2 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



IJXjLY T, 1892. 



CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS.-II. 



GREEN LAKE. MICHIGAN. 



Old Hickory Tries It. 



The next morning, after an early breakfast, ten min- 

 utes' work put the canvas boat together: and two of us 

 carried it down the bank and launched it for its first 

 cruise, It was a new Osgood folding .boat 15ft. long, 

 and sat so lightly on the water that it seemed but a 

 feather at the whim of the light morning breeze that 

 was amusing itself in fitful flm'ries and cat's-paws along 

 the shore. 



I could not have been more pleased had I been a boy again 

 with my first pair of red-topped boots, for it just about 

 filled my eye, and besides, it was a present from the 

 Colonel; may his shadow never grow less. 



I waited nearly an hour for Mason, chafing with im- 

 patience at his tardiness, and at last decided to start with- 

 out him. 1 was eager to test the sea-going qualities of 

 the new boat and feel the spring of the old rod again; the 

 same "old reliable" that had stood by me for nine years in 

 many a hard-fought battle with the broozebacks and 

 the pike tribe of low and high degree; and with a lunch, 

 a minnow bucket with three frogs in it, a rod for min- 

 nows and a bait box full of Kentucky worms, the canvas 

 was headed down the lake for the mouth of the little 

 stream connectitfg Green and Duck lakes, where Sam 

 and Charley had caught some fine minnows the day 

 before. 



Knowing from experience the weakness of the bass 

 and pickerel of northern Michigan for speckled frogs, I 

 hooked on one of the three in the bucket, and fished 

 slowly along outside of an occasional patch of grass and 

 bulrushes, patiently and expectantly, clear down to the 

 mouth of the stream, without hearing a single note of 

 music from the click of the i-eel to start the blood to 

 quicker flow. This would have given Old Sam a serious 

 backset, but as the water did not look very fishy along 

 that shore I was not much disappointed, and maybe frogs 

 were not the bait the fish were hankering after that day, 

 and they would likely take more kindly to minnows 

 when I got some. 



I pushed the boat up the shallow, rapid stream a few 

 rods till I found a deep hele scooped out under a root, 

 where I got a few minnows; but they were too small for 

 anything but goggles eyes; I wanted some that would fill 

 the eye of a 51bs. bass. 



I got a few of the right size at another hole, and went 

 on up till I came to the mouth of a little sti-eam coming 

 in from the left that was barely wider than, the boat and 

 nearly overlapped with long swamp grass. I had started 

 to pvish the boat into the narrow opening on an exploring 

 expedition, when I was startled wil;h "Hello, there, old 

 Kingfisher!" and looking down stream from whence the 

 hail came, there were Aleck and his brother, my old 

 friend Jim in Aleck's little tip-over-on-the-slightest-pre- 

 text dugout, which he had left at the camping place a 

 few days before, as much at home apparently as though 

 standing on the deck of a steamer. Jim had come from 

 Leland the day before for a couple of days' visit to his 

 brother, and finding him at the son-in-law's, where he 

 had first gone, he had come over to the camp with him 

 to see "old Hickory" and the boys, and finding me gone, 

 had followed down the lake according to directions given 

 them by the Colonel. As I was not in sight on the lake 

 they had pushed up the stream, slipping up so quietly 

 that I was not aware of their presence till Jim hailed. 



They pushed alongside and after a hearty shake with 

 Jim he said, "Knowin' the general habits o' kingfishers, 

 he 'lowed he'd find the old bird settin' on a dead limb 

 somewhere up the crick lookin' for minners." 



Aleck said if I was not in a hurry to get back on the 

 lake, to push on up the little stream a matter of twenty- 

 five or thirty rods and he would show me the prettiest 

 ' little lake in the country, and besides, we might get a 

 bass or two out of it. 



Jim got in my boat to lessen the draught of the dugout, 

 and standing up and using an oar each as a pole — the 

 stream was too narrow to use them in the rowlocks — we 

 were soon in the solitude of the dense cedar swamp, 

 through which the winding, twisting stream found its 

 tortuous way. 



It was so narrow that it was touch and go with the 

 boat in some of the short kinks, and it required the sharp- 

 est kind of a lookout to avoid a shipwreck by ripping a 

 hole m the canvas on some of the numerous roots and 

 snags and limbs infesting the bottom of the stream, some 

 parallel with the banks, others crosswise, "catawampus" 

 and all other directions. 



At times we had to stoop low to pass under some small 

 tree or limb that reached clear across: and it was shal- 

 low, too, in places only three or four inches deep, and 

 several times Aleck had a hard tug to push the deeper- 

 draught dugout over places where the canvas had gone 

 clear. At last we turned a kink in the stream and pushed 

 the boat out through a dense mat of lily pads fringing 

 the shore into as lovely a little sheet of water as the eye 

 could wish to rest on. It was irregular in outline, some- 

 thing longer than wide, and, as near as a guess could 

 malke it out, about 500 or 600ft. across, with the ever- 

 green woods, dense, solemn and silent, growing to the 

 verV water's edge clear around. 



Twe water was clear and much colder than that in 

 Gre^n Lake, as I found on dipping up a cupful for a 

 "OooSer" after the trip through the hot woods from the 

 other", stream; and it looked so deep and gloomy that a 

 cold c'^ill chased up my back as 1 leaned over the side of 

 the boa,Vt trying to get a sight of the bottom, 



Alecir'^.came alongside in the dugout from out of the 

 stream anW accounted for the clearness and coldness of 

 the water fe>y explaining that the lake was fed and kept 

 full by a big''*H'Cold spring a short distance back in the 

 swamp at the ufl^P^^' nearly opposite the outlet. 



When we had a\' ^^'^"'6'i little gem till well rested 

 we prepared to fish"'''-^* awhile, and Aleck took his way 

 around to the right w*"'^*'^ * troUer out, while Jim and I 

 started to make the e^ ■^^^^'^ circuit to the left with live 

 bait, thus gi\nngour inteh-'^^*^ ^ chance to cboose 



between two styles of "coil^ grief." I hooked on a 



good shiner and Jim pulled- • ^^'"^^^ slowly along a few 

 feet outside of the narrow ^^^^ bulruslies 



that fringed the shore nearly all the way around. We 

 fished around to a sandy point 100yds. away without a 

 symptom, and around that with extra care and caution 

 into a little rush-lined bay, and around to a small naked 

 sand bar near where the spring came in, still without the 

 encouragement of a single nibble. 



Here we met Aleck and held a short meeting of condol- 

 ence, his luck having been equally as good as ours. Tbe 

 water pitched oft" deep at the sand bar and looked fishy, 

 which moved us to tarry awhile and still- fish, but it 

 amounted to nothing, although we could see some blue- 

 gills and big goggle-eyes "profligatin' 'round" the bar, 

 just to tantalize us it seemed, but as we were not fishing 

 for blue-gills nor big goggle-eyes, we passed a few reso- 

 lutions bearing on the case and passed on. 



We kept slowly on around to the outlet and took a turn 

 back over 100yds. of good-looking water and back again 

 to the outlet, where we waited for Aleck, who was taking 

 another run over to the sand bar and back. 



When he came alongside we compared notes and found 

 that 



"We hadn't ketohed a single bass, 

 Nor nary piok-er-el." 



And if there were any in that little lake we failed to 

 find it out. 



We picked our way back down the stream, carrying a 

 load of discouragement that settled the canvas at least a 

 half inch deeper in the water, and Aleck came near not 

 getting through at all with his dugout. But after all I 

 am not sorry to have wet a line in the beautiful little lake 

 in the woods, and if I ever go back to Cxreen l^ake again I 

 shall certainly pay it another visit and not count the time 

 wasted, even if I don't get a nibble. 



We stopped at a deep hole before we got out to the lake 

 and caught a few more shiners, to make sure we would 

 not run out of bait when the fun began. 



When we pulled out at the mouth of the stream we 

 found the wind had risen, blowing straight down the lake 

 with a force that curled up a few white caps a mile below. 

 This decided Aleck to hide his tottery little dugout in the 

 bushes near the water and get in the canvas with Jim and 

 me, and at the same time we were not sure how it would 

 behave in rough water, but we concluded to take the 

 chances, whatever the outcome. If it would not carry 

 three men in a mild blow it was "no good," and the sooner 

 I found it out the better, and, being good swimmers, we 

 wouldn't growl much at such a triiie as a ducking, if a 

 mishap overtook us. 



I hooked on a shiner and with Aleck at the oars we 

 struck out for the foot of the lake, hoping the luck would 

 take a turn and we could go back in the evening with a 

 string of bass that would cheer up the camp and shorten 

 old Sam's face at least a foot, A quarter of a mile down 

 we got out from under the shelter of the wooded shore 

 around the mouth of the stream and into the wind and 

 rough water; but the "ii"on clad" (old Sam had in a spirit 

 of ridicule christened the canvas boat the "iron clad") 

 behaved very well, except for a decided undulating 

 motion that made the joints of the bottom boards creak 

 as it rose and fell on the waves that went rolling by, for 

 Aleck was holding the oars in the water as a drag to keep 

 from going too fast to fish. 



A half mile further down we met a jolly family party 

 coming up the lake in a big ungainly skiff — father, mother 

 and seven children, ranging from a toddler of two or 

 three years to a couple of well grown boys at the oars. 

 They had two lines trailing astern and two more winged 

 out on either side on short rods, "spooning it;" and ap- 

 peared to be* out for a good time, as we were, and as we 

 exchanged the greetings and civilities of the day, we 

 learned they were having as good luck as we, and we 

 hadn't been blessed with a nibble since leaving the little 

 river — nor before. 



The water got rougher as we neared the lower end of 

 the lake, but it was a matter of small concern, as the iron 

 clad was behaving admirably and the fish biting equally 

 as well as at the beginning of the cruise. We saw our 

 two boats from the camp across the lake, a half mile 

 apart, too far away to recognize the occupants, and as 

 they were headed up lake and pulling sturdily against 

 the white-capped seas, we figured it out that they had 

 caught all the fish they wanted and were going back to 

 astonish the Colonel. 



We were now near the foot of the lake, and on turning 

 a point to our right, were in a sort of narrow pocket, in 

 smooth water, and within a few rods of the outlet, the 

 head of the Betsy River. We concluded to go down to 

 the "Chute," a matter of a hundred yards or so down the 

 stream, and get some good big minnows to tempt the bass 

 with on our way back, for they would surely bite along 

 toward evening, and we didn't feel quite safe to go back 

 to camp without a single fin to show after a whole day's 

 fishing. 



Just before entering the river we passed another happy 

 family of fishers anchored three or four rods to our left 

 in a boat at the edge of the rushes and iilypads. This 

 time it was an Indian family. Mister Lo and his wife and 

 a couple of small brown youngsters that stared at us stol- 

 idly as we went by, wondering doubtless what manner 

 of queer water craft the ironclad was anyhow. Mister 

 Lo was equipped with a pole cut from the woods, not an 

 inch under 18ft. long and of a weight that we could only 

 guess at. Even as we wondered how much that pole 

 would weigh, the cork went under, and almost at the 

 same instant a hapless goggle-eye was yanked 30ft, in 

 the air, and describing a circle overhead and shoreward, 

 came down and swung back and forth two or three times 

 like a pendulum till Lo caught the line, released the 

 hook from the mouth of the paralyzed goggle-eye and 

 tossed it over in the stern of the boat, where it was 

 promptly pounced on by the suddenly alert youngsters. 

 By the time we were well by Lo had adjusted his bait 

 and cast in again and stood waiting for another victim, 

 as fixed and motionless in his attitude as one of his 

 wooden brethren that stand guard at cigar stores, with- 

 out once deigning a glance at us before, during or after 

 the performance. We smiled a stealthy smile at the 

 amusing "episode," which we had no right to do, for the 

 Indian had proved himself the better angler, as we h£.dn't 

 even a paralyzed goggle-eye to our credit. 



We landed at a convenient place a few rods above the 

 chute and walked down to the lower end of it, where we 

 rigged a couple of extra minnow rods, and in a few min- 

 utes were flijiping out as fine a lot of big shiners as ever 

 tempted a bass to his downfall. 



The chute, or sluiceway, was a contrivance to raise 

 the water in the lake; and when a sufiftcieut head, 5 or 



6ft., had accumulated to run logs through it on the flood 

 and on down the river below. It was strongly built of 

 heavy squared timbers, banked up solidly from both sides 

 of the stream, and had two gates at the upper end like an 

 old-fashioned forebay to a mill, which were hoisted out 

 when the water was backed up in the lake and logs ready 

 to. run through. Just now the gates were out and only 

 the water from the lake at its natural stage was running 

 through like a streak four or five inches deep on the 

 floor. The torrent rushing through at log-running times 

 had scooped out a deep hole below, near 100ft. long and 

 a matter of three or four rods wide, and it looked so pro- 

 vokingly "fishy" that I was moved to get the old rod and 

 try for a bass. It was not perhaps the right time in the 

 season to look for bass in such a place, but in the spring 

 there are no doubt plenty of them seeking the upper 

 waters and resting in the pool before making their way 

 up the rapid current in the chute, 



A choice shiner was hooked on and dropped in the 

 swift water just below the timbers and the reel allowed 

 to run as the current carried the bait nearly to the riffles 

 below. When it floated off into the quieter water at one 

 side it was reeled back with sundry alluring "out-curves 

 and in-shoots" to the foot of the chute, where the swirl 

 sucked it under the sheet of quick water and away down 

 stream again to the riffles. 1 fished with great industry 

 for half an hour without any sign of a bass being in the 

 pool, but I was no worse off than two or three natives fish- 

 ing along the bank below. 



Long before I gave up the hope of capturing a bass out 

 of the pool, Jim and Aleck had filled the bucket with a 

 choice lot of shiners and a few chubs, and we went back 

 to the boat and took our way out of the river and up the 

 lake, under a settled conviction that it was a mighty 

 poor day for bass or any other kind of fish except 

 shiners. 



Trout Stream and Camp Site. 



The trout stream Aleck had mentioned in one of his 

 letters was, he said, about a quarter of a mile away, flow- 

 ing into the lake from a great spriiig; and we headed for 

 the mouth of it with a lingering hope that we might take 

 back a mess of trout for the boys, if nothing else. 



As we paddled out from behind the shelter of the point 

 we caught the wind square abeam; and as it was 

 considerably fresher than when we came down, and the 

 water whiter and rougher, we felt surer of a ducking be- 

 fore reaching the stream than we did of a trout supper; 

 but we were pleased to find that a course parallel to the 

 rollers, in the trough of the waves, Avas the ironclad's 

 best point. Had we been in a skiff of the same dimen- 

 sions, we would have been rolled over before going ten 

 rods, but that odd-looking canvas "contraption," fash- 

 ioned after no other model on the earth or seas, just rose 

 and fell on the white-capped waves with as little roll as 

 a raft. The only trouble was to keep the curling seas 

 from breaking over the low, in sloping windward side; 

 but with care in meeting an occasional big one at the 

 proper instant, we held our course without shipping more 

 than a half pint of water. 



When off the mouth of the stream it looked bad for 

 making a landing, for here the wind had a full sweep for 

 nearly the whole length of the lake, and the rollers were 

 tumbling square on the beach with a crash that boded ill 

 for the ribs of the ironclad; but we picked out a spot on 

 the smooth strip of sand free of stones or pebbles, and 

 went at it "sideways, like a hog goin' to war," When 

 three or four yards from shore we stood up and let the 

 wind blow us broadside on; and as a comber lifted the 

 boat and was about to dash it on the beach, we made a 

 preconcerted jump, landing in four or five inches of Avater, 

 and when the next wave brought the boat back Jim and' 

 I grabbed it stem and stern and lifted it bodily out on the 

 sand before another incomer had time to "get its work in" 

 on us. 



We sunk the bucket of minnows under a root in the 

 stream, hid the boat in the bushes to be out of sight of 

 any chance passers that might take a notion to it. and 

 under Aleck's guidance took our way up the beach for a 

 hundred yards to some higher ground to avoid the dense 

 tangle along the stream near its mouth, out over the 

 open country to its source, from whence we would fish 

 back to where we had hidden the boat. 



The way led along not far from the stream over a scope 

 of country that had been ravished by fire except in the 

 ravine through which it found its winding way thirty or 

 forty feet below us, and we went floundering through 

 loose sand, ashes and patches of tall ferns, over charred 

 and blackened logs and prostrate trunks of limbless trees 

 lying in all conceivable directions along the high rolling 

 groimd overlooking the ravine, till I found myself making 

 a mental calculation of how many trout it would take to 

 compensate us for all the labor and sweltering discomfort 

 we were undergoing, and wondering if I would ever get 

 forgiveness for all the subdued but none the less vehement 

 cussin' it required to keep the somewhat rheumatic old 

 starboard leg from failing me at a critical time when 

 straddling over an extra large fallen tree, which extra 

 large fallen tree seemed to obstruct the way with fre- 

 quent regularity. 



"\Vhen less than a quarter of a mile from the lake we 

 halted a minute or two on a knoll from whence we could 

 look down on the stream, the most desolate and God- 

 forsaken looking spot, doubtless, in northern Michigan; a 

 lump of disappointing possibilities, sandy and bare ex- 

 cept for three or four blackened, branchless stubs of trees 

 pointing skyward, a few scattering, sickly ferns, and a 

 patch of stunted, puny-looking quaking aspen bushes that 

 fluttered feebly with every breath of wind, and thin, 

 Aleck informed me with a burst of enthusiasm , was the 

 place he had originally selected for our camping place 

 because it would be handy to the "beautiful spring and 

 trout stream," 



After a careful survey of the surrounding country and 

 the approaches to this lovely spot, it occurred to me that 

 we might possibly have transported the camp outfit to it 

 in a balloon, but not in a wagon. 



I said nothing to Aleck, only that I was very glad he 

 had finally decided on the place where the camp then 

 was, but I swore a silent but comprehensive oath right 

 there on the spot that had he lured us to the cheerless, 

 comfortless out-of-the-way region of wretchedness, with- 

 out one solitary redeeming feature to it— not even a leaf 

 for shade^ — and a quarter of a mile or more fi-om the lake 

 over a road, or rather the lack of a road, that would have 

 started a church deacon on the downward parth in five 

 minutes, he would never have lived to return to the 

 bosom of his family. At the same time I was satisfied 



