274 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



GHICAGO, 111., Oct. 14.— When Warden Buck started 

 in OQ the work of gpiting the fish ways put in along 

 the K>nkakee E ver, he was promised a new fishing out- 

 fit by the flshway committf e, xjrovided he had all the 

 fishwavs in before fall. When Warden Buck left this 

 field of activity for another, he Ferved notice that there 

 was a fishing outfit due him, as all the ladders were in 

 except the one at Momence, on which, he said, work was 

 commenced, Later he wrote to President Cole, from 

 Marseilief", and said that the flshway there was all in but 

 the cover, and would be th^ finest on the river. At the 

 time Mr, Buck left the warden bu-iness, he told me that 

 he had not been paid his April salary, and also that he 

 did not like the way the Fox Eiver Association had acted 

 about getting another and cheaper warden for the winter 

 work in the Fox Lake district, toward which work he 

 had helped raise funds. Mr, Cole saw these latter state- 

 ments in x> iot, and said they wete not accurate. 



"Buck expns=!ly agreed to work in April as he did," 

 said Mr. Cule. ' I toLl him that we liad not any funds 

 for that time, and explained that there would be some 

 work later for wh'ch we could pay. It would not, I 

 think, be just for the associations to pay that as bick 

 salary. As ro the winter warden's work, neither JBuck 

 nor any one else has been chosen for that, and so far as I 

 can learn he only raised $2 toward that fund." 



To let thrse former st <tpments go uncorrected would 

 hardly be just to the Fox Eiver Association or to Jwr. 

 Cole, who has had the handling of the wardens of this 

 part of the S^ate in charg-e. We will now gee about the 

 actual condition of the Kankakee fi-hways, as shown to 

 Mr, Cole and myself, both of the flshway committee, in 

 the trip which we took last week for the express purpose 

 of inspfcting all the Kankakee Eiver dams. I regret to 

 say in advance that the facts were not so flattering as we 

 had thought, thrush evidently the work had been well 

 laid our, and in some pLces well finished. In plain 

 English, and with a rude regard for fact, the actual case 

 is that instead of there heing sev^n working fishways 

 finished on the Kankakee Eiver, there is only one finished, 

 and it needs some improvf ment. This is what President 

 Cole and I found, as will be set forth at more length. 



We started in Wednesday morning, Oct. 7, at Momence, 

 Work had not been started on the fishway here at all, 

 though we were told the contract had been let, Mr. 

 Fred. Duryee, that kindly-souled sportsman whom every- 

 one who goes to Momence knows, told us that he would 

 look up the delay and try to get the work started. L-iter 

 he wro'e Mr, Cole and said that the delay was over that 

 old injunction of the^ railway against the dam owners. As 

 the rail '^ay and the dam owners had both signed a stipu- 

 lati m allowing the way to go in, the wherefore of this is 

 not plain. Mr. Cole will try to learn from Mr, Wooster, 

 agent for the owners, what the trouble is, Mr, Duryee 

 thought the way would be in this fall. In the name of 

 all conscience, why was it not i.n long agoV Do the dam 

 owners and their agent know that this delay is illegal, 

 and that they are subject to fine for it? The association 

 has been quiet and courteous all along, but an unexplained 

 and abrupt stoppage of all work such as thin delay is, im- 

 presses one as being wrong treatment of those who have 

 been always courteous and fair. Let high water come, 

 and the work mu-t lie over a full vear, f>nd thef-pringrun 

 balked again. We found the water lower than it has 

 been tor years, and the contractor on the fishway could 

 put it in with perfect ease. When everything is so favor- 

 able, why this delaj? Another trip to Momence neems 

 necessary. Bat let it be set down here that that fiohway 

 goes in. 



Ac Momence there is a choice little shooting club of 

 Chicago men, only ten in 'ill, who^e box is about a mile 

 and a half above the town. There are some nice wood- 

 cock covers near by. The club killed 78 woodcock this 

 summer. Mr. Metcalf, Mr. Geo. Marshall, Mr, Bird and 

 other familiar names are members of this club. Its 

 keeper is Chas. lleimbaugh, mentioned fHVorably earlier 

 as a candidate for a-ssociation warden. With Mr. Heim- 

 baogh we were well impressed, and since our return have 

 sent on a petition for bis appointment as a State fish war- 

 den, which we hope all Momence wiU back. We wished 

 also to have him appointed a game wa'den, and here we 

 struck one of the incongiuities of our gilt-edged law. 

 Tne Illinois fish laws are good. The Illinois t;ame laws 

 are vile as any well could be. A fish warden can act all 

 over the State, and he can arrest wiihcut wa' rant. More- 

 over, the ^< vernor can app nnt a^^ many fish warden.s as 

 he likes. Under the law there can, on the other hand, be 

 only three game wardens, one for each of the thrte lar- 

 gest cities. Our attorneys tell us that these wardens can 

 not, under the statute, deputize their powers. Only a 

 game warden can see or seize illegal game, and lefore he 

 can search he must swear out a warrant. This amounts 

 to barring the whde country district of Illinois of all 

 game waidene. I know that Siate Game Warden Pipino, 

 of Qaircy, has taken steps to appoint Mr. Harlan, of Li 

 Salle, a deputy game warden, but I should doubt the 

 povvers of tne latter, XJoder these circumstances we ad- 

 vised Heimbaugh to consult with his county sheriff, and 

 to circulate a petition, which we sent to him, for bis ap- 

 pointtuent as a depuoy sheriff, with the spec al duty of 

 lolioftiog game law c <8es. In this way a game warden 

 can be created who, with proi er warrant, can act within 

 the limits of his county. As fish warden, he can go any- 

 where and arret<t without a warrant. Will the next 

 sportsmen's legislative c immittee reflect on the wisdom 

 of this innocent littie clause in the fish law? 



We hired a boat at Momence for a week, and at noon 

 on Wednesday left the ovi-ner lam'^nting on the bank in 

 fear that he would never see his boat again. Heimbaugh 

 went a few miles down the river with us, for some word 

 about a seining party of which he had heard. He took 

 his dog along with him, and in the afternoon we were 

 fortunate enough to find a corner of the river where 

 there were plain signs of woodcock on a little wild rice 

 flat adj icent to a thicket. We skirmished around here 

 for a few moments and got five beautiful woodcock, two 

 of which Mr, C .le and I had for breakfast next morning. 



The row down ihe river was delightful. The Kankakee 

 here is a wide and lovely stream. We did not fish any 

 beyond a few casts just after dinner, but passed water 

 which had the day before yielded a fine lot of bass to a 

 local fisher. It was a half-hour after dark, however, 

 when we pulled into Aroma, or Waldron, only nine miles 

 below Momence, after leaving Heimbaugh half way to 

 walk back, be having learned nothing or the seiners at 

 Clipis, Can. ' ^here we at© lunch, 



We struck a good country hotel, Miller's, at Aroma, 

 and passed a glorious night in sleep. In the morning we 

 went to the dam, me^^ting there Mr. Beard-<ley, agent for 

 the mill owners. We found the fishway here of no 

 earthly use. Mr, Beardsley promised to extend it 8 or 

 10ft. at the bottom, and to dig out a good pool at its foot, 

 and to sec the chute at the top down flush with the top of 

 the dam, and to cover all the upper part of the fishway, 

 so that spearing could not be done quite so easily. It 

 seems that Warden Buck had told them to set this chute 

 down into the dam, but they had not done it. He had 

 supposed it was all right. Eeally, it was all wrong. 

 Aroma fishway, as we saw it, was about as good as a 

 piece of tin pipe bent over the dam, not touching water 

 at either end, and perfectly dry inside. Hish water, of 

 course, will help this way, and if Mr, Cole's directions are 

 not slighted, it will do. A trip will be made to see that 

 they are not slighted. 



From Aroma to Kankakee is five miles pull, all in 

 back water, but down a stream wide and noble, edged 

 ^iih banks a continual shifting scene of beauty. The 

 Iroquois Eiver joins the Kankakee just below Aroma, 

 As we looked on the clean, well-timbered banks of the 

 stream, so similar to those of the Illinois Eiver, we could 

 not help wondering at the separation in name of a stream 

 one in character. The actual facts of history will show 

 this wonder well grounded. The Kankakee and the Illi- 

 nois would have one name to-day had there been one 

 discoverer instead of two, Pere Marquette ascended the 

 St. Jo Eiver in Michigan to the Portage Prairie, near 

 South Bend, Ind.. where he earned over, three miles, into 

 the Kankakee, He gave this stream the name by which 

 the Indians called it. He probably also named the Iro- 

 quois Eiver, He left the Kankakee Eiver somewhere 

 near Aroma, and did not descend to the junction of the 

 Kankakee and Dps Plaines rivers, which the maps show 

 as forming the Illinois, Meantime, 'Sieur de La Salle, 

 descending the Des Plaines Eiver, far out of character 

 and inferior to the Kankakee, came to the greater stream 

 and called it Illinois, after the Illinois or Ulini tube of 

 Indians, the one explorer not knowing of the other's dis- 

 covery. The Illinois and the Kankakee are one stream, a 

 long, varied, beautiful and noble one. From Momence 

 to the mouth of the Des Plaines, and even further down, 

 the bed of this stream is nearly solid rock, and the banks 

 are bluffy and well wooded for the most part. The 

 marshy character which follows through Indiana has 

 here altogether disappeared. 



We reached Kankakee town at 10 A. M. The fishway 

 here is a poor affair, though the mill owner said it was 

 located by Commissioner Bartiett. It should be out by 

 the side of the mill, where the fish would naturally run, 

 and not concealed behind the mill and under the bridge 

 which covers the raceway, A fishway should show good 

 light through the top, as a fish will not run up into a 

 dark hole. Some light comes into this way, but it is 

 located altogether wrong. Buck's idea, of a wing of 

 masonry run out into th« stream, has helped matters 

 here. The mill owner said that in ihe spring he would 

 show Mr, Cole fish going up this way. Little more could 

 be done than to pray that this might be so. We urged 

 that the way be kept clean, and lossed on. 



The river being so very low, we hired a team here to 

 take our boat below the shallows, which we were told 

 ran ,down for ten miles. On our way we met a farmer 

 and transferred to bis wagon, he putting us do%vn at 

 4 P, M, twelve miles below Kankakee. Even here the 

 stream was shallow, though brawling and rapid as a 

 trout river in places. By dint of occasional wading w^e 

 got down into the backwater of the big Wilmingtom 

 dam, and soon the water grew so deep that the push 

 paodle could not be Ui-ed. A head wind detaiuf d us, and 

 It was an hour after dusk when, tired and hungry, we 

 got into the little rivtr hamlet of Custer Park and put 

 up for the night at a sort of fishing resort hotel run by 

 H. D. Little. 



Before leaving this day's record I should add that we 

 found three more fishing clubs at the little village of 

 Aroma. The chief of these is the Lafayette Fishing Club, 

 of Lifayette, Ind., once a body of 14, but in these days 

 of dfpleted waters much fallen eft'. In the cosy little 

 club house we found Me?srs. J. J. Cumberson, J. S. 

 Ewry, J. P. Wagner, John F. Bruff and W, D. Hiller, all 

 gofid men and tiue, who are hoping that the fishways 

 will help them next year. The Waldron Fishing Club 

 is made up now of a half dozen railway conductors who 

 c jme to their box here for some sport when they can, 

 Ihe Strir Club, of Cincinnati, O., once a strong body of 

 men, has now much disintegrated. We will hear of 

 them further down the river. Their neat c ub house 

 shows in f'e timber across the river from the village. 

 Mr. S, D, Phillips, of Lafayette, has, I understand, put 

 up the new bulidine- on the raceway which we heard was 

 to be usf d as a club. Thus we may see the whilom glory 

 of the Kankakee as a fifhing stream even in other lands. 

 Another thins' about Aroma, and this for Heimbaugh and 

 for Warden Kamper of Danville. The chief of the men 

 who are doing the seining near Aroma is Jack Stansbury. 

 Catch him and you stop the seining, 



Custer Park is about 6 miles above upper Wilmington 

 r'a.m. The river here is fairly straight, very wide and 

 dee-i, a veritable inland sea, yet with bold high banks. 

 We got a good st ^rt and made the upper dam early in 

 the morning, though delayed in getting a team to take 

 our boat around the dam. 



We found the upper dam an immense affair, 17ft high. 

 But here, thank fortune, is the best fishway, and indeed 

 the only one now complete on the river. This way had 

 just been finished by the carpenters, after the model left 

 i'j Buck, and the work had been done in an honest and 

 workmanlike manner. At the top of the way the earth 

 had been left uncut on the comb of the dam, so that only 

 a small hole was left, apt to be clogged. 



Sending the team on ahead with the boat, we walked 

 on down, a half-mile or so, along the ruins of the old 

 canal which the State of Illinois built for the grain- 

 carrying trade in the anti-railway days. We found the 

 canal between us and the fishway when we got down to 

 the lower dam. but in spite of a gang of surly workmen 

 who were repaii ing this dam, we fished a boat out of the 

 ruined old lock, paddled over with a board, and found an 

 abbreviated washboar'i intended as a fishway. This way 

 was wide enough and well made for strength, but it was 

 quite t' o short at the lower end. The steps had no cups 

 at the ends, this not essential, but desirable. 



At Wilmington village Mr. Cole found the agents in 

 pharge, and they promiged to ote^t ^-way the top of the 



upper fishway and to build out the lower end of the way 

 in the lower dam. They seemed very pleasant about this, 

 and we think this will be done. At any rate, the worst 

 difiiculty on the river is overccm^. Upper Wilmington 

 dam is an absolute barrier. No fish can ascend it at any 

 stage of the water. It is a comfLat to think that there is 

 a good fishway there. Through its 6ft, of width must 

 pass every fish that goes up the river from this region. 

 These two dams have no mills on them, and are kept up 

 now for speculative purposes. Speed the day when they 

 are taken out! 



A mile below Wilmington we i3ut in our boat and made 

 good time for a while, till we ran hard and fast upon the 

 '•riff" above what is called the "old State dam above 

 Kelly's," Over this we dragged and got to a ruined dam 

 and a lockway now fallen into dilapidation and decay. 

 Here we studied for a while, hardly caring to risk shoot- 

 ing through the race, a^i the low water made the rocks 

 conspicuous. At length we unloided our boat on the 

 comb of the dam, thr 'w her bodily over into the river 

 below, tossed the stuff in again after we had regained 

 jjossessioii of the era r, and so fared on apain, joyful. It 

 was now only a half-mile to Kelly's, and Kelly's is— well, 

 it's Kelly'."-, you know, 



M. L. Kelly is a State fish wa.vden, one of the best and 

 most interested in the Snate. B-sides running his farm, 

 he keeps a little fishing place, which latter is known to 

 many in Chicago and elsewhere. The fij^hing at Kelly's 

 is the best below Moireiice. The river there is very wide 

 and rocky. For fly-fishing this is the best point on the 

 stream. 



There is a State dam at Kelly's, a low afllair, often well 

 covered in the spring. The fi.3hway in this dam is a 

 howling farce, and how it c ime to be called a fishway is 

 a mystery. It is a straight cut through the rock, below 

 the top of the dam, it is true, but without a single defined 

 step or resting place for a fi.sh. The water through this 

 cut would be a plunging torrent instead ( f a broken de- 

 scent, Cipt. Lpjghton, engine' r in charge, will b© noti- 

 fied by Mr. Cole, and as he has expressed a willingness to 

 put in any way desired, this will probably be corrected 

 soon. But I must defer the rest to next week. E, Hough. 



THE TAIL FLY. 



THE trout season was nearly over, and I had not wet 

 a line. The thoughts of running water, v^hispering 

 leaves and bright sunshine, made the noise, smoke and 

 heat of the great city too much to bear with patience: so 

 I got out the rod, overhaul; d the fly-book and dreamed 

 that night of catching the big fellow beneath the bank 

 where the stream bends and runs under the roots of the 

 crooked birch. 



Twentv-four hours aft-^r I got out of my berth in the 

 sleeper of the Chicago & Northern at half-past fom-; and 

 a moment later two yoimg chaps followed, rubbing the 

 sleepy seeds out of tneir eye^. Breakfast over, we 

 mounted the wagon and started for Johnson's ranch, 

 twenty-.=!even miles away. The joints of our spines 

 squeakfd before we reached it late that evening, and a 

 sleep more like a trance than anything else followed sup- 

 per, which was diapatc'ied in short order. 



The next day was awfully hot, and I spent most of my 

 time w^atching the ahado^vs On the lake in front of our 

 cabin, eating, and as the darky said, "jus' restin'.". 

 Johnson's ranch consists of two log cabins, one of which 

 is occupied by the family and contains the dming-room; 

 the other is used by the fishermen for liviutr and sleep- 

 ins. In front is the beaudful lake Wabie Leibeniss or 

 White Eagle. The big pmes ca.^t long shadows on the 

 smooth grass in front, and a little to the left stand the 

 frames of the ab-indoned Indian home, and three curious 

 graves near by tell the oft-iep ated story of the vanish- 

 ing shadow of the red man. Cimp life in the woods 

 with the sting of uncomiorlableness drawn— the first 

 and only time I ever saw it done. 



The second day the two young men started out for bass, 

 and as tbey were to pass near a tent left standing near 

 some good trout fishing T joined them. When we reached 

 the tent we dibcovered taat some giust ng root diggers 

 had jumped the tent, but they had another and there was 

 room enough, so the old guide and I took the trail for the 

 stream, where he had a dugout hid away. The day 

 pasicd pleasantly. There was trout enougli to satisfy 

 any reasonable person, although none were large; but on 

 the other hand there were no fingeibngs. The old man 

 dressed the tit-h instanier, and put them away in the 

 shade on some moss. Those fish kept better than any 

 other I ever saw, a>'d I vote it as w^ll worth the extra 

 bother. The old guide growled at the time required to 

 land a fiph, and orce remarked, "He know< d where a 

 trout lived that ud fix that dum switcbey thing so it ud 

 be nofurder bother." 



That day did me good. I saw my old friends the jay- 

 bird, the woodduck, swallow ami hawk, LiUghed my- 

 self sore at the porcupine the old man ran the dugout 

 over; his awkward attempt.^ to reach the shore, his head 

 covered with green shiry inoFS, was a comic show all by 

 itself. Then as the shadows grew long we walked back 

 to camp, and wound up the day as all pleasant ones end, 

 with the supper, ihe big fire, the pipe, and the stories 

 which Letter were quite good told by the "shang" diggers 

 with their soft Kentucky acc-'ut. 



The next mcming alfter breakfast I asked the guide 

 where the rod-smasher lived. He laughed, and Yankee- 

 like answered by asking if I could bear disappointment 

 well. 1 said I coulo do so, but liked success better, 

 "Well," said the old man, "right below us is a dam, and 

 there is a little good fishing in tlie back-water; and at the 

 upper end is the big one, He won't always bite; in fact 

 n<'t often: Imc you will see him anyway: and go home 

 with something broken if you hitch on to him " "Come 

 on," I said, "that will be good fun anyway," So we 

 walked a short distance to where he had a flat-bottomed 

 skiff. Fishing toward the head of the back-water I caught 

 some nice ones. After a while the old man came along- 

 side some small dead alders. He cauk-ht one and let the 

 boat swing about with the slight current, I knew in an 

 instant th s was the plnce, but cast out my line the same 

 a- u ual. There was no time lost. He was at home and 

 hungry; and tiiat white swirland therjolid dead tueat the 

 line set me wild and I yelled out, ' Get away from the 

 brush, hurry up! Get out into thp middle, kef p away from 

 th it bunch of grass; kppp a way I Conf.^unditl There,now, 

 see what he has dont !" He had run quite around that 

 one bunch of grass, and my line would hardly run out at 

 .■^11, while he yanked his head savagely from side fo Pide. 

 Zeep went the reel. He wa^ away on a xv-eb^ The grass 



