214 
FOREST AND STREAM 
&sh ([iilhire- 
For Forttt and Stream. 
A TRIP AFTER GRAYLING SPAWN. 
B EARING in mind our experience of last year, which 
conclusively proved that the grayling deposited their 
spawn in the month of April instead of doing it in Febru- 
ary, as the books said they should or would do, our patty 
arrived at Grayling on the evening of April 5th. It con- 
sisted of D. II. Fitzhugh, Jr., Lcn Jewell, Charles Pierce, 
guides and canoeman, and the writer. We staid over night 
at the comfortable hotel kept by M. llnrtwick, and in the 
morning loaded our camp equipage into two boats and pro- 
ceeded down the Au Sable. 
80 many anglers are seeking information in regard to 
the fish and fishing in this and other rivers in the wilder- 
ness of Michigan that a description of the boats used to 
gun it will probably be in order. They are built of pine, 
flat bottomed, pointed at each end, and are twelve feet long 
by three wide at the middle; they are pushed with a pole, 
as oars are of no use on this rapid, crooked stream, filled with 
logs and overhung with tree tops, as in many places there 
is simply a passage way between several tops wide enough 
for the boat to pass. Our boats held two men and all the 
impedimenta of camp, and there is but one other boat on 
the river besides the two owned by Mr. Fitzhugh. The 
weather was more favorable than on the occasion of our 
visit last year, and in consequence of the thaw the river 
was a foot higher than usual, and very much discolored. 
We kept a sharp lookout for schools of fish in places 
where we saw and caught them lost season without seeing 
a single one; they seem to have deserted that part of the 
river. Mr. Fitzhugh accounted for this in tliisyay: He 
says (and he knows more about the habits of grayling than 
any man in America) that they arc a local fish in the ex- 
treme sense of the word, and that when all are caught out 
of a certain portion of the river that part remains destitute 
of fish for some time. Certain it is that with the excep- 
tion of a large school of yearlings about four miles down, 
where the river widens at the first tributary below the rail- 
road, we saw no fish until about eight miles below. We 
passed Camps Hallock, Milner, and Green, and such was 
the scarcity of fish that we never stopped nor unlimbered 
our rods until we reached Camp Bowles, twenty miles by 
river from the town of Grayling. The river has been net- 
ted aud speared until the few remaining “magnificent dor- 
sals" have been driven by their gregarious habits to seek 
the schools of their golden eyed comrades below a point 
which the average market fisher can pole a boat in a day, 
for be it known that the gentle gruyling is more sociable in 
his nature than the carnivorous, or, rather, piscivorous 
fishes. We took one fish with the mark of a recent spear 
cut on it, and from my knowledge of the effect of injury 
to the skin of fishes 1 should not think it was over a week 
old. And this in the breeding season! We found the fish 
nearly ripe, aud saw mauy spawning beds that had been 
whipped, but no fish on them. The grayling chooses a 
gravel bed in a swift current, usually in shallow water, and 
in the open stream. .From observations last scuson, which 
seemed confirmed by similar ones on this trip, we were 
unanimously of the opinion that the grayling moved from 
the dark pools at sundown aud took their places upon these 
beds, which they did not seem to occupy by daylight. To 
prove this we sent Leonard and Charley with a jack over 
the beds at night, and they reported numbers of fish upon 
them. We fished four days from Camp Bowles, which is 
about two miles below the “big pine," a point well known 
to all who have run the river. We were on the north bank, 
on the slope of a large hill covered with Norway pine, aud 
our teut was pitched over a patch of the trailing arbutus 
with which the country abounds. In these four days we 
caught 118 fish to our two rods, Mr. Fitzhugh using a Nor- 
ris rod with a Clerk reel, and I one of Judson’s, with the 
new reel made by Orvis; this latter was on its trial trip, 
and proved very satisfactory. We used three flies, mainly 
the fuvorile grayling fly, made with a stoue wing and a 
yellow body, with occasionally a brown hackle or a gray 
moth. The fish did not rise us freely as they did last year 
which may be owing to their being further advanced to- 
wards spawning, or to the freshet then prevailing, which 
brought them plenty of food in the shape of the caddis 
etc., which could be plainly seen rolling on the bottom! 
The surface of the water in many places was literally alive 
with liny flies of the genus rhironomus , which, with the 
exception of the school of yearlings above referred to the 
fish did not seem to notice. An occasional white miller 
would be taken as soon as he attempted to cross n dark 
pool. These pools are mostly in shore, in a bend of the 
river, and have a dark bottom, caused by the vegetable 
deposit gathering there. We fished them from above, anil 
could often see fish below the boat, after the commotion 
caused by our arrival had subsided, picking the caddis 
shrimp, and other tod swept by the current from the 
sandy sbiugle or the gravel beds into their dwelling place. 
Never have I seen a stream so swarming with food; a wash 
basin placed in a landing net and used as u dredge brought 
in one haul of mud from near a pool seventeen shrimp 
( gammaru * ), two caddis of the large kind (stick or house 
worm), four of the small kind with the sandy case, one 
larva of May fly, many snails, and three of the little fresh 
water clams, that look like the quahang (not the mussel) 
and lots of the little red worm, the larva of the chironomuK. 
It ha* been doubted by some whether the salmon put in 
the Au Sable in the Winter would find food enough at that 
time of the year to support them. I do not think there is 
the h ast doubt of it. Insects are hatching in this water 
all Winter; the larva of many kinds pass the Winter in 
thi* spring water. 1 even pelicve that whitefish would find 
plenty of food here at any time, and that this or other 
spring streams would be a good place to deposit them aud 
let them work down into the lake. 
Of the 118 fish taken four were fully ripe, aud their eggs 
flowed freely; six more yielded a portion. A fair propor- 
tion of milt was obtained, and the eggs were packed in 
boxes and cups. A few were given toN. W. Clark & Son 
bv Mr. Fitzhugh, and 8,000 were taken to Honeoyc Falls. 
Had it been possible t«« have staid a week longer we could 
have easily got ten times the number; but as my leave of 
absence expired on the 15th we left Camp Bowles on the 
11th and proceeded up the river to spend one day Ashing 
for yearlings. 
On account of the rapids we walked up, and the guides 
consequently made better time. Taking ndvantnge of the 
windings, we had but little more than half the distance to 
travel. The snow was gone from the pine plains, but still 
laid a foot or more deep in the cedar swamps skirting the 
river. The woods had been burned over last Fall, and our 
way was through the blackened pines and over the burnt 
moss, which filled our noses with its powdery ash and 
made us look so like wandering minstrels that the question 
naturally arose, “Where will we show to-night?” Deer 
tracks were numerous, so were the plantigrade impressions 
of the coon, aud an occasional bear. They tell a story of 
our host, Ilartwick, thus: — 
Last Winter he was going out for ruffed grouse, and his 
son Jimmy, a boy of eight years old, wanted to go along; 
so lie took him with him, and shortly they came upon a 
hear cub, which he killed with one barrel of his shot gun. 
The mother being near, and hearing the appeals of her ju- 
venile for help, came to remonstrate with Hartwick, but he, 
declining argument, gave her the other barrel in the face 
when only a few feet distant, which had such au irritating 
effect upon “old hair oil" that she took a gentle hold upon 
the infuriated man, probably to compel liim to keep the 
peace toward herself and hers, and only lost her temper 
when he shivered his gun stock upon her bump of venera- 
tion. .Seeing that the only way to bring him to reason was 
to phlebotomize him she removed his coat, vest and shirt 
in haste after laying him down in a bed of wintergreen, 
and commenced an incision in his biceps muscle, when 
Jimmy, probably sympathizing with the bottom party, 
gave vent to his ideas in such unearthly screams that Dame 
Ur sun became disgusted and shuffled off. Hartwick says 
he don’t care for oil anyhow; his hair lays smooth enough. 
We arrived at the Indian camp about noon, and made 
ourselves comfortable. There were no Indians there then, 
hut their lodges showed signs of recent occupation. It 
being Sunday we did not fish. We had some fish in the 
wells of the boats — fifty-five for Mr. Clark, and ten speci- 
mens for Prof. Baird. We now wanted some yearlings, 
which we calculated to get in the morning, ami so we took 
a rest. 
When we were camped below, Leonard and I had gone 
down the river one day to a favorite spring hole, and after 
fishing until they refused to rise more we went ashore and 
made a fire. We were soon visited by an Indian, who 
paddled his dug out up with the usual salutation, bon jour, 
which was returned. He examined rods and tackle at- 
tentively, and then asked a few questions iu Chippewa. 
Leonard, who is learned in the mysteries of the language, 
was absent in the swamp, and I addressed him thus: — 
“Whither, O child of nature, guidest thou the prow of thy 
frail hark?" (It was a bass wood dug out.) To which lie 
replied, “Kowin kendun, puckacbee, seewass; I loss um 
dog." Here he whistled, but his companion appeared not, 
and I advised him "to invert the terms of his divisor and 
proceed as in multiplication of fractions.’’ He then re- 
quested “scutah-wabah." I am not certain of my Chip- 
pewa spelling, but the front part of that compound word 
refers to lire, and the hinder portion to water, from which 
1 inferred that whiskey was the desire of my red brother. 
That this article forms the chief portion of the supplies in 
some fishing parlies I am well aware — “pity ’I is, ’tis true” 
—and that while men with means enough to own such fish- 
ing tackle, boats, etc., should come so far into the wilder- 
ness without unlimited quantities of this villainous drug 
seemed incomprehensible to this untutored child of the 
forest. It was true when 1 told him that we had none, yet 
I felt sure that he received it cum gmno Kalin, as he made no 
reply. I was in the midst of a long oration, which had 
commenced with "Intemperance, my friend, is the banc of 
the nineteenth century," to which lie seemed to nod au as- 
sent, which possibly included several previous centuries, 
when Leonard came buck, and I felt then that I could make 
myself understood. “Tell him, Leonard,” said I, “that as 
there were giants in those days their descendants are upon 
earth even now, and we are of them; that it is the foun- 
tains of the earth which give us vigor; that the use of 
stimulants is enervating, and sooner or later bring a traiu 
of infirmities which superinduce a premature decay.” 
Such is the wonderful wealth of the Chippewa tongue 
that Leonard rendered ull this into two words, to which Lo 
replied with a very expressive grunt, and took a handful of 
crackers, half our cheese, aud all our pressed beef. By 
this time my coffee was cool enough to drink, and raising 
it in my hand, witli some pertiuent remarks about the “cup 
which cheers but not inebriates,” was about to drink when 
he took it and drained it, with the appropriate remark, 
"Nishishshin." 
He must have had a business engagement somewhere 
about this time, for after he had goi into his canoe, and 
while I was iu the middle of au argument conclusively 
showing him that the mother of intemperance was con- 
viviality and social drinking, he quietly said bon jour, and 
getting into his dug-out he dug out. 1 did not need to fin- 
ish this for Leonard’s sake, for he is a true woodsman, 
whose favorite drink is pure water when he can’t get coffee. 
I have hope that this son of nature will reflect on the words 
of wisdom that were bestowed on him, but as for his lost 
dog, that other son of nature, he is of the un regenerate, 
lie visited camp three times, always in our absence; the 
first time he ate all the crackers, the next time he'con- 
surned part of the bread and the remainder of the pressed 
beef, and on the occasion of bis last visit he devoured four 
fried grayling (left for a cold lunch), two pounds of pork, 
and licked out the frying pan. 
‘‘May good digestion wait on appetite, 
And health on both." 
Among the strange fish hooked was one adult grayling 
without ventral fins, a slight projection marking their 
place; and when Leonard and I were at the lower spring 
hole 1 had let my fiies go down stream when a fish took 
them twenty-five yards below. I struck him and held him 
a moment till I commenced to reel in. I had not Orvis’ 
reel, which takes up very fast, with me this time, but a 
wide one with a small core, and he ran in on me faster than 
1 could reel up, and wlieu I did bring a strain on him he 
leaped like a salmon, showing a flsli nearly two feet long, 
but what fish we do not know, as ho broke loose. The fiy 
was not cut off, as it might have been If taken by a pick 
erel. By the way, the river is fed by lakes containing both 
bass and pickerel, yet none are found in the river. We also 
caught cypriuoids while fishing for yearlings; they are a 
sort of shiner, (utilhe?) 
Next day, Monday, 12th, wo caught fifty yearlings, struck 
our tents, and moved to Grayling, where we staid all night 
to be ready for the morning train. Here we met Mr. Frank 
Clark, of the Michigan Fishery. We gave him our adult 
fish and vhe portion- of spawn mentioned, reserving forty 
vcarlings for our own ponds; these were of the uniform 
length of five inches, but in the yearling the magnificent 
dorsal is uot developed; in fact, the larger the grayling the 
larger in proportion seems this fin. 
A bill is now before the Michigan legislature protecting 
the fish at the proper time, instead of allowing fishing April 
1st, as at present. 1 was much astonished to see how the 
fish had beeu thinned out nenr the railroad; possibly not 
all caught out, but driven by their love of companionship, 
os suggested above, to lower waters. 
Mr. Fitzhugh’s term, “local fish," I think correct, and as 
the grayling occupies waters similar to the trout, and is 
always compared with his illustrious congener, it is not 
amiss to note this point of difference. The trout is not a 
local fish. True, you will find one in the same pool, or 
under that bridge almost any time you look for it. lie 
seems to dwell there always, and to hardly leave his chosen 
spot even for food, yet he will go to the Atlantic Ocean if 
lie has a chance. He may stop in some lake or other deep 
water; hut at times trout run dowu as far as they find 
water that will sustain them. The only true love of lo- 
cality that trout really possess is the one that leads them 
back to the spot where they passed their embryohood. 
That brook trout run into salt water is so well known on 
Long Island as perhaps to cause a smile at its statement ; 
but this fact is actually so little known to those who live 
farther inland that it is always received with astonishment 
if uot incredulity. Therefore I do not consider the trout 
at all local in its habits, but would rather consider it a mi- 
gratory fish, which is kept at home by an impassable barrier 
of unsuitable water. Even then they run down stream in 
Summer, and are not found so plentiful in the upper waters 
or on the spawning beds. In the case of a stream empty- 
ing into a lake, where the temperature is low enough and 
food is plenty, they nearly all desert the stream after 
spawning and make the lake a Summer resort. As I un- 
derstand Mr. Fitzhugh, lie thinks that the grayling feeds 
and breeds within a much shorter range. 
September is undoubtedly the best month for grayling 
fishing, but at this time the Au Sable is a thorough tare for 
many frontier desperadoes, who are always ready to plun- 
der a camp if no one is in sight, or perhaps to do worse. 
The average lumberman is ns honest as mankind run, but 
his free life attracts many tramp9, who work with him 
awhile aud vanish, and the Fall of the year is the time 
when this class are on the move, and the river is their high- 
way. Should you happen to be fishing a mile or two from 
camp, and see suspicious white men, it is best to return, 
but. if Ibdiaus j-on need not be alarmed. 
Frank Finch is dead — died this post Winter of pneumo- 
nia, some say, and others suggest that he "had ’em.” Last 
Summer Frank came to Camp Bowles in a dug-out, with 
liis bare legs hanging over its sides, and after informing 
the party that he owned the river and the whole woods, 
said: “Gcutlemcn, you see before you one of America’s 
most talented men, and at the same time the most 
unfortunate, persecuted and unhappy man upon the earth 
at the present time.” Leonard's advice before he 
landed was that the less they had to do with him 
the better, but good advice is apt to he passed. A cup 
of coffee warmed the ventricles of Frank’s heart and un- 
limbercd his tongue. He recited from Burns, Byron, and 
Moore, as well as from Anacreon and the elder poets, and 
claiming to be a poet himself he was requested to give au 
impromptu ode to the grayliug, which lie did in wry fair 
doggerel. He seemed of a sweet and sympathetic nature, 
and it is a pity that they should have kept him in prison 
several months just for killing a barkeeper who had refused 
whiskey to his thirty soul, lias geniu9 no rights thai bar- 
tenders are bound to respect? Frank said tiiat his domes- 
tic life had been unhappy. This is strange, as there does 
not seem to be any suspicion that he killed more thau one 
child. Vcrllv, 
"Bo was the mildest mannered man 
Thai ever scuttled ship or cut u throat." 
And such is the average hermit of the woods; ergo, go fixed 
to take care of yourstdf. 
Our party had no firearms of any kind, hut we were in 
force, and none of us like the popping of guns when we 
are fishing, nor care to slay every living thing that may 
approach, although the sheldrakes and Kingfishers should 
he killed off; yet if you are tempted to kill all the birds 
and squirrels you may see, or to knock over a deer out of 
scuson, don’t take a gun. Fued Mather. 
First SnAD in tiie Upper Mississippi. — A fish having 
all the appearance of a shad, and supposed to be the pro- 
duct of the spawn deposit made by Seth Green in 1872, 
just below the Falls of St. Anthony, was caught last week 
iu a funnel net by a fisherman named Corlis. It has been 
sent to the Smithsonian Institution for identification 
There was a standing offer of $25 by the St. Paul Chamber 
of Commerce for the first shad caught in the Mississippi. 
MA GAZINE S. 
The. Ocerland Monthly . — Sparkling and bright comes the 
current number of this ever welcome visitor; another mile stone on the 
road of literature, along which our occidental sister Is advancing with 
such rapid strides. In the present Issue the lion. W. J. Shaw tins con- 
tributed a paper descriptive of the Temple of Ucliopolls. Mr. Shaw has 
spent five years in active trnvel und research, not ou tho beaten paths, 
but in odd nookB and comers, tn almost every part of Europe and Asia, 
from the great wall of China to the cataracts of the Nile, digging and 
delving until he has accumulated u inass of art treasures iqyl n perfect 
mine of valuable Information. We had tho pleasure of meeting this 
gentleman while he was in rout* for the Paciflc, und heurlng from him 
some slight account of his travels. We can congratulate California ou 
the possession of the stone discovered by Mr. Sliuw, upon which la Jn- 
acrlbcd the ancient and vontable plan of the once renowned Temple of 
Heliopolis, and also the Overland upon being the medium through which 
the rich results of his research are to he made publlo. 
