4 46 
FOREST AND STREAM 
tj^tKE 6, 1903. 
now through the rapidly thickening darkness, and Hamil- 
ton beckoning me to accelerate my gait, I sobered up and 
thought to myself how unholy it would have been to 
spoil anything so rare and so beautiful as the scene 1 
had just gazed upon, and as I trudged along, head hang- 
ing low, over the short stiff grass, I sought to console 
myself with the reflection that few gunners in even those 
now distant days were allowed to behold what I beheld, 
and not in a long lifetime had many hunters succeeded in 
worming themselves over the prickling verdure within 
easy shot range of the noblest and most graceful of all 
the wild things God ever created. 
And now. No more do I regret missing that shot; 
while at the time it was the most terrible disappointment 
in the many, many long years of an arduous sportsman's 
career, it will now forever more, so long as I do live, 
stand out in bold and sacred relief, not as the greatest 
regretted, but as the luckiest of all the shots I ever 
missed. 
"You always were a fool," was all that greeted me from 
Hamilton, as I enveloped myself in the big ulster and 
crawled up on the rickety seat beside him. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertiM 
tbetn in Fobest and bTSSAU. 
According to a rumor from Lincoln, George L. Carter 
will succeed George B. Simpkins as chief deputy game 
warden and fish commissioner for the State of Nebraska. 
The appointment, if made, will go into effect July I. 
Carter is one of the present deputies and has made a very 
creditable officer. 
Warden Simpkins returned this morning from Hum- 
bolt, Neb., where he prosecuted John Scheidegger, S. B. 
Rice, Martin Bush, Rudolph Vertiska, Bob C. Carry, and 
James Lee for seining in Horse Shoe Lake. The parties 
settled by the payment of $51.31 for the ten fish found in 
their possession. 
Coming home from Stillwell's, out in Cherry county, 
this spring, we passed along the southern shores of Red 
Deer Lake, one of the best ducking waters in the sand 
hills, and famous for its geese and canvasbacks. We saw 
thousands of ducks, principally canvas, in the open holes, 
while sitting all over the ice, in all directions, geese were 
seen in bunches of ten to half a hundred. Inquiring of 
the driver, an old-time plainsman, how the lake had re- 
ceived its name, he said : 
"It may strike you, gentlemen, as a trifle singular, but 
thirty years ago the region immediately around about 
this lake, which was considerably larger then than it is 
now, was frequented by species of white-tailed deer that 
I never saw or heard of anywhere else. It was a small 
animal, a veritable dwarf of a deep red color that changed 
but a trifle in winter or summer, and so attractive were 
they to the early hunters and trappers out here that they 
were literally exterminated long before the country had 
begun to settle up. Now, this is no fairy story, but the 
truth, for I saw the deer many times myself, but nothing 
like them anywhere else. I killed a seven-year-old buck 
light off that neck running back to the hills there, and 
it wasn't as big as a full grown antelope, and weighed but 
ninety pounds, and was plump and fat at that. In those 
times, when any of us old trappers proposed a deer hunt, 
the invariable query was 'Where shall we go — down to 
Red Deer?' and ever since then this lake has gone by that 
name." 
The fact that the late Legislature even failed to correct 
the very grievous "bull" in our present game law cover- 
ing the shooting of doves and upland plover, is a matter 
of deep regret to all provident sportsmen. The law makes 
the open season on these birds from April 15 to October 
30, and as dove shooting through August and Septem- 
ber in this State is one of the gunner's chief delights, they 
are much provoked at the original framers of the bill fojr 
not attending to this matter, and instead of the preposter- 
ous season they granted for killing these precious birds 
they should have studied the requirements of the case 
and made the lawful period what it should have been. 
As it stands now a shooter cannot be molested for killing 
doves all through the nesting season, and, more's the 
shame, there are plenty of them who suffer no qualms of 
conscience about doing it. The dove law should have 
been from July 15 to November 30, and the plover season 
from July i to November 30. The all-wise drafters of 
the original bill also failed to give the grandest bird of 
them all--the jacksnipe — any protection at all, and its 
original incentive undoubtedly was the creation of a ways 
and means to compensate a few political heelers through 
the medium of the wardenships. The protection of our 
game and fish was a secondary consideration. However, 
the law has finally been massaged until it is more than 
fairly acceptable, and if it is enforced, will answer very 
well until an improvement can be made. 
A large and enthusiastic gun club was organized out at 
Alliance on the evening of May i. The officers chosen 
were: F. E. Allen, president; L. A. Shawver, secretary, 
and C. Glensdale, treasurer. C. Porter was appointed 
captain of the trap-shooters, and W. G. Dielan of the 
rifle range. Board of directors, L. N. McFall, J. F. Hor- 
ney, E. G. Morris, S. M. Smyzer, and L. A. Shawver. 
The club makes its bow with sixty-four charter members, 
and the membership is limited to one hundred. Adjacent 
to a large area of chicken, plover, curlew and ducking 
grounds, the Alliance Gun Club is in a position to be 
quite a factor in upholding the game laws. Some ante- 
lope, too, linger on the broad plains of Box Butte county, 
of which Alliance is the county seat, and many trout have 
been planted in the Rock, Snake, and Blue Water rivers. 
Sandy Griswold. 
Omaha, May 22. 
According to the Daily New Advertiser of British 
Columbia, Professor Prince, Commissoner of Fisheries 
for Canada, stated recently at Ottawa that he had wit- 
nessed the capture of a B. C. salmon weighing 84 pounds, 
but that the largest ever caught was taken out of the 
Skreena in B. C, and weighed 104 pounds. He further 
stated that in the eastern Province of Canada, where the 
salmon do not reach these gigantic proportions, fish are 
caught as large as the Norwegian salmon of 50 pounds, 
or thereabouts, which are recorded from time to time. 
The annual catch of salmon throughout Canada appears 
to be worth about twenty-five million dollars. 
Canoe and Camp Life Along the 
Delaware River. 
X —Illusions.— Over-Conf idee ces. — Facts About the Fishing. 
"Is there ony room at your head, -Saunders? 
Is there any room at yovir feet? 
Or ony room at your side, Saund«rrs, 
Where fain, fain, I wad sleep?" 
— Ballad of Chevy Chase. 
"Then here's to the lass; 
And here's to the bass 
That she fears she may not get I 
And here's to the grace 
Of her radiant face, 
As she calls for the landing-net." 
— Bentley. 
Our tent is rather small to protect two large men 
while sleeping through rainy nights. This is about the 
only fact on which we have agreed during the last week. 
For there has been a tacit understanding that whatever 
is asserted by one of us, the other must deny. Hence, 
differences alDOut who shall rise from the comfortable 
talk of first wakefulness each morning, get out of his 
blanket and start the fire, "put on" the coffee-pot, and 
empty from the canoe the water that accumulates during 
rains. Also as to who shall wash the dishes and go up 
to the farmhouse after milk and butter. It applies espe- 
cially to who shall paddle the canoe about with this latest 
addition to our bevy of campers, a charming woman and 
her more charming little daughter. Each reminds the 
other that he is too old and feeble for such work, but 
each has the illusion that the other should do all the 
routine work, and play afterwards. This is a worked 
"system" rather than anything caused by actual desire. 
But it has led to mutual accusations of inability to see, 
hear or understand anything whatever, and to confident 
statements that there is one man who sleeps in our tent 
who offensively plumes himself on seeing and knowing 
a lot that ordinary mortals cannot behold. And each 
asserts that the other is that man. Endless disputes have 
resulted from tiais attempt to spice our outing days and 
nights with friendly contention. 
For example, I look into my tiny mirror and discover 
that the bite of a wood-tick has caused a discolored spot 
under what seems to be my right eye. When Damon's 
attention is called to it, no sympathy is received. He 
says : 
"You go about in a comic opera trance, boasting that 
you can see, and don't realize as you see your own face 
in that mirror that what seems to be your right eye is 
really your left one. Been writing a lot of articles re- 
proaching readers with lack of sight ! Been preaching 
that men should study rather than describe ; and then 
describe in a long published article every week for three 
months ! How much of the stuff you have 'described' 
have j'ou actually seen ? Why can't you keep out of print 
and be satisfied?" 
"And who begged me to write 'em?" 
"I. More's the pity. Pleal yourself, doctor ! Hurry 
up, now — want to get out on the river. Awfully fine sky 
— almost as blue as. those I saw when I was at Flor " 
And then I have the satisfaction of proving to him 
that although the deep blue of Italian skies has been 
raved about for a thousand years, they are several shades 
of blue lighter than these over the Delaware. He makes 
another attack : 
"You'll stop fishin' or eatin' to tell a victim he cannot 
behold a tree. You cannot see one yourself! Look at 
that one standing on the bank across the brook. I sup- 
pose you think you see it as upright, and do not believe 
you actually see it standing on its head." 
"Nonsense !" 
"Sure ! That's what I'm talking about in you. Been 
looking at landscapes through our camera for a month 
and seeing them turned topsy-turvy, and don't know that 
your eye is a little camera, lens and all; and that you 
really see things bottom upward !" , 
"Do you mean to tell me that I.sefe this water as if it 
were above the mountains; and that they are shown on 
my retina with their tops downward?" 
"Exactly !" 
I change the subject, but secretly write a letter to an 
oculist friend in town — don't get the answer I want, and 
say nothing about it. 
Then this wise comrade rigs up a tiny instrument he 
calls an "aerometer," and puts it in a high wind, saying: 
"Think this breeze advances uniformly, don't you?" 
Then he demonstrates to me that wind is not a uniform 
force, that what he calls its "internal working" is "a 
series of infinitely complex phenomena, variable and ir- 
regular in their movements beyond anything that can be 
conceived — even the smallest portion of the air-current 
which can be examined being proved to have no 'homo- 
geneous' parts, but consisting of an exceedingly complex 
tangle of tiny and diverse currents;" Or, as Langley 
states: "In a high wind, the air moves in a tumultuous 
mass, the velocity being at one moment perhaps forty 
miles an hour, then diminishing to an almost instan- 
taneous calm, and then resuming." 
And he gets me befogged in a demonstration, with 
hundreds of algebraic figures, that the faster birds fly 
the less power they require to support themselves in air, 
and to swiftly advance — ^just as, per contra, power must 
be increased by corresponding leaps and bounds as the 
speed of steamships is increased. I vote the whole dis- 
cussion pedantic. But he will not be shaken off. 
"And you think that the reflections of that foliage just 
above this little reach of calm water in the brook, are the 
same foliage that you see direct ! You really see the under 
side of the reflected leaves, and the upper sides of the 
actual leaves. And how do you know that your sensitive- 
ness to hue is the same as mine? What you call blue 
may really be yellow to me." 
We grow silent, watchful, figuratively circling each 
other like a pair of cats about to fight. He continues : 
"Maybe the moon is made of green cheese." 
His drawl and half-shut eyes are insufferable. 
"How do you know it is not? Nobody has ever proved 
that Nature did not gather all the milk for a million 
years and " 
"Bother! Come to breakfast; the fried fish are fine, 
and eating is one more thing we can agree about." 
"All right ; but you can't have the canoe for two hours. 
Made an engagement last night to paddle Mrs. R. and her 
Dorothy over to the point, and try to get some water- 
lilies. Fine looking widow ! Notice how her hair catches 
the sunbeams?" 
So that was why she had declined my invitation. 
"And there's another thing. You have been writing a 
lot of high jinks about loveliness of environment. One 
chapter on sky and clouds, another on running water, and 
more about tent-mates and watching whippoorwills ; and 
all that has been skipped by readers who have wondered 
whether you ever would show you really know something 
about this river and its fishing, and tell them where 
to go to land a few bass and how much time and money 
that will cost! Ponder on that while the widow and I 
take our canoe ride." And he paddles away with the lady 
and her child. 
It would be a pleasure to furnish the names of several 
dealers who sell good fishing-rods, lines, reels, flies and 
leaders, landing-nets, boats, cameras and tents. But 
these numbers are not advertisements, and real anglers 
and canoeists know where such supplies can be found. 
No guide, hotel, or tackle-dealer can be named here, and 
the railroad is specified solely for the information of 
sportsmen. It is assumed that the sportsman has priced 
and purchased the small sleeping-tent, canoe, camp cook- 
ing utensils, and fishing tackle. 
Get a time- table of the Erie Railroad, and make Han- 
cock station the destination for the start of the outing. 
The 8:55 A. M. train from New York reaches Hancock, 
164 miles, at 1 :27 in the afternoon. Fare for round trip, 
$7.10. The 8:00 A. M. train from Buffalo reaches Han- 
cock, 261 miles, at 2:27 P. M. Fare for round trip, 
$11.70. The tent can be shipped as baggage; the canoe, 
crated, will cost about $1.40 per 100 pounds from New 
York to Hancock, and about $1.56 per 100 pounds from 
Buffalo. Tent and canoe can be easily carried to the 
liver from Hancock depot. 
Use an eight-ounce lancewood (it is hard to get a good 
one now), or split bamboo fly-rod, with not less than 
200 feet of oiled silk line, six foot single leaders, and a 
solid reel, for the constant work will find any weak spots 
in it. The ideal lure for the bass is the Montreal fly, on 
say No. 4 hooks. The next best fly is the Parmachenee- 
Belle. Casts of fifty feet should be readily, made with 
proper rod, line and flies. The bass taken on flies will be 
the liveliest ones, but will not be over two pounds in 
weight. If the comparatively clumsy fishing with bait is 
insisted upon, use small catfish, frogs, minnows and hel- 
gramites, here listed in the order of their excellence. 
The largest bass will be taken with bait, as they lie 
deeper, are lazier, and far more cautious. 
Carry the following list of locations, towns and fishing 
places along the fifty-three mile cruise from Hancock to 
Lackawaxen. Remember, trains are always available, and 
all the towns have fairly good hotels. Guides with some 
knowledge of boating can be hired at any point on the 
route. 
Towns and Fishing Place;, Hancock to Lackawaxen. 
Ross Island — Good fishing. 
Town of CalHcoon. 
Bush's Eddy. 
Pine Tree Eddy. 
Curtis' Eddy — Good fishing. 
Towns of Cochecton, N. Y., 
and Damascus, Pa. 
Damascus Eddy. 
South Cochecton. 
"Milanville, Pa. 
Cochecton Falls. (Guide 
needed to shoot these.) 
Gordon's Eddy. 
Town of Narrowsburg, N, 
Y. — Good fishing. 
Arnold's Eddy — Good fish- 
ing. 
Jim Dunn's Rift. 
Van Gilder's Eddy. 
Town of Tusten. 
Tusten Rift — Good fishing. 
Ten Mile River Eddy. 
Ten Mile River Rift, 
Mast Hope Eddy — Good 
fishing. 
Town of Mast Hope, Pa. 
Upper Westcolang Rift — 
Good fishing. 
Lower Westcolang Rift — 
Good fishing. 
Little Falls. 
Lackawaxen Eddy. 
Town of Lackawaxen. 
Hancock. 
Junction of Rivers — She- 
hawken. 
Nobody's Eddy— Good fish- 
ing 
Town of Stockport — Good 
. fishing. 
Dillon's Eddy. 
Tom Pollock's Rift— Good 
fishing. 
Wooster's Eddy. 
Town of Equinunk, Pa. 
Equinunk Eddy — Fair fish- 
ing; wall-eyed pike. 
Town of Lordville. 
Lordville Eddy. 
Weston's Bend — Good fish- 
ing. 
Bouchou Eddy. 
Cold Flats. 
Long Eddy — Upper part, 
good fishing. 
Town of Long Eddy. 
Basket Eddy. 
Basket Rift — Good fishing. 
Town of Kellam. 
Little Equinunk Eddy. 
Tyler's Rift. 
Dark Eddy — Good fishing. 
Town of Hankins. 
Hankin's Eddy. 
Golden Eddy — Good fishing. 
Pine Flats. 
The above list of good fishing places can be relied upon 
by the canoeist and angler. Not all of these places have 
been personally fished by me to the extent of knowing 
their continued worth as lurking places for bass; but I 
have had the list checked and verified by the well-known 
canoeist and angler, Mr. W. F. Patterson, of New York, 
who has cruised for several summers on this special part 
of the upper stream. 
It should be remembered that when the flies are cast 
on reaches of the river between these more prominent 
eddies and rifts, much good fishing may be found. The 
bass are liable to be where least expected, and the drifting 
canoeLst can find such places by using the flies steadily. 
For example, there is a very special small eddy, locally 
known as "Black Jim's Eddy," about two miles below 
Narrowsburg, over toward the New York side of the 
river, where the railroad line runs close to the bank, 
that has very often yielded remarkable fishing. It is 
about midway between Arnold's Eddy and Jim Dunn's 
Rift. 
The above list of places is merely given in manual 
form; but any average angler with average tackle, if he 
