FOREST AND STREAM. 



201 



sight accordingly, you can make accurate shooting at all 

 ranges. But if you misjudge your distance at all, or even 

 if you know it and have not time to elevate your back 

 sight to its proper height, you will certainly either shoot 

 over or under your game. With a short range rifle propor- 

 tioned as we have described, the drop of the ball, owing to 

 its great velocity, is so little, there is absolutely no judging 

 of distance required. Whether you are at 25, 50, 75 or 

 100 yards, all you have to do is to draw a little coarser 

 bead the farther off your game is. Practice will soon 

 show you how much. Your ball should not deviate more 

 than a couple of inches above or below, and this does not 

 exceed the limit of accuracy heretofore laid down. 



The faults of modern American breech loading rifles in- 

 tended for sporting use are: 1st— not large or heavy 

 enough projectile to make a disabling wound on an animal 

 as large as ah old buck deer. 2d— not enough velocity of 

 ball, owing to too little powder being used, and too great 

 friction resulting from an unnecessarily quick twist. • The 

 muzzle loading hunting rifles that were made twenty or 

 thirty years since avoided the second of these faults. Their 

 calibre was smaller than we should now use; but the rea- 

 son was, that in those days a hunter had to prepare his own 

 ammunition, and he liked to make it go as far as possible. 

 There is one oilier point that deserves mention. Shall we 

 choose a single loading rifle, or a repeater, that carries a 

 magazine of cartridges? Now, it is very clear that there 

 are many advantages in a repeater, like the Winchester or 

 the new Evans rifle, and the only question is, whether there 

 are any disadvantages, due to the greater complication of 

 the weapon, sufficient to counterbalance the admitted ad- 

 vantages. Time and use will alone show this. If we had to' 

 encounter a grizzly bear, an Indian tiger, or an African lion, 

 we should prefer a weapon carrying at least an ounce ball 

 and 90 grains of powder. After we had put three or 

 four of these into him, we think we would stop; 

 but we should hate to try it with a small projectile 

 and light charge of powder. 



, — ■»«».- — — — ~~ 



RIFLE TYPES— NO. III. 



EDWARD LAVERACK. 



ss^gS^' 



The Country Gunsmith at Creedmoor. — Yes Sir, from Can- 

 tauwipsit. Made and built rifles all my life, as did my 

 father before me. Me and Bill Simmons — you must have 

 heerd of him, Capting Simmons, the best shots in eighteen 

 counties, barring me — well, Bill and me, we took shots this 

 Summer at a loose stone on top of Bald Eagle Hill, and 

 blazed away at that stone with this here piece. How fur? 

 No telling how fur it was; a dooced sight further than 

 them targets. How many yards? You have got me there, 

 Mister — we did'nt measure it, because you see we was in 

 the dry bed of the branch and shooting up hill, and it 

 would have been a tough climb to the top of Bald Eagle 

 after every shot. Mebbe it was as much as 306 rod — some 

 fellows in the township allowed it was 400, but it haint 

 never been measured. No sir, we don't load that way. We 

 go in for old-fashioned muzzle loaders, and aint partickler 

 to a grain of powder, if powder is plenty. Kiver your ball 

 over good with the powder, that's our rule, and a leetle 

 more nor less don't make no matter, providing the ammu- 

 nition is. dry, and your piece will hold it; and there is nary 

 a gun I kin make that won't stand all you kin pour into her. 

 No sir, we don't stock our rifles like birding guns. We 

 want something that fits snug into a man's shoulder. Ef a 

 man aiut hardy and tough, and wants to shoot a rifle, and 

 is afeerd of his collar bone being shook — well, 'he had bet^ 

 ter not try to be an expeert. There aint no use of being so 

 nice as you fellows make out, with a surveying party's tools 

 and instruments hitched on up and down, the barl. Mebbe, 

 after awhile, you will be having some kind of a machine 

 dummy, with a measuring chain, running ahead every time 

 afore you fire, staking off the ground to an inch. I see 

 some of you kind of clerking over your shooting, and 

 keeping a regular set of books, just like single and double 

 entry. No sir, them kind of things would'nt suit the boys 

 around Cantauwipsit. By the time it would take to do all 

 that figuring over your gun, the deer would be in the next 

 county. This here weapon was made by me— lock, stock 

 and barl. There ain't nary a screw, nor a bit of wood, 

 brass, iron, nor steel about her as was'nt turned out by me; 

 and you bet she will shoot. You pint her on a turkey, 

 and you will see. Mebbe she would'nt work good on that 

 furthest target, which is the longest thousand yards I ever 

 see. We ain't well surveyed around my part of the coun- 

 try, and don't have no mile stones, and don't make a prac- 

 tice of shooting from one mile stone to the next one. Any- 

 how, this ere style of gun suits usaround Cantauwipsit, and 

 is all the boys require." The native gunsmith exhihits his 

 rifle, which is more than a clever bjt of work; in fact it is 

 a miracle of skill, when one takes into consideration how 

 it was made — at a village smithy in the back woods, with 

 the simplest and most primitive tools. The arm is well 

 balanced, and is a most effective weapon at one hundred 

 yards; but beyond that is not reliable. Generally it has a 

 stock cut at the butt in the shape of a crescent, set round 

 with a knife edge rim of metal. With a heavy load the 

 recoil almost cuts the arm off. Thirty years ago the coun- 

 try rifle was a good arm, but to-day it must be classed 

 among the arquebuses and matchlocks of olden times. 



Fish Culture in Canada. — Mr. Wilmot, the Govern- 

 ment Inspector of Fish Culture, is at Windsor superintend- 

 ing the introductiou of the machinery necessary to put into 

 operation the wliiteflsh breeding establishment at Petite 

 Cote, near Saadwich, 



WE present to our readers in this issue an excellent 

 likeness of Mr. Edward Laverack, who is proba- 

 bly the best known, oldest, and- most successful breeder of 

 the English setter that the world has ever seen. He was 

 born in the North, of England in the last year of the last 

 century and is consequently at the present time seventy- 

 six years of age. Mr. Laverack is of the fine old school of 

 English sportsmen, having been for half a hundred years 

 on the moors and stubbles what Sir Tattou Sykes was on 

 the racing turf, or Squire Osbaldiston in the saddle behind 

 the hounds. From his eighteenth year Mr. Laverack has 

 been a field sportsman, and from his twentieth, a careful 

 and observant breeder of setters. Untiring attention and 

 shrewd and clever inter-breeding of his favorite strain have 

 made him so famous during the past thirty-five years that 

 English sportsmen have attached his name as a mark of 

 distinction to all dogs of this blood; and he now enjoys as 

 one fruit of his labors the rare satisfaction of seeing in the 

 last volume of the Kennel Club Stud Book, the name of 

 Laverack recorded in the pedigrees of the great majority 

 of the winning English setters. 



A brief synopsis of the records of this class in the club 

 calendar will show both the high repute attained by his dogs 

 of the full blood, and the successes of those breeders who 

 have wisely united his blood with that of their own 

 kennels. 



The total number of setters in this class is 70, of which 

 65 are of recorded pedigrees. Of those, 17 only have no 

 trace of the Laverack blood, while 33 chum that strain in 

 their stock, and the remaining 15 are pure Laveracks with- 

 out a cross. Of the Laveracks of the full blood, 6 were 

 sired by his celebrated champion prize winner, Old Blue 

 Dash, and 5 by Dash's son, Pride of the Border, now owned 

 in this country. 



It would appear from these statistics that for the success- 

 ful breeding of the English setter, as shown in the stud 

 book, the chances are 48 to 23, or about two to one in fa- 

 vor of those possessing the Laverack blood. And this 

 without disparagement to the beautiful and highly success- 

 ful dogs of the Mount Loftus Kennels; of Viscount 

 Downe's; of Major Co wen's, Blaydon Burn; of Mr. P. 

 Murphy's, Castleknock, Ireland, and of other strains 

 whose fame the calendar records. 



Here, in America, the pure Laveracks and those of the 

 part blood have already attained honorable distinction, al- 

 though, owing to. their scarcity, but few specimens of 

 either have been exhibited. 



To return to the original of our picture, Mr. Laverack 

 is in appearance, a hale, hearty gentleman ; not tall, but 

 erect, vigorous and wiry. In temperament and disposition, 

 as might be supposed, he is nervo-sanguine, active and en- 

 ergetic. That for several months in each year he pursues 

 his favoiite sport over his shootings, in Ross shire, Scot- 

 land, is sufficient evidence of great physical vigor and 

 sportsmanlike pluck at his advanced age. His home — 

 Broughall Cottage, at Whitechurch, in Shropshire— is a 

 model of neat and cosy retirement, and good old-fashioned 

 comfort; and his kennels — the casket containing the jew- 

 els of his life long gain and guard— are the perfection cf 

 propriety and canine convenience. Blessed with good 

 health and fine spirits, Edward Laverack bids fair to enjoy 

 for many more years the honors so justly his due, and the 

 best wishes of all true sportsmen who appreciate and ad- 

 mire the perfection of the setter. 



**«. — — 



Shooting Quarters.— There is scarcely an issue of our 

 paper that does not contain, in the column of Answers to 

 Correspondents, a number of inquiries regarding localities 

 where shooting can be had. Now, there are very many 

 sportsmen who would be only too glad to make their head- 

 quarters at some quiet farm house in the neighborhood of 

 the ground over which they expected to shoot. In many 

 instances a city sportsman at a country hotel is a source of 

 intense interest to all the small boys and idlers in the 

 place, to the great annoyance, frequently of the guest. 

 At a farm or private boarding house all this is avoided. 

 However, whether hotel or farm house, it is always desir- 

 able to know something in advance of the quarters at 

 which, one is to put up . We shall feel obliged for any in- 

 formation regarding such in districts where shooting is 

 to be had. 



INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. 



Board on Behalf of United States Executive Departments — Na- 

 tional Museum, Smithsonian Ins'itution — Collections to Illus- 

 trate the fishery Resources of the United States. 



k 



The Smithsonian Institution and the United States Commission of 

 Fish and Fisheries desire to secure as complete a collection as possible 

 to Illustrate the fisheries of the United State?, or its resources as derived 

 from the sea, the lakes, and the rivers, for the International Exhibition 

 to be held in Philadelphia in the Centennial year 1876. This will form a 

 part of the Governmental display, to be held In accordance with nn act 

 of Congress of March 3d, 1875, and an Executive Order of March 5t.b, 

 1875. 



As stated, the object of this collection is to illustrate, in the fullest 

 manner, the resources of the United States derivable from the \varers, 

 and it will embrace: first, an exhibition of the objects themselves, liv- 

 ing, in refrigerators on ice. stuffed, dried, or in al<ohol,as al^o pliolo 

 graphic representations, and plaster ea-ts colored from nature; second, 

 the products derived from the various spf cies. either in their crude ctate 

 or modified, together with their applications in the arts or in trade: third, 

 the apparatus by which these objects are pursued, captured, killed, and 

 utilized; and fourth, the means by which the- same are multiplied by 

 natural and artificial methods, or maintained in a healthy living state. 



(1.) The forms more particularly to b° illustrated are: first, the seals, 

 whales, porpoises, etc, as furnishing skins, hides, oil, teeih. and hone; 

 second, the aquatic reptiles, snch as the various turtles, frogs, alligators, 

 etc.: third, the fishes iu their diffeient varieties; fourth, the marine in- 

 vertebrates, or shell fish, crabs, lobsters, corals, sponges, etc.; firth, the 

 ulgte or sea weeds, and other marine products not of an animal nature. 



{$.) Among the applications of objects maybe mentioned: first, vari- 

 ous preparations of flesh and roes, as dried, salted, smoked, pickled, 

 canned, etc ; second, oils, spermaceti, etc. ; third, gelatine, isinglass, 

 glue, leather, shell, whalebone, teeth, and other parts of the aninvd. in 

 their crude condition, their stages of manufacture, their final condition, 

 and their simpler ?nd more special employments; fourth, the different 

 manures derived from the inhabitants of the waters, and the applications 

 of thei s?a weeds and other vegetable or mineral articles. 



(3.) The apparatus which may be enumerated as used in pursuing, 

 capturing, and utilizing the various species consist'-: first, of special 

 clothing for the protection of thewearer, such as waterproofs, boota, 

 bats, gloves, etc.; second, of the different kinds of canoes, skiffs, 

 birches, boats, and rafts, with their oars, paddles, or poles, and other 

 devices for pursuit and capture, or for transportation of the ai tides, as 

 smacks, merchantmen, etc.; third, of bows and arrows, spear*, har- 

 poons, lines, hooks, floats, sinkers, reels, rods, artificial flies and baits, 

 nets of all kinds, traps, pounds, dredges, trawls, rakes, etc. 



The apparatus for the preparation 8nd utilization of these products 

 will consist of models of smoke houses, salting establishments, fish 

 flakes for drying fish, factories for the manufacture of fish or other oils, 

 fertilizers, etc. 



(4.) The display under the fourth division will consist: first, of plans 

 of piscicultnral establishments, models of hatching houses, models of. or 

 real, hatching troughs, bbxes, trays, screen*, and whatever is used in the 

 United States for the artificial hatching of aquatic animals; second, il- 

 lustrations of fish ways and ladder*; third, the various devices for tans- 

 porting live fishes and other aquatic animals and their eggs; fourih, 

 those by which such animals are kept livintr in a healthy condition for 

 the market, for amusement, and for study: fifth, ice houses and refriger- 

 ator* for preserving them in afresh sta^c for food; sixth, the special 

 apparatus used by the naturalist for collecting living animal-, a« dredges, 

 trawls, sieves, etc., and also the thermometers, water bottles, logs, 

 sounding lines, and other articles for collateral physical research. 



All articles contributed towaid this colh ction will be duly credited to 

 the donors both on the labels in the Exhibition and in the published re- 

 ports and catalogues. 



Where the objects themselves are too large for transportation or con- 

 venient exhibition, models may be substituted as far as procurable. 



After they have served their purpose at the International Exhibition 

 the collection will be tran-ferred to Washington and form part < f the per- 

 manent exhibition of the National Mn>enm, iThere, &i in PhiJa- 

 delphia, due credit will be given to the contributors. 



The articles intended for this exhibition nny be sent by mail or ex- 

 press; or, ir of larye bulk, by railroad. The expense of transportation 

 will be paid on receipt, in Washington, to which place they should be for- 

 warded, addressed lo the Smithsonian Institution, and marked 'Inter* 

 national Exhibition, 1876. " fcnd with the name and addre»s of sender. 



Bulky objects, in some cases, to form the subject of special arrange- 

 ment, should be sent direct to ihe Government building at Philadelphia. 



Joseph Henry, 

 Secretary Smithsonian Institution. 



Spencir F. BaIko, 

 U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. 



Animal Resources of the United States. 



The Smithsonian lnsii uiion is at prest nt engaged in making a collec- 

 tion to illustrate the resources of the United Srares as deriv. d from the 

 animal kingdom, and to this end invites the co-operation of i.l\ who may 

 have it in their power to render any aid in the undertaking. This will 

 form part of the governmental display to be made in acco- dance with 

 the act of Congiess of March 3d, 1875, and the executive order of March 

 5th, 1875. 



The general object of this exhibition is to show: First, sp-cimens of 

 all the animals of the United States which are hunted or collected for 

 any economical purpo-e whaever; second, the products derived from 

 'he various t-pecies. both in their crude and thnr applied or manufac- 

 tured condition; third, the apparatus or devices by means of which, di- 

 rt c;ly or indiiei-tly, these objects are pur-usd, captured, and utilized by 

 sportsmen, hnnters. trrppers. and others. 



(i ) Under the first head will be included: First, specimens living, or 

 preserved er.t ; re, as far as they c*n be obtained and conveniently exhib- 

 ited; second, skins of mammals, birds, reptiles, etc., stuffed and 

 mounted, or otherwise arranged; third, skeletons; fourth, restorations 

 of extinct forms; fifth, piaster casts o^ the objects, colored from nature; 

 and sixth, an exhibition of particular parts, such as skulls, horn:?, teeth, 

 shell, feathers, etc. 



(3 ) Among the animal products to be displayed will be inchided : First, 

 a eerie* of dressed furs, showing all the diff rent grade* of quality, de- 

 pendent on locality, season, or other-condition (his will also include 

 skm* of bi<d< used as articles of clothing;) second, preparations of 

 suins audh.de-* for leather, b ickskin etc ; third, any prepa-a ions of 

 bristles, hoof-, horns, bones, etc ; fourth som ■ simple or primary appli- 

 cations of ihe^e products to domesr'c purposes or t'e arts, as arth 1. s of 

 dress, ornament, etc., these to be exhibited both in their iu< rmediate 

 stages of manufacture and as furni-hed to the trade; fif h, food prepara- 

 tions, whether dried, smoked, pickled, canned, etc.; and sixth, any other 

 objects not include d in the above divisions. 



(3.) Under the head of apparatus for capture will be included: Fir^t, 

 special articles of dress or of clothing for the better accomplishment of 

 pursuit or capture of the various animals; second the means of ap- 

 proach, such as boats, sledges, snow shoes, etc. ; third, the various modes 

 of attack and capture in the way of trsp^. deeovs. lariats, bows and ar- 

 rows, lances, harpoons, gnns and rifle-*, both muzzle and breech loading 

 pistols, knives, etc. This dnision will also ernbr; Crf the vaiious foinis 

 of powder flasks, shot belts, cartridge ca«es, caps, primers, etc. Of the 

 boats the smaller kinds, and especially the so-called portable boats, may 

 be of the ordinary size; of the larger ones models will be best adapted 

 to the purpose. 



For the purpose of rendering this exhibition complete and strictly na- 

 tional m its character, the Smithsonian Institution invites donations of 

 the above mentioned objects from, manufacturers and dealers, and com- 

 manicarloiw conceraing.them, with the guarantee that full credit snail 



