FOREST AND STREAM, 
895 
_ _ _ _ i- 9 
1101 1-9 
' 1 1 0-7 
1 0 0-7 
1 1 1-9 
0 0 0-5 
1 1 1—8 
1 1 1-8 
Massachusetts— Medford, Dec. 5th.—Bellevue range: 
Dnujilc Kokini 
Trap. Trap. Total 
0. R Belcher.. .10 10 30 
Re-entry.10 10 30 
J. S. Sawyer. 10 10 30 
W.II. Will.croll. 9 9 18 
W. Charles. 7 10 17 
K. P. Gleason. 8 0 17 
Re-entry... 7 S 15 
6. B. Blanchard.10 B 10 
O.H. Fox. 7 7 11 
J.K. Smith. 5 8 13 
J. Hart on. « « 12 
A. Marsh. 5 0 11 
J. E. Nason . 0 5 11 
L. C. Greco. 3 8. 11 
New York— Franklin, Dec, 1st .—The first Wednesday 
in November a few members of the Ouleout Sportsman's 
Club had a contest for the gold badge, with the follow¬ 
ing result; using Card’s rotary trap and Bogardus’ rules 
for glass ball matches, Gay Kellogg, manager ; Jack 
Harriff, referee :— 
W. Rutherford.I I 
W. Hamilton.11 _ 
K. Ingolls...0 1 0 1 1 1 1 
J. Buell.1 11110 1 
D. Bartlett.....1 111110 
,T. Rutherford_ __1 1 0 1 1 0 1 
O. Hants..*... 1 110 0 11 
L. Hierc.1 10 10 11 
Ties 5— 
W.Rutherford..! Ill 1—5 I D.Bartlett.1 011 l—l 
W. Hamilton... .1 001 1— 8 | 
This makes twice Mr. Rutherford has won it within the 
year. We have members who do not contest for the 
badge. A short time ago Mr. M. P. McKoon, the cocker 
spaniel man (the‘-Blue Star Kennel” proprietor), broke 
twenty straight, and then had to stop on account of re¬ 
coil of the gun, as he is in feeble health. G. K, 
New Jersey— Bayonne, Dec, 6th .—Match at 26 yards, 
single barrel, H. and F. traps : misty weatherM. 
Dixie, of Philadelphia, killed 18 out of 25 ; W. Thomas, 
of New York, 16 out of 25. 
Pennsylvania— Bradford, Dec. 2d . — The clubs of the 
oil region shot a match at 100 glass balls each man, 15 
yards rise, Card trap, straightaway. Another match is 
arranged for Christmas. The score was as follows : — 
A. B. Smith, *99; John Dinmnn. 96; A. E. Lineman, 95; Goo. 
Babcock,93; V.Kovel, 93; A. Smodley, 93; J. C. Lineman, 91; B. 
Patent, 83; E. B, Dodge, 87; H. HarkueBS, 81; F. Olinstead, 79; 
M. Bindley, 71; P. J. Chamberlain, 27 out of 70, withdrawn ; Geo. 
Abbey, (18; M. A. Chamberlain, 78; C. MeKeyitt, 76. 
* Missed the eleventh bird. 
Kentucky — Mwnfordville, Dec. 4f h, — Glass-ball shoot¬ 
ing is getting to be a favorite pastime with the sportsmen 
in this part of the State. A club was organized of five 
members here about a month ago, and at their fourth 
shooting forty-live balls were broken out of fifty-five, an 
average of nine out of eleven. The club use the improved 
Parker & Greener breech-loading shot guns. 
E. H. Chaplint. 
J.W. Smith. 
H. A. Sommers. 
R. O. Hughes_ 
W. B. Green. 
1111111111 1-10 
. 00111111110—8 
-liiooiiiiii— a 
.1111111110 1—9 
.0011101 1011—7 
Total.45 
Nimrod. 
Kentucky — Owensboro, Nov. 30th . — On Wednesday, 
Nov. IDth, a turkey and glass ball shooting match was 
given under the management of Messrs! Seth Palmer and 
Richard White, in Griffith’s Woods, south of this city, 
which Drought together a goodly number of the sporting 
fraternity, both of the city and county, All kinds of 
fire-arms were used, from the “ navy" up to the long- 
range army gun, with a good sprinkling of breech-loaders 
and occasionally a silver-mounted Smith & Wesson. The 
day was bright and clear, and the sport was excellent, as 
the fellowing su mmar y of the scores will prove. 
Glass balls ; shotguns ; 18 yards rise ;— 
J. T. Griffith . 1 1 l l l l l l l l—io 
Charles Elder. 1 1 1 1 0 I 1 1 ] 1— 
Joe Gray. 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 l 1 - 
James Herr.1 1 0 o 1 1 1 1 1 1— .. 
Fred Hen- . 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0-7 
H. Long.0 10U0U111 1—5 
J. Sinithimer.0 101110100—5 
J.Shanklin. 000000011 1— 
Glass balls : 18 yard? rise : — 
Claude Harris....1 111 1—5 I Dr. Bedford.0 0 0 1 1—3 
Joe Gray.1 111 0-11 Dick White - 0 0 1 0 0—1 
Wm. Barron . 1 1 1 1 0—1 I Dr. F.',F. Conway .0 0 i 0 0—1 
Joe Fugna.1 110 0—3 | Ike Palmer . 0 0 0 0 0—0 
Third match ; 18 yards rise : — 
Wm. Barron.1 111 1—5 I Louis Carter . 0 1 0 0 0—1 
Joe Gray . 1 10 1 1-4 Allan Gilmour.. .1 10 1 1-4 
Joe Fugna... , .1 110 0—3 Seth Palmer . 1 010 1—3 
Dick White.1 1 0 1 1— i | 
Turkey shooting ; rifles ; distance, 200 yards 
Turkeys. 
JohnSpoerri. 6 
F. B. Feager. .., — 5 
B.L.Aner.3 
Turkeys. 
Frank Debo.. 3 
Ed. Goodwin. 1 
F. J. Clarke.. 3 
Dr, John Head. 3 
Shot gun ; 11 yards.— 
Turkeys. 
Fred Herr.. 1 
James Herr . ,. .1 
Pistols ; 50 yards :— 
Lorenzo Farreill, 3 turkeys. 
Joe Gray, of the John A, Woods, gave an exhibition of 
bis s kill with the shot gun by breaking twenty glass 
balls, without missing a single shot. 
On Wednesday, Nov. 26th, a large number of sports¬ 
men again assembled in Griffith’s Woods, and tried their 
hands at glass ball shooting. 
First match ; 10 ballB ; 18 yards rise;— 
Wallace Herr.9 | Josh Grimth. 
Dick White. 9 Seth Palmer... 
W. Barron. 8 F.J. Clarke... 
Ben Hopkins—. 7 I James Herr... . 
The first money was divided between Herr and White. The 
second money was won by W. Barron. The tie for the third 
money was shot oir, and was won by Grimth. 
Second match ; 5 balls ; 18 yards rise ;— 
Dick White.3 1 Claude Hands. 4 
VV. Barron. 1 I Seth Palmer. 3 
Harris won the first money In shooting oil the first tie with 
Barron. Dick White won the second money. 
Third match; 5 balls ; 18 yards rise:— 
James Hen-,...3|C.Eldor.. .. 3 
Henry Horr...3 | Claude Harris,,. 5 
Dick White.3 I W. Ban-on. 5 
Both Piitmer,..5 A. Boyd.. ,3 
The tie between Harris and Palmer for first money was won by 
Harris, Ban-on won second money. 
Fourth match; 5 balls; 18 yards rise :•— 
O. Harris.51W. Herr. . 3 
Seth Palmer. . i I licit White..." 
W. Bam>n .. 5 I 
The tie for first money was won by Barron. Palmer won 
second money. 
Fifth match ; same distance ; 2 balls 
Elisha Adams.0 1 Allan Boyd.1 
J.Smithimer. 3 I Louis Carton..1 
Sixth match ; same distance ; 8 balls :— 
J. J. Hill.01 Tom Owen.3 
Louis Carter. 0 A. Winter. 0 
Ed. Crook _ .-. ,, _ 3 1 Lorenzo Fen-eill.( .0 
Seventh match ; same distance ; 5 halls : — 
Allan Boyd. .0 | Lorenzo Perrcill.1 
Eighth match; same distance ; 5 halls :— 
Seth Palmer. 3 I Dick White.5 
Tennessee. 
S n 4 mttl I 'rapping. 
Curing Skins of Large Animals.—N ot an atom of 
salt should ever touch a skin. A skin treated with salt 
will inevitably “ sweat ” in very moist weather anywhere, 
and will soon rot and spoil. I should very much like to 
hear Ward’s opinion on this point. A very experienced 
sportsman told me once that Waid would not undertake to 
make a good job of askinwhichjhad been cured with salt. 
I would not peg out a slrin in the sun if I could possibly 
help it; but it would take a pegged-out skin five or six days 
to dry in the shade sufficiently to make it safe to take it up, 
and one cannot always afford to halt so long in one spot 
when on the war path. When I can, I pitch a small tent 
over the skin while it is pegged out; and in any case I do 
this at night to save it from the dew. But when there is 
no time to dry the skin in the shade, I let it have the 
full blaze of the liberal sun, and thus melt out all the fat, 
so that it can be mopped up. A slrin so treated is throughly 
desiccated in forty-eight hours, and can be made soft 
enough by an expert to make a lady’s glove of afterwards. 
I have had very many skins so treated, which are now 
splendid specimens of the currier’s art. I carry a hundred 
nails, about six inches long, made of quarter-inch round, 
smooth iron, and with these and a pot of arsenical paste I 
prepare my skins for the currier. My modus is thus ; Firet 
I shoot my tiger; then I have him skinned: the skin is 
then, carefully washed in running water, if possible: if not, 
in several changes of water, until it runs off quite un¬ 
coloured. A quantity of dry straw, or grass is spread on 
a Bmooth piece of ground, all stones and such like having 
been first carefully removed. Two pegs are driven into 
the ground, twelve feet or thirteen feet apart, and a 
string is tightly stretched between these, so as to lie three 
inches above the straw, and over the center of it. The 
hair on the skin has by this time been thoroughly’dried 
with a sponge and relays of clean dusters, particular care 
being taken that the hair around the ears and in the in¬ 
terstices between the toes is perfectly dry. This is a most 
important process, as, if the skin is pegged out with the 
hair wet, you will never throughly save the hair. The 
skin is then laid hair down on the straw, under .the tight¬ 
ened string, and an iron nail is firmly driven through each 
nostril, one on either side of the string, and the head is 
filled with a mound of cotton wool or dry grass. Begin- 
ing with the head, and working backwards evenly from 
both sides of the body at once, the skin is then gently 
stretched longitudinally and laterally, and pegged out 
tightly with the iron nails in such a position that the ex¬ 
act center of the hack, and so on to the end of the tail 
(you can see the arrowhead marks through the skin to 
guide you), lie underneath the tightened string. The ex¬ 
tent of stretching to be given can only be learnt by prac¬ 
tice. It is a mistake not to stretch a skin at all, because 
it will have always shrunk a little from its natural size 
during the process of washing and drying; hut it is a 
worse mistake to over-stretch it, as in that case the hair 
always starts more or less. The nails should be four or 
fire inches apart all round the body, and closer about the 
feet. Only one nail is required in the tail at the tip, the 
skin of the tail being kept flat open by placing bricks or 
stones on it at intervals, and constantly shifting them. 
Nothing is so unsightly as a tail ornamented (?) with peg- 
holes along both edges. Having thus pegged out the skin, 
1 have all bullet marks neatly sewn together. As a rule 
I have only one (ahem !), and that a small one, made by 
my Henry 450, All hits of false skin, fat, flesh, etc., are 
now carefully removed, and the nose, lips, eyeholes, ears, 
pads, and bullet marks are liberally smeared with arsenical 
soap. The skin is now left to itself, save that every now 
and then the fat which melts out of the. slrin is wiped off. 
As soon as the skin is perfectly dry, and Like parchment, 
it is taken up and the pegs drawn, and the skin may then 
be loosely rolled up in a cloth or blanket, and will keep 
for any length of tune, until you are at leisure either to 
cure it yourself, or send it to an expert. But, however 
cured, let it not be cum grano salts ! Rohilla. 
Habits of Mink and Otter.— In your issue of Oct, 
28d I noticed a short artiole headed “Can a Mink be 
Drowned.” Certainly they can be, and when caught in 
a Bteel trap will voluntarily drown themselves just as sure 
as they have length of chain sufficient to allow them to 
get under water. They will do it even when they can 
get only head and shoulders under water. At least that 
is according to my experience, and I have caught hun¬ 
dreds. 
That remarkable statement of your correspondent, that 
a mink caught in a trap lived under water ten hours, Bur- 
prises me beyond measure. I am not disposed by any 
means to contradict the assertion, but I would have con¬ 
fidently asserted that a mink caught in a trap and held 
under water ten minutes would come out a dead mink. 
My humble opinion is that a mink, otter or muslqrat can¬ 
not live fifteen minutes under water under any circum¬ 
stances. A brook trout, when closely confined by the 
gills under water, will drown in a few minutes’ time. 
I have often watched the manoeuvres of a tame otter, 
which would follow like a dog and was as playful as a 
puppy. I used to let him follow me to a creek about a 
mile distant, and sometimes when the snow was light 
and nearly two feet in depth, he would slide along under 
the surface a distance of two or three rads, and then pop 
out, looking as though he had been oiled and varnished, 
and then pitch in for another slide, The creek was a 
slow stream, with numerous deep holes fed by springs, 
and was generally clear of ice during the winter and was 
well stocked with fish, principal I3 7 suckers, from a quar¬ 
ter to one-half pound weight. Here the otter would 
slide in and swim slowly around over the deepest water, 
just under the surface, without causing the slightest rip¬ 
ple, his nose occasionally coming up to the surface when 
two or three small bubbles would Toll off on the top of 
the water. 
After manceuvreing in this way for a short time he 
would dive to the bottom and go for the suckers, which 
he would bring out on the bank, and when taken from 
him would go for another, until five or six had been 
taken, when he would refuse to bring out more, but 
would eat them as fast as he brought them to the surface 
and continue doing so until he was completely gorged., , 
His movements in the water were very supple and easy, 
and at no time would he remain under water more than 
three or four minutes at one time. The otter, like the 
mink, is a great eater, but does not eat such a variety of 
food, living mostly on fish, frogs, clams, and lobsters, 
while anything in the shape of meat is greedily devoured 
by the mink. 
In some one of your back numbers I saw a communi¬ 
cation in which the writer claimed that the rabbit was a 
carnivorous animal; that he or some one had set trails 
for mink or foxes around a dead carcass and had caught 
rabbits ; that they bad decided that the flesh of rabbits 
was offensive on account of their carnivorous habits. 
Now, Mr. Editor, I beg leave to say that rabbits aro just 
as carnivorous as a sheep or a deer, and no more so. 
When nature’s laws are reversed we may look for rab¬ 
bits to feed on dead carcasses, and for sheep to kill and 
devour wolves. Antler. 
Piney Falls, Tennessee, Nov, 24 th. 
If iiUatml §nstime$, 
ARCHERY. 
THE DAYS AND PLACES OF ARCHERY. 
W HILE theinervous condition of the shooter doubt 
less has more than any other thing to do with the 
making or unmaking of scores, yet there are many out¬ 
side influences over which he has no control, which more 
seriously affect his shooting than most archers are aware 
of. That there are some ranges difficult to shoot over, and 
that there are dayB seemingly propitious wherein every 
archer falls below his standard, 1 cannot doubt, and yet 
it is a most difficult task to attempt to explain the reason 
therefor. If each archer of a year’s experience will con¬ 
sult his memory he can doubtless recall at least one day 
when the wind was still, the weather mild and everything 
apparently favorable for the making of high scores, and 
yet every archer fell far below his usual average, though 
shooting in good form. The only plausible reason that 
can be given for such results is that the day, though ap¬ 
parently favorable, was in fact the very worst possible. 
Those peculiar days are generally found to he bright, 
warm days after a week of dull, cold weather, and the 
most probablo cause of poor scoring lies in the fact that 
the glare of the unusual light affects the eyes to the prej¬ 
udice of the aim. Another reason may be that the 
shooters having had their nerves stiffly braced by the pre¬ 
ceding cold find themselves insensibly relaxed and weak¬ 
ened by the unaccustomed warmth, and are really, with¬ 
out then knowledge, in unfit condition. A poor result 
may also be reached because of the inconstancy of the 
light produced by floating masses of clouds. But even 
when every imaginable cause has been sought there will 
ofteu remain no clue to the mystery of the air and sky, 
and it will still be true that not every mild and fair day 
when the winds are at rest is fit for the attainment of 
high scores in archery. 
There is a vast difference also in the success achiev¬ 
able in shooting over different ranges. Of course much 
depends upon beco min g accustomed to the particular 
range, but even when the practice is equal over several 
ranges the shooter will find a very strong per cent, set¬ 
ting against some particular range, and the same effect 
will be noticed as against every shooter. An unerring 
index of a favorable or unfavorable range is found in the 
appearance of the targets. If they appear unusually 
small and distant the range is bad, aud on the contrary, 
if they appear unusually large and near, the range is 
favorable and the scoring will be high. The state of the 
atmosphere and the time of the day have gx - eat effect in 
apparently enlarging or d imini shing the size of the tar¬ 
gets, but the physical features of the particular range 
have a still stronger influence. Every attending archer 
at the National Meeting at Chicago last summer will re¬ 
member the shrunken and excessively remote appearance 
of his target. He no doubt imagined that his own nerv¬ 
ousness at bis first great public meeting was the cause of 
the unsatisfactory appearance of his target; but while 
this may have assisted it was not the principal cause of 
the illusion. Many of! us who have shot over the same 
ground before and since the meeting know that no length 
of practice over that field will enable one to realize that 
his target is four feet in diameter and only the regulation 
distance away. The Wabash Merry Bowmen have had 
the same experience with a certain beautiful plot of 
ground, the property of Mr. P. C. Summerville, which 
the owner kindly invited them to use in all them club 
meetings. No more perfectly formed range can be imag¬ 
ined, with the exception of the lack of shade, the ground 
being absolutely level, the turf green and extremely close, 
and not an object to attract the eye from its true aim. 
And yet no member has ever in any weather or under 
any circumstances succeeded in getting even a fair score 
upon the range. 
Most of the members Boon declared the range bad and 
protested against shooting over it, but the writer .some¬ 
what sullenly refused to believe in their “superstition,” 
as he termed it, and stuck to the range faithfully for a 
longtime, but never succeeded in getting but one good 
score in all his practice, and that at the short range of 
the York Round—sixty yards. Now the low scoriug of 
the club was not caused by their want of form, for during 
the same period whenever an adjournment was taken to 
another range the scoring would be satisfactory, At the 
time the writer regularly scored from 820 to 050 at) the 
Double York Round ho never was able to get 700 points 
