1026 
FOREST AND STREAM 
N 
Ohio River salmon, epooklcd perch, red perch, goggle-eyed bream, 
and more than are wanted of sturgeon, shovel-nosed and plain 
drum, buffalo, suckers, and all sorts of cat fish. No guides 
needed, nor to be had. Plenty of company. If required. Boats 
on borrower's own terms. Hold—RedmanHouse,Mrs. J. 0.Bed- 
man, proprietor; terms, $8 per weok; none better any where. 
Address Chns, E. Thorne, as above. 
A LODGE IN THE WOODS. 
Hackensack, N, J., Jan,, 1880. 
—Editor Forest and Stream .—Together with three boon 
companions and an occasional visitor, I have spent from 
fifteen to twenty days each season for the last ten years 
trout fishing in the wilds of Sullivan County, N, Y., 
using a tent for shelter. Cold storms, frosty nights and 
the cost of transportation of tents have rather destroyed 
the romance of life under canvas, and forced the conclu¬ 
sion that a shanty would be preferable. Have watched 
number after number of the Forest and Stream with the 
hope of finding some suggestion that would enable me 
to fix upon some cheap plan of construction and arrange¬ 
ment that will afford comfortable accommodations for 
6 ix—the kitchen, of course, not to be forgotten, Your 
experience will certainly affoid a suggestion. Be kind 
enough to give the desired information through the col¬ 
umns of Forest and Stream. a. D. C. 
The wisest plan to adopt in such a case as this would 
be to secure the services of an experienced woodsman, 
either trapper or lumberman, who has built his own 
cabins. If such a man cannot he found, however, our 
friends may, with a sharp axe and a very limited amount 
of ingenuity, build their own lodge. A simple log cabin 
wifi be all required, and the materials are almost all to be 
found on the ground. 
Seleot a level site for a building, 10x13, and about Bix 
feet high, Cut logs eight or ten inohes in diameter, half 
of them twelve feet in length, the other half ten feet; 
eighteen or twenty of each wifi be sufficient. Cut notches 
at each end, so that when built up, the ends lopping over 
each other and secured by the grooves, the edges of the 
logs will touch as nearly as possible, 
Windows and doors may be provided by sawing out 
spaces for them, securely nailing up heavy slabs for the 
jam. These should Berve also to support the sawn logs, 
and must therefore be strong. When the four walls are 
of the desired height the roof should be formed thus: 
Across the top of the frame lay two of the twelve-foot 
logs, each two feet towards the centre from the outside. 
Fit into notches the same as before, and across these iu 
turn lay two of the eight-foot logs, parallel with and 
above the ten-foot logs of the end, Then two more of the 
twelve-foot logs, each one foot nearer the centre, and 
upon these another set of eight-foot logs. Upon these in 
turn two more of the twelve-foot logs, one foot nearer 
the centre, and upon them the cross-pieces, six feet long. 
Then place a log in the centre for the ridge pole, and 
having marked the slant of the roof, proceed to hew off 
the ends of the cross-pieces with the required angle. The 
roof may be constructed of bark, or it may be, what is 
better, a trough roof. For this split and hollow out bars 
or similar logs ; lay these, two with trough up and a third 
with trough down, overlapping them; secure with nails 
at ridge poleandeaves log, and runa large trough over the 
ends at the ridge pole, A small oamp-atove with projecting 
pipe will be found more convenient than a fireplace ; but 
if the latter be desired it may be constructed of logs, well 
covered with clay. 
All the crevices between the logs of the walls and in the 
roof should be filled up with moss, dried grass and clay. 
The floor may be made of split logs, and for beds build 
bunks in tiers. 
We should be glad to have some of our veteran woods¬ 
men describe the cabins constructed by themselves. Ex¬ 
perience suggests many little acquisitions and conve¬ 
niences which the novice gladly avails himself of. 
The Canadian cabana is thus described by the Earl of 
Dunraven:— 
Having selected a level spot, make four low walls of 
two or three small pine logs laid one on the other, and on 
these raise the frame-work of the camp. This consists of 
light thin poles stuck into the upper surface of the logs, 
and the upper ends leaning against and supporting each 
other. The next operation is to strip large sheets of hark 
off the birch trees, and thatch these poles to within a foot 
or two of the top, leaving a sufficient aperture for 
the smoke to escape. Other poles are then laid upon the 
sheets of birch bark to keep them in their places. A 
small doorway is left in one side, and a door is constructed 
out of slabs of wood or out of the skin of some animal. 
You next level off the ground inside and strew it thickly 
with the small tops of Canada balsam fir for a breadth of 
about four feet; then take pliant ash saplings and peg 
them down along the edge of the pine tops to keep the 
carpet in its place, leaving a bare 6pace in the centre of 
the hut, where you make the fire. 
Lake St, Catherine, Vt .—New York, Jan, 23d.— I 
have taken your paper for the past eighteen months, and 
am surprised that very little is Baid of Vermont as regards 
fishing. Six miles from Poultney, Vt., is a body of water 
called Lake St. Catherine, or Austin Pond. If any of your 
readers want good perch, bass, or pickerel fishing, let them 
go there in season and they will come away well satisfied. 
Trout fishing very good, but fish small. On the south end 
of the lake is situated the Lake St. Catherine House, kept 
by Mr. Oliver Reynolds, and it is the only place I ever put 
up at that I did not come away from broke. Mr. Reynolds 
does not charge for his boats, and a guide is always on 
hand to furnish bait and row you to the grounds for 
whatever you may give. Hotel is beautifully situated 
in the Green Mountains, and is first class, H. C. W, 
A YANKEE FISH-CHARM. 
Camden, N. J., Dec. 81s£. 
If, as I hope, the com petition is to be confined to per¬ 
pendicular facts, count me in. About forty years ago I had 
a grandfather living in a little valley village of the Green 
Mountains. At the time to which I refer he was about 
seventy-six years of age—a vigorous, wiry, energetic old 
man. Less than a year before he had married his third 
wife, a buxom old maid of forty. The old gentleman was 
the village shoemaker, and in his younger days had been 
quite a successful gunner and fisherman, and during his 
latter years frequently tried the pickerel in the large, 
shallow, natural pond some little distance down back of 
the house. It was during the holidays that a nomadic 
Yankee came along selling recipes. The old gentleman 
bought one for malting an improved shoemaker's wax, 
and one for a fish-charm, a thin paste, which, smeared 
upon the bait or even on a piece of rag, would persuade 
the fish to come out of their hiding-places and gobble 
said charm if within their reach. The joeddler mixed up 
a bottle of the charm and left it hanging in the shop. 
Just after the usual January thaw, when the ground was 
nearly bare of snow, and the ice on the pond entirely so, 
the old gentleman took a hatchet one afternoon and 
crossed over the pond to the tamarac swamp after some 
pitch, which entered into the composition of the im¬ 
proved “wax.” On his return he came across an arm of 
the pond, caused by the entrance of a small spring 
stream. The ice was clear, as well as the shallow water 
underneath, and the old gentleman was astonished to see 
that this little bay was literally alive with good-sized 
pickerel. Although it was nearly dark he determined to 
lest his fish-charm, for the sky showed the near approach 
of a storm, and there was no telling when another such 
an opportunity would occur. Quickly cutting a hole 
through the ice he hastened to the shop and got his hook 
and line, and ruffling a small piece of cotton cloth upon 
the hook, dipped it into the bottle of charm, and hastened 
with it dripping towards the pond. Passing through the 
garden by the way, and breaking four or five feet off of 
a bean-pole, he fastened the line to it, and was soon at 
the hole in the ice. As he approached the hole he could 
seethe pickerel under the ice, following him like a flock 
of chickens after their breakfast. Quickly swinging the 
line over the hole he had lowered it to witliin perhaps 
two feet of the water, when a pickerel deliberately came 
up through the hole with mouth wide open, and was 
about seizing the bait when, quick as a flash, the old 
gentleman gave him a crack with the toe of his boot and 
sent him sliding away on the surface of the ice. 
He liad barely replaced his foot under himself when 
another pickerel came out in the same way. and the old 
gentleman gave him a kick with the other foot and sent 
him also sliding away on the ice. The pickerel kept com¬ 
ing up and he kept cracking them first with one foot and 
then "the other, like a raw recruit “ marking time.” 
About this time an episode was brewing up at the house, 
which was of more interest to the old gentleman than 
all the pickerel in the pond. A blast from the old tin 
horn struck his ear and he knew what it meant, for it 
was a preconcerted signal, and he ran instantly for the 
house; but as he did so a pickerel seized the bait and was 
hooked, and the old gentleman hung on to the pole and 
dragged him, hook and fish, over the icy ground, feeling 
it catch the dry weeds as he rushed ahead without look¬ 
ing back. As he scaled the garden fence the line dragged 
so heavily that he dropped the pole on the garden side 
and left line and fish on the other side. Stopping but a 
moment in the house he summoned the nearest old lady, 
then the Doctor, and then two more old ladies who 
reached the house in time to escape a heavy snow and 
sleet storm, which set in and lasted till midnight, leaving 
a crust on the snow that would bear up a horse. Before 
midnight, however, the writer had an aunt in that nouse 
twelve yearn younger than himself. The old gentleman 
was as tickled as Arlemus Ward was over his twins, and 
made things lively in that house till near morning, when 
the women persuaded him to take some rest. He was up, 
however, early in the morning, but it was while at a late 
breakfast that he bethought himself of his pickerel. 
After breakfast he took his hatchet and went down to 
the garden fence. Tracing down along the line he cut 
away the crust and soon found the pickerel, frozen stiff, 
of course. Cutting away the ice, about two-thirds the 
length of the fish, he came to the head of another pick¬ 
erel, the tail end of the first one being telescoped into the 
Becond one. He continued to cut away the ice and soon 
came to another, into which the second one was tele¬ 
scoped. lie kept on finding the fourth and fifth tele¬ 
scoped in a like manner. By th i s time the thing was 
getting monotonous, so he chopped off the fifth fish, 
stuck a stake by it, and covered the hole with snow to 
keep the cats away. The families of the three old ladies, 
as well as that of the Doctor, had fresh fish for dinner 
that day, and not only that day, but at least once a week 
till into March. The old gentleman kept mum as to his 
source of supply, but went quietly every day or two, and 
cutting down through the crust would follow b ick ou 
the line of telescoped, frozen pickerel and out off a sup¬ 
ply as if they were links of sausage. My grandfather 
was a remarkable man. He always remembered his 
friends. For over two months he kept a good many of 
them supplied with fresh fish. Finally in March 
there came a big thaw, and he had to dig up the rest 
of the line of pickerel and feed them to the hogs and 
hens. In tracing the line back to the hole in the ice, 
then frozen up, he cut out a pickerel minus his tail, 
which was gone close to the lower side of the ice, and 
thus “ perfect continuity" was broken. Upon reopening 
the hole, however, he perceived the dorsal fin attached to 
the tail end of a dead pickerel, which was in the mouth of 
another dead one, but the ice prevented his tracing the 
line further back. A few days after that Yankee recipe 
pedler called, and the old gentleman imparted to him 
confidentially his great success with the “ charm.” They 
went down to the pond and fished out twenty-nine feet 
more of the telescoped line of dead pickerel, which, to¬ 
gether with those already saved, made over nine hundred 
feet, aud there was an average lap of one-third in the 
telescoping process. The Yankee cleaned up the twenty- 
nine-feet skeleton, fastened it with white shoe thread 
wherever it had a tendency to part, varnished and coiled 
it in a lime hogshead, took it to New York and sold it to 
Barnum, who mounted it on the wall of the old Museum 
in the form of a circle, with the tail-end inserted iu the 
1 
head-end mouth, with this legend upon the wa,l^- _ , ~ 
circle; “Skeleton of hoop snake from Romeo, 
glass case in front prevented a close inspection, an? 1 th ^ 
end was not discovered till the Museum burned down. ^ 
Veritas. 
Beaver River Club. —The sixth reunion of the Beaver 
River Club took place at E. C. Barr’s, Springfield, Mass., 
on the evening of the 16th, according to programme. 
The early part of the evening was devoted to rifie. prac¬ 
tice, and some very good Bcores were made; after wliich 
we adjourned to dinner, which was served in fine style by 
mine host Bam, who, being an old hunter and fisherman, 
knows what the boys appreciate. A jolly time ensued, 
enlivened with songs, toasts, and some verses read by one 
of the members, recalling old camp scenes and sports in 
the wild woods. The following officers were elected for 
the ensuing year: A. L. Phillips, President, Adams, 
Mass.; L. H. Mayott, Vice-President, Springfield, Mass.; 
Frank Bolles, Jr., Secretary and Treasurer, Windsor, 
Conn. A rote was passed to hold the next reunion at 
Pittsfield, Mass., some time in October and have a day’s 
practice at the range. Frank Bolles, Jr. 
Florida —Otter Creek, Fla,, Jan, 16th.—The season 
for hunting and fishing has fairly opened here now, and 
the guests of the Gulf Hammock House are having fine 
sport. Three of the guests divided, two hunting and one 
fishing; Capt. Wingate going with the hunters, and the 
colored guide with" your humble servant. We started 
about 9 o’clock. The hunters arrived home about 2 
o'clock with two fine buckB aud a fine hag of quail. We 
arrived about one hour later with forty-five pounds of 
fish, an alligator ten feet eight inohes long, weighing two 
hundred and fifty-five pounds, aud a fine doe weighing a 
little over one. hundred pounds. Our boat was a small 
one, only thirteen feet outside measurement, intended to 
accommodate two nicely. We had already caught about 
forty-five pounds of fine fish when we concluded we 
■would take an alligator home with us ; we did not have 
to wait long, for we soon saw one on the bank that suited 
ns, We quietly stole, upon him and with three well di¬ 
rected blows at his head we succeeded in killing him, as 
we supposed : so we went to work to get him into our 
little boat, wlien he gave a lively switch with his tail and 
struck me just above the knee, where he left a beautiful 
black mark and lamed me. We finally got his nose well 
up under the how of the boat and hauled him all in ex¬ 
cept one fore foot, which we left hanging in the water. 
We were fairly under way when he concluded he wanted 
that foot inside, and in bringing it in he nearly capsized 
our boat and compelled us to ship some water. We fin¬ 
ally had to tie his tail fast to the flooring in the bottom 
of the boat, as he kept continually moving it around and 
endangering our lives. I also tied my gun fast in the 
bottom of the boat, so that in case we were upset I would 
rot lose it, not thinking that I would have any more use 
for it on our way homo ; but imagine my chagrin and 
surprise at seeing a fine deer standing in the Mekmd 
River about ten paces from us, and a half-mile below the 
house. Before I could get my gun untied he was gone. 
I did not tie it again, I assure you, and we had not gone 
over two hundred yards before we saw another one ; this 
time we were prepared, and brought her down hand¬ 
somely. After putting the deer into the boat we were 
iust one inch out of w ater, and a half mile to go, and I 
need not say that we did some very quiet rowing, but we 
arrived safe, very well pleased with our day’s sport. 
Dr. Kenney, of Philadelphia, and Mr. Moorehead, of 
New York, went out bass fishing the next day after din¬ 
ner—were gone about one and a half hours and brought 
in about twenty-six fish, the largest weighing four and 
one-half and the smallest one and one-quarter pounds. 
Yesterday my wife and I went out sheepshead fishing. 
We commenced fishing about 1 o'clock and quit at 3 
o’clock, when we found we had caught thirty-four, the 
largest weighing four and one-quarter and the small¬ 
est two pounds, the whole weighing seventy-three 
pounds. My wife caught the largest, and she had all she 
could do to land him in the boat. All are is enjoying 
themselves finely here, MoF. 
A Truthful Angler Rejoioeth.—A r . Y. Jan. 24£ft.— 
—Editor Forest and Stream :—The effect of the fcremen- 
lous stores vou have lately published on “ Fish Swallow¬ 
ing Fish,” is shown in the delicate consideration for the 
feelings and veracity of fishermen, evinced by our good 
friends Abbey & Imbrie in their current advertisement 
Df trout baskets. Have you noticed bow carefully they 
sav (on the third line of the advertisement). “Capacity 
in pounds (approximate?)” That’s right; approximate I 
Word of words for a fisherman ! By all means purchase 
m Abbey & Imbrie trout basket; then you cannot tell 
i, lie Get a nine pound (approximate), or a twelve, or 
shall we say twenty pound (approximate ?) How satis- 
Fvincy to the conscience to be able truthfully to say, ' 1 
•' ° , , t _ _ a XV Tmlw-in f umYi+TT nmiTiil t.vrvnt 
ST. MAURICE AND THE LAURENUDES. 
St. Elbe, St, Maurice County, P. Q., Jan. 18 th. 
In your wanderings up and down the country, easting your line 
pleasant places where the speckled beauties mostly do eongre- 
ite, I donbt much if you have been rewarded as yon would be 
r a ’f ew flays spent in this charming country in early spring. I 
ok noon It as the future resort of the American angler. Lakes 
numerable dot the Burface of the country from the Saguenay 
tho East to the Ottawa in the West, and with hut few excep¬ 
ts contain game flBb, principally Salmon fontinalis. A railroad 
now in operation between Three Rivers and the *• Piles," a point 
me thirty odd miles from the mouth of the River St. Maurice, 
-om the “Piles" a steamer will he run some sixty miles up ihe 
ver through as picturesque a country as can be found ou the 
mtinent. Tho fishing on the St. Maurice and its numerous trih- . 
aries is superb. Here is an opportunity for the adventure , us 
igler to penetrate into the heart of the Laurentides. 
Among the chief tributaries of the St. Maurice maybe m. j0n . 
med the Melcinak, Bostonuals, Croekc, the latter being the roi p , t8 
aversed by the Indians on their way to Lake St. John and . the 
urcea of the Saguenay, Frenehe, Pierreiehe and Weudigp, on 
,e east; the Shawinegan, Mattawin, Wessonneau, Hat, Vt :rmii- 
m, Fla'mand and the Munovan, on the west. The latter river 
