The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1899-12-02

peSfance of tho So-CSlled Pickerel
Devil. v
All Maine has suffered from a
drouth this year for which the pro-
hibitory liquor law is in no way re-
sponsible. All the rain that has fall
en- since last spring, If put together In
one storm, would not equal one Of the
heavy falls that usually are expert
enced in Maine in spring and fall, and,
although the summer brought many
violent thunderstorms, there was little
rain. Now, when the rivers, lakes and
wells should be full to the brim, every
water course in the state is running
remarkably low, the beds Of the
streams showing bare, like gravelly
roads, and the lakes shrunken away
from their shoes as though they had
leaked through a hole i'm the center,
leaving the pebbly beaches far above
water, with wide margins Of muddy
bottom lands, from which arises q
powerful stencil, says New York
Press,
A remarkable effect Of the drouth
Is seen in the brook which connects
Eddington and Holbgook's ponds, a
few miles east of Bangor. In ordinary
times this brook runs high, and Is a
noisy little stream, filed with the best
and plumpest pickerel, the latest
muskrats and the biggest frogs to BIS
found in all Maine. Now the two ponds
have shrunk to- half their natural area
and the brook is reduced to. a. sickly
rivulet, at best, and in some places
is nothing more than a series Of discon-
nected and muddy pools, wherein thou,
sands Of big piekerel have been i'm.
prisoned helpIessly, there to be dipped
out by poachers, while at night the
muskrats splash and founder like
stranded walruses and the once big
frogs wall plaintively on the Shiny
borders;
A week ago, while tramping along
the brook, swearing at the luck. and
praying for rain, Uncle Reuben Dix,
the hermit fiddler Of Peaked mountain,
saw something struggling in the mud
that attracted his attention. It was
not a frog nor yet a muskrat;' II, was
something like a fish, and yet it had
legs. If Uncle Reuben Had been drink
ing anything that day or the night
before, he would have decided. that
the stuff wasn't first-class, but none
Of the Bangor sportsmen had been. out
that way for some time, and there
wasn't even a drink Of cider within ten
miles, so, it was a case of straight
seeing, and Uncle Reuben Investigated.
He got a crooked stick and hauled the
thing out of the mud. The creature
resented this, and snapped v%iciously at
lively to- keep out Of its way.
: ''Well, I'm dummed!" said Uncle
Reuben, "but I didn't think allergaters
ever got this fur to the north-ard."
Finally he killed the creature with a
stone, and lugged the carcass Owe to-
Eddington, where, after being viewed
by all the curious, it was sold for fifty
cents to, George McMunn, q Bangor
drummer, who has a fad for collecting
curious reptiles. birds, etc., and by him
given to his friend, r. H. MCNAMARA
Of Bangor, who will haWe.it stuffed and
placed on exhibition in his place Of
business. The beast looks something
like an alligator and something like a
big lizard, and no one in Bangor can
name it. It has teeth like a saw and
a mouth large enough to hold a loaf
Of bread. as Joe Jameson, the baker,
demonstrated by experiment.. Uncle
Reuben said it was the pickerel devil,
a poisonous reptile, which often has:
been told of, but seldom If aver seen in
Maine. The devil. is said to be- the
direct product Of a drouth, and his ap-
pearance means that all the pickerel'
are to die. or have died, for want OF
water.
Up to the time Of the drouth, the
fishing in Eddington and Holbrook's'
ponds was excellent. Now there hasn't
been as much as a bite in either" pond
for four weeks. Some say that the
pickereI have left the brook and gone
to the bottom of the ponds, where they
find the water cooler than at the sur
face, and that they will not bite again
till winter. Uncle Dix, however, main.
tains that all the fish are dead, else the,
pickeref devil would not have been
born.