48 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 20, 1901. 
Chopped liver is fed to them regularly. Everything favors 
an abnormal grovirth— change of temperature, change of 
water, change of environment, culture, care and protec- 
tion. Variation in size is readily accounted for on natural 
grounds. They occur in all famliies, but more readily in 
fishculture, vi^here roughness of handling when stripping 
spawners for their ova injures a large proportion of the 
eggs. 
So much for North Carolina mountain trout. As for 
the streams themselves, they are ideal. From their catch 
basins in the clouds they drop by 300-foot leaps from 
their rocky escarpments until they accomplish a descent 
of 3,000 feet or more, and thereupon thev take the simili- 
tude and manner of creeks like the Whitewater, the Horse- 
pasture, the Tuckaseegee, the Toxaway and the French 
Broad, which form the feeders of the Tennessee and 
Savannah rivers. There are not less than forty of these 
high falls in this immediate vicinity. From the summit of 
Mt. Toxaway, where there is an observatory and a lodge, 
the Whitewater Falls show against the green of the 
forested mountan side, fifteen miles distant, like a column 
of marble when the sun strikes it. The width is perhaps 
one-third its^height, so that it compares phenomenally with 
the noted high falls of the continent, while its location 
in mid-air is unique. 
To most vacation ramblers this coming south for cool 
quarters is an enigma. But I can say, from a continental 
experience, that, excepting the sea coast, high elevations 
afford the only escape from midsummer heats. I have 
chased the comforter far up into the sub-arctic latitudes 
of Alaska and Labrador, and there seen the discomfited 
natives curl up like beavers in an oven with July and 
August heat, and I really believe there is a hot box at the 
North Pole at this season. Such phenomena explain the 
exuberance and variety of bird life and plant life which 
is found in that region, and the reason for its selection as 
a breeding ground for flight birds and water fowl. 
Globe trotters are only just beginning to discover the 
advantages and attractions of this Appalachian ridge, 
chiefly because they have not been easily accessible until 
withm a decade. Now we have tramways and trolleys 
and graded roads, and all hotel conveniences. Even in- 
valids can attain unto them. We are only twenty-two 
hours from New York. Charles Hallock. 
Sapphire, N. C, July 10. 
West Virginia Conditions. 
RoMNEY, W. Va., July 13.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
In reply to a newspaper article I noticed in reference 
to tanneries, saw mills, and other factories not killing 
fish, I have only a few words to say. The party that 
made that statement knew he was stating a barefaced 
lie, and I refer all parties to the condition of the North 
Branch of the Potomac prior to the time saw mills were 
erected above Piedmont, the pulp mill at Piedmont, and 
other sources of pollution. Before this pollution was 
commenced the North Branch was a good black bass 
stream, and I have stood on the banks of it at Wash- 
ington Bottom, ten or elevn miles west of Cumber- 
land, Md., and have seen any quantities of bass on their 
spawning beds and swimming around. How is it now? 
At Parkersburg, a few weeks ago, the Federal Grand 
Jury indicted three saw mill men for pollution of a 
stream, and the suit of the city of Cumberland against 
the pulp mill people at Luke, Md., shows very positively 
that there are laws on this subject, and that they can be 
enforced. The thousand or more people who live on 
the South Branch of the Potomac are not going to sit 
idle and let Cover's or the U^nited States Leather Com- 
pany, or any other concern, spoil this beautiful stream 
and pollute its waters so as to be unfit for man or beast. 
These tanneries will have to build settling basins, and 
it is no use for them to kick and squirm. 
As the South Branch has been too muddy for me to 
report any catches of bass this season, will write you 
of a 32 pound carp caught with hook and line this spring 
in Stump's Eddy, by Mr. C. D. Mcllwee, one of our 
luckiest fishermen. Mr. Mcllwee holds the belt for the 
largest fish taken with hook and line out of this stream; 
but a short time after he caught his large one a young 
man, by name of Garrett Parsons, had an exciting 
adventure with what he claims a larger carp than the 
one caught by Mcllwee, Mr. Parsons was down in a 
meadow watching the receding high water, and noticed 
something swimming around, which he took to be a 
muskrat. He waded out to it and struck it with a stick 
and then found it was a tremendous carp. He got his 
hands in its mouth, but could not hold it, as he was so 
much excited, and the fish was so slippery. The fish 
made its escape into a run and then into the river a few 
yards away. 
A great Inany camps are here now, but the fishing has 
been very poor, on account of high waters. I think it 
will improve shortly, as it has the appearance of clearing 
up now, and as very few small bass have been caught, and 
they haA'e had time to spawn, I think it will be fine fish- 
ing here later on. 
Our last Legislature gave our game warden a salary of 
$1,200 a year and $300 additional for traveling expenses, 
etc., and gave him power to appoint deputies in each 
county. This he is very slow in doing, and it is badly 
needed in the counties of Hampshire, Hardy and Grant, 
and no doubt in other counties. Guess he is faster in 
drawing his salary than in the protection of our game, 
A crowd of sportsmen from Wheeling and vicinity 
passed through this place to visit and inspect a tract of 
land, about eighteen miles above Moorefield, on the 
south fork of the South Branch, for the purpose of 
establishing a game and fish preserve. Another party 
from New York is after this same land, for the same 
purpose, and it is to be hoped that one or the other will 
purchase it for this purpose. 
Partridges are thick here this summer and I predict 
A fine quail season this fall. Squirrels are very scarce 
around here. Jim Burr Brady. 
Notice. 
All commtuiications intended for Fokibt and SrasAH should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream F^bUsM|i|i^ Co., bi;4 
l^Qt tQ mr in4iv}(lusl ^nnected with the paper^ 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
"Good Boating." 
Chicago, 111., July 13. — This is the season of the 3'ear 
when the summer resort hotels are assiduously distributing 
their glowing literature. I believe it was an Eastern 
railroad which sent out a genius along its line to write up 
the attractions of the different fishing resorts, and printed 
the report of the said genius to the effect that fine bull- 
head fishing and fine trout fishing could both be found in 
such and such a lake along the aforesaid line. This sort 
of thing does not go to-day, for the sporting public at 
least expects something of accuracy in the schedule of 
the summer resort; yet I notice a number of railroad 
hotels in our North Woods who advertise the "giant mus- 
callunge," the "leaping black bass" and the "speckled 
beauty" as of yore. Nearly all of these summer hotel 
folders also call attention to the fact that there is "good 
boating." It is rather of a comfort to the average city 
man who goes into the wilderness to reflect that, although 
the owner of the hotel has been studiously doing all he 
could to keep down the deer supply by jacklight hunting in 
the summer time, and has perhaps kept his boys busy fish- 
ing through the ice in the winter time, has none the less 
been generous enough to leave the "good boating" for his 
summer guests. Take courage, my brethren. If the fish 
do not bite, you still have left the water, and so long as 
you have plenty of water you can have "good boating." 
No hotel folder should be without this announcement; 
and, indeed, very few of them are without it, 
"Good Fishing." 
As to good fishing, that is another matter, We are all 
up in the air in this neighborhood, so far as actually good 
fishing is concerned, nor have we much license to expect, 
any considerable change in the conditions until the cooler 
season of autumn. Mr. Graham H. Harris, who has re- 
turned from the Manitowish chain, states that eight bass 
in one day was the best he could do. It should be re- 
membered, however, that Mr. Harris does not fish for 
bass with anything but the fly. I imagine that any one 
could have very good sport with bait on bass in any one 
of a number of different waters near the Manitowish 
station. 
In the Vieux Desert region, accessible from State Line. 
Wis., there are a lot of good bass lakes. Nut Lake and 
Dinner Lake are good little bass waters, situated about a 
half-mile from each other and about six miles from the 
big lake. So far as is known, these lakes were not fished 
by any one until 1898. They still have a great many 
bass in them. Thirty and forty bass have been taken 
there in the course of an afternoon. The most deadly way 
for fishing these waters is by means of a bait-casting 
rod and free reel, and at this season of the year the 
spoon hook with a pork rind bait is perhaps as good a lure 
as any, although the live frog will do business in the 
evening in these wilderness lakes, provided one can secure 
the frogs. One of the most exciting experiences I ever 
had was in a little lake called Moon Lake, up near the 
Gaylord Club, where I once met a school of bass feeding 
at the edge of the lilypads. These fish would snap at any- 
thing I could throw to them, the artificial fly, frog, spoon 
hook, or anything else. After I ran out of frogs and 
took to the fly-rod. I had some splendid sport with them. 
There are scores of lakes accessible from State Line, 
Conover or any one of the fifty different railroad stations 
in upper Wisconsin, where one can have all the bass fish- 
ing he wants, not to mention "good boating." 
Good Canoe Trip, 
I am very often asked by parties for information re- 
garding some good stream suitable for a canoe or boating 
trip where one can camp ottt and do a little fishing. One 
might do much worse than follow the Wisconsin River 
from State Line or the Vieux Desert country down to 
Rhinelander. This is a distance of about 140 miles in 
all, and it takes one through a very wild and prolific part 
of Wisconsin River system. There are some muscal- 
lunge in the Wisconsin River in this portion, to say 
nothing of a great many wall-eyed pike and small-mouth 
bass. In the fall one would sometimes see ducks, perhaps 
partridges, and perhaps also deer. There are no dangerous 
rapids, but the water is in places fast enough to make it 
interesting. This is a good thing to bear in mind if one 
is looking for a floating trip. 
At the HuroQ Mountain Club. 
Mr. Hempstead Washburne, of this city, is' just in town, 
back from his cottage at the Huron Mountain Club, on the 
south shore of Lake Michigan. There are at present about 
thirty members up at the club, and they are all having a 
good time, although the fishing just now is nothing ex- 
traordinary. It was better during the earlier months of 
the season, though even now there are enough trout taken 
to supply the tables and to afford sport for the faithful. 
It was at the Huron Mountain Club that a little bear 
hunt occurred a week or so ago, in which the leading 
figures were Mr. W. P. Hamilton, of Detroit, his twelve- 
year-old son. Dr. Baxter, of Chicago, and John Nelson, a 
local guide. It would seem that Nelson had seen sign of a 
good bear and had put out a steel trap, and presently he 
brought word that the bear had gone off with the trap, 
clog and all. Mr. Hamilton and his son started out that 
day, and they and Nelson followed the bear all day long 
through a heavy bit of swamp. They could not get up 
with him, and had to go back to the club that night. On 
the next day Dr. Baxter joined them and they all started 
out at 4 o'clock in the morning. They followed Bruin 
steadily until dark, but were unable to come up with him, 
and finally had to give up the chase and let the bear get 
away with the trap, perhaps to perish a lingering death, 
perhaps to have his foot rot off in the jaws of the trap 
after some weeks of suffering. They claimed that they 
had no dog with which they could follow the bear, and 
that the bear in some way had freed the clog from the 
trap, so that he could travel with considerable speed. They 
saw places where the bear had pounded against the trunks 
of trees with the trap, and in one place had actually cut 
off or broken off a big pine stub in this way, hammering 
it with the side of the trap. At times the bear would pick 
up the clog in his arms and walk with it in ^^at yray, tvU 
dently having the trap upon his front foot. The track of 
this bear measured 6 inches across the ball of the foot, 
which is a very large bear for that part of the world. 
Speaking of Mr. Graham H. Harris reminds me that he 
starts this coming week with his family for an extended 
trip through the Western regions. They stop first at the 
Hot Springs of South Dakota, and then go out into the 
Yellowstone Park country, and will locate at Henry's 
Lake, where Mr. Harris had such fine sport last fall, and 
where he thinks the trout fishing surpasses anything that 
he has known. 
The Au Sable. 
Mr. John D. McLeod, of Milwaukee, has inveigled the 
undersigned into a trout trip on the Au Sable River of 
Michigan. It is, of course, the. poorest time of the year, 
and we will very likely get nothing of consequence, yet we 
start on Monday evening to try it for a day or two, it being 
our firm conviction that any place is better than the city in 
these hot days of summer. Mr. George L. Alexander, of 
Grayling, whom out of all the men I have met all over 
the United States I figure to be about the most generous 
and kind-hearted that ever was, writes that he will be too 
busy to join us on this trip. It was Mr. Alexander who 
started this thing going in the first place, it being then his 
scheme to have Mr. W. B. Merskon and one or two other 
members of the Saginaw Crowd up at Grayling for a 
run down to a part of the stream where there are some big 
rainbows. Now Mr. Mershon is too busy knocking dol- 
lars off the bushes, Mr, Alexander is likewise deeply en- 
gaged in the same pursuit. As for Mr. McLeod and my- 
self, he is going to quit knocking them off, and I quit long 
ago. so it now looks as though we would start, as the 
society reporter writes of the wedding procession, 
"promptly at the appointed hour," 
A Few Bass. 
Billy Farmer, of this city, starts this afternoon for a 
session with the big-mouths at Billy Tuohy's hotel on 
Eagle Lake. Wis. At this date Billy Farmer holds the 
Tuohy medal for the biggest bass of the season safe 
enough, he having taken a bass of 6 pounds a few weeks 
ago. He is determined this time to break his own record. 
This record was held last year by H. M. White, of Chi- 
cago, with a 6-pound 7-ounce bass. Mr. White is still at 
Eagle Lake trying to equal Billy's 6-pound bass of this 
summer. He has been having pretty good fishing, last 
Saturday coming in with a catch of twenty-two bass, and 
a week previous with one of twenty, including a number 
of very good fish. 
There are some big-mouths still left up in the country 
adjoining Fox Lake, Wis. Lake Emily seems to be a 
favorite water, and although of no great extent, it has 
never been fished in the modern scientific method until 
very lately. Two anglers by the name of Robert Jansen 
and Albrough Pope on last Tuesday caught over 100 
black bass in this little lake, which is something of a record 
for a water situated in so old-settled a country as that 
part of Wisconsin. 
Annual Fish Day. 
I do not know whether I mentioned it or not at the 
right time, though I intended to do so, and certainly it de- 
serves mention — this great annual fish holiday of the city 
of Bloomington, 111. Bloomington is a busy litttle city, 
but it has near it no river, creek or lake of any conse- 
quence. There is one litttle lake known as Miller Lake, 
which was stocked five years ago with game fish. Last 
year it was determined by the city fathers that the public 
of Bloomington ought to have one day's fishing a year at 
least, and on last July it is stated that there were 2,500 
people who went out fishing in this little lake on the occa- 
sion of the annual holiday. On July 6, the date of the 
holiday for this year, there were fully as many anglers of 
all sorts and conditions on the shores of this little pond. 
The people came out before daybreak in order to get good 
positions, as they do when attending a hanging down in 
Arkansas, and all day long and until dark they patiently 
did their best to avail themselves of the privileges brought 
by this fishing holiday. Once a year, one day out of .365— 
it is too bad that Bloomington and every other city in the 
world cannot do a little bit better than that by 'way of 
fishing holidays. E. Hough. 
HAKTrOKP BuiLDIHO, ChicBgo. III. 
Canadian Angling Notes. 
The sport continues so good among the ouananichc in 
the Grande Decharge of Lake St. John that the Messrs. 
W. Ruthven Stuart and J. Ruthven Stuart, of London, 
who have already spent some time there, are extending 
their visit another month. Other British sportsmen who 
are at present enjoying this fishing are T. T. McCready 
and W. H. McCready, of Dublin, Ireland. Messrs. Graves, 
Morrison and Cardie, of Columbus and Cleveland, O., are 
making an extended trip in the Lake St. John country, 
being after trout as well as ouananiche. Among other 
American angling parties who have been exceedingly 
successful in the Grande Decharge is one composed "of 
Messrs. H. J. Martin, W. H. Martin and Colonel Jones, of 
New York. They found the ouananiche very plentiful, 
and their catch was a very large one. In fact, it is the 
universal experience this year that the fish are very much 
more numerous than usual. 
With the diminution of the fly pest in the woods at the 
end of this month, there is likely to be a large increase in 
the number of canoeing parties bound for the lake country 
north of Lake St. John. For most of these waters anglers 
>will require larger flies than are now used in the Decharge. 
In fact, the large flies used there in the early part of the 
season will be found suitable in the ouananiche pools of 
the Peribonca and Ashuapmoruhouan, Lake Tschotagama 
and Lac-a-Jim. In many of the intervening and smaller 
waters good trout fishing is to be had. Either the River 
Aleck, Lake Epipham, or River and Lake des Aigles will 
be found well worthy of a visit by lovers of the angle. All 
contain trout in abundance, and in some of them large 
dore and gray trout are also to be taken by trolling. The 
Little Peribonca contains large quantities of both 
ouananiche and trout. It is reached by steamer from 
Roberval to the mouth of the Grand Peribonca and thence 
canoe, '^he canoe rotites are hemtnccl in by forests, 
