390 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Sept. 28, 1912 
to the small-mouthed bass as he fed. The latter 
part of September it was. The waters were get¬ 
ting cool at night, and the fish seemingly favored 
the more temperate water along the shores where 
the sun heated it during the afternoons. 
Most of the fishing along the upper Missis¬ 
sippi is with the fly. The greatest numbers of 
fish caught are small-mouths. Occasionally some 
big-mouths are taken from the wing dams and 
the mud banks. From Prescott to Read’s Land¬ 
ing we found excellent sport with the rod. 
Fisher flies were taken best by the bass. The 
type of fly liked best is that with one or two 
small spinners just ahead of the feathering. 
Striped bass, white bass, big- and small-mouths 
all took it avidly. I remember taking three from 
one point on a projecting wing dam. 
The following day we again went up the 
lake after supper. A point at the mouth of a 
creek, said point being of mud and reeds, rushes 
and pads, gave us the excellent big-mouths shown 
in the illustration. We wanted to tarry along 
the lake and river until the quail season should 
open in a couple of days, trying all the fishing- 
points, and cruising up to Hudson and Stillwater. 
Afton and other villages that were crowded with 
summer folks from the Twin Cities. 
Of all the river and lake fishing, the best is 
just below Prescott among the wing dams and 
along the ripraps that border the river. If the 
weather is hot, you will find the small-mouths 
and the big-mouths as well making for the deeper 
holes. It is no use to fly-fish for them on the 
surface then, as they are deep down in cool 
water. Moon-eyed minnows, shining like so 
much beaten silver, their eyes large, dark spots 
that make them particularly attractive, may be 
put on gutted bass hooks, and your boat an¬ 
chored above the deeper holes in the channel of 
the river. The water is generally clear, or just 
clear enough to make the fishing good. Drop 
the minnow down current and let a heavy sinker 
carry the minnow to the bottom or nearly to it. 
Working the minnow back and forth will soon 
get you a strike if there is anything in the holes. 
Small boys can guide you to the best fishing if 
you are not acquainted with the river. 
And our ice-box stocked with fish we rested, 
watching the snorting little steamers at the head 
of the great rafts of pine and fir and spruce 
swing them at their heads, while the larger stern- 
wheelers backed and came ahead, and came ahead 
and backed, to prevent the raft from going to 
pieces at the various points along the river’s 
channel. A few cruisers from further south, 
open-boats, closed-boats, trunk-cabins, cabin- 
boats, raised-deckers and crosses between house¬ 
boats and steamers, they all came and went and 
passed the time of day with us. 
Every morning the whistle of the quail 
across the river reminded us that in another 
day or so the season would be open. A slight 
frost set us to gathering walnuts and butternuts 
and trying to dry them out on the sandy shores. 
Pike fishing was good at any time along the bar 
that had built up at the mouth of Lac St. Croix, 
and odd hours were spent after them and gath¬ 
ering mooneyes that we might keep the ice-box 
stocked. Strangers came and went to and from 
this mecca of the fly-fisherman, we doing our • 
share in return to entertain them. 
The day before the season opened for quail 
the writer made a trip with a pearl buyer through 
twenty miles of sloughs and spots of backwater 
along which lived an army of clammers and pearl 
traders. It was a trip that cannot be forgotten. 
Down a chute between two cornfields and into 
a clump of willows brought us face to face with 
a gang dipping their catch in hot water prepara¬ 
tory to opening the shells. Then around a bend 
we came upon a town of floating shanties. One 
labeled Groceries would always be in their midst. 
Other legends were also flaunted upon the travel¬ 
er. Hope, eternal hope, hope for a thousand 
dollar pearl or one that would even bring a 
hundred, was the main nourishment of each and 
every mortal we found. Clammers with almost 
worthless slugs implored the buyer to purchase. 
Others with fine pearls of from fifty to a hun¬ 
dred dollars value refused to sell until they got 
their prices. Farming, stock-raising, pearl-trad¬ 
ing, clamming and mixtures of these and a dozen 
other occupations employed the nomadic people 
along the upper Mississippi. 
fTO BE CONTINUED.] 
Our Daily Bread 
A “Bakers’ Dozen” of Some of the Representative Characteristic Breads and Crackers 
of the Globe Used by Campers, Travelers, Fisher-Folk, Motoring Tourists, 
Trappers, Etc.—Pointers for the American Camping Supply Trades 
By L. LODIAN 
In Two Parts—Part Two 
T HE pretzel family of breads—fresh and as 
hard-tacks—is a large one. There are 
about 100 known varieties of pretzels in 
the world, nearly all of which have been col¬ 
lected and illustrated in a learned German work 
on pretzels, or bretzels (derived from the Italian 
word braceletio , or bracelet, as they originally 
had somewhat the form of a bracelet when the 
Ligurians of centuries ago originated them). In 
America we have some two-score kinds of pret¬ 
zels. One of them is known as the solid pretzel 
and is saucer-shaped—for a reason. It is much 
used by Russians with their glass of tea. If the 
tea is too hot, the pretzel is used as an extem¬ 
pore saucer. After a couple of "pours,” it softens 
somewhat, and is all the more edible. It is well 
to know of these makeshift devices of the na¬ 
tions, as they may all come in handy some time 
or other in camping life. For example, a form 
of Italian trellis work or lattice work hard-tack 
is often used in camp as an improvised shelf for 
holding light articles. 
centuries ago, and to this day they make the same 
biskots in a dozen different forms. We illustrate 
various of them, with one of the fresh-daily little 
round breads from which, on staling, the biskots 
are made—just sliced atwain, and lightly re¬ 
baked to a nicely browned crisp. It is an eco- 
1 and 2—What the original biscuits of centuries ago looked like. They are still made thus by the Italians—the 
THE ORIGIN OF THE BISCUIT. originators of the biskot—in various forms. (Specimen marked 1 is the fresh bread, which, on staling, is 
halved and re-ovened to a slight crisp, as shown at Fig. 2—left.) These biskots, of course, are the original 
Tile Ligurian Mediterraneans originated the travel hard-tacks of the world. 3—Saucer-shaped solid pretzels, often used with the Russian glass of tea as a 
. . . . . , i , . . , ,, temporary saucer, for cooling. (There are about 100 pretzel forms in Europe.) 4—The "buttered toast” stick 
biscuit, which they termed biskot ( twice-baked ), biscuitry (Koda) of the Italian lakes region—Novara, Como, Milan, and much carried by Alpinists. 
