FOREST AND STREAM 
119 
population, but as far as our surroundings 
went we might have been 500 miles 
from a settlement. A few deer yet re¬ 
mained in those mountains and I started 
one that was lying down in thick brush, 
close to the edge of the stream. I also 
saw four or five woodcock, on the margins 
for they flushed as I drew too near. 
I WAS standing in the middle of a long, 
quiet reach, with narrow margins on both 
sides of the stream. At the moment I 
was practically still fishing and making no 
movement of rod or person. Presently a 
fine woodcock walked right out of the 
brush and came down to the edge of the 
creek, on my right. 
Here the bird paused for a moment; 
then deliberately entered the water and 
slowly oared itself to the opposite bank. 
I never saw a prettier sight, as the hand¬ 
some bird seemed to be entirely at home, 
and unafraid. It sat upon the water as 
gracefully as any swan, but the long bill 
gave it an odd appearance. It left the 
pool as deliberately as it had entered it 
and walking into the brush, disappeared. 
I regard this as one of the most remark¬ 
able incidents that ever came within my 
observation. I have never seen anything 
like it in all the years since that day, and 
I was in my sixteenth year then, and no 
man has ever told me of a similar experi¬ 
ence. I know that woodcock can swim if 
they wish and are not afraid of the water. 
But the habits of the bird are so retiring 
and it is so much a creature of the night 
that we know comparatively little about it. 
Woodcock differ greatly from other game 
birds in mental poise. It is not timid and 
is easily tamed. If it was not for the pro¬ 
hibitive difficulties in the way of procuring 
sufficient food for them I can imagine few 
more interesting pets than a brace of wood¬ 
cock; but they are great feeders, consum¬ 
ing large quantities of small worms, slugs 
and such like. It would require about all 
of one’s time to feed a brace. 
W ADING down Mountain Creek on 
such a day was a delightful ex¬ 
perience, one not to be forgotten 
and time sped on flying wings. We caught 
trout in all kinds of water, but in smaller 
numbers and of larger average size as we 
descended the stream. It seemed to me 
that the lower reaches were slightly tinged 
with vegetable matter, but I may be in er¬ 
ror. At last it was time to knock off if we 
wished to get out of the mountains and 
bad roads before dark. Before leaving the 
stream I tried a few casts with artificial 
flies on quiet water, and found that the 
trout were quite willing to rise and to rise 
well. My friend meanwhile had emptied 
both creels and divided the fish equally. 
He reported a total of fifty-seven trout and 
five fallfish (large silver chub). 
We were late in getting away and it was 
quite dark when we reached the smooth 
white road that led through the open coun¬ 
try. My friend was obliged to keep awake 
to steer the horse and buggy, but I had 
nothing upon which to concentrate my 
mind. I had been awake for a great many 
hours and had been in the water all day. I 
simply could not keep awake. It is a mis¬ 
ery to be so overpowered by sleep and not 
be able to yield to it. It was after 11 on 
the clock when we reached town—a long 
day from two in the morning. 
CANOEING 
These Canoes Are Comfortable, Seaworthy and Strongly Built Little Craft, Offer¬ 
ing Their Owners a Great Deal of Enjoyment, as They Are Used Both for 
Cruising and for Racing. 
SWEDISH SAILING CANOE 
By Hilding Froling. 
T HE drawings shown herewith repre¬ 
sent the most popular type of canoe 
in use in Sweden. The length over 
all is 17 feet and the greatest beam is 
43 inches. It carries a sail area of 108 
square feet. A large number of canoes of 
this size are built in Sweden every year. 
These canoes are built very strongly of 
Swedish fir and are covered with canvas. 
Many of them remain in the water through¬ 
out the summer. 
As can be seen in the photograph, these 
canoes possess sufficient stability to float 
an even keel while under sail, lying at an 
anchorage. 
As a great number of canoes are built 
from one design, blueprints are sold to 
"$@ILR93SKI.“ St raniLtuurar. 
Partial Detail of Construction of a Really Vt^orkable Sailing Canoe. 
canoeists at a very low price, thus enabling 
every canoeist to build from well-executed 
plans, rather than by rule of thumb and 
haphazard methods. 
It is estimated that in 1915 about 40,000 
forest fires occurred in the United States, 
which burned over about 5,900,000 acres 
and caused a damage of approximately $7,- 
000,000. - 
Revised estimates place the amount of 
standing merchantable timber in the United 
States at approximately 2,767 billion board 
feet. Of this amount 1,464 billion board 
feet, or 53 per cent, of the total, is in 
California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and 
Montana. 
