142 
l^OREST AND STREAM. 
tAuG. 19, iSqg. 
Dellights of Dennysville. 
I H-ATC been here on the Dennys River two months now, 
since June 10, and my home is at the Httle Riverside Inn, 
from whose porch overlooking the loAver salmon pool I can 
see the big hsh leap when they come in on the tlood tide, 
fresh rmi'from the sea. When the tide is out, the clear 
water scurries over the rocks with a rapid flow, showing 
whiteness and flecks of foam, but at the full it flows in an 
even, almost majestic volume ten rods wide, hiding the 
boulders, and forming a delectable plunge bath and swim- 
ming pool for the sportive salmon within an easy stone" s 
throw of the window at which I sit now to write. Oppo- 
site, the margin is lined with an exquisite grove of bal- 
sams, cedars, spruce, pine and hackmatack — evergreen of 
seven varieties— massed in shades which vary gratefully to 
the eye, and are interspersed with dogAvood, beech, birch 
and maple, whose crimson and yellow tints must make 
charming contrasts when "autumn turns the leaves of 
nature's book," as some poet has Hudibrastically re- 
marked. 
Of course, the angler can fish only when the tide serves; 
so that it happens that I have on occasion answered the 
wakening tap of the rod-tip on my window pane at 4 
o'clock in the morning. But the day, or daylight, in this 
far Eastern longitude, is by that time two hours old in 
midsunnner, as I happen to know from personal observa- 
tion made at 2 o'clock A. M., Avhen the dawn was already 
in cAddence. How different in the Northwest ! For in- 
stance, in Winnipeg, where the evenings are long and the 
fliornings short. There I have seen misses rolling baby 
carriages at 10:30 P. M., and loungers gazing into shop 
windows almost as if it were noon. To be sure, it would 
be twilight, but one could read a paper then all the same 
as well as at any time of the day. 
This Dennj^s River is the only one of three rivers in 
the United States east of the Rockies which affords rod 
fishing. The Aroostook used to do it fifty years ago, but 
the only others are the St. Croix and the Penobscot (at 
the Bangor Pool). I threshed the Aroostook below the 
falls in 1859, but the day of that river had then passed. 
I got no rise. Here the Rev. Dr. Bethune, Walter M. 
Brackett, Ed. Prime (of Prime, Ward & King), and 
Marimer A. Wilder used to fish with satisfaction and 
enviable results full thirty years ago ; and there are people 
living here, aiid elsewhere, who remember them well and 
watched them fish. "T tell you," says old man Gook, aged 
seventy, "that Mr, Brackett could jerk a handy flv!" And 
Walter is seventy-six! 1 received a letter from his camp 
on the Marguerite, postmarked at Tadousac on last July 
28, in which he declares that he is as well as he ever 
was, and "good for a dozen salmon per day," which would 
be a severe test of endurance for any man. He has a 
record of fourteen salmon taken in Dennys River in a 
single day, It was certainly a good river away back. 
But fish were capricious even then as now, and Marimer 
Wilder's widow writes to me on July 7, just past, that she 
remembers how Ed. Prime fished all day at the pool near 
the present railroad crossing (two miles above the head 
of the tide) and got no rise. Then she "went down to 
him at sunset, and threw in a stone, which he said drove 
off his fish; and oh I how mad he was!" It was her an- 
cestors who helped first to settle quiet Dennysville, with its 
tranquil inn, its single church spire and somewhat noisy 
sawmill. I shall be loath to leaA^e it at the appointed 
time, but the .salmon have ceased to run, and I must run 
now. I understand that there is a late run of salmon in 
October, as, there is in New Brunswick rivers. However, 
and /'what.efer" (as Walter Blochett's little Princess of 
Thule used to say), we have had fresh salmon from 
Dennys River on the superlative table of the Riverside Inn 
every day for ten weeks, with hardly an exception. All 
hail to Landlady Allan, whose husband's^ knightly great- 
grandfather, Sir John Allan, first saw daylight in Edin- 
burgh Castle. 
It is not every river on .the Atlantic coast that is as 
accessible as this. It does not require a fortune or a long 
voyage to reach it. The Washington County Railroad 
sets one right down at one of the very best pools on the 
river, after crossing the iron bridge near the station. As 
for the St. Croix River pool at Calais, I saw anglers in 
boats fishing as I looked out of the car windows when 
entering the city. Later on I droA'e along its margin on 
the St. Stephen side. It is called the "Union Pool" be- 
cause it divides the neighboring counties, and rod-fishing 
has never been restricted there. Rod-fishing in Maine is 
all free, Init few arfe they who are aware of the fact. 
During July the sport there is excellent, and on one 
given evening of last month Mr. Albert French caught two 
salmon within the space of an hour, one of which weighed 
16 and the other iglbs., and Mr. Frank Todd took one 
weighing i7lbs. Other fishermen on the same evening 
had numerous rises, and hooked several, but failed to land 
their fish. All of which is of jfublic record. This pool is 
500yds. long, and at times is full of leaping salmon, at- 
tracting spectators by the score to see them play. But it 
is of no use to cast flies then. Salmon are modest; they 
won't bite, won't display their voracity in the presence 
of a croAvd. Mosquitoes and black fiies never annoy one at 
this pool. ' 
Deer tracks are abundant everywhere in the woods on 
the line of the railroad between Dennysville and Eastport 
Juntion, and one or more are seen daily at the edge of the 
cover gazing at passing trains. At the flag stations they 
look to see Avho-gets off. If it is a Sunday school picnic 
they are not shy. If it is a man with a gun they take to 
the woods. Partridges or timber grouse are equally 
abundant. They are as numerous between Dennysville and 
Eastport Junction as they are anywhere. When they once 
tree they are like a cat on a fence — it is hard to make them 
move. A noose at the end of a pole will snatch 'em ; but 
this is said to be an illegal mode of capturing them, though 
less cruel, in my opinion, than any other. LaAV goes off 
on Sept. 15. No hounding for deer. Brooks winding 
through grass meadows, with dense cover and tamarack 
SAvamps all around, make this an ideal habitat for deer. 
Herbert Allan is licensed as first-class guide. 
Charles H.\llock. 
■p. S — Clambakes are the order of the day at Hurley's 
Point this month. 
l)ENWv.<;vtM,E, Me., Aug. '12, 
A Stage Coach Incident. 
When the old-fashioned balloon stage coach Ivanhoe 
from little Washington drew up in front of Griffiths' 
hotel on Wood street, Pittsburg, one evening toward the 
end of May, 1830, one of the passengers who got out was 
amian to whom some interest attaches, both on account 
of his own personality and for his little misadventure of 
the following morning. The passenger in question was 
a bold Briton, Mr. James Stuart, who was making an 
extensive tour of "the States," and who, as all British 
tourists did in. those days, published an account of his 
rambles upon his return to his native island. 
But Mr. Stuart is to be discriminated trom the herd of 
tourists of the type of Thomas Ashe, Basil Hall and Mrs* 
Trollope. He finds much to praise in America, and cor- 
rects with an unsparing hand many of the untruthful and 
ungenerous statements of his predecessors. His book is 
calculated to give a generally fair character to the .Amer- 
ican people. 
On his return trip from the Southwest, Mr. Stuart came 
up the Ohio River from Cincinnati on the steamboat 
Reindeer, Capt. Burnet, as far as to Wheeling. From this 
point he Avent by stage to Washington, and from Wash- 
ington he came to Pittsburg by the same mode of con- 
veyance. The road between the two latter places he says 
is. rough, but he speaks in high praise of the beauty of 
the country. The latter part of the road he found to be 
very interesting, and the views of Pittsburg and of the 
Ohio remarkably striking. He enters into some historical 
and .statistical details; says that the town contains about 
17,000 souls; that on the Monongahela side is a manu- 
facturing village called Birmingham, and on the Alle- 
gheny side there is a town called Manchester; and that 
the habits of the people are industrious, frugal and eco- 
nomical, without show. "There is nothing remarkable 
about the public buildings of the town," he observes. 
"Some of the streets are wide, and there seemed a con- 
siderable number of churches. There are nice looking 
villas in the neighborhood of the town." The Pittsburg of 
1830 was the' Pitt sbmg of our fathers, and not of our re- 
mote ancestors. The equestrian circus, as he calls it, was 
open at the time of his visit; the performers, especially 
a lady performer, wej'e very good, "quite as wonderful, I 
thought, as those at Astley's," which no doubt was meant 
for very high praise indeed. 
But Mr. Stuart's stay in Pittsburg was of the briefest. 
He put up for the night at Griffiths' famous hostelry, and 
being anxious to proceed on his way he engaged passage 
in the stage coach for Chambersburg for the following 
morning. The fare was $8. Through the mediation of the 
hotel clerk he secured particularly the rear seat in the 
coach, as being the most comfortable, a matter which, in 
a sixty-hour ride, was worth attending to. The next 
morning Mr. Stuart climbed into the ancient vehicle, 
seated himself cozily in the hindermost seat, and set out, 
as he thought, from the smoky city. The town had al- 
ready for nearly half a century been distinguished by 
the smokiness of its atmosphere; and our present tourist 
observes that Pittsburg "would be a very delightful place 
of residence but for the clouds of coal smoke which cover 
it and give a gloomy cast to the beautiful hills Avhich 
surround it, and to all the neighboring country." 
From the hotel, however, the coach proceeded through 
town to pick up the passengers, and at one house a gentle- 
man and two ladies and tAvo or three children had secured 
passage. The ladies sent out word that they desired the 
back seat in the coach. When the driver so informed Mr. 
Stuart that gentleman very firmly declined to surrender 
his comfortable quarters. They then declared they would 
not go if they could not have the desired seat. The driver 
expostulated, but in vain. Our traveler was decided, He 
had arranged for the back seat, he Avas in possession and 
would not give it up. Griffiths, the hotel proprietor and 
itage agent, was then appealed to; but to his representa- 
, ions Mr. Stuart was equally unyielding. He informed 
Griffiths that he had stipulated with the clerk particularly 
for the hindmost seat, and that the principal was bound 
by the act of his agent. By this time quite a croAvd had 
been attracted by the altercation, and between Griffiths 
and the crowd, who were very free to express their 
opinions, Mr. Stuart had his apparent character very 
clearly set forth for his future contemplation. When at 
length all appeals in behalf of the ladies had been tried in 
vain, Griffiths informed his obstinate passenger that there 
was another coach in the yard; that he might occupir his 
seat, and probably added, "and be double-deed to him"; 
that the horses would be unhitched and put to the other 
coach; and it AA'as not until they had actually begun to 
carry out this threat, that, with the prospect of sitting in 
the stage coach all day in Griffiths' wagon yard before 
him, the haughty Britisher at last yielded the point. "It 
became indispensably necessary for me," he says,"to change 
niy plan of proceeding with what grace I could; and ac- 
cordingly to the no small amusement of the bystanders, 
removed to the front seat in the stage." But he was 
A^ery properly punished for his want of courtesy. "When 
I got the first glimpse of the lady who occupied the seat 
which I had endeavored to retain from her," he gallantly 
observes, "I could almost have wished myself under the 
earth." 
The party in controversy with Mr. Stuart consisted of 
Mr. Biddle, a brother of Nicholas Biddle, of Philadelphia; 
his daughter, a young widow Avith an infant child, and 
her friend, Mrs. Fisher with two children. There was, as 
might be expected, a good deal of frigidity in the coach 
for some little time after starting, 'for all it Avas a delight- 
ful May morning; but gradually the coolness departed, 
and by the time that they had come to the end of the 
first stage, ten miles from Pittsburg, they had so far es- 
tablished a friendly understanding, that when Mr. Biddle 
invited our touris*- to take a glass of "spirits and water" 
with him he consented, Avith a view to convince him that 
there was no lurking ill-humor on his part, "though I 
AvOuId far rather haA-e declined the offer." he says. AA'hich 
seems a strange circumstance, seeing he A\'as a Scotch 
gentleman, unless it Avas the water he objected to. The 
young widow for whom Mr. Stuart was smitten with such 
a sudden admiration had been married less than a year 
before. She had accomoanied her husband to Texas, 
\Aihither he had gone in hopes of recovering his health; 
but he continued to decline, and lived only long enough 
to .eet back to Tennessee. She was noAV sroing to Phil- 
adelphia Avith her infant in company Avith her father. 
Although the beginning of their acquaintance had been so 
inauspicious, quite a Avarm friendship grew up among 
the stage coach company, and Avhen at Chambersburg 
Mr. Biddle and his daughter separated from the others, 
going on to Baltimore, and again when at Harrisburg 
Mrs, Fisher and her children departed for Hagerstown, 
there seemed to be real regret at the parting. 
"Two of three miles after leaving Mount Pleasant," he 
says, "we began to ascend Avhat is called the Chestnut 
Ridge of the Alleghany Mountains, from its being par- 
tially covered with the sweet chestnut tree. I was agree- 
ably disappointed in finding the ascent of this hill, as well 
as of the Laurel Hill beyond it, so exceedingly easy. 
The stage is a very heavy machine, but the driver never 
asked any of the passengers to get out of the stage and 
walk in order to lighten the burden of the horses. When 
we Avalked, it was on our own account, with a view to 
exercise and amusement. The surface of the road was 
smooth. It was more the length of the hill than its steep- 
ness which fatigued the horses. 
"The Laurel Hill," he continues, "is covered with 
various descriptions of laurel, and other shrubs, but 
chiefly Avith rhododendrons of great size, groAving most 
luxuriantly. The blossoms of that species upon the hill 
.are of a pale pink color, and gave a pinkish color to the 
landscape. There is also a great quantity of the Virginia 
strawberry all over the hill." 
This Mr. Stuart Avas that James Stuart, of Dunearn, in 
Scotland, who slew Sir Alexander Boswell in a duel at 
Auchtertool, in April, 1822. Sir Alexander Avas the eldest 
son of James Boswell, the biographer of Dr. Johnson. 
He was a man of rare character, the friend of Sir Walter 
Scott, a soldier, an antiquary, a poet, the author of the 
popular Scottish songs "Jennie dang the WeaA^er" and 
"Good Night, and Joy be Avi' You A'." The quarrel 
grcAV out of a political squib, in Avhich Sir Alexander by 
a pun on the word "cowherd" described the "stot-feeder 
Stuart" as a "fat coAv-art." Mr. Stuart could not stand 
any imputation on his courage, and at once prepared a 
challenge. Sir Alexander, as he declared beforehand he 
Avould do, fired his pistol into the air; but Stuart, who 
must have known of this, in that spirit of meanness which 
displayed itself in the stage coach affair in Pittsburg, 
fired straight at Sir Alexander, who fell mortally Avounded 
and died the next daj', universally regretted. Stuart, in 
order to divert his mind from the haunting memories of 
the field of Auchtertool, traveled extensively through 
both hemispheres. My copy of his book is a presentation 
copy to one J. C. Stuart. London. 1833, and bears the 
autograph of "James Stuart," that signature has a 
strange interest for me. when I reflect that it Avas sub- 
scribed by the same hand to the fatal note which was in 
the keeping of the Eari of Roslyn that chilly March night 
in 1822 when his lordship's letter was handed to Sir 
Alexander Bo,SAvell as he descended from the London 
coach, and Avhich he opened and read "under the nearest 
lamp post" in the street of Edinburgh. 
T. J. Chapman. 
'"Way Down South in Dixie/' 
When the outing season is draAving to a close for the 
world of fashion, and wives and daughters are welcomed 
home by the weaiy pater familias, Avho has borne the 
heat and burden, of the day in his city olfice — whose holi- 
day is not yet— when others are returning by every boat 
and train to the city, warned by a cool hint from the 
Avell-known artist tourist Mr. Frost— then the tired busi- 
ness man lets his thoughts stray far afield, out into the 
cool AA'oodlands, just freshly grained in every charming 
hue and tint by that wonderful colorist before men- 
tioned and familiarly known to us as Jack Frost! 
He draws his trusty Parker out of its long confinement, 
polishes its smooth barrels with affectionate care, and 
smiles at each scar on its shapelv stock— records of many 
a hard-foiight field, Avhere, like Saul, he had "slain his 
thousands" — or said so on his return. 
Again, the SAveet call of the Bob White is in his ears, 
the whir of SAvift wings. He raises the gun to his face 
and finds himself almost pulling trigger, so vivid is the 
recollection of last year's pleasures and the picture the 
gun calls up. He suddenly remembers his dog Scamp, 
chained round at the stable; he needs exercise, and has 
been neglected of late in these hot "dog days." 
As he watches his dog's wild antics, and evident en- 
joyment of his freedom, he promises him "a real good 
time soon" and begins to Avonder where he §liajl go 
this season. 
In such a quandary, the writer Avould like to lead him 
in fancy " 'way doAvn South in Dixie," or, to be more 
exact, to Sussex county, Virginia. In this unfrequented 
corner he would find nestling deep in the pine forest a 
little hunting lodge made of SAveet new pine— no paint, 
but cozy and full of comfort and content for the wearv 
sportsman. It stands near an old vine-clad farmhouse, 
quaint and picturesque. Here the visiting sportsman 
learns something of Southern customs and cookery, and 
much of Southern hospitality. For be he boarder at the 
lodge or guest at the farmhouse, no difference is made, 
the sons of the house will act for each as "guide ami 
counselor and friend," and the daughters Avill cater to 
his appetite, stimulated by many a tramp "over the hills 
and far away." 
Then at night, around the great cavernous fireplace, 
piled high with blazing logs, the talk will be of many 
a wild chase after fox or deer, or of some unusually heavy 
bag of small game or quail. 
Undoubtedly there is a charm about the Southland, 
and the simple cordiality of its people, especially in the 
capacity of hosts, is pleasing to the neAV comer, and makes 
him feel that he must have been here before in some 
state of existence! Constantly coming and going, we 
Avere never a numerous party — at times two, at most 'four 
sportsmen, Avith several brace of fine dogs and the Avliole 
country to shoot over, some days hearing no other guns 
but our own. An early breakfast, game, two or three 
hot breads, coffee, tea, fresh eggs, butter, milk and 
honey — a lunch in our pouches — and away for a long, de- 
licious day, tramping over the sedge with our tireless 
guide, Avho kneAV the haunts and habits of every covey 
in a radius of ten miles. Such shooting! IJefore our 
staunch dogs covey after covey would rise to our guns, 
and then, after a flush, the single birds would keep us 
shooting till", weary with the long tramp and the weight 
of our bags, we would trudge home willingly to a 6 
