^6 
. OREST AND STREAM. 
tJULY 20 , 1905. 
at Tahoe I should have sent to San Francisco for the 
spodn so successfully used by Judge Beaman on the_ big 
Mackinaws in Twin Lakes, hear Leadville, Col. This is 
a western device known as the Golcher spoon^ so-called 
after the inventor, an enthusiastic sportsman of San 
Francisco. For the benefit of those who have not seen it 
I may say that the No. 4 spoon is about two inches long 
and one inch wide; it is of copper, brass or silver. The 
ends are concaved in opposition ; to one end are attached 
two hooks, to the other a ring into which the leader 
loops. There is no .swivel. The spoon does not revolve; 
as it is drawn through the water it darts off first at one 
tangent then suddenly at another, just as we have often 
seen a wounded herring, roach or young bluefish do. The 
Golcher spinner must be weighted to sink it a few feet. 
Both Mr. Kent with his red-star spinner and Mr. Treat 
with his Golcher outfit were signally successful and, like 
true sportsmen, they are willing that others shall profit by 
their genius and industry. Already I know of several local 
anglers now “laying up” tO' have a try at the new method. 
If it prove equally efficient in the hands of the newcomers 
as in those of the pioneers it will surely mark an epoch, 
a new departure in trout fishing, at Tahoe, and soon one 
may count on seeing anglers frOm every point of the coin- 
pass in valiant combat with the silver kings of T. ahoe s icy 
depths. The trout ruii in size from a pound to 30. The 
season for fishing begins in June. and is best from then 
till the middle of August, but good even in early Septem- 
ber. Open season on Tahoe is peculiar. _ On the Nevada 
side of the lake the law gives one the right to fish frorn 
April I to March 15, the California law runs from April 
to October, though one may not fish in the waters con- 
tiguous to Placer and El Dorado counties, California, till 
June I. Nevada supports no fish commission and does 
nothing to help California protect the fish. Last year Cali- 
fornia placed in the lake about 1,000,000 fry and about 
the same number the year before. 
It is estimated that the market fishermen send to the 
city markets each year no less than 100 tons of trout, 
dhose who follow their vocation in Placer and El Dor- 
ado counties evade the law by filling their tanks m May 
and waiting till June i to ship. Of course, this could not 
be done without connivance, and it should be stopped. 
One thing the tourist to Tahoe is not slow to learn; 
these professional fishermen view him with contempt, re- 
gard him as an interloper come to rob them of their vested 
rights. Few, if any of them, will take a stranger out in 
their boats. One ^young man told me that he earned 
$17.50 in a single day last summer, and that his average 
for four months was $I7S per month. 
Now that Governor Pardee has signed the game and 
fish law limiting a single day’s catch of trout to 25 
pounds or fifty trout, it remains to be seen what these 
market men will do. But they are _less_ blameworthy, in 
my opinion, than the fellow who kills just for the sake 
of killing. California public opinion is waking up on the 
subject of game preservation, and the pot hunter, the pot 
fisherman and game butcher are beginning to read the 
handwriting on the wall. 
Speaking of pot hunters and sporting g«its— not 
sportsmen, if you please — ‘o what class does this fellow 
of whom I was trustworthily told the following, belong: 
He came to the tavern one summer from .Sail Francisco. 
He said he was fond of angling and spent, hours on the 
lake daily. Each day he shipped a big box of fine trout 
to the city. Did he offer a trout to a fellow guest 01- 
have one cooked for himself?. No, indeed, and thus 
meanness proved his petard.:. A shrewd fellow guest 
took the trouble to have him looked up in the city and, 
lo, our enthusiastic angler turned out to be a well known 
fish commission merchant in the California, market. That 
was a combination of sport and. spondulics for fair, 
wasn’t it ? By going to work early and fishing late I can 
see how it would be possible for a business gent to make 
a thrifty dollar or two over and above his vacation ex- 
penses and at the same time earn the reputation of being 
a “devilishly enthusiastic angler.” But the California 
public are rapidly being educated up from this sodden 
and sordid spirit. J. D. C. 
The Upp;:r Mississippi Forests* 
Aitkin, Mirin:, July . — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Some time last 'winter I wrote you of the Government 
giving permission to the lumbermen to raise the water 
in Itasca Park two feet in order to float their logs. The 
sequel of such permission is now in evidence. Many 
thousand acres of the Upper Mississippi Valley are under 
water. For nearly nine months past the lumbermen of 
the upper woods have been storing every drop of water 
they could hold by damming the outlets of various lakes. 
The United States. Government aids in the work with its 
four great reservoirs at Sandy, Pokagema, Leech and 
Winnebegoshish lakes. In these lakes hundreds of square 
miles of water are held to a depth in some cases of ten 
or twelve feet. This makes what they call a driving head 
for carrying the logs to Minneapolis. There is the claim 
that the Government reservoirs are for the purpose of 
supplying water for navigation purposes below St. Paul 
and for the prevention of floods, but in the case of the 
floods it works the wrong way. In very dry seasons it 
works all right, but in very wet seasons it results in just 
such disastrous floods as are now on. If this country 
were, well developed and a rich farming community this 
condition would be remedied very quickly; but the coun- 
try is poor and ill-developed on account of repeated 
floods, while the lumber barons own. the State and appar- 
ently the United States Government as a side property. 
So complete is their control that not a county paper in 
all the line will so much as hint that the operations of 
the loggers have anything to do with the conditions. The 
commercial clubs of all the small towns and even Duluth 
and St. Paul hold indignation meetings and send com- 
mittees to investigate the Government reservoirs and the 
flooded districts, .but let anyone so much as hint that the 
lumbering operations are to blame and the fire of their 
enthusiasm goes out in a cloud of steam as quickly as if 
a Niagara had been poured upon them. 
If the Government wanted to do so, it could easily pre- 
vent the damage to this lower country by cutting canals 
across the bends of the river at various places and in- 
creasing the carrying capacity of the stream._ One canal 
of nine miles in lepgth would relieve fifty miles of river. 
A tax of a few cents per thousand on all the lumber the 
river carries to the mills in a single season would pay 
the cost, for indeed the traffic is something wonderful. 
From the time the April sun first opens the way to navi- 
gation till November closes it again, there is one almost 
continuous string of logs rushing on to the grasping 
mills. In canoeing about, one often has to_ wait some 
time for an opening in the logs sufficiently wide to force 
a canoe through. The controlling of the, floods is directly 
in the hands of the Secretary of Waf, ;and through him 
the President, as by ordering all waters, out of the reser- 
voirs until such times as the carrying capacity of the 
river is overtaxed, it would be possible to hold absolute 
control of the flood. A reverse order brings a reverse 
of result. 
Cruising about over the flooded district one sees cattle 
and horses grazing from the tops of the tallest grass half 
up their sides in water. There are many timothy mea- 
dows where the. tallest heads just reach the surface of 
the Watefi Others were covered entirely out of sight. 
One farmer, whose farm was entirely covered and who 
had water in his house, took the roof off his log barn^ 
and using part of the house as material raised it one story - 
higher and lives up there. Another queer thing was 
sprinkling the streets in the town of Aitkin when per- 
haps one block away the same street would be two feet 
under water, and there was water in some of the houses.' 
It is a curious mixture of sunshine and flood, smiling 
weather and treacherous waters, and puts one in mind of 
Byron’s “Mildest-mannered man that ever scuttled ship 
or cut a throat.” The property lost is not so great as 
one might expect froiri such a flood, as the farmers are' 
not wealthy as a rule, but such as they had it was their 
living and their opportunity. There are some fine prop- 
erties, however, devastated. Nor is the loss confined to' 
the farmer; the local lumbermen lose heavily by reasoh 
of scattered logs, closed mills and lumber damaged byj 
water. One firm, Hodgeden & McDonald, who, aside' 
from their lumber business, had sought to develop the 
country and had cleared much land, lose heavily alii 
round. . One field of oats in particular of a hundred acres 
or more, which was as fine a field as I remember ever to 
have seen and just getting green across the entire field? 
when the flood came, would now make a fine place toi 
hold a rowing regatta. Gyde, the stave mill man, is also: 
said to_ffie damaged $5, 000. But these people are in nof' 
stress. It is the poorer people, whose labor has been the- 
source of all the wealth of the community who, losing a: 
few dollars, lose their all, who are the real sufferers. j 
If the traffic on the river is of sufficient importance 
to allow its continuance in the face of the damage done;! 
it is of enough importance to pay a log tax equal to the 
damage done or at least enough to pay a goodly part of 
the expense necessary to increase the carrying capacity! 
of the river. ; 
Since . the prairie chickens (pinnated grouse) have been 
almost driven from the prairies of western Minnesota and! 
Dakota by excessive shooting, they have adopted the, 
marsh lands of this section as their home. About four- 
teen years ago the first of them were seen here, accord-j 
ing to Mr. Kempton, local game warden, and since then^ 
they have gradually increased until this spring their 
boom.ing could be heard in any and all directions, morn- 
ing and evening, through April and May and up until the' 
beginning of the flood, after which time I have heard’ 
nothing .of them, but I suppose the old birds will come 
back after the water recedes. 
Of young birds I think there will be none. The bur- 
rowing animals of the wood are all drowned out and 
woodchucks, skunks, porcupine, mink, muskrat and 
others can be seen in all manner of curious places. I 
saw a woodchuck adrift on a piece of plank the other 
day and immediately my bulldozing instinct took pos- 
session and I paddled up to it and raised my paddle as if 
to strike, and shouted. The chuck did not leave his planki 
and start to swim as I expected, but simply stood hisj 
ground f plank) and showed his teeth. I then bombarded 
him with small pieces of bark. At this I read his thoughts 
by his expression as being, “You have the advantage; 
Mister, but I can’t help but say you are a contemptible 
rascal for thus abusing me,” and I left him his bit of! 
plank and departed. Yet I doubt if the lumber com- 
panies who have their eyes fastened on the last pine snag 
in Minnesota would have done as much. 
This is said to be the record flood in point of duration; 
and only lacks a few inches of being the record for 
height. Ten days after the last drop of rain fell and 
eight days after the water stopped rising it has only 
fallen two inches. A glance over the records of the past 
show that it is not the times of greatest rainfall that 
greatest floods occurred. E. P. Jaques. 
A Feat Ve red Joker. 
The yellow-breasted chat reaches the northern limit of 
his range in central New York, He is found there only 
in favored localities and is not a common bird as in New 
Jersey and from thence southward. _ Probably this ac- 
counts for his being held in superstitious awe by some 
of the people. An amusing incident was brought to rny 
notice last summer. Two laborers were engaged in 
cleaning out an old ditch in one of the back meadows. 
They were close to the boundary of the_ field which was 
marked by a rail fence overgrown by vines and bushes. 
About noon I observed that while one well polished 
shovel still showed the presence of a red-shirted work- 
man, the other was missing. The disappearance of Con- 
ners, the best ditcher between the lakes, caused me no 
little concern, for the sluice was flooding half an acre of 
corn land and needed immediate repairs. I went over to 
the red-shirted man with the question : 
“Scott, where is Conners?” _ . 
Scott’s . grin was bounded only by his ears as he an- 
swered : “Pat’s quit the j ob and you’ll have to get an- 
other man.” , . , ■ tt 
“No!” I exclaimed. “You must be_ joking. He was 
all right this morning. Why did he quit?” ^ 
Scott leaned on his shovel and explained. iheres a 
bird in the bushes yonder. He’s not much bigger than 
one of these ’ere sparrers, but he’s a hull circus. Pat’s 
as full o’ superstition as an egg is o’ meat, and he was 
scart ‘That’s no canny bird,’ says he, ‘tis the divil come 
to harry me.’ Bimeby he couldn’t stand it no longer. He 
clum’ out of the ditch and went home, vowed he wouldn’t 
stay and work where the critter was, not if all the saints 
was in the medder to keep off the evil eye. Thats him 
low. 
I listened attentively as a chat began his medley of 
luawks, whistles, caws and clucks from the nearby 
licket. ’ It was a remarkable performance, for the bird 
ged his powers of ventriloquism and his notes seemed 
to come from a distant tree, from the ground, and in- 
deed from every place except the right one. The racket 
only ceased when I abruptly approached his hiding 
place. 
“Well,” I said laughing, “is that all? That’s only a 
chat, Scott. Sometimes he is called the yellow mocking- 
bird.” 
“Mockingbird,” commented Scott “I’ve seen mockers 
out in Missoury where they’re common as chippies, and 
they kin sing, too, but this feller’s smart. Wait a bit 
and he’ll do some of his stunts.” 
Although annoyed over the defection of Conners, I felt 
a lively interest in this low comedy actor, the chat, and 
strolled down by the fence. Of course, he saw me, al- 
though he was hidden, so I quietly seated myself under a 
tree and awaited developments. In five minutes his 
curiosity got the better of his caution and he followed 
full-tilt from tree to tree just to let intruders know that 
this was his bailiwick. Finding that I paid no attention 
to his sharp “quit, quit,” he settled himself on a limb 
and entertained me as long as I cared to listen. Except 
for a few rapid trills and a clear, flute-like whistle, there 
was nothing musical in the performance. It was a mix- 
ture of weird, uncanny noises including a peculiar creak- 
ing sound like the turning of a rusty hinge. He was de- 
cidedly good to look at with his neat figure, quick move- 
ments and bright yellow waistcoat, but when he launched 
himself from a tree and came over our heads in jerky 
flight with his legs dangling, I could think of nothing 
but the parti-colored clown at the circus who essays 
the high jump along with the other acrobats. I was 
satisfied from his behavior that the nest was not far off, 
so after a little I began to search for it. Front a chat’s 
point of view, it was an ideal nesting-place._ Wild black- 
berry, elders and sumac made a dense thicket on both 
sides of the fence. It was, almost impossible to penetrate 
into the mass overgrown as it; was in many places by 
vines, but I persevered and, regardless of scratches, 
made a careful search of the whole line. I found noth- 
ing. Twice in the following week I went over the 
ground, foot by foot, with the same result. The male 
bird was constantly about the place. How he jeered as 
'he watched me tearing my way into the jungle! Clearly 
he had a purpose in his vigil. Was the nest really there, 
or was he fooling me into that belief to better concea 
its location? I saw the female several times but she 
slipped in and out of the thicket without giving any clue 
to the mystery. At last, I gave it up, and left the chats; 
to their housekeeping. In the press of work I quite 
forgot the birds until the harvesting of the hay com- 
menced. 
In order to reach the meadow from the farm build- 
ings, it was necessary to pass through a narrow lane. 
This opened into the field near the lurking place of the 
chats. Max, the big black setter, followed the ' men. 
ranging through the bushes and tall grass. At a point 
in the lane about five rods from the meadow, he ran 
into a clump of bushes at the side of the track. Out he 
came again instantly with two enraged chats pecking 
and diving at him, flapping about his eyes, and using al 
the bad language in the chat vocabulary. At the same 
moment the four youngsters which somewhat resemblec 
young bobolinks, fluttered out of the bushes and took 
refuge in the nearest tree. The dog’s discomfiture wasj 
amusing. He made no attempt at defending himself bu 
scudded down the lane with tail and ears drooping ex- 
actly like a sable gentleman when caught in the act oi 
robbing a henroost. The chats pursued him for somi 
distance, then returned to their brood. A moment’; 
search in the bushes revealed the clumsy nest in the 
crotch of a small tree. 
It may be a futile matter to compare a bird’s menta 
processes with our own, but it would be interesting tc 
understand the motives actuating the chat’s behavior 
in this instance. His home, as I have related, was safely 
hidden at some distance. A cuckoo or brown thrashei 
would have simply used more slyness in concealing hii 
presence and would have avoided the point where tbi 
