June 4, 1891.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



S9B 



fishing she will enjoy. You can't expect all the cardinal 

 virtues for $7 a month, as the soldier said when on 

 trial before a court martial for drunkenness. 



Now, as for the wail over exorbitant charges at Late 

 St. Johns. The hotel people can hardly be held respon- 

 sible for what boatmen, charge tourists, 'as heretofore the 

 men owned their own canoes, and we all know that 

 human nature in Canada is not very different from what 

 we find it at all the fishing and watering places. Try 

 Newport or Long Island and see where they will land 

 you; try any place in the Adirondacks and you will find 

 the same thing. The tourist that travels and fishes at a 

 thirty-mile-the-hour gait must pay the penalty. I have 

 done a good deal of exploring in my day and visited Inm- 

 dreds of places advertised as the paradise of the sports- 

 man and found 90 per cent frauds. I have paid high for 

 boats, guides and transportation, and had nothing to 

 show for it; been further and fared worse than "C, S. 

 W." did, and had I in each case gone for the authors of 

 alluring advertisements my life would have been devoted 

 to the pursuit of justice under difficulties. I found the 

 people in Canada a very fair lot in comparison with our 

 own at the resorts of tourists. Good hotel fare at $2 a 

 day is not high; you can hardly stay at home for that. A 

 boat at 50 cents a day is reasonable: a guide at |1 is less 

 than you can hire an imported citizen for to come and 

 clean up your back yard, occupying about an hour. 

 Common laborers get |2.75 a day "here in New York. A 

 one-horse vehicle to drive to the Park costs $5, a carriage 

 $10. You cau"t equal that in Canada. We pay all these 



{)rices at home, then go abroad and complain at paying 

 ess than half those rates. It is hardly reasonable to ex- 

 pect luxuries at cost price. They come high, but we 

 must have them seemingly. They are not economical 

 adjuncts to happiness. 

 I have taken some pains to get posted on this season's 



day, and which any one can see who is lucky enough to 

 visit the upper reaches of this singular stream. To begin 

 at the very beginning go to the upper pond, or "Head 

 Pond," which lies on the far side of Castalia village from the 

 club house. This is much like a j)lain pond of clear water, 

 and is not spectacular in its effects, but it is full of feed, 

 shx-imps, crawfish, miller's thumbs, etc. It is about 5 

 acres in size, and is made by sjirings. From this upper 

 pond an arm of the old natural stream used to cross the 

 town above the Castalia mill, and wind through the scanty 

 woods to the right of the railroad depot as you look up 

 from the club house, coming across the meadow which 

 lies at the right of the club house. This old natural stream 

 is now abandoned, and the main volume of the water 

 from the upper pond flows through a winding artificial 

 bed, which in a few years has so grown up with moss and 

 water plants that it presents only the natural character- 

 istics of the stream. This main stream comes rushing 

 and tumbling past the old mill site and falls with a series 

 of pretty cascades into the great square pool known as 

 the mill pool. This is a lovely pool indeed, deep, white 

 and lively, the focus of four convergent, meandered or 

 natural streams, and full enough of oxygen to intoxicate 

 even a trout. 



Just above the mill pool lies the center setting and 

 chief gem of all this property, that magnificent natural 

 spring known as the Blue Hole, which is the original 

 source of the mystery and romance of the Castalia stream. 

 This great spring is the second supply for the stream. 

 The third supply is the "lower blue hole." As the fourth, 

 we may add the artesian well spring struck last month 

 by the Lower Club, mention of which was made in the 

 issue of May 14. Thus it may be seen that a tremendous 

 body of water must underlie all this little valley. This 

 supposition makes possible all the artificial meandering 

 of the stream which has been carried on by the Upper 



one two-pounder to the quiet fly cast late in the evening. 

 •Just above the bridge which connects the club house to 

 the dining hall there lies a little reach of rapid but deep 

 water, and in this we could see the troiit moving about 

 all the time. Andy, the keeper, demonstrated ocularly the 

 assertion that trout could be taken from the doorstep by 

 catching one on the fly as we stood watching the fish 

 working in the pool beneath the bridge. 



Suppose we now face about and look down stream 

 from the club house bridge, we shall see the straight 

 water lying directly ahead, between the big cotton woods 

 that line the race, till it crosses the line of the club pos- 

 sessions. Off to the right of this, on an apparently low 

 and level plot of ground, not sixty acres in extent, is the 

 latest completed artificial water, and there is three miles 

 of fishing water, all on this fifty-seven acres. It would 

 seem impossible to wind the water around so much and 

 still get any fall to it enough to make it lively, but the 

 pitch of the land is far sharper than it looks. We found 

 that throughout all this new water the flow was swift 

 and steady. The peculiar moss which is all through the 

 stream has already spread all through this new stream, 

 and that there are trout there I know very well, for Mr. 

 Zollinger, the president of the club, and myself caught 

 some in there in the evening. The fish in the new water 

 did not sepm to be so large as those above the mill pool. 

 All this new water has the customary number of floats, 

 rock piles and other artificial shelters. Across the necks 

 of the curves foot bridges are laid, so that one can pass 

 rapidly from one part of the stream to another. The 

 Upper Club has in all 4J miles of made streana, averaging 

 33ft. in width and 4ft. in depth. On its 104 acres of 

 property it has 6 miles of fishing water, and not a point 

 of it all is over ten minutes walk from the club house. 

 The 3 miles of new water below the club house was made 

 in 1890. 



DIA&RAM OF UPPER CLUB'S STREAM AND GROUNDS, 

 (From original design by Andy Bnglert.) 



prospects at Lakes Edward and St. John, and have it 

 from the best authority that great pains will be taken 

 this year to make everything agreeable and no extortion 

 permitted. 



If "C. S. W." will make that trip again about the 

 middle of August I will meet her there and introduce her 

 to some very large trout that I have in reserve, and she 

 shall take a 5-pounder with her own fair hands, and 

 thereby be compensated for past disappointments. 



R. L. Ogden. 



THE CASTALIA STREAM —III. 



THE "UPPER CLUB." 



MILLER, the keeper of the Lower Club, took me on 

 his wagon for the short but muddy ride between the 

 latter club and the headquarters of its neighbor, the 

 "Upper Club," as we may most easily distinguish it. The 

 white sides of the Castalia mill, which is a land mark on 

 the upper stream, were easily visible all the way, and 

 presently we could see the club house of the Upper Club, 

 and could define the course of their streams and bouadary 

 lines. Miller pointed these out, he being familiar with 

 them, the more especially in his work as contractor in the 

 building of some of the "new stream." A tall pole 

 marked the location of the lower blue hole, as Miller 

 called it, and ocross the pleasant meadow the tall cotton- 

 woods pointed out the line of the old raceway. There are 

 two of these raceways, and each club has one, the water 

 therein running straight as a line between the old artifi- 

 cial banks. The curving water connecting these races 

 lies in the meadow, and the last of these curves, as I 

 believe I have already said, rounds out into the lower race 

 right at the club house of the Lower Club. All this mid- 

 way panorama showed nicely in the bright spring morn- 

 ing, for now the weather had grown warmer, and the 

 snow had disappeared. 



Miller drove through the country lane up to the edge of 

 Castalia town, turned into the club driveway at the rail- 

 way depot and put me out at the door of the club house. 

 Here a little crowd of welcoming members poured out, 

 and Forest and Stream had chan seed hosts. 



Andy Eaglert, the keeper of the Upper Club, made me 

 a diagram of the club grounds, showing the course of the 

 streams, etc. This is of course only relative, and fore- 

 shortened out of all perspective, but in spite of its suffer- 

 ings at later hands in re-drawingj if the reader will glance 

 at it, he can get a better idea of what we saw this April 



Club. The "Side Stream" and "Andy's Stream," ooth of 

 which can be seen wandering around between the head 

 pond and the Blue Hole, As you look up-stream, "Andy's 

 Stream" curves off to the right of the Blue Hole and 

 comes into the mill pool below it. This part is not yet 

 an actual stream, but will be. When we were there the 

 whole willow flat which used to be the bottom of Hoyt's 

 mill pond was heaped up in long curving lines of yellow 

 dirt and laborers were trenching as though for heavy 

 railway work. It will take all summer, probably, to 

 complete this stream and get the water through it right, 

 and to level down the unsightly banks as is the intention. 

 There will be a mile of new water on the willow flat 

 when the work is done. At present the fishing above the 



mentioned, which runs from the head pond to the mill 

 pool. 



And now for a look into the Blue Hole. It is a sight 

 not to be forgotten. No wonder the simple natives of a 

 superstitious day shivered in awe as they gazed into its 

 weird and ghostly depths, motionless, changeless, trans- 

 parent, and draped with funereal gloomy moss along its 

 curving sides. The sight makes one's shoulder blades 

 creep to-day. I should think at a guess that it is 75 to 

 100ft. across this great spring. It is nearly a perfect 

 circle, and tapers down, cone-shaped, or with' sides curv- 

 ing like those of a drinking tumbler, to a depth of 43ft. 

 Drop a nickel in, and you can see it every inch to the 

 bottom. The green moss hangs out in great streams on 

 the sides. The water is clear, but of a steel blue, ghostly 

 cast. Its volume is always just about the same, and it is 

 always just so clear and just so cold. The uniform tem- 

 perature of the great spring is 50\ Below the spring the 

 stream wai-ms 2° per mile. At the brick mill of the 

 Lower Club, and at Venice, two or three miles below 

 that, the nearly uniform temperature is 71°. The trout 

 live all throuerh the stream in equal condition. At this 

 early date of April there seemed to be a general working 

 of the large trout toward the head of the stream. The 

 average of the fish we secured out from under the floats 

 was very heavy. I never saw such a quantity of one- 

 pound, pound-and-a-half or two-pound trout. The stream 

 seemed full of them. 



At the foot of the mill pool all the waters are united, 

 and from the railway down past the club house the 

 stream lies straight in the banks of the old raceway, 



Eassing through two splendid deep pools above the club 

 ouse, each of which has in its time yielded more than 



That the fishing on the upper stream is good was 

 proved within a few minutes after we had entered the 

 club bouse, for several anglers had been out that morn- 

 ing and had brought in good creels. Mr. J. C. Zollinger, 

 the club president, had been especially fortunate and 

 showed a basket of maffnificent fish, a number of which 

 ran over the pound mark. Ho had in his catch one 

 European brown trout of about a pound weight, one of 

 the few which have been heard from in the stream out 

 of the small number planted. This was a plumji and 

 shapely fish, but not more beautiful than the brook trout 

 which lay beside it. To show alike the local plenty of 

 feed and the natural voracity of the trout, Andy showed 

 me the contents of the stomach of one of the trout. There 



•'"-- "^^-■^ ^v^uc. picocxii/ uiic ii&iiiug auuve lub me i,ue concenis or me stomaca or one or tne trout. There 

 mill pool IS chiefly m the curvmg artificial stream first* were over 300 of the small so-called fresh- water shrimps 

 mentioned, which runs from the head nond to the mill nearlv a handful in all. Of thin sm-*: r,f f^ari ^^^^.ft^u' 



„ - ^^^^ ^^^^^ v>i*j.j.,_.v.i j-x'^'Oii- *va.Lc;x DJa.1 iiii 



nearly a handful in all. Of this sort of feed, of crawfish, 

 miller's thumb and stickleback minnows and the like the 

 Castalia stream is literally full. The water is good for 

 the feed and the feed is good for the fish. Trout con- 

 ditions are about perfect in Castalia stream, and they 

 obtain in the made streams to an extent one would hardly 

 think possible in so ehort a time. 



In the afternoon it came off bright and quiet, and the 

 trout did not rise, but it was very pleasant to walk along 

 the banks and watch the water and the trout. Such 

 great lusty big fellows, and so many of them! They lay 

 under the protection of the fioats for the most part, but 

 if you stamped hard upon the covering they would dart 

 out in schools, perhaps a dozen, sometimes twenty or 

 thirty great big fellows. It is not forbidden by the ethics 

 of this club to fish under the floats, and many of the 

 large trout taken are caught upon a fly under the float 

 with the current. This is not fly-casting, and though it 

 is fly-fishing in some sense of the word it is not high 

 grade work, and therefore not really good enough for 

 this club. Only "artificial bait" may be used, and I 

 sincerely hope that this means strictlv the artificial fly. 

 That is the only lure which should be tolerated for an 

 instant on this stream. The limit for a day's catch is 

 lolbs. 



The club has a hatchery of its own, a little building by 

 the side of the great mill pond, and the stream is con- 

 stantly stocked. Andy has twice gone up to the Anna 

 River, or the south shore of Lake Superior, to secure 

 spawn, though not with any very great success. From 

 now on the club wUl plant anniiaUy about 500,000 fry, 

 and such yearlings or younger as it may be possible to 

 obtain from the Government. The first outlay of the club' 



