The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-20
A FISHING FICTION.
THE "MAGIC EYE" OF THE SAUL STE. MARIE INDIANS.

An Old Guides Explanation of the In- Indian whI.efish HunteF's Method of Getting Ills GIistenIng Catch From Under the Rapids.
 'sThe first time fished in the Sault Ste. Marie rapids" said a well known Lake Keuka sportsman, T landed in an hour twenty-one brook trout that weighed fortyfive pounds; so I was ready and willing to believe anything heard or read about the possibilities of those waters or the astounding things that men who fished ill them were able to do.
 Consequently I believed what they told me about the marvellous feats the Indian fishermen of the Sault Ste. Ma rie could perform in the way of netting Whitefish. Few who have toured the great lakes have not heard Of those same feats, witnessed them and, of course, could do nothing but go away believing that they were all they seemed to be.
 Particularly will they marvel, as at ltlS WulISllSu LlSuGTIIldIl , magic eye with which he seems to look down through ten feet or more of foam ing, rushing water and see whitefish that to the white mans eye would be invisible five inches beneath the sur- face. It would have been strange if had not marveled at it, having witt messed more than once manifestations of its alleged power. That was before talked with old Guide Garron.
 ''The astounding feats of the Indian whitefish netters of the SauIte Ste. Ma rie that the guidebooks and the hotel keepers and steamboatmen insist on telling tourists about are performed by two Indians in a canoe. One occupies the stern and manipulates the paddle to keep the canoes head pointed up stream. The Indian in the bow, stand ing upright. uses pole to aid in pro- polling the canoe or in keeping it steady.
 Lying ready to his hand is a dip net four feet in diameter, fastened to the end of q pole perhaps fifteen feet long. The fishing is done at the foot of the rapids, where the water boils and tum- bles furiotsly. With his pole the Indi- an in the bow keeps the boat moving about in the rapids and gazes constant ly into the water, which is often ten feet or more deep.
 Suddenly the Indian in the bow will seize the net handle with one hand, never ceasing to manipulate the canoe with his pole in the other nor for an in stant removing his staring gaze from the water. The net is not more than in his hand before he has plunged it per- haps ten feet distant from the boat, thrusting it at the same instant to the bottom. Then he gives it a peculiar twist; draws 1t up and, surrendering the care of the canoe for the moment to the Indian with the paddle, he draws the net up, never without from three to half dozen glistening whitefish in it, frequently weighing five pounds each. "The wondering spectator, seeing nothing but the boiling water, the sud- den start of the Indian and his quick and dexterous plunging and drawing up of the net with it's invariable load of whitefish, can do nothing but acknowl- edge to himself the necromancy of the Indians piscatorial art. I know that did, and for two seasons gave myself away to the fascination of that rnyster- ious fishing. Then one day I marveled at it greatly to Guide Garron, the shrewd and cunning old F'renchman who knows every rock and eddy and whirlpool of the rapids and all the wiles and tricks that any other guide knows and a whole lot that no other one does know, and Garron's little black eyes twinkled.
 "'Ahr he chuckled. 'Zat mageeck hye He von gr-r-rand homboag!'
 "Then he. explained in his voluble and picturesque patois the apparent myste- " of the Indian whitefish fsherman's magic eye Whitefish are natural deni- zens of the still, silent waters of the great lakes. To get from Lake Huron to Lake Superior these fish must fight their way up the fierce and stubborn Sault Ste. Marie rapids, In doing this they travel by easy stages. They can brave the rapids but short distance at a. time, when, almost exhausted, they drop into the shelter of the friendly rocks that pile the bottom of the rapids
 "Huddled sometimes by the score be- hind these rocks, getting wind, as it were, to overcome another stage of their journey, the wfitefish, if the wa ter is not too deep, can be lifted out by the hand of the fisherman, they are SC nearly exhausted. The Indians as vel as the white fishermen know this and knowing well the location of these shel- tering rocks, have only to thrust theil nets down behind them and draw them up filled with fish.
 "The cunning of the Indian led hin long ago to give visitors the impression that he could penetrate the troubled depths of the rapids with his gaze and discover the whitefish on the bottom The wonder if it spread, and it has been one of the fondest and best paying fic- tions of Susan Mary as the natives give you the pronunciation of the Sault Ste. Marie. ."-New York Times.
 IN PICTURESQUE INDIA.