342 



RECREATION 



weight of one of these old settlers, I will say 

 that I have seen several this season that 

 weighed three and four pounds each. Occa- 

 sionally a five -pounder is landed, but since 

 such fish have lived long enough to escape 

 the American lure, they have learned the 

 danger that is attendant upon striking it, 

 hence delicate tackle must necessarily be 

 used to catch them, but this will with diffi- 

 culty stand the strain after the large fish is 

 hooked. 



There is one caution that every one who 

 fishes in these waters should bear in mind, 

 and that is unless he uses an extra heavy 

 bamboo pole, a recent importation from 

 China in its native size and shape, these fish 

 won't come immediately to the surface and 

 flop out on the bank at his feet at one 

 effort. 



The split bamboo is the proper tool 

 only in the hands of the proper person- 

 that's all. 



WOODCRAFT 



BY WELD ALLEN ROLLINS 



NE who goes moose] 

 shooting in the wilder-] 

 ness plays two games: 

 one a game with the 

 moose for his adver- 

 sary, the other a game 

 of solitaire in the for- 

 est, the object ■ i L being 

 to get out and ^back 

 to camp again.* The 

 latter is quite as inter- 

 esting as the former. 



The game of soli- 

 taire, if one is satisfied 

 with playing it crudely, is not difficult. If, 

 for instance, your camp is on a river which 

 flows east and west, and you go into the 

 woods on the south side, it does not require 

 much learning in woodcraft to hit the river 

 again by going north. You can tell which 

 way is north from the sun or from your 

 compass. Once on the river you can get 

 back to camp again. A man in the woods 

 searching for game walks only about two 

 miles an hour, so that in half a day he can- 

 not well get to such a remote distance that, 

 with the aid of a compass, he cannot in 

 reason strike the river again, and strike it 

 somewhere near his camp. But the niceties 

 of the game of solitaire are infinite. Let me 

 give two or three examples. 



In the fall of 1904, while on a shooting 

 trip in Northern Ontario, I went out one 

 morning before dawn with my guide on 

 what they called there a "farm." It was a 

 dry, grassy place which had been cleared 



I of trees by some forest fires of years before. 

 $The moose came out in places like this by 

 'night. We walked around on it for some 

 time, and^then lay down on a ridge and 

 waited. By and by we heard the call of a 

 bull moose on the wooded hillside. The 

 guide put his birch-bark horn to his mouth 

 and answered the call. He made the sound 

 with his lips as if he were blowing a cornet. 

 The imitation was not perfect, but it served 

 its purpose, for the moose answered and 

 came nearer. The guide called again and 

 again, and as often as he called the moose 

 answered and came nearer. Soon he was so 

 close that we could hear the guttural notes 

 of his voice, but he was working to leeward. 

 That w r ould never do; we must work to 

 leeward, too, and down the wind we ran. 

 Now and again the guide would stop and 

 send his call into the morning air, and then 

 the answer would come back, but always to 

 leeward of us, and now more remote. Soon 

 we could get no answer. By this time it was 

 sunrise and the moose was far away in the 

 silent forest of the great Canadian wilder- 

 ness. So we started toward camp. I could 

 not have told within 180 degrees the direc- 

 tion we ought to take. If I had noted any 

 stars on coming on the " farm, "they had now 

 set, and as I had relied entirely on the guide, 

 and had not referred once to my compass, 

 and had never seen the country before, I was 

 hopelessly confused. The guide seemed not 

 to be, and I followed him. Now notice 

 what happened. We walked perhaps half 

 an hour, and by and by found ourselves at 



