For Fort st and Stream. 
- — • v». u-.u uireuj 
jumping on incoming (£reck. 
TUT EMBERS of the different professions, shopkeepers, 
and others, whose occupations confine them within 
s doors from year to year, soon find their nervous systems 
■jexhnustcd, causing many of the ills for which the physi- 
■ Cian is consulted during the Summer months. To persist 
in these sedentary occupaUous with the sole intent of add- 
ing money to the purse, or increased knowledge to the pro- 
1= fession, is frightfully injurious to health and intellect. In 
E [r ma “ ner these harmful consequeuces are developed 
wo cannot stop to discuss, since the fact is sufficiently ap- 
patent to every individual whose labors confine 1dm to 
W ofl,ce or 8t0,c y ear after year without a season for rest and 
■outdoor sports. 
I Those who have tried the various fashionable resorts as 
I resting places, and have returned to their homes almost as 
exhausted as when they started, skeptically enquire “What 
shall I do?” The same prescription made by the’ angler’s 
patron saint, good old Sir Isaak Walton, centuries ago re 
, tains its efficacy, coupled with all its delightful pleasures 
even to the present time, and fits our case precisely-“Go 
| B fyRshynge. ” 
■ To the inexperienced angler, having m mind the reed 
■gjole, live cent liuc, bob and sinker, with which he jerked 
I high into the air the unsuspecting bullhead or the less pre 
tentious shiner* from some neighboring pond or bayou 
using for the allurement of these humble representatives of 
the finny tribe, the angle worm, fresh and squirmy, perhaps 
|>ifh advice will pass unappreciated aDd unheeded To 
such I say, have the patience to follow me in mv prepara- 
tions for an augling exclusion, when perhaps you could be 
■persuaded to be one of such a camping party" 
[ Just one month ago to-day, it being then the 1st of June 
and the most pleasaut of all the mouths for outdoor sports’ 
I started with my three companions upon my annual vaca’- 
tion to the beautiful Lycoming Creek, located in Lycoming 
county, Pennsylvania, having busied myself for a week 
■previously, and enjoying every minute of the time, in mak- 
ing the following, with other preparations. We ground 
L our axe and hatchet, filed our camp saw and the cutting 
lodge of an inch and a half augur, vurnished our rods, made 
a half dozen leaders, and constructed a quantity of “Ham- 
lin flies." The tools, with a few pounds of nails, were 
■deposited in the bottom of a large camp chest; and we 
laddod three long handled frying pans, a two quart coffee 
pot, a smaller tea pot, a long handled, eight quart boiling 
kettle in which to boil our potatoes, and which afterwards 
ifierved as a dish pan, one dozen tiu plates, half a dozen tin 
cups, one dozen tin spoons, three large spoons, half a dozen 
knives and forks, a largo, sharp butcher’s knife, and a pep- 
| per and a salt box. In the same chest we stowed away the 
■following provisions, intended to subsist four persons four 
| weeks; and it did it nicely, with nothing left to waste the 
day we struck our tents: Twenty-five pounds of A sugar, 
in a neat covered pail, ten pounds of coffee, four pounds 
of black tea, teu pounds of fat salt pork, one small sack of 
corn meal, six quarts of wheat flower, one quart table salt, 
« package of pepper, small box of soda, small box of bak- 
llng powder, four quarts of beans, one peck of Bermuda 
onions, a bar of soap, and, upon the top of all, a small V 
latent, the quarters of Fred, who was engaged to serve us as 
■cook. In a large Saratoga trunk we made room for four 
■Comfortables, four pillows, two bed ticks, sheets, table 
■Cloths, towels, napkins, a wall tent nine feet square, and a 
y twelve by fifteen feet. With this luggage, and one »f 
■tn U | ,U k* 0C,S Ueftl nnd C0lu P' l0t camp stoves, and our fishing 
■ ®cde, we started by rail for Bodinesville, a station on the 
■Northern Central Railway just sixty-two miles from Elv 
■jnira, our starting point, leaving the latter place at half 
■past eight in the morning, and arriving at our destination a 
■quarter before eleven, when our baggage was immediately 
■■.ran. stoma to a large boat upon Squire Bodine’s mill pond, 
■ on Lycoming Creek, not a hundred yards from the depot. 
ml ^ qu i red but litt,e time 10 sot us, bag and baggage, afloat 

stout obliging sons, were there to help. By noon we had 
paddled up the creek to a beautiful little island, which ter- 
minated in a high spear-shaped point in the deep shade of 
the mountain Here, nestled among the blooming laurel 
and rhododendron, and the most graceful aud lovely ferns 
and under cover of beech and pine, with mountains and 
streams on either side, we pitched our tents with true mili- 
tary precision— Fred’s in the rear, the wall tent, which 
served as our bedroom, next, and the large fly in front for 
the parlor, as well as for shelter in cooking during a rain 
storm. Under this fly we placed Duncklee’s camping stove 
one of the most useful and complete affairs that could be 
devised for camping purposes. It packs in a space 12x20 
inches, and contains within, an oven, pipe, and all the pans 
and kettles that are needed in cooking for a party of four 
intending to camp farther from a railway than did we’ 
where light equipage is absolutely necessary. 
In the wall tent we soon constructed two bunks from the 
drift wood found in the vicinity, in which our axe, hatchet 
augur and saw played an indispensable part. We covered 
the bunks with hemlock boughs, filled our ticks with straw 
from Squire Bodine's barn, paddled thein to camp in the 
big boat, and deposited them upon the hemlock springs, 
where, with the clean sheets, pillows, and comfortables’, 
they afforded beds upon which we slept quite os soundly, 
and from which we awoke more rested and refreshed, than 
from our more pretentious couches of curled hair and elas- 
tic springs at home. 
By the middle of the afternoon our camp was in house- 
keeping order— beds made, ice box buried in the bank, din- 
ing table set up, surrouuded with benches, and the old 
arbor of the year before, which served us as a dining room, 
was re-covered with green boughs; the camp fire was ar- 
ranged with a good back log aud two scrap iron rails, bor- 
rowed from one of the deserted railroads upon the moun- 
tain side, placed across two lateral logs in such a manner 
as to form a most excellent fireplace for cooking purposes. 
With these preparations, afterwards greatly improved 
and added to during the leisure hours of our four weeks’ 
vacation, and with a large cake of ice from the farm house 
placed in our ice box, a plentiful supply of milk, butter, 
bread, and eggs from Mother Bodine’s pantry duly deposit- 
ed therein, we commenced the camp life which added 
nearly ten pounds to our weight, an unmeasured quantity 
of strength to our muscles, aud most refreshing rest to our 
tired nervous system. 
Retiriug early at night, tired from the camp duties of the 
day, we were awakened early in the morning by Fred’s 
reveille upon a large frying pau, summoning us to a break- 
fast of trout, rolled in corn meal and fried brown in a 
small quautity of salt pork, a splendid cup of coffee, the 
aroma of which greeted our olfactories os we were per- 
forming our ablutions by the creek side, boiled potatoes, 
with their jackets on, and some piping hot flapjacks, 
smothered in butter and maple syrup. This, eaten in the 
open air, just as the sun came peeping over the mountain 
top, with its golden beams reflected from the sparkling, 
rippling streum at our feet, to the beautiful green boughs 
above our heads, intensifying their beauty as they trembled 
in the cool morning breeze, while that charming songster, 
the wood robin, mingled his musical notes with the shrill 
whistle of robin redbreast and the more plaintive songs of 
other forest birds, until the entire valley rang with their 
melody. Gracious, who couldn’t eat under such circum- 
stances and with such surroundings! 
By eight o’clock our seven ounce Conroy rods were ad- 
justed, click reels, with light silk lines, in position, and to 
the slender leader is made fast our favorite flies for the 
day’s sport. Then, having donned our fishing suits, with 
feet encased in heavy hob-nailed brogans, buckled over the 
flannel pants, half way to the knee, with creel over the 
light jacket, a*d lauding net suspended upon the back from 
a large button on the jacket collar, the start is made for the 
half day's fishing with dress and tackle that would astonish 
the devotee of bob and sinker. 
As wo journey up the stream we pass many well-known 
pools, note the change of channel in the creek since last 
year, and relate the victories achieved in landing magnifl- 
®*“ l * ? f r° m Un , C ef ,bC VarioUS rocks ftud 8lum P® "hick 
are as familiar as the faces of our friends. Having accom- 
pushed a sufficient distance to occupy our time in fishing 
until two o clock, our dinner hour, wc strike for the stream 
arrange ourselves a few rods apart, and commence the 
casting of our flies over the surface of the water in such 
localities as our experience determine the trout to be. 
Soon wo hear a regular war whoop from H. that would 
have done credit to a full-fledged Indian brave, calling our 
attention to the fact that he had struck a fine fish and 
rrom the manner in which his rod bent, and from the occa- 
sional splashes in the water, accompanied by a vigorous 
yell from the happy fisherman every time his captive trou 
leaps in the air, in his frantic efforts to release himself 
from the deceptive hook which holds him, we conclude he 
has hooked what in fishing parlance is designated a “bus- 
ter." Just as we turn abend in the creek our ears catch 
the strains of a merry song, coming from H.’s vicinity, the 
sentiment of which seemed to be that “trout, delicious, 
caught arc,” sung with such an evident tone of satisfaction] 
we at once conclude that th.it particular trout has found Ita 
way safely to H.’s creel. 
Occasionally we hear a happy refrain from S., who is 
below us, and as it comes clear and melodiously through 
the glorious morning air we distinguish the liuc, “A gay 
old trout from his hole came out," abruptly ending with a 
whoop, hi, hi, to inform me thut he, too, was in luck, aud 
had hooked a beauty. While my companions are meeting 
with their full share of enjoyment I am by no meuns idle 
but throwing my flies lightly and cautiously over pools] 
behind rocks, and under bushes and the grassy banks that 
aforetime had rewarded my labors. Seating myself upon 
a projecting boulder in the middle of the stream to ex- 
change the “black gnat" and “bright fox" for the “great 
dun" and “Hamlin fly,” or to imitate more closely the natu- 
ral fly upon which the trout are feeding, we enjoy every 
minute of the time as we take in the charmiug scene around 
us. Before us is the crystal creek, glistening and sparkling 
in the morning sun while it. ripples down the rapid, or Is 
dashed into foam against the rocks at the base of the moun- 
tain, and then flows silently away to form the smooth and 
placid pool below, where the silver and golden hued naiads 
of the mountain streams for which we are searching are 
warily watchiug for their morning repast. On either sido 
of the narrow valley majestic and solemn-looking moun- 
tains rise far, far abovo our heads, covered with irregular, 
scraggy, moss-covered rocks, from which the crystal water 
is dropping and sparkling in the clear, bright morning sun- 
light like diamonds in a lady’s necklace. From youder 
peak the immense old hemlocks, which seem to have died 
from centuries of watchfulness from these mountain 
heights, rear their dead branches and sharp pointed tops, 
piercing the very clouds, while the green trees upon a 
neighboring mountain present the varied tints of the bright- 
ly tipped hemlock and spruce, in contrast with the deeper 
foliage of the beech, maple, and oak, arranging their 
branches against the sky beyond into figures grotesque or 
graceful, to suit the mood in which wo find ourselves. 
With such surroundings it matters little whether the fish- 
ing is good or bad, for one can come contented to the noon 
repast with a dozeu trout, a keen appetite, and a thankful 
spirit for being enabled to so thoroughly enjoy nature in 
all her loveliness. 
And so we jog along, varying the enjoyment by reeling 
now and then a speckled beauty within reach of our land- 
ing net, until two o’clock finds us in camp and in the pres- 
ence of the dinner that Fred has prepared for us. Our 
meal of fried onions and potatoes, boiled trout, baked 
johnny cake, and broiled stake over with, we lie in the cool 
shade of the camp, smoke our pipes, and relate tlic adven- 
tures of the day. Charles busies himself in constructing 
rustic seats, banking up and leveling off the grounds, and 
searching for mammoth back logs, performing the labor of 
two ordinary mortals aud enjoying himself as only a let- 
loose Brooklynite cun. In the evening we threw the tly for 
such old trout that, in defiance of our skill, broke upon the 
smooth surface of the many excellent pools near our camp; 
