Jan, i6, 1904.1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
48 
conversation with a resident of the locality, we expressed 
our opinion, in rather positive language, of that territory 
as a field for the efforts of the sportsman. He replied 
that if sport was what we wanted we ought to go to 
Sand Creek. That was a new name to us ; we hastened to 
obtain, the necessary direction to reach a stream of which 
he proceeded to give us so golden an acdount. It ap- 
peared by his tale that it was distant to the west some 
fifteen miles, just across the line into Wyoming; had its 
rise in the Black Hills, flowed a few miles only in a 
generally northerly direction, and then emptied into the 
Red Water; that its waters fairly teemed with trout, and 
the forest through which it flowed for a portion of its 
course was fairly alive with both deer and bear; and 
that, in addition to all this, near the head of the creek 
lived a skilled hunter, who, for a reasonable considera- 
tion, would show all these things to strangers like our- 
selves. Neither K. nor I cared anything about either the 
deer or the bear ; we had hunted deer a-plenty while in 
Texas, and as far as hunting bear was concerned, that 
seemed to us a species of sport wherein the fun falls 
mainly to the bear and the hard work to the hunter; but 
what did stir our red blood was his tale of the numerous 
trout in the waters. As we were already in the month 
of September, we expected nothing from them that year; 
but our fancy readily created visions of the sport we 
would have with them the coming June and July, if our 
narrator had told his tale truthfully. 
We determined to locate this wonderful creek that very 
day, and view it with our own eyes, so that, if it gave 
promise, we might know just what to do in the following 
summer. We accordingly set out and readily found our 
way to the stream. It far surpassed in appearance any 
idea our informant's account had established in our 
minds. In fact, till I had really seen Sand Creek, I didn't 
know what beautiful streams existed in nature. I will 
briefly describe it as we found it later on, after we had 
carefully examined it and whipped it with our flies 
throughout its entire length, not once only, but many 
times. It has its rise in numerous immense springs boil- 
ing iip among the tall peaks of the northern portion of 
the Black Hills, and sending their almost icy current 
winding back and forth down a beautiful canon about a 
half mile in width, shut in on either side by almost verti- 
cal cliffs, accessible, apparently, only to the eagles which 
nest there, and which could be seen daily wheeling about 
over their summits. The fall from its source to the val- 
ley of the Redwater was steep, so that the creek, as a 
result, consisted principally of a succession of natural 
pools, from which the water passed to those below by 
small cascades of two or three feet in height, interspersed 
with long, rippling, swift shallows, commonly called 
"riffles." The entire bottom of the caiion was a forest nf 
rnighty oaks and_ elms, while the mountains on either 
side were dark with pine. These giant trunks had from 
time to time fallen across and into the stream, been 
washed down by high water, and stranded here and there, 
forming now and then a bridge or dam as well as many 
excellent hiding places for the Salmo fontinalis. The 
stream_ was of variable depth, generally about up to one's 
knees in the "riffles," but much deeper in the pools, many 
of them being over a man's head in depth; the purity of 
the water, however, where the overhanging branches ad- 
mitted the light, tended to deceive one regarding its 
depth, and I recall an incident of my wife's first visit to 
this stream, wherein she was so misled by the apparent 
shallowness of a pretty pool that she had taken our littie 
girls' shoes and stockings off and was about to allow 
them~ to wade and paddle in water probably up to their 
necks in depth, under the impression it was only about up 
to their knees. In width the stream was about right to 
afford a wading angler what space he needed for con- 
venient casting and not much more. Without this width 
it would have been impossible to have fished the principal 
portions of the stream, as the dense vegetation prevented 
fishing them from the bank. While of course the bed 
of the stream -consisted mainly of boulders and rounded 
stones of various sizes, over which the water chafed and 
frothed on its \vay, yet, sifted in among them, was quite 
a deposit of white, coarse sand washed down, I suppose, 
in freshets from the disintegrating cliffs on either side of 
the canon. This sand added to the attractiveness of the 
stream, and doubtless gave it its name. Three dwellings 
were located upon this creek, all veritable log structures 
in most picturesque spots, and all occupied by peculiar 
and interesting characters. Space will not now permit 
of their description, but later on I may refer to them in 
connection with rhy visits to this stream. K. and I on 
this September afternoon meandered the stream through- 
out some two miles of its lower reaches, where the canon 
had become more open; but we did not get up to the 
forest-clad portion of the canon, nor to any of the dwell- 
ings referred to. We caught grasshoppers and tossed 
in here and there as we went along, but failed to obtain 
the rise we were seeking. We finally fell in with a resi- 
dent, who told us that it was several miles of hard road 
up to the headwaters where the skilled hunter lived, and 
furthermore assured us that earlier in the season trout ' 
were most abundant. As it was then late in the day, and 
the stream appeared so attractive, we decided to do noth- 
ing further for the present, but to be on hand the next 
June with our rods and reels (and I came near saying 
"traces," such is the effect of the Red Gods discussion), 
to see what we could accomplish in season. 
The following June — about the 20th, as I now recall it— 
we found opportunity to put this stream to the 
test; and, having obtained permission for a few 
days' absence, K. and I set forth in good spirits. We had 
with us an excellent man, a German by the name of 
Potswald ; we didn't need him as cook or to do any work 
of that kind, as we always did our own cooking; but it 
was necessary to keep someone around our camp during 
our absences in order to protect it from cattle and med- 
dlers, and to have a general supervision over our prop- 
erty. We had supplies of all kin^s, and a small tent to 
protect us from rain in case we found it necessary; ordi- 
narily we did not put up a tent,' but we always carried one 
in case of a storm. We drove away about 6:30 A. M. ; 
although about the summer solstice, the sky was overcast 
and a raw northerly wind made it feel more like March 
thari June. We all wore heavy overcoats, and Prince and 
Jay trotted along at a merry pace, readily passing every- 
thing on the way. Shortly after ro we reached 
Spearfish, distant 25 miles, and fed and rested here till 
noon. The hotel had a roaring fire, and it felt good to 
us, stiffened up as we were with facing a cold wind for 
four hours, even though it was summer time. We started 
on again about noon, reaching the stream between two 
and three hours later, and having followed it up a mile 
or two, went into camp before reaching the forest- 
bordered portion; We reasoned that if trout were as 
numerous as they were said to be, we should find plenty 
in that vicinity, and we preferred to camp away from 
habitations. This view, however, proved a blunder of 
great magnitude, as will be seen. We hastily put our 
tackle together, rigged with flies, set out for the stream, 
and whipped it faithfully for two hours or such a matter 
without the slightest rise. Our spirits had fallen some- 
what, and Potswald's Teutonic countenance showed evi- 
dent disappointment as we reached camp empty-handed; 
but we ate our supper of bacon and hoped for better luck 
on the morrow. 
We whipped the stream faithfully till noon the next 
day, with the same result. As we had thus far been 
fishing the lower reaches, out in the open country, with 
flies, we now concluded to go further up and try the 
forest portion, and also to use minnows. After dinner 
we managed to seine out some twenty-five or thirty min- 
nows, and with bucket in hand walked up the valley for 
several miles, baited with minnow, and began fishing the 
darker waters beneath overhanging trees. Before long I 
caught a trout ; a small affair, to be sure, but we had 
come so far and toiled so hard without previous encour- 
agement that I well recall our sensations as we gazed on 
this pretty, speckled, shining little fellow. We were like 
prospectors who had at last struck "pay dirt." We now 
forgot all previous disappointment and set about fishing 
in earnest. Soon K. caught a nice one that would weigh 
probably a pound; this gave us such a thrill that we chat- 
tered about it like boys who had never been on an out- 
ing before. We fished along down stream till 4 or 5 
o'clock, however, without getting any more, when we 
were overtaken at a crossing by a gentleman in a buggy, 
and fell into conversation with him. He seemed surprised 
at our poor showing, and said it must be due to our 
fishing the lower portions of the creek. "Just go up to 
Boydin's," he said, "and I'll guarantee that you'll catch a 
hundred a day, if you want that many." 
On the following morning we packed up and set oat 
for the headwaters, the present land of promise. We had 
not gone far before we met Boydin himself, the hunter of 
repute. He was going away from home then, but told us 
to go ahead and make ourselves at home at his place, and 
if we couldn't catch all the fish we wanted he would show 
us how on his return. "Jack" Boydin, as he was known 
to all, was the typical hunter, the kind one reads about 
ill the story books; small, lithe, alert, straight as an In- 
dian, with an eye like an eagle. He had passed some 
fifteen years in the forest, part of the time as hunter for 
mining camps, and part as deputy sheriff. He was not 
given to boasting, and rarely referred to his experiences 
as sheriff; but at night, seated under the big trees around 
the camp-fire, it was a pleasure to listen to him as he 
recounted his tales of the chase and his observations as a 
naturalist. Among his wanderings in times past, he had 
stumbled upon this charming caiion, built a spacious log 
house at one of the principal springs, and now owned 
about two miles in length of the stream. Here he kept a 
few cows and raised some crops upon small patches of 
ground he had cleared. About five years before the 
stream had been stocked with several varieties of trout 
and put under a close period. Although this period had 
been but indifferently observed in the open country below, 
he had personally strictly enforced it on his own domain, 
so that now that the creek was open to fishing, while the 
lower portions were almost devoid of trout, as we had 
just discovered, his waters were fairly alive with them. 
He made a small daily charge for the privilege of fishing 
his grounds ,and kept away all who were unwilling to 
pay it; by this means his fishing remained constantly 
good. As he left us he remarked, "You'll find one pretty 
bad hill on the way, but your team is good, and vou will 
make it all right." 
We drove on and soon came to this hill. It was cer - 
tainly a bad one ; I recall but one worse— that up Old 
Baldy in Texas. On the right of the track the ground 
sloped precipitously to the creek below, so that, in the 
event of the horses failing to make the ascent, and letting 
the load draw them back a short distance, the whole 
might readily be displaced from the narrow trail and 
overturned into the stream many feet below, by no means 
an alluring prospect ; and, as if to emphasize its prob- 
ability, there was at the bottom the remains of a recently 
wrecked vehicle. Prince and Jay, however, scorned to 
notice the hill, and climbed it without a halt. From 
there on the drive under the big trees was delightful, the 
lords too picturesque for description, and when we final'y 
broiight up at Jack's pretty log dwelling we felt we had 
reached the sportsman's paradise. We camped a few feet 
trom the edge of the creek, turned Prince and Jay into 
the pasture with Jack's horse, and, being within sight of 
his house and in a fenced inclosure, we neither feared 
cattle nor meddlers, but could all three abandon ourselves 
to the delights of trout fishing under perfect conditions. 
We again rigged our tackle and stepped into the stream 
right at our camp, and soon had plenty of trout for din- 
ner. Having now ascertained that we were at last where 
the fishing was really good, we stopped, cooked dinner, 
and lay about under the shade of the oaks (the weather 
had now gotten hot again), listening to the music of the 
stream till about two o'clock, and then set out to thor- 
oughly explore its resources, and find out what it reaUy 
contained. As ^ye did not contemplate returning the next 
day to the post, we determined not to kill a fish that after- 
noon beyond the few small ones we needed for supper, 
but to try the most promising lurking places for large 
ones, and to carefully release every one hooked What 
an afternoon we had of it ! Although Jack's stream had 
been fished more or less, it appeared that K. and I were 
the first ones to use flies and to boldly wade its- waters 
while, fishing, all others having been content to fish with 
worms or grasshoppers, and from the bank. It was thus 
reserve| to lis to fish, long reaches of the most attractive 
parts of tne stream whose banks were so hemmed in by 
thickets as to have precluded all previous fishing. 
According to the practice of anglers, we had each 
rigged three flies of different varieties in order to dis- 
cover the most taking, but we soon had to remove all but 
one. Ihe trout were so numerous and voracious we soon 
had two or three on at a. time, not of the little frying- 
pan size, but fish that would weigh a pound or two each : 
and when one has two or three of them on at a time, 
above his knees m water in a swift stream, making his 
way about over rounded and slippery boulders, and en- 
deavoring at the same time to preserve his rod from the 
overhanging branches, it is not overstating the case to say 
that he has his hands full. After reducing our tackle to a 
single fly— K. retaining a coachman, 1 a professor— it be- 
came more of a pleasure. We cast only in places where 
we bad reason to expect large ones, and were rarely dis- 
appointed. _ Of course, we didn't catch all that struck 
many getting away; still they were not at all shy, and 
would apparently bite a second or third time as vigor- 
ous y as ever. Having hooked and played a fish till we 
conld land him, we would carefully remove the hook and 
release him, and I am not certain but some of these 
paroled prisoners took up arms against us a second time 
as soon as they had recovered their strength. We kept 
no note or record of that day's sport; we needed none to 
keep It fresh in our memories, and as far as others are 
concerned, I doubt if any would have believed it if we 
had shown them an account record— that is, I mean none 
but our Forest and Stream readers. About six o'clock it 
became too dark under the trees for the flies to take 
so we gave over the chase till the morrow, and wended 
our way back to camp empty-handed, aside from some 
nalt dozen small ones we had saved for supper 
Upon our return to camp we could not find' Potswald. 
and, fearing he might have wandered off hunting and 
gotten lost, we set out up the stream in search of him 
calling out from time to time. He soon answered our 
nalloa, and shortly was seen approaching. As he came 
into view he presented so ludicrous a spectacle that K 
and 1 could not preserve our countenances. It seems !:e 
had never been fishing before in his life, and now, havini? 
found a stream where,, if you threw in a baited hook, the 
fish literally caught themselves, it had made him almost 
delirious. When he first came into view he was climbine 
a fence, his rod and tackle under one arm, and both 
hands tightly clasping a bunch of trout scarcely above the 
legal limit, While tails of many others protruded from his 
various pockets; his face was flushed, and he could 
scarcely speak. Although a most exemplary man, we 
thought he must have been drinking, but it eventually 
came out that he was so elated at his unexpected success 
that It affected him like liquor. We showed him how to 
cut a forked stick and string his fish thereon like the 
proverbial small boy— he had something like fifteen or 
twenty of them— and on his return to camp, when his eye 
fell on the few that K. and I had brought in and he 
hastily concluded that these represented the result of our 
^ u°1^'u^^^f? laughable to see the evident contempt in 
v/hich he held our ability as fishermen. We didn't unde- 
ceive him, but complimented him on his success, caution- 
ing him meanwhile not to catch so many again, as they 
woifld be wasted. It was useless, however; the next day 
he fished just as persistently, and came back to camp 
again loaded with little fellows. 
. We spent a pleasant evening round the camp-fire with 
Jack, who had meanwhile returned, and finally were lulled 
to sleep by the rippling murmurs of the stream only a few 
teet from our heads. 
The next day we set to work, caught a good string of 
big ones-some over two pounds-dressed and packed 
them carefully for the journey, pulled out of the canon 
before dark, and made the drive back to the post in the 
moonlight, arnying in time to furnish our friends fresli 
trout for breakfast. Wm. F. Flynn. 
Fort Riley, Kas, 
Seeking the Lost. 
Keller, Wash. Dec. 2i.~Editor Forest and Stream:, 
Were you ever lost m the mountains? If you never 
have been, then you will hardly be able to understand my 
ieehngs when I went to town last Wednesday for my 
mail. I was told Billy Boles was lost, and had not been 
seen since Sunday. Mr. Greer, Lew Phillips and Billy 
went over on to the meadow on Nine Mile Creek hnntinLr. 
and camped several days. Sunday morning Billy started 
out and told the boys that if he did not get back that 
night not to get uneasy, for he might go over to his 
cabin, ^ which is a mile above mine on Silver Creek 
Billy did not get back, and Monday morning Greer and 
l^hillips packed up and started over to Billy's cabin ex- 
pecting to find him at home, but thene was no one there, 
and the snow around the cabin showed that there had 
been no one around the cabin since they had left a few 
days before. Tuesday they, together with Dan McMaster. 
went to hunt for Billy, and went back to camp and tried 
to follow his tracks, but the rain and the snow falling 
trom the trees had so obliterated the tracks that th^y 
were unable^ ^o follow them, and they came bacl^ 
Wednesday Dan McMaster and Canfield hunted, and not 
S i;"^. t"^' ■?'i.''"y.*.'^^^r' ""^"^^ to town. That was 
the first I had heard it. I told the boys that if he did not 
turn up or there were not some tidings of him, I would 
go. the next day, and. I thought if they could show me 
where he had been last seen I could follow the tracks, 
i his the boys who had oeen out said was impossible. I 
said I would try, for we had to hunt, and if we could not 
follow tracks then we would have to hunt the country 
oyer. Billy had his dog with him, and if anything had 
happened to him the dog would stay with him, and we 
would be able to hear the dog howl 
Two of the boys that work for our company were ov-r 
at the camp Billy left on Sunday, and they said they 
^'Y' ''f ^''^"^ ^ "^"^ ^bove the camp and 
followed them to camp; where they first struck thi 
tracks they turned up the hill, and fhey thougSf werV^ 
heading for Copper Creek. But it was very fogiy That 
day and the^ boys were miistaken in the diJectiSS ■ 
ooS Mr. Harford came by my 
cabin and brought me a saddle horse, and we were soon 
on the road to their camp; Dan M. and Indian Johnnk 
had gone a little while ahead of us. When we 
got up to the forks of Silver Creek, I told the bovs 
with me that we would go up the ridge to the summit 
ot the mountain, between Copper Creek and Nine Mile 
