356 
FOREST AND STREAM 
and many were tho beauties that spread their golden hued 
sides upon the pans in our ice chest. 
During our stay wo made excursions to Rock Run, four 
miles above, emptying into the main stream at Ralston, 
which is a favorite summer resort for Philadelphia, Ball i- 
more, and Washington pleasure seekers. A large and well- 
kept hotel, by Mr. OUet. Myers, an old sportsman and a 
great story teller; the wonderful scenery which Rock Run 
affords; the mountain air, and the excellent meals, served 
by Mrs. Myers, are the attractions of the place. Rock 
Run is really one of the natural curiosities of this country, 
far surpassing Walkin’* Gleu in the beauty and grandeur 
of its gorges, rocks, and cascades. It abounds in trout, 
which still adds to its attractiveness for the angler, and 
must one day become a place of national fame. If you 
go there, inquire for our Philadelphia friend, C., who 
spends most of the Summer sketching and tishing on this 
delightful stream, and who is always ready to accompany 
any real lover of Nature upon an excursion through its 
wonderful avenues, and at lunch time will teach you how 
to cook a trout without apparatus, in the woods, that will 
almost melt in your mouth, rivaling in delicious flavor 
any morsel of which you have ever partaken. 
Tim Gray’s Run, two miles below our camp, is another 
famous resort for the angling fraternity. We visited this 
stream several times, and found it nearly exhausted of fish 
that had attained the size that an honest angler would 
covet. Still, a skillful fly-caster can catch from twenty to 
thirty fish in a day under favorable condition of stream 
and weather. Hiring Squire Rodino's team, we have fre- 
quently driven six miles up the stream to the splash dam, 
and then fished the stream aown to the mill, two miles from 
the mouth of the creek by noon; with a fair basket of fish 
and an excellent appetite for Mrs. Gray’s bread and milk. 
While Charles and I were enjoying our luncheon, George, 
the son of old Tim Gray, would amuse us with the stones 
of liis father’s adventures with rod and gun, and tell ns of 
the deer and bear he captured, and of the monstrous trout 
he used to land on the banks of this famous creek, until 
we wished that our taste for angling had been developed 
forty years earlier, when old Tim Gray was the sole settler 
along the creek that bears his name. While listening to 
these anecdotes we gathered many useful hints in angliug 
that were new and useful, even to an old chap like me. 
Fishing down this stream to its mouth, Charles and I killed 
several fine trout, and hooked one iu an old eel weir in the 
main creek, which we estimated would weigh at least one 
and a half pounds. H. had hooked and lost the same fish 
the day before, aod indicated to us where the old fellow 
lay; but by reason of swift water, and a submerged log 
under which he sought refuge, he parted company with us 
and our line almost as soou as we struck him. Twice 
afterward, upon different days, did we form an attachment 
to. him and witness his sprightly leaps and feel his ter- 
rific tugs while he bent our rod from tip to butt in his fran- 
tic efforts to reach that abominable log, and lie invariably 
succeeded, confound him, leaving my rod to straighten up 
with a vehemence that not only seated me upon the bottom 
of the creek, but left me to wonder whether fly fishing 
wasn’t a swindle after all, and whether auy pleasure in this 
world was worth the seeking. Ever lose a big trout? 
Yes? Well, you have experienced the feeling then, and I 
will waste no further words in expression of my disgust. 
Up to this writing that rascally trout remains under that 
identical log, and continues to go for every confounded fly, 
artificial or natural, that floats down that rapid to his lair. 
But in order to relieve the minds of any piscatorially in 
cliued, this is to give notice that we will capture that trout, 
for long before these Hues can reach your readers we shall 
have dropped our own upon the surface of that rapid once 
more, and hope to be able to inform you that the flsh has 
been brought to our creel at last. 
Well, so we passed our days — fishing, sketching, reading, 
cooking, working about camp, and entertaining our friends, 
until the trout became so scarce as to induce H. and 8. to 
abandon us for more bountifully stocked waters, leaving 
Charles and I, with our respective sons, to enjoy the air, , 
the food, the bathing, the birds, the flowers, and the quiet- 
ness of our camp life. The time passed rapidly and joyous- 
ly away. Once a party of ladies and gentlemen (our friends) 
visited us from the city, praised everything in camp, and ate 
everything they praised, and after a day and night's expe- 
rience with our mode of life, returned home regrettingly. 
Finally, the day appointed for our return home arrived, 
when we struck our tents with many heartfelt expressions 
of regret, but heavier in flesh, stouter in muscle, rested iu 
mind, strong and eager again for our professional duties. 
Our friends testify to our improved appearance, while we 
are conscious that our few weeks iu the woods were profit- 
ably spent, and are prepared to affirm, after an experience 
in both, that such an excursion is incalculaby better for 
body and purse than to spend the same number of days at 
some fashionable watering place in the vain endeavor to 
rest and restore one's exhausted vitality. And that is the 
way we go angling. Do you think you could enjoy it? If 
so, try it, and our word for it you will ever after seek no 
other recreation nor find no keener sport- Bistowy. 
[Lycoming county, Penn., the scene of the foregoing 
sketch, has long been noted for the brisk gamy qualities of 
its trout, and the particular section referred to by tho wri- 
ter ha9 been especially known as yielding the finest moun- 
tain trout in the country ; but of late years the fish have 
been scarce, and are thoroughly educated. A special 
knowledge of their haunts, and a peculiar aptitude for ul 
luring them, is essential to the angler who purposes a visit 
to Lycoming Creek, and even then he is not likely to get a 
large basket. We know of other streams in Lycoming 
county that are much better.— Ed.] 
— A crab six feet eleven inches loDg has been captured 
on an island in Yeddo Bay, and was on exhibition in Yo- 
kohama. 
—There is a grape vine on the old Colonel Floyd place, 
near Tocoi, Florida, which measures eighteen inches 
through tho trunk. 
—The truck raisers of Gainesville, Florida, have decided 
that the most paying vegetable is the cucumber. 
Key West exports $1-10,000 worth of augurs to New 
York per week. 
For Forest and Stream. 
A DAY AT LAKE KORONIS. 
M ANY of your readers can no doubt appreciate our 
feelings whet), after eighteen or twenty miles of 
drowsy and dull riding in a prairie schooner, minus the 
sail, guind old Koronls burst upon our view. A beautiful 
sheet of water, miles in extent, with dense oak and maple 
forests extending down the sloping shores, and gracefully 
overhanging the water from a number of picturesque 
points. Numberless ducks dotted the surface of the lake, 
raising the expectations of our party in due proportion. 
To the east, aud divided from Koronis by a narrow strip 
of land, the much talked of duck pass, lay Mud Lake, 
fairly alive with water fowl. 
Having arrived at the lake, we sprang out of the wagon, 
and in doing so flushed a covey of pheasants, which 
whirred off to a neighboring thicket iu their usually lively 
manner. With regrets that wo were not. prepared then to 
follow them up, and inwardly resolving to give them a trial 
between flights, we turned our attention to our luggage. 
Among such surroundings it did not take long to select a 
suitable camping ground, and it being too early for the 
evening flight we busied ourselves making our camp snug 
and comfortable. Fine meadow grass, knee high, in which 
our steeds already were luxuriating, made us a “scrutn- 
tious” bed, to use a favorite expression of W , the well 
known Sec. of the Slate Historical Society, and a member 
of our party. 
The cry of “supper” from the cook(l) put an abrupt end 
to these preparations, and tin cups and cainp cutlery in band 
we rushed to the charge, carrying everything before us. 
Our party consisted of II , a returned Californian, pass- 
ionately fond of hunting and tishing, particularly the lat- 
ter; W , before mentioned, also au ardent sportsman 
and good company; J , the serious man of our parly, 
hut a most indefatigable hunter aud the quickest shot al 
ways, and lastly the writer, a patient hunter, and then a 
novice on a duck pass. Ponto, a dropper, with a first-class 
field record, but no pedigree to boast of, and Prince, a tine 
powerful setter, comprised the dogs of the party. Time, 
20lb of September; locality, Stearns county, Minn. 
A movement on the part of the dogs directed our atten- 
tion towards tho pass, near which we were camped, aud 
we saw the ducks begin to stream over; then there was 
“music in the air." Tin cups were at once dashed down. 
guns laid hold of, and we were off Giving H ami 
W their stands a hundred feet or so apart, one on each 
side of a creek emptying into Mud Lake, down which the 
ducks would naturally fly, J took the right; and to 
mo fell the extreme left of the pass which ran north and 
south. In position behind as good cover as fell to each 
man’s lot, we scan the lake and await the opening of the 
ball. We have not long to wait. “Mark!” from II 
and I turn in time to see him cut down a pair «f wood 
ducks right and left in line style. Well done, shouted 
W , and leveling on the leader of the same flock ueutlv 
kills him at sixty yards. A shot from .1 and a splash, 
followed by a plunge from Prince and Ponto, and our re- 
trievers are at work. "Mark! L — ’’ from my neighbor, and 
I perceive u flock of blucliills heading towards me, rising 
just enough to clear the clump of scrub oaks in which 1 
was concealed. To aim was the woik of a moment, and 
glancing excitedly along my barrels, 1 cover the leader 
and pull aud make my first shot on u duck pass. “Bravo! 
L shouts W , “shoot again." In the excitement 
I bad almost forgotten I held a gun in my hands; but with- 
out stopping to learn the effect of my lirst fire, I turn 
quickly and shoot into the retreating flock, and have the 
supreme satisfaction of seeing three double up and fall. A 
noise behind me, I look mound and Ponto and Prince each 
lay a duck at my feet, the result of my first lire Elated 
and confident,! shoot again, this time al a single black 
drake— “a lightning peddler,” as W calls hiui. “Clean 
missed, shot behind,” say the veterans, and I resolve in the 
future on such side shots to hold from I wo to six feet 
ahead. This 1 verify to my satisfaction in a number of 
cases during the evening’s -shooting. Just then "mark!” 
from J , followed by two shots in quick succession by 
him. Bang! bang! from H , and ditto, ditto from 
W I jatch sight of a single red head running the 
gauntlet past my companion. As he is about to pass me 
he offers h side shot at forty five yards. I pull on him, 
holding well ahead; still beholds bravely on. I try him 
again at sixtv, and am delighted to sec iiitii begin to lower 
and fall dead way out in the lake. Then followed an eager 
race on the part of the two dogs, both anxious to retrieve 
the duck. They afford us a beautiful sight; for the lake, 
in the quiet evening sunset, 1ms taken ou the most beauti- 
ful sky lints. They seem to be swimming in a lake of 
gold, the coior intensified by the purple wake left by the 
dogs. But not long are we allowed to enjoy the scene, lor 
the flight begins again. We shoot with varying success, 
and heat our barrels with the rapid shooting, until dark- 
ness puts au end to the-iexciting sport. 
At the camp fire we live over the incidents of the day 
and evening, and after nodding a few times over 11 ’s 
Rocky Mouutain trouting experiences, we tumble in. The 
rest are soon asleep, while I lay awake, disturbed by the 
dismal booling of an owl perched in a tree above our tent. 
Enduring it as long as possible, I finally seize my gun in- 
tending to shot him, when \V , then awakening, sug- 
gests a better plan. Listening to him in dead earnest, lie 
advises me to walk round and round the tree, securing the 
owl's attention, when he assured me gravely his owfship 
would turn his bead round and round after me without 
shifting his position, and the result would be the twisting 
off of his neck! I see the point, and make a lunge at 
W in the dark, and miss, and soundly whack his sleep- 
ing neighbor J , whose astonishment 1 leave the reader 
to imagine. The owl left. 
Quiet restored, we fall into a deep sleep and are awak- 
ened by the report of a gun. We are astonished to find it 
high tune to set off for the pass, when wo discover that 
J is missing; Imt before we are fully dressed heap- 
pears, and over his Head aud shoulders wo behold the neck 
and wings of two wild geese, lie is at once the hero of 
the hour. We surround him and ask him forty questions 
in a breath, and lie IoIIh us how he heard the gccHe honlcine 
during the night, and judging from the sound that the flock 
were in the lake, lie determined to steal a march on us 
Crawling out quietly before dawn ho made his wav to the 
shore, where they were feeding in fancied security about 
forty yards distant. He gave them both barrels, killing 
one and wounding an old gander, said gander making a 
tierce and determined onslaught on Ponto, lashing jAm 
with his wings half drowning the dog, who finally aeizo.l 
Ins victim by the throat and put an end to the combat. 
II and W— — concluded to give the pheasants a trial 
am, t« J-— and my soil fell the pass, and valiantly J” 
held it, ns eighty-four ducks on that morning’s flight will 
fittest. Awaiting the return of tile two grouse hunter* 
we amused ourselves trolling from tho shore for pickerel' 
ami soon had a mess for a dozen men. From the number 
of shots we heard in the thicket wo judged our friend* 
were in luck; nor wore wo disappointed when, on their re 
turn, they added forty-seven pheasants to our combined 
hag of over a hundred ducks. We vote Koronia Pass )( 
grand success, aud all resolve to try it again the next 
season. Alsace. 
For Forest, and Stream 
HOW WE WENT TO KERN RIVER AF 
TER BIGTROUT, AND WHY WE DID'Nt 
GET ’EM. 
quite it number nf our town pertnlo have had great sport recently n i 
tin- month of the Cottonwood Crook, Ushlng for lako trout..— lJiikermk-iij 
paper. 
Fine sport Is had Ashing In the rnplilaof Korn Klver. whe.ro the water* 
pour nut of the bierras on to the volley Tho vreat trouble is to o,, t 
hooks largo enough unit lines stout tuupigh to haul them out. tine 
caught the nthur duy weighing m&vunUup pounds. Tho bigger ones took 
oir the lines as easily as swlinnilug. - Itukei sltuld paper. 
I LEAVE it to any unprejudiced mind whether the fore 
going, paragraphs are not beguiling, soduolivc at.d sag. 
geslive of a big day’s «port for the, true rtaherinan; tlm man 
who never crosses a creek that lie does not look out of ||, ( . 
stage window longingly, and in his mind’s eye stand upon 
yonder jutting rock, and casting bis fly into the swirl of 
that eddy, see a two-poundcr dash for it; Lite man who 
longs for a day or two in the country, where a trout stream 
offers greater attractions than the Centennial Exhibition 
ever can; who would give his tiro eyes (temporarily) for 
time to have a dash at the big fellows away down in Kern 
county, 330 miles away. Do hot these paragraphs convey 
an idea that Kern River must be llio fisherman's paradise? 
1 thought so, and so did my friend the Medico. We two 
account ourselves good fishermen. As for myself, I was 
to the manner born. My governor was the crack trout 
fisher of the good old county of Otsego, State of New 
York, und Delaware county, across t lie Susquehanna, was 
truly tho greatest ground for trout fishing in nil the Stale. 
I commenced at the bottom round of the ladder— served a 
regular apprenticeship. I began at worm digging, for \u 
always carried a spare rod with a worm bait for the deep 
boles between the logs where a fly could not be used, I 
followed my illustrious governor with the sack, for we 
hail no fish baskets iu those primitive days; no jointed 
rods and nice appliances. They were unknown in our 
little town. By degrees I Was promoted to the fly. and 
from that day refused to speak to common boys at our 
school. I was “airy.” [ was no longer a "worntcr." 
Many a fellow have I laid out; many a conceited young 
man have 1 relieved of liis surplus starch, and 1 go around 
with a chip on my shoulder. 1 don’t make much noise 
about it, fur if I ever am laid out, I don’t wtnl the brag to 
rise in judgment against me. But when I hear a fellow 
bragging and boasting of his prowess ns a fisherman, 1 
contrive to inveigle him to some purling brook, some Imb 
hiing stream. 1 get, him to go fishing with me; that tin 
ishes him. As the Frenchman says in his description of 
paradise, when Adam offers the apple with a how, In 
hand oil his heart, “dut finish Madame Eve." Once on a 
time — but that is a digression, although a good story. 1 li 
tell it to you another lime. 
If by this time you have come to Hie conclusion that I 
am no novice, but an old stager in the trout fishing lim , 
you have got the drift of my meaning; therefore, I am m.i 
one to he easily deceived as to what a trout is or .should 
lie, ami? The paragraphs above were insidiously spread 
before our eyes by a friend who is always going about 
with nothing better to do limit making a fellow discoiiu in 
eil with his lot. Added to this, my Iriund Col, W., who 
had accompanied his superior, Goa. Scofield, last Sunini. i 
on a tour of inspection, and lmd crossed and fished in this 
stream, always would persist in quoting it whenever fishing 
was discussed. He would say— "Fish! von should go 
down to Kern River, if vou want trout." Everybody stud 
let’s go down to Kern Itivur; Imt nobody went. Finally 
■nutters were brought lo a focus by these paragraphs. I 
said: “Doc, old boy, can’t you give your patients a soggy 
dose all round lliul will keep them on their bucks until you 
return, and slip off with mu to Kern River after those lug 
trout,” The Doc mused, mid starling up, said, "I'll do u 
I have only one patient that I have any doubts about. Hr 
is a hard nut; nothing makes him lick, und in spile oi 
every effort, I can't get him fairly and squarely on In. 
hack, and lie has money and never looks at the bill* " 
Said I, “Can’t you prescribe the Beecher Trial? make 
him read it; lie won't raree liis head for a week." “Ah' 
but," said the Doc, "that will finish him, and I can't all'onl 
it; bull'll go und see if I can’t gel a dose Into him ilmi 
will fix him." The following day I received a note as f..l- 
lows: “I've got him down, und ull the others pretty well 
under. We will go to-morrow." To-morrow, like all i<>- 
morrows, came, and we went— left by rail at four o'clock 
and rode all night, for mind you, Korn River, until recent 
ly, was almost a terra incognita to iin hereabouts, the extni 
sion of tho inland railroad south liuving only just brought 
it within reach; formerly it required days lo get there, nmv 
only twelve houis At six o’clock the next morning "> 
found ourselves at Bakersfield, ut which point wit coticlu 
ded that we hud belter land. We did so, and after a hn-iy 
breakfast the landlord apologized lor having no trout — 
something tliut seldom occurred. We enquired of the pm 
prietor or the hotel how about tho fishing in this ih i:» 
borhood. The lundlord confessed tllul lie knew hut link' 
of the locations; lie only kneyvthat lisli were plentiful, a 1 "! 
referred me to a seedy looking individual, at the moment 
engaged ut the liar taking liis morning cocktail, which, l ,r 
the nonce, almost strangled him, consequent upon guii'g 
the wrong chunuel. Thus appealed to, the seedy geiii 
having recovered liis speech Waved his hand grueclully ,(J ' 
wards tho river and said: "Fish? Well, uow, strungcr, 
there's no use talkin’; you’ve just struck it. Why, Ik" 
Jackson aud 1 went up just below the fulls three or font 
days ago, and wo kolched— well i'll draw it mild, and s»y 
what I'd swear to— uot less than a hundred and fifty pint"' 1 } 
iu an hour. 1 lnndod oue feller that must have weigh''* 1 
fifteen pounds, and I got hooked on to another tl' 111 
would nt come. I hollered to Ben and he took a holt wfih 
mo, and wo snaked ull we know, but never budged him. 
uutu tho line broke und down we tumbled." As h° l * L 
