Jtjlt 2, 1891.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



479 



there is no "mystery" about the Castalia stream and 

 nothing "bafBing or unknown" to those familiar with 

 the geology of the region. 



In looking over what I have written I find that I have 

 omitted to mention a Tisit which I made to the old farm 

 in Ashtabula county in 1803. I walked down the road 

 which crossed the little trtait stream, about one-fourth of 

 a mile from the head spring. I think it was in July. I 

 foixnd at each end and mder the bndge a stagnant mud 

 hole and not a drop of water running in the gravelly bed 

 which thirty years before contained a living stream of 

 the purest sparkling water, through which the pretty 

 trout darted wherever a person chanced to jump across. 

 The timber and bushes were all gone and this told the 

 brief story of the lost sti eam. I had in my boyhood days 

 plowed and harrowed many an acre adjacent thereto and 

 upon every square rod turned up stone implements of the 

 aborigines', showing it to have been an ancient camping 

 ground of those people. Milton P. Peirce, 

 CoijUStBus, Onio. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



JUNE 37. — To-night a pleasant party starts to float the 

 Kankakee from Mak-saw-ba Club to English Lake 

 Club. There will be fom- boats, containing Messrs. Ab- 

 ner Price and John Gillespie, of English Lake, and Messrs. 

 W. P. Mussey, W. G. Payson, Geo. Holden, Geo. Andrews, 

 J. P. Card and John Watson, of Mak-saw-ba. Fishing 

 and a good time for a couple of days are intended to make 

 the features. 



The Kankakee Association has gone to work. Last 

 Wednesday State Fish Warden F. L, Buck, under 

 direction of Mr, Cole, who is taking care of northern 

 Illinois fishway matters for Commissioner Bartlett, started 

 • for his trip of 'inspection along the Kankakee. An idea 

 ' of the lame and impotent condition of our State appro- 

 priation may be had when I say that Mr. Cole generously 

 advanced the money necessary for this trip, depending 

 upon the young Kankakee Association to reimburse him, 

 as it certainly will do, Mr, Buck struck his first snag at 

 Momence, from which place he wrote as follows: 



MoMENCE. June 2.— Geo. E. CoZc— Deak Sir: There are two dams 

 owned by W. R. Sbeloy, Grand Rapids, Mich., Chas. W. Cass, 10 

 Wall Ptreet, New York, and rented to the F. W. Cook Brewing 

 Co., Evansvilli-, lud., M. Krows, manager. The Chicago and Easi- 

 ern Illinois R. R. have an injunction against them interfering 

 with or In any manner rhanjiing the dams, and thecasttisnow 

 pending before the Apellate Court. H. Worcester, tbe agent for 

 Cass and Shelhy, says that if the R. R. Co. will release as to the 

 putting in of the fishways, he will see Rlr. Shelby and have the 

 work done at once. 



I would like to have you cr some one go to the office of the C. & 

 E. R. R. Co. in Chicago, and see if they will not release as ti 

 putting iti the fishway?'. They have an island here where they 

 have picnics and make the flshing a feature of their advertise- 

 ments in regard to the same. I wiJl write also to Mr. Shelby and 

 explain the rase, and see what he wishes in the matter. The fish- 

 ermen are very enthusiastic in the matter and are ready to join 

 the Association. 



As regards Mr. Heimhaugh I think he would he just tbe man 

 for the place, as he is well acquainted, and 1 think will enforce 

 the laws. As T can't do more here until 1 hear from Mr. Shelby 

 and whether you can get the release, I will go to Kankakee. You 

 can write tome there. P. L. Buck, State Fish Warden. 



The C. & E. 1. general solicitor was visited at once. He 

 explained that the Momence dams were put in 40 years 

 ago under a State grant and thought them therefore 

 exempt from fishway claims. He said that the injunction 

 apiJlied only in the summer months, when any opening 

 of the dams tneant a lowering of the water in the back- 

 water where all the picnic parties went boating. If the 

 fishway would not disturb this he had no objection to its 

 going in. He would like to see a diagram showing just 

 what the fishway would look like. Mr. Buck was at 

 once written to and asked for a drawing and specifica- 

 tions, and at this time it is thought that the outcome will 

 be that the fishways will go in at Momence without any 

 fight or friction. 



Dr. H. M. Keyser, President of the Momence Fish 

 Club, takes Dr. Bartlett, of tbe State Fish Commission, to 

 task roundly in a local paper for what he styles serious 

 shortcomings in the official work. Dr. Keyser concludes: 



The secretary, Mr. Bartlett, draws big pay, that is all the aid 

 the fish clubs get. Let I he fish clubs petition to the Governor for 

 Ms removal, and some live acti%'ti man put in his place, tben you 

 will see the fish as plenty as in former years. 



I have never met Dr. Keyser, but he will not take amiss 

 a few words on my part, which it would be much amiss 

 not to utter. I take it Dr. Keyser does not wish to make 

 himself a disturbing element in a movement where har- 

 mony or diligence now dw^ell. I take it he wishes to 

 really protect the fish. Yet this latter he will not do, 

 and he will really become simply a disturbing element if 

 he insists upon puch statements as the above. The Fox 

 River and the Kankakee River associations are all the 

 real aid Dr. Bartlett has in bis work; the rest is all advice 

 and abuse. These two associations simply swear by Dr. 

 Bartlett, though recognizing very plainly his purely 

 human ju-oneness to promise almost anything to "keep 

 peace in the family." He is a peace-loving man, albeit 

 an honest, hard-working man. He has made this State 

 work what it is. The State work, Commissioner and as- 

 sociations together, is doing splendidly now. No State 

 in the Union is doing so much on the same amount of 

 money. To divide the present Commissioner and the as- 

 sociations would be to stop the work abort. It seems not 

 to be known that the unaided State appropriations would 

 not do half of what is doing now. Why not? Because 

 friends of the work are working for nothing. Take Dr. 

 Bartlett away, and you cut off these friends, these men 

 who have worked instead of comi>laining. It is the right 

 thing to leave these things all just as they are. A change 

 would set back the work in this State ten years or stop it 

 altos'ether. Now is the time, therefore, to do a little 

 thinking about such things. 



lam sure Dr. Keyser does not wish to be unfair or 

 wide of the truth in any way. I do not believe that he 

 wishes to boom his own chances for that "big salary." 

 If by any chance he should happen to get that salary'he 

 would be the most surprised man on earth. The liiain 

 fact is that the drawer of this "big salary" gets absolutely 

 no salary at all. Dr. Bartlett works for nothing, and he 

 works hard and does more than many fish commissioners 

 do. Is this fact known? It is true that there is an ap- 

 propriation, $20,000 to cover the work for two years, but 

 none of this can go to Dr. Bartlett as salary. He has a 

 little property of his own, and the U. S. Government 

 pays him a small salary, but outside of this he does this 

 work because he loves it. Is this the man to be "re- 

 moved," and is this the time to talk about that? I doji't 

 think Dr, Keyser will think so now. 



The fact is, that one man cannot cover this whole State, 

 see to the hatchery, see to the seining of yoimg stockfish, 

 see to the fishways, see to all the violations of all the law 

 in all the waters, and all that on an appropriation of one- 

 third of what this State should make. First and most of 

 all he needs help. The Kankakee Association, and not 

 Dr. Bartlett, is asking cash help and active assistance of 

 all the clubs along the Kankakee River. This help is 

 practical. No use to complain of what has not been 

 done. Let us go to work now and do it, so that no one 

 else can compl>.in. That is the idea. There never was a 

 time like this for those who honestly wish to see the Kan- 

 kakee protected. I class Dr. Keyser among those, of 

 course, and I know he will swing the Momence Club into 

 line heartily and with no ill feeling toward even the 

 much abused and yet largely innocent State Fish Com- 

 mission. Word comes up from Mr. Durham, the Mo- 

 mence banker, for some of the blanks for memlsership of 

 the Kankakee Association. We hope up here to see Dr. 

 Keyser's name come in among the first, and we believe 

 that Momence, at present at the head of fish navigation, 

 will be at the head,of the river towns in backing this pro- 

 tective work. It will go. 



Protective matters are pushing ahead here now. The 

 movement is revived to oust that odious anomaly. Bruse- 

 witz, game warden of Chicago, Last spring Forest and 

 Streaji published the petition for his removal. This will 

 go to Governor Fifer before the end of the month, together 

 witli one asking the appointment of Mr. M. R. Bortree as 

 warden for this city. Rlr. Bortree will present a pleasant 

 contrast to the present incumbent incubus. He will work, 

 and he knows how to work. Politics never did a more 

 ridiculous act than in the appointment of the man Bruse- 

 witz as warden. The governor gets "wards" and "war- 

 dens" mixed in his mind, perhaps, Brusewitz controls 

 about 100 votes or so. He admits that he couldn't tell a 

 quail from a prairie chicken. The Chinese must go. 



June 30. — Mr. John Henderson, of Clay Center, Wex- 

 ford county, south peninsula of Michigan, writes me that 

 a party of fishers from Cadillac lately caught 800 trout 

 in four days on Slagel Creek, near Clay Center. Frank 

 Wherry, late a State game warden, told me that this 

 stream had some very heavy trout in it. E. Hough. 



NEW ENGLAND WATERS. 



MANY of the later trout fishermen to return are re- 

 porting better luck, especially in larger fish. Mr. 

 Mark Hollingsworth has got back' to Boston with a big 

 trout; in fact about the biggest of the record thus far. He 

 took a few days before he left the Uiiper Dam, Richard- 

 son Lake, a trout that tipped the scales at over 81bs. It 

 seems that this trout was something of a lucky one to 

 him. He, with tlnee of his friends, formed a pool, each 

 putting in $5, all of which the catcher of the largest 

 trout for tlie day was to have. Mr. Hollingsworth was 

 out only a short time when the big trout was brought in, 

 and the others cheerfully surrendered the money in the 

 pool. There are also rumors of a trout weighing Opbs., 

 taken from the same lake a few days later, but this rumor 

 is not yet authenticated. 



The devastation of the forests in celebrated fish and 

 game sections of the Provinces is terrible, and at last re- 

 ports the danger was not nearly over. In several instan- 

 ces the flames have burned over great tracts of country, 

 extending over from Canada into Maine. Game and 

 game birds and the large game animals have doubtless 

 been destroyed in great numbers. These creatures have 

 fled before the flames into the very face of the small 

 settlements. At Dalhousie Junction, in New Bmnswick, 

 a large moose was driven out of the woods, and became 

 entangled in a fishing net and was captured by the local 

 fishermen. The worst feature of the fires raging is the 

 claim, in several instances, that the fires were at first 

 kindled by fishing and camping parties. Here is a very 

 important lesion that every sportsman should heed. The 

 greatest care should be exercised in regard to kindling 

 fires. In fact fires should never be kindled, except from 

 actual necessity for cooking and for comfort, and then 

 the location should be very carefully chosen near the 

 water's edge, where there is little material for the fire to 

 smoulder in, and where there is plenty of water for 

 quenching the flames on every occasion when the camp 

 grouuo is to be left for no matter how short a time. 



The catches of small trout from the streams begin to be 

 reported, and it is plain that the destruction of fingerlings 

 is not yet done. Rev. C E. Tedford, with a Kingfield 

 friend, is reported having taken 104 trout from Rapid 

 Scream, in Franklin county, one day last week. A gentle- 

 man who saw the fish says that the catchers had more 

 reason to be ashamed than proud of their fish. It seems 

 that Quimby Pond, in the same county, is being shame- 

 fully fished for numbers this year, the record already 

 showing over 1,000 little fish that should have been let 

 alone altogether, or else put back after being taken. The 

 same sort of fishing is going on in Kennebago Lake and 

 all the ponds around, though occasionally a fair-sized fish 

 is secured. A couple of Boston fishermen went to the 

 ponds near to Bemis Stream tbe other day, and they 

 found the trout running so small that they declined to 

 stay. Others were taking the fish and calling it rare sport, 

 however. The same sort of fishing is being done at Seven 

 Ponds. There has been some pretty good fishing in the 

 lake at Bemis. Mr, L. E. Packard has taken a trout there 

 that weighed 51bs. Mr. Roberts, who was with him, took 

 two weighing 61bs. each. 



E. Gdiam, commercial editor of the Boston Adver- 

 tiser, lives at Beachmont for the summer. He dearly 

 loves to take his dogs along of a morning and dig a mess 

 of clams for breakfast, and later he will have his gun 

 with him. He is somewhat fond of fishing, though not 

 yet a full-fledged disciple of the gentle Izaak. He with 

 a couple of friends went down to the sea the other day 

 after codfish and mackerel. They started at 4 A. M. the 

 morning after Saturday evening, and were to be back at 

 9 o'clock, but 4 o'clock scarcely brought them. The fact 

 is they were in a dory rigged with a sail, and on the 

 si^ring'ing up of quite an off-shore breeze they found it 

 rather difiicult beating up against the wind. Finally an 

 imlucky flaw of wind upset the dory and they were 

 spilled into the water, with all of then- catch of codfish 

 and a mackerel or two. The other two could not swim a 

 stroke, and they clung to the overturned dory for dear 

 life. The sail completely covered Mr. Gillam, but he 

 pluckily resolved to get out from under it, and sounded 

 down until he found the water was scarcely up to his 

 chin. He then shotiteri to the other boys not to be 



alarmed, and soon he persuaded them to assist in right- 

 ing the boat. This done, he dove several times and 

 brought up a part of the lost codfish. The worst part of 

 the catastrophe was that they were overturned in sight 

 of their homes, and their agonized wives at first sup- 

 posed that the water was very deep. Mrs, Gillam, though 

 a great deal frightened at first, told her husband when 

 he came ashore to go and get his hair cut in order that 

 the next time he was capsized it would not hold quite so 

 mrrch salt water. He has wisely taken up with her 

 advice. Nice fresh codfish, fried, was on his bill of fare 

 for breakfast on Monday morning. 



Mr, C. Z. Basset, of Geo. B. Appleton & Co., -and his 

 friend, Mr. G. N. SmaUey, were remarkably successful 

 on their trip to the Rangeley Lakes for trout, from wtuch 

 trip they returned last week. They spent the most of 

 their time at Toothacher Cove, Cupsuptic Lake, and 

 there they had their beet succees in fishing. Charley 

 Soule was guide. They took five trout that tipped the 

 balances at very nearly Slbs. each, and they had a num- 

 ber that would weigh 41 be. The number that they 

 caught of a smaller size was great, but they saved noth- 

 ing of leas than lib. Would that other sportsmen would 

 follow their good example. 



Reports have it that in Flood's Pond, in Hancock 

 county. Me. , there are trout that closely resemble the 

 celebrated Sunapee trout of Sunapee Lake in New Hamp- 

 shire. They are there termed "laker" and "silver trout." 

 They do not generally exceed 61bs., but occasionally they 

 are said to have been caught of 18 and 151b8. weight. 

 Here is something for the scientists to investigate, since 

 the reports thus far received are not entitled to the fullest 

 confidence. A few landlocked salmon fry were put in 

 last year, but there are said to be no togue 'in the pond. 



Never baa the registry of names been greater of sports- 

 men en route and returning from the Maine trout lakes. 

 This is especially true of the Rangeleys and Moosehead. 

 The question is, Where are all the trout to come from to 

 half satisfy all of this motly crowd? It is of no use talk- 

 ing, a great many of them must go aAvay with no trout, 

 and greatly displeased. Such is fate. The trouting craze 

 is on the increase, and whether it has about reached its 

 height no man can tell. 



It seems that Fish Commissioner Henry O. Stanley has 

 enjoyed a very pleasant fishing trip to Swan Lake, in 

 Waldo county, Maine, and that to him too much credit 

 cannot be given for unearthing some very remarkable 

 fishing in that lake. It seems that for a long time it has 

 been understood that there were big trout in the lake, 

 though within a few miles of the city of Belfast, but that 

 it vvas understood that nobody had ever succeeded in get- 

 ting any of them. But Mr, Stanley's skill seems to have 

 brought them to the net, and now others have been en- 

 joying the sport. R-port has it that one morning before 

 breakfast Mr. Stanley took five trout from that lake, 

 weighing about 41bs. each. This set the fishermen crazy, 

 and others have had good success. Mr. Stanley has also 

 taken a landlocked salmon from the lake weighing 71bs., 

 and he considers this one from the fry that the Commis- 

 sion put into the lake six years ago. Here is a lesson in 

 the value of trout and salmon cultm-e, and one that 

 sportsmen have got to come to acknowledge. It is stock- 

 ing and restocking that is going to keep the possibilities 

 of any fishing at all in existence, against the enormous 

 strain of the excessive fishing that is now going on. Then 

 when it is considered that a salmon — ^and the Maine Com- 

 missioners say, a trout as well — will reach the enormous 

 growth of Tibs, in six years, the outlook need not be so 

 very discouraging after all. But restocking has got to 

 be done. SPEClAli. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



IF there is any one question that troubles the fly-fisher- 

 man more than another it is why trout rise f eely 

 one day and perhaps the next utterly refuse the same fly. 

 It is natural to suppose that they take the fly because 

 they are hungry and want food. Yet judging from the 

 way they act, it appears sometimes as if it were only mere 

 caprice on their part; something like the way we pick at 

 ohves or salted almonds between the course of a dinner.- 

 Who can explain the well-known fact that trout rise 

 freely to a fly during a snow storm and leave off at once 

 when the snow stops falling? Or why do they commence 

 to rise all over a stream at a certain hour, which often 

 happens to be right in the middle of the day, and stop as 

 suddenly as they began? 



In wild streams, where they are rarely disturbed, trout 

 will rise to anything that touches the water, and a bit of 

 red flannel wrapped about a hookwfll take as well as the 

 most elaborate fly ever tied. But the more they are fished 

 for the more fastidious they become, until on some 

 streams nothing but the most delicate leaders and small, 

 well-dressed flies will coax them. 



Of course when tonpid in the early spring, in streams 

 running with snow water, the trout seem utterly to refuse 

 all artificial files, and even the worm or minnow must 

 come pretty close to their noses before they will notice 

 them. ^ This is easily explained and quite natural, and 

 one can also readily understand that the cool evening 

 and early morning is favorable to fly-fishing. The reason 

 we so readily take large trout after dark ia also quite 

 plain; these fish are old and shy and naturally lie hidden 

 away under banks and overhanging trees, 'and do not 

 feed in the daytime as a rule. When the waters are low 

 and clear this is particularly noticeable. One singular 

 whim that trout indulge in, is their fondness, exhibited 

 at times, for unusually large or bright flies. I have 

 known trout, in a small stream where flies dressed on 10 

 and 12 hooks were generally killing, to refuse them 

 utterly and take a salmon fly on a No. 2 hook; but the 

 next day when this experiment was tried it did not work, 

 and they took only the small flies. 



Certainly some flies, like the scarlet-ibis, Jenny-Lind, 

 silver-doctor and the like, do not resemble anything in 

 the shape of natural flies, and yet they are great killers. 

 One of the most curious freaks is the'fondness the trout 

 in Lake Colden have for black-gnats, which fly they take 

 at night, in preference to miller and coachman flies. 



Every angler meets with many curious instances of 

 this kind, and experience teaches us that at the end of 

 our first season we knew (?) more about trout than we 

 ever have sinee. Scarlet-Ibis. 



Haunts of the Ouanajs-iche is the title of a pamphlefe 

 issued by the Hotel Roberval, at Lake St. .JohUj and coii* 

 taining information fur TfisjftoTfi to the lake. 



