Feb. io, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
ire 
The Creek in Winter. 
Delanson, N. Y., Feb. 3.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Bozenkill at this season is a 
frozen and buried stream. Its steep, shaded 
banks are coated with ice and fringed with 
changeless juniper and hem’oek. In spots less 
wild, ironwoods, birches, maples and an occas¬ 
ional beech lean over the stream. Its many falls, 
propped by pillars and columns of ice, alternate 
with level snowbound reaches. Where the spring 
floods go roaring down an irregular stairway is 
now a slender rill covered with thick ice and 
snow. Viewed from some bare bluff, just as 
the sun is setting, the wild valley winds 
away eastward toward the Guilderland 
meadows as into an arctic night. 
The most striking feature of the creek 
in winter is the ice formation following 
a January thaw when countless invisible 
rivulets have filled the buried conduit to 
the point of overflow. Everywhere under¬ 
neath is a busy but muffled hum, all around 
a new and beautiful geology. Here is a 
new crust or strata, a modern bed in 
which the old law of crystallization is still 
active. It is an unstable continent; not 
terra firma, but aqua firma that must soon 
be dissolved. 
During a thaw the increasing stream 
finds a vent at the foot of some little fall, 
and the accumulation of foam is spouted 
up through the opening, forming a low 
mound. When the temperature falls, the 
mound freezes and becomes a hollow cone 
through which the foam is constantly 
forced to the top where it spills over and 
is frozen until a miniature volcanic peak 
is built, often four or five feet high, 
sharper and more symmetrical than Hecla 
or Erebus, This creation is as fragile 
as the drapery of frost on wdnter trees. 
The breath of the stream frozen; it 
is a phenomenon not easy to describe. 
Imagine, if you will, a pyramid of the 
lightest and most delicate lace, folded and 
crumpled by its own insignificant weight, 
but with many of the characteristics of a volcano. 
Late jn January the weather conditions were 
such as to insure a fine display, but a fierce wind 
sprang up and most of the cones were immedi¬ 
ately demolished. I found one fine specimen 
about four feet high, intact in a sheltered spot 
and leaning to its fall like the tower of Pisa. 
Thinking that we might get a photograph in 
spite of wind and c'ouds, we got out the camera 
and revisited the spot later in the day. An inch 
or two of light snow had fallen meanwhile and 
the cone was a complete wreck. 
Later a cold wave followed a three days’ thaw. 
We realized that this might be the last oppor¬ 
tunity of the season and set out early, taking the 
camera. Almost every fall or cascade had a 
solitary cone. The finest group, the three shown 
in the photograph, was the product of one vent, 
d'he tallest or central cone measured five feet 
from the ice floor. 
One could readily guess how they grew. The 
smallest cone standing nearest the fall had in¬ 
creased until capped by the frost, when the foam 
had forced a new opening at its foot and another 
grew. This, too, had been capped and both had 
settled somewhat from their perpendicular posi¬ 
tion when the central and largest cone had 
sprung up between the two. When the photo¬ 
graphs were taken, this was also frozen through. 
While we stood admiring the trio, the forenoon 
sunlight with increasing warmth slanted in be¬ 
tween the hemlocks. The smallest cone seemed 
vexed with an inaudible cough, the breath of 
the stream came convulsively, ejecting little 
shreds and patches of foam that were caught up 
trii)s to the Russian River, and some splendid 
catches are being made there. The bar at the 
mouth of this stream was closed until early this 
year when a shovel brigade opened it, and since 
then there have been several light showers which 
have sweetned the water and also enlarged the 
opening. No heavy rains have discolored the 
water, and fishing will be excel cut until the 
stormy season commences. 
Nice catches have been made in the Soquel 
River and in the Santa Ynez River. Trout 
spoons can be used to advantage there, but many 
anglers use bait with good success. 
At the annual banquet of tlie San Francisco 
Striped Bass Club the prizes for the last sea¬ 
son were distributed. The first prize was an¬ 
nexed by J. C. Wallace, who caught a 32-pound 
bass in Schultze Slough; second prize, Chris 
Johnson, for a 17-pound bass; third, W. D. 
Smith, a 16-pound fish, and others in order to 
“Doc” Wilson, Frank Messner, Charles 
Urfer, Fred Franzen, Emil Accret, H. von 
Dohlen, Alvin W. I'hornton and Jas. S. 
Turner. About forty meml)ers of the club 
enjoyed the banquet. 
'I'he San Francisco and Monterey Ray 
Light Tackle Club has awarded prizes for 
the season of 1911 as follows: Largest 
salmon taken on a Stewart si)Oon, won by 
Paul M. Nippert with a 30-pound fish; 
Ellery Arms trophy, for the largest salmon 
taken during the season, E. S. Pomeroy, 
^ 39-pound fish; Golcher trophy for the 
next largest salmon, S. Keesling, a 33- 
pounder; third prize, the J. F. Cooper 
trophy, for the third largest fish, was won 
with a 32-pound fish taken by E. A. 
Mocker, and W. W. Richards won the 
fourth prize with a 32-pound salmon. 
Golden Gate. 
THE GROUP OF CONES. 
Photograph by Mrs. Christman. 
and l)lown about by the gentle wind that pre¬ 
vailed there. Within an hour the largest of the 
trio had fallen and the two smaller ones did not 
survive till midday. 
I go up the wooded glen of a winter morning 
with all the anticipation of an explorer in some 
unknown, suit-arctic land, bent on the rediscovery 
of these ephemeral mountains. What adventures 
in slippery p’aces ! What snowy vistas under the 
leaning hemlocks! And then a new’ Erebus at 
the foot of some little fall, or where the stream 
is wide with numerous channels, three or four 
of them, a veritable volcanic range! I took as 
much delight in those I found yesterday as in 
my first discovery. Will W. Christman. 
Preparing an Eel Skeleton. 
One of the hardest fish skeletons to get 
in a complete state is that of the eel, still 
no cokection is complete without one. The 
best method, says the Newark Call, to use 
in getting such a skeleton, is to place the 
eel near an ant hill, after the skin has 
been removed, and build a small stockade 
about it, just so strolling animals cannot 
get to the eel, and then let the ants dcr 
the rest. They will clean every particle of 
flesh from the bones and during the process bleach 
the skeleton far better than any chemical' will 
do. Old Tom Hathaway, of the Pocono Moun¬ 
tains, has secured many fine specimens in this 
manner, one of which he sent to this city for a 
private collection. He learned this secret from 
the Indians, wdio always put the ants to work 
when they wanted some real fine shark’s teeth 
or an exceptionally fine shark’s jaw bone, with 
teeth intact. 
Fishing in California. 
San Francisco, Cab, Jan. 27.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Steelhead fishing is excellent in 
all streams where this game fish is found. San 
Francisco anglers are now making week-end 
Illinois Casting Club. 
Chicago. Ill.. Jan. 30.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Illinois Casting Club, at its Janu¬ 
ary banquet and business meeting, held on the 
iSth, elected the following officers to serve for 
the ensuing year: President, O. C. Wehle; Vice- 
President. A. D. Whitby; Secretary-Treasurer, 
A. F. Swisher; Captain, E. K. Pierson; Three- 
Year Committeeman, D. R. Linder. 
A. F. Swisher, Secretary. 
