By Dan Beard
Fig. 200 shows the framework for a small fishing house; the posts and cross pieces are made of such sticks as can be found along the bank of any stream or lake.
Fig. 201 shows how the floor is made of planks, with a hole in the forward part to fish through. The whole frame may be covered with pieces of an old hay-cover, canvas, or what is better still, pieces of old oil-cloth, such as is used for dining-room or hall floors.
If the framework be covered with any light cloth, the cloth should be tacked on and thickly coated with paint so as to admit no light. A frame like the one illustrated by Figs. 200 and 201 may be made, fitted up, and kept stored away until wanted for use. After hauling it out on the fishing grounds and cutting a hole through the ice, the frame can be covered with thick blankets, and without injuring the material the covering can be fastened by pins and strings over the framework and removed when the day's sport is finished. If, instead of rough forked sticks, regular square posts be used, the whole can be covered with quarter-inch pine lumber, thus making a light but serviceable shanty.
If the light comes in under the house, pack snow around it. If the snow covers the ice to such a thickness as to darken the water beneath, sweep a place clean around your shanty, and the light admitted through the clear ice will illuminate the water beneath your hut or tent.
Fig. 202 shows another form of fisherman's hut, made upon the same principle as the cabin of the Crusoe raft (See the Summer Boating pages of The Inquiry Net) Select hickory or any other elastic saplings, taking care to have them all about the same size. After boring holes with an auger in the side bars of the floor frame, bend saplings over and force their ends into the holes as shown in the diagram. The floor can be laid in the same manner as illustrated by Fig. 201, and the whole frame covered with some opaque fabric, or cloth made opaque by a coating of paint.
A very beautiful and light fishing house might be made with a bamboo frame that could be taken apart and packed away for the summer like a jointed fishing-rod.
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