S04 
will answer tolerably well fof deer hunting^, but not for 
moose. The moccasins that are sold on the edge of the 
woods are the best for that purpose. Any old suit of 
clothes of soft material will do; medium shade of gray 
or brown is the best. Canvas never, nor anything the 
color of a deer's coat if you value your life. 
For trout fishing select flies that are tied on rather 
large hooks. Parmachenee-belle, brown-hackle, Mon- 
treal, white-moth and a few medium-sized green and dark 
gray flies are a good enough assortment. See that the 
hackles and tails are nearly opposite the bend of the 
hook; if too long cut them. Neglect this and you will 
have plenty of short rises. A steel fly-rod will save the 
angler the trouble and inconvenience of mending broken 
tips and joints. 
The high pi'ices for guides that prevail along the line 
of the Bangor & Aroostook R. R. will undoubtedly drive 
the bulk of the visitors into the camps, as one can have 
a nice time in camp for about $40 a month. The same 
time spent in camping out with your guide at $3 per day 
and his board would cost over $100. Of course you see 
more of the countrj-. After all, the difference is not so 
great if you shift from one camp to another. Two dol- 
lars per day for guide, 50 cents additional for canoe, is 
about right. I never paid more in the Portage Lake 
country. Four and a half dollars per day was the price 
I paid for two good guides and a canoe when I came into 
this region last year. A tent has always been the regular 
equipment of a guide until latel}^ Turn down any guide 
that charges extra for it, and serve a camp the same way^ 
that charges more than $1 a day for boarding 3rour guide. 
If the guides refuse to accept any reasonable terms strike 
out for some of the camps far back in the woods, and 
have a good time for less money. The best of the guides 
are likely to be engaged from the first of October until 
extreme cold weather sets in. In consequence higher 
rates are apt to prevail. Many of the guides lack the 
qualifications to become successful moose hunters. Here 
is a list of good ones: Clarence Peavey, Oxbow; I._0. 
Hunt, Norcross; Thomas West, Portage Lake; Joe 
Francis, Oldtown; Frank Cram and Lyman Hunt, Lin- 
coln, Me. Cram knows all about the region near Chem- 
gudsabamticook Lake, in the AUegash country. Cram 
and Lyman are old friends and will work together with- 
out a hitch. Secure your guide far in advance of the 
hunting season or you may have an incompetent guide 
saddled on to you that knows little about the habits of 
moose or deer. 
Moose hunting is not what it used to be. A few years 
have worked sad changes in northeastern Maine. The 
choicest himting grounds of the Machias region are over- 
run with sportsmen. The Bangor & Aroostook R. R. is 
responsible for this state of affairs. Few sportsmen came 
to northeastern Maine before the opening of the railroad. 
The large bulls are being shot off to an alarming extent. 
The few that remain are only to be found in the wildest 
and most inaccessible places, such as Baker Lake, west 
of Cacongamoc Pond. The Allegash country is likely to 
hold some good ones, as there are no camps there. There 
were thousands of hunters in the Maine woods last 
autumn. Only a small percentage of them had any luck- 
Of the moose that were brought out of the woods it is 
safe to say that precious few were big ones. There are a 
few wary old bulls hid away arriong the mountain gorges 
of the Katahdin region. Ever on the alert, they are more 
than a match for the average sportsman. Alas! the merci- 
less rifle is fast thinning their ranks. It is time that the 
people of Maine realized the fact that one of the greatest 
attractions of their State is passing away. Caribou are 
protected — why not the moose? A few years will see the 
big bulls as scarce as caribou are at present unless a 
close time is put on them at once. 
Camps are springing up in every direction along the 
line of the B. & A. R. R.; the Machias region abounds 
with them as far north as Spider Lake. Those that are 
easy of access are thronged during the hunting season 
with a motley crowd of sportsmen that scour the woods 
in every direction. Many of them have_ had little ex- 
perience with firearms, and their presence in the woods is 
a menace to every living thing, including the hunter. 
They are often indebted to their guides for what game 
they get. The moose soon leave this locality, and the 
few deer that remain are apt to wave their white flag 
in derision at the sportsman long before he can get 
within fair rifle sh'ot. When the game and trout have 
vanished another section of the woods is invaded, and 
the same scenes are re-enacted. The camps far back 
in the depths of the forest and difficult of access are for 
the most part patronized by the knowing ones that work 
in ahead of the crowd and get the cream of the sport. 
This particularly applies to moose hunting. Sportsmen 
of this class are brave, hardy and enduring, and think 
nothing of following the tracks of some old bull for days 
at a time, camping out wherever night finds them. Having 
none but the best of guides and being pretty well posted 
themselves on all the tricks and maneuvers of the wary 
game they sooner or later secure the coveted trophy. 
Alas! the crowd have invaded their happy hunting 
grounds, and they and the moose have vanished together. 
If the reader wishes to become better acquainted with 
this class of sportsmen and their ways he will have to 
follow them across the border into the wilds of New 
Brunswick. W. C. Squier, Jr. 
Appalachian National Park. 
AsHEViLLE, N. C, June 18. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
We are pleased to report that both Houses of Congress 
have passed the bill of the Appalachian National Park, 
which bill is for the purpose of appointing a committee to 
investigate the forest conditions of the Appalachian 
Mountains in western North Carolina. The bill carries 
with it an appropriation of $5,000, and becomes a law on 
July I. The committee is to be appointed by the Presi- 
dent, and will be instructed to make an investigation this 
summer and report to Congress at the next session. 
The Appalachian National Park Association and all 
lovers of forests and wild woods are to be congratulated 
upon the passage of this bill, as it means the first step 
of the Government toward the preservation of a tract of 
the virgin forests of the Southern Appalachian Moun- 
taifirss-— The members of the Appalachian National Park 
Association are pajticularly to be congratulated from the 
fact' that of several similar bills presented at the last 
session of Congress, this bill was the only one which went 
through. This is due to the energy of the Senator of 
North Carolin.'i, Hon. Jeter C. Pritcliard. 
The work ahead of the Association for the promotion of 
this forest reserve is a gigantic one, but one which has 
been thoroughly considered and weighed from all stand- 
points before the work was undertaken. The fight has 
now only really begitn, but the success already achieved 
is encouraging and stimulated those interested in. tkeir 
deternunatinn to see the matter through. 
C P. AmbleRj Sec'y. 
The Tobique and Nepisiguit Rivers. 
Pertch Center, N. B.— Editor Forest and Stream: For 
those who admire the charms of nature, with the most 
beautiful scenic surroundings, something out of the com- 
mon and off the beaten track, this great Tobique and 
Nepisiguit River region is especially alluring. Nature 
was prodigal when this vast solitude was formed. When 
the dry land appeared driven upward by Titanic eternal 
forces and thrown into mountains and hills of every shape, 
the water was gathered into every valley, and the remains 
in lakes and streams, each with its own charms, each 
beautiful with the combination of hill and valley and for- 
est-lined slope, each attractive in its way, each rich in 
scapes that a painter would desire to copy. 
Embraced in this province are two of the grandest, 
though at the same time the least known, of the in- 
numerable rivers and streams, whose very names are .s.ug- 
gestive of romantic interest and beauty. The Tobique, 
lying in the counties of Victoria and Ristigouche, for 
its whole length, from its junction with the noble St. 
John to its very headwaters, conveys a boundless vision 
of all that is wild and primitive, for woodland scenery, 
and all that is exciting and othei-wise enjoyable for plen- 
itude of fish and game supply. The canoeist who ex- 
plores the principal sources of this lovely mountain 
stream will have secured a wealth of picturesque ex- 
perience that will remain with him in reminiscence as 
long as life shall last. He will have seen a region un- 
tainted for the most part by the touch of man, where the 
forest trails are scoured deep in the solid turf by countless 
generations of moose and caribou, where the tremulous 
note of the loon is borne afar on the pulseless wings of 
the evening air, where the gamy trout will seize a flannel 
rag as readily as the most alluring fly, and where one's 
sleep at night is brokert by the sloppy h\o\v of the jump- 
ing salmon as he tumbles back in his native pool. 
If the tourist should ascend the tortuous waters of the 
Little Tobique he will find himself on the shores' of the 
beautiful Nictor Lake, which shines like a gem in its 
emerald setting at the base of Bald Mountain, the high- 
est summit in the province. From this commanding 
eminence the traveler surveys a vast unbroken sea of 
foliage, whose undulations roll against the storied cliffs 
of Gaspe to the north and the coroneted pfeak of old 
Katahdin to the south. Crossing over the three-mile 
carry from Nictor Lake, you find yourself qjn the banks of 
the upper Bathurst Lake, the very headwaters of the 
wild and rugged Nepisiguit, wh^rf 'the Irbut 'aibound and 
leap at the fly almost before the water i.s touched. One 
and a half miles down the south side of this be^a!utiful lake 
you come to a tteatly built log cabin erected on the bank 
by a babbling' " Drdbk, with waters cold and clear as 
crystal. One can stand on the veranda and catch the 
gamy trout from the lake as fast as he cares to land them. 
The stillness of the woods and the odor of balsam and 
pine trees, with the long ranges of beautiful mountains in 
the distance, makes this one of the most pleasant resting 
places. You often can see as many as a dozen moose at 
once swaggering up and down the marshy shores of 
these four mountafn lakes, some fifty mileg from the 
nearest civilization. 
After leaving these beautiful lakes you start winding 
your way down the Nepisiguit, among the many hills and 
mountains, now this way and now that, the progress 
presenting with every turn of the canvas canoe something- 
new and attractive of nature's handiwork with an at- 
mosphere pure like that of the ocean, laden only with the 
scent of the pine and the balsam, and with naught to 
break the stillness save the splash of the trout or the step 
of the lordly moose as he comes in for his bath. After 
sailing down this peaceful river through unbroken forest, 
just as nature formed it, for som.e sixty miles, you come 
to the Great Falls, where the river plunges over a preci- 
pice and through a rugged gorge that seems to have 
been placed there by some convulsion of nature. The 
contrast is surpassed in Canada only by that of Niagara, 
and has only been visited by the few sportsmen that have 
taken this trip. From here to the sea is a distance of 
twenty miles, and the river is very rapid and makes the 
trip very exciting for the sportsman who runs these 
rapids in the safe canvas canoe, manned by a skillful 
canoeman who understands his business well. At the 
mouth of this river is situated the quiet and beautiful 
town of Bathurst, where the sportsman can take the train 
for home. 
There is indeed no tourist canoe trip where the traveler, 
seeking a vacation from the city's noise and work, can 
enjoy a better or more pleasing holiday rest than to 
make the trip up the Tobique and down the Nepisiguit 
rivers by canoe. Any one wishing to make this kind of a 
trip can be favored by writing me for any information 
he may desire. Geo. E. Armstrong. 
The latest fish story which the Chicopee River is re- 
sponsible for is truly of questionable and alarming char- 
acter. It seems that Mitchell Carpenter was fishing some- 
where' above the dam of the Chicopee Manufacturing Com- 
pany, in the neighborhood of the '''cave,'* Thursday even- 
ing. He surprised himself by catching an eel of enormotis 
proportions on a common, every-day hook. The creature 
was over a yard long and obese to a degree. When the 
cause of the stoutness of the -monster was investigated it 
was found that the voracious animal had engulfed a red- 
wing blackbird whole. How the eel had "come by" the 
bird was a mystery. It is -reported " that some are in- 
clined to doubt that the capture was an eel at all, but think 
it a water snake of, alarming' d,vrnensiohs; The weight 
of the eel was 4^ pounds.-^Springfield (Mass.) Re- 
publican. 
mtaw. 
. The Sewellels of the Pacific Coast, 
OccupyiNG the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges, and 
extending from southern British Columbia to northern 
California, is a peculiar" race of animals, known to the 
inhabitants of that region is sewellel, showt'l and moun- 
tain beaver. They belong to the genus Aplodontia. They 
are true rodents, and in appearance and build resemble 
very closely a half-grown Eastern woodchuck or ground 
hog {Arctomys monax). The hair is finer, however, and 
the animal's tail is so short that it is scarcely visible till 
the creature is skinned, and then it is found to be not more 
than half as long as an Eastern cottontail rabbit's. Lewis 
and Clark first discovered them in 1805-6, but they were 
not described till 1814. They are hardy little animals, able 
to withstand the rigors of winter, and living on the tender 
branches of shrubs. They are full of Yankee grit and 
pluck, and when cornered do not hesitate to defend them- 
selves, and undoubtedly could inflict severe injuries with 
their long, sharp incisors. 
Until lately little has been known of this interesting 
little rodent, and even at the present day much valuable 
information may be secured concerning it, if this article- 
will inspire others that have had an opportunity to study 
its habits to speak out. Up to about a year ago naturalists 
recognized but two species — Aplodontia rufa and A. major 
—-but since then Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the 
Biological Survey, has described three new species, and 
one sub-species. They are as follows: A. pacifica, A. 
phea and yi. olympica, and the sub-species, A. major 
rainieri. The specimens all came from the region men- 
tioned. I was somewhat surprised while colecting speci- 
mens of natural history at Emerald Bay, on Lake TaVioe, 
in northern California, during the month of June, 1897, to 
find that three old mountaineers who had lived in the 
region since the early days had never seen these animals, 
and were completely at a loss as to what they were, one of 
them pronouncing them a cross between a whistler (wood-^ 
chuck) and a beaver. 
The altitude of Lake Tahoe is 6,095 feet. The sewellels 
(Aplodontia phwa) I caught were about 300 feet higher. 
Immediately back of the hotel at Emerald Bay the moun- 
tain rises almost perpindicular. A little to the right, as 
one faces the mountain, is a tract several hundred feet 
wide, which has the appearance of at one time being swept 
by a snowslide and denuded of trees. Ai the present 
writing it is thickly grown over with willows and alders, 
leaving occasionally an open grassy plot. Several small 
streams heading in snow banks above work their way 
through the shrubbery. These streams are mere rivulets 
in places, bt^t a foot or so wide, but owing to the abrupt- 
ness of the mountain, are miniature mountain torrents 
that have eaten their way through the rich damp earth, in 
some places forming small waterfalls. It was here that 
I was first introduced to the mountain beaver. The meet- 
ing was not very agreeable to the second party, as I was 
forced to use steel traps to make the acquaintance. 
Along these streams I gained the few notes I offer the 
reader. The afternoon after my arrival, while climbing 
through the bushes setting traps for smaller animals, my 
attention was arrested by the runways, and occasionally 
the footprints of these animals. Although I had never 
been within their range before, I knew at once what 
animal had made them. So going back to the hotel I 
secured a number of steel traps and returned. In places 
the bank was honeycombed with their burrows, the en- 
trances, some of them, being filled with water, and again 
breaking abruptly to the surface on the bank, a few feet 
from the stream. I was led to believe that the animals 
while traveling up and down the creek took to the bed 
of the streams, wading through the water and swift riffles, 
and upon reaching a fall or place too steep to a.scend they 
made a detour and struck the creek a few feet above. 
Runways or paths were abundant, some connecting 
streams flowing close together, others cutting off nlaces 
where they made sharo turns, and still others left the 
streams, and led around waterfalls or large rocks. They 
wound in and out among the bushes and over grassy plot.s 
, alike. 
At intervals, along the banks, were natural depressions 
that had been washed out, when the water was high, but 
at the time of my visit the streams had subsided, leaving 
their surfaces exposed, thus making a typical little landing 
that the animals were not slow in taking advantage of. 
The grass or dirt was matted down, and bore the appear- 
ance of having been used as resting places, where the 
sewellels leisurely ate their food or rested after a long, 
hard climb. In such a place I set a trap, and a second 
under a waterfall where the spray wet me while at 
work. I think that I set two more traps that afternoon, 
but the ones first mentioned were the only successful ones. 
None of them were baited ; they were merely placed in 
slight hollows dug just large enough to admit the trap, and 
then covered with grass, leaves and dirt. On reaching 
the spot, I found that the poor little animals had tried 
hard to escape, that they had nearly twisted their feet 
off, and the ground was clawed up about them. As I 
approached they drew back and gritted their teeth. My 
memory fails me as to whether they jumped at me, as I 
have been told that they will do. 
Dr. Suckley, in writing of them, says : _ "This animal 
burrows extensively in the ground. It chiefly frequents 
spring heads in rich, moist places, and is found as far up 
as the dividing ridge of the Cascade Mountains, and on 
both .sides of the divide. I noticed their burrows in 1853 
at the top of the main Yakima Pass. Near their abodes 
were small bundles of herbs or plants cut with nicety and 
laid out on logs to dry or wilt. The Indians trap them 
and value their meat very much for food." 
The burrows and runways that I found along the 
streams did not seem to be their homes, but merely places 
where they' resorted in search of food. At the foot of 
the mountain, in comparatively dry ground, and among a 
thick growth of willows, I found a burrow which was 
undoubtedly one of their homes. In a olace similar, a few 
hundred yards away, was another. Nearly every night 
fresh dirt was thrown out by the inhabitants. These 
burrows did not enter the ground abruptly, but tunneled 
along the surface several feet, and then gradually de- 
scended. Regarding the habit of leaving their food on 
