Aug. 6, TS98 ] 
FOREST ANt> STREAM. 
103 
gan to wonder if the stars were out aloft, and whether 
.they had yet begun the fireworks on the Common, and 
we were right there still, when suddenly we heard a 
voice hailing" us over the quarter. 
' "Tug ahoy! Be ye in troubk?" 
It was a queer, gruff voice, which seemed not alto- 
gether unfamiliar. The mate, with classic emphasis not 
unknown at Harvard, replied: 
"You bet! No compass." 
"Sho! I've got one, if you'll gimme a tow up!" and 
out from the fog came a lean old dory with a well -re- 
membered patch upon the sail and a well-remembered 
old sea dog in the stenl. There was a stun- 
ning cheer, an enthusiastic, hungry, Fourth-o'-July 
"Hi-ya-r-r-r-r" that astonished the gulls which circled 
above the mists and sent them scurrying homeward with 
weird tales for their little ones as to ye manners and 
customs of those strange, huge bipeds with wings like 
penguins and feet like ducks, that could neither swim nor 
fly. 
A tow indeed! 
We lifted him on board, dory and all. We filled that 
craft with fish. We told him we didn't mind coals > of 
fire a bit when they came in that form, and we well nigh 
burst the seams of his trousers pocket with dollars that 
bore the stamp of our glorious buzzard, till the abashed 
and forgiving old soul could only grin, shake as many 
hands as he" could grasp at one time, a dozen or two, and 
say: "Sho! let up now! I never laid it up agin ye!" 
Then as we started up the engine and buzzed away 
homeward he turned to Robert and cried: 
"Land sake, what hev ye got on?" 
The "boy" had, at the moment of collision, taken his 
rubber coat, folded it up like a bag, tied the mouth 
tightly with a string, and inflated it like a great puff ball, 
and now was wearing it across his shoulders with the 
arms tied around his neck. 
"Why," said our brother Clam, "I was afraid that 
there wouldn't be enough life preservers to go round, so 
I — " Here we interrupted the sagacious youth abruptly 
by an uncontrollable roar of laughter and a cheer. 
" Hi-ya-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r !" 
John Preston True. 
Boston. - 
A North Carolina Point of View. 
BY CHARLES HALLOCK. 
I have just rounded out three entrancing weeks at 
[Sapphire, in the Blue Ridge. The environment is super- 
lative. From the top of Toxaway, 5,000ft. elevation, I 
can count 600 peaks, forty of them 6,000ft. high. From 
the highest point of vantage in the Catskills we have only 
sixty, and none of them above 4,000ft. There is no 
^uch forested preserve in all the United States as I survey. 
It is all one compacted mass of verdant superincumbent 
foliage. Not a stick of timber has been cut for market. 
No railroads invade. There are no burnt tracts, no 
brules, no windfalls, no areas which mark the sweep of 
tornadoes. It is the fountain head and storage reservoir 
for all the agricultural lowlands which lie betwixt it and 
the Atlantic Coast. Were it not for these highlands in 
the clouds, there would be indifferent harvesting below, 
and all the farm spaces would be torn up by torrents, 
like the Garonne in France. There are scarcely half a 
dozen houses visible from all points of view together. 
I stand on the top of the lookout tower on Mt. Toxaway 
summit, which occupies a central position like the focal 
point of a cyclorama, and on every side I see the stu- 
pendous environment of hills, all green in the foreground, 
beautifully green with ever changing shades of blue in 
the distance. When clouds float over them you can 
hardly distinguish shadow from valley; and ever and 
anon there is a shower. Below us, three miles away, is 
Sapphire Lake, reposing in the lap of the forest. There 
are only two other lakes in all this mountain region: one 
at Highlands, eighteen miles away, and the other on the 
same Toxaway estate, which embraces 26,000 acres. On 
the latter's shore is located the new Fairfield Inn, just 
now opened, which compares favorably with any up-to- 
date hotel. A carriage drive surrounds it, a precipice 
faces it, and a cataract forms into its upper end over a stu- 
pendous ledge; andjt is indented with bays and points 
of land. 
Away up here, where I stand in the clouds, on lox- 
away summit, five turkey buzzards are cruising overhead, 
and I am prompted to guess what would tempt them 
to scale so great a height. A few minutes ago there was 
but one: after a while two more appeared, and later on 
the others joined. Whence came they, and why? Ha! I 
'have it; there is a sheep pasture close at hand, and a 
dead lamb \aints the air! Nothing escapes a buzzard's 
notice. Your readers have discussed this quality, the 
vulture's keenness of sight and scent, and some have 
declared for one and some for the other, and the most 
observant perhaps for them both. But to my notion, 
given but one single buzzard hovering over Toxaway in 
all this grand environment of wilderness, and in five 
hours thereafter all the feathered scavengers of Charles- 
ton's streets might be here on signal; not purposely con- 
veyed, but simply flashed from tell-tale wing to repeating 
wing from distances inappreciable, like the gestures of 
a semaphore. Birds of prey fly high for the perspective, 
and they measure distances at sixty miles an hour. It 
is said that the customary foraging grounds for buz- 
zards on our continent have been deserted since the 
spring, and that all the ill-omened crew have hied to 
Cuba, following the armies and the slaughter. It is not 
improbable, and I would like to see the statement veri- 
fied, for it would help determine that their means of 
communication are by flight motions imparted along a 
line of perspective, and not by' direct sight or scent of 
detected objects. It is not probable that either percep- 
tive faculty could bridge the broad salt-water space be- 
tween Florida and Cuba, except at lofty elevations. 
Up here on the rounded apex of Mt. Toxaway are 
many partridges and turkeys. The former feed with the 
domestic fowls sometimes, and I hear the brooding calls 
of both of them now over in the whortleberry patches. 
Game is not shot on this preserve except by permit of 
the Company, and is therefore tame and abundant. Pine 
root hogs run wild, and I find their tracks mingled with 
deer tracks on the flats and shoulders of the mountains. 
An expert can easily tell the two footprints apart, and 
it is interesting t,o compare them, lest the tyro when 
hunting deer waste time on a hog trail. There arc 
special localities which deer frequent, in considerable 
numbers, and sometimes in bands. Berries are abundant 
and will be until the middle of August. They attract 
bears. Panthers are seen at rare intervals. One of the 
resident mountaineers is now watching his stock yard 
for one which is making himself disagreeable in his 
vicinity. Rattlesnakes are occasionally killed, and there 
are many mink and muskrats, and a few summer ducks 
and cranes. There is no doubt about the value of this 
property as a game preserve. It has been patrolled con- 
tinuously for seven years. Portions are much intersected 
by trails of prospectors for minerals, of which there are 
corundum and mica in abundance, and it is good prac- 
tice for the student in woodcraft to trace them, though 
he is apt to get lost temporarily unless lie can read 
the lay of the land. It is inconvenient sometimes to 
cross deep streams where there are no bridges, but I 
usually manage to climb a slender sapling and swing 
myself across, if the stream be not too wide. 
Three times I have made the ascent of Toxaway afoot, 
accomplishing the three miles and a half in two hours, 
and the down trip in less than an hour, which is fairly 
good time for a man in his sixty-fifth year. But then, an 
old bushranger like myself, who can read the woods like 
a book, can cut off the bends of the carriage road by 
traverses and so save distance. This drive up the 
mountain has the easiest 'gradients of any I know of. 
Yesterday, by keeping the carriage team at its place, 
after the fashion of the old stage drivers, like Hank 
Monk, on the overland route twenty odd years ago, we 
came down in half an hour. 
The average size of the speckled trout which are 
caught in these wilds is remarkable. It would be a 
quarter of a pound, I think, and individuals are frequent- 
ly caught weighing 2lbs., though the largest are in the 
lakes, which have been lavishly stocked within two years 
past. Anglers know that the trout of the Eastern hill 
streams are never large. They do not average 40Z. in 
weight, or 6in. in length, wherever taken. But in the 
large meadow brooks, like the Ondawa in Vermont, or in 
the Long Island streams, they grow heavier. Perhaps, as 
as axiom, the larger the stream the larger the trout? 
In the Androscoggin, or in the Green Mountain brooks 
which olash over the rocks through the woods and hill 
pastures, the inky-black beauties would hardly find space 
to grow larger; accordingly, if one outgrows his pool, he 
just drops down to more spacious quarters. But in such 
wide streams as River Phillip in Nova Scotia, the Batis- 
can in Quebec, the Nipigon in Ontario, and the Kill i- 
kinnick in Wisconsin, they grow to be monsters, and in 
proportion here where the streams are large. Facts like 
these serve their purpose in regulating the legal size of 
trout to be caught in specified localities. Really, I sup- 
pose the mountain streams of eastern Tennessee. West 
Virginia, and North Carolina to be more prolific of large 
trout than any other part of the Blue Ridge or the 
Alleghanies. They are the head waters of large rivers 
like the French Broad and Tennessee. 
Let it be conceded that I do not put my pen to 
paper "for what there is in it" to me, where the interests 
of sportsmen are concerned, though I do write for what 
there is in it for all of us, and I say: Give me ozone! 
Give me fiber and elasticity, and a home camp where the 
woodbine twines, and' I will climb Toxaways and high 
peaks for many years after the joints of the young lag- 
gards who ride up on horseback are stiff with the gout. 
It is true that I have talked up this country a good deal 
for two years past, but the misfortune is that no one 
whom I have approached in person or by letter seems 
to care to come. Not one! There are goodly numbers 
here, but they are not of my calling. What is the reason? 
Was age any objection to old Moses when he led the 
Hebrew tourists through the wildern'ess? Time was, a 
quarter of a century ago, when I was a good enough bell- 
wether for sportsmen to follow, if ever I gave the cue; 
but now I am too poor a hand even to toll ducks. N'im- 
portc! I would not swap one whiff of my pure Sapphire 
air for any midsummer atmosphere within the limits 
of the United States, her colonies included. 
A branch of the Southern R. R. system, starting from 
Hendersonville, has penetrated to the town of Brevard, 
within twenty-seven miles of the Toxaway hostelries, of 
which there are three, including the spacious lodge on 
the mountain, all of wbich communicate by telephone; so 
that the sojourner can sit in the clouds, if he likes, like 
Olympian Jove, and flash his orders to the deep down 
levels below, taking his tea straight meanwhile, and 
contemplating mundane affairs as mere incidents of ex- 
istence, and not as events of momentous and supervening 
consequence. Boys, come up and see us! Auf Weider- 
sehen. 
Asheville, N. C, July 25. 
[We saw a goodly supply of buzzards in Virginia tlie 
other day.] 
Highways and Byways. — I. 
-Just at the opening of the trout season I started on a 
wagon trip of over 500 miles in length and of £ month's 
duration. The route was through the mountainous coun- 
ties of eastern Utah, over the reservations of the Uintah 
and UncOmpahgre Utes, and incidentally over the very 
trail of the Robber's Roost and Hole in the Rock gang 
of outlaws that have for the last four years terrorized 
not only a portion of this State, but also the adjacent 
districts of Colorado and Wyoming. 
A ride of a day and a half brought us through Provo 
and Daniel's canons to the summit of' the Wasatch 
range and the western boundary of Strawberry Valley, 
the most attractive portion of the Uintah Reservation. 
Between Provo and Daniel's canons lies Provo Valley, 
a great, well-watered basin, boasting three flourishing 
settlements, a creamery, and hay and dairy ranches 
galore. This region we drove through on the afternoon 
of our first day from Provo, : It was June 14, and al- 
though we knew that there was excellent fishing over 
the entire course, we did not take our rods from their 
cases. Eight miles above Charleston we passed the last 
ranch. For the next five days we did not catch sight 
of a human habitation save the barracks at Ft. Duchesne, 
and these are well nigh deserted, ,having but two squad- 
rons of cavalry in lieu of the regiment that was quar- 
tered there before the war. 
As the sun came over the mountains we were climbing 
up hill on our second day's journey. Daniel's Creek 
seemed an ideal trout stream. It also gave promise of 
being only two months later just the place for chickens. 
The brook roared and tumbled between walls that were 
green with stately pines. It meandered through flats 
where silver-barked aspens invited us to swing^ our ham- 
mocks. It sung its song, now to columbine, now to 
buttercup, but all its allurements could not make us 
forget that Strawberry was just ahead. At 11 o'clock 
we crossed the Rim of the Basin. Presto! Torrent, 
timber and wild flower disappeared by magic. Before 
us lay a great rolling valley, sixty miles long and 
twenty wide, grass-grown and netted by willow- fringed 
streams. The elevation of Strawberry is 6,500ft., and 
the surrounding peaks are snow-covered until late in 
July, so that when this part of the reservation is thrown 
open it will be valueless except as a stock range. 
Beside the road was a spring, and as we journeyed 
down the brook #iat flowed from it other springs con- 
tributed their mites to the constantly increasing stream 
until, when we camped at the Forks, about 1 o'clock, we 
were tempted by a diminutive river a rod or two wide 
and iSin. deep. For once upon the trip I declared that 
I did not care for dinner. Jointing my rod, I started 
for the nearest riffles and pools. Alas, for my hopes! 
I rang the changes on my casts from dark to light, 
from bright to dull, all to no purpose. But what flies 
failed to accomplish, plebeian grasshoppers, sunk to the 
bottom of the shadiest pools, did effect, and a mess for 
supper was soon assured. Of course we started about 
3 o'clock on our afternoon trip, but it'did not amount 
to much. Every mile or so we would come to a little 
creek that could be easily stepped across. Here under 
the shelving banks and amid tne sedge roots the largest, 
gamiest trout were wont to lie. I remember well that 
both last year and the year before it was no trick to fill 
a creel in a couple of hours. But the trout lay no longer. 
Half a dozen fish traps on as many streams solved the 
mystery. The fish traps were not of Indian fabrication, 
and the piles of offal that lay near each proved that the 
market poacher had been at work. 
It is too bad that every tale of outing from Utah 
has to be interlarded with acg^unts of violation of the 
game laws. The finding of these fish traps brought 
forcibly to my mind that during the last week of May 
a man by the name of Davis, for years a % notorious vio- 
lator of the trout law, left Provo with two companions 
for Strawberry. A few days later the outfit retailed a 
load of trout in Park City, the net proceeds being in the 
neighborhood of $90. Two more wagon-loads were thus 
disposed of before the open season. Now this was not 
done secretly. The State fish and game warden was 
informed of it; the Commissioners of Utah county knew 
it; the local press commented upon it, and yet nothing 
wtis done to bring the offenders to justice. The. reser- 
' vation where the fish were trapped and dynamited is 
directly- under Uncle Sam's surveillance, and possibly 
the local authorities would not care to make arrests 
there, but the fish were sold in Wasatch and Summit 
counties, whose Commissioners should have protected 
the interests of the people and have shown that their 
office is something more than an empty title. 
Noon of the third day brought us to Currant Creek, 
and here we found' excellent fishing. From this point 
to Ft. Duchesne tke road traverses a rocky and sandy 
desert, given over to rattlesnakes and coyotes. Twice 
we approached the Duchesne River, which appeared 
to be a most admirable sucker stream. Far to 'the north 
and east the main chain of the Uintahs was as white as 
though it were January instead of June. So we jour- 
neyed, crossing Lake Fork, which the officers of the 
post reserve for their own private sport; crossing the 
Uintah, once supposed to be the main Duchesne, and at 
length one mid-afternoon Ashley Valley burst upon us. 
Its principal settlement, Vencal, is embowered in 
orchards, and the whole valley is waving wheat and 
lucerne. The surrounding hills are streaked with im- 
mense deposits of coal and asphaltum, and the higher 
mountains contain rich lodes of copper, but all this is 
120 miles from the nearest railway station. Opposite us 
as we enter Ashley Valley is the mouth of Ladore Canon, 
the pass by which Green River bursts through the 
mountains, and beyond that is the White River country 
and the famous hunting grounds of Colorado. 
Every irrigating ditch in Ashley Valley contains its 
quota of trout; so except when the water is high and 
muddy, ranchers and town folk can alike fish successfully 
on their own property. Fly-fishing is not in vogue. 
When the valley was first settled not an angle worm was 
to be found in its limits. An enterprising freighter 
brought in a boxful from Provo Valley and planted 
them in his garden. This was four years ago, and the 
angle worm crop has increased until now this species of 
bait is to be found on several farms. The ranch at which 
we stopped made a specialty of bee culture, there being 
250 stands in the apiary. The boys of the place used 
drones for bait, and j/fflse were certainly more 'attract- 
ive to the trout than sESjEji worms or grubs. 
Notwithstanding thtWiPriing at the door, the people 
of Ashley enjoy camping out as well as those of cities. 
It is but thirty miles to the lakes that nestle in the 
summits of the Uintahs — the lakes where the giant trout 
lurks, by whose shores the elk still feeds and the 
grizzly roams. We did not have time to visit the 
hunter's paradise, but we managed to spare a day for a 
more wild and romantic spot. Taking a pack animal for 
our impedimenta, we climbed to the eastward for 
half a day and then suddenly dropped down almost a 
precipice into Jones' Hole, one of the most inaccessible 
box canons of the Rockies. It has but one means of 
approach, and has been a favorite rendezvous of the Rob- 
ber's Roost outfit. The canon is four miles long and 
from one-fourth of a mile to 150ft. in width. At the 
upper end is an immense spring, and numerous tributary 
springs form a respectable trout stream that wanders 
through aspen groves and alder brush. The brook never 
freezes; it is lined along its entire course by watercress, 
and the supply of trout seems limitless. As we entered 
the Hole we met a party going out that had camped the 
night before, and had caught eighty-three in the even- 
ing and morning fishing, besides what thev had eaten for 
