1875 . 
167 
h 
TROIT FISlllXG IX PEXXSYLVAXIA. 
Friend D. — “ Meet me at the D. L. & W. R. R. 
depot to-morrow at 10 a. m., X. Y. train, for Price’s,” 
was the summons I received on one Monday a few 
weeks since, and what did it mean? Nothing more or 
less than three or four days trout fishing among the 
mountains of Pike and Jlonroe counties of this State. 
It was a trip much talked of by my friend B. and my- 
self, one that should be but a repetttion of many others 
wlien together, many that were looked back upon with 
pleasure; and can one ask if we looked forward 
through the very hard winter just passed, with any less 
pleasure to this one! Surely not. Therefore, Tuesday 
morning, ten o’clock* found me getting off the train at 
Scranton, with basket, rod and haversack, eager as any 
child. Soon the pleasant face of B. is seen among the 
throng; with him James an' Isaac, all equipped. A 
happier crew could not well be found. On board the 
train we steamed but of the city and up the eighteen 
miles of grade to the top of “ Pocono” mountains, 
eighty six feet to the mile, and yet scarcely a diminution 
of speed. How blessed are we of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. Even the mountains arc levelled in our path. 
Past Gouldsborough, passed Tobeyhanna three forks 
(Pocono Forks), and make ready boys, the next is our 
station. Then with a good-bye to acquaintances who 
arc on the train, and many a lieaity “good luck to ye.” 
and Oakland Station is reached, the end of our “rail- 
roading.” 
Mine host Yedder soon borrows a neighbor’s horse, 
which, with his own, make quite a team. Loaded 
on the three-sealed buckboard we weigh it down until 
the thing rides easy. “How far to Price's, Ben?” 
“ Six or seven miles.” Impatient though we are, we 
are compelled to lime our haste to brute speed, and be- 
guile the hours passing rapidly with “ fish stories,” 
B. and I telling huge ones, but Isaac saying, “ It is no 
use boys, I can beat you at your own game. When I 
was in the AUirondacks” “ Hold up, old fellow, we 
are in Pennsylvania and talking of moderate sized 
fish; trout that have had to take their chance of being 
caught until they grow to be even of moderate size, and 
not tliose overgrown lubbers who have not been dis- 
turbed, and can be caught for the asking in the Adiron- 
dacks,” whereupon Isaac subsides into silence with a 
fresh lit pipe to console him. 
Leaving Oakland station we reach, first, Oakland 
proper, with its fifteen or twenty houses; then Cana- 
densis comes along, after a mile of mountain road is 
parsed. Here are large tanneries situated on Broadhead’s 
Creek; one branch of which we propose to fish. Pass- 
ing Canadensis to the left, we go on and up for about 
five miles. We follow the course of the outlet of 
Gooseneck Pond, and on our way we see a fisherman 
whipping the stream. What luck he had we did not 
learn; but from the state of the water it looked like 
poor encouragement. On each side of us the woods 
are on fire, and Ben says it was started from the care- 
lessness of a man who, in burning a fallow, allowed the 
fire to get beyond his control, and escaped into the 
woods, “and where it will end nobody knows,” he 
sharply remarks, but let us hasten on to “ Price’s.” At 
nearly 3 p. M. we seethe house. Soon we are there, 
and after a few minutes talk with “ Little Scharley,” as 
his neighbors call him, wehurrj' to the fishing. 
Now, be it known that ten gentlemen of Scranton, 
have leased the fishing from “Little Scharley” and thus 
have been enabled to preserve this stream from the 
depredations of those who call themselves "sportsmen” 
and yet will catch and carry away any and every trout, 
able to bite at their hooks, indiscriminately. 1 was an 
invited guest and it did my heart good to find such fish- 
ing as I propose to tell you of. Price has a saw mill on 
his property, and has two dams. The upper a feeder to 
the lower. It was the upper we proposed to make our 
principal fishing ground. This dam covers nearly 
twenty acres of surface and was formerly a beaver dam 
into which the trout were put, some twenty-five or thirty 
years since by Price’s father. 
As quickly as possible we commenced fishing and on 
every side the boys kept them “Hopping” ’tilt from 4 
o’clock to 7, we had nearly a hundred of the speckled 
beauties averaging not far from eleven inches in length, 
and about half a pound in weight. After a hearty sup- 
per on ham and eggs, we were ready for bed. Five 
o’clock on Wedne.sday morning found us hard at work, 
making them ‘Hlop,” and at breakfast, fifty more of the 
same lot slept with their relatives, in the huge stone Jar 
lathe cellar. Ham and eggs had but little chance in 
the battle waged upon them at breakfast, and we arose 
from the table happier and wiser men inasmuch as we 
kne w to |a frac ti on how^iany eggs and how much ham 
it.takes to' saiisfy a hungry man who has been fishing 
for two hours before breakfast. Thus the day passed 
fishing all the time; in the evening James tells us he 
must go home on the night train, that he may be in the 
bank in the morning; remonstrances are unavailing, 
although many are offered, so with messages to the 
loved ones at home, we send him to his lonely ride of 
seven miles to the station, with a nice lot of trout to 
console him while we turn in to dream |bright dreams 
of the “huge one” to be taken on the morrow; dreams, 
alas! not to be realized, for on awakening we found a 
strong wind blowing from the North. Still, faint heart 
never won fair lady, is a good motto for fishermen 
when sixty miles from home and nothing to do but fish 
and pass the lime; we start only to find that coax them 
as we will, bite they will not. All the morning we 
strive, but in vain, and at noon meet around the dinner 
table with down cast facts, for with the exception of 
B., who had gone to an old beaver dam, distant about 
two miles from the house, we had had but poor success. 
Isaac had taken eight, while I less successful had 
only four to show for my morning work. B had 
a goodly number, not any large save one, the “big 
one,” black on the head and with the peculiar drawn 
expression about the face which trout get after they 
pass a certain age, probably in imitation of the fair sex 
who know not how the years have passed or else have 
forgotten, for they never tell. That it was an old one 
we all agreed, and would weigh some’.hing over a 
pound. After consultation, we concluded that as Yed- 
der was to come for us at six, we had better spend the 
balance of the time in making ourselves ready for the 
homeward journey. Fish were to be looked after, 
tackle re-arranged, etc., giving all we needed of work, 
and six came soon enough, Yedder with it. Of trout 
we had a sufficiency, all our baskets full, nicely dressed 
and cared for. 
On our way to the station we saw a large white hare, 
only it was giay (e.xcuse the bull) having white hind- 
feet and legs, limping slowly over the freshly burned 
ground. It seemed to be in a very poor condition, as 
though the hard winter bad nearly taken its life. The 
fire in the woods had probably driven it out of the 
swamp which is the place this species are chiefly found 
in and from whence they derive the name of “Swamp 
Rabbit.” A little farther on, and one of the small gray 
rabbits crossed the road in front of us. He seemed 
much more at home than his larger friend and connec- 
tion, and sat in form as we passed by, wondering, per- 
haps, what had occurred to make us feel so jolly. We 
had a discussion as to what had caused the hare to be 
jiarti-colored, and finally came to the conclusion that he 
had only partly changed his clothes, thinking he would 
wait and see whether this could be last winter or this 
spring. Seeing these animals set us to thinking what 
game we had seen during the trip. B. said he saw wild 
pigeons, a ruffed grouse or two, and some gray snipe. 
Isaac had seen woodcock and snipe besides a large wild 
duck, while I had seen some grouse, one woodcock, 
snipe, and a snipe pigeon. 
Our return trip was uneventful, except that at Toby- 
hanna, where the fires in the woods had been raging, 
destroying much valuable timber and every prospect 
for game. Two of our friends who had come out to 
fish in “Dam No. 2,” stepped on board the train with 
empty baskets, tired out, and having barely escaped 
with their lives. They were compelled to run the gaunt- 
let of a quarter of a mile of fire lining both sides of the 
road, while the smoke was so dense they could scarcely 
see, and were almo-;t suffocated with heat and blinded 
by the flying cinders. They described it as being ter- 
rible in the extreme. ’ 
Poor Pennsylvania has been sadly scourged by fire 
this year, almost anywhere through the woods passed 
over by the fires, a train of horses and wagon can be 
driven without difficulty, everything but the largest 
trees having been consumed root and branch, by the 
lire. AVo who cannot spare time to go to a distance for 
our hunting, will be compelleii to stay at home I fear, 
this fall. At the depot we found our carriages waiting 
for us, so that we were enabled to reach home without 
any trouble. If anyone wishes to know how to enjoy a 
mattrass, let him go to the mountains and sleep on 
feathers for a few nights and work hard all day. The 
next morning I reached home in time for business, and 
in conclusion the best wish I can give to my brother 
fisherman is that he may have as happy a lime, and 
meet with as warm a welcome from the mother and 
baby as I did. I am sure his cup will be full of happi- 
ness and hismemor}’’ filled with pictures from which he 
can draw a store that will brighten his eyes and gladden 
his heart in days to come. Dorr. 
A FEMALE WHITE PELICAX WITH A 
“CEXTRE BOARD.” 
We are indebted for the following very interesting 
communication, to N. S. Goss, of Neosho Falls, 
Kansas, under date May 17. The ferrotype, enclosed, 
shows the centre board clearly and rather more in pro- 
jection than we have before seen it: 
“Dr. Ridgway, in the American Sportsman, Vol. 4, 
No. 19, gives a very elaborate and interesting descrip- 
tion of the habits, etc., of the White Pelican as seen by 
him at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, and vicinity. He says 
among other things, “During the several days of our 
sojourn upon the island, many pelicans were shot, and 
it was found by the dissection of each individual pos- 
sessed of the ‘ centre-board,’ that this projection was 
peculiar to the male.” And Dr. Coues in his key to 
North American birds that “The culmen is surmounted 
near the middle by a high, thin, upright comb or crest, 
the use of which is not known. It is supposed to be a 
weapon of attack or defence in the combats that occur 
at the breeding season between rival males, being 
found only in this sex, and during the breeding season 
alone.” 
Now with a view to correct the impression that the 
“centre-board” is confined to the males alone, and to 
invite further dissection, I will say that a female white 
pelican was shot near this place, on the 3d inst,, with a 
well developed centre-board, the main crest rising 
1 9-10 inches with several smaller jagged projections in 
front, covering in length at the base 4 1-2 inches. I 
herewith hand you a poor daguerreotype of the bird. 
(We have no artist at present, a gentleman fixed up the 
“machine” and chemicals as best he could,) it will how- 
ever give you an idea of the outline. 
From the authorities given I took it for granted it was 
a male, and only opened the bird to carry out a rule I 
have laid down, never to label a specimen without first 
determining its sex, by actual examination. 
To make sure in this case that I was not mistaken, I 
called in Dr, S. I. Williams and several other^sports- 
men to examine the ovaries, which I then detached from 
the body, and I now have the same in alcohol. 
At the time Dr. Ridgway made the examination as 
to sex referred to, the females were undoubtedly sitting. 
The “centre-board” only remains during the breeding 
season. At such times the males are bolder than the 
females, and with less duties to perform, would be more 
likely to fall into the hands of the naturalist. 
The Doctor says further that on all the birds exam- 
ined by him at Pyramid Lake, the centre boards were 
nearly uniform in shape, the outlines firm and regular, 
and not rough and broken as indicated in Audubon’s 
plate. From this I am inclined to think Audubon’s 
description, and drawing, was taken from a female in 
full breeding plumage as at this time the color and out- 
ward appearance of the sex are alike. 
Description of my bird — The occipital crest, upper 
wing coverts and long lanceolate feathers on the breast, 
are of a light straw color, primaries, alula, and a por- 
tion of the secondaries black or dark slate (when at rest 
the outer edges only of the primaries show) other 
feathers all pure white, those around the head and neck 
downy; bill, sac, and lares, yellow or rich orange color, 
feet of a deeper orange or reddish tinge; iris, pale 
white; length 59.00; wing 23,00;^ biini,25; (measure- 
ment commencing at edge of feathers on the top of 
the upper mandible,) narrowest width at base 1,10; 
the greatest width of bill about one-third the distance 
from the end 1.35, gradually tapering each way ; tarsus 
4.50, middle toe to end of claw, 4.50. 
The feathers of occipital crest as shown on plate here- 
with are from 3 to 3 1-2 inches in length. 
Mauyi.-VND State Association elected the follow- 
ing officers: President, George S. Brown; Vice Presi- 
dents, Thomas Poultney and P. P. Pendleton; Secreta- 
ry, B. W. Jenkins; Treasurer, Robert Hodges; Execu- 
tive Committee, C. E. Coffin, D. C. Clark, J. S. Git- 
tings, C. D Fisher, T. B. Ferguson and T. H. Lever- 
ing. At the first meeting, the first week in June, dele- 
gates to the National Association will be appointed. 
Messrs. John Stewart, T. B. Ferguson, and Gen. La- 
trobe were appointed a committee of three to prepare a 
report of every change needed in the game laws, and 
l>reseut the same at the next meeting of the association. 
In the BritUh Parliament a motion was made to reduce the li- 
cense duty on farmers guns when used for the protection of crops. 
The license U but a small affair, but the remission was refused. 
