FOREST AND STREAM 
589 
of turkey’s tail feathers and long hair of wolf. 
Underneath the tail is placed a double hook, set 
there to clinch the snap of a bass. This double 
hook is also made invisible by hair from squir¬ 
rel’s tail. The body is a solid piece of painted 
cork to which is securely fastened by silver wire 
the legs and claws, which are made of the long fi¬ 
bers of turkey’s tail feathers,—the most pliable yet 
strongest material I can find for the purpose. At 
the base of the body the movable tail is fastened 
by a hinge. The tail is shown in the cut at its 
highest point, which is the portion seen while in 
the water, though on a slack line the tail drops 
down to move up again when a jerk is given the 
lure. The horns are quills from the cock’s hackle. 
It is only on very rare occasions that bass will 
rise from the bottom where they lie to take a 
live crab at, or near, the surface. They invari¬ 
ably seize a live crab while it is swimming near 
the bottom, going for it even after it begins to 
crawl along the bed of the river to hide under a 
stone. 
For that reason, sometimes, the same condition 
prevails with the artificial lure, and to carry out 
the natural delusion, it may be necessary to place 
one or two buckshot on the leader near the hook. 
If the water is sluggish, one shot is sufficient to 
keep the lure below, yet suspended from the bot¬ 
tom. More success will be apparent if the bait 
is jerked and kept on the move. No full basket 
is gained by the sleepy angler, or one who stares 
around without thirfking of what he is about. 
Bass are everlastingly cute, they are neither 
sleepy nor foolish. 
Another way—especially good in fairly swift 
water—is to fasten a dipsey sinker to the end of 
the ling, then have the lure on a two-foot leader, 
which is attached to the line one foot above the 
sinker. The lure will not sink to the bottom, 
but float at the same height as tied, according to 
the action of the water flow. The sinker should 
be lifted now and then to give life to the lure. 
He Bears This Common Name 
T HE Alpine antelope, which we know as the 
white goat, has been often described in 
Forest and Stream, and in fact more has 
been put on record with regard to its charac¬ 
teristics and its ways of life in these columns 
than in all the other books and papers that have 
ever been printed. As is well known to those 
who have studied it, the animal is an antelope 
allied to the chamois of Europe, and closely re¬ 
lated to one or two species of rock-inhabiting 
antelopes found in Asia. The only reason for 
calling it a goat seems to be that it lives among 
the rocks and has a beard, but it differs widely 
from the goat in its physical characteristics. 
Such erroneous names are constantly given in 
popular nomenclature, and the differences be¬ 
tween the white goat and the domestic one are 
not greater than those which exist between the 
American and European robins or hedge hogs, 
or elks, or many other animals which bear like 
names in the two continents. 
This method also applies to the helgramite, 
frog, and various floating minnows, and to be 
only tried if the bass fail to rise at the lure near 
the surface. 
The reasons a live helgramite is so good to 
use as a bass lure are twofold. They are very 
tough, also very active, swimming and wriggling 
in the water all the time, till they get in their 
natural habitat, the bed of the river. Therefore 
it is most necessary that the artificial be played 
and kept moving all the time near the bottom. I 
Helgramite Reduced One-Third. 
have made it to float that bass may, perhaps, be 
induced to take it near the surface or about 
midwater. Otherwise it must be made to sink 
with one or two small split shot fastened on the 
leader as before described. 
The lamper eel has not been made to float be¬ 
cause its peculiar shape and length of body 
would make a much more expensive lure if made 
of cork. It was found to be much easier to use 
a piece of rubber tube, bent to shape and care¬ 
fully painted the right color. The long, powerful 
hook and heavy rubber makes it weigh some¬ 
what more (a little over, quarter of an ounce) 
but quite light enough to cast with a long fly- 
rod. After casting, it should be allowed to 
sink near the bottom, then rapidly reeled in,— 
(See Frontispiece) 
To one unacquainted with its habits the white 
color of the goat might seem to be a very seri¬ 
ous disadvantage to it in exposing the animal to 
the attacks of its enemies. Nothing is more 
conspicuous than a patch of white against a sum¬ 
mer landscape. On the other hand, we know 
that animals which live in Arctic or snow-clad 
regions are protected by their color, which ren¬ 
ders them invisible at a little distance. The 
ptarmigan, the snowy owl, some hares, a fox 
and the polar bears are examples of this, and in 
our own climate some weasels and some hares 
turn white in winter. The goat’s color is pro¬ 
tective, and it is not easily discovered on snow- 
clad mountains or where the snow lies through 
most of the year in patches and drifts. 
As is well known, the goat usually lives very 
high up among rocks, above timber line in sum¬ 
mer, but in winter, especially on the west coast, 
it works down nearer to the sea level. In the 
main chain of the Rocky Mountains, however, 
its bent shape giving a peculiar twisting wrig¬ 
gle to imitate the motion of a live eel. It is 
quite possible (though not yet tried) that the ad¬ 
dition of a small half-inch silver flat spoon at¬ 
tached to the eye of a hook, would prove extra 
attractive to the bass. 
Later on a trial will be made to construct a 
floating lamper of cork, reinforced with silver 
wire and wound in silk. Such a lure will be 
more expensive; whether it will be worth while 
remains to be seen by a test. 
This article concludes what I have to say on 
nature lures for the present. I know I shall be 
kept busy this winter making them, afterwards 
spending part of the coming summer fishing ex¬ 
clusively with them, and the rest of the time will 
be taken up on the coast, round about inland bays 
to copy the various foods consumed by salt water 
game fishes with the aim of making a set of arti¬ 
ficial nature lures for striped bass, channel bass, 
bluefish, weakfish, fluke and other minor fishes— 
something heretofore not attempted for salt¬ 
water anglers. 
If I have not, in this and previous articles, con¬ 
vinced anglers that nature lures (which exactly 
imitate color, form and life movements of nat¬ 
ural baits) are equally advantageous to the fish¬ 
erman, game fishes and the various creatures they 
feed on, it is not from lack of effort and years 
of patient study on my part. But I am con¬ 
fident that, in time, nature lures will take their 
place, will succeed far better than anything else, 
either natural or artificial. At least, I shall make 
them so if others don’t. Tt is only a matter of 
persistent effort in the right direction—that is 
to make the artificial act as the natural bait does. 
Finally, the bass, trout and pike angler, 
equipped with a complete set of these nature 
lures, will be able to catch the bigger fish at less 
trouble and expense, gain infinitely more sport 
with keener delight, than he can get with any 
other lures—natural or artificial. 
Antelope and Difficult to Stalk 
they seem to live about as high at one season as 
at another. 
The goat is an animal of great strength, but 
of rather slow movements. It seldom runs, un¬ 
less very badly frightened, and very seldom lifts 
its head with any appearance of alertness such 
as is common with deer, antelope and mountain 
sheep. Usually the head is carried low—below 
the level of the back, which seems higher than 
it really is on account of the long dorsal spines 
and the heavy roach, or mane, along the middle 
of the back. An examination of the bony frame¬ 
work shows that the bones and legs are short 
and extremely stout; that the dorsal spines of 
the dorsal vertebra are unusually long, and that 
the animal is formed for strength and long con¬ 
tinued exertion, rather than for great bursts of 
speed. So it is that the goat seldom attempts 
to escape by running, but when alarmed almost 
always points its nose toward the top of the 
mountain and climbs out of danger. 
The White Goat 
on Him, But He Really Is an Alpine 
