Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1896-05-29
Fun WITH THE sMELTs.
Simple Delights of = Winter Occnpstlc'
in the state Of Maine.

Simple Delights OF "nIcE
in the state of Maine.
If, enc wants to see smelts caught TOT
finn. and to learn how pleasure ana
nrofit can form partnership and both
declare satisfactory dividends, ne
shonld come down here and visit the
portable villages along the lazy Bagac
duce. The Bagaduce river goes the
LONGEST distance to find nn outlet hall
= mile away of any stream in the world.
Kissing in Walkers pond, the head"a-
ters of which are but 20 rods lniand
from Eggemoggin Reach, 1t flows cast
and then north, dividing Sedgwick
from Brooksville, and, turning sharp
to the west, parts Broolssvillc from
Penobscot until it strikes Castine, when
it curves to the south and 1lnds the
Atlantic ocean between Castine and
West Brool1yille, not 100 rods from
where it started. Besides the big 90
mile blight, which the Bagaduce forms
in irving to make Brooksville an island,
it is looping and making a snake OF it.
self all the way, as if it got mileage
fees for travel, like a member of con-
eress. From it's mouth to it's source
the devious Bagaduce is alive with tat
smelts, and up in Walkers pond are
millions more to fill vacancies.
When winter has musted the
stream with ice and the minnows be-
gin to hold family reunions in the
muddy hollowss under the ice, it is time
to catch smelts. The outfit of the
smclter is inexpensive. It consists OF
q homemade four-by-siN wooden house
on runners, a tinkeris stove that will
hold half bushel of mill blocks, four
hooks, two lines, two crescent sinkers
with T. line from each point, a plug of
black navy tobacco and clay pipe.
If there is any money left over, he gets
another pipe. For bait he dips pailful
Of live 1ninnows from under the ice.
AS these will stay frozen solid for a
week and thaw out i'm perfect health,
they are not counted in with the bill.
Cutting two holes in the river ice
near the channel, the fisherman pushes
his house sled over them, takes up a
floor board, and let's down his lines
" it'll two baited hooks attached to each.
After this his labor consists in smoking
his pipe, pulling up fish and keeping the
stove filled with wood. AS the house is
too small for him to lie down, he sits on
n low block with his legs each side of
the stove and with his hands holding
the lines between his knees. In a
corner is a tin pail filled with dough-
nuts, homemade sausage, and butter
milk biscuits, to which he refers az hun
Ger dictates. At night he hangs a Ian
tern to the peak of the roof, so he can
see the smoke from his pipe; and if the
wind shifts 50 as to blow in at the door,
he does not attempt to change it, but
side before. Now and then brisk gale
will break his box away from it's moor
ings, and send it sliding off down
stream. In this case the owner does not
worry. He waits4untn the house stops,
cuts new holes and resumes fishing,
knowing he will come back to the old
grounds again when the wind shifts.
II he finds an extra good fishing place
and wants to hold it, a pail of water
poured over the runners makes an
anchor for all winter. Sitting thus,
with his back to the wall and his legs
embracing the stove, he will smoke and
dream and fish all day and night if nee
cssary, enjoying life as it passes and
thanking his stars there are people in
the world who are able to pay for
smelts.
After shutdown the stream is dotted
with blinking lights as far as one can
see. They are strung out in single file
for rods, then punched in villages of
ten or dozen houses, and again, after
spaces of darkness, are other shining
hamlets dwindling away until the fur
Their lights wink to the stars on the
horizon. AS soon as supper is over, the
whole town comes out on the ice. The
children slide away on sleds or skates,
tho wives sit in the doors of their hus-
bands camps with blankets about their
feet, knitting and talking as good wives
will, while the grown-up boys and girls
go off in pairs to solitary camps where
they can fish with the lanterns turned
down. Visiting is always in order.
Callers do not drop in,'' the way they
do on land, because the houses are too
"11ow do they bite?" and discussing the
latest smelt quotations in tile city pa
1crs. 1t is settled beyond Il question
that the New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia snelts are lean tomoods travel
ing in disguise. They wouldn't be so
cheap if they were real snelts-of
course not. Having solved the problem
once for all, the fishermen thaw out the
slnelts they have frozen with crooks in
them, and then put them outside to
freeze straight. Smells arc contrary
things. anyhow. Half of them had as
soon die crooked us straight. It is a
shame to make so much extr:. work
when smelts are so cheap.
From the barnyards up on the hill
the geese call off the hours. When they
yell nine times the old grave digger of
the town goes up and pulls the curfew
Tell, hurting the discordant notes from
Castine to Bluehill. Lights begin to
blink about on the river; slr,ll-voiced