FISHING WITH A LANTERN TRAP.
A veteran trapper recommends a curious device for fishing at night, known as the lantern trap. A pine torch or a bull's-eye lantern in the bow of a boat has long been in use as a means of attracting fish, but an illuminated bait under water is as novel a mode of fishing as it is successful.
The bait is easily made. A piece of stick phosphorus the size of a hazel-nut is cut into small pieces, and placed in a three-ounce glass vial half filled with sweet-oil. Care must be taken to cut and handle the phosphorus under water, as it is a dangerous substance to deal with. After several hours the phosphorus dissolves in the oil and forms a thick fluid, which in the dark will give forth a bright glow.
Having corked the bottle tightly, attach it to a string and drop it overboard, as in ordinary fishing. The water around it becomes lighted up, and many fish will be attracted by the unusual brightness.
Beneath the lantern an ordinary circular net should be let down, and when the fish are swarming around the light, draw the net up quickly, and it will go hard with you if you do not bring to the surface a good haul of fish.
This is a novel and most ingenious mode of fishing, and though there is very little sport in it compared with that of angling with a rod and line, it may be useful when, as frequently happens, fish will not bite, and the night's supper or the morrow's breakfast must be provided for, lest the young woods-man go hungry to bed, or awake with a keen appetite to realize that some hours must elapse before he can have breakfast.
NATURAL HISTORY JINGLES.[2]
This very funny game was first suggested by the metre of the little nursery rhyme intended to teach children to read. Each of the players is given one letter of the alphabet in order, and has ten minutes allowed him in which to choose an animal the name of which begins with the letter that has been given to him, and to write a verse about it in the style of the well-known jingle, "A was an archer," etc. When the time has expired each recites his verse. A few specimen jingles are given below to show that the verses must be made as grotesque and humorous as possible, much more attention being given to rhyme than to reason:
A was a curious old ant-eater,
A very strange and remarkable creetur;
And if of a sudden he wanted to dine,
I should not much care if he took one of mine.
B is a bison, whose rough, shaggy hide
Is a comfortable thing when you take a sleigh-ride;
But when he is in it, not pleasant to meet
When he tramples the plain with his swift little feet.
C is a scaly old crocodile,
Who lazily sleeps in the mud of the Nile;
But you never can trust in the strength of his nap,
For if you go near him his great jaws may snap.