366 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec. 7. 1882. 



to the office he holds in the game protective association of 

 Ontario, thai I hope to continue to visit the Ontario woods 

 commencing with September 18 or 30, and if the laws can- 

 •'rjiit ncii. to be so modified us to allow pleasure 

 parties to oal Venison (if they are so lueky as to capture any 

 in due dense foliage) before Oct. I, then I must be content 

 with partridge and black bass, for I shall try to respect the 

 law, hut if lain compelled to do tins, I sincerely hope that 

 1 shall noi hear on the same trip of any more sixty-live doer 



sllipillellis. 



We leather-bed sportsmen" will be content to go with- 

 out deer and pneumonia thai imr friend of the Oanadian 



'!i.,; li.cve I... Hi later in the season. B. G. A. 

 Oohkecticut Dee. i. l6iR. 



GREAT DEER HUNT AT SANDWICH. 



Tin; South Abington (Mass.) Sportsman's Club numbers 

 among its members many who have distinguished 

 themselves in hunting exploits, both in variety and in the 

 maimer in which the same has been killed;" but that the 

 picked team sent to Saiidwich this fall lo sustain the repu- 

 tation of the club have not eclipsed all previous perform- 

 ances, 1 leave the reader to judge by the following tale. 



After due deliberation in Which 'he club held several 

 sic nl meetings, the team was selected. First on the list 

 came Matt., a devoted sportsman, whose success in winning 

 first prize in the powder match this summer secured him a 

 plaee on the team. On being questioned about deer shooting 

 he confessed ignorance, but was allowed to go provided his 

 shells he loaded and examined by a committee before leav- 

 ing. Next came Chris., the old' reliable, in whom everyone 

 felt l he most confidence. He was also Questioned by the 

 chili, an. I rave several vivid descriptions of fox hunts in 

 which he had participated, but as some one else had invari- 

 ably shot the fox. he was about to be rejected, when it was 

 suggested that he had better be taken along to play kigh- 

 jacl v, ith Matt. It was voted to send Chris. Serb The 

 silent was called and told his little story. He had killed 

 everything from a rabbit to u polar bear, excepting, of 

 Course, deer. He, however, made fair promises, and his 

 name was hooked without further ceremony. At this point 

 0. F. arose and said he had prepared :i paper on deer shoot- 

 ing, which he would read with the club's permission. He 

 was allowed to proceed, and read a very exhaustive and care- 

 fully prepared article, entitled "Deer and where to find 

 Ilium." At the conclusion it was voted to send Frank. To 

 liable Smith objected, saying that he himself had 

 had more experience in deer shooting than C. F. , at the 

 same time producing' proofs of his statement. The club 

 after deliberating a few moments decided to send both. 

 Jacob the faithful was next interviewed. He informed the 

 club that he had frequently paid a visit to the deer on Boston 

 Common, and felt confident, that he should recognize one in 

 :i wild state, and should do his level best to bring home mut- 

 ton. His name was put down amid cheers. 



One day about u week after the, aforesaid examination an 

 unUSUa] collection of baggage on a downward-bound Cape 

 train occasioned considerable remark from that .much-abused 

 class usually called baggage smashers, and on one end of an 

 iron-bound trunk Set ii enlightened the uninitiated with a 

 panoramic description of a deer hunt, while the rest of the 

 deer slavers formed an admiring audience. 



Upon their arrival at Sandwich they were mistaken by 

 some of the citizens for a delegation sent from Congress to in- 

 quire into the workings of I he ship canal company,' but a few 

 explanations set. that matter right, and all hands repaired to 

 the hotel to make arrangements for a grand hunt the next 

 day. Guides and dogs were engaged, and after supper all 

 turned in to dream of deep-voiced hounds and nntlered 

 stage. 



i'nvio is to their departure arrangements had been made 

 providing that in case a deer should be killed a telegram 

 should announce the fact to the club. The first day no dee: 

 was started, and the party returned to the hotel with color: 

 at half-mast. On the second day the men were all on thei; 

 stations, when a deer was started. Supposing of course 

 that the game was good as dead, they took one imui off his 

 Stand and started hini for the telegraph office with the mes- 

 sage, 'Killed a deer;" but now the old adage, "there': 

 many a slip," was verified; for the deer took the oppositi 

 course from that which it was naturally supposed he would 

 lake, ami passed through the line at the point just vacated 

 by the messenger. Deer and dogs were not seen nor heard 

 agaiu thai day. 

 "The next day was a blank; so was the next; and so was 

 ever}' day the party remained. 



How they all reached home no one knows. Excepting 

 that mysterious telegram nothing was heard of them for 

 two weeks. Finally one evening in came Chris., and was 

 immediately surrounded by an eager crowd of questioners; 

 but all they could set out" of him was •■Confounded hard 

 luck." Vou say anything to him now about deer, anil he 

 smiles a melancholy smile that speaks louder than words. 

 They all Want to try it over again, but the majority of the 

 members think that the quicker and cheaper way is to buy 

 one-, have it mounted and set up in the club-room; for as 

 the matter now stands Certain members of the club will 

 never see a d'er unless something of the Kind is done. 



SOCTH A.B1NOTON, MflfiS. SASSACTJS. 



PHILADELPHIA NOTES. 



IT is very evident that our- people of the gun and dog who 

 expected to find quail in greatly increased numbers this 

 autumn are disappointed. To be sure birds have been 

 found more plentiful this season, but the gain has not been 

 very marked; and should the coming winter be a severe one, 

 as it bids fair to he, and should plenty of snow fall, as will 

 most likely be the case, the quail will again need to be pro- 

 tected and nursed through until another mating season. 

 Boh While has not yet recovered from the blow he received 

 winter before last, and it will be more necessary then I hat 

 we should diligently watch him this winter, and have his 

 ... I re ai'etully looked after by the several game associa- 

 tions of the country. 



Shooting in Delaware during the past month has been 

 good o to speak, but the birds have been hard to find, 

 te. dm- close to cover, into which it wm almost impossible 

 . i. em. after they were put up. Out of six coveys 

 of birds found by a party of friends, who were shooting in 

 Delaware, five were pointed in the woods, where plenty of 

 feed Seams to have kept the quail from seeking the open. 

 Sportsmen will be more apt to catch the birds in the 

 stubbles, now that the weather has turned colder; but then 

 we are having and are likely to have plenty of snow this 



December, which will "play hob" with the shooting and 

 birds likewise. 



Duck shooting never was belter than it is now. At Gun- 

 powder (Big and' Little), at Bush Elver, and at Havre de 

 G-ra-CG, canvas-hacks, redheads ami blackheads have beam 

 plentiful. Redheads and Blackheads wire more numerous 



When the season opened ; canvas-backs have shown them- 

 selves in greater numbers within the past two weeks. Two 

 or three of the private outfits for ducking at Havre de Grace 

 and neighboring grounds have been offered for sal.- two of 

 them sold. 1 am informed. It will not lie long, I trust. 

 before all the non-prof es-ioual "lay-outs" will be disposed 

 of by their owners. Homo. 



IS AN AIR SPACE DANGEROUS? 



IF it is in a man's head T should say not vary ; if in a rifle, I 

 should say it. would be bad for the barrel,' even though a 

 correspondent says not in your last issue. 1 have recently 

 seen a barrel spoiled by a bullet slipping away from the 

 shell to about six (6) inches from the muzzle. I know of 

 three barrels that were spoiled after tvard by experiments of 

 the same kind, if your Philadelphia correspondent has a 

 gun thiit, he thinks a good deal of, let him load it and (ire it 

 with a bullet six (fi) inches from the muzzle. It won't kick 

 much, but be will want a. new barrel. The gentleman who 

 -xp, rimemed could afford to spoil three barrels in three 

 shots, may be your correspondent will be willing to spend 

 some money to* prove that an air space is not dangerous. 



Fokgetfdx. 



Is an air space dangerous? Your correspondent says No! 

 but like many other things in this world, it depends entirely 

 upon the circumstances of the case whether or not an air 

 space be dangerous. 



Please request the writer to place a tight wad, say one or 

 two sizes larger than the bore of his gun, in the muzzle of 

 his shotgun and fire it off, and then give us his opinion upon 

 the subject of air spaces. 



No danger will probably result to him from such an ex- 

 periment, but he can be assured that bis gun will have a 

 most beautiful "bulge" at the seat of the wad. or may per- 

 haps be even burst at that point. 



You no doubt will remember the old tompions we used 

 to have for our muskets. They were abolished for the sim- 

 ple reason that if ii soldier tired his piece with one in its 

 muzzle, the piece was almost certain to be ruined. I have 

 seen at the arsenal hundreds of guns thus ruined, or by hav- 

 ing some other obstruction in the muzzle of the gun, even 

 so simple a thing as an oiled rag to keep out dirt and mois- 

 ture very often produces the same effect, as also snow, mud, 

 etc. and let it lie remembered also that such results follow. 

 whether the cartridge used be ball or blank. We don't know 

 very much about airspaces asyet, though we are trying hard 

 enough to lind out as much as possible about them' Of one 

 thing we have, however, learned, which your correspondent 

 seems to ignore, and that is that they arc in many cases dan- 

 gerous. ' F 



Please allow me to correct an erroneous statement made 

 by a correspondent in your issue of November 38. A small 

 air space between powder-wad and bullet is considered an 

 advantage in long range shooting, because the bullet will 

 certainly upset, no matter how much tin is used in its man- 

 ufacture, but this space should be very small, say from one- 

 eighth to one-fourth of an inch. A large air space is danger- 

 ous. Powder is stronger than steel. I used an air space of 

 nine inches and ruined mv long range rifle at the first shot. 

 by bulging the barrel at the point at*which the bullet started. 

 The rifle barrel was clean at the time, aud Ihe bullet was a 

 "normal" one, which could have been rammed clear through 

 the barrel without using a pressure of more than two 

 pounds. A friend of mine spoiled his long range rifle in the 

 same way. I know it. as 1 saw the bulge in the bore of his 

 rifle barrel, and he told me how it happened. I have heard 

 of other eases which 1 believe to be authentic, but cannot 

 vouch lor, as I did not examine the guns. 1 have conversed 

 with several riflemen who have bad experience with bulged 

 rifle barrels, and they all agreed thai such a rifle would give 

 inners, outers, mid misses at one thousand yards in good 

 weather. I have been experimenting over three years with 

 my damaged rifle, and have .succeeded in putting twenty 

 five consecutive shots in a four-inch circle at one hundred 

 yards, making fifteen consecutive bullseyes at eight hun- 

 dred yards, and thirty-seven out of a possible fifty points at 

 one thousand yards. ' My experience has convinced me that 

 the gun is totally unfit for target shooting at any distance 

 over eight hundred yards, and not quite accurate at any dis- 

 tance. . E^A. LEoroT.D. 



NOTES FROM DETROIT. 



THANKSGIVING Day was a woeful event for the rab- 

 bits. A week of unseasonably cold weather had made 

 the ground solid, and a light fall of snow made the hunting 

 perfect. The early trams out on Thursday morning were 

 loaded with sportsmen, beagles and hounds. At each sta- 

 tion a lot of these were left for as much as twenty-five miles 

 out, and it is safe to say that there was not a rabbit within 

 that distance of the city that did not hear the bounds that 

 day. The long-eared "fellows are (or were) very plentiful, 

 and everybody came hack loaded with game and declaring 

 he never "had a better time in his life. All excepting poor 

 James Glenn, Jr.. the trap pigeon shooter. In stepping 

 over a large log, he slipped and fell in such a maimer as to 

 break a leg. 



L. H. Bascall, of Grand Rapids, came down this week 

 and put in three days at the Rouge in a punt, bagging 

 ninety-two ducks and twenty-three snipe. 



George Darling and Charley Abbs went to Flat Hock on 

 the early train last Wednesday and returned the same night 

 with 188 ducks. 



Al Point Monillee, which is at the mouth of Huron River, 

 the sport has been excellent the past week. W. C. Colhurn 

 secured nearly HIM), J. \\ r . .larilinc got 1DH in three days, aud 

 William Kimball was contented wilh 9S to his credit. 



At the mouth of Clinton River a party of four Canadians 

 located early this week with three batteries, the fourth man 

 being out in a small boat to pick up the dead and wounded. 

 The killing they have done is said to have amounted to a 

 massacre, "the ducks being carried across Lake St. Clair and 

 shipped to Canadian cities. As the marshes upon Clinton 

 River are the favorite shooling grounds of the Mt. Clemens 

 sportsmen, they are in a white heat at the invasion of their 

 preserves, and will ask the Legislature, which convenes 

 this week, to pasa a bill prohibiting shooting from a battery. 



W.' 



CHICAGO NOTES. 



[From our Eegular Chicago Correspondent.] 



A PARTY of six or eighl ot our best deer stalkers and 

 hunters left Sunday niehl for Northern Wisconsin 

 after deer. They were Messes, .lames Eldreuge, Fred Tay- 

 lor, Wm. Haskell, John Haskell. Perry Taylor and Charles 

 Gammon. I hey go via the Chicago '&. Northwestern road 

 to Feshtigo. and then via sleighs across country to Knoeka 

 haw Lake, a famous feeding place for deer, 'it is twenty 

 miles from Peshtigo. and right in the heart of the forest. 

 They will put up at the hunting camp of Hank Groves, of 

 Green Bay. and with Charlie Monger expect to live at least. 

 All reports from that part state that the weather 'is terribly 

 cold, but the outfit of the boys will save them. They take 

 along knit hoods, woolen shirts, heavy hunting coats," horse 

 hide overcoats, heavy pants, "shoe packs"and warm stockings, 

 underwear and mitts of lamb's wool. Their hunting equip- 

 ment is of the best, and what with torch hunting, stalking 

 and the hounds, if the party don't bring back plenty of deer 

 say their names are ■'mud'." They will also fish through 

 the ice in the lake for pickerel, bass and perch. They stay 

 abOUt two weeks. 



The hunting season about here has nearly played out. 

 There are no (hicks, only a few quail, and some rabbit shoot- 

 ing. Abe Kleinmau returned from Lake Senachwine Sat- 

 urday, where he had been for about six weeks. He aver- 

 aged fifty ducks a day. Tydston, Chapin and Gore re- 

 turned last week from their grand hunt in the heart of the 

 Indian Territory. Their slaughtered game has been coming 

 in refrigerator cars for days. Your correspondent will send 

 you soon the best practical hunting resorts in this vicinity 

 and what game can be had at each and how to reach thenx. 

 The Forest asd Stream is "catching on" immensely here 

 lately among our sportsmen. It is indorsed as ific paper. 

 Chicago. Dee. i. 



"AMERICANS IN CANADIAN WATERS." 

 Editor Voresian4 Stream: 



With your kind permission I would like to reply to an 

 article entitled "Americans in Canadian Waters.'" which 

 appeared in the Fokeht ajnu Stream of November 23, 

 bearing the signature of "The Old Doctor." We also are 

 aware of the high esteem given among Canadian sportsmen 

 to this journal. I am therefore desirous of referring to what 

 has been said on this subject, as in I his issue there appears 

 an editorial article which is scarcely what Canadian sports- 

 men and subscribers north of 45 degrees have reason to ex- 

 pect. Is the signature "The Old Doctor" a misnomer? If 

 not, we are glad of an opportunity of showing how sincerely 

 we venerate old age; hoary hairs demand our respect, but 

 we find it difficult in this case to call up the proper feelings 

 wilh which we should regard this august correspondent. 

 But it is a relief to know there is at least one opening left 

 for our pent-up veneration of old age to find a legitimate 

 outlet, and that is that there never lias come under our lim- 

 ited Canadian experience a more strikingly beautiful illus- 

 tration of that, ancient (able "The Dog in the Manger." He 

 cries out in his injured innocence, "We violated no law." 

 Perhaps he violated no statute of the country, but the 

 strongest rules governing good society are those "unwritten, 

 but, universally adopted by every one desirous of being 

 recognized as worthy to be a member of it. There is no 

 sportsman deserving of the name who does not consider it 

 as much his duty to avoid interference with the sport of 

 others as to secure his own; even if they have not the un- 

 speakable and unparalleled privilege of being members of 

 the great republic. All due allowance must be made for 

 those who have been denied this noble birthright, but it is 

 sad if their miserable fate cannot be alleviated by a little 

 sport, without some such favored mortals as our American 

 friends raining it by anchoring tl 

 " ill 



yacht on the feeding 

 in the usual line of flight, 

 s nothing left for us but 

 rl wait tho departure of 



grounds of the game, and dir 

 As a natural consequence, there- 

 to pack up, return to Montreal, 

 the steam yacht. 



] I has been said. "Sundry individuals have been greatly 

 perturbed in spirit." If the word "sundry" includes every 

 sportsman who visited the grounds before the desired de- 

 parture, then the expression is quite correct, but not by any 

 means sufficiently strong. I am willing to acknowledge 

 freely and frankly that the shooling was done in a perfectly 

 lawful manner; but when it is understood that the yacht 

 was anchored on the feeding grounds (of which 1 must be'al- 

 lowed to judge, having visited these grounds for years, and 

 being interested in a club house in connection with them), 

 thus diverting the direction of flight, our feelings and dis- 

 appointment can be appreciated. Each boat was provided 

 wilh an attendant, whose supposed duties of picking up 

 dead ducks were substituted by continued and apparently 

 intentional efforts to interfere as much as possible with the 

 shooting of the Canadians. Were this the first, and only 

 instance of such procedure it might be considered an acci- 

 dental combination of circumstances, but this course having 

 been indulged in on previous occasions, prevents any such 

 construction being plausible. For the item which appeared 

 in the Wttrwts 1 do not assume any responsibility; probably 

 the Writer was as ignorant of the true facts' as was the 

 author of the editorial remarks on "The Old Doctor's" letter. 

 In this epistle our "perturbed spirits" were soothed by being 

 gratuitously informed "the shooting was fair for the coun- 

 try." We'are overwhelmed wilh gratitude that anything 

 among us was found worthy of commendation from so hi, ' 



uld ha 



.nduced thost 



gs in "Currituck 



those favorable 



erior sport; it is 



'Offset" in the 



and reliable a source. What 



customed to make such infinitely superior 1 



Sound and Chesapeake Bay" to abandc 



spots and content themselves with such : 



hard to comprehend, unless they found 



gratification of spoiling what has hitherto been quite good 



enough for us. 



The polite inhabitants mistook, it, .seems, these sportsmen 

 "for a party of theologians." We have known and experi- 

 enced a good deal of the native politeness of Our "habitants" 

 but scarcely credited that it could be stretched sn far as to 

 clothe these invaders 

 shall in future deem 

 incredible or improbi 

 letter begin to get va, 

 great waste of consid 

 a weak attempt at sa 

 If it is an effort al w: 

 failure. 



Talking of D's. it is not well to indulge in initials, for these 

 unfortunate letters stand for many words in the English 

 language, some of them not very desirable. 



We considered ourselves fortunate in having a "Doctorof 

 Divinity" with us, who is an American, a perfect gentleman. 



k of theology, truly we 

 iual to any emergency, however 

 The remarks in this part of the 

 After much deliberation and a 

 m 1 fail lo discover whether it is 

 i or an inflated piece of egotism. 

 ! a most ludicrous and lamentable 



