Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1914-08-06
JOSEPH KNOWLES

In1nK ABOUT, Tor upon arriving III the
spot where had inferred the carcass /
found leaves, branches. rocks earth
everything scattered about The bears
had been there before me. / had lost
even the deerskin!
/ wanted that deerskin badly.
needed 1t. However. it was gone. and
that's all there was to it.
Il / mad counted a whole lot on the
deer meat also. for my food thus far
had not been very hearty. though 1t
had answered after fashion.
4 In one of the marshes 1 had hit q
couple of frogs over the head and tried
eating the hind legs But / couldn't
go the taste of these luxuries and new
er tried them again.
In the clearings and along the
streams found plenty Of raspberries
and blueberries. Getting tired of these.
ate some bunchberries, which grow
in scarlet clusters; also checkerberries
and berries Of the mountain ash. al
most everywhere In the deep woods
strawberries were to be found. / ate
a lot of these, which contain much nu-
triment. These berries are black and
fuzzy and probably receive their name
because they resemble the fur of the
skunk They grow ON high bushes. /
chewed great deal of spruce gum.
But, as i said before, such food was
not very substantial. 1t was enough
to get along on for awhile, but l need
ed something more. While that first
trout had not been particularly palata-
BILE without salt, l realized that it had
given me strength and made up my
mind that l must get some more.
The loss of that deer meat was a
great loss indeed
Once again | headed for the Big
Spencer stream country. l knew, or
thought | knew, where l could find
some good spring holes, in which
hoped to catch some trout. After a
long time my search was rewarded.
found a spring hole which was alive
with them.
/ went downstream a little way,
where with rocks | made a small pool.
Then ! went back to the big pool and
began to drive the trout into the small
pool. Down they went into my trap!
All | had to do was to wade in and
just pick them up with my hands.
gathered up as many as / thought |
needed and carried them to a rough
lean-tO-one which / had thrown up
the night came to this region from
the Lost pond district
Doubtless people who have always
fShed with line and hook can scarce
ly conceive catching fish with the bare
hands. But it is the simplest thing in
the world. In some instances during
my life in the forest l could have OBJ
tanned barrels of fish in this manner
had | seen fit
| remember one day when | crossed
the beaver dam previously mentioned.
l wanted some fish, so 1 promptly let
the water out or the dam. In the shall
low pools were stranded quantities OF
fish. ! did this out of necessity, and
as soon as l had all | needed | i'm
nediately damned up the broken
places so that the fish left behind
would not die.
OF course many of the fish ! caught
in the Big Spencer stream country
would not have kept very long with
out some sort of preparation ON my
part To cure the fish ! selected sew
eral fat rocks and built a smoke hole
with them, in which | hung the fish
on sticks to smoke. let them smoke
for several hours. after which they
would keep for days.
When | had an abundance of rasp
berries l would spread them out on
pieces of birch bark to dry and shrivel
up. In this way | preserved many ber-
rieS.
By this time | was satisfied in my
mind that | would not suffer physical
ly from the experiment ! had IRE
nj