FOREST AND STREAM 
237 
rectly in front of that delightful spot; so that, 
when its mighty shoulders were buried in the 
blue-green tide, the active, slender cut-throat 
might lurk behind the buttress, and with swift 
dartings to and fro snatch from the clear, swiftly 
running current all the little minnows they de¬ 
light to feet upon. Now the bright eyes are 
watching, the tide is running well, and overhead 
a big log has just passed, casting its shadow on 
the shell-incrusted bottom. ■ Now, wonder of 
wonders! Slowly swimming just above is a 
Leap of a Cut-throat Trout. 
small fish of a new breed, but one that looks as 
if it could be easily captured. Out from under 
the dark shadow in the lea of that great boulder 
darts a silvery, shining line, true to the mark as 
an arrow to the gold speeds the cut-throat and 
seizes that slow-swimming, innocent,looking, new¬ 
fangled fish. 
“Ah! I don’t like that, out it goes!’’ and up into 
the bright sunlight springs the trout. At this mo¬ 
ment I am awakened from a sweet day-dream 
by an awful tug—my light trolling rod bends 
to the strain. Out with many leaps, plunges a 
shining, splashing thing fifty feet behind me, 
and I lay aside pipe and daydream and actively 
fight him. In a few minutes two pounds of sea¬ 
born beauty lies gasping in my fish-basket. If 
you love this work there are hundreds of tide 
side beaches on Vancouver Island and the Isl¬ 
ands of the Gulf of Georgia, where you may rent 
a room or build a seaside bungalow. You can 
get good fishing from the first day of the Spring 
reason until Fall brings out your rifle and breech¬ 
loader for wild fowl and big game. 
No, I have no retainer from the Province. I 
am many thousands miles away from that beauti¬ 
ful land of fish and fur and feather. But I 
still think of it as the one bright particular spot 
for the rod and gun. 
MADISONVILLE, O., WANTS HATCHERY. 
The Chamber of Commerce of Madisonville, 
Ohio, recently requested that a branch of the 
state fish hatchery be located there. It is pro¬ 
posed to breed half a million bass annually to 
stock the streams of Southwestern Ohio. 
Another Suggestion for “Old Camper” 
How A California Veteran Would Have Handled A Difficult Situation 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
I am afraid that I am in just about the same 
predicament that “Old Camper’’ was—rushed for 
time. But a hungry man, who has been paddling 
a canoe most of the day, and two ladies, also 
possessed of good appetites are waiting, so I must 
get busy. 
A good fire is the best start toward the prepa¬ 
ration of a meal, so I excused myself and quickly 
started a blaze in our regular fireplace, first re¬ 
moving the portable camp set with galvanized 
wire top, using wood that would make hot, bright 
coals. I also built a larger fire in the hole on the 
outer edge of the camp where we were accus¬ 
tomed to bake bread. 
This done I turned my attention to the prepa¬ 
ration of one of my favorite dishes, and one that 
I thought mig’ht prove to be something new to 
the ladies. I peeled a half a dozen “Murphies,” 
placed a clean bucket lid in the bottom of one of 
our largest pots, put in a thin layer of potatoes 
neatly sliced, dotted this with a few pieces of salt 
pork, diced fine, took the largest of the trout and 
cut them crosswise into three or four pieces and 
added a layer of fish. Onions there were none, 
but there was an abundance of wild mustard near 
the creek, so I added a few sprigs of that to give 
freshness to the dish. More potatoes, pork, fish 
and mustard were added in layers, with a little 
salt, until the pot was full. I then filled it almost 
to the top with water and placed it on the stones 
of our little fireplace to boil. 
By this time the fire in the hole had burned 
down quite well, so a batch of good old reliable 
baking powder bread was mixed and placed in a 
milk pan well greased with butter and lard. The 
coals were scraped away, another pan was placed 
on top of the one containing the dough and the 
two carefully lowered into the hole. A few of 
the coals were placed on top of the inverted pan, 
the embers were drawn around the lower one, 
and the “staff of life” was in the making. 
By this time the fish chowder was cooking 
merrily and a splendid bed of coals sparkled in 
the little fireplace. I scraped a portion of the 
dried cheese, placing it in a bowl, mashed the 
boiled potatoes, moistened them slightly and 
formed them into little cakes. 
Our folding gridiron with wire top was rather 
black, but by dint of some energetic rubbing, first 
with spruce boughs and then with a clean cloth, 
the soot was removed. Placing this over the hot 
coals I laid the partridges upon it and these were 
soon broiling in, good shape. In the intervals be¬ 
tween turning the birds, I was enabled to set the 
table with our best, to fetch water for the coffee, 
and even gather a small bouquet of wild flowers 
for the festive board. While in this expedition 
I found some water cress in the creek, so brought 
this along to garnish the partridges. 
Within an hour’s time the bread had baked to 
a brown, the odor that arose from the chowder 
pot was anything but discouraging, and the birds 
on the gridiron were sizzling in a tantalizing 
manner. Coffee was easily prepared and the visit¬ 
ors made ready to satisfy their hunger without a 
second invitation. I almost forgot the fried 
potato balls, but they were on the table sizzling 
in good bacon grease by the time the company 
had commenced on the birds. 
What Pete would have for supper is another 
story, but it is sufficient to add that there was 
neither partridge or fish chowder. 
Mr. Editor, I am afraid that this letter will 
prove rather expensive to me, as I now have 
visions of trout chowder that can only be swept 
aside by a trip to some such place as Kern River, 
or Whitney Creek. By the way, I plan to land a 
few Golden Trout next summer and if you, or 
any of the staff will be in California about July, 
let’s rough it together. 
M. L. CHURCH. 
San Francisco, Cal. 
PINE KNOLLS. 
R. F. D. No. i, Neuse, N. C., Feb. 9, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: I have been an 
interested and appreciative reader of Forest and 
Stream for many years and also have had some 
experience in camping, so accept the invitation 
to tell what I should do in “Old Camper’s” posi¬ 
tion as entertainer for those unexpected guests. 
I consider the most acceptable hospitality to 
hungry people would be shown by preparing as 
soon as possible what the larder afforded, not 
troubling to add “frills” to the feast. 
First we will assume wood fire to be used, with 
a supply of kindling convenient. Start the fire, 
put water to boil for coffee or tea as the guests 
prefer, cut some cold potatoes for frying. Put 
a small wedge of pork in each trout for season¬ 
ing. Broil three or four, according to size, with 
a partridge, previously having mixed some flour, 
for “batter cakes” to bake in the frying-pan— 
having no griddle. 
Quite a task for an inexperienced person cook¬ 
ing several things at once. One might have 
some merriment by asking the visitors to assist 
in the preparation if they were not too tired. 
The host would need to be waiter and bake cakes 
as the visitors ate. I am certain that hungry 
people would enjoy such a repast. And quite a 
romance might result from this chance acquaint¬ 
ance if two of the party were unmarried. Tell 
us about it. With interest, 
MARY L. MILLS. 
(To be continued.) 
SMALL HOOK GETS BIG SHARK. 
A small hook that was baited for grounders or 
red-fish attracted the attention of a 150-pound 
shark at St. Johns Pass, Florida, and the big fel¬ 
low was pulled ashore with light tackle. The fisher¬ 
men had been losing hooks for several hours 
and it was thought that the shark was tired out 
after snapping repeatedly, and could not break 
the final hook. 
DEER FURNISH WEATHER SIGNAL. 
The winter “yards” of deer in Connecticut have 
already broken up, and this the farmers take as 
an indication that the deer regard winter as hav¬ 
ing come to an end. Although the breaking up 
generally occurs late in March, all parts of that 
region are already overrun by deer, which in 
their search for food are destroying young fruit 
trees. 
SQUIRRELS DIE IN FRESHET. 
A hundred thousand squirrels were drowned or 
clubbed to death by farmers as a result of a re¬ 
cent freshet near A'vena, Cal. While the squir¬ 
rels were swimming for dry land the ranchers 
met them in boats and accomplished wholesale 
slaughter. 
