82 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 19, 1891, 



IN THE REGION ROUND NICATOWIS. 



XI. — TO SHAW'S ON DOBSY. 



IT isn't pleasant to give up what one has started to do; 

 but in the present case discretion was better than 

 courage. We backed out gracefuily. 



"We came up the same shore which we had followed 

 in going down, and picked a few cranberries that, oddly 

 enough, were growing among the rocks on the beach: but 

 most of them were still in bloom or ;just withered. As we 

 approached the inlet we saw a canoe there, and going up 

 found two young Indians fishing for pickerel. At first 

 they were reticent, but they soon told us that they had 

 come from Grand Lake by way of Wabash into the east- 

 ern arm of Third Lake. The gun which we heard the 

 night before was theirs. 



.Just below the quick water on the inlet Jot saw the 

 head of a fine buck which was standing in the bushes: but 

 we made no effort to kill him. True, it was not a very 

 good chance, but even if he had been standing broadside 

 to us in the open meadows it might have been just the 

 same, much as we wanted meat: for Father has been so 

 much with the Indians that he is learned in their philos- 

 ophy and never lugs an exti-a pound on a carry. Had he 

 met a nine-prong buck on the Machias end of the Gasso- 

 beeis Carry, it would have been quite characteristic for 

 him to request the buck to step across to the Gassobeeis 

 end, because he always preferred to shoot his deer at 

 Gassobeeis and save lugging them across the carry. 



We thought it easier to carry past the little fall just 

 above, many hands making light work, than to make Jot 

 pole the load up over: for it is a "smart little pitch" and 

 there was much more water on than when we came down. 

 At the gravel above we also walked by, and on the carry 

 to Fourth Lake Dam we walked while Jot poled the canoe 

 up. Third Lake rose fully twelve inches between Tues- 

 day night and Friday morning, and Fourth Lake had 

 risen even more, though the gates were up at both dams. 

 While we were at Fourth Lake the water rose fully two 

 feet. 



Such a beautiful, clear, hot day, such fresh air, such 

 delight in seeing the sun after so many days of gloom. 

 Even Fourth Lake looked almost pretty. 



We left our canoe at the end of the carry to Lower 

 Dobsy and went across to Shaw's to dinner, but more es- 

 pecially to get some flour, salt, sugar, potatoes, butter, 

 condensed milk and matches, of all which we stood in 

 some need, though we had plenty spoiling at Gassobeeis. 

 The carry is a wide sled road, along the top of the horse- 

 back, a mile and a quarter from lake to lake. Shaw's 

 house lies about half a mile further up the lake on the 

 end of Norway Point. Here the family receive summer 

 visitors and care for them at the house or on camping 

 excursions to the different lakes about the region. The 

 house itself is a commodious, two-story building, remark- 

 ably well located in every respect. It is in a grove of 

 sapling red pine (which we call Norway pines), close to 

 the lake, a perfectly healthful spot, freefrom mosquitoes, 

 and though both cool and shady neither damp nor ex- 

 posed to cold winds. Mrs. Shaw is a lady of refinement 

 and tact, with the art of making temporary visitors Uke 

 ourselves feel at home. The board is excellent, for any 

 one who could cook as good a dinner as we obtained there 

 could not cook a poor one. I have never seen a place in 

 Maine to which it would be so easy and so pleasant to 

 transport a whole family, old and young, and yet have 

 all contented. Here old people could sit in quiet on the 

 piazza, or children be left to play among the pines or to 

 bathe at the beach in front of the house, while a part of 

 the family could go oft" with guides and tents to hunt 

 and fish. Twice a week the steamer comes up from 

 Princeton, so that mails are regular and the place is easy 

 of access. 



We wanted to get some butter but Mrs. Shaw had none. 

 Now biitter is a luxury and according to our credo should 

 be dispensed with. But as we made no pretensions to 

 strict consistency in leading om- life of poverty and seK- 

 denial we have butter when we can get it. It was pro- 

 posed that we should cross the lake to Ball's and get 

 some. We borrowed a canoe and, forgetting that the 

 absence of any baggage should make a difference in the 

 way we loaded, got in after our usual order, Jot in the 

 stem, Father bowman, myself in the second band. This 

 brought her down by the head. The att'air was managed 

 with a real "Kennebec swing," as Penobscot people say 

 of anything that is particularly awkward. Then the 

 canoe herself was small, narrow and cranky, with a 

 twisted nose, which, combined with the wrong adjust- 

 ment of the weight, made her work directly up into' the 

 wind. There was no butter to be had at Ball's so tha t we 

 had four miles of paddlmg for nothing. However, we 

 saw the steamboat locks and ran across the narrow neck 

 of land which separates Dobsy from Pocumpcus for a 

 view of the latter lake. 



Dobsy is not the proper name for this lake, but Sisla- 

 dobsis. 1 have used the common form of "Lower Dobsy" 

 that I might distinguish it from "Tipper Dobsy," of who'se 

 Indian name I am not sure. There seems to be an uncer- 

 tainty about these names which is hard for a stranger to 

 untangle. I have heard Sisladobsis, Sissisladobsis, Sissis- 

 ladobsissis, and Sississisladobsissis given as an example of 

 the perfection to which the Indians reduced their use of 

 diminutives, each added sis being one more diminutive. 

 But this looks to me more like an example of Yankee 

 ingenuity than anything else. There seems to be some- 

 thing theoretical about it. In actual practice when any- 

 thing is so much belittled as that last name, it would 

 become a mathematical point and cease to have anj^ 

 visible existence: and so I have thought of some of these 

 lakes. But I do not claim to know anything about the 

 matter, for these are St. Croix waters. 



Lower Dobsy is a beautiful lake. When we retui'ned 

 to Fourth Lake we could not help contrasting it very un- 

 favorably with the clean shores, the pellucid water, the 

 high hills and heavy growth about Dobsy. But we would 

 not have exchanged our canoe for theirs. Indeed they 

 make a much poorer canoe there than we do on the 

 Penobscot. We had with us our old favorite Lady Emma 

 — named for the mother — built for us by Gerrish, of Ban- 

 gor, after a model specially shaped to meet Father's ap- 

 proval. She is a canvas canoe 19ft. long, made to carry 

 three of us and all our load, yet light enough for one man 

 to lug on ?t carry, high and fuU at the bows so as to 



mount a heavy sea, and yet narrow enough to be an easy 

 canoe to pole up rapids. She has been used for three 

 years now, all over the northern part of the State in the 

 roughest water that we have. No one has ever criticised 

 the model, some have copied it; but we who have been 

 with her through hard places and heavy seas best know 

 her virtues. She is as staunch as on the day she was 

 built, and will see more service yet. We paddled up the 

 lake in the path of the setting sun and that night camped 

 again on our island. 



XII.— SATURDAY AND PICKEREL. 



Friday night was as cTfear as a bell, stars out and 

 northern lights flashing, in the morning a bright sun- 

 rise, then mist, fog, rain. Surely all signs fail! 



We were back again on our old camp gi'ound and at 

 our old work of eating pickerel. Jot repeated his re- 

 mark about being ashamed to look a pickerel in the 

 face, and forthwith caught enough to last over Sunday. 



Fourth Lake is full of pickerel. How many might be 

 caught there in a day we do not know, for we never caught 

 more than enough to meet our actual needs. In the 

 present state of the game laws, when each one must be 

 a law unto himself, we make our limit , not one of times 

 and seasons, but of the amount of game which we take, 

 which never is more than enough to satisfy our appetite. 

 Of course this is kUling to eat, and according to sporting 

 papers, not sportsmanlike; it lays us open to the re- 

 proaches of the elect and classes us among those who 

 have no appreciation of the proper methods for satisfying 

 their thirst for blood. None the less we never kill when 

 there is no reason for it; and like many other Maine 

 people who have lost all respect for our game laws, we 

 kill whenever we need meat. There is a volume yet to 

 be written about Maine game matters, but it will be very 

 different reading from what has been written up to this 

 date, and it will explain things about which previously 

 we have held om- peace. 



The Foiirth Lake pickerel were darker than our pick- 

 erel usually are, some of the smallest being very dusky 

 on the belly and almost black above. Their average 

 length was not less than 18in.: and some of the largest 

 measm-ad 22 and 23in. 1 was always called a "biological 

 fiend" and am still given to aruspicy, so the pickerel had 

 to furnish material for the note book! One female which 

 we caught had a well developed roe, although I had 

 always supposed they did not spawn before February; 

 and her head after it was cut off and thrown into the 

 water continued to breathe with regularity and several 

 times turned itself from one side to the other. Many un- 

 doubtedly have noticed the little sacs which cling to the 

 gills of pickerel and also the great size and leaden blue 

 color of the gall-bladder, as also how the long leaves of 

 hard white fat cling to their intestines as to an animal's. 

 I know no other fish in which the fat takes this form and 

 looks so much like lard; a very good oil can be expressed 

 from it. 



It seems to be the fashion to slur the pickerel. But do 

 not some throw more than their quota of stones? That 

 he is an interloper in trout waters is true, but he is not 

 morally responsible for his present surroundings. The 

 same well meaning unwisdom which supplied iis the Eng- 

 lish sparrow and the black bass gave us the altogether 

 more welcome pickerel. He is well hked in this State. 

 There is no other fish or game which the law allows us to 

 take any time of the year, and the back settlers and far- 

 mers count on him as a staple article of diet, while to 

 many who live in cities winter fishing for pickerel afliords 

 more sport— if sport is the criterion by which everything 

 must be judged— than all the other fishing they get 

 throughout the year. He swarms when once introd'uced, 

 he does not sulk like the trout, he can be taken at any 

 time, and, practically, in any manner. Then, too. the 

 pickerel is no mean food fish when properly cooked; but 

 he will not bear being soaked in fat and taken out half 

 raw, nor is he at his best in a chowder. Slit the fish down 

 his back, cut out the backbone, salt well or corn over 

 night, then broil before an open fire and butter heavily. 

 So cooked they are the rival of the trout. For a single 

 meal the trout, but for a steady diet broiled pickerel. 



It has been a matter of ceremony to praise and flat- 

 ter the trout; there are those who cannot speak of 

 them mthout dragging in the well worn adulation of 

 "speckled beauties." Indeed, they are a glorious fish; 

 but the pickerel has merits too, like Dr. Johnson, despite 

 his looks. The trout is more fickle and dainty, the pick- 

 erel never lacks an appetite; the trout is shy, the pick- 

 erel bold to the point of rashness; the trout is playful, the 

 pickerel is an old war dog. He is full of energy, dash, 

 decision. When the buel is rippling quietly through 

 the water as If it were the only living thing astir, the fe- 

 rocity with which some large pickerel charges after it and 

 leaps upon it with a great whirl and a flash of black and 

 yellow, never fails to startle. Then how he cuts and 

 shears and hangs back, making the reel ring as he rushes 

 for the nearest stick or lily pads, where he hopes to tear 

 out the hook. A trout does not know half as well 

 what to to at first, but the pickerel never loses his head. A 

 bold freebooter, a good fighter, a ' 'leglar ole pilate"' as 

 Sebattis used to call him, he has quahties which we Maine 

 folk understand better than the trout's coyness. He com- 

 mands our respect for his hardihood, independence, and 

 unconquerable temper. There is a shark m him— see the 

 teeth: and a leopard in him — see the spots; and a lion for 

 courage, and a unicorn for strength. One has but to look 

 into the eye of the pickerel — what an eye! what colors! 

 what craft, what resolve, hate, rebellion, tenacity of pur- 

 pose gleam from the jeweled orb as he is drawn up, cap- 

 tured but not conquered! Nothing but the toad has such 

 an eye. And for intelligence— he has an unfortunate 

 countenance, to be sure, which does not give him an in- 

 tellectual appearance, but his cranium lacks none of the 

 necessary bones, and he inows just as well as any other 

 fish what he wants. 



XUT.— SUNDAY AND SPIDERS. 



Of course Sunday was fair, and for that we were glad, 

 since our Sundays in camp are occupied with the great 

 enjoyment of w^hatever is nearest us. This day the sky 

 was beautifully blue, and the lake, scarcely rippled by 

 the light north wind, was blue also. I took my shawl and 

 my Emerson out upon the knoll back of the tent and lay 

 down there in the hot afternoon sun among the brakes, 

 not to read, but to listen to the hum wMch underlies all 

 silence and to enjoy to the full the sense of well-being 

 which such a day imparts. One might fall asleep on that 

 hfllockon such a day; perhaps one did. At fixst there 



was a procession of ants across one corner of the shawl, 

 all stepping with sober haste, butunloaded and apparently 

 going nowhere at all, unless to see the sluggard who had 

 been directed to go to ihem. Then a dragon fly with a 

 red body lighted on a brake near by and solemnly rubbed 

 his nose \vith his paw. I never yet saw a dragon fly do 

 anything worth mentioning, except to whizz about like a 

 portable windmill or to sit on a stick and duck his head 

 and rub it just like a fat bald-headed man. Then there 

 were strange voices on the beach — somebody must have 

 been asleep to let Father and .Jot pass so near unchallenged 

 — and the visitors had to be reconnoitred through the 

 pine-brush. 



The tent was hot that afternoon, although I went there 

 and turned the leaves of the Emerson, trying to read. It 

 has been done so many times before that sunshiny Sun- 

 day afternoons in the woods are always associated with 

 Emerson. I do not care for him on a rainy day, when 

 looking up to see if Nature herself does not smile approv- 

 ingly on his optimism, there is nothing to be seen but a 

 Scotch mist that dampened all one's ardor. "Heroism" 

 and "self-reliance" need a back ground of blue sky in 

 order to be perfectly picturesque, and the "compensa- 

 tions" of such weather as we had been enjoying for a 

 fortnight are apt to look more like the retributions for 

 folly than the rewards of wisdom. Not that Emerson is 

 a mere fair-weather prophet; but, like all true poets, he 

 has more of June in him than of November, 



The tent was hot, as I have said, and full of flies; and 

 a myriad of spiders, infinitesimally smfall, dangled from 

 fine threads all over the roof. Big dragon flies three 

 inches long, yellow or green, and black, bumped against 

 the tent with a crackle of stifi: wings and sat there as 

 shadows. A red-bellied nuthatch lighted on the tent pole 

 and looked in, then flew away. Emerson ceased to en- 

 tertain. Then like Abraham of old we sat in the tent 

 door in the heat of the day and looked abroad. The big 

 dragon flies and their smaller cousins in red and brown 

 were darting through and about the branches of a dead 

 pine which stood in the door yard about" five rods ofi:. 

 We were watching their quick, whizzing, undeviating 

 flight, in zigzag lines turned with sharp angles as they 

 spun back and forth — ai-e they not the pickerel of the air, 

 motionless when they are still, swift as light when they 

 move, arrow-like in the straightness of their flight, keen- 

 sighted , voracious? — when we saw a spider come sailing 

 over the treetops. It was about 3 in the afternoon and 

 the sun was at our left shoulder as we sat in the doorway; 

 the spider came with the light breeze, which must have 

 been drawing across the lake from the north, with a 

 whole reef of web above her, which shone in the sun like 

 a silver mainsail. As she came near a green pine tree she 

 drew in her sail, clambering a.bout on the roj^e ladders 

 like any sailor, and descended to the pine of which she 

 laid hold. When, after some hard work, everything had 

 been made taut and belayed, she cast off again, this time 

 sailing to the dead pine which stood in the cl 'aring, a few 

 rods from the green tree. The web did not catch; but she 

 gathered it in and held it in her arms until she settled 

 where she wished to be. She made her way from branch 

 to branch apparently carrying the collapsed web with her, 

 very busy and agile, until she was on the side of the tree 

 furthest from the wind, when once more she made ready 

 her airy craft, spread her sails again and launched forth, 

 sailing toward the sun beyond the reach of my vision and 

 as far as Jot, who is an old bee hunter, could follow her 

 course. "What conscious pride such a creature, even 

 though small, must feel in its ability to make, man and 

 navigate its own craft on these long voyages across un- 

 known seas. 



1 thought I had seen something when I saw this. I 

 thought possibly it was something new and worth telling. 

 But it was as much a pleasure as a surprise to learn by 

 chance that the same had been observed and written 

 down nearly two hundred years before by a lad of eleven. 

 In the Andover Mevieic for January, 1S90, you will find 

 an article on the "Flying Spider," written by Jonathan 

 Edwai'ds, the great metaphysician and divine, when he 

 was not more than twelve years old. If he stole my ob- 

 servations by being born a hundred or two years before I 

 was, I will retaliate by quoting some of his. He has seen ' 

 ten times as much as I and has told it a great deal better: 

 but he cannot capitalize and I will expose him: 



"i know I have severall times seen a very Calm and 

 serene Day at that time of year, standing behind some 

 I Opake body that shall Just hide the Disk of the sun and 

 I keep of his Dazling rays from my eye and looking close 

 , by the side of it, multitudes of little shining webbs and 



IGHstening Strings of a Great Length and at such a height 

 as that one would think they were tack'd to the Sky by 

 one end were it not that they were moving and floating, 

 ( and there Very Often appears at the end of these Webs a 

 I Spider floating and sailing in the air with them, which I 

 have Plainly Discerned in those webs that were nearer to 

 my eye and Once saw a very large spider to my surprise 



swimming in the air in tliis manner" This is only the 



beginning of young Jonathan's sentence; it is less than a 

 quarter by actual measure. I pause to remark that otxrs 

 was a very large spider, too. "They when they would 

 Go from tree to tree or would sail in the air let them- 

 selves hang Doun a little way by their webb ahd then 

 put out a web at their tails which being so exceeding 

 rare when it flrst comes from the spider as to be lighter 

 than the air so as of itself it will ascend into it (which I 

 know by experience) the moving air takes it by the end 

 and by the spiders Permission Pulls it out of his tail to 

 any length * * * but if nothing is in the way of these 

 webs to hinder their flying otit at a sufficient Distance 

 and they Dont catch by anything, there will be so much 

 of it Drawn out into the air as by its ascending force 

 there will be enough to Carry the spider with it," and so 

 on for nearly a page more, telling us the philosophy of 

 what he calls the "Greater Levity" of the web and the 

 "Greater Gravity" of the spider. 



"there remains only two Difficulties," he goes on, 

 ' 'the One is how thej-- first begin to spin out this so fine 

 and even a thread of their bodies" — which he shows by 

 experiments and drawings, " the Other Difficulty is how 

 when they Are Once Carried Up into the air how they 

 Get Down again or whether they are necessitated to Con- 

 tinue till they are beat Down by some shower of Rain with- 

 out any sustenance vvhich is not probable nor Agreeable 

 to Natural Providence, I answer there is a way Whereby 

 they May Come Down again when they Please by only 

 Gathering in their Webs into them again by Which way 

 they may Come down Gradually and Gently, but whethei* 

 that be their Way or no: I Can'tsay but without scruple 



