May 16, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
&99 
BOSTON AND MAINE. 
Boston, May 9. — The landlocked salmon fishermen are 
having good success in some of the many lakes and ponds 
that have of late years been stocked with that beautiful 
and gamy fish. But Lake Auburn, Maine, scarcely comes 
up to the standard, though well stocked. On Saturday 
last twenty boats were on the lake, and every possible 
method of fishing was tried, with "not a strike" to any 
boat with one exception. At nightfall two men appeared 
with a string of two pickerel and two trout. They would 
say but little as to their method of fishing or as to where 
they caught the prizes, though everybody was interested. 
Commissioner H. O. Stanley was on the same lake that 
day, with the success of one trout. He is one of the best 
of fishermen, and would have taken trout had there been 
any that would bite. The theory is that the trout and 
salmon are still gorged with smelt, and that there will be 
some good fish later. 
The reports from Sebago Lake are better. Mr. Stevens, 
a Portland sportsman, took there last week a salmon 
weighing llilbs. A Norway dry goods merchant took six 
salmon there last week, the united weight of which was 
311bs. But high line at Sebago, so far this season, belongs 
to Mr. Rodney P. Woodman, of Boston. He is just back 
with a record of nine landlocked salmon and three red- 
spot trout. His salmon weighed from 3 to 6f lbs., and 
several of them went to make his friends happy. Mr. 
Woodman is more pleased than ever with Sebago, and 
speaks in the highest terms of his guide, Arthur J. Shaw, 
of South Naples. He also has many kind words for his 
landlady, Mrs. Lewis Crockett, at the same place, who is 
usually crowded with fishermen, for the simple reason 
that she looks after their comfort and knows how to broil 
a salmon "fit for a king." South Naples is one of the 
beauty spots of the beautiful Sebago. It is easily reached 
by rail— Boston & Maine to Portland, thence to South 
Baldwin, South Baldwin by Wm. B. Chute's stage to 
South Naples. The best fishing location is two miles from 
Songo Bay, near Muddy River. Mr. Woodman says that 
the best time is now on, and that the fishing will be good 
till June 10 at least. Guide Shaw feels sure that a great 
many salmon are to be taken there this spring. The Se- 
bago is now very high, fully 12ft. above normal, by reason 
of the freshets and the repairs on the mills and dams. 
This is regarded as very favorable to the salmon fisher- 
man. 
Grand Lake and Grand Lake Stream, or the Schoodics, 
are popular with the landlocked salmon fishermen this 
spring. Mr. William Beggs, with his friend, Mr. Hoyet, 
started for that location on Wednesday. Henry Savage, 
with William P. Tenney, were to start for the Schoodics 
on Friday. They go with great expectations, and it is 
hoped that they may get their share of salmon. All the 
minor salmon ponds and lakes in Maine and New Hamp- 
shire are clear of ice, and on some great sport is reported. 
Mr. E. G. Gay, of the Willows, Farmington, writes Richard 
O. Harding that there is great fishing at "Varnum and 
Clearwater ponds. On Monday six salmon, four trout 
and four lakers were taken. Every day last week from 
ten to twenty salmon and trout were caught. Henry 
Fuller, one of Rangeley's best guides, took Tuesday even- 
ing three trout on a fly, a most unusual thing so early in 
the season. Those ponds were once almost given over to 
pickerel, but restocking with salmon and trout seems to 
have redeemed them. At Lake Maranocook, near Win- 
throp, there has been some good fishing. Hon. L. T. 
Carlton, lately appointed Fish and Game Commissioner, 
took several fine trout there a few days after the ice had 
departed. 
The Rangeley Lakes are clear of ice at last, indeed 
rather earlier than anticipated. A special from J. A. 
French on Wednesday stated that the ice left Lower Rich- 
ardson Lake, one of the Rangeleys, on Tuesday. This 
was unexpected, since the ice was not even out of Moose- 
head. Saturday evening a special from John B. Marble, 
of the Rangeley Lake Hotel, stated that the ice left the 
lakes, Rangeley and Mooselucmaguntic, that afternoon. 
E. B. Whorff telegraphed Saturday evening that the ice 
is out. Capt. Fred. C. Barker sent a special Saturday, 
saying that he succeeded in getting through with his 
steamer to Haines Landing on Friday, but that there was 
a good deal of ice in the lake. Hence the real clearing 
of the Rangeleys this year cannot be dated earlier than 
May 9, not far from the estimates I have been able to give 
the Forest and Stream, putting the probable clearing at 
the 10th. On former seasons for the past fourteen years 
I have kept a record of the clearing of the ice from those 
celebrated trout lakes, and have published it in the Forest 
and Stream. Almost every paper in Maine has stolen the 
record and credited it to its own files, though no paper 
has ever had a word about it till a few years ago. In one 
case a country sheet claims the record from its own files, 
when in fact the paper was not in existence till several 
years after the record begins. The record is as follows: 
In 1882 the ice went out of the Rangeley Lakes May 12: 
in 1883, May 14; in 1884, May 13; in 1885. May 15: in 1886, 
May 3; in 1887, May 16; in 1888, May 21; in 1889, April 
30; in 1890, May 9; in 1891, May 10; in 1892, May 4; in 
1893, May 20; in 1894, May 2; in 1895, May 6; in 1896, 
May 9. 
Moosehead Lake is also clear of ice. On Friday even- 
ing a special from Greenville stated that the lake was 
clear and that the steamer had succeeded in getting down 
from Kineo. Later, O. A Decnen telegraphed from 
Kineo that the ice was all clear and that the steamers 
were running. Boston parties are not generally rushing 
off for Moosehead as soon as the ice is out, but a few took 
the train Saturday. The Produce Party will not go till 
later. Neither will the Linder Party go till after the fly 
fishing has begun. The record shows that the clearing of 
Moosehead has been as follows for the past eleven years* 
In 1885, May 9; in 1886, May 1; in 1887, May 15; in 1888, 
May 22; in 1889, April 29; in 1890, May 10; in 1891, May 
13; in 1892, May 1; in 1893, May 19; in 1894, April 30; in 
1895, May 6; in 1896, May 9. Special. 
Boston, May 9. — It is said that the present spring has 
been a wonderfully good season for snipe. The birds 
have been very plentiful, and the reasons given are that 
the meadows have been in exceptionally fine condition, 
left so by the receding waters of the early spring freshets. 
Again, the birds have been kept back on their Northern 
flight by the strong and persistent east wind which has 
blown steadily for almost four weeks. All that have been 
killed have been in prime condition, and the Boston gun- 
ners have had rare sport. 
Charles Schworer visited the celebrated Purgatory 
Meadows, between Canton and Readville, a short time 
ago, and in one day killed eighteen out of nineteen birds 
started. A few days later he went again to the same 
place with W. B. Farmer, of Arlington, but on this occa- 
sion they only bagged six birds. Mr. Schworer concludes 
from this that the birds have at last got away for their 
Northern haunts. A Mr. Patten, of Salem, while out 
shooting near this city some days ago killed a white or 
albino snipe. It is pronounced an exceedingly rare speci- 
men, and is highly prized by the lucky shooter. 
Besides being strongly attached to the gun, Mr. W. 
B. Farmer is devoted to angling, and gets away each 
spring, shortly after the ice breaks up, to one of the 
New England lakes. Accompanied by his friend, Thos. 
Dickson, of Boston, he left on May 6 for Lake Winne- 
pesaukee to spend a few days fishing for togue. On his 
return he will go to the Rangeleys, where he has been 
for several successive years. He had great luck there in 
trolling last season, taking one of the heaviest strings of 
fish that was captured during the early fishing. 
May 7 witnessed the departure of the Sebago Club for 
a few days' fishing at Sebago Lake. The club have a 
fine house on the shore of the lake, where they put up in 
truly home-like fashion. An outline of the largest salmon 
caught by a member is posted up on the wall, with the 
weight in letters of fire, and it is the constant effort of 
every man to beat that record and become high line. 
The gentlemen who left on this trip are Judge S. A. 
Bolster, Chas. A. Dean. Chas. B. Gookin, Chas. Mitten, 
Edgar Harding, Wm. Paine and H. S, Fisher, all of Bos- 
ton. All of these men are members of the club except 
Mr. Mitten, who goes down as the guest of Mr. Fisher. 
The big 81b. brook trout speared a short time ago at 
Lake Quinsigamond, near Worcester, has been hand- 
somely mounted by C. K. R9ed, of that city, and is now 
on exhibition in one of the windows of Dame, Stoddard 
& Kendall, in Boston, where it is attracting a great deal 
of attention. It is of peculiar shape, being quite short, 
but extremely large in girth. The Hon. E. B. Stoddard, 
of Worcester, had it mounted, and will present it to the 
Worcester Natural History Society, where it will rest as 
evidence to show coming generations what the local 
waters can produce in the way of mammoth trout. 
The Inglewood Fishing Club have sent out notices to 
members stating that the new club buildings erected 
since the fire are ready for occupancy. The fishing sea- 
son on the preserve will open about the 15th. One party 
will leave Boston by steamer on the morning of May 27, 
and others are expected to follow a little later. The club 
members are mourning the loss of their vice-president, 
Mr. Henry C. Brigham, who died very suddenly about 
ten days ago. Mr. Brigham had been a director ever 
since the club started, was a true and earnest sports- 
man, and will be sadly missed by a host of friends. 
A party of Lynn men, consisting of Johnson C. Walker, 
E. E. Strout, W. Henry Hutchinson and R. H. Wheeler, 
went down to Hyannis last week and, engaging Capt. 
Sturgis's yacht, made a trip to Muskeget Island, where 
they spent five days in shooting. The first day they 
killed eleven brant, the second day eight brant and five 
sheldrake. With the remaining days of their stay they 
made up a total of three dozen birds, with which number 
they felt well satisfied. Mr. Hutchinson, with his friends 
C. Thompson, Marshall Nelson and J. C. Cochey, also of 
Lynn, are all ready to leave for the Upper Dam in the 
Rangeleys as soon as word comes that the ice has gone. 
Another party who will go to the Upper Dam about 
the 16th consists of W. P. Clark and Rufus Brown, of 
Peabody; Frank White, of Brockton, and W. D. Braehett, 
of Boston. This makes the twenty-sixth year's fishing 
of Messrs. Brackett and Clark together from the same 
boat— a record unparalleled among New England anglers. 
The Grand Lake fishermen are getting under way. One 
of the first parties to leave, consisting of P. B. Mansfield 
and J. M. Hoyt, of Lynn, and William Beggs, of Woburn, 
Mass., started on the 9th. They will spend ten days 
among the salmon, and as this is only one of many other 
visits to the same waters they should do well and come 
back with salmon to burn. 
The Gallier party, of Boston, leave on May 12 for their 
annual trip to the Katahdin Iron Works. They will spend 
ten days in this rich fishing region, and their only hope is 
to have as good a time this year as they have had in their 
many experiences of the past. There is nothing demure 
about this crowd of congenial gentlemen. The fun begins 
as soon as they leave Boston and never stops until the re- 
turn trip is completed. The party is made up as follows: 
Edward Nash, William Garrison Reed, Harry Hooper, 
Cyrus Elwell, Col. H. M. Benson and J. F. Gallier, all of 
Boston. 
Fishing for big lake trout in Lake Winnepesaukee will 
be the sole occupation for the next few days of a party 
consisting of J. Waldo Page and William L. Clark, of 
Jamaica Plain, Mass., and Fred. Mitchell, of Lowell, 
Mass. They will go to Laconia on the lake shore, and 
take boats at that point for their trolling. Hackle, 
An Angling Millennium. 
One of the features of the Hungarian Millennium 
Exhibition, now in progress in Budapest, is a display of 
fishing resources and appliances. Of this the London 
Fishing Gazette writes: One section will be exclusively 
devoted to a living exhibition of all those native animals 
which have furnished sport in the country any time these 
thousand years. The Hungarian is preeminently a born 
piscator. He was a fisherman, and a skillful one, more 
than ten centuries ago; that is to say, while he still re- 
mained a half-civilized Magyar in the Ural Altai Moun- 
tains, and ere yet he had crossed the Carpathians, and, by 
dint of his fierce and stubborn steel, conquered the terri- 
tory which his children inhabit to-day. In his primeval, 
ante-Hungarian mountain home, he had only two things 
to offer him that amusement requisite to preserve anyone 
from absolute ennui— fishing and fighting"! He may not 
inaccurately be said to have fished with a line in one hand 
and a dagger in the other— for he had to keep his 
weather eye open for the possible descent of one of his 
enemies while he was engaged in the gentle and peaceful 
art of landing those huge specimens of fish which abound- 
ed in the valley streams. The Hungarian's instinct for 
the Waltonian sport is thus a traditional, an historical, 
and almost a pre-hietorical thing. Not, however, that 
when the ancient Magyar came to reside in Hungary 
he found that his new home was less prolific in splendid 
fish than the one which he had quitted. There are scores 
of noble rivers in Hungary where the fish are simply wait- 
ing, and almost longing, to be caught. As to the Tiaza, 
there is a Hungarian proverb to the effect that three parts 
of this river are fish and one water. Is not the Danube, 
moreover— to take one other instance^superabundant in 
the loveliest and hugest fish which ever flapped a fin, or 
ferociously gorged a' bait? In England, where we are 
huddled up so close together, and where the angling 
waters are inadequate to supply fine sport to theannually 
increasing army of rodsmen, the cry is necessarily "Pre- 
servation" and "Re-stocking"— but for these precautions 
we should, in a very few years, find nothing but a few 
small "scripers" extant. But there is no such danger in 
the broad domain of Hungary. It goes without saying 
that the fish in the comparatively unfished streams of 
Magyarland run to very much greater dimensions than 
our own— taking, that is to say, those fish (and they are 
innumerable) which are common to both Great Britain 
and Hungary. You may talk about the feathers which 
you tie together and fling to your salmon on the Tay or 
the Shannon, but on the Danube, if you are fishing for 
wels (which run up to 3001bs. in weight), you do not bait 
with a few feathers plucked from a bird's wing, or tail, 
or breast, but with a whole live duck or goose. 
The most verdant angler will find that even from the 
shores of Budapest itself he can— fishing entirely accord- 
ing to English methods — secure some remarkable bags. 
Every British angler, however, is a sportsman, inter- 
ested in every branch of sport. Plenty of anglers who 
have gone to Hungary for the purpose of fishing have 
varied that amusement by the delight of pig-sticking; 
and the boars in Hungary are magnificent fellows, who 
do not yield the palm to their brethren in the Teutoberger 
Forest of Germany. The Hungarian boar is quite a char- 
acter study in himself. He dies hard and game to the 
last gasp— even as he expires, his eyes flash and his nostrils 
snort defiance at you. He is mightily conservative too. 
If he feels a tickling in his thick hide, do not imagine 
that he will go and rub himself up against the nearest tree. 
Not a bit of it. There is some old oak or beech tree sit- 
uated, perhaps, at a distance of a mile, where he has been 
accustomed to rub himself all his lifetime and where his 
ancestors rubbed themselves before him. Consequently, 
when the inconvenient tickling in question takes posses- 
sion of any part of his hide, he trots off to the distant tree - T 
you can see that he and his forefathers have rubbed quite 
a cavity into the bark. 
A Webster Fishing Story. 
In the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle we find the 
following reminiscence of Daniel Webster as a fisherman. 
It is told by a Mrs. Dawes, a resident of Marshfield in 
Webster's time. Webster, she says, used to walk around 
his farm wearing the poorest clothes he could find, and! 
always with a large colored handkerchief wound around 
his throat. 
He owned two or three sloops and one small smack. 
When home from Washington his favorite pastime was 
fishing. Mrs. Dawes's uncle, William, was a cripple. He 
was exceedingly popular with the neighbors and also with 
the great statesman. Webster and Uncle Bill, as Mrs. 
Dawes's uncle was familiarly called, could almost always 
be found in each other's company, at least during the fish- 
ing season. Mrs. Dawes said that many times she has 
• stood on the shore of the bay when Webster, coming down 
on the other side, dressed in torn clothes and the seldom 
absent handkerchief, would sing out in his deep voice, 
"Come on, Uncle Bill, let's go out on the bay fishing." 
Fine breeds of cows, hogs and horses were bred by him ; 
and his farm was known as one of the most fertile tracts 
in that portion of the State. He would, in the spring of the 
year, send one of his sloops out onto the bay after men- 
haden, which he used, as did the Indians, as a fertilizer. 
Webster would cause sloop-loads of this fish to be spread 
over his land, with ashes obtained from the north of 
Boston. 
One day, when Mrs. Dawes was still a young woman, 
Webster and her uncle were busily engaged in fishing 
near the shore of the bay. She was walking along the 
bank when a stylishly dressed young man from Boston, 
who had been visiting at Marshfield, fell into the marsh. 
It was extremely difficult to walk across the bog at any 
time without sinking into the soft mud, much like quick- 
sand. The youth shouted across the bay to Webster, ask- 
ing how much the latter would take to pull him out of 
the mud and carry him across to the opposite side. "A 
quarter," replied Webster. After depositing the swell 
safely on the other shore he received the quarter and 
turned to go away. "And to whom am I indebteo?" cried 
the unfortunate rusticator. "Only Daniel Webster," re^ 
plied the famous lawyer. It was hard for the youth to 
believe that the poorly dressed fisherman standing before 
him was the same man whose name was perhaps the 
greatest in America at that time, but after having been 
convinced of its truth he apologized for his former patron- 
izing air. 
Shad in the Delaware. 
Philadelphia, May 7.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Through the courtesy of Mr. Henry C. Ford, I inclose you 
the letter from Fish Warden Miller, who has charge of the 
Delaware River in the vicinity of Lacka waxen. It is to be 
regretted that the New York Fish Commission thought 
unadvisable to repair the fishway on the New York side 
of the river, as the one on the Pennsylvania side is giving 
such good results. The introduction of the fishwayB at 
Lackawaxen has successfully demonstrated the idea that 
the shad would use them. The co peration of the New 
York Commission is evidently needed for the protection 
of the ascending fish, and I trust the Commission will be- 
fore another year deem it advisable to repair the fishway 
on the eastern side of the river. R, M. Hartley. 
Lackawaxen, May 1.— Hon. Henry C. Ford.— Dear 
Sir: I have been staying here all of the week and part 
of last week. The river is alive with shad, and they are 
rushing through the fishways and over the dam by tons. 
The aqueduct and banks are lined with men from Port 
Jervis to Hawley, with spears, ready to pounce on them if 
I turn my back. Some days I go without my dinner and 
have it brought to. me, and last night I couldn't leave for 
my supper until 8 o'clock. Sometimes a man will rush in 
and spear a couple and get into the crowd, when it is an 
utter impossibility to make an arrest, so you can judge 
what kind of a time I am having. J. M. Miller. 
Salmon I'lahlng for Side. 
Fbkbhold, «Dn the best fishing waters of the southwest Mirimlohl 
River (Burnt Hill). For terms and particulars apply to Thomas J. 
Oonroy, 810 Broadway, New York clty.--.4dt>. 
