friends. It takes considerable culti- 

 vation to get your mind into this state, but it makes your 

 life pleasanter than to be eternally longing for the unat- 

 tainable. 



It is the most foolish and at the same time dishearten- 

 ing tiling to do, this going into the woods quite a novice, 

 with the latest improved tackle, a nice rod and a splen- 

 did assortment of flies, expecting to make a phenomenal 

 catch. It is very seldom done. That is where the rustic 

 youth gets his opinion that he, with an alder rod, can 

 beat the man with all his "fixin's." The rustic generally 

 can beat the "greeny ;" but take the man who knows how 

 to use good tackle, and where is the country representa- 

 tive? It takes patient, careful practice to cast a fly for 

 trout. That one catches no trout when he first casts a 

 fly is no reason that, with plenty of practice, he can ac- 

 complish a like feat. Pehigewasset. 



SEPTEMBER CAMPS. 



~P OSTON, Mass. — September is upon us, and with that 

 JL> month comes the autumn weather and the desire to 

 again go a-fishing before the winter a,nd the close season 

 has locked the waters to line and rod for another seven 

 months. The number of Boston merchants who will go 

 to the Maine waters this fall rather increases as the time 

 draws near. Mr. Wilson, of the dry goods jobbing house 

 of Norse, Wilson & Co., although very busy in the fall 

 trade, intends to catch ten days or a couple of weeks for 

 a visit to the Seven Ponds. Like every devotee of the 

 sport with Salmo fontinalis, he is "getting his rods 

 ready." He is a busy merchant and the head, of a large 

 house, but all the same there is no other vacation to him 

 like that one to the woods and the waters, where dry 

 goods cannot find him. Mr. O. H. Smith, of O. H. Smith 

 & Co., lumber dealers, is getting ready for his annual trip 

 to Camp Stewart, Richardson Lake. He will take the 

 last week in September and the first week in October, in 

 order to use the rod and line till the close time on trout 

 begins, Oct. 1, and then to try for a deer, the open season 

 beginning on that day. Mr. Smith is an expert with the 

 rifle. Mr. Mark Hollingsworth, the artist, has been suf- 

 fering with a carbuncle, and that has kept him at home 

 a part of the time this season. He is a regular visitor to 

 the Upper Dam, and occasionally to Parmacheene. Mr. 

 J. P. Whitney is at his elegant camp at Musquito Brook, 

 Richardson Lake, with his family, as usual at this season. 

 Mr. S. Betton is at Camp Belleview, on the same lake. 

 Mr. W. J, Reynolds, of Boston, will visit his camp— Camp 

 Prospect — on the same lake, in September. The rumor 

 that Birch Lodge, the celebrated Whittier Camp, at the 

 head of Richardson Lake, had been sold to a syndicate of 

 New York sportsmen proves to be incorrect. That hand- 

 some lodge is still for sale, as is also Camp Prospect. Mr. 

 E. B. Haskell, one of the proprietors of the Boston Herald, 

 lias registered at the club house of the Oquossoc Angling 

 Association, with some of his family. Mr. Haskell is a 

 member of this association, and, also with his business 

 partners, an owner in Allerton Lodge. He is an earnest 

 worker for the editorial columns of his paper, but none 

 the less does he appreciate his annual outing in the wilds 

 of Maine. Mr. George Follett, of the wool firm of Geo. 

 Follett & Co., New York and Boston, is meditating a trip 

 to the Maine woods this month, but is yet undecided 

 where it shall be. 



C. H. Johnson, superintendent of Miller Bros.' manu- 

 factory of undertakers' supplies, at Somerville, will take 

 his annual vacation at Camp Stewart, commencing about 

 Sept. 16. Mr. Johnson is one of the owners of this camp. 

 He has visited Richardson Lake every season for the past 

 seven years. Mr. Johnson was the author of a practical 

 joke that will not soon be forgotten by those who heard 

 it. On Farrar's steamer there ran that season a curious 

 genius under the cognomen of Captain. He was remark- 

 ably fond of finding out the business of every sportsman 

 who went up or down the lake on the boat he commanded. 

 Indeed if the occupation of a passenger did not crop out 

 easily, why the Captain would flatly ask for the desired 

 information, and then he would quietly remark that he 

 should be in Boston or New York, as the case might be, 

 the coming winter and would call, and perhaps the pro- 

 prietor might help him in the direction of a business situ- 

 ation or something that he desired to purchase. Mr. 

 Johnson's business was rather slow about coming out, 

 although the Captain had already found out the occupa- 

 tion of one or two other gentlemen. The Captain could 

 stand it no longer, but boldly asked, "Mr. Johnson, what 

 is your business in Boston ?" The answer was ready in a 

 moment, "A manufacturer of clothing, both wholesale 

 and retail, but the curious part is that we never make 

 more than one suit for an individual." The Captain 

 thought that he was quick to see a point, but he was a 

 little bothered that time. "Don't you?" said he, "that's 

 curious. Then you ought to give that person a good bar- 

 gain. I am coming up to Boston this winter, and as your 

 folks have never sold me anything I think that you 

 might give me a bargain on a winter suit." Much to the 

 amusement of his friends Mr. Johnson answered with a 

 quiet smile, "Be sure to call on us. I have no doubt but 

 what we can fit you." 



Mr. John C. Paige, one of Boston's best known insur- 

 ance agents, is spending a couple of weeks at Moosehead, 

 at the Kineo House. Mr. Paige, together with his friend 

 J. E. Graves, will try the fly-fishing. Mr. Shepard, of the 

 iron trade, promises himself a much needed vacation at 

 the AndroBcoggin lakes in September. Mr. Litchfield, of 

 the fishing tackle firm of Appleton & Litchfield, will 



start on Thursday for a month's outing in the wilds of 

 Maine and New Hampshire. He will first go to the Great 

 Diamonds in the Magallaway region. Afterward he will 

 visit other regions; probably Parmacheene, and perhaps 

 further over in the wilds of Maine and Canada toward 

 the east. Mr. Litchfield has spent a very busy season. 

 He has given much time and thought to his new "tension 

 reel," and has at last reached a stage of completion on 

 this new idea in trout, bass and salmon reels where he can 

 afford to take a vacation. Special. 



LAKES CALUMET AND GOGEBIC. 



FORTY-SEVEN years ago I first visited Lake Pullman, 

 then called Calumet Lake, fifteen miles south of 

 Chicago. It was then a solitary sheet of water, two or 

 three miles long, in a dense swamp, with a deep border 

 of reeds and rushes around it, accessible only through a 

 winding creek from the Calumet River: so blind an en- 

 trance that it was necessary to put a flag or other signal 

 to mark it, or one might wander over these miles of lake 

 and water plants for hours or days without getting back 

 to the river. Calumet River itself, now flowing through 

 the suburb known as South Chicago, and a great artery 

 of commerce, was at that time "remote, unfriended, 

 melancholy, slow," with only two houses upon or near it 

 for ten miles from its mouth. The river and lake were in 

 spring and fall populous with swans, geese and ducks. 

 In my collection of stuffed birds were three species of 

 geese and twenty of ducks, shot on the Calumet River. 

 All the waders were there, from the great whooping 

 crane to the beautiful little phalarope, known as Wilson's, 

 which used to breed in these marshes. A bag of fifty 

 ducks per day to the gun was not unusual at that day, 

 and half of them would be mallards, which were found 

 in great numbers along 'the river bank, and were shot 

 from the bows of a boat pushed along the margin of the 

 reeds, as the big fowls flew straight up with loud quacks 

 from their feeding grounds. 



As to fish, pike and black bass, they so filled these 

 waters that two of us in a boat with rod and reel, have 

 often taken in half a day from lOOlbs. to 2001bs. of them, 

 from 3 to 61bs. in weight. Also an occasional musk- 

 alonge, pike-perch, and big catfish. The region also 

 abounded with deer, grouse, quail, woodcock, and snipe, 

 and for variety and abundance of game, I have never 

 seen its equal. 



Now, in place of these ferm naturce, we have at 

 Calumet Lake a new, handsome city of brick, with im- 

 mense work shops, a big hotel, a public library, lecture 

 hall, gas, sewerage, and all the comforts of life, inhabited 

 by 5,000 of perhaps the best housed, fed, paid, and gen- 

 erally cared for people on the globe. They ride to the 

 city by 15 or 20 trains a day in half an hour, instead of 

 toiling through sand and mud for three hours, as in 1840. 

 It is said by some, that the amiable autocrat whose money 

 and enterprise has created these marvels, governs too 

 much; that his methods are too European and paternal, 

 but as I looked at the long streets of comfortable and 

 pretty houses inhabited by his subjects, I concluded that 

 their lot was not unhappy. 



I also visited Lake Gogebic, a beautiful mountain lake 

 lying twenty miles south of Lake Superior in the woods, 

 2,000ft. above sea level and far from the abodes of men, 

 except those in the excellent hotel built on its shore for 

 sportsmen by the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western 

 Railway. The lake is some fifteen miles long and two 

 wide, with deep, pure and cool water. For the first two 

 years after being opened to the public it swarmed with 

 Wack bass, so that catches of fifty to the boat per day 

 were common. The streams flowing into the lake were 

 full of good-sized trout, so that one hundred per day have 

 been taken to the rod by pot-fishermen. These good gifts 

 have been, as usual, abused. Thirty boats, each with two 

 fishermen and a guide, all fishing for count, have often 

 brought in 1,500 to 2,000 bass a day; and, of course, most 

 of the fish were wasted and were buried or burned by the 

 wagon load. No waters could stand such depletion, and 

 this summer when I was there ten bass to the rod per day 

 was the usual catch. As to trout, the largest string I saw 

 was a dozen, and I fished the best stream one afternoon 

 without a rise. 



Another source of danger to the fish of Gogebic is that 

 valuable iron deposits have been lately found along its 

 northern and western shores, and large numbers of pros- 

 pectors are on the ground and in some places large gangs 

 of miners are at work. Probably these men will soon be 

 using dynamite on the fish of Gogebic, as in other lakes. 



The moral of my story is, that as the fishing of Calumet 

 Lake now is, so shall that of Gogebic be in a few years if 

 not well protected. S. C. Clarke. 



Marietta, Ga., Aug. 24. 



Fish Dying By the Million. — A press dispatch from 

 Galena, 111., Aug. 26, says that within the past two or 

 three days the fish in many of the streams in this section 

 have died by the million" and the few that are left are 

 rapidly following suit. The banks of the Galena River 

 branches are lined with dead fish of all sizes and varieties, 

 from the tiny minnow" to the mammoth cat and sturgeon. 

 At Buncombe, Wis. , a few miles from this place, dead 

 fish are so numerous on the banks that the stench arising 

 from them is almost unbearable. At Lancaster, Wis., 

 the scene on the river bank beggars description, over fifty 

 wagonloads of dead fish being in sight. There are numer- 

 ous theories afloat as to the cause. One is that the recent 

 rains have roiled the water with mud, so that the fish 

 have been unable to breathe, and struggling to the sur- 

 face for air, have died. Another is that during the dry 

 hot summer the valleys and marshes above were filled 

 with some poisonous growth that with the recent floods 

 was carried into the streams and poisoned the water. 



The Landlords Serve Fingerlings.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream : I have just returned from a visit to the 

 Sagamore Hotel, on Long Lake, where I had, among 

 other meals, a breakfast at which trout measuring about 

 4 and 5in. were served. They may have shrunk from the 

 legal length of 6in., but considering the number of guests 

 who partook of the breakfast, somewhere near 100, 1 have 

 come to the conclusion that the fish had been netted, 

 which, I believe, is also against the law. Cannot some- 

 thing be done to stop this wanton destruction of this de- 



1 bight of fishermen? I am not given to whip the waters 

 for hours with the prospect of a fish at the end of my 

 line, but I like the woods too much to see the pleasures of 

 .' others destroyed, — B, F, 



