INTRODUCTION
Like the aroma of Time, [these] pages are redolent with tradition… I
admire Edmund Davis immensely… ..[he] wrote only two books, but they will
keep him living for… us."
-George Bird Evans
Old Hemlock
19 January 1987
Salmon Fishing on the Grand Cascapedia by the American angler Edmund W. Davis was originally produced for
private distribution in two fine printings of 100 copies by the celebrated De Vinne1 Press of New York in 1904.
The result is one of the chief rarities of American angling literature, as well as a highly collectable specimen of
the art of book making. A presentation copy with special binding sold at auction in April of 1990 in
Massachusetts, bringing a price of $3190,2 while ordinary copies have typically sold for lesser four-figure prices
for many years. Until now it has never been reprinted, and it seems fitting that Davis's book should be given a
wider circulation in time for the ninetieth anniversary of its original publication and the centenary of the
Cascapedia Club.
The Grand Cascapedia3 River in the Gaspé region of Quebec is one of the world's finest Atlantic salmon rivers.
Rising from sources deep in the heart of the Shickshock4 Mountains, some of the highest and most formidable
peaks east of the Rockies, the Salmon Branch flows southward to meet the La5ke Branch,6 issuing from Lacau-Saumon and running eastward some eighteen miles to the Forks. From the Forks pool, the main stem of
the Cascapedia River flows another forty-five miles south through spectacular scenery to the Bay of Chaleur.
Although a highway now parallels most of the river's main stem, its environs remain wild and beautiful, and the
visitor will often catch sight of lynx or moose and, more rarely, bear. By present count, there are some seventynine named pools on the river's main stem, and another nine on the Lake Branch (formerly left as a sanctuary
by the Club, but opened to angling in recent years as a concession to Demos).
It is a river steeped in history and tradition. Starting in the 1870s, the government leased the entire upper
river, along with both branches (excluding only the lower section of Loyalist water7) to a syndicate of wealthy
1
2
De Vinne is pronounced to rhyme with "Winnie."
Oinonen Book Auctions, Sale Number 151, The Angling Library of Col. Henry A. Siegel, Pt. 1, A - K, Tuesday, April 24, 1990, Lot 110.
3
The name is believed to come from the Micmac Indian Gascapegiag, meaning "Wide River." The Gaspé region of Québec also numbers
among its legendary salmon rivers, a Matapedia and a Patapedia. Inspired by these names, the American humorist Arthur Train set a
number of fishing stories featuring the shrewd Yankee lawyer, Mr. Ephraim Tutt, on the storied "Centipedia," not far away from the equally
famous "Millipedia." The Grand Cascapedia is the larger neighbor of the the Little Cascapedia.
4
Chic-Choc, en francais.
5
6
7
Called in the early days the Indian Branch.
The lower portion of the River was already owned freehold by Crown grants made to American Loyalists, who settled the town of New
Richmond at the mouth of the river in 1784, following the defeat of their cause in the American Revolution. Virtually all the lower river is now
owned by Horse Island Camp, which counts sixteen pools in its six miles of water. The presence of the American Loyalists has provided
congenial associations on the river for generations of visiting Americans with the descendants of their exiled neighbors, and the names of
2
Americans headed by Chester Arthur, whose increasing activity in politics (which-compensated him for giving
up the Grand Cascapedia by leading him to the White House8) left an opening in 1878 for the Marquess of
Lorne, Governor General of Canada, to step in and acquire the lease. Lords Lansdowne and Stanley, his
successors, retained possession of the river, and salmon fishing on the Grand Cascapedia was in their day
looked upon as a Viceregal privilege.9 Lord Lansdowne certainly believed things would stay that way, and to
prove it erected New Dereen, a handsome Victorian-styled fishing lodge affectionately named for his estate in
the West of Ireland. In 1893, however, a newly organised American syndicate won the auction to acquire the
lease, undoubtedly paying a formidable price.10 These anglers founded the famous Cascapedia Club, which still
fishes the river today. Edmund W. Davis was one of the eight original members.
The magnificence of the catches the river has produced is legendary. Virtually every North American salmon
weighing more than fifty pounds11 has been taken from the Cascapedia's pools: from the long- standing North
American record, R. G. Dun's 54 pound fish taken June 20, 1886, to the still unsurpassed 57 pound fish killed
by Mr. Kirby, July 11, 1928.12 Edmund Davis himself may possibly have just missed holding the record. In 1900
and again in 1901, Davis killed salmon heavier than his fishing camp's fifty pound scale could weigh. By the time
these fish were brought into town to be accurately measured the following day, the crucial pounds, making a
new record — or equaling the old — , had most probably been lost. His fish were logged in at 51 and 52
pounds. The first of these, which Davis called "the river goddess," appears in the photograph on page 78. It
seems likely that it was his extraordinary angling success in the seasons of 1900 and 1901, and the
associated celebrity in salmon fishing circles, that led Davis to undertake the task of preparing and publishing
his salmon fishing book.
Davis set upon his self-imposed task in the precise and methodical manner of the perfectionist. After a short
description of the river, he proceeds to describe the art of salmon fishing in careful detail, one chapter after
another in turn devoted to each element of tackle and technique. His advice is that of a cosmopolitan and
skeptical angler. He imported salmon flies from Forrest of Kelso,13 but used provincial rods made locally by
Harrison, Campbell, Gilker, and Dimock have been associated with the Grand Cascapedia fishing for more than a century, as camp
managers, guides, and guardians (called locally "guardeens").
8
Chester Alan Arthur (1829-1886) was elected Vice President in 1880. He succeeded to the Presidency as a result of the assassination
of James A. Garfield by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker. Arthur served as President from 1881 to 1885, but was defeated
when he sought the Republican nomination to run for re-election by James G. Blaine, who went on to his own defeat at the hands of the
Democrat Grover Cleveland.
9
In those distant and more amiable times, the Quèbecois took pride in the sporting prowess of their British Governors. Auguste Béchard,
in La Gaspésie en 1888, hailed their lordships as: "grand pêcheurs devant Dieu et devant les hommes!"
10
The actual figure is not known, but seventeen years later, in 1910, the Cascapedia Club was paying the Province of Quebec an annual fee of
twelve thousand five hundred dollars.
11
Mr. J. A. Campbell researched the matter and found records of eleven Cascapedia salmon weighing fifty pounds or more (Atlantic Salmon
Journal, Summer, 1983.).
12
In 1990, reports were spread near and far of a 72 pound fish caught on the Restigouche. Unfortunately, the policies of the Province of
New Brunswick which permit only grilse to be taken, and require the release of all salmon, are enforced on that river. Consequently, the "72
pound" fish's weight was only calculated, using one of the formulas available for estimating a fish's weight from his length and girth. It is
interesting , to say the least, that in the last few years several reports of fish larger than 60 pounds (considerably larger than the
authentic North America record), have come from the Restigouche. Particularly, since in the earlier era when fish were kept and weighed on
scales, the Restigouche seems to have produced, since 1880, only a single 50 pound fish, along with a fair number of 40 pounders.
13
John Forrest founded his famous tackle house in 1837 at Kelso on the River Tweed. According to Graham Turner, in his well researched
reference Fishing Tackle, Ward Lock Limited, London, 1989, Forrest of Kelso, later Forrest and Sons, survived up to 1967. The salmon flies
reproduced by photogravure in three colour plates were dressed by Forrest and Sons.
3
Dalzell in St. John, New Brunswick. Davis was familiar with split-cane rods, but, like many anglers of the old
school, preferred greenheart's14 greater power and its peculiarly sympathetic and vibrant action. He
recommends a rod of fifteen feet, which struck me as a little longer than needed for Canadian waters, until I
reflected that anglers of his day fished larger flies much more often than we do today. It takes a big rod to
turn over those 3/0s and 4/0s at the end of a long cast.
It is not surprising that Davis endorses the superb reels made by Edward Vom Hofe, many of which
manufactured in 1904 or even twenty years earlier,15 remain in active service today.16 Vom Hofe's reels were
produced as luxury items, and finished like jewelry, but the care taken in their production was not merely for
show. To stand up to the runs of a gamefish as powerful as the Atlantic salmon, a reel's mechanism must be
made with the precision of a fine watch. No other reel of that era could be wholly relied upon. In rivers like the
Grand Cascapedia, where there is always the possibility of hooking a fish of forty, or even fifty pounds, only a
reel of the quality of the Vom Hofe stands between the angler and disaster.
I cannot help but smile when I come to Davis's chapter on the line. He carries over from trout fishing to salmon
fishing, as I do myself, the prejudice against light-coloured lines and the phobia about scaring fish with them.
He admits he has seen people kill salmon with line "almost white and large enough to kill a codfish." But he
implores his readers "not to try it; it is not clean fishing, it is not correct fishing." I know just what he means; I
feel that way myself.
I take considerable interest in salmon fly patterns, and run to strong opinions on their relative effectiveness.
Few anglers in Britain or North America still fish the classic feather winged patterns these days, but I do, and I
find that Davis's experience of ninety years ago largely agrees with my own. I find Jock Scott and Silver Grey
are still as effective today in all the rivers of Gaspé as they were then. Like Davis, I have little success with the
Durham Ranger and the Silver Doctor. Davis's choice of an evening pattern, the Steuart (named for one of his
in-laws), was improved upon after his time by his guide James Harrison (pictured holding the river goddess),
who some years later invented the superb Lady Amherst. Davis registers his agreement with just about every
Gaspé guide I ever met (if not Lee Wulff) in preferring double-hooks. He does seem old-fashioned in thinking
Number 8 hooks too small for Cascapedia fish. We fish in low water conditions more today, I suppose, and
every year the fish seem shyer.
14
Greenheart is a wood principally imported from British Guyana. Heavy and dense in grain, it is very strong and elastic, resists moisture,
and can be finished to a very attractive color and texture. Greenheart rods were hand-planed to a taper from billets of solid wood. This
laborious method was necessary because greenheart fractures when turned on a lathe. The best rods were made with spliced joints.
Ferruled rods were not considered trustworthy by most anglers, because it was widely believed that they tended to break at the joint.
Greenheart rods usually cost a good deal less than split bamboo (Grant Vibration rods were the exception), and though heavier had a
considerably more powerful action. The greenheart rod reached its epitome in the Vibration rods, designed by the Scottish musician and
violin-maker, Alexander Grant. Even today, a few highly reactionary anglers, including H.R.H. the Prince of Wales and myself, persist in a
loyalty to their Grant Vibrations.
15
Edward Vom Hofe's salmon reels were manufactured from the 1870s until 1940. After the demise of the Vom Hofe company, a former
employee, Otto Zwarg, produced near duplicates until 1958. The modern successor to the Vom Hofe reel is made by Mr. Stanley Bogdan.
Bogdan's reels are a fine design, and take advantage of space-age materials. They are actually a trifle smoother in their action, but the old
Vom Hofes are still the most handsome reels ever made.
16
My salmon fishing tackle includes four Edward Vom Hofe reels, in sizes from 2/0 to 6/0, with patent dates from 1883 to 1902. The 3/0
model, bearing the 1883 patent date, matches perfectly a 12' Payne rod, which I use every season.
4
Davis's strictures on two-handed casting17 are a bit peculiar. He objects to the natural practice of reversing
one's hands to cast over the other shoulder, regarding it as somehow ungraceful. Although I expect that Davis
is right in maintaining that it is possible to cast in the manner he advocates, it does not seem very practical,
and I can't see why he considers it more æstheticly pleasing.
Salmon fishing in Quebec, in the era Davis describes, was done from canoes. Canoes were necessary, in the
first place, as transportation up-and down-river, in the absence of roads Moreover, Canadian rivers were often
too wide, their currents too swift, and their banks too thickly forested (American anglers lacking knowledge of
the Spey-cast) for wading to be a practicable alternative. On a number of the rivers of the Gaspé peninsula,
including the Grand Cascapedia, the practise of fishing from canoes described by Davis still survives today.
The canoe is usually shared by two anglers (see the photograph, captioned "Red Camp Pool," opposite p.
[SUPPLY PAGE NUMBER]. This is not only expected, but advisable, so that the angler can take a break from
casting, search through his boxes for the next fly, chat with the guides, or simply take in the scenery.18 Each
canoe has an assigned beat, normally consisting of several pools. On some rivers, a canoe will be assigned the
exclusive right to fish literally miles of river, and dozens of pools. On most of today's rivers, the canoe is
managed by single guide, using an outboard motor, but a few rivers, like the Cascapedia, maintain the old
standards.19 On these, outboard motors are banned, and the motive power for each canoe is still supplied by
two guides using paddles and iron-shod spruce poles.
In the photograph facing page 8, we see a couple of the classic Gaspé canoes, built of cedar and canvas, with
narrow, angled ribs, and lap-straked side-boards.20 Not many years earlier, anglers would have fished from
birchbark canoes made by Micmac Indians. Today's preferred canoe is the twenty-six foot model built by Mr.
Sharpe on the banks of the Restigouche. Sharpe canoes have tremendous stability, and the angler may stand
up to cast or play a fish very safely. The canoes of Davis's day were less stable, but adequate to their purpose.
Then, as now, each pool was fished in a series of "drops." The guides maneuver the canoe into a suitable
position for casting at the head, or just a little above the head of the pool. An anchor made of cast lead (in
the old days, simply a suitable rock), called the killick is lowered. The angler then proceeds to cast, starting
with a short line, and usually fishing both sides of the canoe. After casts to both sides have been fished out,
the line is lengthened a couple of feet, and the process is repeated. When the angler has cast and fished the
greatest length of line he can manage, he informs the guides, and it is resolved to "take a drop." The killick is
raised, and the canoe is allowed to drift downstream to the point where new water will be covered in the next
succession of casts.
Davis advocates a stealthy approach to each pool, and urges anchoring the canoe to one side of the river to
make it less conspicuous to the fish. He even goes so far as to suggest waiting for a few minutes after
17
The angling authors who dominated the American sporting journals after WWII persuaded their readers that (1) it was possible to thrown
a long enough line to kill salmon by double-hauling on a one hand rod, and that (2) the shorter the rod the "more sporting" its use. As a
result of their theories, a generation of North American salmon fishermen entirely abandoned the pleasure and convenience of using twohanded rods. Only very recently, as the result of more Americans traveling to Scotland and Norway, where observation of Spey-casting has
tended to broaden their horizons, has the two-handed rod begun a come back in this hemisphere.
18
The fishing on these exclusive rivers is normally priced with the assumption that two anglers will be sharing each canoe. The tariff would
be doubled otherwise.
19
20
Also the Gaspé St. John and the St. Anne.
The name of the builder of the old Gaspé canoes seems to have been universally forgotten, though I have often inquired. Some
specimens of these survive in the Museum made from the old Matamajaw Club on the Matapedia at Causapscal. The same design is still
being made today in the nearby town of Bonaventure, by M. Arsenault. They are called "Bonaventure canoes" today, and can be recognized
by their grey paint with orange-red trim. Bonaventure canoes are built only to a maximum size of twenty feet. They are not as roomy and
stable as the Sharpe canoe, but they draw less water.
5
anchoring before commencing to fish, which seems to me to be an idea deserving a trial today. From Davis's
account, turn-of-the-century Cascapedia anglers seem to have varied their fishing hours at different points in
the season, finding "nine 'oclock… early enough" in June, but getting up earlier in July, and in August, fishing
only early morning and late evening. On today's Gaspé rivers, the same routine is followed throughout the
season: fishing starts after breakfast, around 7:30 or 8 o'clock, and continues until lunch-time, noon or one
o'clock. The guides and sports return to the lodge for luncheon, after which everyone has a siesta until 5:30,
when fishing is resumed until dusk. It is part of Nature's perversity that, often, the more expensive the fishing
and the more exclusive the Club, the more rigid is the guides' view of their hourly schedule. Visiting anglers will
find that some Cascapedia guides are clock-watchers, and have every intention of packing it in after eight
hours of fishing, unless additional financial incentives are forthcoming. This can be rather frustrating on long
summer evenings.
Although much remains the same from Davis's era to today, the reader who is familar with the Grand
Cascapedia today will discover in Davis's account considerable evidence of the passage of time. In the first
place, obviously, salmon have grown a great deal scarcer, and the daily limit in Gaspé is now one fish, salmon or
grilse. The veritable hecatomb illustrated in "Two Days' Fishing (p. [Page Number]) would be an
embarrassment, rather than an achievement to today's angler. The fishery now must accomodate hundreds of
anglers in the course of a season, where once only eight Club members fished, accompanied by a few guests.
We can console ourselves, though, that at least we don't have to try to fish for, and land, salmon in the middle
of a log drive.
Although his book was produced as a personal memento intended only for family and friends, a wider audience
today will treasure this account of fishing the Grand Cascapedia during a great era, and find useful, even 90
years later, the admonitions and advice of a very knowledgeable angler.
George Bird Evans looks upon Davis's books as "a prototype of Eugene Connett's Derrydales, with similar
proportions, generous margins, and clear letterpress typeface."21 The superb quality of these editions results
from Davis's choice of the legendary Theodore Low De Vinne (1828-1914) as his printer. De Vinne, the son of a
minister, was born on Christmas Day, 1828, in Stamford, Connecticut. After an apprenticeship in which he
"made a show of ability" in Newburgh, New York, he moved to New York City to work for Francis Hart Co., the
best New York printer of the day. Upon his employer's retirement in the 1850s, De Vinne was made head of the
company, and given an opportunity to buy into the business. By 1883, De Vinne had completed its purchase.
He was a remarkable businessman as well as a printer, and retired a millionaire in 1910.
Soon after going into business for himself, De Vinne became one of the founding members of the Grolier Club,22
a leading society of bibliophiles, connoisseurs, and collectors. The Grolier Club gave practical expression to its
admiration for the arts of the book by issuing a famous series of fine printings. Forty-five of fifty-five books
bearing that prestigious imprint were produced by the De Vinne Press. The press also did substantial work for
the Scribner and Century Companies: for Scribner, producing luxury editions of Edith Wharton's The Decoration
of Houses (1897), Rudyard Kipling's Plain Tales From the Hills (1899), Ernest Thompson Seton's The Trail of
the Sandhill Stag (1900), as well as Theodore Roosevelt's African Game Trails (1910); and, for the Century
Company, printing Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887) the Century Magazine, the Century Dictionary
(1883), and the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia in ten volumes (1880-1906). De Vinne's work for the
Century Company is considered to have set the standard for American typography in his time. De Vinne's
prestige in his field was so great, one of his former employee's recalled that "it was the ambition of many men
21
22
George Bird Evans, Introduction to Woodcock Shooting, Premier Press, 1987, p. xiv.
Named for the great collector and patron of the French Renaissance, Jean Grolier (1479-1565).
6
in the printing industry to be employed there, not that they were paid better wages than in the other houses,
but because it was an indication of competency to be known as a De Vinne Man."23
Davis could easily afford De Vinne's services for the production of fine editions, being the only grandson of
Perry Davis, inventor of PAIN KILLER, probably the most successful proprietary medicine of the Victorian age.
Perry Davis was born in 1791 in rural poverty, and for most of his life seemed to be the victim of an enduring run
of hard luck. At 14, he had a bad fall which left him permanently lamed. He received only the briefest education,
and was forced to resign himself to being apprenticed as a shoe-maker. He married in 1813, but life was a
constant struggle for his young family, and he and his wife lost seven of nine children. In 1840, he fell ill with a
cold that settled on his lungs, accompanied by a variety of digestive disorders. Perry Davis was at the point of
resigning himself to death, despite his reluctance to leave his family without support, when he found himself,
by his own account, directed by the hand of Providence, in "compounding and proportioning" a medicine for
himself, made from "the choicest gums and plants… the world afforded," in which the stimulating effect of
one would be counteracted by the soothing effect of the other. The end result was "a balm to heal," which
worked for its inventor, and Perry Davis unexpectedly recovered. His troubles were not over, however. He had
recently taken up inventing, and had borrowed $4500 to fund the marketing of a grain grinding mill of his own
design. Sales efforts were unsuccessful, and in 1843, he lost his home and everything he possessed in the
world to a fire which destroyed most of Fall River, Massachusetts.
The Davis family moved to Providence, Rhode Island using funds provided for the victims of the fire by
charitable citizens of Providence and Boston. After obtaining the barest necessities, Perry Davis found himself
possessed of three cents and the recipe for his marvelous medicine, and $4500 in debt. In his desperate
circumstances, he made one more heroic effort. He recalled that in a town ten miles away there lived a man
who owed him four dollars and fifty cents, and made the jouney to collect the debt, though he had to persuade
the tollgate keepers on his route to trust him to pay on the return trip. With these few dollars in hand, he
procured bottles, and labels, and made up a batch of his medicinal preparation. Carrying his bottles in a wicker
basket, he began to sell his PAIN KILLER outside the grounds of the Rhode Island State Fair in Pawtuxet.
From this humble beginning, he was on the road to success at last. Having started out selling his medicine at
the state fairs of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and door-to-door in Providence, by 1844 he was able to
purchase a building where he began large scale production.
Wars and epidemics fueled PAIN KILLER's sales, and before long it was marketed around the world. Directions
for its use were ultimately printed in thirty languages. The remarkable compound was advertised as a
treatment for "cholera and summer complaint,24 fever and ague, rheumatism and neuralgia, cut and bruises,"
and as a liniment. It was effective on men and horses, and could be applied both internally and externally. In
India, natives were reportedly found worshipping empty PAIN KILLER bottles. The British government
purchased it by the barrel for the use of its troops. During the American Civil War, the Federal Government
went so far as to take over the Davis factory in order to increase production.
From its "stimulating" character, and topical effectiveness, it seems likely that Davis's remedy contained an
ample dose of the extract of the coca leaf. Its effectiveness at curing dysentery and "soothing" properties
were probably derived from laudanum. Perry Davis's PAIN KILLER was among many products which vanished
from the marketplace after the Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906 as the result of decades of agitation
by the Temperance and Anti-Drug Movements. By this time, however, the Davis family was no longer active in
23
Frank Easton Hopkins, The De Vinne & Marion Presses: a chapter from the autobiography of Frank E. Hopkins, The Columbiad Club,
Meriden, Connecticut, 1936, p. 6.
24
An old New Endland term for dysentery, these days applied as an epithet to urban vacationers and tourists by year-round residents of
rural Maine.
7
managing the business, which had in any event diversified its product line, and the family fortune was long
since more than comfortably established.
Edmund Walstein Davis was born December 27, 1853 at Providence, Rhode Island. He attended the University
Grammar School in Providence, and prepared for college at Zurich, Heidelberg, and Cambridge
(Massachusetts), entering Harvard College with the Class of 1876. He left Harvard at the end of his
Sophomore year25 to enter the family business. According to the Providence Daily Journal,26 his business
career did not last long. He soon moved to Washington, where he married Maria Hunter Steuart, a member of
a prominent Virginia family. When he returned to Rhode Island, he became a member of the young and fast
"high roller" set associated with the Narragansett Pier, which often scandalised members of more staid
Newport society. He built both a mansion in Providence on Westminster Street, surpassing even his
grandfather's — a major Providence landmark — in grandeur, and a villa on the Point Judith Road south of the
Pier settlement. His hospitality was famous, and he spent money "on a princely scale."27
In Providence, he became acquainted with R. G. Dun, a prominent businessman and founder of Dun's
Commercial Agency, who introduced him to Canadian salmon fishing. Davis traveled widely in pursuit of
shooting and fishing. In his later book Woodcck Shooting (1908), he mentions shooting sharp-tailed grouse in
Northern Montana, quail on the Kansas prairie, wildfowl in Southern California, and jack-snipe at Louisiana's
Bayou-Teche.28 He was particularly devoted to the classic New England sport of gunning woodcock, and was
among the first American sportsmen to pursue the woodcock to their breeding grounds in maritime Canada.
George Bird Evans notes that Davis was the first man to hunt woodcock in New Brunswick with an English
setter. By the early years of this century, the October pilgrimage to the coverts of New Brunswick after 'cock
had become for the shooting aristocracy of New England an annual tradition, resembling the Englishman's
departure for the Scottish grouse moors for "the Glorious Twelfth."
In Woodcock Shooting, Edmund Davis grappled, as sportsmen often do, with the question of the cruelty of
sport. "Shooting, in my opinion, is the least cruel and the quickest way of ending a life,"29 he wrote. It seems
bitterly ironic that Davis was himself killed in a shooting accident at his camp on the Grand Cascapedia, June
20, 1908, not long after that book's publication. The event was reported two days later in the Providence
paper. The account is short and confusing: "Word was received today that Edward (sic) W. Davis… died of a
gunshot wound, accidentally received, while hunting in the Canadian woods… Little is known of the details of
the tragedy, save that the weapon which Davis was handling was prematurely exploded and that death soon
followed."30 The reader wonders what he would be hunting in June in the Canadian woods, and finds it difficult
to visualise the accident in which the victim is injured because of the premature explosion of the gun he is
holding. I asked some of the guides on the Grand Cascapedia if any of them remembered anything about
Edmund Davis's death. To my surprise, they had a definite account of the event supposedly handed down from
relatives who were present eighty-five years ago. Oral tradition on the river depicts Davis's death as a
premeditated crime. The story has it that after a late night argument the previous evening, heard throughout
the camp, Davis went crow shooting with another person, who returned alone explaining that his gun had
25
26
Americans attend college for four years; the second of which is called Sophomore Year.
"E.W. Davis Killed in Canadian Woods," Monday, June 22, 1908, p. 1.
27
J. Earl Clauson, These Plantations, Roger Williams Press, Providence, 1937, p. 49.
28
Woodcock Shooting, 1908, p. 11.
29
Woodcock Shooting, 1908, p.83.
30
Providence Daily Journal, "E.W. Davis Killed in Canadian Woods," Monday, June 22, 1908, p. 1.
8
accidentally fired while Davis was walking in front of him. Davis was found shot at point blank range in the back
of the head. The legend identifies the murderer, and assigns a motive.
I found the story interesting and plausible enough in detail. Just those kinds of Agatha Christie-ish thoughts
had passed through my mind, when I read the Providence newspaper's uninformative account of the accident.
On the other hand, there are few things in this world as unreliable as gossip about the rich and famous, except
perhaps for local legends found in rural communities. At this late date, of course, we can never hope to know
the truth, but it does not really matter, the guilty party, if there was a guilty party, is certainly by now beyond
the reach of human justice, and Davis's untimely death remains a tragedy regardless of the circumstances.
J.David Zincavage
9
A Bibliographic Note
The two original printings of Salmon Fishing on the Grand Cascapedia are easy to distinguish since the text of
the first edition runs one hundred forty-three pages, and that of the second one hundred fifty-two pages. The
first is printed on paper water-marked: P. M. FABRIANO. When the second printing was ordered, evidently a
sufficient supply of the original paper was not available, so equally luxurious Imperial Japanese paper was
substituted. The change in paper resulted in each edition differing slightly in size. The first edition was 9 and
5/8" by 6 and 3/4". The second edition was slightly taller, but narrower: 10" by 6 and 1/2".
Both printings were bound in tan paper-covered boards with tiny vellum-tipped corners matching a vellum spine
bearing a label printed on paper.31 This binding was characteristic of De Vinne 's workshop, and was also used
for Davis's later Woodcock Shooting (1908).
The limitation notice, and its location, are different in each edition . In the earlier printing, it is placed on the
upper portion of the back of the title page, above the copyright. Enclosed in a small rectangle, this limitation
notice appears in both upper and lower case:
Of this edition there have been
printed one hundred copies, of
which this is No.
The number is hand-written in ink. My own copy is number 19 of the first edition, which previously belonged to
former Governor Walter Rutherford Peterson of New Hampshire, and before him to William Butts Mershon of
Saginaw, Michigan, noted Cascapedia angler, and author of The Passenger Pigeon (1907) and Recollections of
My Fifty Years Hunting and Fishing (1923).
In the second edition, the limitation notice appears on a separate page between the front fly-leaf and the halftitle. It is printed, uppercase only, in an inverted triangle:
THIS COPY OF "SALMON FISHING ON THE
GRAND CASCAPEDIA" IS ONE OF AN
EDITION OF ONE HUNDRED COPIES
PRINTED ON IMPERIAL JAPAN
PAPER , DURING MAY
NINETEEN HUNDRED
AND FOUR, AND
IS NO.
Mr. Davis had a very small number of copies bound up more elaborately in full crushed dark green levant
morocco, with gold ornaments at the corners, silk doublures and end papers, gilt top, and green levant
morocco slip-case by the firm of W. Roach. I have seen a copy so bound numbered No. 1, with a presentation
inscription to Mrs. Davis, and it was this copy which sold at auction for $3190 in April of 1990.
The 1909 Catalogue of the Collection of the late John Gerard Heckscher for the Merwin-Clayton Auction Sale
lists as lot 589, a copy in this binding numbered No. 2. The Heckscher catalogue has been a perennial source
of confusion to dealers and collectors because it provides a contradictory description of that lot, listing 143
pages (characteristic of the first edition), and Imperial Japanese paper (characteristic of the second). It
seems more likely to me that a careless auction cataloguer would err on the page count (cribbing it from
31
DeVinne thoughtfully included an extra label in the back of the book to be used as a replacement when the original eventually began to
chip.
10
another listing, rather than actually looking at the book), instead of the type of paper, so I would suppose
these special bindings were produced from copies of the second edition.
Mr. Davis took advantage of the second printing to add new material. The original type from the first printing
had been kept intact, and since most of the additions fell at the very end of chapters, new type-setting was
kept to a minimum. The added material is principally made up of personal anecdotes and experiences
illustrating the author's points, and often nicely rounds out the earlier text. These additions caused the
second printing to have nine more pages than the first.
As it is not possible to mark out the new material in the body of the text for this reprint, the following chart
will assist the reader in identifying the additions.
Textual additions in Davis's second printing of May, 1904
Chapter
Number
3
Title
The Rod
Original
Page
Number
New Page
Number(s)
--
12
[an entirely
new page]
32
New Text
Inserted After:
New Text
Inserted
Before:
Number of
New
Paragraphs32
… nothing
pleases this lady
but the split
bamboo.
The new text
ends the
chapter.
2
4
The Line
15
16
… let them
alone, and they
will.
The new text
ends the
chapter.
1
9
The Casting
40
41
… but the above
appeals to me
more than any
other.
The new text
ends the
chapter.
(1)
10
The Fishing
45
46
… but drawing
the fly is the
most interesting
to me, and the
most successful
as well.
In clear water
it is a good
plan to drift
past a pool…
1
11
Hooking the
Salmon
55
57, 58, 59
"I never fish for
trout any more."
The new text
ends the
chapter.
2
12
Changing Flies
60
64, 65, 66
… I do not
believe it is worth
while changing,
except for the
amusement it
affords.
The new text
ends the
chapter.
3
Numbers in parentheses signify partial new paragraphs.
11
13
The Weather
64
70
They will often do
this when there is
a sudden change
from a warm to a
cold wind.
The new text
ends the
chapter.
15
The Salmon
74
80, 81
As most of my
large salmon have
given me some
thrilling
experiences, I
prefer the killing
of large fish.
During the
number of
years I have
been on the
river I have
seen only four
grilse.
16
The Runs and
Varieties
77
85
Whether it
denotes a
different variety
or malformation, I
am unable to say.
The new text
ends the
chapter.
1
18
Do Salmon
Hear?
85
93, 94
… and then, with
a fly well thrown,
if you fail the
fault lies not with
the angler.
The new text
ends the
chapter.
1
19
The Kelts
87
96
The kelts usually
say "au revoir" for
the season from
June fifteenth to
the twentieth, to
the pleasure of
all.
The new text
ends the
chapter.
1
1
1 – (2)
12
Bibliography
1. Edmund Walstein Davis
Edmund W. Davis, Salmon Fishing on the Grand Cascapedia, privately printed by the De Vinne Press, 100
copies, x, 143 pages, New York, 1904; privately reprinted by the De Vinne Press, 100 copies with additional
material, [2], x,152 pages, New York, May, 1904.
Edmund W. Davis, Woodcock Shooting, privately printed by the De Vinne Press, xii, 124 pages, New York, 1908;
reprinted with introduction by George Bird Evans by the Premier Press, xxviii, 124 pages, Camden, South
Carolina, 3000 copies, 1987. [The George Bird Evans introduction was reprinted in George Bird Evans
Introduces men who have enriched our gunning through their bird dogs and paintings and experiences;
published by the author, 1150 copies, Old Hemlock, West Virginia, 1990.]
2. Theodore Low De Vinne and the De Vinne Press
The Grolier Club, Catalogue of the De Vinne Press exhibited at the Grolier Club on the occasion of the one
hundredth anniversary of the birth of Theodore Low De Vinne, December 25, 1828, The Grolier Club, New York,
1929.
Frank Easton Hopkins, The De Vinne & Marion Presses: a chapter from the autobiography of Frank E. Hopkins,
The Columbiad Club, Meriden, Connecticut, 1936.
Carl Purington Rollins, Theodore Low De Vinne by Carl Purington Rollins; together with a list of De Vinne's
writings, his reflections on the Century typeface and an interview with Mr. De Vinne at seventy-five, Typophiles,
New York, 1968.
3. The Grand Cascapedia River — Historical Accounts
Richard Lewes Dashwood, XV Regiment, Chiploquorgan; or Life by the Camp Fire in Dominion of Canada and
Newfoundland, Robert T. White, Dublin, 1871; another edition, Simpkin, Marshall & Co., London, 1872, another
edition, Fredericton, New Brunswick, 1979. [Dashwood, with two brother officers, visited the Grand Cascapedia
for more than a week in early July of 1862, ascending the river as far as the Forks. His party only killed two
salmon, and saw very few in the river. As a result, Dashwood concluded — somewhat prematurely — that the
Cascapedia's salmon fishing was "a myth."]
George Dawson, Pleasures of Angling with Rod and Reel for Trout and Salmon, Sheldon & Company, New York,
1876. [Chapters 7 through 25 recount two trips to the Grand Cascapedia in the summers of 1874 and 1875 in
the company of future President Chester Arthur, then Collector of the Port of New York.]
The Marquess of Lansdowne, K.G. [Sir Henry Charles Keith Petty FitzMaurice], "A Canadian River" in
Blackwood's Magazine, Volume 208, Number, 1261, November, 1920, pp. 610-627. [The former Governor-General
remembers the fishing during the mid-1880s.]
William B. Mershon, Recollections of My Fifty Years Hunting and Fishing, The Stratford Company, Boston,
1923. [One chapter on the author's salmon fishing career on the Cascapedia, starting in 1886.]
13
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, When All the Woods are Green — A Novel, The Century Co., New York, 1894. [Edmund W.
Davis warmly recommended this novel set on the Grand Cascapedia by a friend and fellow club-member. The
contemporary reader will find it tough going. Dr. Mitchell's characters are constantly using obscure nicknames,
variations of nicknames, and even abbreviations of nicknames for each other. Mr. Archibald Lyndsay ["Pardy,"
or "Marcus Aurelius," or "M.A."] arrives for his summer fishing on the Grand Cascapedia, accompanied by an
extensive family, including his wife, Margaret, his invalid unmarried sister, Miss Anne Lyndsay, his daughter,
Rose, his twin sons, Jack and Dick, and his youngest child, Ned. The family faces danger from the schemes of
the poor white Susan Colkett, who forces her simple-minded husband Joe into attempting the robbery and
murder of these rich visiting Americans, despite — or perhaps, because of — Mrs. Lyndsay's conspicuous
charity. The Gaspésienne Lady MacBeth is, of course, foiled. Rose finds romance with Mr. Carrington, a very
suitable young angler who is fishing the river with another party. Jack learns a lesson when he foolishly places
his siblings in danger by provoking a mother bear. Miss Anne Lyndsay regains a desire to struggle against her
chronic and fatal illness.]
[Frank Gray Griswold titles are typically rather expensive. Many of the Plimpton Press editions were bound in a
false leather which aged badly, and most copies are in shabby condition today. Griswold constantly reissued
and recycled the same material, and he represents a real morass for the collector, offering endless
opportunities inadvertently to acquire duplicated material at high prices in poor condition. The only really
necessary Griswold title is: ]
Frank Gray Griswold, A Salmon River, Dutton's, New York, 1928. [Enlarged edition of Observations on a
Salmon River, 1921 and 1922. Frank Gray Griswold became a member of the Cascapedia Club in 1921.]
[Other Griswold titles of modest interest include:]
Frank Gray Griswold, Sport on Land and Water — Recollections of Frank Gray Griswold, Volume VI, privately
printed by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts,1923. [Chapter 5 on Salmon Fishing, pp. 90-91 on
the Grand Cascapedia.]
Frank Gray Griswold, Fish Facts and Fancies, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York and London, 1926. [Several
full chapters, and significant portions of others, on the Grand Cascapedia. One volume edition. Previously
issued, 1923 and 1925, in two volumes, privately printed by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts.]
Frank Gray Griswold, Salmon Score of F. Gray Griswold for Ten Seasons 1920–1929, privately printed, Grand
Cascapedia River, Canada, 1929.
Frank Gray Griswold, Sport on Land and Water — Recollections of Frank Gray Griswold,
Volume VII, privately printed by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts, 1931. [Chapters 5 and 6 contain
significant material on the Grand Cascapedia; chapter 7 reprints Griswold's Ten Year Salmon Score.]
Frank Gray Griswold, After Thoughts — Recollections of Frank Gray Griswold, Harper & Brothers, New York
and London, 1936. [A few pages, 82–85, on the author's Cascapedia career. Another edition privately printed
by the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachsetts was also published in 1936.]]
4. The Grand Cascapedia River — Contemporary Information
J.A."Buddy" Campbell, article in The Atlantic Salmon Journal, Volume 32, No. 2, Summer, 1983 [The title is not
supplied because I have been unable to locate a copy. Tells the story of the formation of la Société de Gestion
du Saumon de la Rivière Grand Cascapedia which preserved the river and its fishing from the threat of
"declubbage."]
14
Gary Anderson, Atlantic Salmon & the Fly Fisherman, Salar Publishing, Montreal, 1985, [Anderson provides a
good contemporary tour d'horizon of North American salmon rivers, in chapter 12, "The Aristocratic Rivers of
Gaspésie," he discusses the Cascapedia.]
George Gruenefeld, Gruenefeld's Atlantic Salmon River Log — Gaspé Region, printed by the author, Montreal,
Quebec, 1988; second edition with additional material, 1990, [Best information on booking publicly available
fishing for all Gaspé rivers, including the Grand Cascapedia.]
15
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Chip Gatter for locating a copy of These Plantations; to Judith Bowman for lending her second
edition Salmon Fishing on the Grand Cascapedia; to Michael Raines of the Harvard University Archives for
tracking down Edmund W. Davis's class affiliation; to Carl Nordblom, Antiques Auctioneer, of Cambridge,
Massachusetts for supplying the photograph of the Pain Killer advertising sign; and to Warren Gilker, and
other informants, for information on the history of the river and its Club.