192 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 6, 1902. 
pipe, and watch the Sofi Arabs quarreling and fighting 
over the distribution of our da3''s spoils, while the sun 
sets behind the Nubian desert, and the goats bleat with 
terror as the hollow boom of the lion's roar comes rever- 
berating over the sandy waste. H. P. U. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Missouri Bass Streams. 
Mr. H. K. Kuhn, of Bohvar, Mo., writes very pleasantly 
in regard to the bass fishing in his part of the world. This 
Ozark country is one of the best sporting regions now 
left in the West, and the excellence of the fishing to be 
found in parts of Missouri is something which does not 
seem to be realized by our anglers, many of whom go 
m.uch' further and fare much worse. Mr. Kuhn's letter 
follows : 
"I was raised on the Chesapeake Bay, and thought it 
was the proper thing to pull in three croakers at a time, 
hand over hand, in about twenty feet of water ; but after 
an experience of about twenty years with regulation rod 
and reel and the black bass, I now consider it very tame 
sport. 
/'Dr. Richard Winn, dentist ; Mr. Ed. Schofield, brother 
cf General Schofield, and myself, made a trip last fall, 
starting Oct. 15, from this place, to Camden county to 
the Niomqui, or, as the natives call it, Miongo. We 
traveled sixty miles by wagon, a fourth of the way over as 
pretty roads as you ever saw, the rest very rough. We 
were in the Ozarks. The weather was perfect, and the 
different colors the foliage presented were grand — yellow 
hickories and sumac, green cedars, brown and green 
oak, and the grandest of all, the sugar maple with its rain- 
bow tints. The river as clear as it could possibly be and 
the perpendicular bluffs and the dark water at their base, 
produced a scene which caused us all time and again to 
express our admiration and reverence. 
"We had a great time. The first three hours we caught 
seventy small-mouths about one and a quarter pounds 
average; this was under the dam. We had use for these 
hsh, but conclr.ded to seek for larger ones in the pools. 
We found them, and I wish to give you the last half day's 
experience. 
^ "Dr. Winn and the driver went together and Mr. 
Schofield and myself. Mr. Schofield and I had not very 
good luck the first couple of hours of early morning, and 
we changed our location. We passed Dr. Winn and he in- 
vited us to join him, as he said he 'was gelt'ng them,' but 
we refrained — did not like to spoil a good thing. He had 
gone up and down a mountain to get to his position, but 
he was rewarded. Mr. Schofield and I also climbed a 
m.ountain, and walked across a small valley, and there lay 
a most lovely pool, a 150-foot perpend.cular bluff for 
shade. We commenced at one end of it, and they were 
biting. Mr. Schofield had knee boots. I had waders. 
T saw a very likely looking place, if I could get to it, and 
with considerable trouble I made it. The bluff made a 
perfect right angle about thirty feet from where I stood. 
The water was deep, and I thought where the bluff turned 
was the proper place. My minnows were a remnant, 
rather small, but the bass took them rapidly. I caught 
probably forty or fifty, but did not count them. As the 
bait was getting very trifling, and I had one very large 
wide-mouth chub, I thought I would try him, and so 
hooked him through the upper lip and cast him over. 
The water just boiled where the chub fell. To be as brief 
as possible, the bass that happened to get the bait was 
landed in due form, and was a four-pounder. The min- 
j-.ow was not dead, and I put him in service again. Same 
result; another four-pounder. The minnow was pretty 
badly chewed and dead, but after taking a fresh 'holt' in 
his mouth, and smoothing him out a litde, I made a long 
cast beyond the corner and reeled rapidly. Result, a 
tremendous strike, and a well-hooked fish ; I said to my- 
self 'I have an elephant this time.' I finally brought him 
to the edge of the water at my feet and secured him. We 
estimated his weight at y^i pounds. Mr. Schofield has 
fished on the Niomqui since boyhood, and is now forty- 
three. He said it was the largest black bass he ever saw. 
Dr. Winn said the same, and the natives concurred. 
"Mr. Schofield had a nice string. When we got to 
camp the driver and Dr. Winn had struck camp and were 
waiting for us. We already had a fine supply of fish, but 
this fresh lot helped things greatly, and we arrived 
home witli plent>' for our friends and neighbors after an 
eight days' trip. The large bass were caught on a No. i 
Sproat. 
"W. H. Talbot, of reel fame, was to have accompanied 
us, but sickness prevented. We contemplate another trip 
about Oct. IS, and Mr. Talbot is billed for it," 
Seated by Bear Bails. 
Aug. 23.— Two Chicago gentlemen, Mr. Charles Tripp, 
of the Auditorium Hotel and Julius French, of the French 
Car Spring Co., went hunting last week out in the White 
River country of Colorado. They did not come back at 
once, and naturally had no way of communicating with 
their friends in Chicago. Another party passing over 
the country which they had traversed found two horses 
^hot in the head. These gentlemen took great alarm and 
promptly telegraphed to Chicago that in all likelihood 
Mr. French and Mr. Tripp had been killed, since these 
horses might, could, should or would have been theirs. 
To-day the comforting advice is received by their Chicago 
friends that the above named hunters are quite safe and 
have not been killed by train robbers, as was hurriedly 
supposed. I suppose that perhaps the searching party 
discovered a couple of horses which had been killed for 
bear baits. Such things have been in the mountains, but 
there is no use getting excited over it. 
Peaches and Cream and Grizzlies. 
I have located my long-lost grizzly in several different 
parts of the West. He is down in the Wahsatch spurs in 
Utah. Also he used to be in the Salmon River country 
( f Idaho, but I think he moved. The Seven Devils' 
Mountains once held him, but I am not sure that he is 
there to-day. The Crazy Mountains, where a 1,700-pound 
bear is stated to have been killed, also for a time appealed 
to me. Of course lower California might do, but that 
is too uncertain. Then there is my beloved Two Medi- 
^ipe CQur(tr,Y V|> in Montatiia, and also the Yermillio,t^ 
River country, west of the main range in Montana. I 
have not had time to go to all these places after my bear, 
ard maybe now I will postpone it. A man by the name 
of W. A. Hill came into my office this morning and tells 
me that he knows where my bear is, beyond the shadow 
of a doubt. It is out along a tributary of the Snake 
River m Oregon. There is a little valley where the 
settlers raise peaches and cream and have goose hair for 
pillows. At the upper end of this valley there are some 
big snowy mountains, flanked by bad lands, worse than 
those of Dakota or Montana. In these mountains are 
some mountain sheep, a good many deer and some bears ; 
not little bears, but big ones; not black bears, but silver- 
tips, which some call grizzlies, which we used to call 
"platado'' in New Mexico — but anyhow I ng-toed bears, 
which will scrap, and which will kill a horse or steer when 
they are hungry, as the settlers of my little valley will 
testify. Now it seems to me if I could find a country 
where peaches and cream and grizzlies grew all together, 
and where five-pound trout came along as a matter of 
course, I ought not to have any kick coming whatever. I 
will have to ask the lady who is my side partner in bear 
hunting whether she has lost any grizzly, and if so we 
may visit this enchanted valley one of these years. 
As instancing the size of the bears in this newly dis- 
covered country, I may state that last year one was killed 
which weighed 800 pounds. This was a pretty good bear, 
but it is nothing to the one killed by a settler this sum- 
mer. My informant, Mr. Hill, could not give me the 
name of the rancher who killed this bear, but he knew 
the facts very well. The old grizzly came down into the 
rancher's corral and killed a two-year-old steer, which he 
proceeded to eat up. This made the farmer some hot, and 
he immediately started after his gun. The aforesaid gun 
was a short-barreled squirrel rifle, carrying a bullet about 
the size of a .32 caliber, a plain, unvarnished gun which 
loaded at the top and had to be capped at the bottom, after 
the fashion of our forefathers' weapons. Thus equipped 
the irate farmer walked out to the pen. within fifteen 
yards of the grizzly, and took a shot at him. He' shot 
him straight through the heart, and, strange as it may 
stem, one shot was enough for Bruin. He sank down 
and never got up at all. The bullet passed through the 
heart and lodged in the ribs on the opposite side. This 
bear weighed 1,400 pounds, according to Mr. Hill, who 
Slates that his information was correct. It's a good bear 
story, anyhow. Think of a bear like that, with peaches 
and cream and five-pound trout on the s dc! This world 
is not such a cheerless place after all. 
la Differdnt Directions 
It is one of my personal ambitions to entirely break 
down the commercial system of the world and send every- 
body out to live chiefly hunting and fishing. Among 
other efforts in that line this week I have sent one Florida 
gentleman to Texas for bird shooting and tarpon fishing; 
one Chicago gentleman to New Brunswick after moose, 
and seven gentlemen of assorted localities out to Minne- 
sota after chickens and ducks ; that is to say, all these 
start at the opening of the respective seasons. Mv moose 
man is Mr. T. W. Robinson, of the Illinois Steel Co., this 
city, who goes in with Adam Moore, or rather Jack 
Moore, Adam's son, on his newly located moose range in 
the Serpentine country of New Brunswick. Mr. Robin- 
sen and I have just had a pleasant time in talking over the 
details of his oiitfit, route, etc. I am sure he will get his 
moose, and I wish he would get the rest of mine if he 
sees it lying around in there anywhere. 
About Fly Tying. 
Mr. Jeptha G. Dunlap, a long-time reader of the 
Forest and Stream, writes from San Jose, Cali., in 
the matter of the tying of artificial flies, his communi- 
cation being as follows: 
"For a long time I have wanted some one to tell me 
something which, so far, I have been unable to deter- 
mire for myself. Through Forest and Stream I see 
that you have become interested in the art of artificial 
fly -making, and I infer, therefore, that you are in a 
position to know or ascertain the facts in the case. 
Seme years ago, without other instruction than I 
ol)ta ned from Forest and Stream and one or two 
books mentioned in its columns, I took up fly-making 
with the result that I am able to construct a fly that I 
need not be ashamed of in comparison with some pro- 
fessional work. According to instruction I have always 
appl'ed shellac varnish to the head of my flies, giving 
theiii at intervals of eighteen or twenty-four hours two 
or three coats. Often, but not always, this varnish turns 
white as snow when the fly is put in the water, and this 
spoils the appearance and probably the usefulness of the 
lure. What I wish to know is the cause of this and 
why the varnish sometimes turns white and sometimes 
not. I always use the orange or brown shellac dissolved 
in alcohol, except occasionally, when I wish the tying 
thread to show its color, in which case I use the clear 
shellac. 
"Is there any satisfactory substitute for shellac with 
which to coat the heads of artificial flies? If so be kind 
enough to tell me what it is and if possible how to pre- 
pare it. 
"Could you not kindly give a detailed description of 
the Onoudago pattern of black bass fly, to which you 
refer in the Forest and Stream of June 21, which would 
enable one to make the fly; giving wing, body, tail, 
hackle, tinsel, etc. It would add very much to the in- 
terest if, when special flies not commonly known, are 
mentioned by various writers, they would give a full de- 
scription of them in accordance with the usual formula." 
J am afraid that I am so much of a novice in the art 
of fl3'-tying that I cannot be of much assistance to Mr. 
Dunlap. 
As to the pattern for the Onondago fly, I would say 
the body is made of white silk — in some which I had of 
white cotton covered with white silk. The fore part of 
the body is black and the hackles are black, and the wing 
is black and white tip, of magpie feathers. The body is 
tied very full and heavy, and in some patterns of the 
Onondago is ribbed with silver tinsel, or rather, a silver 
gimp or cord. The hook used was a No. 4 O'Shaunessy 
with fiat wire. The whole was very heavy and in- 
deed clumsy, although very powerful. The body be- 
C-oiTse? wgter-SQ^l^edt ]Vi V^e ^nd the fly i$ so heavy 
that it is awkward to cast. It sinks almost at once on 
striking the water. I should think a fighter body could 
be used with good eft'ect. This fly is tied with a tag, a 
few filaments of the magpie feather, black with white 
tip. I found the fly very effective on small-mouth bass 
m the Mississippi River. It makes a large and rath« 
showy lure in the water. 
Southeraers Going North. 
Judge Warwick Hough, of the Circuit bench, St. 
Louis, Mo., outfitted in Chicago this week for a trip 
of a few weeks at Plum Lake, Wis., where he goes with 
his son, Warwick Hough, Jr. They take cottages at the 
O. W. Saynor place on Plum Lake, and hope to inter- 
view muscaflunge as well as a good many bass before 
they get back home. 
• The Largest Muscallunge. 
The largest muscallunge of this season was probably 
that taken by Dr. E. C. Williams, of Chicago, in Pelican 
Lake, Wis. This fish measured 52 inches in length and 
32 inches in girth, the latter measurement proving it a 
very deep and heavy fish. Its weight was 41 pounds 
four hours after it was taken. This was actual weight 
and not guess work. The captor, who has fished mus- 
callunge a great deal in different Wisconsin lakes, savs 
this is the largest muscallunge he ever saw. He has 
taken several other good fish in Pelican Lake this year. 
Back from the Magnet- wan, 
Mr. F._ L. Brown and party, of Cincinnati, are back 
from their boating trip down the Magnetawan River of 
Canada. They got through all right in spite of a self- 
advertised guide, who proved to be a very poor guide 
indeed and a still worse cook. But for the 'kindly ofiices 
of one of the Government wardens, the party might 
have had rather a dismal time, but as it was, they are 
very much pleased with their experience. 
From West Virgicia. 
Mr. H. E. Thorns, of Huntington, W. Va., is pass- 
ing a short time in this city. . Mr. Thoms saws that 
West Virginia is one of the most delightful places in 
America for a residence, and that it offers a wide var'ety 
pf sport. The deer and turkey hunting is good in many 
localities, and the trout fishing, he says, is as good as 
anyone could ask; that is, of course, for the speckled 
brook trout, the same fish which is known in the North. 
Mr. Thoms is an occasional visitor to the wilder por- 
tions of the West, and is something of a cow-puncher 
himself, having acquired the art of roping to such ex- 
tent that he can pick up any foot he likes" of an animal 
or make a neck throw with but few failures. He finds 
his chief difiiculty in getting horses which Avill not tangle 
themselves up or get the rider into grief after the catch 
IS made. £. Hol-gu. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, 111. 
A Cast. 
The cast made by the vibrating rod, as it propels foot 
after foot of silken thread forward and straight away, the 
line ends up in a gentle curve of gossamer-like gut' until 
the curve has spent its force in its effort to force the 
leathered hooks out upon the air where they, hesitating 
for a moment, like tired insects uncertain how to shape 
their course, drop exhausted and fluttering upon the 
water Deep down in the pool the watchful trout has 
seen the shadow of the flies upon the surface above him. 
he has seen them slowly descending upon the water. 
Nearer and nearer they come, and with a swish of his 
powerful tail he gathers the speed of an arrow and meets 
them with distended jaws as thev drop upon the glassy 
surface of the stream. A twitch of the rod and the barb 
is set; the prick of the hook and the haul of the leader 
upon the jaw sends the fish in terror to the deepest part 
of the pool, where he so many times has fled for safety 
before. But it is different this time, for tug as he may, 
that iron point encased in feathers remains fixed in his 
jaw, and it is endeavoring to lift him toward the surface. 
With a mighty effort he rushes up stream, not, however, 
with the speed and freedom heretofore, because of the 
thing that ceaselessly strains at his jaw. He stops in 
that hole behind the rock where he so often has poised 
himself ready for the prey brought down in the swift 
water. But he gets no peace there, the everlasting strain 
and haul of that gaudy, deceptive lure is still drawing him 
inch by inch down stream. The restraint becoming too 
great, he again rnadly rushes up stream, ending his rush 
with a mad leap in mid air. All to no avail, however, 
for as he once more plunges back into the stream, the 
strain is again felt. Resist as he may, yet does he Vicld 
to its invisible draft until, as drawn toward the surface, 
he sees in clear relief his arch enemy— naan, and becom- 
ing frantic with fear plunges here, there, up stream, now 
down stream, anywhere in the air or water to work free 
from his bondage. But a shis strengths fails, so does he 
yield faster and faster to the wizard who stands knee 
■deep in the stream above him. Once more he leaps free 
of the water and with a despairing shake of his jaws at- 
tempts to dislodge the lure. He fails, falls, back ex- 
hausted, and resting upon his side is drawn toward the 
net and feels himself lifted from the water. A breaking 
of his neck and his life goes out. 
Charles Cristadoro. 
Remarkatle Gtowth of Brook Trout. 
Bozeman, Mont., Aug. z^.—EdUor Forest and Stream: 
Four years ago I furnished some brook trout fry (5". 
fontinalis) to State Senator C. W. Hoffman, who put 
them in a spring pond on his ranch a mile from Bozeman. 
Last summer he caught several that weighed from two 
to two and a half pounds. Yesterday his son, Mr, Eugene 
Hoffman, caught one on the fly that was 21 inches long, 13 
inches girth, and weighed 4^ pounds down weight. The 
fish was presented to me and I can vouch for the measure- 
ments and weight as being correct. This is quite a 
remarkable growth for a four-year-old and proves that the 
Eastern brook trout is well adapted for the waters of 
Montana, as shown in this and other instances coming 
>vithix\ my I«;novfledge ynd observation. 
' James 'K tfEws^Ai^u 
