208 
LSept. 11, 1897. 
for the pass, and after passing tlie poirit alb'out' ISOyds. I ran 
into a school of tarpon and l didn't do a thing to one of 
them but put him out on the sand in less than an hour; he 
measured 4ft. 6in., and Handed him where everyone could 
see the fight and my first victory over the tarpon. Mean- 
"while the mail boat sped on its way back to Eockport and 
off I went for another; after a pull of a mile I hooked an- 
other tarpon, and after a beautiful fight he too was landed 
high and dry on the sands. Two in one afternoon was 
almost too good, but there they were, the last 5ft, Sin. in 
length. Now 1 was happy indeed, and i pulled off to the 
pass, where the other members of my party were cruising 
around. First one and then another would get a strike and 
a fight and off they would go to land their fish on the beach. 
Everyone congratulated me and many said: "Are you not 
glad you remained?" I was very much pleased and elated, 
but quietly going home that evening I passed over the favor- 
ite ground of Champion Ingram, as the boatman told me, 
when I struck and hooked the fourth tarpon that day. I 
played him as carefully as I knew how, as he was a large 
one, and at last T got him to the beach. 1 jumped from the 
boat, still holding him tight for the boatman to gaff him, 
but he made a strike, and missing, stinck him again, break- 
ing my line in two places, thus liberating the fish, making 
the second one for the day lost after getting them almost on 
dry sand. 1 found I had done a good, hard day's work that 
day, however, and was more contented and satisfied with 
myself, and rested well that night, except that the vision ol 
leaping tarpon remained with me all night. 
I had lots of company, too, that day, for several of tlie 
party had each landed their fish, and we had a very happy 
party that evening, talking over the events of the day, Next 
day a number like myself were to leave for home, and Capt. 
Orey agreed to take us to Eockport by moonlight ; so we 
put in the day at the same place, and some half-dozen fine 
fish were taken in the afternoon, the wind being unfavor- 
able in the forenoon until the tide began to run tut. I saw 
no less than four boats going ashore at one time that after- 
noon with a fish in tow. 1 had my luck the day before, I 
suppose, for, although 1 had two good strikes, I failed to 
hook; but late that evening I struck a very heavy fish, 
which, like the first one I hooked, took 150ft. of line and 
my hook to the . Gulf with him, although after breaking 
loose he jumped out and said "Good-by" with the hook and 
line hanging to him. I said "Good-by, old boy; I've had a 
good time, anyway," 
The season for tarpon fishing ends Dec, 1. During the 
present season, up and including Aug. 14, 290 tarpon have 
been taken with rod and reel. 'The best months for tarpon 
fishing are June, September and October. Last season's 
catch was 400, landed only with rod and reel; tarpon landed 
with hand lines not included in this record. J. B. Ingram, 
of Pine Bluff, Ark., holds the championship, having seventy- 
six to his credit in fifty days. Last season he landed fifty- 
five tarpon in thirty days' fishing. The largest fish so far 
caught is 6ft. llin. ; the second 6ft. lOin. 
The largest catch in a single day was fifteen tarpon, on 
May 81, by seven anglers, and June 12 five anglers also 
caught fifteen. The largest catch b}^ any one angler in one 
day waa six. This record, without fear of contradiction, 
pronounces Aransas Pass the greatest tarpon ground now 
known. 
The cool breezes of the Gulf add much to the comfort of 
the angler who sleeps unaer cover at night. If you have 
never tried tarpon iishing, take a few days off and go to the 
head of Mustang Island and try it. Jos. iKwrtr.- 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Camp Forest and Stream Elfihth Annual. 
Caup Forest and Stream, "Walworth county. Wis , 
July 21. — This year, J. B. H. and I went to Mukwonago 
again. It is true, we have to ride some six miles further by 
going to Mukwonago than we would if we went to Troy 
Center; but we have always been going to Mukwonago, and 
so we probably always shall. I think if J. B. H, and I were 
starting for South Africa we would go by way of Mukwon- 
ago, such is the force of conservatism, at least with J. B. H. 
At any rate, we had our usual hurry to get into camp before 
dark, which is one of the pleasantest features of our yearly 
trip. Should we go in to Lulu Lake, on Mr. J. A. Schwartz's 
farm, by way of Troy Center, we would arrive there at so 
unseemly and early an hour in the afternoon, that pitching 
camp and getting supper would be a most easy, orderly and 
-.iprosaic affair. 
This time our start from Chicago was made during the hot 
week of 1897, and on Saturday at that, when suffering hu- 
manity was hurrying out of town in droves. Everybody 
was hot and hurried and anxious except J. B. H. and myself. 
We knew just where we were going, and what we were going 
to do, so we had no cause to worry. We watched the surg- 
ing crowds back of the traiuAgates at the Wisconsin Central 
depot with more of pity than anything else, they seemed so 
hurried and troubled, as city people always are. J. B. H. 
has no hurry nor trouble in his makeup, so he was placid, 
and pitied the crowd. 
-The wave of the summer exodus spent itself gradually 
against Gray's Lake, Eockefeller, Lake Yilla, Antioch, Silver 
Lake, Burlington, Beulah, so that after a time our train be- 
came less inhabited and more habitable. And lol to make 
all things pleasant for the Forest and Stream eighth an- 
nual camp, the sky lost its brazen heat and became overcast 
with clouds before Antioch was passed. A big sigh of relief 
Wient up from the crowd as the blessed rain came down, and 
as it became evident that the hot season was broken. "Let 
it rain," said J, B. H., "even if we have to go inta camp wet 
to-night. " 
And we nearly did have ajwet camp. At Mukwonago the 
rain liad ceased, but the clouds were ominous. We hur- 
ried neighbor Dillenbeck along with our light wagon, and 
soon were rolling over the gravel roads of this pleasant coun- 
try on our way to our old camping ground. ' 'If the FoimsT 
AKD Stream luck holds," said J. B, H., "we'll get our tent 
up before it rains." And the luck held, although the delayed 
arrival of our train — due to the rush of summer traffic — made 
us dangerously late that evening. It was sundown when we 
drove into Mr. Schwartz's yard and made our annual saluta- 
tion, and the woods were dark and dripping when we made 
our way back through the country to the little lake which 
we call our own. Here we hurriedly piled our camp luggage 
and said good-bye to our driver, who left us to what seemed 
a cheerless evening. 
But not cheerless under any circumstances could be this 
first evening in our camp. We made merry of the rain. 
We spread down the hay for our bed and got the tent oyer 
it swiftly, and after that' all was well. - The tent pins went - 
down in the dark, almost in the very holes they niade last 
year. The blankets came out in order, the grocery box 
divulged store of good things, and knowing by long routine 
what each was expected to do, we rapidly got things into 
their regular and pre-ordained condition. While I fini=<hed 
Ihe storing of the outfit under cover, J. B H. got a httle 
blaze started around the upright of our little gun barrel 
stove, and betimes I heard a sizzling other than that of rain 
in a hot frying pan. When we stopped at Mr. Schwartz's 
barn for our haj there was a fat young pigeon on a beam in 
the mow, and Mr. Schwartz tossed it down to us, saying he 
wished we would clean out all the pigeon*^, as he did not 
want them. It was this squab that was making the sizzling 
I heard. For though J. B. H. is seventy-five years of age 
and delibeiate in some things, he is passing swift at dressing 
and cooking a bird, a squirrel or a fish. Soon, on top of a 
box, in the half light of the fire and our torch light, we were 
eating our first supper in camp, in the rain it is true, but 
none the less in the sunshine of content. Back of us rose the 
white front of ouf tent, which is too little for a dining hall. 
We were assured of shelter and the coffee was very good. 
As to the squab, I should say its sizzling arose not from the 
frying-pan, but the little gridiron, which is a big portion of 
our cooking concern. Never was any squab better. And 
never was any night better than that, under the patter of the 
rain, away from the heat of the city, to' the quiet and the cool 
and the calm of Gamp Forest and Siream, in which all 
things make to peace and comfort. Some few camp fires I 
have seen, in difterent corners of the land, but there is no 
camp for J. B. H. or me just like this one we have made 
together yearly now for nearly a decade. 
"rhe next morning was Sunday, and we do not fish on 
Sunday; so we had a long, quiet day to spend, a day both 
bright and cool, for the weather had for our pleasure now 
mended until we could ask no more. We put up our other 
little tent and equipped it as our storehouse, and thus gradu- 
ally completed our housekeeping arrangements. J. B. H. 
found bis spring as cold as ever, and duly set in upon hia 
annual task of ckaning it out and walling it up with clean 
white stones. Our table we set up again under our eld oak 
tree, and into the nail holes of last year (for when we go 
away we burn up all rubbish and pull out all nails) I drove 
the nails which during the tenure of the eighth annual are to 
hold respectively and in the order named from left to right, 
and at the height of a man's easy reach, the strip of bacon, 
the dish towel, the hand towel, the soap, the comb, the 
torch. The two little axes go into the tree trunk just north- 
east of the bacon, for here is where we first struck them in 
when we discovered this land. In Camp Forest and 
Stream things go not at sixes and sevens. No axe is left 
lying around, no dishrag is ever misplaced. Decently and 
in order, and with prompt deliberation, so moyeth the world 
here. No new notches, no new nail holes, are to be toler- 
ated. And when J. B. H. found that his fireplace had since 
his last departure been desecrated by some wandeiing 
camper, who had passed a time upon the spot which was 
ours by all the rights of conquest, it was pleasing to see the 
vast contempt with which he threw down the hill the bricks 
with which the ignorant camper had sought to construct a 
fireplace. Two. rows of stones, well set, inside of these two 
aide logs of Sin. diameter each, the tiny gun-barrelstovewith 
its all-convenient rings; such is the fireplace established by 
J. B. H. A hat full of hickory bark and solid dry wood 
broken from a standing tree suffices him for a full meal of 
elaborate cookery. The ashes you could carry in your hand. 
This I know, for when I sought for ashes in which to bake 
a fish, after we had been three days in camp; J. B. H. had 
no ashes to offer at his fireplace. (So we used sand, and the 
fish was good.) 
1 have spoken of the suspicion with whicli J. B. H. re- 
garded our aluminum frying-pans and our device of the 
gun barrel stove, both of which are accepted by him 
as indispensable parts of our equipment. This year 
I had two new things for the outfit, a refrigerator 
basket and a Colclesser tomahawk, the former made 
by a Baltimore firm and the latter by the men 
who made Nessmuk's hatchets. The basket is a success, 
being made of tin covered with felt, the whole again covered 
with wood fibre. There is an air space in the lid, ; and the 
latter is hinged in the middle and detachable. Inside the 
basket is a watertight compartment for ice. Thus one can 
have an ice hex in camp at will, and can use it for a lunch 
basket or an express package at will, provided that, in the 
latter capacity, he wishes to send some fish to friends. Tbis 
basket, which I advanced proudly and with confidence, J 
B. H. viewed very coldly, remarking that it cast discredit 
upon our spring, which heretofore had been found adequate 
to all demands of cold storage. The little hatchet (it weighs 
just 16oz.) he examined witli more interest, and tried it on a 
hard snag with credit. Sometimes I find him using it fur- 
tively, which I consider a great compliment. But, for my 
own . part, I think a 16oz. axe too light for anything but 
light summer camping, such as ours. I think 2lbs, quite 
light enough for a real camp axe. 
J. B. H. is an old-time squirrel hunter, raised back in Ole 
Yirginny, and in his day was, I think, the best rifle shot I 
ever saw. Nowadays he reverts, and I often see him out 
hunting squirrel nests If there be a squirrel in an entire 
wood, he is sure to find out his whereabouts, and this amuse- 
ment seems to please as much as anything. We used to go 
fishing for bass, bait casting, and made a great many very 
heavy catches in these waters, but this sport, with its con- 
stant work at the reel, no longer seems to suit him, so we 
have lost interest in it for the time. 
One day we paddled about a certain cove we know, and 
casting frog, I got three strikes; but .the weed less hook proved 
also fi'shless, much to our disgust, so we quit and came away. 
On two different evenings we found the jdy-rod a good acces- 
sory, and using coachman and gray drake flies we got each 
time eight fish, rock bass, strawberry bass, to say nothing of 
three black bass, which we thought tasted much better than 
if they had been caught on frog. Twice we have taken the 
little .22 rifle and killed a mesa of Mr. Schwartz's trouble- 
gome pigeons, picking them out quietly from under the eaves 
of the barn. Once we went five miles overland on a grand 
ehasse au frog to a certain prolific pond we wot of, and here 
we killed with the rifie above three dozen vast bull-frogs, 
whose athletic hindlegs overstocked us so much that we had 
to give away part of them to friends who are cottaging not far 
away . Another day we hunted up our croppy bar. out in the 
middle of the lake, a secret known of but Billy Tuohy and our- 
selves, and though we do not find the fishing here so good as 
usual, owing to the lateness in the season, we caught one day 
fourteen, another daj' nine, another three, and again twenty- 
six, out of which latter great draft we apportioned baskets of 
fishes for "friends. These croppies are bo big and fat 
that we patronize them' now to the exclusion- of the black 
bass, which are not neaily so good to eat. For brook trout 
we have thus far made no quest, though we know where 
we can get a few. We know where we can go and get some 
big bass, too, but we are not sure that we want them. J. B. 
H. says he has caught his share of big bass, but doesn't 
quite think he has had quite hia pro rata of fat croppies. 
We get up at about 6 or 7 o'clock each morning, and. work 
hard all day, going to bed at 10 or 1 1 at night. We have to 
work to make a living here, for the game and fish do not 
grow on trees, but we always manage to get all we want 
when we want it. I tell J. B. H. I can take him a little 
further north up the railroad, where we can catch a lot of 
muscallonge and wall-eyes every day, but to this he will not 
hear, for he says we could not use the fish if we caught 
them. There has never been an ounce of meat wasted in 
Camp Forest and Stream. Yet out of all the countries I 
have seen, T really do not know of a pleasanter one than this 
hardwood lake country of lower Wisconsin for a quiet, rest- 
ful camping out trip. If I did find a better country, I would 
still have the task of convincing .1, B. H. that it was better, 
and that I fear would be quite hopeless. Here we have set 
our house, nor is it likely that any mansions of this earth 
will tempt us further. Our little lake is very quiet. There are 
no voices of persons in our woods. Our spring is cool and 
clean. This is the sweet place in the year. We wish as 
much might happen for each and everyone. 
J, B. H. and I do not favor frills. Our outfit is not large 
nor elaborate, though we are ready to investigate any new 
thing purporting to be good. We believe in aluminum fry- 
ing pans, in wire broilers, in the gun-barrel stove, in the 
toolhed-ring fish scaler, in the canvas water pail, perhaps 
also in the little axe and the tin-lined basket. As yet we 
have found no camp lantern in which we can believe better 
than our 5 cent tin torch with the big round wick. This 
light has thus far never failed us. It does not blow out, it 
makes a good cu'cle of illumination, and it casts no shadows 
of tubes and wires and handles. Moreover, when we are 
done with it, we can pour the oil out of it, wipe it dry and 
throw it into the pack bag, where it neither breaks nor takes 
up much room. If any man knows of a better camp light, 
J. B. H. will look into it, but I doubt if he will approve. 
For my part, while I admit the torch will do to light up the 
camp while we are cooking supper after a long and late trip 
somewhere, I cannot approve of it as a lamp for writing 
purposes, inside a tent or out. This, however, is irrelevant, 
for in camp no man ought to write. He should sit on the 
log and look in the fire and listen to the screech owl. We 
have a most excellent little screech owl, who lives in a hol- 
low oak about 50ft. from our fireplace. Each night about 
10 o'clock he comes out and complains about our disturbing 
him. 
_ This afternoon .J. B. H. and a young lady boarder who 
lives at Mr. Schwartz's went out hunting together, leaving 
me to keep camp. They have just come in, bringing with 
them a young blue heron (the lesser bittern). .1. B. H. says 
he is going to cook it for supper. Then we can tell whether 
or not it is good to eat.* E. Hodgh. 
* P. S.— It was. 
CANADIAN ANGLING NOTES. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
'The fall rush of American anglers to Canada is just now 
in full swing, and the water in most of our trout lakes and 
streams is almost all that can be desired, beicg cold for the 
season at the surface, and only moderately high. 
Mr. Eugene McCarthy has gone to the Metabetchouan for 
ouananiche, and to the Belle Eiviere for trout. Messrs, R. 
R. McCormick and W. J. F. McCormick, of Florida, are 
camped at Lac a Moise on the liiton Tract, and will re- 
main thereabouts to the end of the month, Mr. H. E. Wan- 
amaker, of Syracuse, is bound for the same lake. Mr. A. 
N. Cheney and Mr. W. F. Rathbone are dividing their time 
between Lac des Passes, Lake Moise and Lake Batiscan. 
"The latest information from the party reports the killing of a 
4ilh. trout in Lac des Passes by Mr. Cheney. Mr. G. 
H. Squires, of Ne\F York, has just got back to the club 
house at Triton from a visit to Lake des Passes and Lake 
Batiscan, where he got fish of over 6lbs. in weight. Mr. 
and Mrs. W. S. Andrews, of Syracuse, are in their own camp 
on Lake Batiican, the headwaters of the river of that name, 
and one of the prettiest lakes that it is possible to imagine, 
being nine miles long, oval in shape, and completely hemmed 
in by lofty mountains. During a recent visit to the Triton 
Tract, I saw a number of caribou both on Lake Batiscan and 
Lac dts Passes. Mrs. Andrews was the fortunate killer of 
two caribou on Lake Batiscan last year, and brought her 
rifle again with her into camp. Among others who have 
passed through here this week on their way to Lake Batiscan 
are Messrs, Eugene Petit, Douglas E. Petit, Wdliam Not- 
tingham and George A. Roff, all of Syracuse. They are to 
be followed in a day or two by Mr, George E. Hart, superin- 
tendent of the Waterbury Watch Company, and by Col. 
Charles E. Turner, formerly of Waleibury and now Consul- 
General for the United States at Ottawa, who has lately enjoyed 
magnificent bass fishing in Thirty-one Mile Lake, in the 
Gatineau district, 
Mr. Brewer, of Springfield, president of the Amabalish 
Fish and Game Club, whose club house is on the Metabet- 
chouan River, passed through here the other day on his way 
to his fishing preserve. He is accompanied by Mrs. Brewer, 
and reports that, in addition to the gentlemen anglers now on 
the club Unfits, there are no less than eleven ladies at the 
club house. 
The river Jeannotte, the discharge of Lake Edward, is 
again the center of aitraction to numbers of enthusiastic 
anglers who enjoy fighting there the large red-bellied fish of 
the latter end of the season. From the Jacques Cartier, the 
Moise and the Montmorenci rivers come splendid reports of 
large fish in reasonable quantities. 
Ouananiche fishing is particularly good just now, espe- 
cially in the lower parts of the Metabetchouan River. Ang. 
lers have not much time, however, in which to wage a cam- 
paign against the fresh-water salmon of Lake St. John, as 
the close season for the fish commences on Sept. 15. 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
QUKBKC, Aug. 31. . 
The Forest AiTD Stream is put to press each wee\ on 
Tuesday. Correspondence intended for publication 
should reach , us at the latest by Monday, and a» muek 
earlier as pratticable. 
