May, 1918 
292 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A Cup With Open Handle 
1 AM sending you a few hints which may 
prove useful for maintaining Nessmuk’s 
Camp Fire. 
For those who have not attained- the 
“art’’ of camp dishwashing, this will prove 
useful. To remove the grease and dirt 
from forks and knives, sticking them re¬ 
peatedly in the ground will thoroughly 
cleanse them. Old Nessmuk himself be¬ 
lieved in this trick and practised it. To 
scour doughy pots and greasy pans, fill 
about quarter full of gravel and water and 
shake them thoroughly. Gravel from the 
bed of a stream usually fills the bill. 
If you have not the open handle style 
cup, you can easily make one by filing the 
lower portion of the handle until it is free 
from the body of the cup, then slightly 
bending it outward as shown in sketch. 
This style cup nests very well when pack¬ 
ing. J. Jonassen, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
A Pusher for Tacks 
H ERE is a drawing of a handy imple¬ 
ment that can be used in many ways 
around camp. I invented it for use in 
stretching skins on a stretching board and 
used it in this way: A muskrat skin was 
placed on board, ready to be tacked. The 
pusher fits in palm of right hand allowing 
the fingers to grasp the tack and even to 
hold it while pressure is applied. This 
leaves the left hand free to grasp the skin 
or, in the case of a canoe, to hold the can¬ 
vas in place. The small end of the pusher 
must be cut off square to leave a flat re¬ 
sisting surface, and the pusher must be 
made of the hardest wood to be obtained. 
It never bends or breaks the tacks and 
always drives them straight in, which is 
more than can be said of a stone. Besides, 
there are many places where it is hard to 
find a round stone to use as a hammer. 
H. N. Giiibs, Rhode Island 
Oil Dyes for Fly Feathers 
HAVE carefully perused Dr. Holden’s 
articles on fly tying and it seems to me 
that there is one very important item he 
fails to make clear. 
He states, rather loosely, that all large 
tackle houses handle fly tying material. But 
they don’t! Or, if they do, faif to list these 
in their catalogs. 
I would be very glad if you would refer 
my name to any of your advertisers that 
handle fly tying materials, so they may send 
me prices, or, better still, publish a list of 
these firms in the columns of your maga¬ 
zine. 
Also, in the first.article, the author men¬ 
tions the use of diamond dye or similar 
dye to color feathers. My experience is 
that the right shades of red and yellow are 
extremely hard to get. 
A much better plan is the use of oil 
paints—the kind that come in tubes that 
are usually sold for 25 cents per tube. A 
drop or two of paint and a little gasoline 
are all that is needed. A feather dipped in 
this is permanently colored. Any shade is 
possible, and colors may be mixed in any 
way. Simple, effective. No boiling and 
fussing with wet feathers spread out to 
dry, as the feather dipped in this gasoline 
solution can be used as soon'as the “gas” 
has evaporated. 
Hoping this suggestion may be of value 
to other readers. 
Jas. E. Stevens, Kansas City, Mo. 
A Ring Lost Overboard 
AST summer I lost a very valuable seal 
ring overboard in about five feet of 
water. The bottom was covered with large 
stones and the water was so clear that I 
could look down and see it shining in a 
crevice between the stones. I tried for it 
with a hook and line but was not success¬ 
ful, as the hook could not get at it; I was 
afraid it would be dislodged and sink deep¬ 
er in the crevices if anyone tried to dive 
for it, so I cut a long slim birch pole and 
left a bit of one twig on the end. In this 
I thrust a large pin and using considerable 
strength to overcome the buoyancy of the 
water I lowered the pole beside the ring. I 
was gratified to find that I could catch the 
ring easly on the pin and I brought it up 
successfully. I fancy others might like 
to know of this kink because in cases like 
this everyone is offering advice and yet 
no one does anything except perhaps to 
make futile attempts to bring the ring to 
the surface, thereby causing it to be lost 
beyond recovery. 
A useful kink to know about looking for 
lost articles on the bottom of a lake is to 
use a wooden box that has a small square 
of glass set in the bottom. By submerg¬ 
ing the bottom about an inch and placing 
the eyes close to the top and screening all 
the light possible, the bottom can be seen. 
George Dalton, Massachusetts. 
Float for Fragile Flies 
N the April issue of Forest and Stream, 
Louis Rhead gives the advice to study 
the insects in flight along the banks of a 
stream and use artificial flies that are near¬ 
est in coloring to those. I have found that 
when bait-fishing it is the best plan to catch 
the insects and use them for the real bait, 
but generally these first spring insects are 
very fragile and after one has had them on 
a hook for a few minutes they lose all their 
individuality and do not possess luring 
/ 
power for the fastidious trout. So I make 
a sort of float for them which I have found 
to be very successful. The cut shows the 
different steps in the making. Itake a small 
snelled hook and soak it in water until the 
gut is softened, then 1 cut off the gut just 
below the knot and thread it into a mill¬ 
iner’s needle, one which has a large eye for 
the size of the needle. From a smooth . 
sound cork I cut a tiny egg-shaped piece 
and thread it on the needle, drawing it 
down to the end of the gut just onto the 
hook. The cork should not be more than 
3/16 of an inch in width and thickness and 
about of an inch long. Take the needle 
off the gut, tie a loop in it and attach to 
your line. When you find an insect place it 
on the hook and go after your trout. You 
will find that the bait lasts very much 
longer and lures much better. 
M. J. L„ Troy, N. Y. 
