524 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOO K . 



a forked stick, and then and there we fed. We then cleared away the 

 table and washed the dishes, by throwing the birch-bark into the fire and 

 leaving the skillet to the dog. 



We then held a council of war, and concluded to cross-examine a bottle 

 of gin. Gin has its uses in the woods. But we were without water, and 

 had nothing but those leathern drinkiug-cups, holding about a gill. Here 

 was a difficulty at once, for to be under the necessity of going down to the 

 stream every time you wanted a drink, was not to be thought of; beside, 

 we might be thirsty in the night. But our guide solved the problem. He 

 took that immortal axe and went off into the woods, and came back in a 

 minute with some large sheets of birch-bark birch-bark is also a wonder- 

 ful invention ; so he sat down to make a birch-bark bucket. I don't know 



how it's done ; N does, and he showed me two or three times ; but for 



the life of me, I couldn't see through it. About these things I'm thick 

 about the head. It is somehow thus : You take a large square sheet of 

 birch-bark and some wooden pins, you turn up one end of the bark and 

 stick in a pin, you then turn up the side and fasten it to the end ; you 

 double the ends together and fasten them with these pins ; turn it up all 

 around, so the water won't run out, fasten it, and there's your bucket ; it 

 is a very simple contrivance, and eminently practical. He got one com- 

 pleted, and found a knot-hole in the bottom, but finally made one that 

 held about three quarts ; so we filled it, placed it beside the tent, and 

 began those experiments with the gin, to which brief allusion has been 

 made. 



After eating and drinking we lit our pipes. You take pipes and tobacco 

 in this country altogether ; segars are perfectly useless. I carried the 

 tobacco loose in one of my pockets, which was a reservoir for the whole 

 party. One has no idea of the luxury of a pipe in the woods until it has 

 been tried ; it is vastly superior to any other known method of combusting 

 the weed. You might smoke forty segars and not obtain the same amount 

 of satisfaction that a solitary pipe affords. Therefore we sat in the door 

 of the tent, and as the smoke curled gracefully away we had sundry ope- 

 ratic performances^ in which I acted the part of Prima, and N of base, 



Donna ; and the woods rang with the entrancing melody of our voices ; 

 while afar off we heard the hoot of the owl, and once in awhile the scream 

 of a wild-cat ; but we were not at all alarmed. 



I should not omit to relate one of my troubles, and that was in the way 

 of boots. A kind friend at Hanover lent me a fine pair of fishing-boots, 

 that came almost up to my ears, and had great big legs to them. I first 



