252 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 12, 1911. 
his thirst for game. But that was the only sign 
of game that we saw on the whole trip. The 
woods were not at all populous; and I was not 
surprised, for meaner woods I had never been 
through. They were mostly stunted beeches, set 
rather far apart, with a forest floor of loose 
blocks of stone, little humus, but plenty of 
underbrush. Water was seldom found, except 
in the valleys. Only once did we find any of 
the fine evergreen woods that makes the Green 
Mountains so attractive; and that was a really 
noble grove of giant hemlocks on a steep knoll 
just beyond where we saw the bear track. 
Above this it grew very steep, and barometer 
and observation showed us that we were near¬ 
ing the divide. Then we reached a series of 
little mossy cliffs, very hard to get up, and 
then the flat top of the divide; but, alas! the 
wind had been there before us, and as far as 
the eye could see was a tangled mass of young 
evergreens, tossed like giant jackstraws in a 
wild tangle of steel-hard wood. The bit was 
not over a hundred yards wide, but it took 11 s 
two hours to get over, under and through it, 
and even then we left part of our cuticle and 
clothing behind us. 
Then came a mile or two through open 
woods, with wonderful views to the south until 
we got too far down into the basin where one 
branch of the Esopus Creek rises. Then fol¬ 
lowed a bad two hours of blackberry thicket, 
evidently a burning, so that we were faint with 
hunger before we reached water and a place 
where we could get dinner. After that we de¬ 
cided not to go all the way down into the val¬ 
ley, as we heard the stream roaring and feared 
rough travel, so we descended very gradually 
until the thick second growth stopped at a well 
defined wood-road, to which happy accident we 
owed at least an hour saved. 
This was evidently the old tote-road, for it 
took us by easy grades to the stream, which it 
crossed on well built bridges, from which the 
floors had long since gone, but which we 
crossed by the stringers. Except in Norway, I 
have never seen more picturesque scenery than 
we found along this stream. It seemed to be 
fine trout water, but we saw no fish and did not 
try to get any, as it was all posted. For this 
reason we hurried on to get out of posted land 
before camping time, as it was unpleasant to 
think of camping on private property; unposted 
woods never seem private. At sunset we 
reached the main road, after passing the camp 
and cottages of the owner of this estate, and a 
little chapel, and the road was itself picturesque 
enough to be in some foreign mountain land. 
Our private road came out far up the face of 
a cliff, and the deep valley below us contained 
a high-road and a stream, the former rising to 
the divide toward which our road descended. 
I should hate to drive a team down there; it 
was bad enough to walk down so steep a trail, 
with only a few inches between you and the 
edge of things, and a sheer drop below; but it 
was beautiful in the twilight. 
On the main road we debated whether to 
camp or to stay in a farm house; but the avlley 
was so narrow that we found no place to camp 
sufficiently removed from the road and the 
houses all seemed deserted. Just before dark 
we reached a house where we saw a light and 
heard children’s voices, and here we were taken 
in and cared for with that ready and unpre¬ 
tentious hospitality that marks mountain folk 
the world over. The omelet and the cake that 
we were given for supper we still think of with 
affection. 
When we awoke Sunday morning to a heavy 
rain, we were glad we were in shelter; but we 
did not look forward with any enthusiasm to 
the tramp to Shokan, half a dozen miles away. 
Splashing through mud and water with the rain 
trickling down our necks, we finally reached a 
haven where we changed to dry clothes and had 
our wet ones dried for packing, and felt most 
respectable. But pride goeth before a fall. 
Once comfortably settled on the train the con¬ 
ductor came around and wanted to move us into 
the smoker, with the “other emigrants”—and 
only first-class tickets and a fluent command of 
first-class language saved us from ignominy. 
We laughed at his lack of discrimination, but 
T HERE has been more or less of a contro¬ 
versy in the sportsmen’s magazines re¬ 
garding the use of artificial baits. The 
man who makes a specialty of bass fishing is 
sure to come in touch with the artificial baits, 
since they are the next thing to turn to if live 
bait is not used. Fishermen all over the coun¬ 
try are more or less interested in this subject, 
and, as far as I know, there is a half-way senti¬ 
ment regarding artificials, though the seasoned 
fisherman will put them down with scorn, rely¬ 
ing upon the frogs of the right size and then 
trying other kinds known as bass food. Craw¬ 
fish, helgramites, grasshoppers and dew worms 
are usually resorted to when all others fail. I 
have questioned many anglers and some have 
defended the wooden minnows stoutly, claim¬ 
ing large catches from their use. For my part, 
I think they are well-nigh useless in lakes that 
have been fished much, but in little fished 
waters they may be the best thing going, since 
the fish are ready to strike at almost anything 
that bears any semblance whatsoever to their 
natural prey. 
In the northern waters it is safe to say that 
almost any form of bait will entice the wily 
fellows. A friend of mine once took a bright 
piece of tin and shaped it into a spoon, and 
with this on the hook, caught a number of bass 
in a half hour. There is nothing better than 
live bait, the frog being in favor with most 
of the bass fishermen. Used in combina¬ 
tion with a weedless hook, there is nothing to 
equal it, but then one must allow for the queer 
notions of the bass, for sometimes they will 
strike at a surface or sub-surface bait when the 
frog has proven worthless for that day. This, 
I believe, is not because the fish desire them 
for food, but take it out of sheer exasperation 
at seeing the weird thing invading their waters. 
Whether they do this for such a reason or not 
is a question, but it is no matter to the fisher¬ 
man so long as they strike. I have often 
watched this when the bass have been moving 
up and down in the shallows; when the bait is 
when at Weehawken some lonely Huns with 
bundles came and began to chatter to us, we 
were less self-confident; and the climax was 
reached when on landing in our city again I 
was seized by an emigrant agent and told, 
“Here, youse don’t know where you’re going. 
Youse ’ll get lost, Ginnie. Come on this way. 
Where’s your ticket?” 
That I am not at this moment working in the 
mines as No. 227 is due, I am convinced, solely 
to the quickness of thought and action shown 
by Louis, who “poured forth a stream of horrid 
implications,” to quote Kenneth Grahame, in 
the very best Bowery accent, and seizing me by 
the arm, whisked me to safety and a horse-car, 
where he and Jimmie proceeded to laugh as do 
the gods. Thus was I vindicated for having 
prophesied that we would be safer in the wilder¬ 
ness than in our own city. 
trolled past their very noses a number of times 
they may completely ignore it and then of a 
sudden some vigorous fellow will snap it up 
so quick that every nerve tingles. If the fish¬ 
erman would use artificial bait, it is best to 
do so in the early part of the season when 
the bass are in the shallows. Later in the 
season they retreat to the deeper waters and 
under the lily pads, the artificials then being 
troublesome when they catch in weeds. In 
June artificials are to be depended upon more 
than in the fall when the bass are again found 
in the shallows catching insects that drop on 
the water. 
The bass generally make for deep water 
about the second week in July, though this of 
course depends upon the temperature; they may 
then be taken with crustaceans such as they 
have a pronounced liking for, the frog and the 
artificial bait then being less effective than in 
the earlier part of the season. 
The trouble with most fishermen is that they 
do not give artificials the right kind of a try¬ 
out. You cannot expect to go out one day with 
your newly purchased minnow and drag in a 
horde of the lively ones, but that is what the 
average one-day man does, and because he has 
had no success gives it up with a shake of his 
head and ventures an opinion that they are 
made only to sell. Where there are thousands 
that have had no success with them, there are 
other thousands that have, and these are per¬ 
severing fellows who take a little time to study 
the habits of bass and use their wooden baits 
intelligently. You will not learn to know a 
bass and his habits in one year, and you may 
not in a lifetime, for they are most changeable, 
one day here and another day elsewhere; today 
they will take bait of any kind and tomorrow 
draw the line between certain of them or not 
take any at all. To ascertain in the morning 
just what the bass are taking that day and act 
accordingly is a safe rule to follow, and the fish¬ 
erman that does this is likely to be successful. 
We always have something to learn. I 11 my 
Artificial Baits 
By ROBERT PAGE LINCOLN 
