Webster Lake Dam.
A few years since, Maine offered a bounty of ten dollars a head on bears, and the hunting or trapping of them was a lucrative pastime, but since the withdrawal of the premium, hunters have decreased in the same proportion that bears have increased.
As might be expected, around the camp fire that night, the recent experience suggested hunter’s tales, each having its special locality and party designated, who witnessed the exploits, while the habits, courage, and peculiarities of bruin and other animals were discussed to an unlimited extent.
One of the stories told by Guide Morris related to a tame beaver which had grown to be a great household pet of a farmer living in the vicinity of Moosehead lake. One night a defective faucet filled the farmer’s sink and overflowed to the floor of the kitchen, whereupon the beaver, following his natural instincts, cut up the chairs and tables of the room, and building a dam about the fugitive stream saved the habitation from further injury!
We tarried three days at Webster dam, where we captured the largest trout of the excursion, and feasted on many a fine duck and partridge.
To impress the reader with the idea that our table fare was not so hard as might have been expected, I would state that the items of the daily menu consisted of fried brook trout, boiled potatoes, stewed duck or partridge, hard-tack, “flip-jacks,” with maple sugar, coffee, and tea. Fish chowders and game stews were our favorite dishes, all eaten with the seasoning of a hearty appetite.
FLY CATCHERS VERSUS FLY FISHING.
At this point we were probably as deep in this wilderness as it was possible to get in the trip.
The most striking feature of the forests is the absence of animal life, and more noticeable in our northern than southern wilds. The stately pines of the South stand from eight to twelve feet apart, and with a span of horses one can almost drive from one end of Florida to the other. In fact, the writer, in the winter of 1875, met a party so equipped, traveling in an open wagon from New Smyrna to Fort Capron, choosing their way by the compass’ aid. This open condition of things permits the rank growth of vegetation and animal life, which the close-locked branches of our northern forests prevent. In the latter case, also, the continual sifting of the pine leaves on the ground, and the gloom of the overhanging boughs choke what few shrubs might have an existence.