June 18, 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



409 



right in the bushes to within twenty feet aud stood motionless 

 watching the performance, until 1 shook my bead at a 

 mosquito that was endeavoringto explore my ear, and the way 

 that turkey "skaddled" out of that vicinity was marvelous. 

 My turkey soon mounted the fence again, and after a short 

 survey of the field hopped down and at last walked straight 

 toward me. I could feel the hang of that bird that 

 tniaute as I carried him home, when he turned like a flash 

 and stopped not until he had placed the fence between him 

 and danger. I felt anathemas in me strong, but as it was 

 only midway the afternoon I concluded to hang on a little 

 longer if 1. didn't grow fast to the ground. So I piped up 

 again, and after a season of reflection the bird ventured 

 back to the fence or.ee more. He went/through the previous 

 performance again, ending by walking up within forty yards 

 and then lying down suddenly, i straightened out my limbs 

 as well as I could, and took the road up the valley. S. 



Indiana.— Hartford City, June 11.— Quail are few and far 

 between; here and there perhaps on a farm will be a pair, 

 and often in my drives 1 have seen but one poor bird calling 

 for a mate for a half hour, but no answer to its plaintive call 

 is heard. I have again seen quail this spring, two and three 

 together, and one or two of them with their feet frozen off 

 and hobbling around on their stumps. It has been a wonder 

 to me that" any at all weathered it through, as the snow 

 covered the ground for the period of three mouths that the 

 birds could not get to the ground to feed, and the tempera- 

 ture was from zero to thirty below during all that time. 

 Where we had two to three coveys of thirty -five to seventy- 

 five birds in every open field we now see one or two quail in 

 two or three miles. Like all else they must go too. Quail 

 shooting is a thing of the past. Ruffed grouse are very 

 plentiful, and a good suapshot can bag his dozen or two a day 

 without much effort; they have hatched already. We have 

 a visitation of the seventeen-year locust, and to say they are 

 noisy would not express it. They are in the forest prin- 

 cipally, and are doing no damage as yet. A party of us 

 start on a frogging match soon 7 I will write you about it 

 after our return. — Ah Look. 



Ironton, Mo., June 12. — Last winter was very severe on 

 game. I found dead quail in considerable numbers while 

 hunting. Also saw one dead turkey. But at the present 

 time quail are quite numerous, more so than for several 

 years; I cannot imagine where they all come from, seeing so 

 many dead ones last winter. I saw a few days ago a covey of 

 young pheasants one-third grown. They were all fine, strong 

 birds'and could fly well. Turkeys arc not quite as plentiful 

 as usual. I saw several fine ones this spring while fishing. 

 I have not seen any deer for some time, but I beard there 

 were a good many about seven miles out from town. Squir- 

 rel and rabbit are very scarce at present. I have seen but 

 one squirrel and three or four rabbits in the last three 

 months. Our fishing is not very good this season. 1 have 

 caught several fine bass, the largest weighing four pounds. 

 Game laws are fairly respected in this locality. — W. E. B. 



Witt the Dotjbke-Bitted Hatchet? — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Would you ask "Nessmuk" w r hat advantage there 

 is in his double-bitted hunting tomahawk over a single blade 

 with hammer head? I would say a double blade is danger- 

 ous to carry and use, for to be of any use must have ex- 

 tremely keen edges, whereas with a single blade and hammer 

 head, nails, tent pins, etc., can be driven. The only reason 

 why lumbermen (aud very few of them) use the large, 

 double-bit axe, iu case of one edge blunting or breaking 

 they have a reserve, but from the size of this tomahawk it 

 is only intended for light work, and the chance of breaking 

 very small. Having seen this weapon praised up without 

 giving reason, I should like to have the inventor, "Nessmuk," 

 give them.— Single-Bitt (Quebec). 



Diversity op Shot Measures. — Cazenovia, N. Y., June 

 13. — Editor Forest and Stream: Your article about shot 

 measures is good, and it is time that something was done 

 about it. I make the following statement, that no gunmaker 

 iu the United States can tell what a single gun they make 

 will do at the target, for the simple reason that they T measure 

 the shot and don't know the number of pellets in the charge 

 they use. The shot should be counted, then there is no 

 mistake. Mr. Card, of trap fame, invented a simple machine 

 for counting the shot (a cut of which is inclosed), but it is 

 too accurate for them; they prefer to dip them up, thus get- 

 ting fifteen to twenty more pellets in the charge than there 

 . is in 1£ ounces by count.— Will H. Cruttenden. 



The First Americas Rifles.— Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington, D, C, June 13.— Editor Forest and Stream.: The 

 Smithsonian Institution has been requested by Lord Truro 

 to obtain information as to when firearms, especially rifles, 

 were first manufactured in North America. He has heard 

 that the first rifle makers in the United States were some 

 German families, who settled in Pennsylvania. He wishes 

 to know when they arrived, and whether the rifles used with 

 such deadly effect by the Americans in the War of Inde- 

 pendence (1775 to 1782) were of their own manufacture or 

 imported from Europe? Can any of your correspondents 

 throw any light on the subject?— Very truly yours, Spencer 

 F. Baird, Secretary. 



A Word From the Chef.— A few canvasback ducks 

 were sent to market last week by a pot-hunter, who imagined 

 he could find a sale for them, but he was disappointed. Wild 

 ducks are to be had in Boston, but they are preserved in ice- 

 houses from one season to another. We do not recommend 

 the use of any food out of season, aud cold weather is the 

 only time a true epicure will eat wild ducks. — The (N. Y.) 

 Cook, June IB. 



Prairie Chickens. — Correspondents who may have ob- 

 served the condition of ■prairie chickens this year are requested 

 to send to the Forest and Stream postal card reports. 



Athens, Pa.— Quail, grouse and rabbits wintered welk I 

 expect some good sport here this fall.— Park. 



The latest reported mischief of the English sparrow is 

 destruction of orange blossoms, the New Orleans Times-Demo- 

 crat reporting the case of a tree which has for many years 

 borne from 200 to 400 oranges, but now has less than a dozen 

 of the fruit on its boughs because the sparrows devoured the 

 flowers. 



\m and H$iver fishing. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 in <] Co. 



CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS. 



CARP LAKE, MICHIGAN.— Ttt. 



r pHE sun was w T ell above the treetops across the lake next 

 X moruing before Al aroused the happy family for break- 

 fast. Aud that breakfast of coffee, biscuits, ham, eggs, fried 

 potatoes and fish, and a tin cup each of wild raspberries, 

 great red luscious ones, with sugar, and pure cold sweet 

 milk with the cream on. Will wc ever forget it? 



The first work of the morning was to look after the cook- 

 ing and dining department, aud this required ridge pules and 

 uprights to put up the two flies, each twelve by sixteen feet. 

 Ben and I took the dugout with Bob and Kit for a ride, and 

 paddled a quarter of a mile up the lake to an old log road, 

 where, back in the brush, we found a scattering grove of 

 young water maples, which were just what we wanted in the 

 "way of poles for the flies and two'tents not yet put up. This 

 load of green timber would have sunk an ordinary skiff, but 

 the old "holler log" was a remarkable craft in more ways 

 than one, and we paddled back to camp drawing but. little 

 more water than when we left it. 



In two hours our canvas canopy was up; twenty- four feet 

 loug, with the sides sloping down to within three feet of 

 the ground and fastened hythegu.ys to stout stakes driven 

 deep into the sandy soil. This afforded a good shade and 

 protection from rain, to say nothing of its advantages for 

 ventilation. Under one end was the table of rough boards, 

 ten feet long by three wide, and under the other end, to one 

 side, we put up a table for Al's special use, with one of the 

 mess chests mounted on it for a cupboard. At this end the 

 camp stoves were set up on a low platform, and near by 

 was a big packing-box containing dour, corn meal, side 

 meat and other delicacies. Altogether it was rather a credit- 

 able and handy kitchen and" dining room, and we felt 

 rather "stuck up" over it. "A leetle too good fur the 

 Joneses," Ben solemnly remarked as he swallowed a dipper 

 of fresh water just from the well. 



Dan's tent was the next job, a wall tent, and the only one 

 in the lot. The others w T ere of the A pattern, aud this, I 

 believe, all things considered, is the best for the "bresh" of 

 Northern Michigan, as they take up less room where room is 

 often at a premium, are put up in much less time and with 

 far less trouble, and there are no guy ropes to steer around 

 or break your neck by falling over if you have occasion to 

 get out in the dark to look after things iu case of a sudden 

 rain or storm. 



It was with some trepidation and misgivings that Ben and 

 I began the erection of that canvas "stone front," for Uncle 

 Dan is, according to Dick Mac, "a little facetious" about the 

 location and set of his tent, and it was not without a good 

 deal of satisfaction that we got the poles sawed to the exact 

 length, nailed firmly together, aud the tent finally set up in 

 a shape to please his critical eye. However, old'Ben could 

 not pass the opportunity to fire a good-natured shot after him 

 wheu the old pelican was out of range in another part of the 

 camp. 



"Hickory, we'll hev to do some o' that work over agin or 

 we'll git into trouble. Don't ye see that corner stake over 

 there! it's a full half an inch too fur out, an' the next one 

 this way is jest exactly a quarter of an inch out o : slant with 

 the rest of 'em, an' ef Danny gets his eagle eye on them two 

 stakes, an' we don't line 'em up, he won't sleep nary solitary 

 wink this blessed night," and with one of his inimitable 

 winks and an expression on his bronzed face as solemn as an 

 owl, he shouldered the axe with "let's go an' cut a flag pole 

 an' set that piece o' striped buntin' to fiutterin', fur there's 

 nuthin' like the stars an' stripes to set off a camp, an' make 

 a feller feel fractious like." 



In the swamps at the head of the field we found a tall, 

 slim ash sapling that Ben said was "like a woodpecker's 

 head — made a purpose." This was cut and planted in the 

 bank near the water, a few yards below the camp, and the 

 old flag was run up aud unfolded itself in the light breeze 

 amid a cheer from all hands. Then a washstand was de- 

 vised at the edge of the water, near the dining-room, a couple 

 of hammocks swung in the shade of the trees along the 

 bank, and the camp of the Kingfishers was ready for the in- 

 specting officer. 



The hard Avork was done and we were well pleased that 

 everything had favored us in gettiug our little village of six 

 tents and the big fly into such good shape for a season of rest 

 and recreation. In the afternoon the rods w r ere brought out 

 and jointed with many a critical squint to see that the guides 

 were exactly iu line, reels adjusted, hooks on gimp carefully 

 tied on (for we were in the land of the pickerel and mayhap 

 of the mighty maskalonge), and the annual summer cam- 

 paign of the Kingfisher Club was about to open, although this 

 shank of the afternoon would only be devoted to a careful 

 study of the water within a mile or two of the camp. 



This study of a new sheet of water or stream, I have a 

 notion, is as necessary to the angler as a knowledge of the 

 lay of the country he proposes to hunt over is to the hunter, 

 and to be measurably successful he should know something 

 of the habits and seek to learn the feeding places of his fish, 

 as the hunter does of the game he pursues. 



If the angler know nothing of the ways and habits of the 

 fish he seeks, one place is as good as another to waste time at, 

 and it is only by a stroke of luck that he chances on a "good 

 place," and then like as not he credits his catch to his own 

 smartuess and not to the fact that just there is the only place 

 within a mile where he might expect to find fish had he 

 known anything of their manner of life and the kind of food 

 suited to their tastes. I have seen two smart fellows who 

 could talk fish by the yard sit on a bank and fish for bass 

 three or four hours with a piece of raw bird, where the water 

 was not a foot deep within twenty-five yards of them, and 

 the bottom a clear white sand bar, while the veteran old Dan 

 Sloan sat in a boat a hundred yards above them at the foot of 

 a rocky riffle, where the water was a fathom deep, and took 

 bass after bass with live minnows, to the utter astonishment 

 of the two chumps on the bank. Dan knew where to fish, 

 and how ; they simply knew how, and not much how at that. 

 Dan's fish knowledge had been acquired by close observation 

 and practical experience; theirs was yet in the dim future, 

 but their patience was commendable. They left the stream 

 with just as many fish as they would have taken had they 

 been trolling for suckers on that glaring sand bar with a five- 

 inch maskalonge spoon. Truly, to be learned only in the 

 nomenclature of flies, to be able to distinguish between a 

 pectoral fin and the lateral line, aud to be smart in the knack 



of the "ITcnshall" (?) cast at a tournament is not to know 

 How and where to fish. 



A few of the best of a very poor lot of small frogs were 

 selected from the menagerie box and placed in the minnow 

 buckets, and then for the boats. There lay four nicely 

 painted new skiffs of as many different models, each with at 

 least two barrels of water in it. In the press of putting the 

 camp in order we had paid little attention to the boatsT but 

 now when wanted for use there they were — four clumsy, 

 ill-shaped, leaky affairs that would require, it seemed, two 

 persons each to manage, one to row and another to baiL the 

 water our as fast as it leaked in, while a third might possibly 

 do a little fishing. 



If there is anything "on the face o' this livin' earth" cal- 

 culated to ruffle the temper of ye honest angler aud make 

 him forget be was once a shining light iu the village Sunday 

 school, it is a miserable, clumsy, wet, leaky boat in which 

 he is forced to sit and fish. 



While the girls retired to a safe distance Ben and I made 

 a, few remarks calculated to free the boats of water by evap- 

 oration, assisted by Uncle Danny, who occasionally wedged 

 in a word where Beu had failed to make the ease plain, aud 

 by freepicut approving nods from Jim, whose natural pro- 

 clivities for plain and scroll-work cussiu' were almost burst- 

 ing him, but who restrained flic impulse to let loose no doubt 

 out of respect to the teachings and influence of his gentle, 

 pure-minded little wife. Ben seemed to understand and ap- 

 preciate the fix Jim was in, and remarked in his dry way, 

 "Never mind, Jim, Jeems Mackerel (meaning the writer) an' 

 rae'U do your share an' won't charge you a ccut, ef you'll 

 jest fan us a little once in a while to keep us from gittin' 

 too hot." 



It may be recorded here that our friend Couturier sent his 

 son John up a day or two after to stop the leaks, and John 

 succeeded by dint of much hammering and caulking, aud 

 nailing various strips of tin over divers scams and cracks, 

 and a liberal use of a thin mixture of white lead and oil, in 

 putting the boats iu a little worse condition than they were 

 in the first place. John's intentions were good, but his skill 

 in the art of stopping leaks was not a noticeable feature 

 amid his many other good qualities, for John was possessed 

 of sundry good cmalitles, among them a hearty desire to 

 drown the man tbat built those boats. Friend Couturier 

 was not, however, to blame about them, as they had been 

 built for him by some one that knew more about chopping 

 cord wood than modeling a boat, aud the}' were turned over 

 to us as the best he had , but he treated us better probably 

 than we deserved in the final settling up by charging us a 

 mere nothing for the use of them, and promising too that 

 next year he would have better ones. We pulled them out 

 on the bank, tilted them up to let the water run out, slid 

 them back and laid boards in the bottom to keep the feet dry 

 for a while at least, and the search for fishy-looking water 

 and a few fish for supper and breakfast begau ; but more 

 fishy-looking places were found than fish, though enough 

 were taken for present needs and we were satisfied. Wc 

 found a dozen or more places within a mile cither way from 

 camp that promised good fishing, and we returned well 

 pleased with the prospect of good sport ahead. 



There were two or three of the party that never disturbed 

 a flu that afternoou, and lam constrained as a veracious 

 chronicler to own up that the writer was one of them, but I 

 would not probably admit it so readily had not Bob and Kit 

 told it the rniuute we got back to camp, and were it recorded 

 otherwise those two teasing little damsels w T ould have the 

 "old man" cornered in a colossal fish lie. Kit said, "Would 

 you believe it; papa never had a strike while we were out!" 



"Strike" was a big stride in the rudiments, and she looked 

 sedately at Bob with an air that said, "See how easy it is to 

 learn to fish," hut there was a shade of anxiety in the tone, 

 lest in making this strike she had struck the wrong word. 



"Yes," said Bob, as she half closed her left eye in a pro- 

 longed wink and took deliberate aim with the other, "Old 

 Hickory, as you folks call him, fished and fished and never 

 got a solitary (solitary, after her Uncle Ben) run — I mean 

 nib; I believe that's what you call it — but how can a fish run 

 when it's got no legs," and with a twinkle in the wide-open 

 eye she demolished the old man's reputation as an angler 

 and set the whole party in a roar with, "Papa, Hickory 

 knows how to row a boat for us girls, but he can't fish. " 



"Now jest listen to them two twins," said old Ben, as he 

 swapped tegs and addressed a vigorous remark in parenthe- 

 sis to a skeeter trying to locate a claim on his nose, "to hear 

 'em talk you'd think they'd been a fishiu' ever sence they 

 was knee high to a duck, but I'll bet a chunk o' maple sugar 

 agin a parduership kiss from 'em that nary one of 'em kin 

 tell a striped perch from a zebray, 'less it would be by the 

 shape o' the tail an' the gineral set o' the fins; the neutral 

 fins of a zebray, mind ye, my dears, bein' hitched on a good 

 deal furder aft than they are on a pearch," aud with a sol- 

 emn wink at old Dan, who was near bursting with smothered 

 laugh, he lit his brier root, changed legs again and relapsed 

 into silence, which lasted only till the skeeters, emboldened 

 by his listless attitude, made a combined flank movement on 

 his right ear. 



"Them two gals," he went on after swiping off the mos- 

 quitoes, "we'll hev to call the twins, fur ever seiuce they 

 met at Fort Wayne they've bin froz together 'xceptin' when 

 Kit was actin' as master o' transportation comin' over from 

 Sutton's Bay, an' while they're in camp here they saunter 

 around with their arms locked, suckin' a hunk o' maple 

 sugar an' lookin' as peert an' sassy as two bluejays, an' when 

 their backs is turned to ye they're so near of a size an' much- 

 ness that ye can't tell t'other from which, only Bob's hair is 

 as black as a crow and Kit's is a kinder off* color hazelnut 

 brown, jest afore the hazelnut gits dead ripe, an' ef you'll 

 uotice the kinks an' quirls around her head, it looks a good 

 deal like a hazel burr after frost hes struck it." "Them 

 two gals," with a twitch at the corners of his mouth and a 

 furtive glance over his shoulder; but the sentence was never 

 finished for lack of time. The girls made a dash for him, 

 but he was too nimble of foot to be caught napping. Spring- 

 ing to his feet aud kicking the camp stool on which he had 

 beeu balancing himself to one side, away they went up shore, 

 followed by shouts and laughter from the rest of the camp, 

 with Ben a half dozen lengths in the lead. 



The girls soon gave up the chase and came back tuckered out 

 and puffing from the violent and unusual exercise,while Ben 

 came sneaking in soon after and took his seat as unconcerned 

 as though nothing had happened, but keeping an eye on the 

 twins to see if there were any further signs in the air to 

 bring on another race. Satisfied that the fun was over, he 

 fired the brier wood, swung his right leg over the left into 

 its accustomed place, and puffing a few meditative whiffs 

 said: "You gals '11 hev to train down a leetle finer ef ye 

 expect to come under the wire ahead o' 'Hyperboler,' but I 

 tell ye, Dan," as he hitched around facing the old pelican, 



