72 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 25, 18S2 



A Veteran in the Banks.— Chillicothe, 0., Feb. 6, 1882.— 

 Although I am about seventy-five years of age, I have for 

 many years been one of a party who own a tent and other 

 camp equipage, and camp out' twice a year, hunting and 

 fielding. I enjoy the sport as well as ever, and am much in- 

 terested in your paper and i'eel as if I could scarcely do with- 

 out it. I am one who believes in the superiority of muzzle- 

 loading rifles for close shooting, up to 150 yards, — IT, M, P. 



A p.iri, bass been introduced into the Connecticut Legisla- 

 ture granting throe dollars for every fox killed in the State. 

 The Bridgeport Stttlidard Hunks' that as foxes breed pretty 

 Cast under favorable circumstances, it might not be an un- 

 profitable business to raise them at that rate, prodding it 

 were not necessary to furnish them with poultry as a steady 

 diet. A. fair pack of foxes to start with might be made its 

 profitable as a black walnut forest or an orange grove. 



Live Jack Babbits Wanted. — The New Jersey Game 

 Protection Society desires to purchase some live jack' rabbits 

 to put out in New Jersey. Any information' as to where 

 they may by procured will be thankfully received by Mil. 

 BvcnAUD T. Miller , Secretary New Jersey Game Protec- 

 tion Society. Camden, N, J. 



Madison, Conn., Jan. 26.— Game of all kinds has been 

 very scarce here, excepi squirrels, wdiich have been more 

 plenty than usual. Several large flocks of wild pigeons were 

 seen here to-day, but none killed. As there were none in 

 September, how can this flight be accounted for? — Medious. 



Rust rs Guns.— Springfield, Mass., Feb. 18.— Editor For- 

 es/, and stream: To prevent rust spots keep your gun in the 

 top story of your house and keep it clean. It is not powder 

 hut corrosion from dampness that spots the barrels. Try 

 this and don't scold the powder men.— E. H. Lathbop. 



Hanover, 111. — Feb. 14. — The ice has gone out of the 

 Mississippi at this point, and a few ducks and pigeons have 

 put in an appearance. — A. B. W. 



%ch and ^iver ^mhing. 



If 1 could live my life over again I would go a-flshing three days : 

 She week.— Peter Cooper. 



CAMP FLOTSAM. 



I. CONCEENINCt " SIGNS. " 



THE great Teacher w^as met on the threshold of his labors 

 with the demand for some ocular proof of the truth of 

 his revelation, and, in the sorrow of his heart he cried: "This 

 is an evil generation: they seek a, sign." 



It was not a subject for v:onder. " Centuries of culture had 

 failed to efface (lie belief which, it would seem, was earth- 

 born with the race, that every even!, great or small, had its 

 precursor; that to tile wise, it was possible to foresee the fate 

 of men or of kingdoms, to foreknow the issue of battle or the 

 success of a journey. Five centuries before, the solitary band 

 had written, upon the wall the mystic w r ords — the "sign'' that 

 i he seventy years' captivity was over. Two hundred years 

 earlier, 1 1n-' shadow in the dial had gone back ten degrees, as 

 a •'sign" that the sickness of a King of Israel was not unto 

 death, while earlier, the Chronicles recorded the defeat, of a 

 predecessor, who, in the face of adverse "signs," went to 

 Bamoth Gilead to battle. 



Withiu the century, a Bom an Emperor had fallen under 

 the dagger of an assassin, an event heralded, it was said, by 

 the yawning of graves, the shrieking of ghosts, when — 

 Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds, 

 In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war. 

 Which drizzled Wood upon the Capitol . 



It was a fitting retribution which, two years after, was an- 

 nounced by a ghostly "feign'' to the chief actor as in store for 

 him. on the morn, on theTgrassy slope of Philippi. 



History and tradition had confirmed the belief that an event 

 of such Importance, as the coming of anew kingdom, could 

 not happen unannounced, and, it was not strange that men 

 should inquire, what shall the "sign" of these tilings be'? 



Of the lesser "signs," omens and precursors, the literature, 

 Were it fully written, would be something enormous. It 

 Would relate" to births, marriages, sickness, deaths, seed time, 

 harvest, storms, winds, his toils and sports— to almost any- 

 thing which concerns man in his daily life. The philosophy 

 of to-day has swept these notions— so far as most of the world 

 is concerned — beyond the horizon of thought, has stored them 

 in the old attic—the wonder room— of the race, along with the 

 Cyclops, Centaurs and Chimeras of its youth, to be visited— 

 only on anniversaries, and then to lie smiled over in a sad sort 

 of way, as something which one has outgrown, something 

 which once was much to a young life, as one now gazes on 

 tin Fustic Bled of his youth," or on the yarn ball of his boy- 

 ao : i Etly covered bj ■< mothers hands— bauds which some 

 fhirh. years have bi en dust. 



" Signs" — those which brought dread of impending danger 

 and kept one in misery, those which forced the farmer, often 

 to his own discomfort' to "kill" or to plant when the "moon 

 was right" — "Signs" which have worked trouble and over- 

 worked people, these have been relegated to the domains of 

 superstition and. only the harmless "signs" whieli "no one 

 believes" — those which serve, to give the' housewife notice of 

 "Company" or the approach of a "stranger," or warn the 

 merry maiden that She "won't be married this year" — only 

 these, remain. 



Nay, gen I angler stop! don't speak, we are not about to 



.ii hi i -ales and "signs" — ours too. We said, 



' which noone believes," they ara not the angler's "signs." 



for we all believe them. We could no more angle without 



■i: ' ihan a New York State lawyer could practice 



without "TlirOOp'fi Code." They came tons redolent with 



the odor of English mornings,' from days of Tuclors and 



■: ,n i .,:iu-!.-' when the gentle craftsman cast his line with 



full faith in their efficacy, and dreamed the day through 



irk go ils, under leafy coverts, through bright meadows, 



haunted by the hum, of bees, while, perchance, his sterner 



, king the hnhl ile reputation," in the ranks of 



yeomen »l di tanl t'cid-ni or just beyond the hills in view, 



was 3trivbg "10 lift one hero into glory' on the field of 



Barnel 



Of the many "signs," rules and maxims pertaining to the 



ii, h I""- ' regarded is this— when to go 



adfired whether, on fcha 



able day when Simon Peter said "I go a-fishing," he thought 

 the "sign was right." The old rhyme— 



When the wind is in bhe north 

 The sk'lit'id ."'.' rgaesm th,, 

 When the wind is iu liheeasl 

 It's good for neither man nor heast, 

 reminds us of the following bit of camp experience: 



On a night in August last we had retired, after a very 

 indifferent day's sport, under a cheerless gray sky, with a 

 cold wind shifting toward the northeast. We slept, the sleep 

 of the just, yet roused sufficiently at times to be sensible of 

 a sharp patter of rain on the tent, and the soughing of a 

 dreary wind through the trees. It had been day for two 

 hours when a head 'was thrust between the tent flaps on the 

 lee side, from without, and we were awakened by: 



"Get up; get Up; here is the dirtiest, nastiest morning you 

 ever saw — just what yon like." 



"How is it out r" 



"Cold; wet; wind northeast." 



It was the voice of my old companion, "Mot S..' ! who, 

 if he has a single "sign" which beholds iuf dliblc, it is one 

 Which tells him— without other message — whenhe is sure, to 

 find a certain tent and lone fisherman at a certain lake. He 

 had arrived the previous night, and, I think, had hoped for 

 better weather, but he knew it, was "one of my days." 



Tins is not the time nor place to tell of the romance of 

 making coffee and cooking breakfast in a, nor'easter. It was 

 accomplished, however, and, to-night by the blazing anthra- 

 cite, its memory hovers around us like a "love lit dream." 



Well. "Mot"' was right— it was nasty. A steady drift of 

 wind and mist came from .the northeast; the fog hung low 

 on the mountain-sides above and around us, and pressed 

 down upon the lake in spite of the wind which was lashing- 

 its surface into eddies and foam wreaths. Heavy coats, under 

 our rubber clothing, wer... necessary for comfort, and with 

 these, our rods and — Er. H. . we cry you mercy- — with " wums" 

 for our only bait, we took to our boat. We anchored off a 

 ledge of rocks, in a depth of about six feet of water, and in 

 a channel through a bed of grass and weeds, fieri we 

 caught, the full force- of the storm. Not. an angler save our- 

 selves fretted fcht like wiln .es east that day 11- sign 

 was wrong, according to the rhyme doubly so, with wind 

 between north and "east, Tradition and conservatism were 

 supreme with them, as was luck with us. 



A half dozen handsoeir ye'lcw perch baying lazik, wch the 

 bait were drawn into the boat before a black bass struck. Soon 

 sport began; strike after strike followed, and for four hours 

 we ploughed those beds of weeds, to which every fish re- 

 treated wdien hooked. Of course, some were lost in spite of 

 logarithms, sines, tangents and "dead pulls," but when noon 

 found us back at camp it was with twenty-two bass, the 

 largest of which weighed three pounds and two ounces; three 

 weighed oyer two pounds each and the balance: weighed over 

 a pound each. 



For the purposes of this sketch the catch might have been 

 made to average two pounds and a half and running up to 

 five, pounds, and had "Mot" had the writing of it probably 

 it would have been thus, but we are discoiu'sing on "signs" 

 and for our present purpose "a fish is a fish." 



As ' 'Mot" said, it was just what we liked for a good bass 

 day at this particular lake! We once, tried another lake on a 

 like clay with a like result. Of course we are not partial to 

 northeast, winds with rain, but for a prime day give us a. 

 lowery, misty one, with drizzling or light driving" rain, with 

 the wind in any quarter, but could we choose. w T e would say 

 southwest. When, however, much rain falls, the second day 

 will usually end the fishing until it clears. 



Some weeks after the "above narrated experience, we 

 learned from an ancient fisherman how "to tell by the alma- 

 nac wdien the sign is right." We went bach with the sign to 

 our record of the day alluded to, and judge of our interest — 

 we wdll not say surprise— to find that "the sign was right" 

 for luck. This' almanac "sign" was new to us, and we were 

 gravely assured that it was "the oldest sign in the world." 

 As it. is determined by the zodiacal signs, it may be as old as 

 astrology or Thales. At all e waits, our ancient cannot be 

 prevailed on to go a-fishing when this "sign" is wrong. 



We suppose this "sign" is common to most of the readers 

 of Forest ,\nd Stream, particularly to the eel and bull- 

 head fishers, so we will not occupy space iu recording it., but 

 will repeat, the sermon of the ancient Dervish to the faithful, 

 "Let those who know 7 tell those who don't know." 



We purpose some time on a leisure day, when we can get 

 a proper collection of Ayer's. Wright's or the Farmer's alma- 

 nacs, to go back with the old -'sign" over (he lucky clays 

 marked during ten years and see how it stood. 



The kind offer by the editor of flic room in which to hold 



We. were, an observant youth, and on that ncver-to-be-for 

 gotten day learned two lessons, the truth of which years of 

 angling in salt water and in fresh, in stream and in lake, with 

 anglers merry and sad, funny and contemplative, have con- 

 firmed, namely: the boy who don't spit, on the bait may 

 catch the most bullheads; and that greater one, without, 

 which the angler's life would lose half its charm and boy- 

 hood be divested of one of its most cheerful incidents — that 

 the soft, tender, genial side of the nature, of him who angles 

 is surely brought out. The one, was learned that af 

 upon the mill pond; the other was on our return, quickly 

 sought out, by an irate parent with a strip of shingle, the re- 

 ward of "running away to go a-fishing." Wawavanda. 



Recent articles in your paper on "signs" have been read Irv- 

 ine with interest, and doubtless by many others, who, like. 

 Tale, fish sometimes themselves. As far as the moon is con- 

 cerned, it does not seem to me that that luminary exerts any 

 more pressure on the .surface of the earth at one lime than 

 another, whether at its full or in its other phases, so that I am 

 not inclined to adopt the theory advanced in your issue of 

 the 9tk inst. . "that earth worms come to the surface more 

 abundantly in the dark of the moon, because the moon exerts 

 less pressure on the earth at that time." For the moon is 

 always of the same size in bulk, however much or little we 

 may see of it. My idea is the worms dislike light,; for 

 wdien one digs for and uncovers them in the daytime, they 

 a.lways seek to hide themselves at once. But T have noticed 

 that fish are inclined to bite more freely "in Ihe dark of the 

 moon," and have long since inclined to believe that it, is be- 

 cause they feed nights "on the full of the moon." moonlight, 

 being sufficient light, to seek their food by. 



Neither do I believe, with many, that a. south wind is 

 favorable to a, good day's sport, any more than a wind from 

 any other quarter, and sometimes have thought my luck 

 poorer in a south or southwest wind than in a wind from 

 some other quarter. In fact my favorite lireeze for a good 

 day's sport on our trout brooks and other waters hereabouts 

 is a, northeaster, though not a northeast gale. I do not like a, 

 stiff lireeze for any kind of fishing except blue-fishing. A 

 gentle breeze, enough to make a ripple, is the best, and the 

 best sky for sport is a broken sky with moving clouds and 

 an occasional sprinkle of rain, such as we have on those 

 days when it looks likely to be rainy and half inclined to 

 clear off. But sometimes the fish will bile freely in bright 

 weather, and sometimes in very heavy weather, spmethjyjs 

 all signs fail, and many times the fisher goes home empty- 

 handed, and so my advice is to all who love to angle, to go 

 fishing whenever they can, take the bad luck with Ihe good, 

 and tiiey will find their scores larger at the end of a season 

 thau the takes of those who only fish when "the signs are 

 right." C. t. D. 



Brooeline, Mass.. Feb. 13, 1&H2. 



an "experience meeting. " 

 ers and unbelievers, but if he is on 

 meeting as entertaining doubts a 

 on Ihe Bait, or at least as holding 

 dinal principle, he may perhaps 

 brother's faith, but it mav ha 



eiatcd by both believ- 

 jrstood in advance of this 

 to the efficacy of spitting 

 >0se views Upon that ear- 

 not only weaken some 

 effect of the inquiry con- 



which the colored brother made 

 "See yeah, brudder Jones, free 

 irosoi de hull system of 



ccrning "spirituaj tl: 



of his pastor, who replied 



such questions as dat, would 



freology." 



Upon re-reading, however, we are convinced that the editor 

 only intended to convey the idea that, he might be obliged to 

 eschew clams as bait. 



In treating this branch of the subject, we arc reminded of 

 an incident of our boyhood. There was in the neigh- 

 borhood a very expert "sign" fisherman, of small stature and 

 weazen face, from the corners of whose month downward to 

 his chin, usually extended the dry bed of a channel in which 

 tobacco juice was wont to tlow at times in torrents. Him 

 we had often eiitreai cd, in vain, to take us fishing, for he 

 always returned from his angling trips with a half bushel, 

 more or less, of bullheads; these wer" his game fish and the 

 delight of our boyish eyes, which scarce had seen else than 

 minnows upon a hook. 



At, last, a day cam" when the sign was right," and we 

 were permitted' to become the companion of one of his ex- 

 cursions. Hooks, fines and Worms were soon ready, a tramp 

 of some two miles lo a small poud made, an old leaky scow 

 procured, the veteran and neophyte anchored, and a boy's 

 dream was realized. Ir is nun. ■■-■ t" in this con- 

 nection who nad to bail the scow at regular and frequent 

 intervals, who, in consequence n < i did WOSt of the fish- 

 ing, or who firs i; , ,i,i. disgusted anc] wantedtogo home, 

 for that is not, the point. The tobacco juice, which was wont 

 to rush along its ancient bed, was proj eted Upon the worm 

 before each cast; between I'ach cast a' black, flat bottle was 

 produced and the tobacco juice properly reduced and toned, 

 in readiness for the next east. Laic in the night, tired and 

 sore, we tramped homeward, the boy with a ringerlintr the 



fisherman i ! 



AMATEUR ROD-MAKERS. 



LET us see who and what they are, bow they work, and 

 what is required to complete a good rod. 



To begin with, they are all anglers; in the highest sense of 

 the term, or at least 'wish to be considered so. They are 

 found in all classes of life, from the humblest to the highest, 

 from the country school boy. who, cutting a white birch in 

 his neighbor's wood, stripping off the bark and dries, and 

 perhaps paints if, and thus prepares a rod with, which to fish 

 the streams and ponds of his native town, to the more wealthy 

 man, city bred, who essays a split bamboo with German sil- 

 ver trimmings, red silk windings, etc. Such a. rod is for the 

 artistic cast of the fly and will be more likely to whip the 

 lakes and streams of far-off "Bangcley" than the humblest 

 brooks of little "Rhody." 



With all it seems to he, with many I know it is, a pleasure 

 to prepare one's own tackle. It beguiles many a long winter 

 evening, and wdien the trout have commenced to roam the 

 spring'brooks which have broken from winter's cold em- 

 brace, and you have killed some of the speckled beauties on a. 

 rod and with tackle which is the, result, of your own labors 

 and ingenuity, then may you boast without vanity of the 

 honor, for it is not, an empty' one. 



With him wdio cuts his rod in the woods many of us have- 

 had an intimate acquaintance, The split bamboo, however 

 interesting its manufacture may lie, I shall of necessity pass 

 without, description. As yet it might well be called one of 

 the hidden arts, known, I firmly believe', in its truest sense, 

 only to those professional rod-makers whose success is based 

 on the experience of years. There is, however, a middle 

 class, as they may be called, of rod-makers who have risen 

 from the birch ro'ds and cotton strings of boyhood, and as 

 yet have not reached that pinnacle of fame, the split, bamboo, 

 and who are content for the present, at least, to deal with 

 lance wood! green heart, ash, and the woods more commonly 

 used in rod-making. With this class, which is, I presume, the 

 largest. I have gained through my own trials a greater in- 

 timacy. Let, us, therefore, follow briefly one who has 

 through the conversation and enthusiasm of "his friends be- 



come imbued with the spirit, of an a 



To start with, he has no tools of any kic 

 money. As tools arc somewhat necessary, 

 one's 'friends can readily be used in such ai 

 sets about to borrow. With but little troubl 

 self and succeeds in locating at some spare 

 pent; r or a carriage shop. A " ' 

 ae pieces as a patient, and 



ad-maker. 



. and but; little 



ad learning that 



emergency, he 



lUcsbim- 



lench in a car- 



l friend lends him a rod of 



led with the most, volumi- 



nous advice of Id's as.soriates as to quality of wood. etc.. be- 

 sets forth in search of clean, bright, straight-grained lance 

 wood, without spot or blemish, for second piece and tip, and 

 solid well-seasoned ash for butt, for so his pattern is made. 

 Rummaging the carriage shops, lumberyards, etc., yield - 

 nothing of the desired quality, and almost disheartened and 

 On the point of giving up the search, he meets a friend who 

 points to an archery manufactory as being the place most 

 b'kely to obtain wood of the desired quality. Forthwith to 

 the factory he hies himself, and there, amid stacks of lane- 

 wood waiting to lie made into bows, he finds all that he de- 

 sires. His ash for butt piece is obtained from a .straight, well- 

 seasoned billiard cue. The ferules, three-eighths °. f ;ln . ndl ? 01 ' 

 the first joint and seven-thirty-seconds for the tip joint, in- 

 side measurement, are furnished at a tackle shop; some- Ger- 

 man silver for reel-hands and butt piece, red. silk lor wind- 

 ings, logwpod for' coloring shellac, and oil for polishing, and 

 ad the stock is complete and ready for the bench, Sill wait 

 a minute. Horrors! On looking over the list he finds one 

 thing at least laekintr, There is no hollow wi fo 



, .aey arc all bu 

 week or ty p | rnfmth some time in uv 



