66 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[Jan. 26, 1895* 
ROUND ABOUT NEW ORLEANS. 
[From a Staff Correspondent.] 
Trout Cultivation. 
General F. F. Myles, always progressive and alert, 
lias recently attempted the cultivation of rainbow tront 
in this section, by stocking some spring-fed ponds with 
one thousand fry, at the Eetreat, near Lafayette, La. 
where he keeps his large kennel of dogs, and where he 
seeks relaxation from business in the sports of rod and 
gun. 
Should the experiment prove a success, it will undoubt- 
edly be an incentive to further and greate ; at empts in 
fish propagation. 
General Myles recently took a shooting trip to the 
Retreat, after having made a visit to the great salt 
mines of his company at Avery Island. The mines are a 
wonder in their way, consisting of a lump of pure, solid 
salt, large enough to supply the needs of the world. 
General Myles reports quail in abundance and snipe 
scarce 
Duck Wealher. 
The long drouth was broken at last. Monday of this 
week it started in to rain, gently at first for a few 
hours, then after dark it started in earnest. The down- 
pour during several hours of the night was constant and 
heavy. There is no cessation. The heavy big drops 
almost touched each other and came straight down. In- 
tense lightning and heavy thunder were mixed with the 
storm. The din of falling water could be heard every - 
were in all its variety of sounds of roof, sidewalk and 
waterspouts. All the water channels were soon over- 
charged and their fussy rushing soon grew to a steady 
overflow, which later filled the streets from walk to 
walk in some sections ; in others the sidewalks were 
submerged to a depth of one or two feet. Belated pedes- 
trians waited in vain! for the flood to subside. The 
returning theatregoers caught the storm at its worst. 
After waiting to no purpose, at last the men would take 
off shoes and stockings, then wade through the deep 
water to the opposite side. The example once set, was 
followed in general. The ladies were not afraid to wade. 
But, alas ! there were many mishaps in the black water 
and its white contrasts. As everyone knows, the drain- 
age of New Orleans flows on the surface, in the gutters 
on either side of the street. Although a sidewalk may 
be ten or fifteen feet wide a single slab of stone, or at 
most, two, covers the gutters at the cross walks. To 
walk accurately across the streets and strike those slabs 
submerged as they are in water, was a task which all 
could not accomplish. As a consequence, many were 
the ones which toppled over into the water. One 
gentleman, gallant and zealous, attempted to carry the 
idol of his heart across. He took her up in his arms 
and started forth boldly, not to say proudly. Accord- 
ing to all the forms of romance he should have suc- 
ceeded. But he didn't. They both went down into the 
dark and chilly waters together. In romance the heroine 
shrieks, but this one squealed. 
Improvised bridges were soon up, built by enterpris- 
ing bootblacks and gamins. They enacted five cents toll 
for passage, and did a good business for several hours. 
The reporter of a local paper, with the winning audac- 
ity of the guild, without any questions, started to go 
across one of the bridges. The promoter of the syndi- 
cate demanded five cents. 
' ' Have you a license to build a bridge and demand 
toll?" said he, as his thin lips curled in lofty contempt. 
Not a word in reply, but the bridge was instantly 
kicked from under him and he was raging in the water 
in the glare of the electric light. 
He accumulated himself quickly and paced swiftly out 
of sight amidst the ha ! ha ! of the populace. 
But it was great duck weather. Nearly all the ducks 
had been driven to the larger bodies of water, which 
had not been dried out by the drouth. There was no 
flying in and out to feeding and roosting grounds, for 
the sloughs and smallest streams of the prairie were 
dried up. From being shot at a great deal, they became 
wise and stayed out near the center of the lakes. 
Still, a great many ducks were marketed notwith- 
standing the shooting disadvantages of the season. 
An old. duck shooter told me yesterday that he never 
saw so many mallards and pintails in the big lakes as 
there were this season, which he said was easily ex- 
plained: The mallards (called French ducks here) and 
the pintails (called pinion queue) preferred the swamps 
in the woods and the sloughs and small water holes so 
numerous in the prairie, but all these being dried up this 
season they Were forced to frequent the larger lakes. 
Since the heavy rain of this week they have betaken 
themselves to their favorite haunts in prairie and yv ood- 
land. 
The Duck Grounds. 
All the southern portion of Louisiana is peculiar in 
relation to both its features of land and water. It is 
supposed that in times past the whole southern part of 
the State was made by deposits from the .Mississippi 
River, making an alluvial soil of great depth and rich- 
ness — that is, the section of country south of the hill 
country, and bounded* on the east by Pearl River, a 
boundary line between Louisiana and Mississippi, and 
on the west by the Atchafalaya River, which in itself 
is not a river proper, but is a part of the intricate bayou 
system of the State. It has its source in the Mississippi 
at the northern point of Pointe Coupee Parish, and it 
carries an immense body of water from that river in a 
shorter and straighter course to the Gulf. Indeed, a 
few years ago, so great was the widening and deepening 
of the Atchafalaya year after year, particularly during 
the period of springtime flood in the Mississippi, that 
the greatest apprehension was felt lest the latter stream 
should change its channel permanently to the Atchafalaya 
and leave the cities below with nothing but a great 
river bed to mark where once was the Father of Waters. 
Had it done so, New Orleans would have lost much of 
its commerce. Still, the Atchafalaya now serves to relieve 
the Mississippi of a great pressure during the heavy 
spring floods when the Ohio and Missouri and the 
Mississippi above the snow belt break up from their 
winter rest. Between the Atchafalaya and the Pearl 
River are numberless bayous which tap the Mississippi, 
chiefly on'the southwest side, as the river swings on a 
southeastjcourse to the Gulf. They really form deltas 
within delta. They undoubtedly assisted in forming the 
alluvial soil of the State. 
Many of the bayous are higher than the outlying 
adjacent country, the surface of the ground sloping in a 
gentle watershed away from the bayou. This is con- 
trary to all one's preconcieved ideas of streams and 
valleys. A stream running along the backbone of a 
ridge seems anomalous. However, it should not be 
forgotten that these are not streams having their source 
at the head of some valley and depending upon its water 
shed for their supply, but streams having a constant 
supply at their head, in the greater stream. 
They run very even in depth and width and fall, as 
might be expected of streams which inverted the com- 
mon order of cutting their Way through the soil, by 
building its own bottom and sides instead, But how 
could a river build its own bed and sides? It could not 
ordinarily, but it could under the peculiar conditions of 
the lower Mississippi. In the time of flood, that river 
is laden with sediment, the detritus Of the great valleys 
of the Ohio, Red, Missouri, Tennessee and of the Upper 
Mississippi and its tributaries. When it reaches South- 
ern Louisiana the watershed is not great. The water 
rushes into the bayous and overflows them. The 
greatest deposit is near the bank, gradually growing less 
and less as the distance from the banks is greater. 
When the water recedes, the bayou has built its banks 
higher than the outlying country. Of course it could 
not build them up in a sharp slope, as such Would make 
a swift fall and naturally cut itself away. This action 
repeated for centuries, would gradually build the outly- 
ing country higher and higher, though Of Course it 
never could be higher than the level of the original 
water supply. From this peculiarity one sees the para- 
doxical sight of a steamboat plying through some of the 
bayous of the interior, the steamer seemingly being 
higher than the level of the surrounding country, as 
indeed it often is. This highness of the bayou is greatly 
increased sometimes in the. smaller bayous, more sluggish 
of current from being laden With sediment. The bayous 
being unable to overflow and deposit it on the sur- 
rounding soil, a large part of it is deposited on their 
bottoms, thus raising them. As the bottom is raised 
it necessitates a corresponding elevation of the levee. 
Of course, all the bayous are not so. Some have settled 
to steady channels and permanent banks. 
Any one who cares to do so can see the same work 
going on at the delta of the Mississippi. Any map will 
show the manner of its working. 
It will show the river running through a long tougue 
of land into the Gulf. The wonder is hoW it should 
follow the tongue of land to its extremest point. The 
explanation is simple. It made the land itself, The 
same process of land formation is incessantly going on 
at the delta.. What are now North Pass and South Pass 
and Main Pass and Grand Pass, may centuries from 
now be great streams, ramifying from the Mississippi 
as the Atchafalaya. Bayou Lafourche and others do now. 
As might be gathered from the foregoing, the alluvial 
land is quite flat. Along the Atchafalaya and the coast 
there are thousands of acres of marshes.' In some of the 
building up process, the freaks of the water left numer- 
ous lakes. The alluvial bottoms and marshes produce 
food in abundance, and with water, marsh and food 
supply, and a mild climate that section is the natural 
winter home of the duck. It is a vast winter resort for 
them. The network of bayous along the coast and 
thousands of square miles of marsh and lake, all well 
stored with food, could harbor and feed comfortably all 
the ducks of America. 
But even in a marsh country, all the surface is not 
marshy. Some of it is dry and fertile. When culti- 
vated it produces enormous crops. Still, in extremely 
high water, large sections, ordinarily, are in danger of 
inundation. In an overflow an astonishing quantity of 
sediment is deposited, sometimes one or two feet in 
places favorable to it. No healthier climate, however, 
can be found than that of Louisiana. 
Lake Catherine. 
Last Wednesday Captain J. K. Renaud called on me 
with .the pleasing information that a duck shoot had 
been arranged for me at Lake Catherine, and that Gen- 
eral Myles had intended to accompany me, but business 
of importance intervening, he was forced to forego his 
kind intentions. 
But the ducks were there and in abundance, he said, 
and he gave me much information as to where the best 
points on the lake were situated, and other needed in- 
formation. I thought instantly that there was every 
reason why I should go duck shooting. 
At 3. 25 I was on the L. and N. , when it started east- 
ward on its run to Mobile. Lake Catherine is a station 
twenty-six miles east from New Orleans, named after 
the lake near which it is situated. The road runs 
through a very flat country, largely marsh with its 
heavy growth of coarse grass, or woods with an im- 
passable undergrowth of palmetto and heavy, rank 
swamp growths. Along much of the way a deep and 
wide ditch had been dug along the right of way to get 
earth to raise the roadbed above the heavy tides or water 
driven in from the sea in heavy storms. Lake Cathe- 
rine is a famous resort for duck shooters. It is at the 
extreme easterly point of Lake Pontchartrain, between it 
and Lake Borgue, and connects with the Rigolets, which 
connects Lake Pontchartrain with the ocean. It is 
about seven miles long, of varying and irregular 
widths, the widest being three miles. 
Captain Renaud gave me a letter of introduction to 
Captain C. A. Jacquet, who lives about a mile and a 
half from the station. Thence the trip is made by boat, 
one mile of which is by the railroad, about thirty feet 
wide and ample depth for a boat, and the rest of the 
way by the bayou which leads to Lake Catherine. I 
found Mr. Jasquet's son, Mr. Peter, awaiting me through 
the prearrangement of General Myles or Mr. Renaud. 
On landing, Mr. Jacquet received me with the grace and 
affability which only come from true kindness. Near 
the landing was a shed which, containing dozens and 
dozens of decoys, pirogues of different sizes, boats, etc. , 
gave every evidence of sporting practices. 
Now, it is not considered good form for a man to go 
into ecstacies over a good dinner, though he may caper 
as nimbly about good duck shooting as he pleases. But 
that dinner of gumbo file, black bass cooked to a turn, 
roast duck of delicate flavor, flaky biscuit, cold ham, 
claret and desert, followed by black coffee, is worth 
mentioning. 
A dish of genuine gumbo is fit for any man, even 
though he be without sin. It is good in itself, but place 
a fiery, small green pepper in the middle of it, stir it 
up and it becomes the best dish either to tickle man's 
palate or rejuvenate his strength. Duck shooting is a 
great and enthralling attraction, but as between duck 
shooting and one .of Captain Jacquet 's dinners, give 
me the dinner. You don't have to get up at 4.30 o'clock 
in the morning to eat gumbo, either. 
Soon after 3 o'clock we made the start for the ducking 
grounds. Mr. Fred Cober and Mr. Peter Jacquet, two 
as companionable and Obliging young men as one would 
meet in a lifetime, and myself comprised the party. 
The Wind had blown hard dming the night, and in 
Consequence the lake was very rough. We were to 
make the trip in pirogues, the two young men in one 
and I alone in a smaller one. The boats to me looked 
all right as they lay high and dry on the shore. When 
they were put in the water they didn't look so large. 
When a dozen of decoy ducks were in one end and 
I in the other, a few feet apart, it looked still 
smaller. I was questioned about my knowledge in hand- 
ling a pirogue, kindly but firmly., 1 confessed, an ignor- 
ance of the pirogue, though I thought I knew a good 
deal of the properties of water. 
They seemed to think I would do, so we started across 
the, water into the night. The water looked awfully 
cold. I recalled many instances of the tenderfoot who 
tempted fate by getting astride bronchos and stepping 
into Canoes and pulling lions' tails and so On. They all 
Came to an uuhappy ending. 
The pirogue still looked smaller and the water colder. 
It was two'miles and one-half to the shooting grounds. I 
wondered if duck shooting was really good sport when 
sought with a pirogue. I put my gun close to the 
bottom, for I had an idea that some ballast would not 
be a bad thing. Then I placed the cartridge box close 
on the bottom— they were safer there. The boat seemed 
to have no visible habits. 
The pirogue is the nervousest boat imaginable. Some 
people may not know what a pirogue is, but if they 
learn to ride in one after they have passed their boyhood 
years by a score or two, they will never need a reminder 
of it It is simply a log dug out and sharperied at both 
ends> and as Some logs are bigger and longer than others 
so it is with the pirogue, though they have the generic 
property of aground, slippery bottom and hair-trigger 
sensitiveness of perpendicular when in the water. NOW; 
in riding a pitching broncho you have a firm, hard 
seat, a known quantity, a point of resistance, always ; 
that is to say, it is not of the evanescent character 
demonstrated by stepping on a banana peeling. If a 
fellow cannot stay on he can at least look on where he 
had been. He can see where he was at. Not so with a 
pirogue. 
After paddling awhile the boys waited under the lee of 
some rushes for me, and said they would give me a tow. 
I thought this Was real nice of them and I said so, 
whereupon Mr. Coben told me they would rather do 
that than wait for me out in the lake. We started then 
across wind into the open lake, getting the full force of 
the wind and Waves. We were in the trough of them, 
though they would not be considered big if a fellow 
Were in a bigger boat. . Then the little pirogue was in 
its delight. It would slip around in any direction 
regardless of natural laws. When- a wave struck it 
sideways it would give me an unpleasant sensation that 
the boat and I could not agree and would part soon. 
Finally I learned that when a wave struck me on the 
windward side, I could steady the boat by giving a hard 
stroke on the leeward side. But when it reached the 
top of the wave it would land as lightly and feel as in- 
secure as if one were astride a big soap bubble sliding 
down a cloud. All the time it was necessary to keep the 
whimsical craft in a straight line with the craft ahead, 
lest otherwise a sudden jerk of the tow line might throw 
the fairy boat over. I kept up a lively study of perpen- 
diculars, indeterminate perpendiculars, ones attached to 
nothing, ones- chasing each other about — it was too dark 
to see any fixed point and a fellow had to furnish his 
own center of gravity or go into the cold water. Coben 
shouted that we were in water forty feet deep. That 
was reassuring. It might have been eighty. At last we 
got across. We paddled down the Bayou Jeanne near 
where it empties into Lake Jeanne, not far from the 
Rigolets. 
The east was flushed with crimson and gold as we set 
out our decoys, and prepared for the slaughter. We 
remained till midday. 
How many ducks did we get? Peter got 23. As for 
how many Mr. Coben and I got it is better to let that 
matter rest. Some things don't improve by being too 
curiously investigated. We might have got 100 and we 
mightn't have got any. But at all events we had a good 
appetite when we returned to the house, and a good 
dinner made the world plesanter again. 
But about the pirogue. It is easy to ride when you 
learn how. Do not sit in it too stiffly, but let the body 
move easily from right to left to maintain the center of 
gravity as the cranky thing skates around sideways, 
and don't get scared The latter must be strictly ob- 
served. Mr. Coben confesses he felt scared going across 
the lake, at which I marveled much, for there is nothing 
about a pirogue to scare one except the water. The 
pirogue is easy. 
In the bunch of ducks killed by Peter were pintail, 
widgeon, (zin zin), saw bill (beque seil), blue bill (dos 
gris), spoon bill (maque reuse) and grey ducks (canard 
gris). Mallards (French duck) had been in abundance. 
The local names are in the parentheses. Ducks were not 
flying much that day, though they wore plentiful. 
Some Fishes. 
I had quite an interesting talk with Mr. Jacquet about 
the fishing resources of the section. The lake contains 
both salt and fresh water fishes. Redfish, sheepshead, 
black bass and speckled trout. It is fished with seines 
for commercial purposes and great quantities are shipped 
every day in the proper season. 
Tampon 
But one piece of information will be of great^interest 
