Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-11-15

Was reading III New York news
paper the other morning." said a
western proSpector, who is stopping
at one Of the down town hotels.
of the finding of a big trout dead
In a Canada stream. There were no
scars on its body Or signs of injury.
but when it was cut open there was
found a dead bumblebee. The theory
was that the bee had retained enough
vitality after being swallowed 10 in
flct vital sting.
Now stlngS must bother Canadian
trout heap more than they Go our
Rocky Mountain fish for that story
to be true. Just before | came East
this trip an incident came under my
notice which that newspaper ;,rticle
recalls. l was stopping at the cabin
of miner in gorge near the border
line between MisSoula and Flathead
counties. 1t is wild spot, about
thirty miles from the nearest settle
ment. Libby, station on the Great
Northern Railroad. The day before
L came away old man Logue said:
Les give Their trout in ther Big
Cherry one more try. Els kinder
hazy en- they'd orter bite good"
"Of course / was ready, so we sad
died our cayuses. 1t took us an
hour to reach the county road to
Libby, we'll beaten and fairly level,
and on that we made good time till
we came to where the old abandoned
Falls trail crosses. We
turned then and after a half hours
rough ride-fOr the underground was
thick and high-we reached the ban
of the Big Cherry. This is main
branch of Libby creek, and it is a
crystal and cold as ice, rolls smoothly
beautiful stream. Water as clear as
over the bright gravel beds and
here and there tumbles over d steep
fall Or down a rocky glen. 1t is only
three or four rods wide and not over
five feet deep in most places, and it
is the greatest trout stream in all
the Rockies.
''Just at this place where the old
trail crosses is shallow ford. and
below it a deep, dark pool, with
circular ledge of gray granite perhaps
twenty feet along the northern bank,
nearly enclosing the holes. A point
of stone jutted out over the waters
edge at about the middle of this well
and as we rode out upon the south
bank old Hutch held up his head.
'Sh! he whispered, 'jis look at
them troutv
Sure enough! The whole pool was
alive. There was not a square yard
of its usually calm surface unbroken
by the movements of feeding fish.
They leaped and tumbled and
splashed like harlequins. A man
could wade many a weary mile of
brook in this country and never see
so pretty a sight as those big pink
bellied trout were, playing in the sun
light The center Of the excitement
seemed to be directly under a point of
rock that jutted out over the water
and just now met with the spray
from the jumping fish. Not until the
old mans keener eyes had spied it
out and he had pointed to it did I
notice that a huge hornets nest as
large as peck basket hung from
this stone point. AS we drew nearer
l could see even across the creek the
swarm of busy insects coming TO and
going from their round gray nest
Every now and then yellow jacket
would circle too near the wafer in
crossing the creek and an active trout
would seize it in an instant. Some
times two hornets would get to light
ing and drop struggling to the sur
face. Half dozen hungry pairs of
jaws would snap at them as they
fell
THE flies did not resemble these in
sects, but we each tied on two orange
duns, and with them for the next two
hours had grand sport. We did not
go over a hundred yards from the
ford altogether UP and down the
stream, but from under uplifted
rocks, sunken stumps and roots,
dragged nearly eighty good sized
trout, the largest weighing two pounds
and a half. Several times I landed
two together, one hooked on the
dropper and the other on the trail
fly, and saw one or two more follow
ing the flies when these bit. Alto
gether, it was the best bit of sport I
ever enjoyed on any waters.
"When we got back to the cabin we
dressed some Of the trout for supper.
and every one that was opened had
dead hornets in its stomach. One
fish must have had at least forty of
the hot-tailed insects in its belly, and
I remember I wandered if the stings
did not hurt their threats.
"I 'spects,' said old Hutch, that
them trout gifts tired er ordinary
spiders en- bugs en- flies jes same's
me en- you gifts sick er plain venison,
en- they takes er day off en- goes up
by some hornets or bees nest en-
stuffs their innards full er red-hot
singers tibet spice Their outlets up,
same's pepper en- ketchup fixes up
our meals wen we run down ter
Libby fur er dayv
However that was, the trout evil
IDENTITY thrived on the diet, and now
I am wondering whether that Ca
madam trout that died Of eating a bee
wasn't a sort of a dyspeptc, weak
suomached fish that couldn't stand
highly seasoned meals.
COMING FASHIONS.
Black birds, canaries, seagulls,