282 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 10, 1903. 
noisy, yet seemed to be under control of certain 
squaws, one squaw to each division. They would 
'mind' her when the chief coixld not keep them quiet," 
But more interesting history, and well known, is 
that of the pioneers who were settling in these Pros- 
pect Hills for twenty years before, Jan. 26, 1837, when 
Michigan, the thirteenth State, after the thirteen orig- 
inal ones, was admitted into our Union. The woods 
below Prospect Hill were even then showing many 
patches of clearings. What a hardy, self-reliant, brave, 
hustling lot of men and women those settlers were! 
They showed their native courage when the State of 
Ohio confiscated their southeast region, in order to 
secure a port on the lakes at Toledo. The territorial 
governor of Michigan, Stephen T. Mason, the former 
secretary of the greatest man Michigan has ever pro- 
duced (Lewis Cass), called for volunteers to "repel 
boarders"; and from these very hills at Sand Lake 
about sixty men left their cabins and joined the "army" 
of over two hundred men that gathered at Tecumseh, 
about nine miles east of this lake. They carried flint- 
lock muskets. One battalion, said to have been led by 
a son of Gen, J. W. Brown, had charge of the army's 
one little cannon. In testing it before starting for 
Toledo, they fired it too close to the bass drum, and 
burst one of its "heads." One of the soldiers, Asa 
Gilmore, became famous. He marched to the strip of 
disputed territory with his "regiment," under Col. 
Smith. On arrival at Toledo it was found that the 
Government had promised the Territory of Michigan 
what is now the Northern Peninsula of that State in 
exchange for what Ohio claimed at Toledo. This was 
satisfactory, but private Asa wanted some gun-firing 
anyhow. He stepped out from the "line" and asked 
permission to burn powder. So the Colonel arranged 
what he called a surprise in the camp. It was awak- 
ened at midnight by a scattering volley from a few 
of the old flint-locks, and rose to defend itself from 
a night attack. Asa loaded his old musket as often as 
ordered, but forgot or was afraid to fire. He got five 
or six charges into his gun, when his fear to fire it 
left him, and he "blazed away." The gun burst, 
doubled, knocked hirn down and filled his face with 
grains of powder, which he carried to his grave. He 
is said to have applied to the Territory for a pension, 
which was refused. He was the one wounded veteran 
of the bloodless Toledo war — a very triumph of comic 
opera campaigning. His ruined gun is preserved at 
Lansing as a souvenir. 
That was almost seventy years ago. How different 
from the "forced^ march" of that plucky band, is the 
ride of this train-load of passengers, excursionists 
from Toledo, over the Lake Shore ro^d. We reach 
Toledo from Pentecost statioji, ;%ear Sand Lake, in 
less than an hour, doff our. browW jackets and outing 
shirts, help to eat the four black bass we took this 
morning at the lake, and smoke and chat with our host 
before taking a train for the East. 
But we know tliat the joys of our outing will linger 
in memory. BeaHtiful Sand Lake! May its shores, 
green for centuries, still show their beauty, and at- 
tract sportsmen to their hospitable cottages and tents, 
when we, in turn, have been forgotten. 
L. F. Brown. 
The Flight of a Flying Fish. 
I HAD intended to say considerable about a second visit 
recently paid to that "abode of the blessed," Avalon, but 
a writer in a late number of Forest and Stream has, 
with little regard for my feelings, said most of it, and 
thereby stolen my thunder. I cordially indorse his senti- 
ments on the subject of fishing as carried on at Avalon, 
and the senseless slaughter attending it, but I think he 
has neglected some of the more pleasing features, among 
them the glories of the big glass bottom power boats, and 
the wonders of the pictures they show one. The boats 
themselves are so large and comfortable, and, drawing 
as they do only about a foot of water— the largest draws 
only ten inches— they carry one through scenes of en- 
chantment extending for miles, the like of which is to be 
seen nowhere else on earth under such favorable condi- 
tions. Then, too, he had nothing to say of a trip of 
sixty miles around the island that was to us, though de- 
void of accident or even incident, a keen delight of eight 
hours' duration. 
I dwelt at some length in that article which I wrote 
for, btit shall not send, you, upon the pranks and antics 
of the7-<kids of all ages in the water and out of it, and 
of the v/alks and rambles about the island, with a word 
lor the band that seems to me the very best band of all 
the world, just because it plays at Avalon; then there 
was "The Gibson Girl," and the "Cake Walk Girl," and— 
well, you've missed a whole lot^ of things T was going to 
tell you, but what I am really inflicting this screed upon 
you for is to take issue with your correspondent on the 
flight of a flying fish. It doesn't seem to me that he has 
got it just right. 
On the trip from Los Angeles to the island and back, 
and going around the island, I had many chances to 
study the subject, for the fish were plenty and incidents 
few to distract the attention; and here is the way it 
seemed to me. 
In the first place, the fish didn't leap from the water 
and fly through the air. He popped his head out, spread 
his great pectoral fins and sailed along with his tail in the 
water working Hke mad ; seen from astern it was a blurr. 
This continued for a hundred feet or even a hundred 
yards ; suddenly his ventral fins opened like another pair 
of wings, and this raised his tail out of water, and he 
sailed a!ong ori a line parallel and not more than a couple 
of feet above it. Now if while sailing along in this way 
he sank near enough to the furface of a long swell to 
reach it with his tail, the ventral fins were closed, the 
propeller started up, and he got a fresh impulse. 
I saw one fellow who in the course of a flight of con- 
siderably over a thousand feet (I think it was a great 
deal over a thousand feet), partly at right angles to the 
ship, and partly parallel, got no less than six fresh starts. 
When they stopped the fish generally plunked head first 
into a wave, as if they had miscalculated the height, A'^ 
3 rule the fish went in a straight line just as he happened 
to have been started, and when he t«rne4 it was as 
though l»e l»a4 be^n swerved by tt» wiad» Of 
had held one fin higher than the other, or some- 
thing of that sort. There were no birds pursuing them, 
so I had nothing to tell me whether the fish could dodge 
or not, nor were there, apparently, any fish in pursuit of 
them. It is quite probable that in the latter case they 
would have sprung much higher from the water; for I 
remember that on one occasion when I was on my way 
to Honolulu, the second mate brought me a flying fish 
which had flown into one of the boats hanging from the 
davits of the quarter deck on a bark of about four hun- 
dred tons. I had him for breakfast and he was by no 
means bad eating. 
The flying fish is a rather nice looking fish when he is 
dead, but when he is alive and skimming through the 
air he looks like a streak of iridescent glass, mother-of- 
pearl, and all that sort of thing; but I don't think he ever 
really flies an inch, the apparent motion of his "wings" 
being really the play of light on the surface of the wet 
fins. The fin is not a wing, but a true fin, though set 
higher on the shoulder, and much larger than in other 
fishes. *** 
Pollution of Lake Champlain. 
The copious extracts published by all the leading New 
York daily papers from the article on the pollution of the 
waters of Lake Champlain which appeared in last week's 
issue of Forest and Stream, indicates that a widespread 
interest has been aroused in the matter, and may be 
taken as a token that this time the fight against the mill 
owners will be fought to a finish. That the latter will 
finally be compelled by the courts and by force of public 
opinion to abate the nuisance may even at this date be 
accepted as an accomplished fact. 
It is expected that within a few days the results of the 
official investigation of the waters of the lake and the 
Bouquet and Au Sable rivers recently made by Prof. 
Olin H. Landreth, consulting engineer of the State De- 
partment of Health, will be placed in the hands of Gov- 
ernor Odell. It is expected that the latter, on the basis 
of the report, will proceed to force the local health offi- 
cials either to close up the mills or to adopt some effect- 
ive method of getting rid of the chemical refuse that 
now finds its way into the lake. If action in the case is 
long delayed by Governor Odell, it is the intention of 
those actively interested in fighting the mills to apply to 
the Supreme Court for an injunction to close up the 
mills, and it is believed that this can be done. 
Although in the past all attempts to put a stop to the 
pollution have failed, it is purposed that now there shall 
be no failure. But it will not be a walkover by any 
means. The power of the pulp mill owners has been evi- 
dent during the years that complaints have kept coming 
into at least two departments of the State, for in spite of 
the fact that the Forest, Fish and Game Commission has 
in a manner investigated the nuisance, and the State 
Board of Health, in its annual report for 1899, published 
an analysis of the water in Au Sable River which 
showed that the water was impure and that the pollu- 
tion was due to the pulp mills, the trouble has not been 
lessened. 
Said Mr. Edward Hatch, Jr., who, as a large property 
owner in the Lake Champlain region, has been actively 
combating the pulp mill nuisance : "Although this fight 
has been on nearly ten years now, we have never 
despaired of ultimate success. It was only last spring 
that the New York Legislature was importuned to take 
action to compel the manufacturers to dispose of the 
waste in some other manner than by dumping it in the 
streams which flow into the lake, as there are many acres 
which these companies own and can use for a dumping 
place. This was done for a time, but after a showing had 
been made, they again allowed the chemical discharge 
to escape into the streams. The discharge from the 
mill on the Au Sable River in one day amounts, it is 
said, to nearly 200,000 gallons containing about one per 
cent, of sulphurous acid ; while the mill on the Bouquet 
River in its raanuf^.cturing uses a strong caustic liquid 
of soda and lime, and gives off a discharge equally large. 
It is not difficult to imderstand the action of these chem- 
icals upon all forms of life with which they come in 
contact. Large quantities of fish are found dead as a 
result of meeting with this poisonous outflow, and the 
rocks along the shore for many miles are coated with a 
white slime which makes it a public nuisance as well as 
a destroyer of life, 
"The pollution of the water is especially noticeable in 
the winter when the lake is frozen over and it is possi- 
ble to detect the discharge of the chemicals by their 
color. 
"Opposite the mills, which arc about half way down 
the lake, is the city of Burlington, on the Vermont side, 
v/hich draws its supply of water from the lake. Recently 
there have been many complaints of this water, and a 
plan for moving the intake further out into the lake has 
been discussed. It is ray belief and that of others who 
complain of the pollution, that the deterioration of Bur- 
lington's water supply is due to this cause. They have 
explained their views to Governor McCullough, who has 
interested himself in the matter. It is probable that the 
authorities of that State will take action through the 
United States courts to restrain the continuance of the 
abuse. 
"In my opinion the best speech by far delivered at the 
recent meeting of the Fish and Game League of Ver- 
mont, Avas that of Justice D. J. Brewer, of the United 
States Supreme Court. He referred to the preservation 
of the fish and game of the country, both for game and 
for food suppl}', as a serious matter. He had three sug- 
gestions to make: Never destroy fish or game for the 
fun of it, as the early settlers of the country did. Stop 
the destruction of fish by the pouring of poisonous drugs 
from the mills into our streams and lakes. That was a 
duty we owed to ourselves and future generations. We 
all owed something to each other, and in those matters 
we had no right to do that which destroyed the rights of 
another. We should cultivate and replenish our stock of 
fish. An acre of water is worth as much as an acre of 
land for production, bt-t it needed cultivation the same as 
land. He was glad to see what the Government was do- 
ing in that matter, and hoped it would do even more." 
Mr. Hatch, among hundreds of other letters bearing 
on the subject, has received the following communica- 
tion from one of the leading city officials of Burlington: 
"The people of Burlington have enough to contend 
with already without being forced to face the possibility 
of poisonous chemicals from the opposite shore of Lake 
Champlain being drawn into the supply pipe of our water 
system which extends beyond Appletree Point. It is 
difficult to see why the pulp mills cannot dispose of this 
waste on land without serious loss or marked incon- 
venietice, and it is to be hoped that the matter will be 
agitated on both sides of Lake Champlain until this 
nuisance and menace to both our fishing interests and the 
public health is abated." 
Another letter reads : • 
"Besides the contaminated waters, however, there are 
other evils. On the New York side there is little effort 
made to prohibit illegal seining. I do not believe there 
is a night in the summer when they are not dragging 
nets. I see men going by my summer place with nets in 
their boats, and I hear of it almost every day. At the 
mouth of the Au Sable are twenty or thirty boats, owned 
by people back in the country that, I am told, are used at 
night in the dragging of seines. It indicates a laxity ou 
the part of the game wardens if not indifference or 
actual connivance. There are enough people, I am sure, 
who are residents of the State of New York, who spend 
their summers on Lake Champlain, who, if they would 
exert an influence, could create a sentiment which would 
prevent a contamination of the waters and illegal 
fishing." 
Oct. 6. — Since the foregoing was written the matter 
has assumed a serious aspect, one that may yet end in 
bloodshed and murder. The life of Mr. Hatch has been 
threatened, and threats have also been made about 
destroying his property on the lake. 
Mr. Hatch, who has just returned to New York from a 
visit to Lake Champlain in the vicinity of the pulp mills 
where his property is located, spoke freely to a repre- 
sentative of Forest and Stream about this latest devel- 
opment in the prolonged fight between tne lake residents 
and the mill owners, which seems likely before long to 
end in favor of the former. But the victory may be 
dearly bought. Said Mr. Hatch : 
"It was while at Keeseville the other day that I re- 
ceived the first intimation that my life was in danger on 
account of the determined stand that I have taken in the 
Lake Champlain pollution matter. Keeseville is situated 
on the Au Sable River about twelve miles below the pulp 
mill factory of J. & J. Rogers, and has a population of 
about twenty-five hundred. 
* "While standing on the porch of the main hotel there, 
I was approached by a man dressed in a workingman's 
garb and who appeared to be a bit the worse for liquor. 
So, by God!' said he, 'you're the one that's bent on 
closing the factories, are you? Let me tell you that if 
you're not damned careful there'll be another Dexter case 
up here and a whole lot of excitement. Somebody else 
is liable to be shot in the back, you know,' and saying 
this he walked off shaking his fist and scowling men- 
acingly. 
"I subsequently learned that since the publication last 
week of the article on the pollution of Lake Champlain 
in the Forest and Stream, in which I freely expressed 
my views, and which article was freely quoted by the 
prominent New York papers, my life has been threat- 
ened more than once. In addition to the direct threat which 
I received, I was subsequently told by friends in the mill 
region roundabout that I had imperilled my life by my 
attitude in the pulp mill matter, and that it would be 
better for me not to go about unarmed and alone. 
"I have no fear, however, of any evil consequences, 
and despite the warnings of friends who declared that in 
justice to myself I should protect myself with guards, 1 
went about unprotected in any way during the remainder 
of my stay there, frequently taking long drives through 
the woods, and met with no mishap whatever. 
"As far as the mill owners and myself are concerned, 
there is no personal enmity that I am aware of. On the 
contrary, our social relations are of a very friendly 
nature. It is only the very lowest riffraff in the com- 
munity about the "mill region who could possibly misun- 
derstand my attitude in the matter, and thus look upon 
me as an enemy bent on taking the bread out of 'heir 
mouths, as it were. 
"As a matter of fact I do not want to close up the 
offending mills, and thus throw hundreds of people out 
of employment. I simply want the mill owners to obey 
the law and discontinue their pollution of the rivers and 
lake. When it comes to a final test I am sure that rather 
than close the mills their owners will spend the necessary 
money and find other means of disposing of the mill 
refuse than by dumping it into the waters of the lake." 
Mr. Hatch said that he intended to return to the mill 
region again in a few days, and declared that he had no 
fear of personal violence. "I'm in this fight to win out," - 
concluded Mr. Hatch, "and all the threats and bluffs in 
the world won't stop me." 
Vermont's Fishing Interests. 
From the Burlington Free Press. 
The eloquent appeal made at the banquet of the Ver- 
mont Fish and Game League by Justice David J. Brewer 
of the Supreme Court of the United States for the preser- 
vation and development of our fishing grounds, ought to 
result in the adoption of measures for the purpose of 
carrying out the excellent suggestions made by our dis- 
tinguished visitor. His remarks about the value of our 
fish supply and the duty of every man to seek to conserve 
our fishing interests, while applicable to every body of 
fresh water in the State and throughout the country, ap- 
plies with particular force to Lake Champlain. 
We fully realize that determined efforts have been 
made by our leading sportsmen as well as by members of 
the Legislature to secure the co-operation of Canada 
with the authorities of New York and Vermont in the 
adoption of measures to stop seining, especially during 
the spawning period. A¥e also fully realize the force of 
the argument brought to bear by those who show that 
our Canadian cousins haul seine after seine just across 
the imaginary line constituting the international bound - 
ary and ship carloads of fish to the markets of our larger 
cities, and urge that the income from this work might as 
well be enjoyed this side of the Hue as on the other side. 
This consideration does not diminish, the force of Justice 
Brewer's assertion, that no matter what law may be on 
th« statute book, w man has a moral right to disregard 
