194 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. 16, 1913. 
Connecticut State Championship 
won with a 
STEVENS REPEATER 
At Danbury, Conn., July 26th, 1913 
Score 97 x 100 
by Mr. W. R. Newsome, of Hartford, Conn. 
| The Stevens Twenty Gauge Repeater 
OFFERS YOU A CHOICE OF BARRELS 
26— 28 —30 or 32 inch; Cylinder, Modified or Full Choked. 
Chambered for 3 inch and shorter factory loaded ammunition. 
J. STEVENS ARMS & TOOL COMPANY 
TWO WEEKS WITH THE BASS AND 
PICKEREL. 
Continued from page 207. 
landing. The little narrow river ran with a 
good, strong current, as I found before reach¬ 
ing the lake, and it is an exceedingly devious 
stream. Its turnings and windings are numerous 
and “sarpentine,” and its currents deceptive. My 
boat was loaded too much by the head, unavoid¬ 
able on account of the size of the boxes con¬ 
taining our effects and the narrowness of the 
craft aft of the rowlocks. It steered wild, and 
objected. decidedly to keep the middle or any 
part of the stream, and about every ten yards 
it would take a notion to shove its nose into the 
bank on either side, or wander off under some 
overhanging bush or tree with the evident in¬ 
tention of brushing the operator at.the oars off 
into the water. Rowing a boat up that river, 
loaded as mine was, is calculated to develop 
muscle and latent profanity, and it requires a 
fair amount of the former to overcome the cur¬ 
rent, and a judicious use of the latter in at least 
five different dialects to keep the boat in the 
stream. By a vigorous use of both I at last 
turned a quiet kink in the river and beheld the 
lake only a few yards ahead. I felt like rest¬ 
ing, but that contrary boat did not want to go 
ashore. A dozen vicious yanks on the starboard 
oar buried her bows in an oozy bar, and I 
straightened up, mopped the sweat out of my 
eyes and made a few remarks about Cutler, hrs 
boat, Intermediate River and the country at 
large. As I gazed out on the beautiful sheet 
of .water before, me, I thought of old man Colum¬ 
bus and his feelings on first sighting land on 
his memorable voyage, and reaching away back 
into the dim past I had a figurative and fraternal 
shake with the lamented mariner. 
From the head of the rapids up the banks 
of the stream are a tangle of swamps. Spruce 
and cedars overhang and sweep the water in 
many places, and old dead trunks, bristling with 
countless jagged limbs and bayonet-like spikes, 
giving to some of them the appearance of enor¬ 
mous “devil’s darning needles,” reach out over 
and into and under the water from every con¬ 
ceivable direction. Most of these have, how¬ 
ever, been cut away and removed to make a 
channel through which to run saw-logs to the 
lower lakes, and it is an easy matter to make 
a trip through the river in a small boat down 
stream. In sight, to the right of us. and in a 
line up and down the lake, were three islands, 
the second one of which, about a mile distant, 
the Cutler boys favored as a camping place, and 
we accordingly struck out for it against a strong 
head wind and a short, chopping sea. The pull 
to the island proved more satisfacory, at least 
to my boat, than that up the river, as it had 
more room in which to spread itself and indulge 
its frolicsome and erratic disposition. It was a 
good sea boat, however, and behaved very prop¬ 
erly after relieving it of its bow load. Passing 
the first island, we dropped in behind the middle 
one (which we afterward named Middle Bass) 
out of the wind and pulled around to the east 
side, where we found a comfortable landing. 
This island is probably six or seven hundred 
feet long and less than half as wide, is flat and 
low, not more than two feet above the surface 
of the lake at any point, ground rather spongy, 
well covered with a plentiful growth of trees, 
grass and underbrush, and contains two and one- 
eighth acres. 
Last spring, during the prevalence of the 
long, heavy rains, it was two feet under water. 
It lies nearly in the middle of the lake, which 
is here about a mile wide, and is owned by Frank 
Lewis, of the Lewis House, at the head of Torch 
Lake. As there was no spring nor fire wood on 
it, we pulled across the lake to Cutler’s Landing 
in search of a better camp. Here we found 
nothing in sight but an almost impassable swamp 
and a half corduroyed streak through it to the 
hard land a quarter of a mile back, so we re¬ 
turned to the island and concluded it was a very 
fine place for a camp, which it proved to be on 
a better acquaintance. 
Unloading the boats, we went back after the 
rest of the party to find the boys out of patience 
at our long stay, and worrying lest some mis¬ 
hap had befallen us. 
I loaded my boat this time on an even keel, 
the editor in the stern and some other freight 
in the bow, and the trip was made with less out¬ 
lay of muscle and fewer general remarks than 
was required by the first one. 
The other two boats would only carry the 
remaining baggage, which moved the scribe, our 
Johnny and father Cutler to make a circuit 
around the swamp and come out to the water 
nearly opposite the island, where they waited till 
we unloaded and brought them over. The sun 
was dipping into the treetops in the west before 
we were ready to make camp, but where there 
were so many willing hands it did not take long 
to unpack, put up two tents and start a fire and 
