708 
FOREST AND STREAM 
December, 1918 
About Fly-Tying 
A FTER reading some of the articles and 
suggestions about fly-tying in the 
issues of Forest and Stream which I have 
obtained through the Red Cross over 
here, I tried to tie some flies myself and 
I was easily successful in the tying of the 
palmer type, but failed when I tried to tie 
winged flies, the wings invariably being 
reduced to the appearance of little brushes 
instead of keeping spread flat. 
I used a vise to secure the hooks, but as 
a jeweller’s vise or any other pattern of 
small size was unavailable here I stuck to 
making one myself and I found this so 
easy and economical that I believe the de¬ 
scription will be useful to some readers. 
I had a flat piece of steel about $4 inch 
broad, 54 inch thick and one foot long. 
I had the central part of it heated red hot 
and hammered until it was almost 1/16 
inch thick. The tips were then heated and 
hammered to the proper shape and drilled 
through as per Fig. i. 
The flat central part was again heated 
and bent to make a loop which acts as a 
spring as well, producing with the addition 
of a small bolt which I got free of cost 
out of the raspings at a bicycle store a 
very light and handy tool. I stuck it at 
the end of a stick through which I bored 
two holes, to pass two small pieces of 
wood the size of a pencil, one to fix the 
stick between the feet, the second to fix it 
under the knees of the seated operator and 
the third bearing notches near the vise to 
fix the silks. 
Charles van Moorsel, 
Pompadour, Correze, France. 
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Concerning Firewood 
E VEN in the midst of abundance of 
fire wood, the careful camper should 
never go about collecting it haphazard. 
He should know there are different de¬ 
grees of excellence among the sorts he has 
to choose from, and should select that 
kind which experience has shown him to 
be best suited to his needs. Pine, while 
excellent for a camp fire, owing to the 
brightness with which it burns, is not the 
best wood in the world to cook with, since 
it is likely to smoke the viands and give 
them an unpleasant taste. Fir should not 
be used at all, if any other wood can be 
obtained. It is continually snapping and 
fills the frying pan with coals. If it is 
used for a fire by which to sleep, it covers 
one’s blankets with coals and sparks, burn¬ 
ing many a hole in them, and obliging a 
man when he first lies down to sit up at 
frequent intervals and brush off the fire 
from his bed and clothing. This, if he is 
tired and sleepy, leads to the use of lan¬ 
guage entirely unscriptural. Sage brush 
makes a good fire for cooking and a pleas¬ 
ant blaze to sit by, but it is too unsubstan¬ 
tial and a fire of sage brush has to be con¬ 
stantly renewed. The same is true of any 
light brush that flares up for a moment 
and then burns down. 
The ideal wood for the fire, whether it 
be for cooking, or to sit by after the meal 
is over, is dry aspen, sometimes called pop¬ 
lar. It burns with a bright, clear flame 
and with little smoke, and when it has died 
down to coals makes the best possible fire 
to cook over. And then after the meal is 
eaten, we can light our pipes and stretch 
out our feet toward the fire; for if some 
one of the party lays on two or three sticks 
from the pile of split wood near at hand, 
the cheerful blaze rises, and we can take 
our ease. Let each man provide himself 
with a splinter or a slender branch to light 
at the blaze if he needs it to renew the 
light in his pipe, which perhaps has gone 
out as he was earnestly talking. With this 
fire of poplar there is no snapping. One 
does not need to dodge a shower of sparks, 
which bursting with a loud report from a 
blazing log, fly in all directions, or to jump 
up and brush off a live coal which has been 
lying unnoticed on tent or fly until a great 
hole has been burnt in it. 
An aspen fire gives no trouble, only 
warmth, cheeriness, and a bright light by 
which one may read, write, or even sew. 
In Maine the camper always has wood 
at hand in abundance, but his comfort de¬ 
pends greatly on his choice, no less than 
does that of the camper on the plains or 
in the Rockies. Black ash is always a good 
choice. I once knew an old hunter who 
said if he could fell a black ash he was 
all right for a camp fire, as of all green 
woods he considered it the best; but to my 
mind the poplar is the choice of all dry 
wood. 
“Old-Timer," New York. 
Reliable Creepers 
A PAIR of good reliable creepers is a 
handy addition to a trapper’s outfit, 
as many days he has to cross glare icy 
ponds or frozen swamps. I made mine 
from two blades of an old worn out mow- 
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ing machine and two pieces of thin sheet 
iron 3" x 7" for'heel plates. The diagrams 
show pretty well how I worked. First, 
bend the points of the blades at right an¬ 
gles as shown, then bore two holes in the 
center of heel plates to correspond with 
the holes already in blades. Bore also a 
hole in the center of each end of heel plates 
and bend plates up almost to right angles 
about i} 4 " from each end. Use two small 
bolts to fasten creeper blade to heel plate 
and utilize old skate straps for fastenings 
put on as shown in drawing. These creep¬ 
ers will stand much more and harder wear 
than the ordinary kind made of webbing. 
John Green, Wisconsin. 
Snare Set in Log 
A HOLLOW log can be utilized for set- 
■‘A ting snares for raccoons, skunks and 
other small animals. Scrape out enough 
of the decayed wood so that the noose will 
lie closely against the log opening. The 
noose should be of horsehair twisted, and 
should never be made of white hair, always 
black or brown. Fasten this snare to a 
strong cord which is tied to the spring 
pole. At the proper distance from the end 
of the log bore a hole and insert one end 
of spring pole. Cut a bait stick with a 
fork so that there is more likelihood of 
the animal knocking it over when reaching 
for the bait. Carefully balance the trigger 
stick on the bait stick and pull down the 
spring pole, catching the cord under a small 
