JUNE 25, 1891.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



4BB 



weather-stained rock, he presented, in his gleaming coat 

 of rainbow dyp, as lovely a picture as eye of angler ever 

 dwelt upon. He was a trifle over 41bs. Ned, who had 

 been working the rocks above me, had also met with fiae 

 success, for he exhibited, on my joining him, three lovely 

 specimens that ran from 2^ to 3^lbs. Since we had 

 started for camp the wind had been raising and it had 

 now worked the sea into a very lumpy condition. John, 

 who had been left in charge of the boat, and who was a 

 short distance from us on the shore, had hallooed several 

 times; but we were too intent on our pleasures to give 

 heed to him. Finally he came running along the shore 

 and informed us that the boat was being heavily pounded 

 on the rocks by the sea, and that we must either return 

 to camp with him or he would be compelled to leave us 

 in order to protect his boat. The plea tDeing a good one 

 we at once reeled up and began the tramp over the moss- 

 covered rocks to the boat and returned to camp, satisfied 

 that Ned's rosy predictions of the weather in the morning 

 were all a fraud and a delusion and that Lake Superior 

 was as cruel a coquette as reputed. 



We had the remainder of the day to spend in camp, 

 while the lake was furiously tossing the white caps and 

 battling against the rocky outworks of our quarters. Ned 

 did a little darning, while T played a game of solitaire, 

 and the boys busied themselves in gathering firewood at 

 the lower base of the mountain, and in preparing the 

 noonday meal, which to them was always a pleasure, 

 from the fact that it was a feast of good things which 

 their banquet-board at home knew not. Having won 

 two games out of three with the gentleman with whom 

 I played solitaire, I was satiefied^to relinquish the game 

 and then got down to Balzac's fiction ''The Two Brothers,'' 

 with a decided relish of its closing pages. Ned having 

 completed his darning, in the meantime got out his little 

 bags of tackle and selecting some feathers — red, of 

 course — gave an additional tint or two of ruby to a few 

 flies, that made them look as red as a turkey-cook. He 

 was dead gone on that color and believed that it was in- 

 vincible as a decoy. If he changed his fly at my sugges- 

 tion he was sure to return to his first love — the lobster- 

 colored lure — in a very short time. I had a world of fun 

 out of his penchant for the mantling color and worried 

 him at times when the trout disdained his flaming lures 

 on hid big bushy flies. When in luck he would in vari- 

 ably cry out, "It's red, red they want." 



"For heaven's sake, then, give 'em red and plenty of 

 it." I advised. Sure enough, when we went ashore for 

 luncli, on would go another red feather, sometimes two. 

 He WAS nvidenily a red-headed avenger and proposed to 

 m-ike his finny victims die in gore, 



A^ain the morn opened with a bright sun that crim- 

 soned lake and land, while the arch above was lovely in 

 small white clouds rich in prisms with "the rainbow 

 ligbts that kindled in their skirts,"' It was the birth of a 

 golden day, 



"The waking dawn 

 When night-falleiL dews, hy day's warm courtship won, 

 From reeking roses climb'd to kiss the sun; 

 Nature, new-blossom'd shed her colors round. 

 The dew-bent primrose kissed the breeze-swept ground," 



Our destination that morning was Blind River, a small 

 stream some two miles above the camp. It was really a 

 prospective trip, though we always had an eye single to 

 a roving or poising ti-out. We had no sooner started than 

 we began to realize a breezeless lake as well as a glowing 

 sun, indications that our victoi'ies, while this condition of 

 things lasted, would be counted in the unit column, and 

 low down at that. As we coasted along we earnestly 

 cast, and the only reward between the camp and the river 

 was one rise which was missed, and one which yielded a 

 small trout under a pound. Our hopes suddenly vanished, 

 and I began to think our return would not be heralded 

 with waving of banners and beating of drums. 



Ned was confident the river would bring us some vic- 

 tims, but as we entered it my heart sank within me, for 

 it looked anything but trouty, I did not even make a 

 cast in it, so confident was I that there was not a fin to 

 be obtamed in its waters, Ned, however, who was in 

 the bow, kept his flies going from one side of the river to 

 the other, while I sat "a mere looker on in Venice." We 

 had not proceeded very far before Npd had a wolfish leap 

 at his fly, that so completely unbalanced him that he 

 missed it. As quick as thought my rod was in hand and 

 my flies going to the very spot where Ned had aroused 

 the savage trout. No soon had they struck the surface 

 than another magnificent rise was had, and this time the 

 greedy trout was in trouble. 



"That's my fish," said Ned, who had been appalled at 

 my greedy tactics. 



"Pray excuse the trifling brigandage; it was merely the 

 result of impulsiveness," 



"All right, you are forgiven." 



"There is another there." 



And sure enough there was, for Ned hooked one on his 

 first cast. There we were, both playing fish at the same 

 time, and from the way they battled 1 judged them to be 

 weighty ones. I had mine killed and netted in short 

 order, always believing a minute to the pound sufficient 

 time. Ned was always a believer in the same thing as to 

 time, and soon had his "Jim Dandy" boated. Neither 

 ran under iiJbs., but oh! so dark were they, that their 

 crimson spots were nearly obliterated, and even the inside 

 of their mouths and gills was of the same color. I never 

 saw trout marked so darkly before, but understand they 

 take their color from the waters they inhabit. The water 

 here was of that dark amber color, similar to that in all 

 the rivers that empty into Lake Superior. 



I was soon at work again, received another rise and 

 another fish, and Ned ditto. This was indeed a lucky 

 revelation to us. The pool in which we caught them 

 was not over 5ft. deep, nor over 20 wide and looked noth- 

 ing like a home for trout. They seemed to be alongside 

 a dead tree that was lodged close to the bank, and which 

 was shaded by some overhanging maples. We concluded 

 after we had caught the last two to give the pool a rest, 

 and so floated back to the mouth of the river and remained 

 there some twenty minutes, when we again approached 

 it and took out two more, and this time we went up 

 stream as far as the ripples, which was some forty rods 

 or more distant, and there rested. 



Once more we ventured to the preserve, and again 

 secured two, the result of our first cast. Off we float and 

 another rest, and then Ave return to the famous pool and 

 both have fish simultaneously. Ned this time had a 

 monster that looked as if he were fully 61bs. and had a 

 l)atiiie-xojal with lam. that he deeply enjoyed. Mine was 



no slouch of a trout, for he fought so hard that I was con- 

 stantly compelled to be on the qui vive. He finally capit- 

 idated after a resort to every stratagem he was master of, 

 and then Joe took his lordly proportions into the net. 

 Ned's monster had by this time struggle so fiercely that 

 he lay panting on the gleaming gravel with Ned de- 

 vouring him with admiration, and wondering whether 

 he should stir the p^triarch for another round. 



"What a darling," says Ned, 



"Yes, but be careful that he don't trick you." 



"Guess I'll stii' up his lordship." 



Ned did stir him up, and his lordship making a savage 

 dash under the boat and getting the line tangled on a log 

 escaped, leaving the unlucky angler a perfect picture of 

 despair. * Alex. Starbuok, 



SAMMY CALHOUN. 



ONE evening in May, I strolled up the road with a 

 cigar after supper, and sat on the wall at the brow 

 of the hill. The shadows were setting thick in the low- 

 lands and the valley beneath was a vast, dark chasm, 

 with the farther rim approaching the horizon just gilded 

 with the afterglow. Farms, rivers and moving things 

 were swallowed up in that gulf and the light came straight 

 across and touched us on the hill. The shrubbery, pushed 

 hard by a few warm, unseasonable days, ha.d| a slightly 

 jaded premature look, butthe grass was in all its unmatched 

 tints of early spring, soon lost from tender yellow to steely 

 blue. The blades were moist from the afternoon rain and 

 the earthworms were groping out in the damp. A glance, 

 roving for something else to gloat upon before the night 

 should overflow from the brimming valley and engulf us 

 too, intercepted a figure coming over the brow. A figure 

 in a light weight overcoat held loosely across, unbuttoned. 

 You would know it by that gesture, a bachelor of un- 

 certain age, with a youngish twist to his gray mustache, 

 and a melancholy cast of countenance; a man of some 

 peculiarities; he is not gregarious; he makes few ac- 

 quaintances and they must ripen into friendship or di'op 

 off. He sat beside me on the rock and gathered up his 

 coat collar, 



"Well what's the matter Sam? Look unhappy." 



"Oh, same old story. Tired of city life. Treadmill, 

 treadmill. Sick of people. Go out on an evening some- 

 times, and meet some more. Constant stock of appre- 

 ciation on tap; features arranged in the attitude of a 

 smile, well meaning smile, inane. Applaud an ordinary 

 piano and laugh immoderately at things. Oh, I can make 

 out to keep this up through the winter, JeE, rubbing 

 shoulders with them, but when the spring comes" — and 

 Sam leaned forward and gesticulated confidentially 

 toward the shadows and forgot all about me — "when 

 the spring comes with a breath that I can trace back to 

 the northern slope of a hill, not densely wooded, where it 

 lingered over the moss and twigs till it caught the odor 

 among the leaves of the modest arbutus, or stopped by 

 the wayside to turn every leaf of a gnarly wild apple and 

 scatter its petals, then, then — oh Jeff, there's a fever of 

 rebellion, dormant all winter, that comes up in the spring 

 like the pulse of the sap." I laughed right out. I had to 

 laugh. 



"Now Sammy, it isn't the woodsman in you at all, that 

 talks like that, it's only the poet. We all stare at the sun- 

 set that way sometimes. Now what would you do Sam 

 if you could get over that horizon?" 



Sam felt that he wasn't being appreciated and shook 

 his head, but then concluded to make the best of it and 

 smiled. 



" Well JeS, I'll tell you. There's a brook with an un- 

 known source that tumbles over mossy logs in little 

 cascades, and leaps from rock to rock and makes swift 

 descents in long smooth shdes and rests in deep dark pools 

 and bubbles over, gaining strength and volume to emerge 

 in a natural meadow where the deer come to drink and 

 beavers build dams. It goes swimming across the meadow, 

 disappears in the woods and at length reaches the liaunts 

 of man. But, oh Jeff, the trout up there in the meadow 

 or in the pools! They're difl'erent. They have more 

 freckles I believe, Brave, alert chaps with lines of speed; 

 regular aristocratic piratps." 



"Ever been there, Sam?" 



"No, I heard of it out West that time, but they told me 

 it was right over in the next county. Up in New Hamp- 

 shire I traced it till a guide told me it was 'just over the 

 mounting' ; but my vacation was done. One summer in 

 Maine I thought I'd found it. I had just wet my line all 

 elated to find myself in a meadow where the foot of man 

 had never trod, when along came a denizen and told me 

 it was no good. 'AU fished out,' he says, 'all fished out, 

 but they is a brook — ' So Jefi;, that's where I want to go 

 when you see me looking over the horizon." 



Jeffeeson Scribe, 



THE POSSUM "SULLS." 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Repljnng to "Aztec" in your number of June 6, con- 

 cerning the word "sull,"' in relation to the well-known 

 idiosyncracy of the Great American O'Possum ("the only 

 native-born American whose name begins with an 'O,' 

 and he got ashamed of it and dropped it"), the verb of 

 "sullen" is "sulk," and "suU" is the negro corruption of 

 "sulk," and that's all there is in it. 



Many a dark, drizzling night (the best for the purpose), 

 when I was a small boy, have T gone forth with my favor- 

 ite negro "possum hunter," Ellis, one of the plantation 

 hands, and his two faithful "possum dogs," in the old 

 ante-bellum times; and with great exultation have I gone 

 back to the house at 3 or 3 o'clock in the morning and 

 waked up my parents to show the fine live possum I had 

 in a bag. Ellis owned the dogs and did all the work of 

 catching the possums, but always gave me the finest one 

 to "tek up to de house," with great pride in his craft. 

 The possum was generally "treed" in a small tree, which 

 we could sometimes bend down or climb, and captm-e the 

 animal before the dogs could get a hold of him and bite 

 him. Sometimes the tree had to be cut down, when 

 there was a wild scramble to rescue the possum before 

 he was mutilated by the dogs. Occasionally the game 

 was caught on the ground by the dogs without being 

 treed, when it was kiUed before the hunters could inter- 

 I fere. 



It was always desirable to capture the possum without 

 his having received any hurt, as he was then put into a 

 chicken coop and fed on civilized fare for a week or two 

 before being killed for the table. The negroes of the 

 South, at least in MissisE-ippi, seem to have given up 

 possum hunting entirely since they became freemen. In 

 old times "possum dogs" were highly esteemed by them, 

 and there were numbers of them to be found on every 

 plantation. But now one never hears of a "possum dog" 

 among the negroes. I have an idea that they look back 

 upon this nocturnal sport as one of the badges of slavery, 

 when night was the only time they could call their own, 

 except an occasional holiday, and then they were not 

 allowed to own guns. 



Now, nearly every negro owns a pot-metal shotgun or 

 old musket, and he spends much of his time wandering 

 about, accompanied by a string of three to six or eight 

 "curs of low degree," in search of "Br'er Rabbit" or "Br'er 

 Squirrel," but eschews possum hunting at night, of which 

 we, who were the sons of slave owners in the old times, 

 cherish fond recollections, as among the youthful 

 romances of old plantation life. Coahoma. 



FLORIDA HUMMINGBIRDS. 



ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., June U.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: The blighting effect on fruit and vegetables 

 of our last year's late frost is very well known, but it is 

 not so well known that it played havoc among the hum- 

 mingbirds. It was a warm winter and the early opening 

 of spring brought out the flowers and started myriads of 

 these little creatures on their journey towai-d the north. 

 Then came that blighting frost— which they could stand, 

 but the "death of the flowers" was too much for them and 

 they were picked up dead and dying everywhere. They 

 came in unusual numbers and seemed to be nearly all 

 males. After the frost but few were seen, either male or 

 female, and I feel quite anxious to know whether any 

 great diminution in tneir number has been noticed in the 

 North, This spring but few have been seen about this 

 place, on their northward journey, and I fear their ranks 

 have been sadly thinned. 



Hummingbirds are generally supposed to be extremely 

 timid and almost untamable, but when their confidence 

 is won, which is an easy matter to those who understand 

 them— they are very fearless and the loveliest little pets 

 in the world. We tame them nearly every season, and 

 they come to us anywhere around the pla"ce, and when 

 the doors are o23en make themselves perfectly at home, 

 even in the house, A year or two ago I called my wife's 

 attention to the first one of the spring, as we Avere sitting 

 on the piazza, and when I called him he came at once and 

 examined each of us carefully and then flew off. I saw 

 at once that it was one of our pets of the previous year, 

 so I went in and prepared a small bottle of sugar and 

 water, and it was but a few minutes before he returned 

 and at once took his dinner as he had been accustomed to. 

 Unfortunately he had a mate who was bossing him and. 

 dragged him northward after he had paid us but two or 

 three visits. 



Between the. frosts, taxidermists and milliners I fear 

 they'll be almost exterminated in a few years. 



DiDYMUS. 



BIRD NOTES FROM TAKOMA. 



THE vernal migration of birds in this locality has been 

 characterized by mucii of interest to the field orni- 

 thologist. In many respects it has dift"ered widely from 

 the two preceding springs, that is, of 1889 and 1890, Birds 

 that were very abundant then proved to be very scarce 

 this year, and vice versa. But that fact will not be a 

 new one to any ornithologist who has studied the migra- 

 tion of birds in any one limited locality for three or four 

 consecutive seasons. The fact is generally explained, 

 however, by the usual remark that "the season opened 

 late," or it was "due to the late rains" or some similar 

 explanation. The writer is of the opinion though, that 

 the day is far ahead of us before our knowledge shall be 

 sufficiently full to account for such differences. Meteor- 

 ological conditions undoubtedly have much to do with it, 

 but the absence or abundance of certain bird foods, as 

 insects or fruits, must also have their influence, as do 

 the many changes brought about by civilization. The 

 balancing of the harmonies in nature is very delicate, 

 and as I have hinted, our knowledge of the same still 

 very crude and meagre. Now last year there were a 

 great many species of birds that nested in this vicinity, and 

 as a rule they laid full complements of eggs, while on the 

 other hand the spring just passed has been characterized 

 by a marked change in that particular. Few birds have 

 built, and for some unknown reason they have not laid 

 their full sets of eggs. Nests of robins, wood thrushes 

 and cardinal grosbeaks, so far as my expei-ience goes, did 

 not contain more than three eggs each, and the nest of one 

 wood thrush was found wherein the bird only laid two 

 eggs and then hatched them; the same for a cardinal 

 grosbeak. Although I have missed hardly a day in the 

 woods and fields this year, I failed to find the nest of a 

 single catbird; over the same ground last year I person- 

 ally knew of the existence of twenty or more. When 

 the catbirds came on this year, they came on almost at a 

 single appearance, and in considerable numbers, disap- 

 pearing almost as suddenly. Perhaps the clearing out of 

 much of the low underbrush during the intervening sum- 

 mer about Takoiua Park had something to do with this, 

 but I am strongly inclined to btlieve that it was not the 

 only factor responsible for the difference. During the 

 spring of 1890 the black-poll warblers {D. stnata) were 

 by no means of common occurrence, whereas this year 

 they appeared toward the latter end of M^y in hundreds, 

 and the woods seemed to be alive with them on certain 

 days. In the Smithsonian grounds, on a dark cloudy 

 day, I counted upward of a dozen in one large tree. 

 There must have been some special food to have attracted 

 them in such numbers, for, for other causes I have been 

 totally unable to discover them. 



Some time during the middle of the last-mentioned 

 month I shot, not far from my hou^e, a very nice speci- 

 men of a male rose-breasted grosbeak, the first one I 

 have taken for a dozen years or more, and the only one 

 I have ever seen in this neighborhood after a residence 

 of over two years. Mr, Ridgw»y, however, tells me 

 that he has seen them frequently in the Smithsonian 

 grounds. On May 2 an old male passenger pigeon {E. 

 migratoria) flying quite low down and due northeast 

 passed within a short distance of my house. Rara avis, 

 are yom- days numbered in our avifauna? When I was 



