296 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



,OCT. 6, 1893.- 



would not the planting of every tree constitute a unit of 

 force in the opposite direction ? 



If 80, would it not be well for the Forest Commission 

 to check, as far as may lie in its power, the cutting down 

 of trees in the cleared lands as well as in our forests, and 

 to foster a general spirit in favor of planting and preserv- 

 ing trees everywhere throughout the State"? 



J. S. Van Cleef. 



I'OUOHKKEPSIB, Sept. 28. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[From a Staff Co-rresponiUnt.'] 



ChicaGtO, III., Sept. 29.— Mr. Geo. E. Cole, president of 

 the State Fish League, is back from his three months" 

 trip to the seashore with bis family, and announces 

 himself ready to go to work again. President Cole has 

 called a meeting of the board of directors of the league 

 for Tuesday, Oct. 4, at Springfield. It is hoped that 

 this meeting will be attended by all members of the board. 

 Several hundred dollars have been pledged in this city. 



Dr, Bartlett, of the State Fish Commission, is in town 

 to-day. He reports a very busy season and many con- 

 victions. He says the Illinois fi^h exhibit at the Word'rs 

 Fair will be the finest the State has ever attempted and 

 will bo complete. Few departments of the Fair will be 

 more interesting to sportsmen than that of Fish and 

 Fisheries. 



THE KEKOSKEE EISH STORY. 



I have received permission to tell the Kekoskee fish 

 story, provided that I do so in a careful and temperate 

 manner. I do not know how to obey this injunction 

 better than by giving it in the words of Dr. Clark, of 

 Mayville, Wis,, from whom we first heard it. 



"These events happened before the war," said he. 

 "They are so singular and improbable that I always hesi- 

 tate about telling the story. You will probably laugh at 

 me and not believe me, yet every word of this is true. 



"The winter of 1860 was very cold. At that time a vast 

 lake covered the whole ground where Horicon marsh now 

 is. This lake was full of fish, and when the ice had 

 frozen deep over every portion of the lake, these fish 

 became distressed for air. The Rock River, as you 

 know, is a lively stream here, and as you have notic^-d, it 

 has a stretch of swift water just below the great dam at 

 Kekoskee, This dam existed at the time of the story. 

 You have looked with your own eyes upon the very spot 

 where these startling incidents occurred. 



"The fish, unable to breathe in the half solid lake, 

 crowded up the live channel of the Rock River, making 

 for the hole which the swift water kept open in the ice 

 below Kekoskee Dam, Most of these fish were bullheads, 

 and no river of salmon ever equalled this run of bull' 

 heads. It is six miles from the lake up to Kekoskee Dam. 

 and the ice on the river was 2ft. thick, yet the whole bed 

 of the river, 40.vd8. wide, was for six miles so packed 

 with bullheads that the heavy covering of toixgh ice in 

 places rolled and tossed like the waves of the sea, so des- 

 perate was the stiuggle of the horny host beneath it. 



"The first arrival of the run of fish at the open hole was 

 marked by a geyserlike eruption of bullheads, oOft. across 

 and about 12ft. high, Tbe pressure of the fish behind was 

 simply enormous. The fish could not get back in the 

 water, and so slid out on the ice, coveriutc it in every 

 direction for hundreds of yards to a depth varying from 

 6 in. to 2ft, 



"The air was filled with a strange, low murmuring 

 sound, which could be heard nearly a mile around. Old 

 settlers say they have never heard such a sound since. 

 Dreading some unknown calamity, they hastened to the 

 spot, and there, as you may suppose, their dread was 

 turned to joy. 



"Before noon of that day every team of the whole 

 neighborhood was at the dam, hauling bullheads. Tbe 

 amount of bullheads taken from that spot I hesitate to 

 state, for fear you will not believe it. You cannot believe 

 it. I do not ask you to believe it. No one believes it. 

 They always laugh at us when we tell this story, and 

 think we have gone crazy. In Wisconsin the term 'Ke- 

 koskee man' is used to designate one who has a wheel in 

 his head. No Kekoskee man has been bplipvcd on oath 

 or admitted to a jury in Wi.scon-in since lh60. This un- 

 earned reputation has ruined the town.- You see it as it 

 is, silent, almost deserted, a few empty buiidings standing 

 as monuments to a town martyred unto ruin by too strict 

 an adherence to the truth, For every word of this story 

 is true. 



"If you will come with me about a mile out in the 

 country, I will introduce you to the widow Sneider, now 

 an old lady. The widow Sueider will tell you that on one 

 morning she counted 900 (nine hundred) wagon loads of 

 bullheads on their way from the geyser below the dam. 

 This was only one morning, and the run lasted for two 

 weeks. Of course, this number of wagons represented only 

 a part of those which ])i8Sfd, and this was on only one 

 road of several leading out into 'he country. 



"The bullheads were shoveled into the wagons like 

 potatoes and the regular price was 35 cents a load, a 

 nominal sum, to cover the shoveling only, One man 

 who shoveled there bought him a farm in this vicinity 

 with the money so earned. 



"The bullheads were hauled out into the country 

 and used largely for manure. There is no richer land 

 m Wisconsin than this has been since IfctiO. AU the 

 farmers fed the bullheads to their hogs and for two 

 years after that you couldn't get a decent piece of pork 

 m this part of the State. It was all fishy. The hogs all 

 took naturally to worms and liver after that, nnd some 

 of them evinced rudimentary gills behind the ears. Oh 

 I don't blame you for doubting this. They all do. ' 



"There was a ford on the road at this point of the 

 nver, but the wagons could not get into the water. 

 After the first eruption of bullheads had subsided planks 

 were laid across on the living pontoon bridge of fish and 

 on these the teams crossed. 



"Even after the run had subsided very much, dogs and 

 children were known to run across the open hole on the 

 bicks of the bullhead?. Still later in the run, after the 

 fish had thinned out a great deal, a man well knovvn in 

 this community, Julius Cornell, slipped from the ice 

 and fell into the hole. He could not get into the water 

 for the fiih. You smile at this. I do not blame you. 

 We are used to it. No one ever believes this story. * 



"After the bullheads thinned out so you could get a 

 spear through them, as they lay in a matted layer, it 

 was discovered that there were layers of bass and pickerel 



lower down in the water, and much sport was had with 

 these later on. 



"Of course everybody that winter lived on bullheads 

 and they were used in many ways. As I have said, 

 the farmers fed them to their hogs. We had a lazy 

 sort of expressman here named Bru^h, and he owned 

 a fall-down old horse, which dated back to the Mexi- 

 can war and was called Santa Anna. Brush insisted 

 that he was too poor to buy Santa Anna hay, and so he 

 fed him bullheads all winter, and that was every- 

 thing the horse had to eat for four months. Oh, laugh, 

 if you want to, we're used to it. But I'll take you out 

 and show you Santa Anna, a good healthy sort of horse 

 to-day. Brush has moved to Bayfield, but you ask any 

 citizen of this town if Santa Anna didn't live on bullheads 

 and if he don't tell you just what I have I'll retract the 

 whole story. You needn't think for a minute that I'm 

 talking to you out of my head. These things are all facts 

 and you can get all the proof you want. You just go out 

 alone, don't take me along, but just stop any citizen of 

 Mayville you meet and ask him 'how about the Kekoskee 

 bullheads. That's all I ask you to do. You just sift this 

 story and see if you don't find it true." 



We did sift the story and we did find it true. That is 

 the singular thing about the story, and that is why I call 

 it the most remarkable story I ever heard. The facts 

 themselves are not beyond the range of imagination, but to 

 have a whole community rise up and testify to their truth 

 — that proves that imagination had nothing to do with it, 

 and that the facts ai'e facts pure and simple. Ordinarily 

 one man tells a fish story. Here two hundred tell it and 

 tell it just the same. The evidence is legal, convincing, 

 overwnelming. In the total it makes up the grandest fish 

 story ever was. I tell it here but it is nothing. No one 

 man can tell it. It takes a whole town to tell it. To hear 

 it aright you must go to Mayville, There the whole town 

 will tell you this story. You dare not, can not, doubt it. 

 You will believe and you will feel, as we did there, that 

 the entire chain of circumstances in this case constitutes 

 the most remarkable incident in the history of a lifetime. 



We met Mr. F. M. Lawrence, leading attorney of the 

 town, and asked him carelessly about this story. Mr. 

 Lawrence was alone, and not within reach of Dr. Clark. 



"Ob, about those Kekoskee bullheads?" said he. "Yes, 

 that was a great time. Tbe Widow Sneider, out here a 

 mile on the road, counted 900 wagonloads of bullheads 

 go by in one morning. A dog could run across the open 

 hole on the backs of the fish. Julius Cornell fell oft' the 

 ice and couldn't get into the water for the fish. The 

 farmers fed bullheads to their hogs, and one fellow here 

 in town, name of Brush, kept his horse all winter on 

 bullheads. He had them stacked up out in the yard. The 

 horse's name is Santa Anna. Want to see him? Come 

 along with me, and I'll show him to you. A good many 

 people don't believe this story, but I'll show you the 

 horse." 



We happened across Ed Sauerhering, who owns the drug 

 store, and dropped a hint that we had heard something 

 of this story. He was alone, and couldn't see Dr. Clark 

 or Mi-. Lawrence. 



"Oh," said he, "those bullheads? Yes, there was an 

 awful lot of them. Julius Cornell slipped ofi: the ice and 

 fell into the hole, but he couldn't get into the water for 

 the fish. That was in the cold winter of 1860. The 

 Widow Sneider counted 900 wagonloads of bullheads go 

 by her house one morning. You see, the farmers fed the 

 bullheads to their hogs. Old Brush, an expressman here, 

 kppt his horse, old Santa Anna, all winter on bullheads. 

 He said he couldn't afford hav, and he had plenty of 

 bullheads. Do you want to see Santa Anna? He's one of 

 the features of the town. Come along, and I'll show him 

 to you." 



At the hotel we met the landlord, an old German, and 

 we said a word or po about the story. 



"Oh," said he. "D:se bullhets? My, dot was an offul 

 dime alretty. Yulius Gornell, he fall der ice off, and he 

 gouldn't get into der wasser bei der vishes yet, Effery- 

 body feedff dose bullhets bei der hogs, and I gets me so 

 tired of bullhets I bin sick of life. Old Prusb, der 

 egsbressman, be feeds bullhets all vinter bei his horse, 

 old Sa,nty Anny alretty. Yas, dot Sinty Anny dond eat 

 noding elses ven der bullhets last. Of you vand to see 

 old S ^nty Anny you gome along, und I shows him to you. 

 Der Vitter Schneider, dot lives bei one mile on der road 

 out, she hat doch nine hundert vagon loats of bullhets on 

 einz gen morgen gesehen. I shows you old Santy Anny 

 und der Vitter Schneider. Yae, dere is no doubdt upoud 

 dose bullhets not py a longvays yet." 



That evening we sat in the hotel oifice, a kind of town 

 meeting ground. One by one, as the different citizens 

 came in at the door, they were, Avithout previous hint 

 and without possibility of collusion, asked to stand and 

 deliver the Kekoskee bullhead story. One by one they 

 did so, without hesitation, and with absolute unanimity 

 on the points of Julius Cornell, the Widow Sneider, and 

 old Santa Ana, as well as on minor details. ' 



This is what I claim for the Kekoskee fish story. It is 

 not a plain lie and it is not unbridled imagination, but 

 the best pcssible exposition of facts which do not admit 

 of doubt. The evidence is there, and any man can go 

 and hear it. If he does, he will doubt no more, but 

 believe as I do and as I hope all readers of this do. More- 

 over, I have mysrlf seen the very spot where the hole in 

 the ice was, I have seen the house of the Widow Sneider, 

 and I have seen Santa Anna, An etching of the latter 

 dramatis persona is forwarded herewith, 



I should dislike to have this story meet the ridicule 

 with which I treated it before I had become convinced of 

 its entire truthfulness, and any doubting allusions to it I 

 shall treat as nersonal aspersions. If the proof offered 

 here is not sufficient, there is plenty more in Mayville. 



Chicago, 111., Oct. 1.— It seems, bv the issue of Sept. 

 29, that Mr. Jay Beebe, of Toledo, 'O., has a grayling 

 pocket located somewhere in Michigan. I question' very 

 gravely whether he has any right to keep it covered up 

 that way. but it is very likely that I shall get into it next 

 season, if his promise holds good till then. There is noth- 

 ing I should so much enjoy as a trip after grayling. It 

 begins to be apj)arent why so little mention appears re- 

 garding the grayling fishing of Michigan. If Mr. Beebe 

 describes his pccket no more definitely than by saying it 

 is_40 miles from a railroad tie, I think its whereabouts 

 will be sufficiently indefinite to bar all guessers. What I 

 railroad tie does he mean? This is worse than my game 

 pocket, a great deal. 



The 8 cent, No. 25 unbleached linen line, twisted, 

 boiled in oil, duly reached me via Fokest and Stream 



office, and I thank Mr. Beebe for it. I agree with him 

 that it will hold any bass that ever grew. So will a 4- 

 cent chalk line, one of which I shall be glad, if he likes, 

 to buy for him, on the principle that a fair exchange is 

 no robbery. But you have to catch your bass before you 

 hold him, and in hait casting you have to get your bait 

 out before you can catch your bass. I personally know 

 Mr. Beebe to be a fly-fisher of ability and wide experi- 

 ence, but does he, or does any benighted citizen so far 

 east as Ohio— save the mark!— know so much about this 

 bait-casting business? The line he sends me is fit for 

 neither fly-casting nor bait-casting, although it could be 

 used at still-fishing, or in whipping a small bait with a 

 fly rod. I never troll for bass myself. lam asking for 

 a strong bait-casting line and am still in the dark in the 

 search for it. To-day I send Mr, Beebe, via Forest and 

 Stream, some fragments which I have just broken from 

 the end of a rotten bait-casting line. This line is raw 

 silk, as I presume all bait-casting lines must be in order 

 to secure perfect pliancy and smooth delivery. When 

 new it was strong, though very small and light. Two 

 days in the guides made it what it is— a very risky 

 medium of communication with a healthy bass." Treat- 

 ment with oil or waterproofing usually stiffens a line so 

 that it is worthless for casting off the reel. If Mr. Beebe 

 will wind this raw silk line around his finger he will 

 find it will lie close down and not kick up. Then if he 

 will try a bit of his oiled linen line in the same way he 

 will find that it will lie loosely and will kink and kick 

 up. It would not be possible to use it for free-reel cast- 

 ing, I should think, for it is too stiff and sticky. A.s a 

 bullhead Mne, now, or as a string to tie up cigarette pic- 

 tures, or a cord to fasten a minnow pail, or maybe hang 

 up seed-corn with in the winter time, I can see how this 

 line would be a success, but I must enlist Mr. Beebe in 

 further search for a line that will follow a frog 30 or 

 40yds. from the reel, and hold a bass as long as your 

 arm. Meantime, I wish the winter were over, so we 

 could go grayling fishing, 



broke the recced. 



From time to time I have mentioned the remarkable 

 catches of bass made on the Kankakee River in tbe ten 

 miles of water near Mak -saw-ba Club, AVe have had no 

 fishing here to compare with it. I presume over 1,200 

 bass, averaging say 21bs., have been taken in that water 

 by the half dozen bass fishermen of the club since July 1. 

 Last Saturday Mr. L. R. Brown caught 25 bass, and on 

 the same day Mr. R. B. Organ broke the club record for 

 the season. Mr. Organ caught 38 small-mouth bass, 1 

 big-mouth and 1 wall-eyed pike, the latter weighing 61b3. 

 He also killed 3 ducks and 13 bullfrogs, and moreover did 

 all this between 11:30 A. M. and 4:45 P. M. He caught 

 23 small-mouth bass out of one hole. He used live frogs 

 chiefly, but caught some fish on spoon and quill bait, and 

 even caught one on a rubber frog. It was his day out. 

 It may be remembered that about a month ago nearly all 

 the bass taken here were big-moutbs. Now they are 

 nearly all small-mouths, and the big-mouths are gone. 

 This is the history of the bass at this point every fall. 

 Can any one explain it? 



Dr. D. H. Shields, one of the directors of the State Fish 

 League, informs me of a slight miscarriage of justice in 

 the following words: 



"I am sorry to inform you that we have had some bad 

 luck. We arrested two netters in the act of fishing, and 

 yesterday, the gSch, was the day set for trial. We had 

 no one to prosecute the case, as the prosecuting attorney 

 failed to get to the trial. Our warden played lawyer and 

 we got beat, they getting clear on the plea that they were 

 catching bait." 



The season in th's section has been good for bass, fair 

 for trout, bad for mascallonge. E. Hough. 



175 Monroe Sttjeet, Cbicago. 



SOME ILLINOIS WATERS. 



QuiNCY, 111., Sept. 27,— The shores of Quincy Bay have 

 been CDvered with hook-and-line fishermen to-day, and 

 hundreds of good fish have been taken home. The outfit 

 ia very simple, consisting usually of a cheap cane rod or 

 a hickory stick with a short line and a single hook baited 

 with angle worms. With the rods a float is used. Many 

 anglers have hand lines only. 



In company with Dr. Bartlett I counted fully sixty 

 people engaged in fishing within one-half mile from the 

 boat house of the Illinois Fish Commission, and every one 

 of them had a fair string of fish. Nearly all of the 

 anglers had carp of the scale, mirror and leather varieties 

 and some carried fine specimens of black bass. It grieves 

 me to report Inat many bass measuring only 4 or 5in. in 

 length are caught and kept for the frying-pan. There is 

 no law at present to prevent this slaughter of the baby 

 fish; but there is no reasonable doubt that the outrage will 

 be stopped by legislation next winter. Dr. Bartlett has 

 informed me that a man boasted of having caught 800 

 fingerling bass, which he carried home and afterward 

 threw into his ash heap because too soft to use. Qaiucy 

 Bay is a wonderful breeding ground for black bass and 

 furnishes unsurpassed fishing, but it cannot stand such 

 senseless and uncivilized practices as the above. 



Mr. L B, Bartlett has observed a curious habit of the 

 black ba^s which is probably nob known to some readers 

 of Forest and Stream. At the head of Quincy Bay 

 some years ago he saw something bright flash out o'f 

 water near the shore, which was overhung by bushes. 

 By expert use of a shotgun he struck two of these objects 

 while in the air and was much surprised to find them 

 black bass. The fish had been jumping out of water to 

 take insects from the bushes. 



Tbe carp is well thought of in Quincy Bay and vicinity, 

 and thousands of pounds of these fish have found their 

 way into the homes of poor people, to whom the ease 

 with which the carp can be obtained is a great boon. It 

 has come to my knowledge also that the Stranahan 

 Brothers in Cleveland place carp on their bill of fare 

 alternately with whitefish and their patrons are equally 

 pleased with the two. T. H. B. 



St. Louis Fishing Notes. 



Fishing in all the resorts tributary to St. Louis has 

 been remarkably good during the past month. The ex- 

 ceedingly high water of the spring had the effect of re- 

 stocking all the lakes, and the result is better fi'=!hing 

 than for many years past. The writer was at King's 

 Lake one day a short time ago and fishing for croppies 

 was mo8t excellent. Over 500 fish were taken in one day 



