April, 1918 
F ORES T AND S T R E A M 
229 
A Camp for the Boys 
N OW that spring has come, all the boys 
will want to get out in the woods on 
Saturday afternoons and play at camping. 
I know I did when I was a boy. Quite a 
bunch of us used to camp on an old creek 
bottom and the noises that roared up from 
that camp ground when we got going full 
tilt must have sounded glorious to some 
old red bloods who were real boys when 
young; but to many others it sounded 
scandalous, I have no doubt. There we 
live d, fought 
each other and 
played. Here is 
a description of 
one of the best 
and easiest 
camps for a 
bunch of boys 
to make. Get 
a h a r dw o o d 
board, such as ash, about three inches wide 
and two inches thick. In it bore five pair 
of double three-quarter inch holes as 
shown in the drawing and two more holes 
in the ends of the board. Procure one 
dozen green hazel or ash rods about five 
feet long; push one end of the rods in the 
holes which have been bored and push the 
other end into the ground in a nice curve. 
This completes the frame which is then 
covered with canvas, burlap gunny sacks, 
birchbark, tarred paper, or anything else 
that suggests itself to the imagination. It 
makes a splendid camp, and if you have a 
boy and want to get in his good graces, a 
sure way is for you to go out and help 
him build it. 
Jim Ferguson, New York. 
Drying Fishing Lines 
E VERY angler knows that lines must be 
thoroughly dried every time they are 
used, and almost everyone has tried out 
many kinds of line-driers, both the patent 
kind and those that are written about by- 
anglers in the outdoor magazines. I have 
tried nearly all of them and have finally 
concluded that the natural way is the best 
of all—that is, when I come in from fish¬ 
ing I go to the attic and unwind my line, 
letting it fall as it will in a loose coil or 
pile on the floor. Then I make a loop on 
the end and catch it over a wooden pin so 
that it cannot become lost or tangled. 
When I want the line again I untie the 
loop, run it through the guides and fasten 
to the reel. As I wind in, the line adjusts 
itself naturally without a twist or tangle. 
The line may be piled in any dry place so 
long as it will not be disturbed or stepped 
on, as the coils must be kept loose. 
J. H. W„ Yonkers, N. Y. 
A Self Photographing Camera 
OW often many of us who frequent 
the wild places have wished that we 
could get pictures of birds and animals in 
natural poses. 
For a simple kink to make any camera 
take a picture I think this device will 
answer most purposes. 
I will give no dimensions as no two 
trees are alike. 
The camera must be securely tied to the 
tree and focused at a point where the sub¬ 
ject will probably appear. Referring to 
the sketch: the branch “A” is stripped of 
its twigs and bent down into a notch cut 
in the tree a few inches above the camera. 
Then run a string down under “B” and 
tie it to the finger release of the shutter. 
The trip string which is attached to bait 
or stretched across a game trail goes in the 
notch under “A” and is tied around the 
tree about two inches above the notch. 
Now all is set and when the trip string 
is pulled twig “A” slips out of the notch 
and exerts sufficient pull to make the ex¬ 
posure. 
Of course it is well to see that every¬ 
thing works smoothly before the plate or 
film is put in place. 
Chas. E. Smith, New York. 
An Ever-Ready Fish Scaler 
T is not necessary in our fishing camp to 
take along a patent fish scaler, although 
a fish scaler is a very handy thing to have 
Nail 
in camp. We simply make our own, and 
if we lose it we make another. You can 
see from the picture how very simple it is. 
The metal cap of a bottle—we use a beer 
bottle cap, but there are many soft drinks 
that are bottled in the same sort of bot¬ 
tles—is nailed to a flat stick, the end of 
which is shaped to fit the hand easily'. 
Drive a small nail or a couple of tacks 
through the center of the bottle cap. A 
nail is better, as it can be clinched over on 
the top of the stick. If you want to do the 
work in a hurry, nail on two bottle cape or 
even three, side by side lengthwise on the 
stick, but be careful not to split the wood. 
This little implement rips the scales of the 
fish in a jiffy. Harry Ripley, Minn. 
A Life-line for Snagged Baits 
F y-ou have ever stood helpless while your 
pet plug dangled in the bushes out of 
reach or else far out in the clutches of 
some ugly snag, y-ou will appreciate this 
bit of advice, which was given to me by- 
a noted authority- on angling. I do not 
think he has mentioned it in his books. If 
you have played ball and can throw a stone 
with any degree of accuracy it is hard to 
cast a bait where you cannot retrieve it 
with a life-line. This is merely a long, 
heavy line, coarse cotton line is good, to 
which you can tie the nearest available 
flat stone—several casts may have to be 
made—and the bait is saved. It is a very- 
small thing to carry, this life-line, but it 
saves much time and temper. 
P. C. D., New York. 
