]^ARCH 12, 1904.] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
215 
gan to look for a camp, our desire in this respect being 
sharply accentuated by the fact that the sun had become 
most unbearably hot, and cruising was anything but a 
pleasure. None offered, and finally, about i o'clock, we 
landed on a shaded sand bank at the foot of an island, 
whose only recommendation was that it was immediately 
ni front of a little shambling farmhouse, where we would 
be likely to find a supply of drinking water. It was 
directly opposite the mouth of Spring Creek, and George 
was anxious to camp here, as the swift water just above, 
rippling down around the foot of the island, seemed to be 
an unusually promising- fishing ground; and also because 
Spring Creek was coming in muddy and discolored from 
some unknown cause, and George did not want to get into 
the muddy water for his afternoon fishing. George's 
principal interest in a cruise lies in the fishing, and he is 
keenly sensitive to anything and everything that bears on 
his favorite sport, one way or the other. Inquiry at the 
The Fisherman. 
house developed the fact that their supply of drinking 
water was obtained from a small creek coming, in a 
couple of hundred yards below, and on walking down to 
inspect it I found that the water was quite as warm as 
the river water, and quite unfit to drink. An inspection 
of the other side of the river revealed no more favorable 
camping facilities, to say nothing of the discolored water 
from the creek being on that side; so in disgust George 
exlaimed: "You go ahead and find a place that suits 
you I'll camp wherever you say !" So I pushed on 
ahead, George leisurely following on the clear side of 
the river, working his "sardine" as he came._ I had a 
most distressingly hot mile or two's paddle, looking in 
vain for an eligible location on either side of the river, 
until 'finally I dropped hopelessly and helplessly ashore, 
completely done up with the heat, at the mouth of a small, 
cool looking brook coming in from under a high bluff on 
the sunny side of the river. The water looked tempting, 
and I plunged in my hands and soused my face and head 
m it, and found it to be almost ice cold; and as we both 
thought it unwise to pass it (George having come up by 
this time), we went ashore here for the rest of the day, 
and after lunch put up the camp. It was beyond a doubt 
the meanest and most uncomfortable camp I have ever 
made. A barren, rocky beach extended from the water'? 
edge to the foot of the bluff, which rose steeply behind 
The Big Dam at Roncverte. 
it ; the place was absolutely without shade, and the under- 
growth, which straggled down the face of the bluff be- 
hind us, was almost impenetrable, and even when pene- 
trated for a few feet with much difficulty, it was so close 
and hot as to be more unbearable than the sun outside. 
We spent a most wretchedly uncomfortable afternoon, 
which seemed to be absolutely endless, in that oven of a 
place, our sufferings alleviated to some extent by the fact 
that the sun was under a cloud for a large part of the 
time. Also I put in about an hour in swimming in the 
refreshiiig waters of the river. George, who would fish in 
Tophet if he could find a place where the water wasn't 
boiling, fished most of the afternoon, but with only fair 
success, and he finally laid aside his fishing tackle and 
went swimming also.- As we seem to have a "Camp 
Damnation" on all of our trips— the Greenbier trip, the 
Shenandoah, etc. — it seemed to me not inappropriate to 
christen this place "Camp Damnation" also. We had 
hoped to find a nice comfortable place and lie by and loaf 
over Sunday, but we turned in with the mutual assurance 
that no Sunday would be spent here, but a short Sunday 
cruise would be the order of the day. 
Sunday, July 5, 1903. 
We got up leisurely this morning and had breakfast, 
and lazily packed and launched our canoes, and it was' 
fully 9 o'clock before we were afloat. W^e were in no 
hurry, as our camp ground was shady enough during the 
morning hours, and we only had in view a short Sabbath 
day's cruise, with an early camp and plenty of loafing; 
but, as- it proved, we had our customary luck in finding a 
camp place, and we cruised not less than sixteen miles, 
and it was after 2 o'clock before we succeeded in locating 
3 camp that was at all eligiblfc The day was cloudy and 
overcast and the cruising quite comfortable, as well as 
full, of interest. The mountains closed in on us again 
vvith wild, towering, tree-clothed walls close at hand on 
either side, vvith here and there gigantic rock masses 
looming up above the treetops on the mountain summits, 
or projecting in ragged masses out from the tree lines on 
the steep slopes, and the scenery was more like it was 
up above Cass. It presently began to rain, and for three 
hours we had a heavy thunderstorm, with furious driving 
rain ; but, clad in our rubbers, we kept right on down the 
river. Running a rapid river in a heavy rain is ticklish 
business, particularly if the stream is unfamiliar; but we 
kept on going over short, still pools into which the rain 
beat fiercely, blistering the surface and spurting up in fierce 
little jets; and down rough, heavy rapids, where the sur- 
face indications were so obscured by the, beating rain 
that it was decidedly ticklish business to keep off the 
rocks that did not show their heads above water. It was 
not difficult to diagnose the "set" of the water down the 
rapids, and we put our canoes in the likeliest looking 
water and took the rocks on trust ; and got through rapid 
after rapid without mishap of any kind, including the 
really long and quite rough rapid j ust above the old 
covered bridge across the river a little above Anthony's 
Creek, known to the old-time raftsmen as the "bridge 
rapid," and about which we had been warned, and which 
we found quite as long and rough as the worst of those 
in the Droop Mountain gorge, and with the rocks strewn 
around thicker and in much more careless profusion. 
We got a few rather heavy knocks in here, but reached 
the bottom all right enough, right side up, and without 
injury to our canoes. Fortunately in this rainy morning's 
run, we found plenty of water, even in the broadest and 
shallowest rapids, and did not have to get out and do 
any wading in the rain. There were several earth-jarring 
thunder claps over among the mountain tops, but we felt 
secure, far down in the bottom of that abysmal gorge, 
as we felt _ certain that a lightning flash with any sense 
of discrimination whatever would much prefer picking 
out a tall, likely looking tree on some of the interminable 
mountain tops, rather than come nosing around in the 
"We loafed here quite a while." 
bottom of that trough in the mountains in search of a 
couple of very small and inconspicuous canoes; and the 
event proved that I was right. About noon the storm 
passed over, and the sun came out blazing hot, and made 
things interesting for us for the next two hours as we 
shot along down the swift river, scanning either bank 
closely in hopes of a camp-site that was at all favorable. 
Bend after bend was passed, and nothing appeared that 
was at all eligible. We had hoped to find a place at the 
mouth of Anth ony's Creek, b'at the ground was densely 
overgrown with bushes, wet and bedraggled from the 
rain. Finally I landed on an open looking sand bank 
v.-here a road dipped down into the river, and where the 
ground was sufficiently open to allow room for our tented 
canoes. Two or three fishing poles, cut from the nearest 
thicket, with lines attached, leaned against the bushes on 
one side of the road, indicating that human habitation 
was probably not far off, with promise of drinking water. 
Hanging on the hook attached to one of the lines was the 
dried and shriveled remains of one of those curious rep- 
tiles found only in the tributaries of the Mississippi 
known as "hellbender." The hook was still fast in the 
skeleton jaw,, telling a mute, pathetic story of man's need- 
less cruelty to the helpless lower orders. The roof of an 
old mill showed up through the trees a short distance up 
the road._ We had easily shot the old, broken out dam 
half a mile above, and I walked back up along the road 
toward it, hoping to find water for drinking and cooking 
purposes. The old mill was found to be in ruins. The 
roof was tumbling in, the floor had dropped down below 
the underpinning in places, the doors and windows were 
all gone, and the place had the air of being decidedly out 
of commission. At the further end there appeared signs 
of occupation. A stovepipe was sticking out of a window- 
less hole in the wall ; a few rude pieces of furniture were 
scattered around outside, and as I passed I caught sight 
of a frowzy, unkempt female head back of a sightless win- 
dow, evidently watching me with some curiosity. 
Through another window opening a still frowzier and 
more unkempt male head was thrust. I looked no further 
for water, but returned to George with the news of my 
find, and -^ve agreed that perhaps we might do better 
further down; so I re-embarked and we pushed on, hot- 
ter, hungrier, and thirstier than ever. A couple of miles 
below we hailed with delight the appearance of a bright 
little thread of water slipping noiselessly down the sandy 
bank, deep down in a little notch worn in the soft, sandy 
soil, and losing itself "in the river. An old wooden boat 
lay half sunken in the water alongside of the little rivu- 
let at a bit of a landing among the bushes. With one 
accord we rushed our canoes ashore alongside the old 
boat, and were rewarded by the discovery of a cold 
spring with an excellent vein of water welling out from 
under the roots of a huge sycamore, and with a really 
comfortable bank on which to place the canoes, well 
screened from the sun both morning and afternoon by a 
heavy growth of trees, without undergrowth enough to 
make things uncomfortable, and it did not take us lon| 
to get our camp plunder ashore. The river bank across 
from us, and for a mile or more each way up and' down 
the river, was a thousand feet high and almost straight 
up and down, tree-clothed to the summit, with here and 
there jagged cliff masses projecting their bulks in fan- 
tastic shapes far out beyond the tree line. The railroad 
lay along a narrow little shelf scratched into the face of 
the mountain some twenty or thirty feet above the driver, 
which was piled full of broken rock masses along, the 
water's edge at the foot of the embankment, and which 
were strongly suggestive of bass. On our side of," the 
river a strip of level land a couple of hundred yards in 
width lay up and down the river, back of which Wallow- 
Hole Mountain lifted its crest fifteen hundred feet: up 
into the sky. Along this narrow little strip of bottom 
land old man Blankenship had a little farna and lived in 
ari humble little cabin a short distance from our camp 
with his grandchildren. While we were making camp 
the old man came along with a couple of neighbors'— a 
The Copperhead Rock Rapids — Mount George in Distance. 
man and a woman — ^whom he was preparing to set across 
-the river. While evidently surprised to find squatters on 
his land, he was cordial and pleasant, and assured us that 
we were perfectly welcome. The neighbors proved to "be 
our passing acquaintances of the old mill above, and 
turned out to be agreeable and pleasant in spite of their 
unprepossessing abiding place. A good hot fish dinner 
was served at 4 o'clock, which did duty for supper, also, 
after which the canoes were drawn ashore and the tents 
erected over them, and the camp leisurely put in shape, 
including the fly, as ,the w',eather was by no means above 
suspicion. I settled down to my correspondence, while 
George improved -the opportunity to go a-fishing. He 
made quite a nice catch, which, as we were pretty well 
surfeited with fish, we took to the old man's cabin and 
presented to him. 
Monday, July 6, 1903.. ? 
As this place looked favorable 'for fishing, and as we 
had but a few days more for the cruise, George suggested 
that we lie by here a day and try the^ water; so after 
breakfast we took our tackle and sallied forth; but al- 
though we used first flies and afterward helgramites, 
neither of us scored a rise. The river was discovered to 
be rising, as a result of Sunday's heavy storm, which 
probably accounts for the bass refusing to strike ; so, after 
A Landing for Wa.ter. 
an hour's fruitless exertion, we gave it up and returned 
to camp, and after George, had set me across the. river in. 
the old man's boat I had a hot walk of a mile and a 
half up the railroad to a bit of a country store, where I 
had the expeditionary coal oil., can filled. On my: return 
I found the river was coming up quite rapidly, and by 
the niiddle of the afternoon there was a foot and a .half 
of discolored, muddy water coming down, which of 
course knocks out the fishing, and will end the cruise to- 
morrow at Ronceverte. It does not take these mountain 
streams more than two or three days to run clear after a 
rain, but, as I had only about that much time remaining 
for this outing, it did not seem worth while to wait any 
longer on the water. The afternoon was spent lazily in 
camp, reading, dozing, etc. The old man was down in 
camp a couple of hours during the afternoon. He has 
been a mighty hunter, and is now a mighty talker 
George likes to hear him talk, and tell of his numerous 
hunting exploits and adventures, but I found him borous. 
Tuesday, July 7, 1903. 
We got an early start this morning, and were afloat b> 
7:30, with a couple of feet more muddy water under us 
than we had when we arrived here. The old man was 
down while we were cleaning up the kitchen utensils and 
putting things to rights, and we turned over to him what 
few supplies, in the way of coffee, sugar, etc., that we 
had left over, which he thankfully accepted. We lingered 
lazily down along this last stretch of the river, loth to 
leave the beautiful stream at the last, albeit the flush 
water carried us along at a lively rate, and we had a 
quick and easy cruise of fifteen miles to Ronceverte, ar- 
ri-ymg there at about 11 o'clock. The day's cruise re- 
minded us in more ways than one of our elegant day's 
cruise between Cass and Marlinton. We found the rapidg 
