^i'[rE PTSiMXG gazi:ttf. 
[January 7, 189J 
‘) 
between Long Pond and Sandy River Ponds, only 
a stone’s throw apart, one being the source of 
the Androscoggin River, and the other of the 
Kennebec. Anywhere on the road there is 
excellent trout fishing in the season in lakes 
or rivers. 
Greenvale House, where we put up, is a comfort¬ 
able wooden hotel, with a verandah round two 
sides, close to the lake, and has a long raised 
gangway leading to the landing stage. In the 
summer there is a little steamer plying up and 
down called the “ Mollychunkamunk.” The hotel 
terms are .S2 to per day, and the food is good, 
but is not appetising to a foreigner who is not 
sharply set. 
My outfit of rods consisted of a trolling rod—a 
12ft. bin. trout rod in two pieces, the butt half 
being of bamboo, and a light lift, cane built one. 
To our dismay, we found the lake a sheet of ice, 
and we tried for a time fishing through holes 
made in it for the purpose, but without result. 
The next day we had a gale from the south, 
which broke up the ice completely, and so (juickly 
docs spring and almost summer follow the thaw 
that three days after this the heat on the lake was 
so great, we had to give up fishing and seek 
shelter under the trees. 
In the commencement of the season immediately 
after the break up of the ice, the temperature of 
the water is very low, and then the trout and 
salmon will not rise to the fly. The method of 
catching them then is to troll with a little fish, 
locally called a minnow, but very dissimilar to our 
bait of the same name, or with worms. According 
to the laws of the State no artificial minnow is 
allowed, and no triangles, or hooks back to back 
—nothing but single hooks in fact—and to their 
credit be it said, so far as I saw or heard of, the 
fishers obeyed this law. No fish are allowed to 
be sent out of the district by road or rail, but an 
angler is allowed to take a certain amount with 
him on his return home. This law acts in a very 
salutary manner, as it prevents fish being taken 
for profit, or to make a business of it. 
1 found the best lure to be a medium sized 
salmon fly, one made entirely of cock of the rock, 
to imitate a shrimp, with the addition of a good 
fat worm. We kept no diary of our catches, but 
I think we had no trout of less than a pound in 
weight, and many were up to six and seven 
])Ounds. Every day we got a few land-locked 
salmon, and my astonishment was great to find 
that, to all appearances, and on close examination, 
they were identical with fresh run grilse. The 
colour and shape were perfect. They were 
imported into this and adjacent lakes about 
twenty to twenty-five years ago, and appear to 
grow more slowly than the trout. The latter are 
not the lake trout, but so-called brook or river 
trout, and are frequently taken up to 81b. in 
weight. They take the fiy very readily, and the 
best seasons are from June 1 to middle July, and 
from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1. The heaviest salmon I 
landed was 101b., and I did not see one larger. 
The scenery requires more words to do it justice 
than I can give. Surrounding the lake are 
mountains, such as Bald Mountain, 1700ft. high. 
Old Saddleback, 4000ft., Mount Abraham, and 
East and West Kennebago Mountains. A good 
deal of land round part of the lake is under 
cultivation, which detracts from the wild grandeur, 
but the cultivation does not extend far back, and 
it is all there is in the entire district. 
Mention should here be made of a fishing 
club, founded about ISfiO, consisting of seventy- 
live members—called the Ognossoc Angling 
Association. Shares are 8200 each, capital 
.''10,700 ; annual subscription 825. The club camp 
is situated at the junction of the Eangeley and 
Kennebago Rivers, and consists of several 
buildings and outhouses, all of wood, but most 
comfortable in construction and fittings. The 
charges are 82 per day for board, Ac., Si to 82 
for guide, and 50 cents for use of boat. So 
sought after is the membership that it is hopeless 
to bo put on the nomination paper, although, so 
far as I am aware, there are no exclusive fishing 
privileges attached to membership. The above 
tariff is the one generally adopted at all camps or 
hotels throughout the district. 
Now a word as to camps. On a few principal 
lake.s there are permanent season camps—good 
wooden structures belonging to enterprising 
people who move into them about the first of 
June until the end of September, in the qualifica¬ 
tion of hotel keepers. Boats and guides are 
almo.st always to be had, but the further you go 
into the wilderness, the further away from the 
railway terminus, the more rugged the fam. The 
best plan is to pick out a known good guide at 
Rangeley, or wherever you may start from, and 
to keep him with you throughout your stay, 
taking him about from place to place, for there 
are frauds even in guides, and I had a specimen 
at Rangeley. 
He was young, w'hich was his only excuse, but 
of fishing he knew less than nothing, and, outside 
of a radius of half-a-dozen miles, he was as a 
strange cat in a new house. We parted on 
friendly terms when I left Rangeley, but not 
before he had had a novel and strange experience. 
You know that in the States all men are equal, 
social class distinction does not exist, and it 
follows that a man and his guide invariably 
address one another as equals. At night, round 
the camp fire, anglers and guides mix in general 
conversation or join in a game of whist in perfect 
equality. But one day, this unhappy younf? man 
was particularly stupid, which 1 bore as best I 
could up to breaking point, and at last, to my 
shame be it said, my portion of human tlesh could 
bear no more, and a few good, solid, hot Saxon 
oaths escaped me! The effect was terrific ! But 
the result was good, and I afterwards apologised. 
Being tired of trotting, and hearing that thei’e 
was a small lake, called Quimby Rond, about 
thirteen or fourteen miles distant, where the trout 
took the fly from the commencement of the 
season, I went over for two days, and fished there. 
It was only a small lake, about a mile long, but 
beautifully set in larch and maple woods. ]\ly 
first fish, when getting my line out, was a small 
salmon, only a little over a pound in weight. Tlie 
trout were very numerous, but small, and the 
water never froze on this lake, owing to its being 
fed entirely by springs, hence the trout taking 
the fly so early in the season. 
1 shall not readily forget a scene, totally unre¬ 
hearsed, which occurred when fishing this Quimby 
Pond. At that time another man and I were 
fishing it. He was a very big, stout, bald-headed 
man, and his guide was a splendid young fellow, 
who “ guided ” in summer and “ lumbered ” in 
winter, both good anglers. He preferred a 
gaudily painted canoe-like narrow boat, and so 
there were only two craft. I took an old broad- 
beamed tub, and left them the beauty. They were 
fishing about sixty yards away from me, the guide 
sitting on the gunwale in the stern, using apaddle 
Indian fashion, and the angler standing up to cast. 
All at once, I heard an exclamation from ipy 
guide, looked round, and saw two forms from the 
other boat heading into the lake. My man’s idea 
was to hurry to the rescue, but I said, “Wait and 
see,’’ and in an instant up came a bald head, and 
then a black one—hands clasped the upturned 
boat—face looked at face—and then both the 
rescued burst into hearty laughter. It was too 
comical to see two humans clinging to a boat 
upside dowm in the middle of the lake, and laugh¬ 
ing as hard as they could at one another. Nothitig 
was to be done, all rods, fishing tackle, fly books, 
&c., being at the bottom of the lake to be left 
where they were. And although there was at 
the time a nice “rise” on, notwithstanding the 
sudden “fall,” we had to put the horses in and 
drive fifteen miles home on a buckboard in a 
pelting cold rain. 
After fishing Rangeley Lake for a week, K. and 
I resolved to go to the Retreat House, a summer 
camp on Kennebago Lake. This place is about 
fourteen miles from Rangeley village and eighteen 
from Greenvale House—of which distance the 
last ten miles are through the forest—and such a 
road as exists perhaps only in the States. A 
track is cut by felling all the trees a certain 
breadth along the road that is to be. No levelling 
is done, and onlv insurmountable obstacles arc 
removed. Hugo boulders, old roots, Ac., are left 
on the track, and nothing but a buckboard could 
get over or through. For my part, although not 
a nervous man at all, I preferred to walk the 
whole ten miles, and enjoyed it. Birds were 
comparatively rare, but plants and flowers were 
abundant, and, as many of them were new to me, 
I lost a good hour cjllecting and admiring. One 
in particular claimed my attention and admiration.' 
It was the trailing arbutus, with its lovely 
foliage and the most perfect perfume 1 ever 
smelt. 
Arrived at the camp, which was the usual 
wooden structure with outhouses standing within 
a stone’s throw of the southern end of the lake, 
we made our preparations for next day and 
surveyed the scene. We have nothing in this 
. country to which I can liken it, but a picture of 
Kennebago would serve for that of many lakes 
in this most lovely region. It is surrounded by 
mountains : on the left. Spotted Mountain; on the 
right. Wild Cat Hill; beyond. East and West 
Kennebago and Snow Mountain. It is five to six 
miles long and averages one mile across. Our 
English lakes have always more or loss openings 
01 ' clearings, with grass fields or cultivated spots 
coming down to the water’s edge, and hero or 
there a farm building from which the smoke may 
be curling upwards, or a dog or a few cows within 
a field or two. On these lakes one sees nothing 
but big trees covering every inch of land— 
stately, gx-aceful, and impressive by their evident 
ago—and so thick together and so dense in the 
undei’growth that it is often vei'y difficult to 
effect a landing at all. Even when that is 
accomplished, difficulties commence, for every 
footstep may sink in beyond the knee. The 
fallen leaves, the moss, the blown down trees, all 
rot gradually and form the softest deposit 
imaginable. 
The ti’out of Kennebago do not run so large as 
those of Rangeley, averaging from three-quarters 
to a pound each, but they are numerous, and are 
wonderfully ready risers to the fly. Of land¬ 
locked salmon I saw none. 
On the west end, near the outlet, is a camp of 
two huts, containing a bed each (of which the 
bedding is the sweet smelling nalsam, and has to 
be cut fresh) furnished with mosquito curtains, 
also a stove, a few primitive cooking utensils, 
salt, pejxper, &c., iron plates, knives and forks. 
These appurtenances are often found in lake 
camps, and the unwritten law concerning them is 
“ Leave things as 5 ’ou found them.” We camped 
here once, which reminds me of the only square 
meal I had during the whole fishing excursion. 
At the Retreat House even the hardy guides 
could not get their teeth through the still harder 
meal, and the only drinking facilities were a 
bucket full of water with a scoojx chained to the 
wall! We had a clever, handy guide with us, and 
he made us a fish chowder which was a dream. 
That is not the name he called it by, but here is the 
recipe : Take a certain number of medium sized 
fresh bi-ook trout, slice the same, likewise four or 
five onioixs, clean and cut across into pieces an 
inch long, jxeel 31b. or 4lb. potatoes ; put all into 
the “kettle” with a little water, pepper and salt 
to match, and boil thirty minutes; serve with 
sauce a la nature of a fisher’s appetite, and enjoy 
ad Hb. 
On this lake I heard a bird, but did not see it, 
which greatly puzzled mo. It could be heard for 
two or three miles, and the sound was that of a 
large pump terribly out of order. My guide said 
it was the cock bird which produced this un¬ 
hallowed noise, and he indulged in it only when 
the hen was setting, by sucking up the water and 
ejecting it very forcibly. K-was not with mo 
then, or he would have supplied the name and all 
particulars. 
Two or three miles down the Kennebago River 
are the Falls, which should be seen. I longed 
and itched to fish this lovely fishy stream, but 
alas ! it was too ea.rly in the season. We fished 
fly only, but had an artificial minnow been 
allowed, I am sure it would have told a good 
tale. 
One day, my guide and I resolved to push up 
the narrow river, entering Kennebago, due north 
to Little Kennebago Lake. We had a hard time 
of it, owing to the strong stream in places, and to 
obstructions. We saw dozens of beavers’ house.«, 
which they build for the winter with an exit 
below, so as to enter the water under the ice. 
This guide passed about half the year in trap¬ 
ping, and lonw and varied were the yarns we hud 
about the habits and modes of capture of many 
fur animals. I noticed this small river looked 
remarkably “ fishy” in many places, but our time 
was limited, and wo pushed on. Little Kenne¬ 
bago is a very small lake, but wild, oh ! so wild. 
Secluded, untouched, still as God made it. We 
found a small camp after passing through the 
lake and entering again a little river on the nortli 
side, but it was only a “ wigwam.” Small pines, 
set in a circle, their points coming together in 
