The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-16

believe II if l heard it, or al any rate that
the victim was an experienced fisherman
Awaiting Arrival of the Fisherman.
Bent on a fish. a good-sized river cat
fish-no other kind for me. save possibly
the rare and infrequent sturgeon-I go
down to the river full time ahead for the
fishermen to come in with their early
catch. 1t is about o'clock in the morn
ing Later in the day they go out again
to return about 3 in the afternoon In
the morning, however, the catch Is US
ually large and better. The little cove
where the fishermen land. harbor their
sliffs and float their fish boxes is a
short distance below the town boat land
ing. There the river runs along the very
base of the bluffs and now makes ire
mendous eddy. driftwood filled, reverse
to the main current beyond with slack
water around the edges. "A borer." the
river men call such.
Dan and Bill, our fishermen, have nQ
come in when l arrive. Way yonder up
nver l see Dan in his skirr at a slough
mouth and far down l see Bill padding
up, looking like big black water beetle.
a silhouette outlined against a glowing
water surface. a tiny spider on bur-
nished sheet of copper. There is time
to spare so | will try to climb up to
Dan and Bills den by a hidden path
way hidden accidentally not from intent,
where 1 know looking at things will in
terest me. Dan and Bill use this den
jointly for land work and keeping their
traps, though in all else they are not
partners. l stand on the river bank in
a few yards of that den and did I not
know it to be there I would never sus-
pect its existence. Up above me, third
of the way up the nearly precipitous
bluff, screened from view by foliage of
bush, trees and vines is a natural shelf
of level ground some % or 30 feet wide
by 100 feet long A little path so over
arched by greenery it seems tunnel
climbs up to this and is so steep steps
are cut out here and there along it.
The Homo of Dan and Bill.
In the background the bluff rises again.
it's dark and wet rocks and its caverns
screened also with hanging vines and
growths that spring from every cleft and
crevice, and over all is the shading arch
of the foliage of the big trees on the top
of the bluff. At one end of the little lev
ell flat Is a queer little shack of upright
boards with a shingle roof. gray wealth
err stained and mossgrown in places. With
In and without is piled the queereSt col
lection OF odds and ends any seeker after
the curious might wish to see. Dan and
Bill make with their own hands pretty
nearly everything they use in their buSi-
ness and they never throw anything away
save fish heads. On the level outside
the shack Is a carpenters bench. a squad
of sawhorses. from tree limbs. nails and
pegs driven in trees on the ground and
all around there hang and lay nets. bar
rel nets, tram nets. minnow nets and nets
of all kinds. new nets. used worn out
nets, lines with and without hooks. min
know buckets. fish traps. iron weights
| oars. row locks, a pile of plank. cans
| boxes. buckets. pieces of cloth. rope. an(
| at least a dozen pairs of heavy wooler
| socks. Against the shacks are piled fish
poles. boards of every Scription and 1
big green window shutter. Within tn,
shack bangles a row OF Clothes, over