March 12, 1898.] 
FOREST AN£) STREAM. 
*203 
PRONGHORN ANTELOPE. 
From a Drawing for the Forest and Stream by Carl Rungius. 
a field of tali corn in the river bottom for a hundred 
yards to the stream to look at a place the oracle had 
spoken of, and which Bill also ^aid was a good place to 
c^mp, and "right by a mighty good fishin' hole." 
■'Tom and I looked it all over, and were well pleased 
with the place, albeit the water was low on the riffles and 
too roily and milky to promise good bass fishing. There 
hid been no rain around there for weeks, Bill said, and 
the water seemed to have become thick and muddy 
looking, and needed a good rain to clean out the 
stream. 
Thinking that we might find a place further up that 
would suit us better, we got back in the wagon and drove 
on nearly a mile further and then forded the stream 
at a riffle to look at another spot Bill recommended. 
It didn't remind us of anything, however, and we 
drove another half mile, crossed back and came through 
Yankeetown — three or four houses and a big flouring 
mill — without seeing any holes that suited us as well as 
the one first looked at. 
We went back and carried the outfit through the corn- 
field to the spot we had first taken a notion to just be- 
yond the corn rows near the edge of a bank 8 or loft. 
high, overlooking the water, where there were trees and 
bushes enough to afford a good shade. While Tom 
and I put up the tent. Bill took a stout cord that I had 
brought along for just such a "want" and went up to 
the farmhouse on top of the hill thirty rods or so from 
the stream and looft. or more higher than the camp, 
and brought down a great back load of clean straw', 
with which we made a bed that would knock the spots 
off the one we had tried to sleep on the night before. 
First a layer of straw 2 or 3in. deep; spread over this 
the big rubber piano cover; then straw a foot deep on 
top of it; then a light cotton mattress, blankets and a 
big comfort, and we had a bed that, as Tom said, "was 
good enough for a dog." 
We made a table under two trees near the bank by 
matching together a tongued and grooved box lid 4ft. 
square that I had brought along for another "want," 
driving four posts in the ground for legs, and while 
I put the finishing touches on it, Tom got together a 
lot of flat stones, with which the bank was lined, and 
made a fireplace 3 or 4ft. from the edge of the bank, 
on which were placed the two §^in. square iron bars, 4ft. 
long, that had done service in many a camp in the North 
Woods of Michigan in days gone by. 
Our camp was made and we felt as proud of it as two 
schoolboys with a new sled. 
Bill had left for town before we were done camp mak- 
ing, borrowing my little minnow seine with a promise 
that he would go up the creek about three miles that 
afternoon and "ketch a bucketful o' bully chubs," and 
bring them up next morning. By the time the camp 
was finished it was past noon and we were as hungry as 
a yaller stray dog. 
Tom made a fire in the new fireplace and put the ket- 
tle on, while I took a tin bucket and went up to the 
farmhouse after milk for our coffee and some eggs to put 
an edge on the bacon. While Mrs. Riggles was getting 
the milk I struck up an acquaintance with her baby, a 
chubby i^jne months old, good-natured youngster, and 
we had a great romp together, and I got my hair and 
ears well pulled during the festivities. The friendship 
ripened rapidly, and we had a heap o' fun together every 
time I went up to the house for milk, eggs and other pro- 
duce that we needed at the camp. 
I took a great notion to the "boss o' the ranch"— he 
was their only child— and I trust that as he grows up 
he will develop a hankerin' after "goin' a-fishin'" for 
it has always seemed to me that a boy who takes a notion 
to a fishing rod and a gun is somehow a better sort 
of a boy than the one who don't. 
Back at the camp I found Tom with the dinner well 
along (among Tom's other good points he's a first-rate 
camp cook), and soon after we sat down to our new table 
on a couple of camp stools — brought along because the 
evening camp-fire never seems to burn just right with- 
out a camp stool to sit on — and figuratively cleaned the 
platter, and Tom had to fry another course of eggs and 
bacon, which we "let on" was the dessert — cake, pie, 
puddin', ice cream, an' sich. 
We were too eager to get to fishing to waste time 
washing the dishes, but we promised them a good clean- 
ing up before they would be wanted for supper. 
I don't hold this up as a good example to pattern after 
in a camp, but sometimes the exigencies of a case war- 
rant a "suspension of the rules," and this appeared to 
• us to be a case with a whole lot of exigencies in it. 
The rods were taken out of the case and put together 
carefully, and with a deliberation taught by years of 
practice and experience. It is a good rule, and 
time well spent, to put your rod together carefully and 
accurately; joints snugly fitted, and guides in line. This 
may apply to the veterans as well as to the youngsters 
of the gentle art. 
Ten yards or so above the table the stream made 
almost a square elbow, and looyds. above the elbow 
was the tail end of a long riffle. Forty or fifty yards be- 
low the camp the stream was split by a very small grassy 
island, on each side of which was a few yards of quick 
water, and below that a strip of quiet, deep water for 
200yds. or more to another square elbow in the stream 
that led to the left and on down past the town. 
At this elbow the stream was 25 to 30yds. wide, and 
