52-1 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



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

 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 drinking-cups, holding about a gill. Here 

 was a difBculty 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 biroh-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. 



Alter eating and drinking we lit our pipe.-*. 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 tlie 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-oat ; 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 



