DEC. 4, 1800.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



897 



"That reminds me." 



G1 EORGE COLE, of Fairhaven, Wash., who has had 

 M charge of a Port Townsend Southern party of en- 

 gineers for some time past, was in the city the other day 

 and talked freely of the experiences the "boys" had with 

 big game in that wild region. One of the stories which 

 he relates is as follows: "During the summer we had a 

 pet bear — one that we caught when it was only a few 

 weeks old, and kept until it got to be a nuisance. We 

 had trained it down to a fine point. You have heard of 

 the educated hog that could read? Well, Ruby couldn't 

 do that exactly, but he could play cards, aud when it 

 came to a bluff at poker he simply couldn't be beaten. 

 He was sublime. I've seen him when there was a pot of 

 fifty or more lumps of sugar — we always played for sugar 

 when Ruby was m it— bluff the entire gang and rake in 

 the stakes when it proved he had nothing better than a 

 pair of twos. No, he couldn't talk; but he'd wag his head 

 if he wanted to pass, and his eye stood him in good stead 

 when it came to anything else. Wonderful eye had 

 Ruby, and I don't suppose we would have killed him if 

 we hadn't caught him one day, after he had won nearly 

 all the sugar in the outfit, scratching his ear and pulling 

 out an extra ace from one of the big wrinkles in his neck. 

 Alas, poor Ruby, he was a thoroughbred, but too smart 

 for this country, and we had part of him for dinner that 

 day." Jo. 

 Seattle, Wash., No v. 20. 



Reading the "coon hunting stories" in the Fobest and 

 Stream of Nov. 20 reminded me of coon hunt not accord- 

 ing to the code, which I witnessed in Spartanburg, South 

 Carolina, while residing there several years ago. Arising 

 very early one beautiful, warm Sunday morning, I took 

 a walk down through one of the principal streets of the 

 town, and came across a party of three darkies trying to 

 capture a coon that had taken refuge in a large shade 

 tree. They had neither weapons nor dogs, but were plan- 

 ning to capture the animal alive. One had a small box 

 to put the coon in, and one went up the tree to shake it 

 down. His coonship was near the top on a small limb, 

 from whence the darky could not dislodge him. Ap- 

 proaching too near, the coon made a snap at the negro, 

 who became so frightened he lost his balance, at the 

 same time dislodging the coon, and both tumbled to- 

 gether. I think it was the most laughable sight I ever 

 witnessed. The limbs and leaves were so thick on the 

 tree that they saved the negro from being hurt, and the 

 two darkies on the ground were making every effort to 

 capture the coon, and when all got mixed up in a general 

 melee it was the most beautiful scrimmage ever seen. It 

 took the coon about three minutes to clean out the three 

 negroes and take a hasty departure, and then the "gentle- 

 men of color," being awful mad at something, went to 

 thumping each other. J. S. H. 



Wtalusing, Pa., Nov. 20. 



m m\d ^iver fishing* 



The full texts of the game fish laws of all the States, 

 Territories and British Provinces are given in the Book of 

 the Game Latvs. 



TROUT FISHING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



n. 



ON the morning of the first Tuesday in June a party of 

 four of us started from Osborn's for the upper 

 waters of the west fork of Pigeon River. Osborn was 

 guide and general manager; the Parson, the Professor 

 and your humble servant, the "drummer," made up the 

 party. The Parson and Professor were from Charleston, 

 S. C. ; they were spending the summer at Flat Rock, N. C. , 

 about forty miles from Osborn's. They came over to 

 Osborn's to spend a few days and get some trout; they 

 had been there the year previous, and informed me that 

 they were "old trout catchers," in fact they gave me the 

 impression that they "knew it all." They were jolly good 

 fellows, and I was very glad to meet such up in those 

 wilds, where people of my own kind were so rarely met. 



Well, at 6 o'clock that bright June morning we started 

 up the trail, following the east fork of the river, bound 

 for the mouth of Shining Creek, about five miles from 

 Osborn's, where we were to camp the first night after 

 having fished the creek to its mouth, about half a mile 

 from where the trail crosses it. 



The Parson and Professor had each a saddle horse. 

 They came on horseback from Fiat Rock. They loaded 

 the horses with fodder, provisions for the party, pork, 

 meal, corn pone, salt, pepper, a little butter and sugar, 

 coffee and pot, etc., etc. We looked very much like 

 genuine mountaineers, and I had been there long enough 

 to feel very like one. 



Our path was through dense woods the entire distance, 

 and we did not feel the heat as we should had the country 

 been an open one, but about 9 o'clock, when we came to 

 the foot of the third and last mountain before reaching 

 the creek the perspiration fairly rolled down the sides of 

 my face and my shirt was reeking wet; we rested a little 

 and then commenced our last climb for that day; it was 

 only about 1,500ft. to the summit, not much of a hill in 

 those regions; the natives don't mind such hills as that; 

 they girdle the trees and burn off the undergrowth of 

 those low hills and plant corn and rye on them. Our 

 trail led in a zig-zag course, so that the climb was not a 

 very difficult one. and at the end of half an hour we 

 were on the summit, a gentle descent of about 150ft. and 

 we reached the creek. 



Shining Creek is a beautiful stream; it is about 15yds. 

 wide on an average and contains a very large body of 

 water, a great many big rocks, series of deep pools and a 

 few long stretches of lovely ripples; it is the very ideal of 

 a trout stream. It can be fished about three miles from 

 its mouth with good results, provided the angler is an 

 experienced one. After he has followed it that distance 

 it is not worth his time to go further; he had better turn 

 about and fish back to the river, if he has not caught all 

 he can carry; that's most likely to be the case. 



Shining Creek finds its course under old Shining Rock 

 Mountain; it springs from several large, ice-cold springs 

 and supplies more that half the water that goes to make ' 

 up the East Fork of the Pigeon; it is the clearest and 

 coldest brook water I ever saw in any section where I 



have fished for trout. I fished that creek several times in 

 midsummer and its waters were so cold that unless I wet 

 my head before wading in, it would ache and throb for 

 hours as if it had been beaten. 



We fixed up a place to keep the horses, gave them some 

 fodder and then started toward the river, fishing down 

 the creek; we used stick worms on our cinnamon-hackled 

 flies, at least I used such a contrivance, I had too much to 

 attend to just then to notice what the others were using. 

 Osborn sent the Parson and Professor on ahead in order 

 that they might have the "first pickings;" we kept as far 

 behind them as we could; it was slow work with us; we 

 had to take to the rocks in the stream, jumping from one 

 to another and slipping into the water, and frequently we 

 could do no work from the banks, owing to dense thickets 

 of brushes and vines; the water was rather too high for 

 our comfort, but not too high to prevent the trout from 

 biting furiously; the sport was all we could wish it to be, 

 but none of our fish were large ones— from J to i of a 

 pound each was about the average. We returned to the 

 water scores of fish under 6in. in length. We reached the 

 mouth of the creek at three o'clock; our young men had 

 reached there half an hour ahead of us, they had caught 

 25 fair-sized trout, the Professor had fallen off a big rock 

 into a deep pool and got well soaked, the Parson got wet 

 in helping him out, and both of them were badly disgusted 

 with the whole "business." 



Osborn and I had caught 90 in all; they were beauties, 

 nearly all of a size and of the most perfect shape, and the 

 most brilliantly colored trout I had yet seen. 



It seemed almost cruel to kill such beautiful fishes, but 

 no doubt they were made for man's food and when man 

 is hungry he don't stop to think of beauty before satisfy- 

 ing his hunger. The young men said thev would return 

 to camp, clean the fish we had caught, prepare a camp 

 for the night and have things in good order when we 

 came. We waited to try the big pool at the mouth of the 

 creek. The lofty mountains hid the sun from our view 

 and it was more like evening than mid-afternoon; trout 

 were breaking water frequently and we thought we could 

 get a dozen or two good-sized ones before night. The 

 pool is about 150yds. Jong by 100 wide, and has an average 

 of 80ft. depth of water, It can be fished to the best ad- 

 vantage from the west side, where we then were. I used 

 a white-coachman at first. Osborn did the same, but 

 could get only two rises, one of which I struck and 

 landed. It was a small one and I returned it to the 

 water. Osborn crossed the creek and fished the upper end 

 of the pool. We both fished up stream. The trout con- 

 tinued breaking water, but I could not get a rise. I put 

 on my old favorite cinnamon-hackle again and yet could 

 get no rise. I then tried a worm, but they would not 

 take that, and I began to think that my day's sport was 

 ended. 



I had whipped the pool up to the creek without getting 

 another fish; could see Osborn haul one in occasionally, 

 and I made one more effort. I did not want to be beaten 

 after doing so much earlier in the day. I made a cast in 

 the long, swift ripple which forms the mouth of the creek ; 

 my hook struck the water near its head , floated down a few 

 feet, and then I saw a big fellow come to the surface, 

 bend his form in the shape of a bow and sink to the bot- 

 tom, fully loft. I struck him gently, and then he started 

 for the big pool; my line fairly smoked for a moment; I 

 gave him at least 40yds. of line, then he sank to the bot- 

 tom and sulked. That little bamboo rod of mine didn't 

 seem strong enough to bring him from the bottom; but I 

 worked him almost twenty minutes, and at last brought 

 him to the bank, where the water was not more than 6in. 

 deep, held my rod with one band, reached down and put 

 thumb and forefinger of the other into his mouth and gills 

 and took him ashore. He was 1 7in. in length and a beauty. 



I caught 13 more fine ones from the same ripple before 

 Osborn came; he had caught a dozen very good-sized ones. 

 Could not catch any until he baited. The water was not 

 warm enough for good fly-fishing. 



We started for camp as soon as we could put up our 

 tackle. When we arrived there, at 6 o'clock, the Parson 

 was just finishing up the trout. We took those we had 

 just caught and cleaned them; the Professor was putting 

 the last p iece of bark on to the roof of the rude camp; a 

 big hard wood fire was blazing on a big flat rock in front 

 of the camp, coffee was all made, and as soon as Osborn 

 could wash his hands he set about cooking some trout. 

 I cut two straight dogwood sticks about the length and 

 size of a ramrod, drove down four crotched sticks before 

 a big bed of coals, put skewers into the fish to hold them 

 open; Osborn cut four thin slices of salt pork, rubbed the 

 trout in meal, salted and peppered them, and then strung 

 them on to the sticks with pieces ofpork between them, 

 and hung them before the coals. When they began to 

 cook I placed corn pones under them to catch their juice. 

 About twenty minutes after they were hung before the 

 coals they were "done to a turn," and we fellows fell to 

 and began to destroy them. We ate fifty before we 

 began to feel that we had eaten enough; we had eaten all 

 we had cooked; I think I could have eaten one or two 

 more if I had been called on to do so. 



After supper and a smoke we turn in for the night, 

 rather the others did, I was to take the first watch from 

 8:30 to 11. The young men had laid our camp floor with 

 a thick bed of laurel and hemlock twigs, and with our 

 heavy blankets we could sleep as soundly there as we 

 could in the best bed in North Carolina. 



I sat outside the camp wrapped in my blanket, and 

 watched the fire and smoked until it was time for me to 

 turn in. Just before I called the Parson to take my 

 place I noticed heavy, black clouds coming down*from 

 the vicinity of old Shining Rock; the wind was also from 

 that direction and I made up my mind that we should 

 get wet before daylight. The Parson said it looked that 

 way to him, but he would go on watch all the same. I 

 went into camp, rolled my blanket about me and in a few 

 moments I was sound asleep. About 2 o'clock A. M. I 

 was started from sound slumber by a fearful clap of 

 thunder. I jumped to my feet, the others did the same, 

 and after making sure that we were all right we sat 

 down and saw the rain fall. I had never seen such a 

 storm as that one was; the thunder rolled incessantly 

 and the flashes of lighting were nearly blinding; the 

 horses became restless and the young men and Osborn 

 had to go out where they were tied several times to keep 

 them from breaking their halters, and, of course, got 

 beautifully soaked. The fire was long since extinguished 

 and we all felt cold, but we could not better our condi- 

 tion unless we could do it with a little whisky. We all 

 drew our pocket pistols and fired good strong charges 



down our throats, and as the stuff circulated through our 

 cold system we soon felt some relief, 



I shall never forget that fearful storm; it was grand 

 beyond description, but I don't want any more such ex- 

 perience. It was rather dangerous, too;' those tall hem- 

 locks, under which we were camped, might have been 

 struck and we might not have lived to relate our experi- 

 ence of that night. But "all's well that ends well," the 

 storm spent its fury before daylight, and when it became 

 light enough for us to find kindling wood to start our 

 fire Osborn said we should have a pleasant day to com- 

 plete our journey in. 



It would have been useless to attempt fishing the creek 

 that morning; it was a roaring torrent. We ate break- 

 fast at 5 o'clock, and after packing our wallets with corn 

 pone, fried trout and pork we were ready to start. 



The Professor came up and said that he and the Parson 

 were going back to the house, that they bad had enough 

 of camp life; it didn't contain a blanked thing worth liv- 

 ing for. 



He said he'd be blanked if he would go through another 

 such Hades as he did last night for all the trout there 

 were in Haywood county and several counties adjoining. 

 We did our best to persuade them to go with us,' but did 

 not succeed; they had been pretty badly frightened, and 

 were very much disgusted with their own luck as fisher- 

 men, and really had had enough. We sent back all of 

 our cooking utensils except a tin for baking pones on, 

 made our load as light as we could, bid the boys good-by, 

 and crossing the creek on a log started for a hard tramp 

 of seven miles to the upper waters of the west fork. 



The work we had done the day before and the experi- 

 ence of the night had left no bad effects behind, so far as 

 Osborn and I were concerned. The Parson said he would 

 meet us on Saturday at Blacock's Mills, nine miles below 

 Osborn's, near where the two big forks unite, and carry 

 us home in a wagon, and he hoped we would have a big 

 string of fish for him to carry back to Flat Rock. We 

 did not make them any promises, and as they disappeared 

 from our view we commenced climbing a big mountain 

 on our way to our "land of promise," and as we believed, 

 to streams swarming with trout. 



At 8:30 o'clock we had covered fully four miles of the 

 seven that laid before us when we started and had reached 

 the upper waters of the east fork. We rested there an 

 hour and refreshed ourselves with lunch. We left the 

 stream then and turned northward, and at the end of an 

 hour or so came to a mountain called the Devil's Court 

 House. I do not know what the devil wanted of a court- 

 house in such a wild place as that is. It struck me that 

 there had never been any inhabitants, either good or bad, 

 in that region. Perhaps some of his imps once lived 

 there and made "moonshine" whisky, and when they 

 tried to avoid paying internal revenue tax they were 

 brought to court. 



It is a wild, rocky mountain, one of the few bald ones 

 in the west end of the Alleghany range. The trail runs 

 between the Devil's Court House and another peak fully 

 as desolate looking for two or three miles. The sides of 

 those mountains are covered with a rich growth of bal- 

 sam, spruce and hemlock. Many of the balsams grow to 

 an immense size. I saw hundreds of them that would 

 measure from 3 to 6ft. in diameter, and from 40 to 80ft. 

 from the ground to their first limbs. They are valueless 

 now, but when railroads find their way through those 

 woods the owners of that timber will reap fortunes. 



At 2:30 P. M. we reached the east fork of the West 

 Fork, where we were to spend our first night, and per- 

 haps other nights— that was to be decided by how good 

 the fishing was in two of the three creeks which unite 

 two miles north of where we were, and from the main 

 body of the river, the West Fork. 



We found a bear trap, or pen; it could be fixed up 

 easily, and would make a good camp; it was built of 

 logs. We tackled it and cleaned it out, spread about 2ft. 

 of balsam twigs on the floor, pealed three or four large 

 hemlocks and made a watertight roof, covered the sides 

 with bark, and at the end of an hour or so had things in 

 good shape for a permanent residence if we chose to re- 

 side there. 



We went out to the creek and caught about thirty 

 good-sized trout; had to wade it, as there were too many 

 bushes on its banks. The water was not very deep; the 

 bottom was sandy a good deal of the distance we fished; 

 banks were low, and there were hundreds of hiding- 

 places under them. I would put on a worm, cast ahead 

 20ft. or so, draw the hook toward me, and sometimes get 

 two at a cast. They were very gamy, much more so 

 than they were in Shining Creek, I do not think any 

 one had fished there up to the time of our coming dtiring 

 th6 season. Probably those creeks are not fished three 

 times a year on an average. 



We returned early to camp, We were both pretty tired. 

 I took the fish to the spring near by and cleaned them. 

 While I was doing ihis work Osborn was baking corn 

 pone, making coffee, etc. Very soon we had a string of 

 broiled trout and pork lying before us upon a piece of 

 clean hemlock bark, and being very hungry, we paid our 

 warmest respects to them. They were broiled "to a turn" 

 and strengthened and comforted the "inner man" won- 

 derfully. My appetite had not sprved me so well in 

 twenty years as it was then doing. I had come from 

 south Florida less than three weeks before, "chock full" 

 of her poisonous malaria, and had not eaten a fairly good 

 meal for two months when I reached the mountains. 

 People said I would starve to death up there, because the 

 women did not know how to cook, and if they did know 

 how they didn't have anything to cook that a civilized 

 man could eat after it was cooked. Just tell such people 

 that they don't know what they are talking about when 

 you hear them say it. 



We did not have many dainties except trout, honey 

 and bushels of the finest wild strawberries I ever saw. 

 The wagon loads of blueberries and blackberries that 

 came later I do not make special note of. There was 

 plenty of milk, fresh-made butter daily, cream by the 

 gallon, corn pone and hot biscuit. These articles might 

 not be considered dainties by some— Bill Nye, for instance 

 —but they just put the flesh on to ray lean sides and made 

 my cheeks as rosy as a girl's; and the expense for the 

 entire three months was less than one would have to pay 

 for three weeks at the Rangeleys, including fare from 

 New York. 



We sat by the fire and made plans for to-morrow and 

 the succeeding days we expected to spend there, smoked 

 our pipes and then turned in for rest. Rush. 

 Chicago. 



