FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 21, 1900. 
In the Santa Cruz Mountains. 
San Francisco, Cal., June 26.— The writer and a friend, 
feeling that a couple of days in the mountains would be 
beneficial, planned a short trip to Boulder Creek, for the 
purpose of a rest, with a little sjjort thrown in. 
The town of Boulder Creek is in the heart of the banta 
Cruz Mountains, and distant from San Francisco eighty 
miles. Leaving the city on the morning of June 9, atter a 
very pleasant journev of four hours we arrived at our 
destination and immediately repaired to the Boulder 
Creek Hotel, an excellent resort for sportsmen, and had 
lunch. , 
There are three trout streams within lOO yards ot tne 
station— viz.. Boulder Creek, Bear Creek and San Lorenzo 
River. Boulder and Bear creeks empty into the San 
Lorenzo at this point, and the San Lorenzo empties mto 
the Bay of Santa Cruz, some twelve miles distant. 
Having been very successful on previous fishing trips 
on Boulder Creek, we turned our attention to this stream 
first, and much to our disgust found it the color ot 
chocolate. A sawmill is situated on its banks some 
three miles up. and we presumed, as we afterward found 
out, that the owner had that morning emptied his log 
pond, hence the discoloration. Our only choice, then, was 
to fish Bear Creek, or the headwaters of the San Lorenzo 
River. We chose the latter. A walk of three miles along 
the railroad track brought us to a lovely spot at the 
soaked (by water), a circumstance which happens to 
all anglers who insist on fishing on this particular branch 
of the stream. Tree Spoon. 
The Mississippi Headwaters. 
Charles Christadoro in the Neit). Voi-k- Sun. 
An allotment of $2,250,000 has just been made for the- 
improvement and deepening of the Mississippi River. A 
further amount of $8,000,000 is asked from the River and 
Harbor Commission for rendering this river more 
navigable at certain shallow places. 
Now, at this river's headwaters in the northern part of 
Minnesota is an Indian reservation already ceded to the 
Go\'ernment under the Rice Treaty with the Indians. This 
reservation is known as the Leech Lake Chippewa Reser- 
vation. 
In this tract are 830,000 acres, of which 200,000 are 
water. Within its boundaries are the three great lakes 
of Leech (with 540 miles of shore line), Winnebigoshish 
and Cas.s, besides seventy smaller lakes connecting with 
ihe infant Mississippi, making one great checkerboard of 
forest and water. 
It is said iliat upon this re^^ervation is td-day the greatest 
body of white and Norway pine to be found in this coun- 
trv. Conservative estimates give 2,000,000,000 feet of 
looking upon this great body of standing pine with 
covetous eyes, have so far been able to block any legisla- 
tion toward preservation and are working night and day 
to secure the timber through public sale. 
If they succeed they will put perhaps an extra mil- 
lion or two of dollars in their pockets at a future cost 
to the nation of a hundred million or more by jeopardizing 
the navigability of one of the greatest water highways 
on the globe. 
The friends of forest preservation take the position that 
this question of destroying or preserving the timber upon 
the headwaters of this river is of such widespread national 
importance that its fate should not be left in the hands of 
a few legislators from Minnesota. 
The proposition is too broad and national in its scope 
to be controlled or influenced by any self-seeking methods, 
The writer had the pleasure of addressing the forestry 
branch of the Society for the Advancement of Science on 
Tuesday last at Columbia University on this subject. He 
received the greatest attention and was assured of the 
hearty sup];)ort from the far-thinking, broad-minded men 
present. 
The question of reserving this, tract will come up again 
in December next in Washington, and 1 trust the publi- 
cation of this article may arouse some men of national 
public spirit to help toward the right end when the time 
comes. It is a question of whether the personal gain 
of a handful of already wealthy lumbermen should be 
■J 
% - 
FISHING ON THK S.\N l,ORI-N7.0, 
head of a gorge, where we found an ideal trout pool. 
While we were getting our rods together, we were ac- 
costed by a woodchopper, who volunteered the remark 
that if we wanted trout fishing we had better go about 
four miles further up stream, as this pool was only a 
"sucker hole," and that he had never seen a trout taken 
out of it. Disregarding his advice, Ave commenced fish- 
ing, and casting my spoon to the further end of the pool, T 
immediately had a rise, a strike, and hooked a beauty, hav- 
ing to handle it very carefully to avoid the many sunken 
logs, tree branches, brush, etc., which I may add are 
very plentifu' in some of our mountain streams in Cali- 
fornia, and I eventually landed a i-pound trout. Withii 
the next few casts i hooked and landed his mate, anothe; 
T-pounder. and during the balance of the day the spor; 
was grand, creeling twenty-three fish, the smallest meas- 
uring 10 inches, and including three i-pound trout. 
My friend in the meantime had wandered off and made 
some very fine sketches, and on his return he used his 
camera to good account and procured some very good 
positions, after which we returned to our hotel with an 
excellent appetite and much delighted with our afternoon's 
outing. 
The following morning we were out bright and early 
und wended our way to the San Lorenzo River in the hope 
of procuring a good day's sport, but were disappoin^ed : 
the chocolate color of the stream had somewhat cleared 
but not sufficient for fishing. We therefore retraced our 
steps and returned to the upper waters of this stream 
We again met our woodchopper friend, but this time he 
was fishing in the pool he had so recently condemned as 
a "sucker hole." He had not, however, been successful 
and intimated hi.s intention of going up stream, and invited 
us to go along. Having made up our minds to fish 
down through the gorge, we parted, after supplying him 
w>th a few flies and a spoon, which greatlv took his fancy 
.\ftcr considerable difliculty we entered the stream at the 
liead of this gorge and went through. We were well 
rewarded, creeling t^iirtv fine trout, but got thoroughlv 
standing pine, exclusive of some hardwoods and jack 
pine, making altogether a great watershed and filter bed 
for the Mississippi River. 
Some prominent citizens of thfe Northwest are doing 
their utmost to have this land reserved as a national forest 
park by the Government, instead of having it sold to the 
lumbermen. 
Upon this tract are tribes of Chippewa Indians number- 
ing in all t.soo souls. It is proposed that the Indians be 
left vvhere they are instead of being driven away to a 
foreign reservation. 
The inteUigent, thinking person must realize the effect 
upon the flow and quantity of water in a river with its 
timber-covered headwaters denuded. A flood in the 
early spring and midsummer and low water for the rest 
of the year 15 the iiistory of every stream after its head- 
waters have suffered at the hands of the lumbermen. 
The mean depth of the Mississippi would undoubtedly 
be greatly lowered were the timber to be cut from this 
great watershed. This being so. to keep the river 
navigable its entire length from St. Paul to the Gulf would 
require the expenditure of many millions annually. In- 
stead of a request for eight or ten millions a hundred 
millions would be asked for. To do that which would 
lower this great river 2 or 3 feet would prove a catastronhe 
to the whole Mississippi River Vallev with its more than 
.^o.ooo.ooo inhabitants. 
For two year'; the most strenuous efforts have been 
'Tat- ■ '^^ Federation of Women's Clubs of tlie State 
of iMmne^ota and a number of public spirited citizens to 
prevent the lumbermen of the State, alreadv rollin<^ in 
wealth throiieh purchases of timber lands from the Gov- 
-•■nniont and S':ite. from acquiring this land. These same 
Imnbernien, oblivious to every other consideration save 
that of present personal profit, have so far been influential 
enoueh with some of Minnesota's Representatives in 
Washington to prevent any action by Congress to reserve 
th's land for the people. ^' vc 
In Other words, a handful aS M"if}eRotrv liimbermen 
considered when the outconje means sq many millions of 
loss tx) the nation at large. 
Longf Island Fishing", 
Ql'eknsw.-vter, L, I., July 14.— Fishing has perhaps 
never been better than during the past week. It was esti- 
mated that 2,500 pounds of fish was taken to the city orf 
Sunday. It was all caught by hook and line. The new' 
fishing holes have proven to be bonanzas for fisherriieri. 
One party cau'ght a barrel of fish— mostly sea bass— irt a 
little over an hour. Weakfish are biting fairly well. One' 
party caught fourteen yesterday. Bluefish have not ar- 
rived yet in sufficient numbers to make trolling for them 
interesting. 
MA.SSAPEOUA, L. I., July 14.— A party of fisherm.an who 
went out from the Massapequa Hotel either made what 
might be called a clerical error, or else their scales need 
an examination. They reported a catch of eight bluefish 
weighing 83 pounds. They probably meant to say eighteen 
fish. This is the first reported catch of bluefish this sea- 
son. Ten-pound blues are sometimes caught late in the 
season, but now they are scarcer than hens' teeth. The 
main point to the report, however, is the fact that blue- 
fish have arfived. 
A Tuna in New York. 
Mr, E, Vom Hofe. of 95 Fulton street, New York city, 
has on exhibition in his store a loo-pound tuna, caught 
bv Mr, T._ S, Manning in Avalon Bay. Cal.. on June 1. 
Mr. Manning was fishing with light tackle for white sea 
bass when he hooked the tuna, which, though not a large 
one. made a tremendous fight on the light rod, and wa.s 
landed only after a seven hours' battle. Mr. Manning 
holds the recorxl for landing the largest black sea bass, 
having Cfipturcd one weighing 370 pounds. 
