288 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 3, 1887. 



'horse stalls, 1 as I term the flume ways where Mr. Stewart and 

 others have done so much of their fishing— not a very good place 

 to cast a fly at least. I am not sure that Mr. Stewart had any rod 

 in his boat at all: certainly not a very lon^ one. He went to peer- 

 ing very earnestly down over the side of his hoat into the water, 

 and I saw him working about with his hands and bohbing as 

 though jigging with a hand line. He staid in there something 

 more than half an hour, and as soon as he left somebody else took 

 his place. They seemed to be taking turns at that kind of fishing 

 in the 'horse stalls.' I want none of it, but it evidently suited 

 Mr. Stewart and the crowd of sportsmen at the Upper Dam at the 

 time immensely, by the way they followed it up. I am under the 

 impression that some of the very persons who declare that Stewart's 

 trout were caught in a perfectly legitimate way, were among the 

 persons that indulged in this style of fishing in that flume way. I 

 did see men fishing with great hunks of spawn, in uettiug, half as 

 big as mv fist. I have nothing against Mr. Stewart, but the kind 

 of fishing that was carried on at the Upper Dam this fall I do ob- 

 ject; to, and I hope a stop may be put to it, as it destroys the sport 

 that actually belongs to other fishermen. 1 ' 



Mr. J. Parker Whitney, who has owned and occupied his elegant 

 camps at Musquito Brook, four miles down the lake from the 

 Upper Dam, for more than 25 years, also saw Mr. Stewart fishing 

 at the time mentioned by Col. Nutt. Mr. Whitney has not given 

 me permission to use his name, but he has said to me. that though 

 he never saw Mr. Stewart take a trout with a jig, he lias seen him 

 repeatedly fishing over the side of his boat, down on his knees or 

 stooping very low, and peering earnestly in the water. Mr. 

 Whitney also expresses a good deal of indignation at the way fish- 

 ing has been going on at the Upper Dam the past season or two. 

 He says that he believes that the poor fly-fishing there this season 

 is the primary result of the fishing from the spawning beds at that 

 point, and that the secondary result will be the depletion of trout 

 in the lake below. Mr. Whitney is one of the foremost fly-fisher- 

 men in the country. He is" an ardent lover of the sport. He has 

 discharged guides, in one or two instances, whom he found with 

 jigged trout in their possession. It is related of him that he rowed 

 one night four miles, to the mouth of Metalie Brook, for the sake 

 of turning loose a car of trout some miserable fishermen had left 

 there to die. He is a man of ample means, and might have called 

 upon any of his half dozen guides to do the work, but he preferred 

 to do it himself, because he could do it quietly and no ill feeling 

 would be created. 



Mr. Herbert Kempton, of the Boston Herald editorial staff, says 

 that he saw Mr. Stewart, in the fall of 1886, fishing over the side of 

 his boat at the Upper Dam. He was peering down into the water. 

 He had only a hand line, or a line on a rod so short that it was not 

 noticeable at a distance of a few rods. 



But the curious feature of the whole case is that Mr. Stewart 

 and Mr. Holt ings worth were not arrested. The justice at Andover 

 wrote me as follows: 



"Andoveii, Me., Oct. 17.— Dear Sir: Yours of 11 th did not reach 

 me until Saturday night, hence delay in reply. I replied to yours 

 of 6th, wherein I stated all I knew about the matter, but shoidd in- 

 fer by yours of 11th that you did not receive it. The parties you men- 

 tion came before me on 22d tilt., and said they did not plead guilty 

 to the charge of jigging at the Upper Dam, but had paid George 

 D. Huntoon, fish warden. 853 (Hun toon said for said offense); and. 

 why they were not arrested is certainly no fault of my own. But 

 if you will write George D. Huntoon, Rangeley, Franklin county, 

 Me., ho will give his reasons for not making the arrest. If they 

 are guilty of violating a law they eau be arrested at any time and 

 held to answer for the same and punished if proof can be obta ined . 

 Shall be pleased to hear from you in relation to this matter anv 

 time.— C. A. Andrews." 



When in Andover I attempted to find Justice Andrews, but he 

 was away. One story told at Andover is that the justice did not 

 have the requisite blanks and that the warden applied to another 

 lawyer to furnish them, but that in the interim Messrs. Stewart 

 and Hollingsworth had engaged this lawyer as counsel, and of 

 course he would not let the justice have the blanks. There were 

 no other blanks nearer than 20 miles. Special. 



In their certificate Messrs. Adams and Dowdell testified 

 directly as to the trout shown in Boston; but in the cer- 

 tificate signed by Messrs. Ramsey, Anthony, Cobb and 

 Billings, those gentlemen testify to having seen Mr. 

 Stewart and Mr. Hollingsworth' catch in a legitimate 

 manner ''the trout alluded to'' in the Forest and Stream 

 of Sept. 29. The "trout alluded to" were of two lots, 

 first those shown in Boston, and second those examined 

 by the warden and by him pronounced to have been 

 jigged. The trout shown in Boston were, we are told, 

 fish from two lots of tbe lawful weight of 501bs. each 

 taken to that city by Messrs. Stewart and Hollingsworth 

 from the Upper Dam, 301bs. being left bebind; and the 

 second fish , said to have been jigged, were of another lot 

 of eight found in the ice house when the warden made 

 his search. It appears from this that an extraordinary 

 number of trout — extraordinary for the time and place 

 — were taken at the Upper Dam by Messrs. Stewart 

 and Hollingsworth. With a view to identify the fish 

 certified to in their signed statement, we have addressed 

 notes of inquiry to the gentlemen named, but have as yet 

 received only these two replies: 



WOBiTRN. Mass., Oct. 17.— Editor Forest and Stream: In answer 

 to yours of the 15th, I would say that mv knowledge of the trout 

 caught by Mr. Stewart relates to the fish taken at the Upper Dam. 

 Kangeley Lake, a nd it was in relation to these fish that I made 

 a ffidavit. As to whether they were the same fish that were on ex- 

 hibition in Boston I am unable to state absolutely, as 1 did not sec 

 the fish while on exhibition, but I have reason to think that they 

 were the same fish.— G. L. Cobb. 



Bethel, Mo., Oct. 18.— Editor Forest and Stream: Yours received 

 and in reply will say 1 did not see the trout that were on exhibi- 

 tion in Boston. I will say, however, that I was with Mr. Stewart 

 at the Upper Dam several davs, and I know that the trout he 

 caught while. I was there he caught in a lawful manner. I stood 

 within 10ft. of Mr. Stewart and saw him catch a dozen or more 

 trout at different times, weighing from 41bs. to 81bs., and I know 

 he only used one hook, sometimes With bait and sometimes with 

 fly. The water where he caught the most of his fish is very quick 

 and is boiling, so that no living man could jig a trout or even see 

 one, unless the trout came to the surf ace. —JT U. Billings. 



This comprises the correspondence received by us for 

 publication. Letters addressed to several other" parties, 

 to whom we had been referred by Mr. Stewart and others, 

 have elicited no response. Additional evidence that trout 

 jigging was practiced at the Upper Dam has been given 

 us verbally, but on condition that the names of our in- 

 formants should not be used. 



The testimony is published as it has come to us. In it 

 we find nothing to call for a modification of our editorial 

 remarks of Sept. 29, except in the following particulars: 

 (1) The evidence here presented does not show that the 

 two trout exhibited in Boston were among the large trout 

 which were jigged at the Upper Dam. (2) The trout 

 jigging at the Upper Dam was not done on the spawning 

 beds, as our remarks intimated, but in the "horse stalls" 

 of the dam. (3) Messrs. Hollingsworth and Stewart did 

 not plead guilty before an Andover justice, but they paid 

 the stated sums to the game warden before going to An- 

 dover; their reason for paying the money is left to be in- 

 ferred from the tenor of the receipt and from the state- 

 ment of Mr. Stewart and that of Warden Huntoon as 

 printed above. These modifications are for the most 

 part on points which are immaterial. Beyond them the 

 case is shown to be essentially as we stated it in the issue 

 referred to. 



The evidence, so far as gathered, proves that trout were 

 jigged at the Upper Dam, and that Messrs. Hollingsworth 

 and Stewart took part in the jigging. 



As we have said before: "The jigging abuse is of long 

 standing, and the time has come when an end should be 

 put to it at once and for all." If the discussion of this 

 case shall aid in the attainment of that end, the amount 

 Of space we have given to the subject will be justified, 



TROUTING ON THE PASSADU M KEAG. 



Y^HOKVER enjoys trout fishing should not fail to 

 V * visit the Passadumkeag region, Maine. Any time 

 between June and October will be in season for the best 

 kind of sport, either with the fly or baited hook. 



My first trip to that region was in 1867, in company 

 with five other sportsmen. We left Bangor the first day 

 of June, at 8 o'clock in the evening, taking the European 

 & North American express to Enfield, where we arrived 

 at half -past 9. There we found Pettengill, whom we had 

 previously engaged to take us across the country to Pet- 

 tengill's Landing, about twenty miles distant. 



Our team was a heavy three-seated, thorough-brace 

 wagon, drawn by a pair of large gray horses. We passed 

 through Lowell and Burlington, then entered an unbroken 

 forest of nine miles, reaching PettengilPs farm, two miles 

 from the landing, at 4 o'clock A. M. Here we took a rest 

 of three hours, after which we refreshed the inner man, 

 and while our host was looking up the oxen we trans- 

 ferred our luggage from the wagon to the ox sled, to be 

 taken down to the landing, two miles distant. The road 

 from the farm being only used in winter, was very rough: 

 indeed, we had to cut away many fallen trees before the 

 team could get through. We reached the landing after 

 f our hours' hard work. It was the first party ever known 

 to visit that region for trout fishing. The Passadumkeag 

 is, at low water, from 40 to 60yds. in width, but at this 

 season its banks are full, and the roar of the water as it 

 ran over Grand Falls, two miles below, was tremendous. 



Here we caught our first trout, and they were beauties 

 too. We found the gray and yellow hackle to be the most 

 enticing bait. We took ten in about twenty minutes, 

 averaging lilbs. each. Our guides, Pettengill and Lord, 

 soon had them dressed and done to a rich brown. When 

 dinner was announced, there was no need of a second 

 call, five of us were there simultaneously. Our guides, 

 although hungry themselves, refused to eat until all were 

 well helped. : Trout after trout disappeared, until the 

 Doctor ordered a halt for consultation, and as he had 

 seemed the last trout from the frying-pan it was unani- 

 mously decided that we must either stay proceedings or 

 catch more trout. The vote to stay proceedings until we 

 arrived at the camping ground three miles up the river 

 prevailed, and packing our outfit into bateaux we pro- 

 ceeded up the river to the mouth of the Nickatous, and 

 pitched our tent on the west end of a horseback which 

 divides the two rivers and runs nearly parallel with them 

 for some four miles. 



Just in front of our tent was an immense granite boulder 

 overhanging the river, which at this point is very deep. 

 Along the banks of the river on the side next to our camp 

 were numerous springs of ice cold water, here the trout 

 seemed to congregate. Never shall I forget the sensation 

 as we cast our first flies. The wa ter seemed literally alive 

 with trout, and after a few casts we stripped our leaders 

 of all but one fly, lest in the excitement of the sport we 

 should catch more, than we could use. 



The basin at the mouth of the Nickatous, twenty-five 

 rods below us, is also a favorite resort for trout, here in 

 1873 I landed at one cast two trout weighing 7^1bs. , one of 

 them, Sflbs., was the largest I have ever known to be 

 taken from these waters. While we were enjoying an 

 hour's fishing our guides had pitched our tent, covering 

 the ground with a thick carpet of fragrant meadow hay- 

 taken from a stack near by, cooked trout for supper, and 

 we then partook of our first meal in camp. 



Our table was rustic in the extreme, being made of 

 cedar splints laid on poles and supported by crotched 

 sticks driven into the ground, but it served our purpose 

 well enough, our appetites were sharpened by the invigor- 

 ating ah' of the forest. 



We had agreed to catch only what fish we needed to eat 

 while in camp. We had fished less than one hour, and 

 after we had finished supper we found we had twenty- 

 three trout still remaining. These we dressed and laid in 

 .a large basket made of birch bark and carried back some 

 twenty rods from the camp, and set them over a cool 

 spring which flowed from the side of the horseback. 



The Doctor looked glum, the fact that we could do no 

 more fishing until these were disposed of weighed heavily 

 on his mind. Fortune (or at least bruin) favored us, for 

 on visiting our basket the next morning we found it 

 empty: the tracks in the soft ground plainly indicated 

 that they had been appropriated by a bear, and a big one, 

 too. We gave tlu-ee cheers for the bear and hoped he 

 would call round again when we had a surplus of trout, 

 which he did not do, however. 



The second day we divided our party, part going further 

 up the Passadumkeag, myself and two comrades, with 

 Lord as guide, going up the Nickatous, intending to go as 

 far as the falls, some six miles up, but on reaching the 

 timber we came to a rocky tumbling stream, which Lord 

 informed us was the Pistol, the outlet of a chain of lakes 

 some three miles above. The view up the Pistol from our 

 boat resting at its mouth was grand, the stately forest on 

 either side, the huge boulders lying in every direction, 

 the water foaming and dashing past them and forming 

 into deep eddies afforded most enticing lurking places for 

 trout. 



We decided to land here and explore this stream to the 

 headwaters, so drawing our boat well up on the south 

 bank we proceeded to try the trout in the first eddy at 

 the mouth of the Pistol. Our first cast proved our pre- 

 dictions to be true; Ave each landed a fine trout weighing 

 about three pounds. These Ave turned over to Lord and 

 proceeded up the stream, only occasionally stopping to 

 make a cast, Avhich invariably proved the stream to be 

 literally alive with trout. After following up stream for 

 half a mile or so, myself and Heald decided to take a 

 trail Avhich we found a little way back from the south 

 side of the stream, concluding that it led to the lakes, 

 leaving Hunter and Lord to follow up the stream and 

 intersect us at the outlet of the lower Pistol lake. We 

 loitered along for an hour or more enjoying the strange 

 Avild scenery and wondering at the strange stillness, when 

 suddenly we heard way off up the trail a growl that dis- 

 pelled our reveries, and nearly paralyzed us for a moment. 

 The growl Avas repeated at frequent intervals, and we 

 thought we could distingush a human voice. Thinking 

 our comrades must have been assailed by some savage 

 beast (although unarmed, save a hatchet and hunting 

 knife) we rushed forward to the rescue. As we ap- 

 proached the snarls and growls became more frequent, and 

 the voice more distinct; we distinguished words Avhich 

 sounded like "Oost yer black varmint." Just as we were 1 

 rounding a bend in the trail we heard two shots 



in rapid succession, followed by a gruff voice saying, 

 "Thar, darn yer picter, yer miserable varmint, yer 

 wanted me ter drag yer out didn't yer." Aniving at 

 the spot we found a dead bear and an old man trying to 

 remove a heavy trap from the bear's foot. The old* hunter 

 at first seemed disinclined to be communicative, but 

 after assisting him to remove the trap and drag the bear 

 out a little further into the trail we elicited from him the 

 facts concerning the outcries we had heard. He had 

 trapped the bear some rods from the trail and had prob- 

 ably been in the trap several days or until, as he ex- 

 pressed it, "the varmint had been caught long enough to 

 become suple." He wanted to get him out to the road (be- 

 fore killing) and had driven him as one would drive a 

 pig. To the trap was attached a heavy wooden clog, 

 which catching in the brush from time to time would 

 make the bear cry out with rage and pain, and by the 

 time they had got to the trail both man and bear were 

 thoroughly exasperated. He had attempted to kill him 

 with his axe, but on coming near enough he showed so 

 much fight that he was obliged to settle him with a 

 couple of shots from his old gun, the stock of which was 

 tied on with rope yarn and wire. We judged the bear 

 weighed about 4001bs. We seemed some of his claws as 

 trophies and proceeded on to the headwaters of the Pis- 

 tol. We found Hunter and Hall already there: Hunter 

 had just struck a large trout, which engaged our atten- 

 tion for some thirty minutes. 



Lower Pistol Lake is two and one half miles in length 

 and about one mile wide. On the south side and extend- 

 ing out into the lake, half a mile or more, are hundreds 

 of huge granite boulders reaching above the surface, the 

 north and west sides are bordered by high bluffs of 

 granite. 



These lakes with the Nickatous, four miles above, are 

 favorite resorts for deer; we saw one noble buck with 

 large spreading antlers (now just in the velvet) quietly 

 nipping the lily pads near the outlet and about forty rods 

 from us. He fed on and allowed us to look at him with 

 apparent unconcern for several minutes. At last, raising 

 Ms head and sniffing the air, Avith a loud snort bounded 

 away up the rocky shore and out of sight. 



Sportsmen from Boston and New York now make an- 

 nual visits to this region. Most of them are entertained 

 by our old friend Joe Darling, whose camps on the Nick- 

 tous are noted for their luxurious appointment. 



At 2 o'clock cur guide invited our attention to a din- 

 ner of boiled trout, hardtack and hot coffee. Our table 

 Avas a broad, flat stone close to the water, and shaded by 

 the branches of an immense oak. After dinner we took 

 an inventory of our luggage and found we had 34lbs. of 

 trout to carry to camp. On our return we found in a 

 ravine near where we left our boat a considerable quan- 

 tity of clear blue ice. With our hatchet and knives we 

 soon broke off as much as we could carry in the boat to 

 camp, which we reached just at sunset. As our friends 

 had not yet returned from up the river, we set to work 

 getting together some dry logs for our evening camp-fire, 

 while Lord prepared supper. Just as the shades of even- 

 ing began to deepen around our camp we heard the voices 

 of our comrades in jubilant tones far up the river. As 

 they approached we concluded that something quite 

 unusual had elated them, and as they reached the camp 

 landing we saw at once the cause of their noisy demon- 

 strations, and we added our voices to theirs in three rous- 

 ing cheers for the Doctor as he stepped from the boat 

 with a scratching, struggling cub in each hand. They 

 had killed a bear, and captured her two cubs. Enough 

 sport for one day at least. 



THE STRENGTH OF TROUT. 



O ALMON fishing became very dull on the Moisie River 

 O by the middle of last July. As we Avere fixed there 

 until the 21st, we turned our attention to the sea trout. 

 Not till the 18th did Ave strike them in numbers, hut after 

 that they were sufficiently abundant to satisfy the most 

 grasping. 



It may not be amiss to state, in view of Avhat follows, 

 that I am of those Avho believe the sea trout and our 

 brook trout (SalveUnus fontincdis) to be one and the same 

 fish. 



Upon the occasion hereafter referred to the trout aver- 

 aged rather even in point of size, by far the greater 

 number ranging within half a pound one Avay or tbe 

 other of two pounds. Our largest Avas three pounds and 

 five ounces, \vhile very few ran so small as one pound. 

 All were taken with the fly, the "Parmachenee Belle" 

 being the apparent favorite'. A moderate current of 

 between three and four miles an bom- aided the efforts of 

 the struggling fish to escape. All were fine active fish. 



On the 19th the fish Avere so abundant that it Avas quite 

 a matter of indifference Avhether they escaped after tak- 

 ing the fly or not. The idea then suddenly occurred to 

 me that no better opportunity could present itself to de- 

 termine by actual experiment Iioav much a trout really 

 could pull. Many, myself among the number, had theo- 

 ized about this, but no one, so far as I then knew or now 

 know, had ever subjected his theory to the touchstone of 

 actual experiment. 



I was provided with a tested spring-balance graduated 

 to read to two ounces, and by AvJnch a pretty accurate 

 determination to one ounce was possible. My first -At- 

 tempts were made as follows: After fastening a fish, the 

 line was attached to the hook of the spring-balance be- 

 tween the reel and the first ring. But it was soon per- 

 ceived that any result so obtained Avas modified by the 

 friction of the line through the rings and tip-end of the 

 rod,, and that by this method the object in view— to as- 

 certain tha amount of strain which a trout of a given 

 size could impose on a leader— could be but imperfectly 

 attained. 



The following method was then adopted and persisted 

 in. After fastening a fish the rod was at once passed to 

 the boAvman of the boat, while my gaffer and I seized the 

 line beyond the tip, one holding the fish so that there 

 Avould be enough slack line near the tip to enable the 

 other to fasten some part of this slack to the spring- 

 balance. After the connection was made the line Avas 

 released so as as to bring all subsequent strain directly 

 upon the spring-balance. 



The results were most provoking. Trout are proverbi- 

 ally perverse, but it seemed to me as if I had never in my 

 experience seen any so thoroughly imbued with this 

 abominable characteristic. To make connection with the 

 spring-balance required time, and by the time it was 

 made the fish would either stop pulling altogether, or 



