The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1903-02-18
THEN THERE WERE FISH.



James Bell is lumberman who has
been in the woods Of Minnesota and
Wisconsin for many years. 1t has been
bis business for several decades to run
camp" in the winter; which is to say,
that he takes from so to IS lumber
jacks into the forests from December
TO April and holds them down by
weight Of authority and muscle and
makes them do their work of telling
and driving out timber. He has seem the
vast masses OF pine melt before the Ak
and just now is cutting hemlock be-
cause no pine grows, says the New
York Sun.
The Iessening Of the number Of
wild animals and the difference be-
tween the sport man could have then
and can have now" Bell says, "are as
great a. the change in the forests.
There were q hundred deer then where
there are ten deer now. there were :
thousand partridges where there are
ten now, and as for the fishes they may
be said. comparatively speaking. to
have almost disappeared from the wa
ters.
"Men come into our north woods OF
recent summers and fish industriously
with improved modern appliances for
two weeks, and If they catch two mus
kallonge day, averaging ten pounds
each, they 60 back home thinking that
they have had great luck. They have
some of the ten-pounders stuffed and
hung up in their diningrooms and
point TO them with pride
1--WE seen the time when a man
would get etirritated il fish Of only ten
pounds got hooked and was caught.
He would either kill 1t in spite or throw
1t back with "a curse. Nothing less than
25 pounds went then as a muskallonge
catch, and there we're lots of big fel-
lows brought 10 gatf that ran above
40 pounds. I've seen them taken that
went over 80.
II remember being some years ago
on the FIambeau river just below the
spot where the town Of Park Falls
stands now A dam had been built
across the stream 10 back the water up
so that there would be full head on in
the spring when the ice broke and We
would want 10 float the logs out TO the
Chippewa
"The dam was built In the fall with
massive watertight gates and to see
how IL would work when finished we
shut the gates down one day. That
had the effect Of stopping the water
from above and naturally the water
below ran away with great swiftness.
II went so fast, in fact. that the fish
did not know what was happening
and in little while they found them
selves in the holes among the rocks Of
the bottom with mighty little fluid to
keep them alive.
"You never saw the like OF the bass
and muskalIonge. particularly the
muskies- Their backs were everywhere
showing above the water and they
Topped on the rocks and jumped two
feet high sometimes trying 20 escape
from the new enen4, that had them in
his grip. Maybe thousand were in
sight.
1--WE wanted fsh. so the bunch Of us
sailed in. srme Of us had peasies and
some canthooks and some clubs and
some nothing hut their hands and we
hoisted the great fish out of their holes
by the hundredweight The pursuit
lasted some ten minutes; then the
gates were raised and the lower level
flooded and such fish as were left go,
away all right
Il don't know how many we caught.
but not less than 500 anyhow. and
while we did not stop TO separate the
big ones from the little ones they
would average easily ten pounds or
50. Five thousand pounds Of muskal-
fonge meat is stable pile and sup
pose that and the men who were with
me are the only human beings who
ever saw that much Of Il together. We
OH not take any Of the bass. rney we're