Jan. 31, 1914 - 
FOREST AND STREAM 
143 
front of a feeding fish,” quoth my friend in 
need, “remember that it is supposed to be a nat¬ 
ural fly floating on the water—and let it float." 
After several attempts, I at last succeeded in 
acquiring the knack—six fair-sized trout falling 
to my share. In the afternoon I drifted round 
the lake in one of the gaudily-painted boats pe¬ 
culiar to the place, being rowed by an elderly 
brown-skinned Italian boatman, with an astonish¬ 
ing gnarled and wrinkled face, which should make 
his fortune as an artist’s mbdel. Using a fly and 
a worm, as the fancy took me, by five o’clock I 
had put thirteen fish to my credit, one of which 
turned the scale at five pounds, while four were 
three and a half pounders and the rest of respect¬ 
able dimensions. With the exception of three, 
which I reserved for dinner, being anxious to 
find out how trout of my own catching tasted, I 
presented the catch to the boatman, who prompt¬ 
ly called upon all the saints of the calendar to 
bless me. 
Upon leaving the hotel the next day for 
Campfer, I found that the cost of cooking my 
contribution to the meal was charged in the bill 
under the heading “special dish.” I also discov¬ 
ered that my brand-new guinea umbrella—which 
an officious, obsequious servant had insisted upon 
taking into his custody-—was missing, a singularly 
dreadful-looking and hopelessly dilapidated 
equivalent of local manufacture being prominent¬ 
ly displayed in its place. No wonder that the 
proprietors of Swiss hotels grow rich beyond the 
dreams of avarice. 
SIXTY TROUT IN FOUR DAYS. 
A huge, old-fashioned, lumbering post ve¬ 
hicle, painted bright yellow, built in three semi¬ 
detached sections, drawn by a team of four long- 
tailed horses, whose bridles were furnished with 
jangling bells, and driven by a Jehu attired in a 
comic-opera costume, consisting of a short, 
braided jacket, trousers with a broad stripe down 
the side, and a low-crowned, wide-brimmed hat, 
conveyed me to my destination—a snug pension 
kept by the village grey-beard. Here, during a 
four days’ stay, I lived on the fat of the land for 
forty francs; venison which was served—in the 
German fashion—with a sauce in which cream 
and port wine figure, pheasant, wild strawberries 
of rare flavor, and delicious Swiss " double 
creme” being included in the menu, while the 
fishermen who put up at the establishment were 
neither charged for contributing to their dinners 
nor relieved of their umbrellas. And the un¬ 
adulterated Veltliner, the red wine of the coun¬ 
try, cost but three francs a quart bottle. 
As a fishing center, Campfer has everything 
to recommend it; the lake, though smaller than 
the St. Moritz one, literally teems with trout, a 
proportion of which are eight and nine pounders, 
while fish weighing twelve pounds and over have 
been taken by trolling. The river leading into 
the lake also provides capital sport, especially in 
the morning, when the trout are particularly sus¬ 
ceptible to the fascinations of the “dry” fly. 
Fishing from half-past eight till noon, I landed— 
with this bait—sixty trout during the four days’ 
stay, confining my activities to a mile of river 
bank, the afternoons being spent on the lake, 
from which I extracted thirty-nine fish, the 
largest of which scaled nine pounds. 
At intervals, by the way, fishing was dis¬ 
turbed by the motor boat plying between Camp¬ 
fer and Silvaplana, even the fish which frequent 
the sides of the narrow lake being rendered tim¬ 
id. Luckily for fishermen the fearsome craft 
makes comparatively few voyages. 
THE INDESPENSABLE WORM. 
Having sampled the Campfer fishing I 
turned my attention to Silvaplana, reaching the 
pleasantly primitive little place by a lumbering 
omnibus, and putting up at an unpretentious ho¬ 
tel, the proprietor of which acted as his own 
head waiter, caterer and cashier, besides con¬ 
triving to understand what was said to him in 
French, German, Italian, Swiss and English. 
Here neither “dry” nor wet flies tempted the so¬ 
phisticated trout; I saw the sly creatures lying 
in their customary lines but no amount of skil¬ 
ful casting would induce them to rise. Eventu¬ 
ally, after trying the most inviting-looking flies I 
could lay my hands on, I had to fall back on the 
indispensable worm of the country. Thanks to 
the enforced substitution, my average catch dur¬ 
ing a five days’ stay was sixteen, several of 
which, being lusty four pounders, required a con¬ 
siderable amount of playing before they could 
be brought to the boat’s side. Although nothing 
exceptional, it constituted a good average. 
THE LAST CAST. 
The fourth—and final—lake to be included in 
the tour was Sils, where, after angling with vary¬ 
ing luck for three days, I had the supreme satis¬ 
faction of hooking a fourteen pound monster— 
and under the following circumstances. I was 
taking a farewell walk preparatory to leaving, 
when a perspiring messenger, who had run hel¬ 
ter-skelter from the hotel half a mile away, kind¬ 
ly furnished the information that a local police¬ 
man could put me in the way of hooking a trout 
to be proud of forevermore. Bidding him bring 
my rod, I made for the shore, and met the ac¬ 
commodating sportsman, who lent me his own 
rod and line, declaring that my tackle was not 
strong enough, and, after being rowed under a 
projecting bank, I found myself over a weed 
bed. “In that bed.” said the policeman, “are the 
biggest trout in the lake; a thirty-three pounder 
was caught there two years ago.” It was not 
my luck to duplicate this achievement; but I 
managed to get a thirteen pound fish with my 
first cast, the fly being one made by an Engadine 
fisherman and resembling a yellow Sally. 
CONGRATULATED ON BEING ALIVE. 
On returning to the hotel, the proprietor, 
apropos of nothing, so far as I could see, coyly 
congratulated me on still being alive. After a 
little pressing, he told me that the boatman whom 
I had employed every day during my stay once 
nearly drowned his passenger—an angler. Row¬ 
ing him out to the middie of the lake, he saw 
no necessity for keeping awake, and promptly fell 
fast asleep. Hearing a slight splash, the sports¬ 
man, who was busily engaged in making scientific 
casts, looked round to find one of the oars float¬ 
ing some yards astern, and the handle of the 
other rapidly sliding along the row lock in the 
direction of the water. Mental telepathy of a 
sort evidently being established between them, 
the negligent oarsman awoke, and, starting up, 
clutched at the remaining oar. Unfortunately, 
the laudable intention resulted in disaster, for a 
horny hand closing upon thin air, the oar dis¬ 
appeared, and the ill conditioned boat, half cap¬ 
sizing, sent the occupants flying into the water. 
Discovering the boatman to be in difficulties, the 
fisherman swam to his assistance, and, grabbing 
the struggling man’s shoulder, bade him 
float while he propelled him toward the boat, 
which, by the special interposition of Providence, 
had remained stationary. The frightened man, 
believing apparently that only by hangirfg on to 
rescuer’s person could he secure his safety, clung 
so tenaciously that down they both went. In 
coming up the fisherman struck his head against 
the boat and was knocked half senseless, recov¬ 
ering to find himself held up by his companion in 
misfortune, who, on rising to the surface at a 
convenient spot, had clambered in to the boat. 
After an unpleasant period of drifting, they 
hailed a passing launch and were brought ashore. 
“You are,” observed the minion of the law at 
the conclusion of the above harrowing tale, “the 
boatman’s first fare for years. After his mis¬ 
hap he had the decency to retire.” 
THE TOTAL CATCH. 
The tour, which took a fortnight, yielded a 
total catch of a hundred and eighty-one trout, 
the largest being a thirteen-pounder, and the 
smallest a mere mite. This does not include the 
preliminary canter at Samaden. 
To Encourage Tree Planting 
New York City is far behind many smaller 
cities of the country in controlling the planting 
of trees in its streets and in the care of trees 
affer planting. The Landscape Engineer of the 
State College of Forestry at Syracuse is making 
a very careful reconnaissance survey of street 
planting in New York in co-operation with the 
Tree Planting Association of the city for the 
purpose of securing material which may be used 
to stimulate interest in more and better street 
trees. It is believed that the interest aroused' 
will result in the formation of a definite and uni¬ 
fied system of tree planting under the direction 
of a Tree Planting Bureau headed by, or made 
up of trained foresters. 
For several years Dr. Stephen Smith, the ven¬ 
erable and active president of the Tree Planting 
Association of New York City, has been working 
for better street planting in New York. Last 
spring he found that the State College of For¬ 
estry at Syracuse, which is obligated under its 
Charter to do university extension work along 
forestry lines wherever it is needed in the state, 
would be ready to co-operate with the Tree 
Planting Association in a general campaign of 
education in New York City with the purpose of 
letting the people know of the very unsatisfac¬ 
tory conditions which exist to-day, and of what 
might be accomplished by more systematic and 
thorough work. Following out its belief that a 
state institution should be helpful to all of the 
people of the state, the College was glad to send 
a trained man to New York in December for 
several weeks of investigative and publicity work. 
Mr. H. R. Francis of the college, who is a grad¬ 
uate Landscape Engineer, is studying representa¬ 
tive streets, taking pictures showing promiscuous 
and unsatisfactory planting, and this material will 
be used in the papers of the city to show the 
people what exceedingly unsatisfactory condi¬ 
tions exist to-day. The college is acting in an 
advisory capacity only, and after it has aided in 
awakening the people of the city to the neces¬ 
sity for proper work, the college will withdraw 
and give its aid elsewhere in the state. 
Model of Yellowstone Park 
A reproduction of the Yellowstone National 
Park will be one of the features of the conces¬ 
sion district at the Panama-Pacific Internation¬ 
al Exposition. A standard gauge railroad will 
run through the concession, taking visitors seem¬ 
ingly through the entire park. In the center of 
the concession reproduction of the geysers and 
springs which have made the Yellowstone the 
wonder of the world will be set upon a great 
revolving table. The cost of the concession is 
estimated at $550,000 and it will be one of the 
most complete of its kind ever built. 
