288 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
April 13, \ 895. 
Ions; before my time had served for one of the earlier 
mills of the village, which had long disappeared, save a 
pair of millstones, hewn from native granite, which were 
the predecessors of the "Buhr-stones, which had taken 
their place in the new mill. 
Here in the ruins of the old dam, behind the big 
boulder, was my favorite halting place, and casting over 
it into the foam below, I have often secured three or 
four nice trout before they became too frightened by the 
struggles of their comrades to pursue the bait any farther, 
for this was before I learned to cast a fly, when the old- 
fashioned "angle worm," now called "barn yard hackle," 
was a bait not to be despised or ashamed of. Once I 
caught an eel a foot long, which had run np from the 
river, and as I had a light rod, a slender bamboo, which 
had been given me, 1 had a pretty tough job to secure 
him. 
All these old recollections came back to me the other 
morning as I leaned against the corner of the old mill 
and looked down over the sheet of ice which reached 
from the crest of the dam far down to the bottom of- the 
gully, and made me wish for a year of boy's life once 
again, and another sight of the forests and streams of my 
youthful days. 
The ice, accumulating for many winters in the old 
wheelpit, has cracked the huge granite stones from the 
bottom almost to the eaves, and although iron braces 
have been put in against the ledges to support the walls, 
I fear the day is not far distant when it will give way, or 
have to be pulled down and rebuilt, and the brook has so 
shrunk from the destruction of the forests that the latter 
result seems hardly probable. 
The old pond is a morass, or a sand bank in spots, only 
the shell of the sawmill is left, and it is used as a lumber 
shed for old sleds and dilapidated remnants of wagons 
and other such rubbish; the wheel is gone, and only the 
remains of the old Jog carriage are kept to show what 
it once was. 
The young folks of a later generation, with the help 
of a few plank and stone steps and the roots of friendly 
trees, have contrived to make a path down to the rocks 
below the mill, and here on a bright, hot summer day 
may be sometimes seen a party of them enjoying the cool 
shade, and dabbling in the water, utterly oblivious of 
any vested rights or claims of its pretended infernal 
proprietor. Wm, W. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
ANTICS OF THE SALMON TRIBE. 
Under the ^heading of "Antics of the Salmon Tribe," 
English anglers have lately been giving extracts from 
their personal experience with salmon, grilse, sea trout 
and the common river or brook trout. Some are useful, 
and all are more or less curious. 
One angler relates that to stone a hooked and sulking 
fish by dropping a stone above him, that is up stream, is 
useless, although if a stone is dropped into the water a 
couple of feet below him, it will, nine times out of ten, 
start him. 
Another states that by casting stones into a pool and 
making a commotion in the water, salmon will often 
rise to the fly when they have utterly refused it before 
the pool was stoned. I have seen this tried by men in 
this country for other fish than salmon. One angler of 
my acquaintance frequently took out with him in his 
boat in lake fishing a small cargo of cobble stones, and 
when the fish refused to bite, he cast the stones into the 
water with faith that he would get returns in the shape 
of fish. Another was in the habit of taking a good-sized 
branch of a tree, and with this he fairly churned the 
water when he deemed it necessary to do something to 
induce the fish to bite. More than one angler have I 
known to agitate the water with an oar in like manner 
for a similar purpose. Truth compels me to say that all 
these antics of the fishermen produced nothing to make 
me a convert to their methods 
Sir John Edwards Moss relates that by putting a fly 
lightly and gently over a pool,- the fish therein are in- 
duced to jump although there may be no previous indica- 
tions of jumping on the part of the fish. In this he is cor- 
roborated by another angler. The peculiarities of the 
salmon family, why they do one thing at one time and 
another thing at another time, or do dissimilar things at 
the same time in different waters, etc., are mentioned 
over and over, but every fisherman has had experiences 
of this sort. There is one thing that I wish to mention 
- as an antic of one member of the salmon tribe, .which I 
never have been able to explain in a way to make the ex- 
planation hold water. Why is it that the lake trout 
when at the surface in the spring, absolutely refuses to 
rise to the fly in one lake, and does rise to the flv in an- 
other? 
Over and over I have cast a fly direct^ into the boil 
made by a rising lake trout, and not the least attention 
has the fish paid to it. I have known a lake to be covered 
with small black flies, and the lake trout feeding on them 
by coming to the surface and sucking them in and yet 
they would ignore an artificial fly cast on the water. At 
such times the trout woul l take bait readily, and when re- 
moved from the hook their mouths aud throats would be 
filled with the flies which they had sucked in. I know 
that in some Adirondack lakes small lake trout have been 
taken on the fly in the spring season. 
Lake trout run up the Nepigon River clear to the foot 
of Virgin Falls, and there they take the fly in the rough 
water, and their rise and strike and play cannot be dis- 
tinguished from similar actions on the part of the brook 
trout until the fish show their forked tail or they are 
brought, to the net. 
As a rule, the lake trout is a deep water fish, and is 
rarely found in streams, and they are frequently con- 
demned as bait-taking fish, and so get a bad name as a 
game fish. 
A gentleman sat near me in the cars a few days ago 
talking to a companion about the lake trout. He con- 
demne 1 the fish in unmeasured terms, and satisfied me 
that he knew nothing about it personally, for the lake 
trout is a game fish, and is entitled to rank with the best 
of the non-jumping game fishes, but why it will not take 
a fly when feeding at the surface, I never have been able- 
to explain. If anyone ever discovers a fly that the Jake 
trout will take with reasonable certainty, the fish will at 
once rise in the estimation of anglers and occupy a place 
second to none. Fish for them with a ten ounce rod and 
single gut leaders, and when you get hold of a fifteen- 
pound fish you will know you have been fishing by the 
time you get the gaff into the fish. One trouble is, too 
often the lake trout is fished for with bed <x>rds and 
weaver's beams, to which unbreakable cod hooks are at- 
tached, and the fish Las no show whatever in the hand 
over hand encounter, but it is a game fish just the same 
when fished for with light tackle. 
MOTHS. 
I am not entirely happy unless I can keep a fly book in 
my desk where I can put my hand on it at any time dur- 
ing my waking hours. When the fishing season is over, 
I always put one fly book, sometimes two, in one of the 
drawers of my desk, although I know full well that it is 
dangerous. During the winter there is not a week that 
I do not have those books out for some purpose or an- 
other, generally to look at the flies, and recall some sport 
that is behind me, or to build air castles of the sport to 
come. Once or twice a week I blow tobacco smoke 
through the books as I sit at my desk smoking, and it is 
a pleasant remedy to apply. For years and years I have 
not known a moth in my fly books or in my flies any- 
where, but this winter, being more than usual away from 
home, the fly books in my desk did not get the usual 
amount of smoking, in fact they were utterly neglected 
for other things. One day I opened one book and found 
traces of a moth; opened another and found more traces 
of moths. For a few moments I was in despair, but I 
found that they had made their way between two leaves 
only in each book, and but few flies were injured. But 
moths had been in the books and I could not tell where 
they would break out again, and I could not watch them 
daily for another outbreak. I decided to resort to heroic 
remedies, as I thought, and taking out the flies, I placed 
them in benzine long enough to thoroughly saturate them 
and then spread them out in the open air for the benzine 
to evaporate, which it did very quickly. Some Df the 
flies had wings of dyed feathers, and I had my doubt 
about results, but I spread the flies on sheets of writing 
paper, and while the cure for moths was thorough and 
complete, I could not discover that a single feather, nat- 
ural or dyed, had faded in the least, nor did the colors 
run. As to the books, I simply baked them in the oven 
of a store to kill any fingering moth eggs, and I now 
think I am well out of the scrape with the lass of only half 
a dozen flies on such a matter, 
A. N. Cheney. 
TROUT FISHING AT NIGHT. 
A few weeks since, I noticed in Forest and Stream a 
communication from Arthur M. Rice in regard to "trout 
rising at night." While the experience I have in mind 
is scarcely of a similar nature, it has, at least, to do with 
"fish that pass— that rise in the night." 
On the very summit of the Bitter Root Mountain, mid- 
way, beside the trail leading from the Missoula River in 
Missoula county, Montana, up the Fish Creek to the sum- 
mit, down Lake Creek and thence to the North Fork of 
the Clearwater, in Shoshone county, Idaho, lies a beauti- 
ful little sheet of water, covering perhaps an area of 100 
acres, its outlet being the Lake Creek mentioned. Often 
during the past twenty years I have heard of parties of 
prospectors or packers who had camped by this lake, and 
who, by building large fires on the shore at night had 
been enabled to catch quantities of trout "all of the 
same size," and with "almost any kind of bait," even to 
a "piece of red flannel" attached to a common hook. 
I made my first and only visit to this lake in company 
with a party of four others, late in September, 1893. We 
had started out on the trip with the expectation of goin^ 
down to and across the Clearwater for large game, but on 
arriving at the lake found that two of our pack animals 
would not be able to stand the trip down the mountain 
and back, as there were already about ten inches of snow 
on the summit, and the mud and slush on the trail were 
such as to render packhorse locomotion exceedingly 
difficult. It was decided to remain a couple of days at 
the lake, and then to take the track back. (The day fol- 
lowing our retreat from the summit, began the snow- 
storm which eventually brought about the trials of the 
Carlin party along the Clearwater, only about fifty miles 
air line from the lake in question.) Upon our arrival at 
the lake we were surprised at finding a camp of four rail 
road boys (and a most jolly sportsmanlike party it proved 
to be) who had been there a couple of weeks, and also 
several lodges of Flathead Indians. Little game was re- 
ported, but the boys had great sport catching trout at 
night, but they had caught only an odd one now and then 
in the day time. We had reached the lake about noon, 
and having our appetites riglat along with us, about the 
first thing we did was to inquire of the railroad boys 
what they had in the way of fresh meat. Thev had no 
meat, but plenty of trout. One of them led me" down to 
the side of the lake, and there, a few feet back from its 
edge was a miniature pond, formed by scooping out a hole 
in the sand and rocks, and fed by a spring of ice-cold 
water. The pool was fairly alive witli trout. They had 
been caught from the lake at night and immediately 
transferred to the spring, where they must perforce re- 
main until their presence was required at the frying pan. 
And they were beauties. They averaged about three- 
quarters of a pound each in weight, and all appeared near 
that size, but once in awhile one could be seen that 
would weigii a pound, and as often one not weighing half 
a pound, and the strange part was that they comprised 
four separate species, that most beautiful of the family 
the rainbow trout, predominating. There was also the 
common mountain trout, and what I suppose to have been 
some sort of a lake trout, yet of a plainlv different type 
and then a few bull (erroneously often called salmon) 
trout. ' 
We had the entire variety represented at our quickly 
prepared and thoroughly relished dinner. After the meal 
was enjoyably dispatched, nothing would do one of our 
party but that he must a-fishing go. The railroad boys 
insisted that it would be of no use, as they had already 
demonstrated the fact to their satisfaction that t he trou 
in that lake would only bite at night. 
Our "Walton " would not be convinced, and in a short 
time he was slanding on a log whipping the placid 
waters to his heart's content, but to no other purpose 
Finally, tiring of this sort of sport, he induced one of our 
new found friends to assist him in the construction of a 
small raft, and when it was finished, the two paddled out 
into deep water about 150yds from shore, and in the course 
of a couple of hours secured a liberal supply of trout. 
That night both parties and the Indians were all mixed 
up on a large fallen tree, upnn which was built a bonfire. 
The tree itself being water-soaked, would not burn. The 
sport we had, due probably as much to the novelty ot the 
situation as to the mere pleasure of successful fishing, is 
beyond description. Suffice it, that by the time we were 
ready to quit the log, the spring pool was full to over- 
flowing. As to why the fish would rise to the fly at 
night, and not in the daytime, near shore, but would rise 
in the deep water during the day, the theory advanced 
by our party was that in the daytime the fish for reasons 
"known t^ the jury" and peculiar to themselves, fre- 
quented the deep water*well out in the lake only, but at 
night came in to the shoal water near shore to feed, and 
were attracted to any particular spot by means of the 
bright light of the fire. Will Cave. 
BOSTON AND MAINE. 
Boston, April 6.— Most remarkably cold weather has 
followed the opening of the , trout season in Massachu- 
setts, and very few strings have been taken. Indeed, the 
fishermen have generally stayed at home. A few warm 
days are wanted. 
Another party has got back from Monomoy, and onlv 
very poor success is reported. But the very latest reports 
indicate better weather, with a few brant in sight. 
One salmon has already been taken from the pool at 
Bangor, though the ice is not yet out of the river below. 
It seems that the ice moved down from a favorite fishing 
spot, and a number of fishermen gave the salmon a try 
March 30. One salmon weighing twenty-three pounds 
was taken. M*. Perley was the lucky fisherman. This 
is one of the earliest catches on record at that pool. Mr. 
Robart, the veteran trout fisherman, who has visited the 
Rangeleys for so many years with Mr. Clark, now de- 
ceased, is getting ready to try the salmon at Bangor this 
year. I hear that Senator Frye, of Maine, and Senator 
Chandler, of New Hampshire, will try for trout in Nova 
Scotia waters before they visit the Rangeleys and Senator 
Frye's camps there. 
Her Majesty's steamship Blake touched at Boston last 
May in charge of Vice-Admiral Sir John Hopkins. Now 
the Vice-Adiniral is a lover of the angle, and though one 
of the first officers in the British navy, he is as gentle as old 
Izaak himself when at the salmon camp. The result of 
the stop at Boston last spring was an invitation from 
that most genial of sportsmen, John Fottler. Jr., to visit 
the St. John at Gaspe, where Mr. Fottler, with Mr. Ivers 
W. Adams own a splendid salmon privilege. The Vice- 
Admiral thoroughly took in the trip, and did much to 
make everybody happy. If he saw any of the boys flag- 
ging in their exertions he would point to the salmon 
rocks, and in a quiet way admonish them to "keep the 
beggars moving!" In fact this was a favorite saying of 
Sir Jonn. At last tne stay came to an end, and when 
the party had last shaken hands, Sir John took off his hat 
and waving an adieu he swung it high in the air, and ad- 
monished all hands to "keep the beggars moving!" 
Mr. J. W. Barney, a Boston rod maker, and lover of the 
Forest and Stream, was also one of the party., Out of 
pure love for the Vice-Admiral he has made him a most 
beautiful salmon rod. The rod is fifteen feet long and 
weighs twenty -six ounces. It is from a lug of dagme 
wood, which Mr. Fottler got in Cuba last year. It is 
most artistically wound and mounted. It rests in a case 
of Florida red cedar, also made by Mr. Barney. Outside 
it is bound with nickel in a new design. Lettered in go'd 
in the centre of the top is "keep the beggars moving." In- 
side the binding is of leather, but inscribed, between a 
couple of the Blake's special flags, "H. M. S. Blake, to 
that sturdy Briton and devoted angler, Vice-Admiral Sir 
John Hopkins, from J. W. Barney." The rod in its case 
has been shipped to Bermuda, the winter quarters of Sir 
John. All the party would like to see the face of Sir John 
when he opens the box. Special. 
NEW ENGLAND TROUTAND SALMON 
Boston, April 6.— The residents of Oaklani, Maine, or 
at least those who like to fish, are very much elated just 
now over the prospect of good salmon fishing beginning 
as soon as the ice breaks up in that wonderful chain of 
ponds or lakes, starting almost from the very doors of 
the town. 
Messalonskee Pond, ten miles long, located close to 
Oakland, is the first lake in the system, then L^ng Pond, 
seven miles in length, after this comes Ellis Pond, a 
horse-shoe shaped sheet of water, on which is placed the 
fish hatchery. North Pond comes next, nine miles long, 
and East Pond, six miles long. This completes the list, 
and as all these ponds are connected, they afford a wide 
range for the salmon and trout which have been put in 
each season during the last five years from the hatchery at 
Ellis Pond. About two and one-half years ago a law was 
passed making a close season on salmon in these lakes for 
five years. That law has just been repealed, and as sal- 
mon weighing six to seven pounds have been caught 
through the ice during the past winter, the fishermen 
take it for granted that fine sport awaits them as soon as 
ODen water shows itself. As the waters are full of fresh 
water smelt, the salmon have plenty of bait, and there- 
fore thrive splendidly. 
William P. Blake (president of the Kennebec Fish and 
Game Club) and his son, give a great deal of time and at- 
tention to the hatchery, and do everything possible to 
help and encourage the good cause. Another prominent 
resident of Oakland who is waiting impatiently for the 
coming season is Geo. V. Rogers. This gentleman is 
positive that no finer salmon fishing will be found any- 
where in the East than that which will soon be had in 
the waters mentioned. 
To celebrate the opening of the trout season in Massa- 
chusetts, the windows of the tackle stores along Wash- 
ington street present a bewildering display of fishing 
tackle. Dame, Stoddard & Kendall's attractive show has 
called forth many compliments, and right in the centre 
of their window is a magnificent painting of a large trout 
by "Brackett," which has been very highly praised. 
Boston anglers who have endeavored to reap the joys of 
