264 



FOREST AND STREAM*, 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



3> ^2^ ToFa!LB and Aquatic Spobts, Practical Natural History, 

 f~~ *™?™ , » the Protection oe Game, Preservation or Forests, 

 at?i> the Inculcation in Men and Women oe a healthy interest 

 em Out-door Recreation and Study : 



PUBLISHED BY 



4£ovmt mi gtrtmq §ttblishmg §om$m^ t 



If CHATHAM STREET, (CITY'HALL SQUARE) NEW YORK, 



TPost Offtce Box 2832.1 



127 SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 



— , — « 



Terms, Five Dollars a Year, Strictly in Advance. 

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&. discount of twenty percent, allowed for five copies and upwards. 



— : *m*v — — 



Advertising Kates. 



In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12 lines to the inch, 25 

 Cents per line. Advertisements on outside page, 40 cents per line. Reading 

 notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in double column 25 per cent, 

 extra. Where advertisements are inserted over 1 month, a discount of 

 10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 

 jaonths, 30 per cent. 



NEWYO&K, THURSDAY, DCEEMBER 2 5 1875. 



To Correspondents. 



. _4 



All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 

 Correspondence, must be addressed to The Forest and Stream Pub- 

 lishing Company. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 



All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 

 peal name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 

 objection be made. No anonymous contributions will be regarded. 



Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 



We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 



Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to'favor us with brief 

 notes of their movements and transactions, as it is the aim of this paper 

 to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 

 men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 

 And our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 



The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 

 patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 

 fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 

 s beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 

 the legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 

 tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 

 ment or business notice of an immoral character will be received on any 

 terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 

 may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 



We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mail service, if 

 money remitted to us is lost. . 



Advertisements should be gent in by Saturday of each week, if possible. 



CHARLES H ALLOCK, Editor. 



WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Business Manager. 



Mr. Bee oh and Turkey Shooting. — The American 

 Rifle Association were to have had some old fashioned 

 turkey shooting at their Pelhamville range on Thanksgiv- 

 ing day, but Mr. Bergh put a veto on that portion of the 

 programme and it was omitted; the turkeys being first de- 

 capitated and theii heads only put up to be shot at. We 

 have been in accord with Mr. Bergh in many of his efforts 

 at alleviating the condition and sufferings of the brute 

 creation, but in this instance we must accuse him of most 

 woful ignorance of he subject or a fresh outbreak of that 

 meddlesome spirit which does so much towards neutraliz- 

 ing the effect of his better attempts. Mr. Bergh may not 

 be' aware that in a well conducted turkey shoot— and that 

 the Pelhamville shooting was such is instanced by the sub- 

 sequent proceeding — the head only of the turkey is ex- 

 posed as a mark for the shooter. In this case regulation 

 muskets were used, the ball weighing nearly an ounce. 

 The effect of such a mass of lead striking a turkey's head 

 would be much more decisive than hacking at it with an 

 axe, and productive of much less pain to the bird. It may 

 be remark-ad that those "dead heads" were struck by one 

 rifleman five times in seven. 



Now if Mr. Bergh had been traveling in the direction of 

 Gravesencl, Long Island, on that pleasant Thanksgiving 

 day, he would have seen a specimen of turkey, or chicken 

 shooting, which would have excited his wrath and com- 

 miseration to the b guest extent. A large party of men 

 were engaged in shooting at chickens with shot guns and 

 fine shot at a distance of sixty yards. One unfortunate 

 hen, valued probably at fifty cents, had yielded, at ten 

 cents a shot, the handsome sum of eighteen dollars before 

 she was pronounced defunct and handed to the winner. 

 He must have found her armor-plated, and we trust his 

 teeth paid for his sport. Here was a case of real cruelty, 

 torture in fact, but in the turkey shooting we contend that 



no cruelty exists . 



-«#t^ 



Brooklyn Review —The success of the Brooklyn (N. 

 T.) Sunday Review, which started three years ago under 

 auspices not the most favorable, has begun to astonish 

 even its most sanguine projectors and friends. Its entire 

 make up and appearance, typographical, editorial, and 

 physical, have been much improved of late, and the pun- 

 gent satire and humor which season its columns indicate the 

 employment of talent of marked ability. Its principal 

 owners are Amos G. Torrey, manager of the New York 

 Colosseum, long known in local literary circles, and the 

 Messrs. Sidebotham, father and son, the elder of whom 

 wa:s attached to the Brooklyn Daily EagU for twenty-six 

 years* 



OPEN AIR EXERCISE VS. RUM. 



IF our medical men, philanthropists, and we may add, 

 alarmists, who are endeavoring to discover a remedy 

 for the effects, and a cure for the evil of intemperance, 

 would recognize, endorse and urge the beneficial influence 

 of pure air upon the unfortunate, their efforts would prob- 

 ably be sooner crowned with success. Even as a substitute 

 for liquor, ozone, when taken in proper doses and at 

 proper times, is far superior to those preparations which, 

 like opium remedies, have for their base, a disguised pre- 

 paration of the drug itself. A trip to the lumber regions 

 of Maine during the working season would convince any 

 skeptic of the truth of this assertion. It is customary there 

 for men to go into the woods after prolonged sprees, with 

 shaky limbs and incipient horrors. Liquor is allowed for. 

 a few days only and then the pure air effects the cure. The 

 surroundings, too, are of a nature calculated to draw the 

 mind from the cravings of a depraved appetite. The 

 desire for artificial stimulant is gradually lost in the excite- 

 ment of healthy labor, and both brain and body resume 

 their natural functions under the invigorating effect of out 

 door life. 



That the effect of stimulant upon the inhabitants of 

 cities is far greater and more disastrous than upon the 

 countryman will hardly be denied. Given two men, one 

 of whom drinks his allowance while perambulating from 

 one bar-room to another, or engaging between whiles at 

 some sedentary occupation, and another who imbibes a 

 similar quantity while following the plough, felling trees, 

 digging stumps, or poling up stream, and the latter will 

 show none of the marks of dissipation which are invaria- 

 bly fixed upon the city drinker. Constant activity keeps 

 open the pores of the skin and the poison, or much of it, 

 escapes in that way, instead of being carried in due course 

 to the brain to finally result in a softening of that organ 

 and an attack of delirium. We do not argue that farmers, 

 lumbermen and voyageurs, because of their occupation, 

 can drink with impunity; on the contary, no class are 

 more liable to the results of excess, as can be witnessed by 

 a short study of any country bar-room. The very labor 

 which would effect a cure in their case is abandoned, and 

 broken fences, neglected buildings, old hats in the win- 

 dows, and general decay and ruin, bring into more fright- 

 ful prominence the destroyer's work. What we do argue 

 is, that if those who find themselves giving way to indul- 

 gence and have still strength to form and keep resolutions, 

 would fly to the mountains, indulge in sports of the field, 

 and aided by natural stimulants, overcome their unnatural 

 appetites, the probabilities of their being finally cured 

 would be far greater than if they resorted to drugs, or one 

 of the Asylums for Inebriates. 



Keep busy! Idleness cloys: nature demands excitement; 

 chance interviews with other loungers bring a temporary 

 relief to the monotony of living, and liquor at the bars 

 and tap-rooms supplies the temporary stimulant. Then 

 comes the excess, and afterwards the reaction, total pros- 

 tration, and a waste of vital forces which only long absti- 

 nance and careful diet can restore. The repetition of these 

 excesses, increasing in frequency from month to month, 

 brings wear and tear, decay, and premature wreck. Oh! 

 the woes and bane of idleness and sloth! We have sug- 

 gested the remedy. Let the victim of thirst follow it and 

 be cured. Let him become farmer, trapper, hunter, bull- 

 whacker, surveyor, chopper, anything that will keep his 

 muscles in constant exercise, and send the stagnant and 

 polluted blood through his veins and out of the system ; 

 cause all the secretory organs to resume their healthy func- 

 tions, and perspiration to ooze from his dry and feverish 

 skin. Thus will the system be cleansed. Once clean, it 

 will crave no alcoholic stimulant, and manhood and self- 

 respect will again assert themselves. Oh, the luxury of 



feeling oneself a man ! 



«*^e. , — 



Florida Items.— The St. Augustine Press of November 

 20th publishes between 6ixty and seventy arrivals at the 



Magnolia Hotel The St. James Hotel, at Jackson ville> 



is now open The St. Augustine Hotel opened December 



1st The steamer Huntsville, from New York to Fernan- 



dina, took eighty-eight passengers on her last trip. The 

 Georgia, of the Quintard line, sailed full last Wednesday 



from this city. All the lines are pressed with business 



Green peas at Jacksonville sell for $1 per peck Seventy 



immigrants reached Orange county last week St. Au- 

 gustine is to have a first class market. .. .The hotels of 

 Florida are now equal to those aisewhere, both in table and 



general appointment The colored man who sells "Camp 



Life in Florida" on the trains and steamboats at Jackson- 

 ville is making a small fortune on commission. 

 : ***>■ 



Florida Travel.— The steamer Urbana, to run in con- 

 nection with the New York and Fernandina (Fla.) steam- 

 ship line has just commenced her trips. She takes the inside 

 route to Jacksonville, and thence up the St. John River to 



Enterprise. She is 168 feet in length. 



«»»». ^ 



— Bartolo Picetti, at Mosquito inlet, mouth of the Hali- 

 fax River, Florida, can accommodate two or three boarders 

 this Winter. The house is neat and comfortable, his wife 

 is a neat housekeeper and good cook, especially on fish, 

 which with oysters and sea turtle, is the chief diet. 

 Board $10 per week. The fishing is full as good as that at 

 Lowd's Hotel, four miles distant, and Bartolo is the best 

 fishermen on the coast. Deer, turkeys, bear, and wild 

 cats, can be found close by, to say nothing of rafts of 

 ducks. This is the favorite stopping place of our corres- 

 pondent S. C. Clarke, who will be there next month, 



RABBITS AND HARES. 



THE swamps of the more northern portions of the en- 

 tire United States are now filled with the great hare 

 (Lepus Americanus.) An expert hunter, accompanied by a 

 good dog, and armed with a shot gun, are all that is neces- 

 sary to bag a goodly number. This species never burrows- 

 it simply inhabits cavities beneath the roots of trees or 

 under fallen brushwood, therefore a dog can readily find 

 them. They nearly always travel in beaten paths, which 

 are formed by them, and which are plainly indicated 

 through the woodlands, so that the hunter, by standing in 

 a favorable position near one of these spoors, may secure 

 a shot as his dog drives the timid animal past him. As a 

 frightened hare moves like the wind, the gunner must be 

 able to snap short in order to catch him as he bounds 

 through the bushes. At this time these animals are brown 

 in color, but later in the season they become nearly pure 

 white. This is only one of the many instances where Na- 

 ture furnishes her charges with protective color. It is dif- 

 ficult to see the brown rabbit in Summer, as its hue cor- 

 responds quite nearly with surrounding objects; but it 

 would be plainly visible when the snow covered the ground 

 did it not put on a mantle similar in color to that of the 

 garb assumed by the earth. To accomplish this change 

 the hare moults twice annually, and when adopting a new 

 coat is often parti-colored. This species is replaced in the 

 West by the jackass, or mule rabbit {Lepus callotis)^ and in 

 the Arctic region by the polar hare, {Lepus glacialis.) 



The gray, or cotton tail rabbit {Lepus sylmtecus), is usu- 

 ally called a rabbit, whereas we have no species which 

 should bear the name. The true rabbit, of which the do- 

 mestic variety from Europe is an example, live in colonies, 

 and bring forth their young in burrows, whereas hares are 

 more solitary in habit, and simply construct a form or 

 nest wherein their offspring are placed. The young of the 

 rabbit are born blind and naked, while little hares are al- 

 ways covered with fur, and have their eyes open at birth. 

 Rabbits are very helpless for several weeks, but hares are 

 quite active when only a day or two old. The gray hare 

 differs from the Southern species in living in burrows dur- 

 ing Winter, and consequently they are not so easily run by 

 dogs. They may be hunted quite successfully, however, 

 on a day when there is a slight rain or snow which pre- 

 cedes a storm; they are then moving about in search of 

 food, and the sportsman may secure many good shots by 

 hunting along by the margin of swamps. This species is 

 represented on the plains by the little sage rabbit {Le. arte- 

 misia), and farther West by two or three other species. 

 There is also a swamp rabbit {Le. palustris) found in thick- 

 ets along rivers and lakes of the South. 



, -#-♦♦- 



AMERICAN AMMUNITION. 



We publish with pleasure the letter below from Mr. A. 

 C. Hobbs, President of the Union Metallic Cartridge Com- 

 pany, of Bridgeport, on the matter of American Paper 

 Shells; and we may add that after a careful examination 

 into the subject we recognize the strength of his remarks 

 regarding the necessity of uniformity in the chambering 

 of breech loading guns. We commend this subject to 

 English as well as domestic manufacturers of guns, feeling 

 assured that when uniformity is observed the complaints 

 of miss-fires will be largely reduced, if not altogether dis- 

 posed of. It is conceded that our rifle ammunition is al- 

 most perfect, and the cause assigned, a perfect uniformity 

 in the bore of rifles, may easily be applied to shot guns:— 



Bridgeport, Conn., Nov. 25, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



The contradictory statements that for the past few weeks have ap- 

 peared in the Forest and Stream, the honest intentions and truth of 

 which there are no reasons to doubt, tend rather to confuse than give 

 any reliable information to yonr readers regarding the meiits or demerits 

 of American Paper Shells, as all the different results named by yonr cor- 

 respondents are d'ie to the difference in the guns that were used by the 

 parties that shot them. Having been connected with the manufacture of 

 American sporting ammunition from the early introduction of breech 

 loading shot guns into this country, I will attempt to give what informa- 

 tion I can regarding some of the difficulties connected therewith, and the 

 cause of some of the complaints that are being made. In order to do so 

 I will first refer to the guns in which the ammunition is being used. 



In breech loading shot guns the cock or hammer, instead of striking 

 the cap on a fixed anvil, as in the muzzle loaders, strikes a movable pin. 

 These pins vary in both length and the form of the end which strikes the 

 cap; the pins are also driven at an angle ot about forty-five degrees; the 

 counter bore of the chamber (that is, the recess in which the head of the 

 shell is held) is so rounded that a slight variation in either its depth or 

 diameter will allow the head of the shell to sink in the counter bore, and 

 thereby carry the cap or primer, which is in the head of the shell, double 

 the distauce of the variation of the counter bore in consequence of the 

 indirect motion of the firing pin. All tne variations mentioned occur in 

 different guns, and all tend to make breech loaders liable to miss fire, as 

 the shells cannot be fitted to eacii particular gUD. 



The first attempt to supply the demand for breech loading shells ia 

 this country was the manufacture of the Berdan patent metallic shells. 

 A gun of one of the best English manufacturers was selected as the 

 standard, gauges were prepared conforming exactly to the dimensions of 

 the chambers, and shells were made to fit the gauges. Hundreds of 

 rounds were fired in the gun, and the shells, so far as any test in that 

 gun could determine, were perfect. These shells were sold, and soon 

 complaints came that they would not go in some of the guns. These 

 complaints led to an examination of the chamber of different guns, and 

 out of several hundred that were examined no two of different makers 

 were alike, and in many cases the two chambers of the same double gun 

 differed so' much that a shell fitting one barrel would not go in the other. 

 To provide against the difficulty of the shells being too large for the 

 chambers of any of the guns that were already in the market, naw 

 gauges were made conforming in dimensions to the smallest chambers 

 that could be found, and several sets of these gauges were sent to the 

 different gunmakers in England by some of the largest importers, with 

 orders to have their guns chambered to conform to the gauges. Having 

 done all that was thought necessary to insure uniformity in the guns for 

 the future, metallic shells were made to the new and smaller gauges, 

 which prevented further complaints of the shells not going in the guns. 

 As the metal shella^r'made of one piece, and the heads are turned, the 



