\ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
261 


joice in forty-dollar reels and sixty-dollar rods with agate- 
mounted tips and rings, are somewhat disgusted. 
The line ordinarily used is nearly as thick as a cod-line, 
and about 50 yardslong. A sinker, weighing about a half or 
three-quarters of a pound—with a hole through it—is strung 
on the line, and is kept there by a large knot 
on its end. Below this knot, and attached to the 
line proper by a somewhat smaller cord, is the hook 
—a cod-hook being generally used, or one a little smaller. 
The fisherman is usually clad in an old flannel shirt, 
woollen trousers and old, loose boots—with a broad-leaved 
straw or felt hat. 
The bait used is a string of mullet, procured at the early 
market—(price five cents)—which is cut into chunks about 
‘an inch square. 
Thus equipped, and with the end of the line tied around 
the waist, or to his wrist, to prevent its escape as it flies 
out, and neatly coiled in his left hand, to run off easily, and 
with a yard or two above the sinker hanging from his right 
hand, the fisherman wades into the surf, about waist deep, 
and, swinging the sinker around his head, launches it out 
as far as he can, and then draws it gradually in, so as to 
keep the bait moving. 
When he feels a bite, he gives a jerk, to hook the fish, 
and, if successful, he puts the line over his shoulder and 
starts for the beach, going as fast as he can—for if he lets 
the line slack, he will probably lose his fish. 
On emerging from the water he runs out on the beach 
and drags the fish upon the sand, where he secures it—and, 
re-baiting his hook, starts for another throw. 
. The hook, or hooks, (sometimes two or more are used), 
are put on a smaller piece of line, on account of the abun- 
dance of small sharks, which literary swarm in the break- 
ers, where the bass and other fish most do congregate, and 
are very apt to seize the bait and break the line, carrying 
off sinker and all, if it breaks above it. 
The sinker is perforated so that the bite can easily be felt, 
the line readily slipping through it. 
The surf is about fifty yards from the edge of the beach, 
there being a line of shoal about that distance, over which 
the waves break. Between this and the shore the water is 
shallow; about thigh-deep at low tide, and the fisherman 
wades out to the bank. 
As the tide rises he is obliged to come in, the surf break- 
ing all the way to the shore when the water is two or three 
feet deep on the bar. 
It is not a very comfortable feeling to turn when on the 
shoal, and see a shark or two swimming up and down be- 
tween you and the shore—especially, if you have a bite and 
are making for the beach. But they are very shy, and 
quickly get out of the way. I never heard of anyone being 
bitten. They areusually about three or four feet long, 
and are often caught. 
Still they are unpleasant neighbors. I remember one 
day, before a storm, when the water was dark and I could 
not see, while standing about waist-deep in this ‘‘middle- 
ground,” and fishing busily, feeling a sudden sharp nip on 
the ancle. JI sprung clear of the water, for I thought it 
was a shark. But it was only a large sea-crab, which 
pinches powerfully. Fortunately, I had on very heavy 
pantaloons, so no damage was done—but the shock was 
tremendous, for sharks are very bold in dark water. 
There are many large sharks and sword or saw-fish in the 
Bay, and during the summer they are caught for the oil 
contained in their livers. From ten to twenty fish is about 
a fair afternoon’s catch ‘“‘during the season’”—so they say. 
Speaking of the bass-fishing in the surf, reminds me of a 
somewhat ludicrous incident, which is said to have occur- 
red to one of-our distinguished Generals, just after the war. 
It seems, a party were fishing at Brazos, in the Gulf, some- 
what in the manner I have just described, and the General 
feeling a bite, started with the line over his shoulder in 
or‘hodox style for the beach, and ran out hauling his line. 
In course of time the fish was drawn out, and to the amaze- 
ment of the General and the amusement of the rest of the 
party, proved to be only about six inches long. 
It is needless to say the General’s champagne suffered 
that evening, but the story leaked out nevertheless. So 
much for the fish. 
Quail are plenty in the neighborhood of St. Augustine, 
‘and within a few miles deer and wild turkey are abundant; 
while occasionally one gets a chance for a ‘‘scrimmage” 
with a bear or panther. 
As to wild fowl, ‘‘their name is legion’’—shore birds of 
call kinds, ducks, geese, herons, et id omne genus, can be had 
-with a reasonable degree of trouble. 
Enough sport can be found in the neighborhood of St. 
Augustine to reward the most ardent sportsman, and I 
know of no place, this side of Humboldt Bay, in California, 
where so many facilities for hunting and fishing are offered, 
or where the variety of game fish, flesh and fowl is so great, 
or where a few weeks may be more agreeably passed by the 
sportsman. Monmovri. 


—A Russian naturalist claims to have found living mam- 
moths in Siberia. He has seen five small ones twelve feet 
high, eighteen feet long, and having tusks eight to ten feet 
in length. The brute haunts great caves, and feeds on 
grass, etc. 
—Johnny attends school, which will explain the follow- 
ing short dialogue between him and his father: ‘Johnny, 
I didn’t know you got whipped the other day,” said he. 
‘You didn’t? Well, if you’d been in my breeches you’d 
have known it.” 
—This is the season of the year wheu a boy examines 
the wood-pile in the next yard and wonders why on earth 
his father don’t buy small, straight sticks.—Danbury News 

AVoodland, Zawn and Garden. 


RHODODENDRONS. 
Hanpy VARIETIES. RAODODENDRON. (Calawbiensis.) 
wie eee 
“Long years ago it mtght befall 
When all the garden flowers were trim, 
The grave old gardener prided him 
On these the most of all.” 
——— ee 
MONG the evergreen plants used for garden, lawn 
and other decorative situations, where one, six, or a 
larger number are to be used, commend us to the grand old 
rhododendron. The king of the city garden, the pride of 
the village green, the pet flower of every ten by twelve 
grass plot, and, grandest of all, the flowering climax of 
every well stocked, elegantly decorated park. 
This magnificent flower is so well known, or should be 
to all the lovers of beautiful plants, that a familiar descrip- 
tion of the same would scarcely seem necessary. Yet such 
is not the case. There are many persons, ladies and gen- 
tlemen, too, of good taste, who delight ina well stocked 
garden, who have never seen arhododendron in full bloom. 
Said a lady to me one day, ‘‘I saw a very beautiful fiower 
in full bloom in front of a gentleman’s house in New Jer- 
sey the other afternoon. I wish I knew what it was. It 
had bright glossy leaves, grew about three feet high, and 
had about ten short limbs, all covered with an orange 
shaped leaf, that looked like a leaf made from wax. From 
the middle of the bunches of green leaves there sprang a 
large pink colored flower as large as my hand, and oh! so 
beautiful. Ido much wish I knewits name. I want to 
purchase one, as I never saw a more beautiful plant.” 
This very natural exclamation of the lady would prob- 
ably find a response in very many hearts when looking upon 
this plant for the first time. This would be the case with 
any one who could spend an hour inthe garden of the 
Messrs. Hovey, near Boston. There your eyes would be 
delighted with specimens of this beautiful flower twelve 
feet in height, and in its season of blossom all covered with 
flowers. 
We have been told that familiarity breeds contempt. 
Not so with the rhododendron. Beautiful! indeed, the 
more we become acquainted with the rare qualities of this 
valued plant of the garden the more we love its bright 
shining leaves, its rich and enduring flowers, and well may 
the term of a ‘‘thing of beauty” be applied to it. Magnifi- 
cent is a well fitting title for the rhododendron catawbien- 
sis. While there are many varieties of this flowering 
shrub which, with care, can be cultivated to perfection 
upon the lawn and beneath the shelter of the deepening 
woody borders of our gardens, we can recommend for 
hardy culture the catawbiensis as perfectly reliable. Plant 
this kind and you will have a reliable plant. And a ‘‘sure 
thing” in the garden is a matter of much consideration to 
all our lady friends who love these beautiful fiowers. This 
article upon the rhododendron was written at the express 
solicitation of two of our lady friends, who know some- 
thing about garden flowers. 
The R. Ponticom, and many of the hardy varieties—hy- 
brids—will grow well beneath the shady sides of woods, 
but we feel that all who do not tolerably well understand 
their cultivation had better confine themselves to the cul- 
ture of one or two of the perfectly hardy species. There 
are thirty varieties of the cataobiensis—all hardy; from 
these they can choose their plants and go to work ona 
half dozen or a dozen with a good degree of confidence in 
ultimate success. 
Like the azaleas, the rhododendron does pretty well in 
ordinary garden soil, but is greatly improved in size and 
beauty of color by a skillful adaptation as near as possible 
to its natural soil and situations. Make them as much at 
home in their new home, by a judicious combination of 
soils, as they were before they were lifted, and your work 
is done. 
There is not a more superb plant than the rhododendron 
‘cultivated, and our earnest plea is for our pet plant. It 
can be planted in pots if you desire it, and you can keep it 
in the greenhouse in the winter and bring it out in the 
spring to beautify the plot or garden. Amateurs and others 
desirous of trying their hand with three or five of these 
plants, can obtain perfectly hardy varieties from any of 
our seedsmen. 
If we could have but one ‘‘garden pet,” our choice would 
be the rhododendren. It is hardy, vigorous of constitu- 
tion, not liable to insect attacks, possesses beauty and sym- 
metry of growth, and when in flower it pays you a hundred 
times over for the care you bestow upon it. Wehave often 
felt a surprise at the lack of appreciation this flower 
seemed to command, and were thus led seriously to con- 
sider why it was this sparsely cultivated. Perhaps a prom- 
inent reason may be found in the fact that considerable 
care and attention is required to make an appropriate bed, 
soil, and situation for the growth of this plant. 
In hopes of giving our lady friends and, incidentally, 
others a few reliable hints as to how to prepare a bed for 
the rhododendron, I will tell thein just how I made one for 
myself last week, and they are at liberty to improve upon 
my plan as much as they please. If our friends have pa- 
tience sufficient to induce them to make such a bed as we 
describe, and sufficient faith in our experience, they will 
have as good a show of rhododendrons as any of their 
neighbors, 
First, this plant, to thrive well, requires a deep, well pre- 
pared soil. Belonging to the family erzeacee, its rootlets 

are exceedingly delicate, and are always found very fine. 
Now, whenever you find these delicate rootlets dry, from 
any cause whatever, you may throw your plant away at 
once, for however green its leaves may appear your plant 
is dead. 
On what are called the most ‘‘unseemly places” you can 
make your plant bed, asI did mine. The hillside upon 
which I have prepared a bed for the next spring planting 
faces the southeast. I first determined the size which I 
designed for my bed. This I staked out in outline, which 
I think a good plan, using sharpened sticks six inches long. 
The bed is of an oval form, in the longest measurement 
ten feet, in breadth, or shortest, five to six feet. Carefully 
cutting the sod with a sod cutter, I removed all the same 
from the top of the bed. This being done I removed the 
earthy loam and placed it outside the excavation for future 
use. Then I removed the gravel to the depth of four feet; 
this gravel you will need to make the side of the lower em- 
bankment of your bed, for I made the upper side of my 
bed four feet below the level of the sod in its original 
form. From this level, to be determined by the circum- 
stances.of the case, by those who follow these suggestions, 
I, in making my bed, made a level bed, or plateau. This 
was the foundation, or pit, of my bed. Now comes the 
filling up process. Ona side hill like the one in question 
you will not often need much artificial drainage. You will, 
as I did, prepare for a too rapid drainage, which is death 
to your plant, by covering the whole bottom of your pit 
with pine needles, or oak leaves, or fine meadow hay, to 
the depth of from one to two feet. ‘Now pass back again 
into the pit your loam, and your leaves are fixed, and 
should be trodden down to make what you have already 
placed them, about six inches deep from the bottom. Now 
you are ready to place old sod soil—the soil that should 
compose the bed, and that which I used was a mixture of 
one part peat, or well rotted leaf mould, one part of rich 
loam, and one part sharp sand. Let these be most thor- 
oughly mixed and let lay in a heap three or six days; then 
fill up all the space left of your bed, level with the former 
brow of the hill, and outwardly forming a level at the top 
of the embankment of some two or three feet, which 
should be sodded to prevent the earth of your bed from 
sliding down hill. Now you can, after doing this, leave 
your bed over the winter, and in April, on some bright 
warm day, spade the whole over preparatory to planting 
out your rhododendrons. 
You can always procure good plants from reliable nur- 
serymen. If you want tbe cheapest of plants there are 
always humbugs enough to cheat you out of your money, 
Having obtained what you believe to be good plants, set 
them say from one foot to fourteen inches distant in rows 
lengthwise of your bed, or, a general rule adopted by some 
landscape gardeners is, ‘‘so that they shade the ground by 
their foliage just touching each other.” This is as good a 
rule, perhaps, as can be given, and J adopt it whenever I 
set out grounds. If possible to obtain, I prefer to mulch, 
say two inches in depth, over the plants as soon as set out, 
with ground tan bark, always easily obtained, and there 
can be nothing better. 
Now let your bed alone, unless the summer should be 
extremely dry. Two copious waterings with the water pot 
or hose pipe will be all sufficient, and nine chances out of 
ten you will not need any water. Because why? You 
have set out your bed as you should have done, and they 
will probably live and thrive. 
As a protection from frost and cold in winter, we use 
boughs of cedar, hemlock, or pine, the ends well sharpened, 
and a crow bar to make holes to receive them, and the 
boughs firmly set about the bed is a sufficient shelter from 
the coldest weather. More of these plants are killed from 
sunshine in winter than from the intense cold. Protect 
them well from the winter sun. 
In the course of time, as your plants grow in size, you 
will of course make new beds by removing from. the old 
bed every other plant year by year, until you have left one 
or two very large plants, whose value, singly, would pay 
a large percentage of time, care, and the money expended. 
OLuPpop QuILL. — 

Brnpine LAvies’ FEET in CurnA.—Doctor Macgowan, an 
American gentleman of great experiencein Chinese matters, 
gives a somewhat different account of the origin of the 
practice, placing it three centuries later. The custom, he 
says, is of comparatively modern origin, and owes its exist- 
ence to the whim of Li Yuh, the licentious and unpopular 
prince of Keanznan, whose court wasin Nanking. Heruled 
from A. D. 976 to 976, and was subdued and finally pois- 
oned by the founder of the Sung dynasty. It appears that he 
was amusing himself in his palace, when the thought occur- 
red to him that he might improve the appearance of the feet 
of one of “his favorites. He accordingly bent her foot, so 
as to raise the instep into an arch, to resemble the new 
moon. The figure was much admired by the courtiers, 
who began at once to introduce it into their families. Soon 
after the province of Keang-nan again became an integral 
part of the empire, from which point the new practice 
spread throughout all provinces and all ranks, until it be- 
came a national custom. Many lives were sacrificed by 
suicide; those females whose feet had not been bound, were 
persecuted by their husbands; so much so, they hung them- 
selves or took poison. About one hundred and fifty years 
after the origin of the practice, we find a poet celebra- 
ting the beauties of the “golden lilies;’ and from 
his description it would appear that seven centuries 
ago they were of the same size as those of the present day. 
According to the upholders of the development theory, 
such continued compression for centuries should have oc- 
casioned a national alteration in the structure of the Chinese 
foot, Peet nothing of the kind is observed.—All the Year 
Round, 
