French Broad hustler., 1917-07-05

4
splash dam about three miles up the
creek which forms the dividing line.
LAUNDERING operations as conducted
in Pisgah Forest are not going to de-
stroy the trout streams as such, and
is question whether they will be sub
1ected to serious permanent injury.
1hree years ago the mountain sides
along the lower river were denuded of
all timber of a certain size, the logs
were snaked down the slopes into the
river, many scars were made, erosions
We're started, the growth along the
river was left in a general mess. A
(, railroad was built along the stream,
! much raw earth was thus exposed, and
IN places the pools were rendered un-
| slightly by blasting operations which
made one bank of them mass OF
jagged granite Yet the dense growth,
almost tropical in some of its aspects,
| has obliterated, these scars in large
/ part; the banks present the same i'm
penetrable jungle as before, floods
nave removed the tangle of trunks
and limbs, and the pools that were at
frst offensive to the eye, with the piles
OF blasted rock, and apparently taboo
to all trout, are now found to yield
some of the best fish in the rier. A
thout will not abide in polluted water,
[ nor in a pool where there is any sort
OF debris, such as brush, limbs or
plank; but they do not seem to mind
anything that is permanent in nature
Thus an old log, firmly imbeded in
poor or shoal, does not condemn the
spot. Trout will not live in pool
that collects and retains sediment, no
matter how deep it may de, nor how
picturesque it's dark corners, against
jutting rock; but if the pool is wash
ed in any part by the swift current,
there fish will be found.
| However. if there may follow no Sc
rious permanent injury ito the fishing
as result of the arilroad building and
the numbering that is responsible for
/ it, the beauty of the region may be
said to be marred somewhat for all
time. The railroad will follow the
/ main streams, and leaves its marks of
crude artifcialty, where beauty is sac
rticed wholesale on the altar of utli-
ity. There was a system of splendid
plank roads already built in this part
l'Of the forest, but these have of late
| years fallen into disrepair, and scores
of the bridges across streams and ra-
vines are gone. In building these
roads Dr. Schenck, then head of II
BiltmOre estate forestry department"
secured excellent grades with but lit
tie blasting, and TO rthe most part ken;
away from the margins of the streams.
When the numbering contract is finish
ed the government will find itself in
possession of excellent roads and
bridges, the railroad grades; but he
who travels on them will not find the
wealth of primitive beauty that was
! vi hn 1c
were made Of the waters of this re-
gion Donald ellis said, in an article
published in the Daily News last
March:
'Hemlock, maple, birch rise from
the waterside. and the forest aisles
Head up through spruce, hickory, pop
lar and pine to the balsam crowns of
tcloudy SUBMITS. There are impene-
ttEable tangles of rhOdodendron, Or
tanged fOwered azalea and kaImia with
petals tinged with rose-dogWood fam
ing white in spring and sOurwOOd scar
let when the leaves turn brown. Hicn
fplaced springs send their cold waters
down through galaxs meadows, by
banks of ferns and vfolets in the re-
mote and silent places where messy
tree trunks lie.
'Swirt and foam crested are the for
est streams, brown in the tree snad-
lows, flashing in the sun spaces. rock
bottomed mostly, with few earth
floors to darken pools for the big fel
llows. There are long runs under lich-
en- cliffs, shaded shadows, swirlin9
Epools in the lee of house-sized bouIG-
ers, and cascades plating rock tables
with shimmering wells. There is much
variety of fishing water, an ever s ift-
l Of SYN ind
swept heights"
Characteristic of the Pisgan Vicinit-
lis the presence of a vast amount Of
beautiful white granite, sparseiy fleck-
ed with black mica. This gives to
some of the reaches of the various
Fstreams stretch here and there "
i'pools so white as to suggest to an
Eangler succession of porcelain bath
ltubs-mostrOf them of a size for giants
,fThese pools are the despair Of fhe flv
4 caster when the sun is shining, out
1 in cloudy weather, or very early morn
4 ing or late evening, each successive
.Ipool may be depended upon fol one or
more fish.
With the exception of fish, all ltvin-
lthings, or very nearly all, in the for
est reserve of more than $4,000 acres
| are. inviolate. The visitor may aos
carry firearms. and it is never laWf1!
to kill bear, even if one should bite
Jyou. The homesteaders of the forest
who continued to live there during the
years that George W. Vanderbilt own
ed the land. and who still remain, pay
ing the government small rental ar
often obliged to drive the deer frou
their small fields; but the mink thev
trap as protection OF their property.
and the groundhog they kill in what
ever way the can. as the worst ener~-
OF gardens. Arctomys moRax, the
weather prophet, is hard to circum-
vent; and he peculiarly loves to browse
O nthe young beans. These forests
were stocked many years agow ith the
China, pheasants or gold