642 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 24, 1909. 
4» The “Forest and Stream” Trap Score Book 
«|» Meets the needs of gun clubs and shooters in every particular. The 
^ 150 sheets are heavily ruled—an advantage all scorers will appreciate, 
^ particularly when working in a dim light. The horizontal spaces are 
y numbered from i to 30. Broad perpendicular lines divide these into 
groups of five, which aids the eye of the scorer greatly. Similar heavy 
lines divide the perpendicular spaces into groups of six; thus the 
*1® squads are distinguishable at a glance. 
^ The paper manifolds easily, and carbon sheets are placed in the 
X book for that purpose. 
e|if It contains the American Shooting Association Rules for Live-Bird 
<|k Shooting, for Double Live-Bird Shooting, for Inanimate Target Shoot- 
^ ing; Hurlingham Revised Live-Bird Rules for single and double rises, 
X and the Rose System of dividing purses. Price, $1.00. 
f FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO., NEW YORK CITY ^ 
Ca^mp Life ii\ the Woods 
— HAMIITON GIBSON — 
A Complete Manual of Wood Life 
Handy, complete, with full explanations and directions so written that 
they are readily understood. Camp Life in the Woods is an invaluable book 
for camper, hunter, fisherman, trapper, for every one who goes into the 
woods for sport or recreation. 
Covers all details of “roughing it,” camping, shelter building, cooking, 
wood craft, canoe building and handling, trapping and taxidermy. Go(^ 
for every outdoor man. 
Full of “the tricks” that make for success in trapping, it is indispensable 
to every one, novice or old-timer, who plans a campaign against the fur-bear¬ 
ing animals the coming season. Cloth, fully illustrated. 
Postpaid, $1.00 
FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., 127 Franklin St., New York City. 
Where, When and How to Catcb 
Fish on the East Coast of Florida 
By Wm. H. Gregg, of St. Louis, Mo., assisted by Capt 
John Gardner, of Ponce Park, Mosquito Inlet, FIs 
With 100 engravings, and 12 colored illustration* 
Cloth. Illustrated. 268 pages. Map. Price, $4.00. 
A visitor to Florida can hardly make the trip without ( 
this book, if he is at all interested in angling. It gives s • 
very complete list of the fishes of the East Coast oi 
Florida, and every species is illustrated by a cut takei 
from the best authorities. The cuts are thus of the mosi 
value to the angler who desires to identify the fish h« 
takes, while the colored plates of the tropical fish shown 
in all their wonderful gorgeousness of coloring, are very 
beautiful. Besides the pictures of fish, there are cut# 
showing portions of the fishing tackle which the authos 
uses. A good index completes the volume. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
Canoe and Boat Building. 
A Complete Manual for Amateurs. Containing plain 
and comprehensive directions for the construction of 
canoes, rowing and sailing boats and hunting craft. By 
\\'. P. Stephens. Cloth. Seventh and enlarged edition. 
264 pages. Numerous illustrations and fifty plates in 
envelope. Price, $2.00. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
My Life As Ai\ Indian 
All That the Title Implies and More 
Probably the most faithful picture of Indian 
life ever drawn from the pen of a man who 
spent years among the Blackfeet, marrying into 
the tribe and becoming to all practical intents 
an Indian. 
Mr. Schultz tells of the life of the plains In¬ 
dian, when war and hunting were the occupa¬ 
tions of every man, when the buffalo still 
covered the prairie, and the Indian was as yet 
little touched by contact with civilization. He 
describes as one who has lived the life, the 
daily routine of the great camp, the lives of the 
men and women, the gambling, the quarreling, 
the love making, the wars, the trading of the 
Indians. 
The narrative is full of intense human in¬ 
terest. and the requisite touch of romance is 
supplied in the character of Nat-ah-ki, the beau¬ 
tiful Indian girl, who became the author’s wife. 
Price, $1.65 postpaid. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., 
127 Franklin Street, New York 
MAKING SNOWSHOES. 
When a man straps on a pair of snowshoes 
and treads over a depth of four or five feet of 
snow, he little realizes the details that have 
been necessary to make perfect the implements 
that prevent him from sinking into the snow, 
says a Rangeley guide in the Maine Woods. He 
little realizes the many parts that are neces¬ 
sary and variety of material that must be as¬ 
sembled in order to bring about the perfection 
of the snowshoe in its modern form. It is the 
purpose of this article to deal exclusively with 
hand-made snowshoes for, in the opinion- of the 
writer, there is but one way to make good 
snowshoes, and that is by hand exclusively. 
For the snowshoe we owe a debt to the 
Indian, and it is doubtful if we would have per¬ 
fected the shoe to its present high state had not 
the Indian, in the first place, told us how to 
make something to wear under our feet that 
would make simple the navigation of the snow 
bank. In the first place, let me impress that I 
do not wish to appear as criticising the Indian 
snowshoe. A good Indian snowshoe is the best 
thing an Indian can have for iis purpose, and it 
is doubtful if the white man could make any 
improvement, for the Indian. On the other 
hand, it is but natural that the Indian cannot 
well supply the white man, and he tries but little 
to do it,- for the shoes he makes to sell to the 
visitor are loosely put together, and are not built 
■to stand the rugged work that is required of 
those who walk on snowshoes nearly every day 
for three or four months in the year. 
In the construction of snowshoes I use 
selected white ash for the bows. This is cut in 
Avon and Phillips. It is only in these towns 
that I have been able to find the only proper 
wood in this locality. The logs are first sawed 
into squares and are then thoroughly dried. The 
long pieces are then cut into strips of various 
sizes. For men’s_ shoes the strips are 34-inch 
square, medium weight, ^xJ 4 ; women’s ^ 
square; children’s 9-16 inch square. 
The strips are then placed in a wooden box 
which is filled with cold water, and the steam 
is gradually turned on. When the wood is suf¬ 
ficiently pliable, it is placed into moulds where 
it remains until rigid once more. This process 
requires three or four days in a warm place and 
two weeks in a cold place. The moulds, are 
made with great care, there being no. less than 
thirty which are used. However, there are but 
ten or twelve of these that are most com¬ 
monly used. 
When the ash is ready, small holes are bored 
about the entire form, two cross pieces are 
mitered across and the tip is securely fastened. 
Then the frame is ready for stringing. For the 
center I use neat’s hide. The hide is first placed 
in a pond and, as 1 make all my snowshoes 
during the winter months, it is soon locked in 
by a good thickness of ice. When ready for use 
I chop a hole in the ice, fish out a hide and tak¬ 
ing it into a warm place, use a harness-maker’s 
stripper to remove all the hair and flesh. Many 
makers use lye for this purpose, but this has a 
deteriorating effect on the hide after it has been 
worn a while. The hide is thoroughly grained 
and is then frozen. Next it is thawed out and 
cut into strips about a third of an inch wide, 
these strips being soaked in water. 
The work of stringing snowshoes requires 
the use of considerable strength because the 
thongs must be pulled tight. There is danger, 
however, of pulling them too tight, thus mak¬ 
ing an unevenness which injures the practicabil¬ 
ity of the shoe. The work must be entirely uni¬ 
form. Neat’s hide is used for the center only. 
For the heel and toe finer strings of deer and 
caribou hide are used. This is cut into strips 
perhaps an eighth of an inch wide. 
When the shoe has been securely strung it is 
ready for the fastening on of the toe clips. The 
Indian simply uses a thong of deer hide which 
is tied around the ankle and toe. For con¬ 
venience we use a toe clip which is attached to 
the bound center string just below the opening 
which, as is well known, is left in the network. 
This string is bound by a strip of copper, over 
which works a ring made of flattened telegraph 
wire. The latter is attached to a shoe which 
