The Portland daily press., 1897-06-11
AT KINEO.
How the sportsmen at Moosehead Are
Enjoying Life.
(From an Occasional Correspondent of
the PRESS

(From an Occasional Correspondent of
the PRESS.)
Kineo, June 9, 1897.-There are many
cobblers who have been mending shoes
for years, and they haven't got them all
mended yet. Many fishermen have been
catching fish from Moosehead Lake for a
decade, but they haven't caught all of
them. They are still at it and with them
are members of younger generations, all
welding rods and all catching fish.
At home they are clerks, merchants,
mechanics, bankers, doctors, lawyers,
college professors, brokers, railroad men,
politicians, but here on the lake they are
simply anglers. They go onto the lake
driven in by foul weather or the approach
of darkness. Then they come in, give
their fish to the guides, look over the
mail, have supper, smoke pipe or cigar
and go to bed that they may be up in
good time to do it all over again.
The guides and other people who live
on the Point, get the fish, sell them to
the landlord, and in the morning the
anglers get up and eat the trout and togue
that they have given away the night be
fore There are each day an average of
about Is guides, who do not have employ
ment, but it is very consoling after sit
ting all day on the annex piazza to get in
without expense Cor effort two or three
dollars worth of trout to sell to "the
house"
About half of the guides are Indians,
and all seem to be good, truthful men.
They know that patronage is not secured
by telling big stories or logging after
possible patrons. The event of the day
with the iders is the arrival of the boat
from Westcove in the afternoon. They
men, and when traveller lands, glances
about, sings out Hello, Tom, or Hen
ry," to some guide, his companions know
that the guide thus accosted is probably
about to secure few days work or pos
sibly several weeks, with one of his
former patrons. They do not interfere,
but attend strictly to their own affairs.
They are glad for Tom or Henry, or who
ever it may be, and settle down to wait
cheerfully for job.
The care which they take not to deceive
a man about the conditions at any part
of the lake is commendable. Ask one
of them when the logs will be out of a
certain cove, and he will answer by tel
ling you how many were there the last he
knew, how many drivers were at work
on them, what he has heard since from
there, how the prevailing winds affect the
work, and every valuable point he knows,
but as for undertaking to tell you just
when the logs will be out, that is out of
the question with the average guide.
However, for 50 day he will take you
there, and you may judge for yourself,
or if he sees a tow going across the lake,
he will tell you where the raft came from,
being fully competent to do SO by the
course it is taking.
But logs or no logs, rain or no rain,
and it has been rain for IA days out of the
last Is everyone is catching fish. Every
steamer and. every canoe that goes out
with anglers in the morning comes in
with trout and togue in the afternoon.
The high. bald rugged mountains to the
6dSU, bIG lOWGT, Dub
majestic, elevations to the west, and that
great mound of hornblend, Mount Kineo
which stands out in the middle of the
lake as if too proud to mlngle with those
of the forest covered range on either
hand, continue to be crowned with a
dense mist that is stationary at times,
and languidly floating about at others,
but still the fish continue to take any
morsel offered them, however coarse and
tasteless it may be. Historic old Kineo,
from which the aborigines took horn
blend to trade with friendly tribes on the
Androscoggin, to send in return for other
commodities as far west as the Mississippi
pi, stands there crowned with ragged
outline of a human face, which seems to
be constantly watching the scores of rods
with their shining ferrples, flashing back
and forth in the ever changing light.
View the lake from the top of the
mountain and get an idea of its shape
and size. Then look from below at the
old pile of rock with the spreading land
scape still in your minds eye, and you
can easily imagine the existence of the
old guardian Spirit, which rests there,
according to the Indian legend a bout
the place. What terrific force made the
dent in the earth S surface in which rest
the waters of the lake; what big eruption
raised the big rock until its top was 11c0
feet above the level of the lake, and still
more mysterious, what strange power sep
arated from it the elevation to the east
known as Little Kineo, and carried it Is
miles along the surface of the earth.
II am ashamed of any person who goes
abroad before viewing the natural won
ders of this lake and mountain country, ~
said lady who is sojourning here, and
with the everlasting panorama of views
afforded by the ever changing atmos-
pheric conditions which act as drop cur
tains and tormentor wings on landscape
in view, the remark seemed very apt and
forcible.
Fly fishing is the browning sport in the
piscatorial line; but as long as the big
trout in Moosehead lake will jump at
any kind of line, anglers are loath to
go farther in order to get chance to cast
the flies with good results Your CORE
spondent recently talked with man
from one of the smaller lakes, where they
are rising to the fly, and he said that the
camps are all closed there for lack of
trade. The anglers evidently think lot
of good big fish, with appetites for min
nows are better here han the smaller fly
hungry denizens of the woodland lakes
miles away This may be attributed to
Il