The Hollow Lake Country. 
Canton, Pa., Sept. iS.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Ever since I visited Northern Ontario 
last year, an account of which I wrote you, I 
have had an uncontrollable desire to go again; 
in fact, I did not try to control it, and as the 
desire was shared by my former companion 
Gleck and two other tried camp companions, 
known as Jim and Lee, we concluded to make 
a quartette of it and see if there were any more 
big brook trout in the haunts where we found 
them so plenty last year. We chose July 14 as 
the date for starting, as by that time there are 
very few mosquitoes or black flies, and the 
weather is usually fine for camping and out¬ 
door life in general. 
Leaving home in Northern Pennsylvania in 
the afternoon we went by rail to Rochester, 
N. Y., and after supper at Ontario Beach, took 
the steamer at Charlotte, and having excellent 
staterooms, enjoyed a good nights rest and 
awoke at the dock in Toronto, Canada, where 
our baggage was inspected and we went by rail 
to Huntsville and thence by steamer through 
Peninsular and Fairy lakes and the Lake of 
Bays to Dorset, where we arrived at 9 o’clock 
the night of July 15. We saw our guides and 
put up at a summer resort which seems justly 
popular with those people who get so far oui 
of the usual route of travel. 
Our guides, James Avery, his two sons, Lynn 
and Ernest, and Dick Cole, were on hand next 
morning, and a team to convey our provisions, 
tents and camp stuff having arrived we break¬ 
fasted and at 8 o’clock got started for the four- 
mile portage to Hollow Lake, at the north end 
of which we were to camp for eleven days 
under canvas. It looked as if the stuff that was 
unloaded at the water’s edge would never go 
in the four canoes, to say nothing of eight men, 
but Jim Avery is a genius at packing, and when 
it was all in, there was room for more, and 
we started on our twelve-mile paddle for camp. 
Arrived about 1 p. m. we immediately got about 
dinner, as the camper’s appetite already began 
to take hold of us. Afterward we all went to 
work to get the tents up, spruce boughs pre^- 
pared for beds and everything generally made 
comfortable for a ten days’ camp, and not until 
this was done did we venture to do what we 
were all anxious to do—go fishing. About 4 
o’clock we went out in front of camp to qatch 
enough for supper, were gone about an hour 
and brought in ten salmon trout that weighed 
twenty-five pounds and seemed like enough for 
supper and breakfast, though possibly we might 
be short at breakfast. Every one knows what 
an appetite goes with a long day in the open 
air and the fresh smell of the spruce and pine 
woods, and the same old thing happened at the 
first supper in camp that has happened before 
under like conditions: we ate until we could 
hold no more and were just glad we were alive 
and in camp. 
On the 17th all went to Round Lake and 
fished for brook trout. At the showdown at 
night nine fish were brought in which weighed 
30J4 pounds, among them one of 4pounds 
and one of 4J.4 pounds. Round Lake, which is 
of about six hundred acres in extent, contains 
no fish except brook trout, and the chances are 
that when you get one he will go over three 
pounds, with an occasional five-pounder or bet¬ 
ter. We took them all by deep trolling, with 
rod and reel and a fine silk line. This is the 
only successful method of getting them at this 
time of the year when they are in deep water. 
On our way back to camp we passed through 
Bear Lake and visited the natural ice deposit 
at the foot of a high bluff where we chopped 
out enough ice to fill a large grain sack and 
took it to camp. 
The increase in the number of beavers as in¬ 
dicated by their workings here since last year 
is very apparent, and scarcely any of the lakes 
but show evidence of their being permanent in¬ 
habitants. One day my guide and I went up 
a small stream flowing into Bear Lake and ex¬ 
amined one of their dams across it which has 
formed a little lake of several acres, and the 
fresh poplar which has been cut was in evidence 
in many places. At the upper end of it on a 
muddy flat were the fresh tracks of a moose, 
probably made the night before. 
There has been much discussion as to whether 
fish are sensitive to pain when hooked, and the 
following incident would seem to point to the 
negative: I was trolling in a small lake that 
flows into Hollow Lake and caught a salmon 
trout of two pounds which had a small cut over 
one eye where the troll must have touched him. 
My guide pointed it out when he released the 
fish and said it was queer that the fish should 
have been struck there. In about half an hour 
we trolled over nearly the same spot again and 
struck and landed the same fish again, as was 
very evident by the small cut in the same place, 
and his strike and subsequent fight for liberty 
were as vigorous and determined as on the first 
occasion. Evidently he could not have been 
seriously inconvenienced or alarmed by his for¬ 
mer experience. 
Timber wolves are apparently quite abundant 
about Hollow Lake and we saw the remains of 
a deer which they had killed, nothing being left 
but a few bones and some strips of skin. We 
also heard a pack of wolves howling early one 
morning on Kimball Lake, about half a mile 
from our camp. They are very shy and though 
a bounty of $15 is set on each scalp, very few 
are killed. 
On July 20 we all went to Round Lake for 
the day, taking lunch along. At noon we went 
ashore and had eight brook trout which weighed 
21pounds. The largest, caught by Mr. Glea¬ 
son, pulled the scales down at 5*4 pounds. 
The Round Lake Fishing and Hunting Club 
has a log house here and we went up to a 
spring back of the house for water. Going past 
the kitchen at the- back of the house we smelled 
a horrible stench, and on opening the door, which 
was locked, found the fore quarter of a deer 
which had probably been killed about ten days 
previously and was badly decomposed. Who 
killed it of course we did not know. The 
owners of the camp have not been there this 
year and of course do not know of it, but some 
one in that vicinity is a poacher for certain and 
should receive a little attention from the game 
warden. 
There is a close season on ruffed grouse in 
Ontario until 1910 and it seems to be working 
well, as we saw many old ones and their broods 
along the trails. 
When we had to stop fishing on account of 
inability to use our catch, we sometimes went 
after frogs, of which there is never any scar¬ 
city in the swampy spots, and a dish of frogs’ 
legs fried in butter is not to be despised. 
I spent considerable time in an attempt to 
get hold of one of the great gray trout which 
sometimes reach a weight of forty pounds, but 
for all my trouble I only got a small one of 
five pounds. One day while trying for a big 
one I caught and released twenty salmon trout 1 
weighing from two to four pounds each, and 
as I was using a very large spinner I had many 
strikes that did not fasten to the troll. 
We tired after a time of fried trout and 
broiled them after the following formula: A 
trout of three or four pounds is drawn and the 
head and tail cut off; a strip of bacon about 
six inches long and about the size of two fingers, 
is laid inside the fish and salt and pepper dusted 
over, then wrap the fish in about half a dozen 
layers of wet manila paper as heavy as you can 
get and wind the whole with a fine copper wire 
to hold it in place; put the fish on a wire 
broiler and lay it over the fire for about twenty 
minutes. When the wire and paper are removed 
squeeze a little lemon juice over your fish and 
you will be thankful that you are still in a 
place where there is water to fish in and to cool 
your parched tongue if you so desire. 
All camping trips come to an end at last, and 
after eleven days under canvas we were obliged 
to. leave for home, not without audible regret, 
from every one of the party and half framed 
plans for another trip at some future time. 
J. W. Parsons. 
Baiting with Helgramites. 
Nashua, N. H., Sept. 12. —Editor Forest ana 
Stream: 1 have just read with pleasure ar 
article on bass fishing by Robert P. Lincoln it. 
your issue of Sept. 11 and venture one sugges¬ 
tion. Instead of hooking the helgramite ttndei 
the shell, or bony collar, if he will procure ; 
few of the smallest size rubber bands, snap one 
of the bands, around this same collar—in thi: 
process a pair of small pliers will be of help- 
then take the hook and insert it under the rub 
her band, giving it a turn or two in order to 
make a tight fit, he will then have a bait tha 
cannot be snapped off in casting, and it wil 
last alive until a fish takes it. By hooking ttndeij 
this band two helgramites will do the work o 
a dozen when fish are scarce and much castin; 
is indulged in. W. H. B. 
