The Portland daily press., 1892-08-22

| have been Helped.
| To the Editor Of the Press:
Not long ago an article came out in the
Lewiston Journal on woods-craft or
| camping in the woods. 1t was copied by
| other papers. AS my name was used in
the article and the party writing it
claimed to belong in Portland, I thought
it might be well for me to leak out a
whole truth. The writer to the Journal
towards the close of the article says:
But when ill luck befalls the fisherman, he
comes home on the quiet and generally says
nothing If asked a question he is apt to say
that he has not been fishing at all but out .ex-
poring for timber or that It was pad " Meathe er
leaks out. Two weeks ago four Portland men
went fishing. They bought tickets to LINCOLN
which cost them with return about $44 Ihey
had 500 worth of fancy bait and food. At Lin
coin they hired teams to and from Nicatous
region where the noted Jock Darling's Camps
are and these cost them SIC more For board
and canoes they paid $5s more, total Of s1os
One of them, member of Portland wholesale
flour firm, told me all about It. They had about
ten days Of enjoyment in Portland arranging 14s
the bait, some of which came from Boston.
They played whist all the way down and free
from cares OF business life, and with much never
ceasing brag of how the Portland team was
playing ball, enjoyed the trip. They liked the
ride through the country over the rough roads
leading into Nicatous, but, here all pleasure
ended. Jock Darling the old time poacher was
made fish and game warden in 1891 and last
winter he was after Tobique and st. Francis
Indians who were hunting moose on the ARGOS,
camp on Nicatous and did not put up any ice.
He was on hand himself and he had a cook; but
when the visitors arrived he was having "a row
with him. that ended In a discharge In order
that Darling might act as guide one OF the Port
land men was obliged to prepare the food; the
rest went fishing. In the seven days not a good
the keeping of such as were caught. The only
fishy thing about the party as it came home was
the smell of fish scales and fried salt pork. The
OZONE ,oi from the hills and the sight OF many
deer.
The above is copied from the Lewiston
Journal and was said to be told by a
Portland -four merchant. have been
acting as guide for many years and have
had all classes of people to deal with.
will now speak. of the Portland party.
AS the old saying birds of the same
feather flock together, and the birds Of
this flock reached from Chicago to Port
land, Me. For several years have guild
ed many of this flock. Many of them
are great kickers, so much so that they
will kick at nothing and act as though
guide was nothing more than pack
mule or truck wagon, and could stand
anything. Some years ago some OF this
same Portland party engaged me to take
them to the head waters of the Penob-
scot River, the last of September to hunt
moose. I met them at Mattawamkeag,
and took them to 1.-THE East Branch via
Patten, by team. The party consisted Of
two sports and two guides. We had a
good time; got the required moose, and
other game; and in October started for
Mattawamkeag via the river. The water
was low and our canoes were heavily
loaded. The sports were large. able men
and on our way down they made up their
minds that they must get to Mattawam-
keag at just such a day and hour. We
stopped at the Hunt farm one night.
The next night they must reach Midway
This day we had to make two carries, one
was quarter mile and the other three
quarters of mile. On those carries the
guides had to make Five loads each. of
the canoes and baggage, etc. At the first
carry the big, able sports went
after checkerberries; and when the
guides got lugged by we had
they took their guns in hand and walked
past, and lay down in the sun until we
got lugged by. The distance the guides
had to travel on both carries was some
ten miles. The sports remarked when
we got all lugged by that it seemed to
them that we had been "a He'll of while
getting by.'' had injured myself while
making this carry; but did not kick or
make any reply. I started for Winn.
The time was, short and we had shallow
water and rapids to get over that we
wished to do before dark. But darkness
overlook us before we got there, and we
had job that did our canoes no good, to
pick our way in the dark. Ii these
sports had helped lug by the carries we
would have got there before dark.
We guides don't expect Sports to do
much on carries; but in a case of this
kind it seems to be a duty for them to
help. I often have sports that in case
of that sort will work as hard as the
guides, and seem to take pleasure in it,
to think a guide is of no more Sconse-
quence than our dumb beasts. This
party says when they reached Nicatous,
that all pleasure ended and they got no
good strings of fish in the seven days. I
have acted as guide for a long time, and
I do my best to have my parties get fish
and game. AS a rule my parties are the
successful ones. And as for Nicatous,
the fishing has been good this season,
and know two men who have caught
81 lbs. of handbook salmon at the dam a
few days after this party left Ihave put
in one hundred thousand young salmon
this season into these waters. For deer
and other small game there is no better
place in Maine. Ihave caught nine bears
there this season. and have now taken up
my traps, as the fur at this season of the
year is not good. My grandson and a
hired man went up to Gasebeas Lake two
days ago. just before night they saw
nine deer and one bear. The bear was
picking blueberries handy to the stream,
and was on the run before the boy could
get his rifly; but he shot three times at
him on the run. j. DARLING.
Lowell, Maine.