402 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 10, 1892. 



made to Bear Creek, 7 miles: Java, 8 miles; Essex, 4 

 miles; Paola, 5 miles; Nyack, 9 miles, and Belton. 11 

 miles; 45 miles altogether. Blue grouse by thousands 

 on Bear Creek and myriads of trout. The scenery be- 

 tween these stations is magnificent, perhaps the finest on 

 the route, and streams tilled with trout line the way, 

 From Essex there is another trail to St. Ma.ry'8 Lakes, 

 The Baring Brothers. London bankers, visited this region 

 for several years. Down the Flathead Eiver a grand 

 voyage may be made in a canvas canoe for twenty to 

 . fifty miles, almost within sight of the track the entire 

 distance, with only a few short riffs to carry around. 



Belton is the starting point for Lake McDonald, a great 

 body of water which fills a bottomless cleft right in the 

 heart of the mountains, where big game of nearly all 

 varieties may be found, and four varieties of trout run- 

 ning from 4oz. to .SOlbs. in weight : black suckers, squaw 

 fish and round whitefish, very palatable. At this season 

 they gather at the inlet of the lake by myriads to spawn, 

 and the big trout feed on them. Frank Gedulm, Miles 

 Apgar and Charles Howe have cabins at either end of the 

 lake, which is eighten miles long by four wide, rivaling 

 lakes Luzerne and Thim in Switzerland for Alpine fea- 

 tures. It is reached by an excellent trail of two miles 

 through the pine forest direct from the station. The 

 cabins are commodious, convenient and neat, and the 

 cuisine is exceptionally good. There are half a dozen 

 sailing craft, skiffs, batteaux and canoes on the lakes at 



f)re8ent, and by next season there will be a naphtha 

 aunch tjOft. long. This lake is destined to be the most 

 famous mountain resort in America within a very brief 

 period, and will be sought by summer cottagers. Its 

 future will be as eventful as Paul Smith's in the Adiron- 

 dacks. The number of visitors this year has been large. 

 The following names are taken from 'the register, to wit: 

 Dr. Bird and L. Wissmeyer, Oklahoma; V¥. D. Hoard, 

 ex-Governor of Wisconsin; E. A. Driver and E. R. Eipley. 

 Riverside, 111.: C, A. Hair, J. N. Marble and J. P. Brooke, 

 of Chicago: Mr. Farnsworth, of Oconto, III : Judge Noyes 

 and Mrs. Beatty and son, of Warren, Pa.; Bishop Gilbert 

 and Mr. Shepherd, of St. Paul; Mrs. Burns and Mr. Judd, 

 of Anaconda, Mont.; Charles Hallock, of New York; C, 

 E. Le Munyou, Geo. Treat, Herbert Madison and Robert 

 Phillips, of Great Falls, Mont. ; L, Wakeman, of St. Cloud, 

 Minn.; Dr. Curtis, L. Beard, J. .1. Marsh, C. C. Treat and 

 N. Kersey, all of Decorah, la.: F. A. Day, of Duluth; 

 Messrs. Madison and Dickerman, of St. Paul: F. R. Mills, 

 S. Pratt, W. .lennersen, .T, Voght, .1. Sheldon, G. H. 

 Adams and wife. J. Foy and wife, Mr. Palmer, wife and 

 two Misses Palmer, Mr. Stoner, Mr. Kenyon, F, Stallings, 

 Supt. W. B. Green and F. Langermau, all of Kalispell, 

 Mont. : General Manager A. L. Mohler, St. Paul, and Jas. 

 Dundy and wife, Warnesky and wife, Pereiance and 

 wife, Reed and wife, and J, Lewis, of Columbia Falls, 

 Mont.— a total of .58 persons in all. 



Six miles north of Lake McDonald is Camas Lake, four 

 miles long, which lies in the heart of a sheep, goat and 

 moose country. Frank Gedulm, with a party of three, 

 cime down with two fine goats while I was in camp. 

 In this vicinity is a glacier covering an area of 25 or 30 

 square miles, which is a very interesting objective point. 

 In the morning a thick mist gathers over it, but as the 

 sun gradually comes over the mountains the veil lifts 

 and the immense field of ice and snow shows its glitter- 

 ing surface, dazzling white. Horses can go over the trail. 



Caribou are found in this vicinity in some numbers. 

 It is said to be the most southern limit of their range. 

 They feed just below the snowline on a clean white moss 

 which depends from the trees, except in the month of 

 April, when they come down to the valleys to drop their 

 young. Very fine mounted heads and full specimens, 

 male and female, may be found at Spokane, Great Falls 

 and Bonner's Ferry, and other places in the vicinity. I 

 have seen immense horns, one pair from a buck which 

 is said to have weighed 1,1001 bs. on the hoof, and a small 

 pair from a cow which dressed 6401b8. Such weights 

 seem almost incredible. Caribou of such size are not 

 found elsewhere that I know of, unless it may be in 

 Alaska. Moose are not rare. 



It is likely that Camas Lake will be known hereafter 

 as Ackerman's Lake, to commemorate the death of an 

 Iowa sportsman of that name who was drowned there 

 last September. Camas is the name of an edible root 

 with stem like an onion, which deer and Indians are 

 fond of. Twenty miles north of this lake is another 

 glacier lymg at the head of Glacier Creek, which flows 

 into the North Fork of the Flathead. A good many 

 goats may be found in the mountains in which Goat 

 River heads, about ten miles from the British boundarv 

 line, near Bedlington. 



Coram, a station 9 miles west of Belton, is a famous 

 place for red deer, which congregate in a bend of the 

 rivei-. Mule deer and whitetails are found here together. 



Whitefish Lake is accessible from Columbia Falls, 8 

 miles west. Here are deer, trout, blue grouse, partridge 

 and fool hens. These three A-arieties of grouse are found 

 all over the country west of the Rockies. Information 

 of this locality can be obtained from Mr, 0. T. Werneoke 

 manager of the Rocky Mountain Tourist Co., and from 

 Messrs. H. H. Garr and J. 6. Monroe. 



^u^i^^fu^^^l^il'^,*^^^ ^'^'^^ people, is headquarters for 

 the i lathead Valley and the country lying north of it. A 

 dozen lakes and streams are accessible from it, including 

 the 1 lathead River and its three great forks, with their 

 numerous tributaries, v/hich have their sources in the 

 mountains, the StiU water and Whitefish rivers Swan 

 Lake, Blaine Lake, Foy's Lake, Pine Lake, Whitefish 

 l^^l ^"^^ ^^^y ^^^^^ fiiie bodies of water. 

 1 lathead Lake is 28x15 miles in extent. Four steam- 

 boats ply upon It. One of these took an excursion partv 

 of loO persons to the Indian Reservation at the foot of 

 the lake to inspect Mr. Charles Allard's herd of 90 buffalo 

 winch have been bred in captivity. This was on Oct 3 

 Visitors may apply to C. E. Conrad, banker, or the agent 

 of the Kalispell Town Site Company, for information. 

 Capt. Cheney, of the steamer State of Montana, and 

 •Pu steamboat Crescent, are familiar 



with the lower lake country. The editors of the aranhic 

 have a snug shooting box on the Stillwater, in the upper 

 country. Ducks are abundant in these waters, and it is 

 said that no less than 27 varieties have been observed in 

 Tif.^TT^^f ^"'^l^^^iiig redheads and canvasbacks. 



The United States Fish Commission propose to establish 

 a salmon hatchery at Kalispell at a cost of $15,000, and 

 two experts have been recently examining obstructions 

 at the mouth ot Clark's Fork of the Columbia, which at 

 present prevent the aeceat of the salmon into Flathead 



Lake and other waters in western Montana, Good hotel 

 accommodations at the West House, 



The Flathead Valley lies^between the Mission and the 

 Cabinet ranges. 



From Kalispell to Spokane it is good hunting and fish- 

 ing all the way. There are thirty railroad stations en 

 route, and it will take space to specify all of them. 

 Pleasant Valley and Lake View are desirable hunting 

 localities situated west of the Cabinet mountains. This 

 is a shallow body of water surrounded by lily pads, with 

 many coots, dippers, and butter ducks along the shores. 

 Wolf Creek is a clear, wide river which has never been 

 fished except by construction crews. There are many 

 shadowy ravines carrying gelid waters into the Kootenai. 

 Oh! ye anglers! You have only to make a little journey 

 of two or three;thousand miles to reach the verge of living 

 waters! 



The Kootenai River is reached at Jennings, eighty 

 miles from Kalispell and 1308 from St. Paul, from 

 which a steamboat runs north each Monday to Tobacco 

 Plains and Fort Steele, a Hudson Bay post in British 

 Columbia. Messrs. Jones and Dupuy, merchants at 

 Jennings and owners of the steamer Annerly, a 95ft. 

 boat, will render sportsmen every assistance. It is 137 

 miles to Fort Steele. Mrs. McCracken, noted as the 

 huntress of Montana, has a log store at Jennings, where 

 a photograph may be bought with Madam in full shoot- 

 ing costume and two slain deer lying at her feet. This is 

 a capital hmiting and fishing point. Board can be had at 

 the Annerly House for $7 per week. A trapper named 

 Smith lives here. He has bought no less than 170 bear 

 skins within the year, for which he paid from $18 to .$50 

 each, not to mention mink, fisher, wolf, and wolverine. 

 Back of Libby Creek station, an important mining town 

 thirteen miles further west, there is good hunting and 

 fishing. W. A. Hiller lives eight miles up the creek. He 

 takes Forest and Stream and is a good guide. From 

 Libby Creek on to Bonner's Ferry, a distance of forty-nine 

 miles, the Great Northern crosses a large number of 

 streams which head in the Cabinet mountains oft' to the 

 south. It is a country covered with dense forests spread 

 over hills and mountains veined with precious metals. 

 The Kootenai Falls, thirty feet high, dashing through 

 massive walls of rock, are very picturesque. Yakt, Leonia 

 and Crossport are great places for deer and may be 

 easily reached from Bonner. 



Bonner's Ferry is the head of the Kootenai River navi- 

 gation. Steamers leave four times a week and take the 

 tourists right into the heart of the Selkirk Range, the 

 grandest in America. Kootenai Lake is 80 miles long, of 

 unknown depth, and together with the river comprises 

 267 miles of inland navigation. Eight steamers ply on 

 river and lake. The largest have abundant state-room 

 accommodation. No grander trip can be found in 

 Switzerland, Snow-capped mountains drop down to 

 gloomy abysses . and form a continuous line of senued 

 peaks frorn end to end. All the way up the river, until 

 the lake is reached, there are innumerable breeding 

 places for water fowl. The Kootenai overflows its bottom 

 at high water in the spring, excepting a narrow ridge 

 along the margin, and every lagoon that the receding 

 waters leave harbors a raft of ducks, swans, geese and 

 brant. A British company with a capital of |200,000 is 

 now engaged in building a dyke 110 miles long to reclaim 

 the land for farming and grazing. 



Right at Bonner, within a mile of the village, is a group 

 of reedy lakes which I saw alive with water fowl one 

 calm Sunday morning. 



The Moyen River is reached by an eleven-mile trail 

 from Bonner over the benches. Dr. Bishop and I took 

 sixty trout there on Oct. 5 with flies, although August is 

 supposed to be late in the season. 



Mr. J. A. Macdonald, a real estate agent, is good 

 authority on sport at Bonner, and so is Purser Jim Mc- 

 Eachran of the steamer Spokane, William Doyle.William 

 Lamb, William AinsUe and William Eaton (ail Williams) 

 are very good guides and know the whole country thor- 

 oughly, Mr. Ainslie took out a party into the moun- 

 tains on Oct. 3, the day I left. They had four saddle 

 horses and three pack animals, and were going to the 

 head of Yahk after goats and sheep. Major Barnes and 

 Mr. Rickart, who are Customs inspectors at the boundary 

 line, sixty-three milea north of Bonner, are good men. 

 There is an extensive but somewhat intricate system of 

 interior communication by wagon, rail and steamboat in 

 the Kootenai district, and upon the lines of railway which 

 connects the mining town of Nelson, with its population 

 of 1 900 souls, with Robeson, there are three hunters' 

 lodges numbered 1, 2 and 3, which are furnished with 

 camp stuft' and kitchen utensils and rented at a nominal 

 rate of $1 per day. Salmon and salmon trout are caught 

 here with fly in the spring and with spoon in the fall. 

 The river from Bonner to Kootenai Lake is very crooked, 

 with clay banks and muddy bottom, and only a few trout 

 are caught in its waters. It abounds with squawfish (a 

 species of Coregonus) and suckers. 



Pend d'Oreille and the Priest Lake country are great 

 sporting regions, and so is Coeur d'Alene. These have 

 been accessible for seven or eight years by the Northern 

 Pacific Railroad, and are pretty well known. The Great 

 Northern Road follows the Pend d'Oreille River, or the 

 Little Spokane, nearly the whole distance to Spokane 

 City. It follows the Pend d'Oreille for thirty-five miles, 

 and then crosses it at the Albani Falls over two iron 

 spans 300 and 180ft. in length, connected by rocky island 

 in mid stream. At Newport, one mile west of Albani 

 Falls, the Newport Transportation Company operates a 

 line of steamboats to the Metalline District and sundry 

 points on the river. Dr. Faust, editor of the Newport 

 Jsieics, is well informed. Priest River enters the Pend 

 d'Oreille a few miles eaat of Albani Falls, heading in a 

 large lake of the same name. Rufus Cheney at the lake 

 and Jim Judge and J. W. Horner at Priest River Station 

 are good guides. You can go by boat or ti-ail from the 

 station to Vermillion Lake, as it is known on govern- 

 ment maps. A. M. Jenkins has a cabin at Priest Lake 

 and pack horses, and will come in to the station if writ- 

 ten to at Priest River in advance of arrival. Rufus 

 Cheney saw seven bighorns in one day, and ia authority 

 I believe, for the statement that one such was shot there 

 which weighed 4001bs. 



At Chatteroy station, seventeen miles from Spokane a 

 drove of seven deer jumped into tlie brush just at dusk, 

 aa the team passed, 



Spokane is the converging point of eight railroads, 

 which render a large number of fishing and hunting re- 

 sorts accessible. One of the most popular in the imme- 



diate vicinity is Spirit Lake, in Idaho, 35 miles distant. ' 

 It is a perfect gem among the mountains, and a great 

 game region, Mr, .John R. Revers, of the Spokane Min- 

 ing Exchange, and formerly of the New York World, 

 hunts there a good deal, and so does W. D, Knight, i^eter 

 Rhoderback, an old soldier who lives at the lake, is a good 

 guide. 



In the Okanagon district, west of Spokane, there are 

 antelope, elk, bighorn sheep, three kinds of deer and a 

 species of small goat, not half the size of the big white 

 goats of the main Rookies, and quite different also from 

 the goats of Alaska. Some fine specimens may be seen at 

 Meeker's gun stone in Spokane. They are much more 

 comely and cleaner limbed than their big congeners. 



Lake Chelan, a crooked body of water 60 miles long by 

 4 wide, lying among the mountains just west of the Co 

 lumbia River, will become a popular resort as soon as the 

 G;reat Northern Railroad is opened to traffic to the Colum- 

 bia. Many parties of ladies and gentlemen from Spokane 

 have been camping there the past season, and there are 

 three steamers running regularly from the railroad cross- 

 ing up the Columbia to the outlet of Chelan, and into the 

 lake, and thence to all lake points. 



With this most western point so far reached by the. 

 Pacific extension of this great trans-continental line, I 

 conclude my lengthy memoranda with the admonition 

 that game can be marketed in the State of Washington 

 only during the month of December. The hunting sea- 

 son lasts until Christmas, at which time heavy snowfalls 

 may be expected. Dogs and camp outfits a,re carried in 

 the baggage cars free of charge. 



[to be continued.] 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[Bv a Staff Correspondent.} 

 Kansas City, Mo,, Nov. 3.— This morning, as I un- 

 folded the drapery of one of Mr. Pullman's narrow but 

 high-priced couches from about me, I found a small but 

 urgent cockle- burr secreted in the blanket, in such posi- 

 tion as enabled it to get the most out of life there was 

 going. A cockle-burr is a simple thing, and ordinarily 

 incites not so much to reflection and meditation as to 

 immediate action and prompt profanity. In this case, 

 however, I forgave the cockle-burr,' and handled it 

 tenderly, lb was a cockle-burr with an alternative, and 

 in alternatives there may be mistakes, and hence injus- 

 tice. Either I got that cockle burr out of one of the 

 towels in the hotel at Great Bend, or picked it up some- 

 where during the two days' hunt in which I indulged near 

 Great Bend after the hotel had ceased to be a necessity. 

 The acquisition was very possible in either case, but out 

 of charity I supposed the latter, and so regarded the 

 small nuisance with a feeling kindred to affection, wish- 

 ing the while that I were going West for more of them, 

 and not East with this solitary reminder of joys that be 

 these days of drear November. 



Perhaps being constantly among sports and sportsmen 

 will, after a time, take the wire edge off from an in- 

 stinct which can never really be dulled. Men may be 

 different in that way. In my own case, I believe that 

 the impulse to get out and kill something is no longer 

 any stronger than the pleasure of meeting new types of 

 men, and of seeing new phases of this great big, won- 

 derful, impossible, incredible America, wherein a man 

 may live out his life in travel and yet not know half 

 of the land fanned by the prettiest flag that ever swung 

 on land or sea. From the blue grass land to the red 

 rock land, from the wind-waved prairies to the quiet 

 piflon country, what worlds, what peoples, what pic- 

 tures. America for Americans— that is good doctrine. 

 It is the best of earth to those who most deserve it. In 

 smaller sense, too, it is a precious panorama whose in- 

 dividual pictures time shall one day sort out and enshrine. 

 So big a heritage makes children careless for a while. 

 No panorama of America without the plains — that 

 mysterious region which fascinated us when we were 

 boys. This is the country of which Col. Long, who 

 crossed Kansas in 1823, wrote as follows: 



There is an extensive desert in theXJ-nited States. It extends 

 from the base of tbe Rocky Mountains, slOO miles to the ea«>t, and 

 500 miles from north to south. Th«re are deep ravines in which 

 the brooks and rivers meander, skirted by a few atuo ted trees, 

 but all the elevated surface ia a barren desert, covered with Fand, 

 gravel, pebbles, etc. There are a few plants, but nothing like a 

 tree to be seen on these desolate plains, and seldom a livinK 

 creature to be met with. The Platte, the Arkansas and other 

 rivers flow through this dreary waste. 



This dreary waste is no longer such, except in part. 

 Kansas has grown up in the desert, a level, apparently 

 monotonous country in history and in natural featuree", 

 but really often one of violence, of storm, of tempestuous- 

 ness, of somber energy. In Kansas you will see the 

 best that is now left of the Great Plains. This you will 

 see best, again, in the Cheyenne Flats of Barton coun- 

 try, just above the great northern bend of the Arkansas. 

 See these flats in a storm, or rather upon the verge of a 

 storm, and you have a picture as startling, as distinct 

 and as impressive as any you have seen anywhere, no 

 matter how big the land with mountains, with forests or 

 with sea. The picture is flat and even throughout in 

 foreground and background, and the colors are few — 

 grays, purples, storm colors— but the result, the effect, 

 is there unmistakably. It is as wild, aa desolate, as 

 terrifying, as any scene of more theatric elements. Turn 

 from the low lights of the little village on the far edge, 

 leave out the big and desolate ranch house on the left, 

 and look oft' over the Great Plains whose stories thrilled 

 you. Face the foreboding clouds, feel the chiUing wind 

 cut through you, look off as far as you can see over the 

 unsympathetic land— it is only a step then, as your 

 heart sinks coldly in your bosom, to feel yourself the lost 

 traveler of early days upon the plains. How you want a 

 house! How you want a fire! How keenly you understand 

 the feelings of the rugged settler, to whom his little 

 house, low down and almost a part of the earth, seemed 

 a palace, because it was a haven, a refuge, a home against 

 this awing land, these pitiless clouds— a place cut oft' 

 from the last rallying ground where Nature sullenly 

 makes stand, and where, in wavering mirage by day and 

 in streaming clouds of vapors in the night, plaantom 

 braves even now pursue their natural herds in phantom. 

 My word, there are Indians there, and buffalo. I have 

 seen them, large Indians and large buffalo. They will 

 always be there, for these plains belong to Nature, not to 

 man. If you doubt this, go there yourself and see. Go 

 there of a black day in November. Ride down off the rim 

 of hills in the wild evening, when you are cold, hungry. 



