Aug. 6, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
213 
melons?” he replied, “Boss, I jus’ nacherly loves 
’em. I don't mean no mushmillions; I means 
wat’millions; dem’s de ones fer me. Dem’s my 
kind.” 
It was natural to drift from watermelons to 
hounds, rabbits and ’possums, and Uncle John 
said: “I’ve been er huntin’ rabbits an’ ’possums 
seventy year, and I likes ’em better and better. 
Ole Mars Simon Turner, whar lives up dere on 
the hill, he’s ninety-one year ole, and he's er 
powerful hunter. He goes right after de ’pos¬ 
sums and he’s got good dogs, too. I feels like 
a boy ’side er him, for he is a goer. Last winter 
me and my young boss here went out and cotch 
five ’possums de fus’ part o’ de night. I know 
they ain’t nobody got no better dog den we has. 
Dey can jis make ’possums in de woods, it looks 
like.” 
This was at the home of John F. Batts, a 
young Wake county farmer, who urged Uncle 
John to tell me about the time his cabin burned. 
Sportsmen’s Cameras.—IV. 
There is one advantage in the use of films 
that deserves special mention. This is the film 
developing tank, a small affair all of whose parts 
are packed in a small box that will withstand 
rough handling but is a part of the outfit. It is 
now made so that the development of films can 
be carried on in daylight or at night, in camp 
or elsewhere. The chemicals are all prepared 
and clean water only is needed to carry out the 
developing arrangements. 
Often the very exposures you care most about 
are incorrectly timed, or the settings not to your 
liking, but you learn the truth too late if you 
wait until you return home to develop the films. 
The reflecting camera assists you materially in 
this respect, but mistakes can be made with it, 
too. With the tank six-exposure films are 
handy, as you will find after a brief experience. 
Develop them in camp and if those you are 
tually occurred in tropical countries, but it is 
now possible to avoid similar discouragements. 
On a camping journey I lost a lot of plates and 
films in a way that puzzled me greatly for a 
time. My outfit and several dozen plates and 
films were sent on ahead, while I carried two 
cameras with me. During my trip I made a 
large number of exposures, but when they were 
developed on my return home, they were found 
to be a sorry lot, with all the earmarks of heat 
and humidity. Investigation brought out the 
fact that the steamer trunk containing the plates 
and films packed in blankets had been left in the 
open during a sudden shower. No water got 
into the trunk, but the sun came out strong im¬ 
mediately afterward and gave the contents a 
thorough steaming, and for two weeks I wasted 
much time exposing these worthless plates and 
films. Had they been exposed and developed, 
little or no harm would have come to them. 
Disappointments like this may happen at any time. 
THE FAST MAIL TRAIN ON THE LAKE SHORE RAILWAY IN INDIANA. 
Two successive exposures with a small reflecting camera and films. The speed of the approaching train on the heavy down grade was estimated by a veteran 
railway man at nearly seventy miles an hour. The time of exposure was 1/1000 of a second. The pictures show how quickly the camera was manipulated. 
Uncle John bent double and shook with laugh¬ 
ter, then straightening up, said: “You oughn’t 
ter make me tell it, but I’m er -gwine to tell 
dat joke on myself. Dat night I tuk my two 
dogs and lef’ de house early, telling Mandy I 
warn't er gwine to be gone long. About mid¬ 
night er such a matter I come back, and, bless 
God, dere warn’t nothin’ dere ’cept Mandy. I 
had my dawgs an’ three ’possums, er big un and 
two kittens [the negro name for little ’possums 
which they put in a box and feed until they grow 
large]. When I was in er piece er thick woods 
I'd seed er sort of er blaze in de element, but 
I never paid no heed to it, an' 1 never thought 
about it’s er bein’ my cabin, but it was, sho 
’nuff. Dere was de ashes, de chimbley founda¬ 
tion and some rocks whar had been under de 
logs. I drap the ’possums on the ground and 
hugged Mandy and tole her not to worry; dat 
de ole house was gone and I was shore dem 
bedbugs whar had gin us hell so many nights 
had one time cotch hell deyselves.” 
Was there ever a better example of the 
happiness of a darkey? He had a light heart, 
a good pair of arms, “dem houn’s an’ Mandy,” 
and he did not care a straw about the fiTe. He 
could build another cabin at no cost except a 
dollar or two, and thus have a new home, his 
dogs were well and there were plenty more 
’possums in the woods. Fred A. Olds. 
anxious about do not satisfy you, make new 
exposures next day, provided this is possible. 
Of course there are scenes that can never be 
photographed a second time, but landscapes 
and groups can be, and through this method 
you will perfect your work. With the matter 
still fresh in mind you will learn more in a 
week in this way than you would pick up in a 
season by the old method. While it is a good 
thing to keep a record of the conditions affect¬ 
ing each exposure, few do this, and as stated 
before, on your vacation you should not follow 
too closely any prearranged schedule. Develop¬ 
ment being possible on the same day, this will 
prove economical in another direction. Often 
in wishing to be sure of good results, you may 
make two or more exposures of the same sub¬ 
ject, employing different stops and speeds. With 
tank development this can often be avoided, for 
if in development the result of an exposure 
proves unsatisfactory, try again next day. 
Still another point is that, in some places, par¬ 
ticularly in summer, films deteriorate while in 
the camera and afterward, and this can be 
checked through the medium of immediate de¬ 
velopment. This is the best preservative against 
heat, humidity and moisture. Fancy the feel¬ 
ings of the African traveler when, on his return 
home with a large number of priceless films, he 
finds a majority of them ruined. This has ac- 
You cannot take a tank outfit along in a pack, 
or on a horse, but in yachting, motoring and 
other trips where a few pounds extra are not 
important, it is an excellent thing to include in 
the outfit, and one should be in every permanent 
camp. To develop your day’s exposures in the 
evening is fully as advantageous as it is to deter¬ 
mine the result of each shot by means of a tele¬ 
scope when you are shooting at the target. In 
both cases the probable causes of success and 
failure are determinable while all the circum¬ 
stances affecting each are fresh in your 
memory. 
Just as the expert rifleman makes miscalcula¬ 
tions of distances now and then under condi¬ 
tions with which he is not familiar, so do ex¬ 
pert photographers fail occasionally to time their 
exposures properly when they wander from well- 
known trails. If you will examine a series of 
pictures made in a region new to the sportsman 
who made them, the negatives of which were de¬ 
veloped after his return home, you will probably 
see that most of his errors of judgment were 
repeated in every picture, showing that he was 
working at a decided disadvantage all the while. 
Illustrations of this statement will often be 
found in series of pictures made in an ever¬ 
green forest region by a man who has previously 
carried a camera in places where forests are 
scarce or composed of deciduous trees; and by 
