[May 15, 1897. 
FISHING IN BRITISH HONDURAS. 
CAiip, Puruni Eiver, British Guiana.— -SWife>/* Forest aM 
Stream: Many a long day has elapsed since I last sat 
down to tell the story of my adventufes "by flood and 
field" for the dfelectation of' your rfeaders. "Story, God 
bleSs you, 1 had none to tell, sir." My last fchronicles 
tpere of ouananiche fishing in the Lake St. John region; 
theil not so ^ell known as now, for it must be seven or 
feight years ago. On that excursion I made a false step in 
liffe which probably was not on the record. I tried to make 
a steppilig-stone of a slippery-headed boulder; fell, and 
tore my "tendon Achilles" away from its bony attach- 
Inent, severing it almost completely. The springy step 
^hiclx h£td carried me over many a mountain pass and up 
many a craggy cliff in pursuit of the chamois or the 
tQOuntain sheep was gone, never to return. I turned my 
})ack on forest glade and bubbling stteam, and for ruany a 
ong day the solemti stillness of the one and the ever 
varying music of the other became as dreams of a forgot- 
ten past. But the whirligig of time brings its revolutions; 
the man born with the restless Arab foot cannot be long 
fchaihed by any circumstances to one place, and now be- 
hold me in a land that is all forest and stream j or which 
at least has more forest and stream to the square mile than 
any land on which it had ever previously been my lot to 
set foot. Noble streams they are, too, these mighty rivers 
of British Guiana— the Essequibo, the Mazaruni and the 
Cayuni, flowing respectively from southwest and north to 
mingle their floods at the little settlement of Bartica, 
where the tide comes up some forty miles from the sea, to 
meet and escort them to the embrace of old ocean. There 
ate other rivers to the south — the Oorentya, the Berbice, 
the Demerara— to say nothing of the Barima and the 
Barama in the disputed northwest territory; but I wot not 
of these: my experiences hitherto have been confined to 
the lordly Essequibo below the junction of the three 
rivers, the picturesque Mazaruni, and its tributary, the 
Puruni. These are rivers to tell about, for there are fish in 
their waters, game fish, too, that rise readily to the fly, 
and pull and wriggle and plunge to get awaj^ with him, 'or 
even spring into the air and wrestle with him in his own 
element, as is the manner of the black bass, all so graph- 
ically and philosophically explained by Alice Demorest in 
your columns a few months ago. I cannot yet claim more 
than a bowing acquaintance with these rivers and their 
finny denizens, but the first acquaintance promises well 
for future opportunities, and if any idle fisherman among 
your readers is pining for fresh pastures or new worlds to 
conquer, to him I say, pack up your rod and gun and 
come and enjoy a summer outing^here in a climate which, 
report says, is fever-laden, but which certainly is a, very en- 
joyable one— rather hot in an open boat between il and 3, 
mornings and evenings delightful, and the nights cool 
enough to render a blanket a necessity— while for the 
hunter, the forest shade is always cool and pleasant to stroll 
through at midday. Let them come when he will, it is 
always summer here. 
I stayed a few weeks in Georgetown, one of the most 
picturesque little cities in the world, for it was laid out in 
the days when sugar was king and the prosperous planters 
voted the State money liberally. Here I made the ac- 
quaintance of Mr. W., a gentleman who kindly invited me 
to go up with him and spend a few weeks at his camp on 
the Puruni, to which district he had just been appointed as 
gold warden. A temporary engagement prevented my 
accompanying him, but I promised to join him a few 
weeks later; and as soon as I was free I secured passage in 
an open boat. This boat had been chartered by an intel- 
ligent colored man who holds a gold placer claim on the 
Puruni, and was laden with a dozen men and supplies. 
These twelve men did the paddling, as is usual, the boat 
'Owner finding only captain and bowman, who must be 
certificated men; for the river, which is about three miles 
wide, is full of islands, which cut it up into innumerable 
channels, a knowledge of which is essential to safe navi- 
gation. Falls of 2 or 3ft. are frequent, and rapids regular 
features of the day's course. The forest along the water's 
edge is generally so dense and tangled as to be impene- 
trable to man wi thout the aid of axe and cutlass. Gliding 
between these islands in the lower river, the water is 
sometimes so smooth that the eye loses all sight of it; the 
forest grows upward and downward from an invisible'line 
every leaf and twig being as distinctly outlined below as 
above. Quaint figures are frequently produced by fallen 
trees bending into the water, by buttresses of big trees at 
the water's edge, and by granite blocks rising out of the 
water. Their outlines are so perfectly reproduced, in- 
verted, below water, that more or less regular geometric 
figures result. 
It was near noon when we left Bartua, and there was 
no intention on the part of captain or crew to do much 
work that day. We went off with a good stroke, the men 
keeping time to the music of their quaint song; but a 
heavy shower, which lasted half an hour, soon dampened 
their ardor. The captain and bowman plied the rum bot- 
tle, and sang and joked boisterously. These river men are 
for the most part "Eoviandere" (the men from above yon- 
der), a people who originated from the sojourn of the early 
Dutch settlers among the Indians. They are an energetic 
daring, mirthful and passionate race, but splendid boat- 
men for these waters. We made only six or seven miles 
that day, camping before 4 o'clock; but the next day all 
was change* Captain and boatmen were at their ^osts . 
sober as judges on the bench, and alert as became men 
conscious of their responsibilities; for we were approaching 
the first rapids, and although they do not look very for- 
midable, boats with their cargoes are not infrequently lost. 
At such places the boat, generally aided by an eddy cur- 
rent, is pulled tmder the lee of a rock, when the men 
jump overboard with the ropes, wade through the shal- 
lows, and drag the boat over the difBculty, Progress is 
very slow; the course actually gone over may be ten or 
twelve miles day, but it is so devious that the actual ad- 
vance amounts to no more than from five to eight miles. 
There are stretches of sluggish waters between the rapids' 
and the camping ground, whether at midday or at night' 
was generally at such places. The boatmen usually fished 
at night, baiting with pork or dough; but there was no' 
tempj;ation jfor the fisherman to cast his fly upon the' 
waters. 
The rapids, with their accompanying whirlpools and 
eddies, appeared the very ideal resort of fish; the water, 
although tinted, was clear as crystal, but Hot quite as cool 
as it looked. I put my rod togethei- the third day, and oc- 
casionally, when -^B were going through rapids, I got out 
and made a few casts from the rocks; but as soon as I had 
tEtken up position the men with the tow-line were gener- 
ally upon me, so I did not get a rise. But on Saturday we 
Came earl;J^ in the afternoon to the worst rapids of the voy- 
age — 3ft. of sheer fall, and 4ft. more in the rapids of the 
next 100yds. The boat had to be discharged; and here we 
made camp for the night, and in fact for the following 
day, for there is no traveling on Sunday. There Was good 
fishing water all around, and I began operations by bend- 
ing on an artificial minnow. In a short time I had on a 
good fish, and let him run away with a dozen yards or so 
of line; but I soon, had him in hand, when two or three 
men rushed at the line to lend me a hand. I called them 
off pretty peremptorily, and in a few minutes there lay at 
my feet a fine specimen of a 31b. trout — z, genuine "spotted 
beauty." The surprise must have been mutual; his that 
the little minnow had such a big pull, mine to see a Salmo 
fonUnaliis in these Southern and not very cool waters. I 
have made no study of ichtyology, but the general out- 
line of the fish; the great gaping, toothless jaws; the pure 
white throat, with the dark spots on a lighter ground, left 
me no doubt that he was a genuine Salmo. The only 
divergence from type I noticed was in the caudal fin, 
which terminated in a convex outline, which is, I believe, 
a rare exception in Salnw. But the most striking charac- 
teristic of my catch was the sun-spots, to which he owes 
his local name of sunfish. There are three of these spots 
on each side, one at the shoulders, one above the tail and 
one midway between. They are from ^in.to fin. in diam- 
eter, and consist of three black bars inclosed in an imper- 
fect circle of most brilliant yellow gold. I landed three of 
these, all about the same size, and then brought ashore a 
5-pounder, which, like the others, had the sun-spots, but 
wanted the spots of the S. fontinalis. Sides and belly were 
a soft golden orange, which, bright though it was, de- 
tracted nothing from the brilliancy of the sun-spots. He 
resembled the salmon trout {Laclis forellen) of German 
waters. After a while I hooked another, but the line had 
taken a turn around the top of my rod, and, as I struck, 
the butt, which was of Himmalayan ash, cut twenty years 
ago, snapped off below the ferrule. I caught up the next 
joint before the fish had time to run away with it, and 
"giving him the butt" kept a steady strain upon him until 
his pull relaxed, and I was able to guide him into a little 
shallow pool in the rock. As he passed the entrance, I 
saw that he was just a duplicate of my preceding catch. 
There was no good landing place from the pool, and I had 
no net, so I let a couple of fellows go in to catch him, tell- 
ing them not to touch the line. But the fish was in luck; 
he slipped the hook and got back into deep water. 
It was now evening and I left off with the confidence 
that there was good fly-fishing before me on the morrow. 
I was down at the water side as soon as early breakfast 
was disposed of, and with a silver doctor and a coachman 
on my cast commenced operations. My first catch was a 
golden-scaled 5-pounder, my next a spotted 4-pounder. 
The fish were not rising greedily, but by 10 o'clock I had 
a basket of five weighing 18 or 201bs., and left off at that. 
In the evening I went down again for a couple of hourSj 
but did not get a rise. 
The next day we camped for breakfast (11 A. M. to 1 P. 
M.) at some very pretty fishing water, and after breakfast 
I went out to try a cast. In about ten minutes I struck a 
fish which went away with a vigorous pull, and I esti- 
mated that he was a 0-pounder at least, I turned him 
and brought him half way back when he was off for a 
second run. I then reeled him in and brought him, fight- 
ing hard, to within 30ft. of shore, when he showed me a 
broad silver side, and I knew that he was no Salmo. He 
was a 3^1b. kata-back, and made a stouter fight than the 
biggest of my salmonoida. He had sharp teeth, but was 
hooked in the lip and failed to get hold of the gut. This 
fish is very much esteemed and is certainly excellent eat- 
ing, so I have no hesitation in ranking him as a game fish 
— length to base of tail fin, 13in.; depth from back to belly, 
8|in. 
We made our destination the next day and there was 
no more fishing on the trip, and the Puruni is for the most 
part sluggish water near the camp, which stands on a hill 
about 50ft. above the granite ledge which forms the land- 
ing place. There are, however, some rocks in midstream 
a little lower down stream, and here I have occasionally 
cast a fly. On one occasion I took a 13oz. sunfish which 
somewhat shook my confidence in my classification of the 
family as Salmonoida. His dorsal fin was armed with 
stout, sharp-pointed spines, the first three or four of which 
rose 3in. above the hinder part of the jaw. He had the 
sun spots, but they were lackluster, due probably to the 
minerals in the water. He was spotted, but with white 
spots on a dark ground. He gave a good fight, twice 
jumping a yard at least out of water, and would have 
doubtless repeated the performance if I had continued to 
play with him, and this perhaps drew my attention to his 
resemblance to a black bass. As far as I can learn no 
icthyologist of note has investigated our river fish, and a 
great many of them remain unclassified. 
Finally, to conclude my short fishing experiences here, 
I have been introduced to one other fish whose ac- 
quaintance I desire to drop in future. This is the perai, a 
creature which although not more than 3 or 4lbs. weight, 
is as powerful and savage as a bull dog. It is said that 
they are known to have taken a piece out of the leg of a 
man while bathing, and I am sure I have no reason to 
doubt it. They frequent the rock under the camp, and 
have cost me many a fly. A few days ago I hooked a 
small one, IJlbs., in the nose, and brought him ashore. I 
held him up with his tail touching the rock, passed the 
rod to my left hand, took my captive under the gills, and 
was about to walk home with him when I found that my 
line was caught in a branch close to me. I passed my left 
hand across my right to free it, and as I did so I felt a nip 
in the arm. I thought nothing of it and walked uj) to the 
camp, but when I reached there I found a stream of blood 
trickling down my arm and numerous big stripes on my 
pants. Removing my coat, I found a piece of flesh cut out 
as clean as if it had been done wdth sharp steel nippers, 
and just danghng by a mere thread of skin. I washed the 
wound, put the flesh back in place and bandaged it tightly 
with a handkerchief steeped in vinegar. I used four such 
bandages in the course of an hour and failed to stop the 
bleeding. Then I remembered that my host, who was! 
absent, had a vial of Fryar's balsam in his medicine cheat. 
I applied that and soon stopped the bleeding. These flsh 
keep in sluggish waters, generally lurking in some bed oi, 
river weed or under the branches of fallen trees. 
C. P. ASIERY. 
A STORY OF A MAINE STREAM. 
It all hftppened on the banks of a wdod-locked stream 
in southeastern Maine, still a woodsman's mecca, eighty 
miles from a summer hotel and two hundred from a fS-a- 
day guide. 
Fifty square miles of "nature's own," whicli is as al 
Maine was once,iwhere one/ can smoke his pipe out and se( 
no stranger's shadow in his camp-fire light for weeks at s 
time if he so wishes it. I have hesitated long before un- 
burdening myself of this tale, for a reputation for veracity 
is long in the making and short in the undoing. If any 
good woodsmen have passed through a similar experience 
they will stand behind me and we will face together the 
world of scoffers and M. A.'s and Ph. D's of physcology et;. 
al, who say that the dumb brutes have no reason. 
It was at the end of our first week in camp, a camp com- 
posed of one long, lean Californian, the most genial, big- 
hearted gentleman that it has ever been my good fortune 
to share blankets with, who has cast a fly in almost every 
ripple on the slope of the Sierras; little Tommy, the guide 
whom we paid $1.75 per day, and who can cook as wel 
and who will work harder than any two "experiencec 
guides ;" and last myself. One might observe a cer 
tain "soreness" in the above paragragh. There is soreness 
and I never see a gentleman place himself at the mercy o: 
a "latter day" guide but I offer up prayers for his family 
who must stint themselves at home, forbear from all fal 
hats and he, his winter overcoat, to square himself aftei 
his experience. No class of men are so unreasonably paid 
A lumberman's wage is never over $1.50 per day. Anothei 
man who comes of this class, whose work is not disagree 
able, but more of a pleasure if he be a true woodsman, ac 
he should be, and his wages amount to 50 cents or |1 mon 
than an experienced mechanic or machinist who has 
served five or ten years of his life in acquiring that name 
There is a spot reserved for the man who first paid his 
guide $3.50 a day. 
The sun was tipping the firs, the Californian was jusf 
landing his tenth trout and I was handling the net, wher 
Tommy, who was pitching the canoe, said, "Down, quickl', 
and we all dropped in the meadow grass. Following thf' 
direction of the pointing finger, we saw a deer — a two! 
year-old doe — coming up the center of the stream. Sh(| 
was 200ft. away and had not scented us. It was close seaj 
son; we had no desire for meat, much less a doe, but tht 
curiosity to see how close one can get to a wild creature 
which is always Stronger in me than the desire for killing < 
made us burrow deep into the grass and watch. She camt I 
slowly on, wading the shallow places and swimming tlu 
pools, apparently listening for some expected sound 
When she stood on the end of the point we were on, no 
15ft. away from the Californian, he snickered. Tha 
tickled his throat, then he coughed, and she looked down 
There was a wild spring straight into our trout pool, i 
scramble on the opposite bank, and she was gone. I sworf 
at the Californian. He said he caught sight of me and mj ; 
mouth was full of grass, and he could not help it. He iij 
the kind of a man who would find some humor in the ey<!J 
of a six-shooter. :' 
■ Fishing was out of the question now, so Tommy wen;j 
back in the shade to boil the kettle and the long mai ' 
took off his reel. Suddenly a black object broke cover jus ) 
across the stream from us, a mongrel cur, half hound an(j 
half bull dog, and the mystery was explained. The doi 
had taken to the water to free herself from the dog, and hi 
had been following the bank to find her landing-place. : 
was tempted to shoot, for the Maine law protects any od' 
who kills a deerhound at any season of the year. Thi 
was an especially unpardonable case, for it was still waro' 
weather and any one could have still-hunted his deer. W 
had seen seventeen since pitching camp. We all called 
but the animal had found the track, and was away ant, 
out of sight. We could hear him going around Fifth Lak ' 
Mountain "in full cry." The Californian said something, 
much to the point, about the owner of that dog, and theii 
we went over to where the kettle was boiling. The bay 
ing gradually grew fainter, died away, and then suddenly 
broke out on the east side of the mountain, coming towart 
us. I dropped my plate and took a shotgun and went ove 
to the stream. The dog came on toward us. 
A few minutes later there was a splash — two of them- 
in the bend above us, and round the point came the dot 
swimming — about gone— with the dog on her back. 1 
was a sight to cause any true lover of the woods to boi 
over and run down the sides. I could not shoot for fea 
of hitting the deer. When she saw me she came asstraigh 
as possible to where I was standing in the shallow watei 
came so close that I knocked the dog off her back witl' 
the butt of my gun. The beast showed his bull dog blooc 
for he came for her throat harder than ever. I shot a 
the end of his tail, but missed, he being too close to mt 
He made for the bank, and then came my opportunity- 
it was duck shot. I would have given a week's campin 
for buck shot, for then I would have made sure of hiu 
He disappeared in the brush, traveling hard. And al 
this time, during the shooting and shouting, that dee 
stood 5ft. away from me, knee-deep in the water, with th 
most appealing look in its eyes that man could imagine. 
Let all the gray-haired Ph.D.'s of Christendom hoi 
forth, but if that look was not one grand, last appeal fo; 
mercy, then I be no judge of the soul in my eyes. Tomm 
came up and we drove her to the bank. She had bee 
bitten several times on the hip. Speaking softly, we ap 
proached, stroked her neck, examined the wounds ani 
found them only flesh cuts and nearly through bleeding 
She showed no signs of fear, listening always and ever, i 
a tired and hunted way, for the sound of the hounci 
Then the Californian took off his coat, got up on a stum 
and delivered a lecture on the inhumanity of houndin 
deer. He talked for ten minutes, and if the Solons of Nei 
York State had been there I am sure that all the mone 
of the Adirondack region could not have prevented th 
passage of a bill to prohibit hounding now and forever. 
As we got into the canoe to go down stream the doe too 
two steps out on the point toward us and remained a Ion 
and solitary figure until we rounded the bend below. 
William Todd, 
