JXJLY 29, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



79 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[Prom a Staff Correspondent.] 

 Camp " Forest and Stream." 



MuKWANAGO, Wis., July 11. — Three years ago J. B. H. 

 and myself blundered on Phantom Lake, about eighty- 

 flve miles north of Chicago, when we were purposing a 

 summer camping trip along the Upper Fox River. We 

 pitched the first "Camp Fokest a>jd Stream" on a high 

 knoll upon the east shore, and there abode in peace and 

 plenty for two weeks. Last year I sought for a new 

 place for J. B. H., in whose honor the yearly trip is 

 made, and who, being past three-score years and ten, 

 could hardly take a rough woods journey. Strive as I 

 might, I could not find in all this region so lovely a spot 

 as this bit of Waukesha county, with its pure springs, its 

 hardwood timber, its beautiful rolling hills. So we re- 

 turned and made a second camp upon the bluif adjoin- 

 ing om- first one, upon which, alas, a summer cottager 

 had cast his eye. Again we had our season of content, 

 and again poured libation of much coffee to the spirit of 

 Phantom Lake. Once more the year rolled around, and 

 J. B. H., who lives in placid Iowa, clamored for his 

 yearly trip to a country wilder at least in its look. 

 Again I sought for a new spot to please him, and sought 

 in vain for one to equal the old one. Not even the 

 famous Madison Lakes seemed fit in the eyes of the 

 Chief -with-Two-Stomachs, who was courier in our quest 

 for a time. Oconomowoc, Geneva, Delavan, Twin Lake 

 and all the Fox Lake system— none of these would do. 

 We sat in council and voted again for Phantom, where 

 we had good water and big bass. 



Camp '93. 



So here we are again, on the west shore this time, and 

 much dismayed, for out of the ashes of our last year's 

 camp-fire there has sprung a $30,000 summer hotel, and in 

 the tiny lake the whistle of a beastly little steamer shames 

 the crowding hills. We can forgive the hotel, for we 

 know Chicago must have breath in summer; but we can- 

 not forgive that absurd, asthmatic and utterly abominable 

 steamer. I fear we shall have to go further north next 

 year. Even the size of our little lake has proved no pro- 

 tection, and it has been nearly gobbled, as so many others 

 hereabout have been gobbled utterly, by the giii who gig- 

 gles and the young man ivho wears a sash. 



Nevertheless we are here far from the sash and the 

 giggle on our side of the lake. Here it is still quiet and 

 untrodden. No hand has lopped a tree on the west shore 

 of Phantom, and the turf has never felt a spade. We have 

 dug us a new spring at the foot of the bluff. Great 

 oaks line the path we have worn up to the high top of our 

 hill. At the top there is a wide Druid circle, now clothed 

 in short blue grass and clover. Above this the oaks try to 

 touch hands, but cannot quite. Back of us more woods, 

 in front of us the water, the hated hotel quite out of sight, 

 the loathed steamer for the most part unheard— thus lies 

 Camp Forest and Stream for '93, the prettiest of all our 

 camps, and as sweet and clean a place as ever caused re- 

 belhon m the heart of a man who kicked at sitting down 

 to write copy when he wanted to go fishing. Our two 

 little tents front toward the morning sun, which cannot 

 reach them till it is mid-morning. We have hardwood 

 sidesticks to our little fire, a fine new table at least two 

 feet square, and — luxury almost too much — this year we 

 have two lazy-back camp chair's of the sort which fit any 

 figure. This morning at breakfast we saw two gray 

 squirrels foraging near by, and last night at supper we 

 watched a hungry bass wliich was pui-suing with murder- 

 ous intent a frog among the rushes near our landing. So 

 it is wild enough, and quiet enough, and good enough for 

 anybody. 



The Choosing of the Coffee'.Stick. 



The cookery of the camp should be no hap-hazard 

 matter, but should be, as all other camp economy, ordered 

 with all regularity and due observance of form. There 

 Bliould be a place for each utensil about the fireplace, and 

 it should never be left elsewhere. The table should never 

 be moved except in case the sun sliines upon it too 

 directly. The camp ax should have a local habitation. No 

 chips should scatter over the door-yard of the tents, 

 neither any straw Utter the floor of the canvas house. 

 Loose-ended camping is a perpetual disgust and there is 

 no comfort in it, but the camp proper is a constant de- 

 light. 



In the camp proper there is always a coffee-stick, to be 

 used for no other purpose but in setting the coffee-pot on 

 and off the fire. Under no conditions can the coffee-stick 

 be used to poke the fire, nor must it be used about the fire 

 except sparingly, and only when there need be more 

 coals raked up against the coffee-pot. One coffee-stick 

 should last throughout the entire camping trip, and it 

 should never be destroyed or injured, nor should it be re- 

 placed by any other stick. It is the medicine stick of the 

 camp, potent for good or evil. Its choice shoxild there- 

 fore be made with care and due formality. In a cabinet 

 at home I have the coffee-sticks of our former camps, 

 gnai'led and charred it is true, but strong medicine still 

 to conjure up pleasant dreams. This year we have chosen 

 for the high function of coffee-stick a slender but tough 

 one, with knotty knob upon the end to catch the bail of 

 the cott'ee-pot. It makes excellent coffee, and since we 

 have installed it there has not been even a headache in 

 om- camp. True, during his fii-st evening in camp the 

 Chief-with-Two-Stomachs by mistake took the coft'ee- 

 stick to stir the fire and burned it nearly in two, but this 

 he did in ignorance of the fact that it was the colfee-stick. 

 This was a bad omen, but the Chief having made apology 

 for what was ignorance and not carelessness, we hope 

 that all may yet continue weU, and that the coft'ee-stick 

 of '93 may never bring up memories of aught but large 

 fish and pleasant days. 



About the Fish. 



As to the fish, we have plenty of them. The waters 

 hereabout are fished continually, but not expertly. Using 

 frogs we have always taken large bass here. In 1891 J. 

 B. H. took the largest bass I ever saw, and one which I 

 think must have weighed between 8 and lOlbs. Last 

 year the Chief caught one that weighed 6ilbs. , and three 

 that weighed over 51bs. each, all in one afternoon. This 

 year I kfiled one that weighed S^lbs. , and we have had 

 several already that have weighed over 31bs. These are 

 all large-mouths, and our big ones were until lately taken 

 in the creek and mill-pond near by, and not in Phantom 

 Lake proper, where the bass rim small, though very fine 

 :and sweet. 



In our wanderings we fell upon a little lake back in the 

 woods, about 40 acres in size, a perfect gem of a lake, 

 and set handsomely deep down among hills robed in oak 

 and cedar in singular conti-ast. This lake we learned 

 was called Ciller's, or GUlar's or Gilliar's, or Gdlard's, or 

 Diller's, or Dillard's lake, we never could learn which. It 

 was bought last year by ]VIr. Asa Craig, of Mukwanago, 

 who keeps up the traditions of earlier owners, and did 

 not permit a boat to be put upon it. To us the lake looked 

 much like bass. We sought out Mr. Craig, stated the 

 case to him frankly, and received his assurance that the 

 lake did not only have bass in it, but mighty big ones. 

 He furthermore was so courteous as to tell us to take our 

 boat over and try it for a day. This to strangers was a 

 favor they had no right to expect, and we valued the 

 privilege highly. 



liiesterday we made our trip to Mr. Craig's Lake, and to 

 this we owe one of om- most dehghtful experiences here. 

 We took seven bass, all good ones, and one of them 

 weighed 61bs. 2oz. The fish of this deep and cold lake 

 were all full of game and fight. They struck hard and 

 ran far, and gave us all we wished to do. As for the big 

 fellow, he afforded the most spectacular fight I ever saw 

 made by any bass, and was as Lively and full of ginger as 

 any youngster, while his great weight and strength made 

 him a dangerous customer indeed. He fell to the Chief's 

 rod, who seems imable to catch any hut big bass, and that 

 calm philosopher for the time seemed galvanized into a 

 state bordering upon excitement, though he handled his 

 rod with a coolness and skUl which alone could have 

 made him victor in the war. We struck the fish near the 

 lily pads, but a few strokes of the oars took us out into 

 deep water, and here we had the prettiest session ever 

 was. Even the stout casting rod could not kill the fish in 

 less than ten minutes, and I know there never was a 

 small-mouth that made a better fight or a longer. He 

 employed all the tactics known to the bass family, pull- 

 ing, yanking, sawing, sulking and running long and far. 

 Four times he went high out of water, mad as a hornet, 

 fins up and head shaking, and once he got under the boat 

 in spite of us, but the rod clung to him, and at last we got 

 him in. He was a beautiful, clean, bright fish, with 

 nothing of the dull rusty color usual in heavy big-mouth 

 bass. He was a regular bright bronze green, in all the 

 handsomest bass we ever took in this section, and by odds 

 the hardest fighting bass I ever saw. The Chief and I are 

 thinking that, with our two bass of Silbs. and 61bs. 2oz., 

 we are apt to have a good comparison to offer the winner 

 of the prize offered by the Natchaug Silk Co. for the 

 heaviest bass caught on their lines, even should not our 

 top fish take the big-mouth prize. We are using the 

 Natchaug lines, and if they were not right we could not 

 have broken the bass record for this coimty twice in our 

 first week here this year, for the conditions of the fishing 

 here demand the most trustworthy tackle. At the hotel 

 (the Phantom Inn) our fish He in state on ice, and attract 

 the populace, who say they never knew before that there 

 were such big fish about here. They don't know how to 

 fish, that is what is the trouble with them. As for us, 

 we think we know where we can catch a bigger one yet. 



The White Man's Buffalo. 

 The Indian utiUzed all parts of the buffalo. The white 

 man uses all paxts of the swine. Not the ox, but the plain 

 hog, is rightly to be called the white man's buffalo. The 

 camper-out rarely takes along too much bacon. Fish, 

 birds and game, fruits, soups and relishes may appeal and 

 later pall, but nothing can wither the charm of bacon, 

 not too brown but still just brown enough. It is good for 

 three meals a day — in camp, nowhere else — ^just as buffalo 

 was always good to the Indian. They are cooking some 

 bacon now, about twelve feet from where I sit, and it 

 makes me mighty imeasy. * * * 



How to Cook a Bass. 

 There are many ways to cook a big-mouth bass, and he 

 is more or less good in any one of them. You can, if you 

 are rather new yourself, try the brown paper, or green 

 leaves, or clay-bake method, or you can broil your bass, 

 or spoil it on a stick. At cooking a big-mouth bass J. B. 

 H. surpasses any Delmonico, whether of the city or the 

 wood, and this is the way lie does it. In the first place, 

 he will not cook any bass except those taken from pure, 

 cold water. We call the lower end of Phantom Lake our 

 ice box, and when we want fish for breakfast, to eat and 

 not to weigh, we go over there the evening j)revious and 

 catch two or three little fellows, about a pound and a half 

 each. These we keep alive on the stringer until we reach 

 the cool green bank by our spring. There J. B. H. kills 

 and carefully cleans the fish, and salts them in a covered 

 tin box, keeping them cold over night. In the morning 

 he washes them clean of salt and fries them till they are 

 brown in half a skiUetful of extract of bacon freshly pre- 

 pared thereto. The fish are cooked thoroughly, the test 

 being the easy admission of a fork tine through every 

 portion. They can not be hurried, and the fire must be 

 just hot enough. The fish are seasoned before cooking. 

 Prepared in this way we find that tlie bass have no musky 

 flavor and do not taste of grease in the least. They are 

 sweet, perfectly hard and firm, nutty, and not in any de- 

 gree of that unpleasant fishy taste which so often charac- 

 terizes the restaurant or domestic fish. This is a practical, 

 easy and good way to cook bass in camp. You can not 

 get so good results in town, perhaps, because there you 

 can not get so perfect fish. Nothing is more unpleasant 

 than a "fishy" taste, but these fish do not taste of fish at 

 all. I think perhaps the soaking in salt improves them, 



A Half-Dozen a Day. 



We have taken in all since our arrival here I presume 

 thirty or forty bass. Before I left town, I remember, I 

 heard of one sportsman who was killing sixty a day. We 

 cannot eat so many, and out of the six or eight bass we 

 take when we go out fishing, we find it necessary to give 

 away all but two or three. J. B. H., who is past 70, and 

 is active and vigorous yet, does well on the doctrine of 

 moderation. I cannot see that sportsmanship would suf- 

 fer under that doctrine. At any rate, J. B. H. says about 

 half a dozen bass a day are enough in a week's camp, and 

 what he says goes here. E. Hough, 



909 Secthitt Building, Chicago. 



LittIcE Rock, Ark, , July 30. — Bass fishing in Arkansas 

 is very fine just now, I took last evening in an hour's 

 time 13 beauties. On the trip I landed 24 black bass with 

 "Johnson's fancy" fly. JJos, Irwin, 



BOSTON FISHERMEN. 



Mr. L. R. Howe and Mr. E. C, Hodges, of Boston, went 

 after salmon to the northwest branch of the Miramichi a 

 few days ago, and it is rumored that they struck the fish 

 they were after the first day. If such is the case their 

 fortune is better than that of most of the sportsmen who 

 have been in that region of late. Mr. Joseph Jefferson, 

 the veteran actor, and Mr. A. H, Wood, own the south- 

 west branch of the same stream, and Mr, Jefferson visits 

 the stream every season for salmon fishing. It is now 

 imderstood and is no secret that a party of Boston gentle- 

 men are negotiating for the Northwest Branch, and doubt- 

 less their efforts will be successful. 



It may be a sin to go sailing after bluefish on the day 

 between Saturday and Monday and it may not be; so a 

 number of my Boston friends cannot claim that I have 

 called them sinners, since I have not published their 

 names. But it may be added that a good many boats and 

 boatmen were chartered for that day (July 33) in Buz- 

 zards Bay, at Hyannis, at Martha's Vineyard and at Nan- 

 tucket. 



Mr. John B. Drake, for a long time in the fruit business 

 in Boston, died on Tuesday, July 18. He has for many 

 years been a visitor to the Maine and New Hawpsire trout 

 waters, though of late years he has found it very hard to 

 get away from his business. But all the time he kept up 

 his interest in such matters. 



Another member of the long-to-be-remembered Eugene 

 Clapp party, to the Rangeleys, is gone, Mr. Horace Has- 

 kins died at his residence in Sonierville, Sunday, June 16. 

 He was 64 years of age, and had been a member of the 

 firm of Haskins & Montagixe for 41 years. Rarely has he 

 missed his annual trouting trip with the Clapp party, and 

 a more genial gentleman and a gTeater lover of angling 

 never lived. Only Mr. Wadsworth and Mr, Paine are now 

 left of that party. 



Sportsmen wHl also be pained to hear of the death of 

 Mr, Warren Rawson, of Arhngton, Mass. Mr. Rawson 

 was one of the pioneer gardners of that town, from which 

 biisiness he amassed a handsome fortune. He was one of 

 the most practical men of the stern New England type, 

 but he never forgot his annual trouting trip to the Range- 

 ley waters. At Camp Beamis was his favorite trouting 

 place, where he early became a warm friend of Capt. 

 Fred C. Barker. He dearly loved to spin his trout yarns, 

 among which was the one of taking three trout on one 

 cast, one morning at Bemis. This story was given in the 

 Forest and Stream two or three years ago. Mr. Rawson 

 was of the sturdy Rawson race of Oxford county, Maine, 

 having been born in Paris, in that county, 73 years ago. 

 It was one of the pleasm-es of his life, as well as his 

 annual fishing trip, to visit the humble home of his boy- 

 hood. He was never ashamed to acknowledge that he 

 had begun at the very bottom of the ladder; in fact, he 

 has often been heard to remark that he began in business 

 for himself not worth 50 cents. Later in life his charities 

 were many, often to poor widows and orphans of his 

 native town. He had hved in Arlington over .50 years, of 

 which town he was a prominent citizen. Special. 



FISHING LIGHT IN CANADA. 



Reports from almost all the Canadian salmon rivers 

 show a great falling off in the catch this year as compared 

 with previous seasons. Even the far-famed Restigouche 

 has failed to yield anything like its usual quota of sport, 

 while the various north shore salmon streams were 

 too low dming the whole of last month — the tem- 

 perature of the water having risen to nearly 70% that 

 few fish could be induced to rise. A number of both 

 American and Canadian anglers have already returned 

 disappointed with their season's sport. The Trinity was 

 almost the only exception to the general rule this year 

 among the north shore streams, Messrs. Edson, Fitch and 

 J. D. Gilmour having sUghtly exceeded their catch of last 

 year upon it. Mi-. Brackett took but five fish this year in 

 the Marguerite, one of which was over SOlbs. in weight, 

 however. About the largest fish killed in Canadian waters 

 this season so far was a salmon of 481bs., taken in the 

 Grand Cascapedia by air. C. B. Barnes, of Boston. It is 

 quite evident that the unfavorable character of the 

 weather, and not any diminution in the number of 

 salmon in Canadian waters, is responsible for the small 

 catches of fish by anglers. The net fishing in the mouths 

 of the streams was never more abundant than this year, 

 and large quantities of fish have been seen through the 

 all too clear water lying in the pools of the various rivers.- 

 Sea trout fishing is just now yielding good sport in the 

 Saguenay River in the vicinity of Tadousac. 



In the various trout fishing preserves in this Province, 

 and especially in the w-aters of the Triton Club in the 

 Batiscan Valley, and in those of Lake Edward, large fish 

 continue to be taken despite the recent heated term, but 

 usually in the vicinity of cold springs. Mr. Eugene Mc- 

 Carthy, of Syracuse, and Mr. Curtis, of New York, have 

 since fisliing the Triton tract liad good sport with trout in 

 La Belle Riviere, near Lake St. John. Messrs. Brewer 

 and Men-iam, of Springfield; Bryan, of New York, and 

 Campbell, of Plattsbm-g, have been very successful in their 

 trout tishing upon the waters of the Amabalish Club, in 

 the Lower Metabetchouan, and Messrs. Bryan and Camp- 

 bell have followed up their sport there wiUi a day or two 

 among the ouananiche of the Grande Discharge. No less 

 than 300 ouananiche were taken last week in the Grande 

 Discharge by a party of thi-ee American anglers. 



Some fine catches of large fish are also reported from 

 the vicinity of Isle Maleine, some seven miles below Lake 

 St. John. Mr. E. J. Myers, of New York, has just had 

 some magnificent fishing for ouananiche at the Fifth Falls 

 of the Mistassini, whence he returned to Hoberval on Sat- 

 urday to take Mrs. Myers up the river. Trout fishing is 

 now good both in the Ouiatchouan River above the falls, 

 and also in the Ouiatchouaniche, a day or two's journey 

 back from Roberval. The usual rush after heavy fish by 

 anglers ascending the large northern tributaries of Lake 

 St. John may be looked for early next month. As this 

 terxitory with its network of latkes and rivers becomes 

 better known, it is likely to become the favorite summer 

 and autumn iishing and camping gi-ound for both Ameri- 

 can and Canadian anglei-s. E. T. D. Chakbers. 



QiTEBEC OiTY, Jxdy 17. 



East Saginaw, Mich., July 31. — I spent two days at the 

 Pere Marquette Club waters last week. Black bass fish- 

 ing was good; trout were not taking the fly well but were 

 gorged with shrimp and caddis worm, so we did not get 

 many. M. 



