322 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 5, 1887. 



A TRIP TO LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 



THOUGH I may be "giving away," in this article, the 

 knowledge of as good shooting grounds as may be 

 found in America, still I am only doing what every true 

 sportsman ought to do for another, where recuperation of 

 strength is to be combined with good hunting. 



With my noble dog Dan I boarded the train on the first 

 Monday in October, 1886, bound for Whitehall, on Lake 

 Champlain, N. Y. I was accompanied by my kind and 

 congenial friend, the crack wing shot of Ulster county, 

 Mr. John H. Decker, assistant superintendent of the 

 Ulster & Delaware Eailroad. He had with him his dog- 

 Fly, over whose head manv a game bird had been killed. 

 As we passed through a part of the State new to us, now 

 and then mv companion would call out to me, "There is 

 a good woodcock .ground, or here is a good quail field," 

 thus breaking the monotony of the ride. Arrived at 

 Whitehall we repaired to the Yule House, a commodious 

 hostelry, within a stone's throw of the lake. We foun d 

 mine host a jolly, well preserved man of sixty years, 

 who had spent the greater part of his life commanding 

 one of the fleetest steamers on the lake, and now retired 

 in "dry dock," as it were, but not to decay, nor too old to 

 keep a hotel. 



Upon inquiry of our skipper landlord, where suitable 

 guides could be obtained, he at once recom tended 

 the Blanchard family, father and three sonB, Mose, 

 Edward and Jack, who by hunting, fishing and acting as 

 guides for many years, had gained an experience which 

 made them specially desirable. We sent for Mose and 

 Jack and Mr. Decker and I repaired to the smoking room 

 to look them over. Mose Blanchard, the eldest, Avas ap- 

 parently about thirty-eight years of age, standing 5ft. 

 10m., medium weight, wiry, strong frame, as if pecu- 

 liarly fitted for his calling; his countenance was rather 

 pleasing; an unmistakable French nose bespoke plainly 

 his descent. Jack, about thirty-five years old, at first 

 inspection, appeared to be, in uij opinion, the ideal of a 

 woodsman and guide. Though not quite so tall or stout 

 as his brother his compactly built frame and sinewy 

 muscles showed him to be a most formidable antagonist 

 if once aroused. His dress was of the typical frontiers- 

 man or "Buffalo Bill" style — a black broad-brimmed 

 slouch hat, left side turned up, rested carelessly on one 

 side of his head, coal black locks fell in clustering curls 

 about his neck. His eyes were those deep, keen, jet 

 black, which bespoke the fearlessness of the man; also 

 warned one not to trifle or presume too far on the good 

 nature of the owner. His forehead square, full height 

 and nose like his brother's, was the only resemblance be- 

 tween them; mouth and chin expressed firmness and 

 strong will. His moustache was waxed and pointed, a la 

 Frenchman. Corduroy breeches were stuck into knee 

 boots. Around his body was a wide leather belt, from 

 which a huntsman's knife projected. A heavy blue 

 blouse hunting shirt open at the front, with black hand- 

 kerchief, tied like a sailor's, completed the outfit. Alto- 

 gether he was a character, rare to be found, such as the 

 romance writers of the day would be glad to know. Our 

 inspection resulted in their engagement for the week. 



The mornhig came, and with it a severe storm which 

 awoke me by the rain beating against the window panes. 

 It looked dubious indeed. At 1 o'clock, however, the 

 clouds broke away, revealing here and there patches of 

 blue sky, assuring us the storm was over, but the best part 

 of the day gone. 



We concluded to make a short trip along the large 

 creek which flows from the Vermont side and empties 

 into the great lake near the hotel. At a point which 

 gave evidence of game, we had scarcely got under cover 

 before we heard the sharp call of Mr. Decker to mark, 

 followed by the ringing report of his hammerless, and a 

 fine plump partridge came down. Dog Fly soon came 

 proudly forward, bearing the bird in his mouth. First 

 blood for Decker. At the call to mark the mate down, I 

 saw the bird come flying out of the reach of my gun and 

 located his landing. Dan was working in that direction, 

 and in a little while he hauled up, made a most beautiful 

 point, and stood like a statue — as pretty a picture as any 

 hunter could wish to see. I called to Jack to look sharp 

 and be on the watch if I should miss her. Dan w as 

 ordered to put her up. Fortunately, for me, the bird took 

 a straight drive through a small opening. Quickly bring- 

 ing to bear on her, I let go my right choke and brought 

 her down nicely and Dan brought her in. These points 

 exhibited by Dan and Fly greatly pleased Jack and 

 Mose. 



While working our way along the creek a single blue- 

 bill came flying over our heads at a fair shootrng dis- 

 tance, but speeding like the win:!. Mr. Decker drew 

 right on her, carefully calculating the distance and speed 

 of the bird, and in response to the call of l£oz. of No. 4 

 shot the duck came down. This was a fine shot, and 

 caused the guides to think they would have to look out 

 for the ; r laurel 3 at the end of the week. Tlvs shot scored 

 one against me. 



We were now coming Ufon a low swale, marjhy 

 ground, which our guides said was good feeding grounds 

 for woodcock. We divided into twos, working e'ther 

 side, while the dogs covered the low lands. We had not 

 far to proceed before both dogs halted and stood on sepa- 

 rate birds, Dan sending his to the left, where Jack anil I 

 were standing a few rods apart, while Fly flushed his 

 bird, sending her within reach |of Mr. Decker. It war? a 

 left-quarter shot for me, and I missed, but Jack stopped 

 her and Dan retrieved. Of course Mr. Decker got his 

 bird, although it was a long-range and right-quarter shot. 



Mose, who had done but little, if any, of the shooting 

 thus far, now left us to reconnoiter for gray squirrels in 

 a large primeval forest near by, while we continued on 

 the woodcock grounds, from which we gathered a fine 

 bag full. In an hour and a half Mose returned from his 

 lone hunt with seven large gray squirrels, and he told us 

 that he could see gray squirrels running in all directions. 

 They were so plenty that we could have loaded our 

 wagon with them had we devoted time to them, but we 

 preferred the game birds, and concluded to leave the 

 squirrels to the " pokers." Darkness coming on, and five 

 miles from home, tired, hungry and wet from the morn- 

 ing rains, we entered our vehicle, while Dan and Fly 

 trotted along in our wake. Our road lay along the 

 creek. On either side were patches of wood. Missing 

 the dogs, we halted just in time to hear Dan give a short, 

 sharp yelp. I knew what that meant, as on former 

 occasions Dan had exhibited the same trait when he had 

 flushed a partridge to a tree ; so I said, " Get out, boys, 



and unlimber, game there sure." It was now so dark 

 that we could not see the dogs in the woods. But Jack 

 located the bark of Dan, and, proceeding cautiously in 

 that direction, came to a small hemlock tree, where he 

 found Dan and Fly both pointing to limbs of the tree. 

 Peeping up he saw the bird standing out in bold relief 

 against the starry skv. It soon came down to the call of 

 Jack's gun. This making the total for the day seven 

 woodcock, four partridges, one duck and seven gray 

 squirrels, all taken in less than to hours actual hunting 

 time. 



The morning was bright and clear, with cold, frosty, 

 nipping air — just the morning for hunting. It had been 

 decided the evening before that we should spend this day 

 in snipe shooting, to be followed by duck shooting in 

 the evening, as the ducks came to the feeding grounds. 

 Two boats were in readiness at 8 o'clock; our guides had 

 also provided fishing tackle. Jack and I took one boat, 

 Mr. Decker and Mose the other. Pickerel and bass were 

 said to be plenty in the lake, and in the season it was no 

 trick (we were told) to catch 751bs, of pickerel in a few 

 hours. 



The snipe grounds were five miles up the lake, and 

 there was good fishing all the way up. We expected no 

 little sport. After getting out of the noise of the paddle 

 wheels of the steamers Ave come to an historical point 

 called Old Put's Leap (so informed by Jack). It is a 

 rocky promontory, rising perpendicularly 20ft. out of the 

 water. The Avater at its base is 30ft. deep. The lake is 

 here very narrow, not more than 200yds. across ; a low 

 marshy ground on the opposite side, Avith rocky, broken 

 bridle path, giving access to Vermont. Resting on his 

 oars Jack related to me this story. I will not attempt to 

 give Jack's vernacular. 



Old Put (General Israel Putnam) was an Indian hater 

 and had caused the death of many a redskin. The 

 Indians feared him greatly, believing him to bear a 

 charmed fife, for he invariably escaped from the traps 

 set for him. It Avas their desire to capture Old Put alive 

 and to satiate their fiendish revenge by the torture of the 

 stake. Old Put, aware of this, doubled his watchfulness; 

 and many a hairbreadth escape he had, but none so nar- 

 row as this of "Put's Leap." Once, while making his 

 way unattended from where Whitehall now stands to 

 Ticonderoga or to Western Vermont, he came upon an 

 ambuscade of a dozen Indians or more. The Indians 

 Avere aware of Old Put's movements, and had prepared 

 the ambuscade Avith the avowed intention to capture him 

 alive and carry out their long-wished-for devilish scheme 

 of burning him at the stake. With exultant, fiendish 

 yells they closed upon him. But Put being mounted on a 

 very fleet horse, gave him the spurs and sped for his life, 

 sending a bullet crashing through the brain of the nearest 

 Indian. He put directly for this rocky promontory, 

 which seemed his only escape. Arrows whizzed past his 

 head. The whole pack of howling redskins gave chase, 

 believing there was no possible chance for escape in the 

 direction he had taken. But Old Put's scalp was not to 

 be taken yet. Going at headlong speed, Avith the yelling 

 fiends close behind, he halted Avithin a few feet of the 

 edge of the cliff, looked back at the pursuing red devils, 

 gave a yell of defiance, struck his rowels deep into his 

 horse's flanks and sprang headlong from the cliff, landing 

 full 20ft. from the rocky base, swam to the opposite shore 

 and was ascending the bank when the Indians came up. 

 They halted at the edge of the cliff in astonishment, 

 viewed the mighty leap a moment, gave a grunt of dis- 

 appointment, saying, "Pale face make mighty big jump," 

 and left in disgust. 



I gave Jack a look of incredulity, but he affirmed that 

 the Government had erected a monument on the rock in 

 commemoration of the event, but had allowed it to go to 

 decay. Enough was left, he said, to con vince me, if I 

 would take the trouble to climb the rock and examine for 

 myself. After this I could not doubt Jack's veracity, and 

 adopted his narrative as truth. 



During Jack's story Ave could see Mr. Decker on the 

 opposite side of the lake pulling the pickerel in repeated ly. 

 I quickly threw my spoon and reeled out a hundred feet 

 or more, while Jack was guiding the boat within an oar's 

 length of the grassy edge of the channel. My spoon was 

 spinning finely, making a tempting bait for some lazy 

 fellow. Sure enough, we had not gone many boat lengths 

 before a tremendous big fish struck the hook, and made 

 the reel spin like lightning for a moment before I cculd 

 check him. My rod bent near'y double uoav, and Jack 

 called out, "Handle him carefully; he is a big one." He 

 was too large to reel in at once, and I let him get tired 

 before I dared attempt it. Gradually now I began to reel 

 in. He came Very stubbornly until I had him within ten 

 feet of the boat, when to my utter dismay he made a 

 plunge nearly his length out of the water, turned in an 

 opposite direction, tore the spoon hooks from hi? mouth, 

 left part hanging to the barbs — "so near yet so far. " 

 Jack, who is all veracity, said, "That fellow was a good 

 five-pounder." We had better luck before Ave arrived at 

 the snipe grounds. We found the two boa^s had caught 

 on the Avay up about 201bs. of pickerel. We uoav ex- 

 changed the rod for the gun. On the opposite side of 

 the lake was Jack's father, guiding a party. We had 

 heard their guns for some time as they bagged the snipe. 

 Their continued shooting had sent many red legs over to 

 our side of the lake, and we anticipated fine sport. 



The bank of the lake at this point and for many miles 

 up was a very soft mud, with grass which which made it 

 very difficult walking ; but, relying on my rubber boots, 

 I soon struck out, Dan following, I had marked a small 

 flock ; Dan was working alter them and finally stood on 

 them until I could get in fair range. 



These snipe, on their first flight, fly a wavy, oscillating 

 motion for many yards, then fly straight, thus by instinct 

 protecting themselves and making it extremely difficult 

 to bring them down. But I knew Avhat my Pieper could 

 do and Availed till the birds got to their natural flight, 

 when I sent an ounce and a half number ten shot after 

 them and brought down two. I continued bagging them 

 and in an exciting moment did not look careful to my 

 footing, "the bottom fell out" and I was completely 

 mixed in the soft mud. To keep from sinking further I 

 threw myself forward with my gun under my breast, 

 and reaching for a " bog," Avith great difficulty drew my- 

 self out of my boots and left them sticking in the mud. 

 Jack soon came to my relief and assisted me to solid 

 ground a pitiable looking object. I was nearly covered 

 Avith mud from shoulders to feet. It soon dried, however, 

 when it was easily removed and my clothing returned to 

 its natural color. But the accident had greatly cooled my 



ardor for any more snipe shooting, I had bagged eight 

 and felt satisfied to spend the remainder of the day on 

 another kind of game. 



The railroad ran close to the lake, and here crossed a 

 small culvert Avhich connected a large deep pond with 

 the main lake on the east. Under the culvert was a depth 

 of scarcely Gin. of water and it was not over 4ft. wide. 

 While we were lunching Mr. Decker heard a flopping and 

 splashing under the culvert. Ju niping up and steppi ng to 

 the edge of abutments he peered cIoavu and gave an ex- 

 clamation of surprise and called to us. There, down in 

 the shallow stream under the culvert was a good 51b. 

 black bass, trying to make a passage from the small lake 

 to the Champlain. Probably he had been chasing min- 

 nows into this shallow water and was now trying to make 

 his escape to deeper water. Quickly running down Jack 

 .grabbed him and brought him up. He was a perfect 

 beauty, and gave us a nice meal the next morning. Jack 

 thought that there must be a bonanza for him in that 

 pond, where, he said, there Avere hundreds of fish like 

 this. 



It had been decided that the evening should be spent 

 shooting ducks, which came by hundreds from all direc- 

 tions, to certain feeding grounds, about four miles further 

 up the lake. When nearly to the feeding grounds, pass- 

 ing close to the shore, we came upon a camping out 

 party, a board shanty, with small tents about, occupied 

 by half a dozen sportsmen. A peculiar decoration of the 

 shanty attracted our attention. Several different strings 

 ran the whole length of the shanty (14ft.), and on each 

 string, tied an inch or two apart, hung the caudal ap- 

 pendages of hundreds of gray squirrels. When our boat 

 came directly opposite to the party two stalwart fellows 

 came out, bearing between them, on a large pole, the 

 shoot for that day — a bunch of gray squirrels as large as 

 a two-bushel basket. We gave them three cheers and 

 passed on to the feeding grounds, Avhere we arrived at 

 sunset. 



This feeding place consisted of a flat with a few inches 

 of water and fly grass covering a diameter of one to three 

 miles. By taking different positions, on the corners of a 

 square, as it Avere, a few rods apart, we could have better 

 opportunity to bombard the ducks as they came flying 

 over our heads, or near us. Jack and I had waded 

 through mud and grass nearly to the channel, while Mr. 

 Decker and Mose stood opposite to us on the shore. It 

 Avas fairly dusk now, and already we could hear the whiz 

 and whir of the swift flying mallards. The fusilade 

 opened first Avith Mr. Decker, then Mose and Jack, fol- 

 lowed by both barrels of my gun, in a flock of such 

 length that I had time to slip in another shell and get one 

 more crack on them before they passed by. It was a 

 curious sight now, as eight barrels were continually being 

 discharged as fast, nearly, as one can count. Never be- 

 fore have I Avitnessed such a gathering of aquatic birds. 

 It seemed that we must be struck down by them, in their 

 SAvift flight; and at times they flew so low as to cause an 

 involuntary ducking of our heads for fear of being hit. 

 We could hear the ducks fall with a heaAw thud, almost 

 after each shot, all around us, some near enough to pick 

 up Avithout moA'ing from our tracks. Their numbers 

 seemed to be untold. Thousands coming from the 

 Adirondacks and northerly part of the lake; and when 

 we left the grounds at 6:30 P. M., they were still coming 

 in as large flocks as ever, and the whir of then wings 

 seemed like the passing of a railroad train. As it was 

 too dark to attempt to find the ducks we had killed, we 

 concluded to go home and return in the morning to 

 gather our harvest. We found six mallards, however, 

 that had fallen near us. 



When ready to start home our watches pointed to the 

 hour of ten, and there was an eight mile row before us. 

 It was a beautiful night, clear and starry, the Avater calm 

 and unruffled. Although we were tired and hungry, 

 the ride Avas greatly enjoyed. That trip on that calm 

 night completely broke up my hay fever, from which I 

 had been suffering for two months. This region, we found, 

 is very beneficial to hay fever patients. When Ave arrived 

 at our hotel it was midnight, but our host ordered a hot 

 meal to be in readiness for us, and it need not be said that 

 this was duly appreciated. 



The next morning Mr, Decker set out for a visit to Ti- 

 conderoga. This broke up our intended return to the 

 scene of the last night's bombardment to gather the 

 many fords that we knew must be lying on the grounds. 

 It was finally arranged that one of the guides should 

 visit the grounds and secure the birds for his own dis- 

 posal; as it was a sixteen mile row, there and back, the 

 ducks could hardly compensate one for his trouble, even 

 if there should be as many as we anticipated. 



The two guides and myself drove to a small lake which 

 lay between the two cultivated hills, Avith the mountain 

 between it and Lake Champlain for background. Arriv- 

 ing at the southerly side of the lake Mose ascended 

 one of the hills to reconnoiter, Avhile Jack and I 

 passed on to the northerly side. Mose Avas to give 

 us signals. We had not long to wait before 

 an exclamation from Jack caused me to look up. 

 "Ducks in that pond, sure," said he. "I have got the 

 signal from Mose." I looked in the direction indicated, 

 and sure enough there stood Mose, and though nearly 

 half a mile from us Ave could distinctly see his signs, 

 made with both arms, a code of signals that these two 

 guides understood and had been working from for years. 

 Jack was all animation now. "Not less than fifty ducks 

 in that lake in sight of Mose. We must follow his sig- 

 nals, and it will not be his fatdt if he does not bring us 

 within easy gunshot of the Avhole lot." We set out, 

 Indian fashion, down a ravine, leading up to the lake, 

 screening us from the ducks, but in full sight of Mose, on 

 the hill. A fringe of black alders had grown to a con- 

 siderable height all along the shore of the lake, which, 

 when once reached, would completely protect us from 

 sight of the ducks, while the motions* of Mose could be 

 plainly observed. To reach these black alders Aye had to 

 craAvl on hands and knees, now verging to the right or to 

 the left, as the directions of Mose's signals seemed to in- 

 dicate. We finally succeeded in reaching the fringe of 

 black alders without being observed by the ducks. Jack 

 now partly raised his head above the alders, Avhen a 

 warning motion to be cautious came from Mose, followed 

 by a signal to pass further on, keeping close behind the 

 alders. We had proceeded to a small point making out 

 into the lake, when cautiously Jack took a peep, and 

 oaught the signal from Mose, "Near enough." 



My heart had been going pit-a-pat for some time under 

 the restraint, and I was getting extremely nervous. Jack 



