yj 
vies... * 
, ‘Gurr, 25, 1884.] 
Camp Hire Af lickerings. 
139. 
rN G around the stove one evening in the office of 
the old Haskell House, in Galesburg, this State, way 
back in 1855, was the usual crowd of farmers, town loafers 
and guests of the house. Among the latter was Gus C., 
who had served as clerk on several of the magnificent pas- 
Senger steamers plying between Buffalo and Chicago, and 
who had knocked about the lakes in one capacity or another 
from boyhood, The farmers and loafers aforesaid had given 
us some pretty tough yarns to swallow regarding deer, 
wolves and rattlesnakes—the regular thing, you know. 
After a pause Gus thought it was about time for him to put 
in his oar, and gave us the following: ~ 
“Gentlemen, I ain’t much on game, fact is, never shot a 
gun in my life, but I have had some rather queer experiences 
on the lakes, and don’t mind telling you about a curious 
thing that happened to the Mohican, a little schooner that I 
was mate of in ’42,. Chicago wan’t much of a place then, 
and we had brought up some dry goods and groceries from 
Buffalo, and took back thirty-six barrels of pork, all that 
had been packed there that season. We had fair weather 
until we got round to Lake Huron, when there came up the 
biggest blow we had struck that season, It came pretty 
near knocking the sticks out of her, and the pork got loose 
in the hold and rolled around considerably, but she weathered 
it, and before we struck St. Clair Flats it was all smooth 
sailing again, and we reached Buffalo all right; but. when 
we tied up at the wharf and opened the hatches, I'll be 
blowed if she didn’t go to the bottom of the creek that quick 
that we hardly had time to jump for the wharf. 
“We got a diver the next day to go down and see what the 
matter was, and I don’t know as you will believe me, but it 
is a fact, there wasn’t a barrel of that pork to be found, and 
there was a hole in her bottom that you could have driven a 
horse and wagon through, I don’t know as we would have 
ever known how it all happened if it had not been for the 
steamboat George Washington picking up the pork which 
they found floating around in Lake Huron, and then we 
knew that when we were rolling and pitching in the gale 
the pork got loose and broke through the bottom, and the 
only thing that kept us afloat was the air in the hold, and as 
soon as weraised the hatches, and let the air out, why of 
course she went down, I tell you gentlemen it was a mighty 
lucky thing we did not doit before we got into Buffalo 
Creek.” And the crowd thought so too. 
Harry Honter. 
HicHLAND Park, Ill. 
* 
140, 
Pat bought a shotgun, 12-bore, left barrel full choke- 
bored, the shooting to be satisfactory or money refunded. 
Pat exchanged the gun for another after the first trial of it. 
Pat shoots from the right shoulder, and nothing would in- 
duce. him to do otherwise. He cannot close his left eye 
without closing the right, but had just begun training to 
shoot with both eyes open, and you know a beginner is 
liable to sight with the left eye across the end of the barrel 
and shoot wild. Well, Pat and Ed drove out about teu 
miles one day to get some squirrels, Going into the woods 
_ they separated, and when they came together at night to re- 
turn home Ed had a good bag of blacks and Pat had one 
poor red. Said Pat: ‘My gun’s no good.” ‘Your gun is 
all right,” said Ed, ‘“‘but you can’t shoot well enough to hit 
anything. That two-eye business that P. is trying to preach 
into you is no good.” ‘‘Well, let’s see you hit something 
with it,” said Pat. So Ed took the gun and, stepping back 
to good fair’ shooting distance, fired at a spot on a fence 
board, and on examination found the board well filled with 
shot, and, turning to Pat, said, ‘‘What have you to say now? 
That’s as good as my gun will do.” Pat saw that he was 
cornered, but a happy thought struck him just then and he 
quieted Ed with the assertion, ‘‘Well, what of that? you 
can hit a fence with any gun.” PINACENTER. 
141. 
. This fall I bought a new imported gun, and being a little 
anxious to try it, four of us started for Long Lake. There 
we svon found a boat and started out, I taking my position 
in the bow. When within about twenty-five rods of the 
marsh at the foot of the lake I espied a big crane standing 
erect in all dignity and pride. All at once he made a move 
’ to fly. This was a chance to test the new gun, and to send 
my compliments after the crane in the way of 14 ounces of 
- No. 6 shot took but a second; and then I gave him the other 
barrel and down he came. The distance was fully twenty- 
five rods. Well, to tell how pleased I was with that gun, 
words are not to be found; $200 would not have bought it. 
The boys were all loud in praising the new weapon and my 
skill asa shot. But alas! for human vanities. We rowed 
up tv the marsh to get my crane, and woe is me, the bird 
was fast in a steel trap, and had simply risen the length of 
the chain and failen back again. Not one single pellet of 
shot had touched him, so far as we could find. But the gun 
is a good one all the same. W.J.F. 
FEnToN, Mich. 
: 142. 
Ed. had been away from camp for about two hours one 
day trying a new muzzleloading rifle. About dinner time 
he returned, with a most tired and woebegone expression of 
countenance, and set bis gun down ina corner of the tent 
without speaking. Finally I ventured to ask, ‘*Where’s 
yourlgame, Neddy?” “Well,” he exclaimed, “I didn’t see 
much game, but I tell you that gun can shoot. I was coming 
home empty-handed, when Liooked up through the treetops 
and spied an eagle sailing along overhead. I up gun and 
fired, aiming at the eye, and I blew the head off close up to 
the neck. It fell, or rataer was falling—the head I mean— 
when that darned eagle just swooped awa and caught it in 
its mouth, and flew out of sight screaming.” 
Luon F. Haw. 
OsweEao, N. Y. 
143. 
Our hunting party had pitched camp for the night upon 
the bank of Cherry River, in (what is now) Nicholas county, 
West Virginia 
when a lank, long-haired individual was seen approaching 
along a path that led down from a log cabin perched upon 
the mountain side, and distant, well, as 1 remember, nearly 
two hundred yards. Our mountaineer having arrived at 
Hardly had our camp-fire begun to flicker, ’ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
purpose of learning what were the game probabilities of the- 
neighborhood, produced a black bottle and tin cup, and in- 
sisted on his taking ‘‘somethin’.” It did not require any 
“moral suasion” to induce him to imbibe; but he had hardly 
smacked his lips and drawn the sleeve of his hunting shirt’ 
across them, when from the door of the cabin above us, 
“A voice fell like a falling star.” 
Ti was a wowan’s voice, and it said, ‘‘You Moneyman, 
yen come right straight home directly sir. First thing you 
now, youll be so drunk you can’t crawl up hereon your all 
fours. You know you wiil.” Our long-haired visitor did 
not however appear to be the least ‘‘flustered,” but turning 
slowly to the direction whence the voice came, and with a 
deprecatory wave of his hand, he answered back, ‘““Now 
Mary, you jest go back inter that cabin, an’ dry right up; I 
ain’t teched er drap.”’ Mary, however, did not heed the ad- 
vice so kindly given, Again her voice rang downthe moun- 
tain side, sharper and clearer than before, ‘‘You’re a liar, 
sir; I can smell your breath clean up here.” TuckAnox, 
Mixneapouis, Minn., Sept. 17.—Hditor Forest and Stream: 
Your Jast Camp-Fire Flicker reminds me of a snake fight 
described by a friend of mine who saw two of the reptiles 
wrestling till each caught the other by the tail and began to 
swallow him. And they kept on swallowing till nothing 
was left of either of them. How’s that?—X. [These snakes 
were the two that came out of the Ark, and the story has 
been told about them ever since. | 
Sea and River ishing. 
+ 
THE DOBSON OR HELGRAMITE. 
(ya excellent bait for black hass which is in many places 
known by the above names, is the larva of an insect 
known to science as Corydalus cornutus, Linn. I have been 
stimulated to write something of this larva by receiving sey- 
eral letters on the subject, asking for information about it; 
what it is, and what may be its proper name, etc. Among 
these is one from Dr. Charles W. Gumbes, of Oaks, Pa., 
who sends the following list of common names, some of 
which I remember furnishing for publication some years 
Ago; 
Columbia Co., Ga.Shellhead. 
Arata Flip-flap, 
| HE Danae. oun iy | Stone devil, 
Rr oger or Bo- est’n New York. Alligator. 
Water Gap, Pa. ..4 pars, Perkiomen, Pa ....Crawler. 
Algamite. Carlisle, Pa........ Go Jack. 
Southern Indiana.Go-devil. Wyalusing, Pa .... Devil catcher. 
North Vernon, O,..Snake-feeder, Hanover, Pa....... Snake doctor. 
Lafayette, Pa. ...Stone climber. 
Flat Rock, Pa..... Clipper bug. 
iltamites. 
Tulpehocken, Pa.. } Riucmitss: 
Fox River, Wis....Dam worm. 
Schoharie, N. Y ..Dragon. 
Hazleton, Pa...... Devil 
Litchfield, Conn...Bloomer, 
Janesville, Wis....Crawler. 
( The andy. 
Black crabs. 
White crabs. 
| Flying crabs. 
Black worms 
Fulton, N. Y,...... 
§ . 
Schenectady, N.Y. | Flyig worms Portland, Pa...... Bogart. 
Towanda, Pa....... Conniption bug ; \ Red crab. 
Honesdale, Pa..... Clipper. Raleigh, N. C...... < Yellow crab, 
Milford. P. J Stone crab, | Hell driver. 
BAM ee oe sb aR )Sandcrab. Lackawaxen, Pa..,Flying clipper. 
Lambertville, N.J.Water grampus j Heigramite. 
In many places,. 3° 7] Dobson. 
Tumble, N. J...... Goggle goy. 
Said to be correct. Corydalus, 
Interior N. J. ..... Crock. 
Monroe Co., N. Y.Hell devil. 
A study of these names reveals several corruptions of the 
name ‘‘helgramite,” others of “clipper,” which may allude 
to its quick motions in the water when alarmed, and still 
LARVA USED AS BAIT. 
others which refer to the backward movement of the cray- 
fish of fresh water, which is miscalled a ‘‘crab’’ in the inter- 
jor, a name which has the warrant of the German, for in 
that language the brook crayfish becomes reds, and is not 
PUPA. 
camp, and the civilities of the occasion over, one of our party | distinguished from the side-moving crab of salt water, except 
wishing to ingratiate himself into his good graces, fot the ' when unusual definiteness is required, when if is called bach-* expect anglers to call it Corydalus, T have made original 
a a 
ows 
krebs. The infernal cognomens in the list cannot escape ob- 
servation. 
In the American Sportsman of May 16, 1874, I gave some 
information concerning the life history of this bait, and 
therein said that it was ‘‘the larva of the helgramite fly.” I 
did so because some onein charge of the entymology of the 
Rural New Yorker, July 12, 1878, stated in answer to San- 
ford Hartman that the ‘‘dobson” was the ‘‘larva or pupa 
(for it is used for fish bait in both stages), of the well-known 
SS tree 
MALE, 
hellgramite fly (Corydalus cornutus, Linn.).”” I replied to 
this in a feeble way a week or two afterward, and tried to 
sustain Mr. Hartman in the use of his local name of ‘‘dob- 
son,” but afterward thinking that 1 had been overweighted 
in acontest with science, I wrote the article referred to in 
the Sportsman, and accepted the name of “helgramite” (with 
one 1) in preference to “dobson,” which in early youth I 
learned to call my bait. I thought heleramite a name of 
wider use, and perhaps a scientific one. Now I ask, what 
does it mean? Why should I prefer it to ‘‘dobson,” which 
I always call it when fishing, but have lately dropped when 
writing of it? Certainly ‘‘dobson” is as good a name, if it 
does not describe any peculiarity of the animal, and it has 
no suspicion of the infernal in its fitst syllable. Therefore, 
if ‘thelgramite” has no scientific meaning, and [tannot dis- 
cover its origin or signification, and is on a common footing 
et tiiteee 
ea 
FEMALE. 
with ‘‘dobson” as a popular name, then I feel warranted in 
returning to the name of my boyhood, which I had aban- 
doned in deference to the supposed learning of others. 
Should any one show there are better grounds for calling it 
‘‘helgramite” than for terming it a ‘‘dobson,” I wiil never- 
more either write the latter name nor speak it when referring 
to the bait, except as a synonym. 
To better illustrate the life history of the ‘‘dobson,” I don't 
