Janhaby 19, 1882.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



491 



I find that I hive shot at fifty-six grouse, fifty-four of them 

 on the wing, and two sitting. 



Of this number shot at on the wing, I killed sixteen: and 

 killed both of the sitting shots. 



The greatest number killed consecutively on the wing, was 

 three. 



I shot most of the time a ten-pound 10-gauge, full choke, 

 hammerless gun. I loaded with 4A drams Orange lightning 

 ptfwder No. 6 and l^oz. No.'s 5 or*6 shot, the former late in 

 the season. 



I believe that one pellet of No. 5 shot late in the season, 

 when ruffed grouse generally rise wild, will do more execu- 

 tion than half a dozen No. 8's; for, as a late conirihutor re- 

 marks, tbcv are a hardy bird and carry away, very frequently, 

 quite a weight of lead, if a bone in the wing or neck is not 

 broken. 



I am, if shooting a ruffed grouse sitting be the criterion, a 

 pot-hunter. But I shoot over a brace of setters and seldom 

 get the opportunity to kill them in this manner. I may be 

 Wrong, but I do not believe that shooting an occasional 

 grouse on the around or in a tree will constitute the shooter 

 a pot-hunter. I imagine that an individual who systematic- 

 ally prepares himself for toe slaughter of ruffed grouse by 

 •• treeing" them and then deliberately, "with malice afore- 

 thought?' kills them, deserves the name of pot-hunter and 

 the condemnation of every lover of the "hurtling grouse." 



Ooto. 



rifle. 12- inch barrel, 32-calibre. "L. I. F." will accept my 

 thanks for his kind expression regarding my former letter. 

 Yes, I have been there many times, and trust that I may be 

 spared to go there many times again. To "Mark West" I 

 would say that every hunter knows and every naturalist 

 should know that all wild birds and animals have certain 

 fixed habits according to their several species, and a thorough 

 knowledge of their peculiar habits make the hunter and 

 trapper successful in their vocation.— Stanstbad. 



MUZZLE AND BREECH. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



Editorially you remark that Mr. Van Dyke will find many 

 to agree with "him as to the muzzle-loaders accuracy at short 

 range. Possibly so, but, notwithstanding his preposterous 

 claim as to the merits of his muzzle-loading rifle, the persons 

 who still use them, as a rule have not made their "first visit 

 to town." 



Admitting his " dime " shooting at 50 yards, won't a ball 

 that hits a half-dollar every time from a breech-loader, at 

 same distance, auswer every purpose on game at 200 yards 

 and under ? 



He claims a cows ball "cannot bo shot at'all." Now, I 

 have put 8 out of 10 naked cone b ills from a breech-loading 

 Maynard into an 8 inch bullseye at 200 yards, off-hand, and 

 can send Mm the proof, if he wishes it. 



Would that he could sit. behind a glass and see where 

 Charles, Richardson aud Jewell plank their 330-gr. eylindri- 

 cals every time on an iron target, 200 yards away. One 

 visit at Walnut Hill (Mass.) will take the conceit out of 

 him that he intimates is in others, and show him koio to 

 shoot the "rifle of the present." 



Mr. Van Dyke further says that " the extremely long ball, 

 necessary for a long flight, cannot be loaded from the muzzle 

 by the "best system of patching." Now, it is a notorious 

 fact that, at Oreedmoor and elsewhere; long range breech- 

 _ rides have had the bullet put in from the muzzle and 

 fired with as good results as though entered at the breech 

 with the shell. - 



ELe suites also that the ball, put in at the muzzle, cannot 

 be fitted tightly enough for the grooves. How is it, then, that 

 scores of 22-1 are made with long range rifles carrying bullets 

 that can be pushed through the barrel by a rod, with scarcely 

 a pound pressure? 



It is evident that Mr. Van Dyke has something yet to 

 learn about rifles. From his description one would liken a 

 breech-loading rifle barrel to a thermometer, with its bulge 

 at the bottom for a ball to wallow in before starting on its 

 journey. 



. — -»- — • 



LOADING FOR GAME. 



Maoon, Mo., Jan. 9. 

 Editor Forest and Stream : 



Many Of vour correspondents fail to give weight, length 

 and bore of gun, leaviusr the readr to guess at these very 

 important features. An article stating that 3^dr. powder 

 and l^oz. of shot is the proper load for ducks, is about as 

 vague" as it can well be. I shall confine my views on the 

 subject oi loading tor game, to guns suitable for general 

 shooting, viz. : 12gautfe/8Jto9A-lb8. ; 10 gauge, 9J to i0 l lbs. , 

 Length of barrels 30 inches. For the 12 gauge, for general 

 shooting, use Irir. Orange, duck powder No. 4 grain, 2 pink 

 edge wads on powder, with one black edge on soot, all one 

 size larger than bore of gun: loz. of shot, No. 8, for quail, 

 plnnattd and ruffed grouse, squirrels and rabbits; No. 9 for 

 snipe and plover. For duck shooting use 4Jdr. same powder, 

 and l£oz. No. 5 shot, in first barrel and same quantity of No. 

 7 in second, shells loaded same, as to wads. For the 10 gauge 

 use l.Vir. same powder and lj-oz. shot same sizes as 13 gauge 

 for genera] shooting, and 5dr. and ljoz. of shot for duck 

 shooiing. 



Always use wads one size lurger than bore of gun in 

 paper shells, and two sizes larger for brass shells. I have 

 found out by experience that trying to economize in powder 

 is not economy. In loading us above mentioned the shells 

 containing No. 8 shot can 'be used for duck shooting very 

 well if you run out of shells loaded for that purpose. The 

 mo?t absurd idee, about loading that 1 ever read or heard of 

 is advanced by a correspondent from El Passo, III. , signed 

 " No. 13 Lore," in issue of January 5; No. 12 Bore says 

 he use; 2jilr. powder and Hoz. of No. 4 shot (for squirrels). 

 Such a load may be all right "down in Egypt," but would 

 hardly pass muster in this part of the country, especially in 

 the timber along the Chariton River. 



The chapter on guns and loading in Capt. Bogardus' book 

 " Field (Jover and Trap Shooting,'" is about as practical as 

 anything that has ever been written on the subject, and by 

 a practical man top. The tallow question mentioned by 

 No. IS E ire is rather old, notwithstanding No. 12 Bore says 

 he thinks it is not generally known. It is tune thrown away 

 and does no good. Wire cartridges are expensive and are no 

 better than loose shot in a breech-luader, and very little bet- 

 ter in a muzzle-l "ader. Bobdbb Rumian. 



Vermont. — Sheldon, Jan. G. — Ruffed grouse are very 

 scarce iu tiiis vicinity, and the few killed have been all old 

 bare had fine sport on the beech-ridges, where 

 ade some heavy bags of gray squirrels, with a few 

 black ones for variety Foxes and rabbits scarce. Red- 

 headeo .'re very plenty here this season, and 



are. I believe, a wiutsi resident with us. Iu your issue of 

 Dec. 15 I see that a caribou was killed near Gaspe Basin with 

 a 33-calibre revolver For some years past several of the 

 moose and caribou hunters near Campbellton, N. B., use 

 while hunting this large game the " Frank Wesson" pocket 



jfua and giver 



FISH IN SEASON IN JANCAKV. 



Shooting is the South. —I have just returned from a 



two week's shooting trip to Georgia, and can report finding 

 ducks fairly plentiful. I went up the Savannah River about 

 twenty miles and got seventy-two ducks, mostly bluebill, 

 spoonbill and mallard in four days' shooting, aud did not 

 work very hard either. The weather was very warm, and, 

 consequently, the ducks not flying well, or I should have 

 made a much larger big. I did not try for deer, though 

 from reports should judge they were very plentiful this year. 

 Quail aud doves abundant everywhere. The best way to 

 shoot on the Savannah is to hire a ducking skiff (about 00 

 cents per day), go up the river, say 150 miles, and drift 

 down. There is a steamer up the river every Tuesday and 

 Friday at 6 p.m. A dozen decoys are useful, but most of the 

 shooting has to be done by sculling up on the ducks. You 

 can hire a darkey to go with you at from 75 cents to one 

 dollar per day. I had a very intelligent fellow that knew 

 every nook and turn of the river and where >o findthe ducks. 

 A trip of this kind is inexpensive, compared with Currituck, 

 or even Cobb's Island, and, to my thinking, is quite as 

 enjoyable.— Jueis P. 



Astride of a Stag.— Murray's hero has been outdone by 

 a European rival. In the London (Eng.) Telegraph we find 

 the following : Since Mazeppa most unwillingly rode to 

 death the wildest Tartar steed of his period, few such sur- 

 passing feats of horsemanship have been recorded in the 

 pages "of history or romance as that to which publicity has 

 been recently given by the majority of our Hungarian con- 

 temporaries. Perhaps" horsemanship is scarcely the correct 

 term to apply to this extraordinary performance : deerman- 

 ship would probably be the more appropriate word. The 

 other day, while a nobie stag of ten was being hotly chased 

 by the Kaposztasmegyerer hounds — a subscription pack — 

 one Karl Poros, a discharged hussar, managed to bring the 

 terrified animal to a standstill in some close cover through 

 which it was forcing its way, and, by an almost superhuman 

 effort of strength and agility, to vault upon its back. After 

 several desperate but unsuccessful attempts to dislodge its 

 rider from his seat, the stag, stimulated anew to flight by 

 the cry of the fast-approaching hounds, resumed its course, 

 but it soon broke down under the weight of its unaccustomed 

 burden and gave up the ghost through sheer exhaustion and 

 terror. Poros was found by the huntsmen sitting on the un- 

 wounded carcass of the stag, which he had literally ridden 

 to death and resolutely claimed as the just reward of an 

 achievement unprecedented in the annals of the chase. [The 

 Foeest and St'beam office boy suggests that Poros should 

 have fired that name at the stag, Kaposztasniegyererxyzetc.l 



Kill the Owls.— Canal Fulton, Starke county, O.— I be- 

 lieve a true sportsman takes as much pleasure in killing all 

 enemies of game as he does in killing game. All owls are 

 great enemies of game, killing them while they are asleep 

 and then sleeping in the day in hollow trees away out of sight 

 of the hunter. I have discovered a way to shoot them. When 

 I learn that an owl has located in the woods I get on a horse 

 aud take my gun and ride around through the woods where 

 I think the owls are in a hollow tree, examining carefully 

 every tree that has a hole in it. I don't talk any, but don't 

 care how much noise the horse makes, as that is what I want 

 the owls to hear. This excites their curiosity and then they 

 will crawl up and look ©ut to see what is going on and give 

 you a chance to shoot them. I one time caught a screech- 

 owl in a hollow tree that showed his inquisitiveness by crawl- 

 ing up to look out to see what was going on. It was five feet 

 from the ground. I reached in and pulled him out, and he 

 had a qnaU in his talons half eaten that was just killed the 

 night before. I suppose the quail was as heavy as the owl. 

 — G. II. 



Medina, N. Y., Jan. 12.— Our taxidermist has just received, 

 to be mounted, a red fox, killed three and a half miles south- 

 east of Albion. It is a fine large specimen, and weighed ten 

 pounds. This reminds me that a fox was shot a few weeks 

 since inside of our village corporation. He was seen to enter 

 a drain, the m >uth of which was afterward closed by a flat 

 stone, and one of the covering stonei taken up a few rods 

 beyond. He was shot and killed. Il was taking a rather 

 mean advantage, but the killer felt justified by the number 

 of chickens he and his neighbors had loBt. A gray fox has 

 been seen several times prowling around. Rabbit hunting 

 has been good so far this winter, a »reat many being killed 

 on the light snows we have had lately. — Sal Nitek. 



Georgia.— Micon.— Middle Georgia has had a very short 

 crop of game this season, our principal birds (quail) being 

 scarcer than we have ever known. Some sections that have 

 formerly had quantities of birds have been this year almost 

 destitute. Though the weather has been warm, we have had 

 a good supply of ducks. The writer had an excellent oppor- 

 tunity of testing the much discussed "hot or cold opossum" 

 subject, yesterday, and after a trial, was of the opinion "'twas 

 six for one and half a dozen for the other."— J. H. J. 



Bk Caekettl where you drop your cartridges. Some per- 

 son left one on the floor of A. G. Jackson's residence at 

 Jericho, Long Island, and when Louisa Sands, the colored 

 servant, put the sweepings into the kitchen stove last Friday 

 morning, the cartridge exploded, whereby she lost the sight. 

 of an eye. We have heard of a case where a " .22 short" 

 pot into a box of smoking tobacco and thence into a smoker's 

 pipe, giving him a great fright and a narrow escape. 



Kaksas— Cit«arron, Gray Co., Kan., Jan. 2nd.— This is 

 a good time for aatelope here, as the fires have burnt, off the 

 prairie for miles north of here and bunched up the ante] 

 near the river. Cattlemen from 100 miles south report 

 buffalo plentiful, but in bunches of four and five coming in 

 from the south Vest. The head of the herds were just 120 

 miles from here on the 23th. I Bhall go down to them on 

 the 25th, to be gone fifteen or twenty days. When I come 

 hack will report progress.— W. J. Dixon. 



Pickerel, Bsox reitadatu*. I rellow Perch, i 



Pike or eirirerel, AVj.- lueiut. | War-momli, (fts . 

 Pike-perch (wall-eyed pike) l Crapple, f»ii:«; 



Stizott.ihium amurwrnum, S. | Bachelor, Pone *«*■.. i, . . 



ijriseum, etc. 1 



SALT WATEB. 



Smelt, Osmerus ■mordax. I White Perch, iterant, lima 



Sinned IS ass or Eooknsh, Roams | Pollock, Pulinc/ini* carbuw 

 Uiieatvs. | 



THE ANGLER'S DEE AM. 



Trie earth Is sad— mists dank and gray 



Enfold ber ancient breast -, 

 The waves, all wearied with their play, 



Have trembled Into rest, 

 And silently the god ot Day 



Is sinking In the SVest. 



Now dead delights, luce ghosts, arise 



Within my haunted brain : 

 The tender blue ot April skies— 



The sound of Api 11 rain— 

 The foaming heck— the gentle rise— . 



The princely pounder slain I 



Then fade the flowers from my slgtit, 



O'ershadowed Is the stream, 

 As yonder through the waning light 



I see the pier-lamps gleam 

 And In the drear Novembei night 

 I waken from my dream ! 



F. B. Doveton. 

 n Sportng and Dramatic Seicz. 



THE ALEWIFE IN INLAND LAKES. 



IN the autumn of 1880 interesting accounts were published 

 of the exhibitions which a man gave on Keuka, Seneca, 

 and other lakes of western New York, showing his method 

 of trolling for salmon trout. His successful bait was the 

 mysterious alewives, or " sawbellies," about whicu there is so 

 much speculation, the problem being how they got into those 

 waters. 



So far as appeared, this man obtained the indispensable 

 bait by catching a salmon-trout with a hook baited with a 

 young s-ucker, opening the trout and taking the alewives out 

 of its stomach. Then he proceeded to troll with the bait 

 thus obtained, and kept up his supply of it by opening every 

 fish that he caught. As a young sucker with which to take 

 the first salmon is not always obtainable! by the average fish- 

 erman, it may interest some of your readers to learu of a 

 more direct method of procuring the alewives. This is by fly 

 fishing for them late in the evening. 



Last July, one evening. I was catching large minnows for 

 bait from a dock on the shore of Seneca Lake, using b fly- 

 rod with the smallest of flies. Wh n it had become so dark 

 that the minnows ceased to take the flies, I begau to catch 

 alewives, and soon had five. The next eveuing, at ihe same 

 hour, I tried for them again, and took fifteen in a short time. 

 They continued to take the flies afier it was dark. 



These lively little interlopers are hot welcomed with uni- 

 versal heartiness by the sportsmen on Seneca Lake. It is 

 true that they furnish an excellent food for the game . 

 but the supply is so lavish, so recklessly prodigal, that the 

 salmon-trout and the glass-eye-pike are i airly surfeited, and 

 regard with supreme indifference the most attractive lures Of 

 the angler. This is one reason they give in explanation of 

 their inability to capture these fish. If this were all, it would 

 not be so bad. Naturally enough, the alewives, tort, have 

 excellent appetites, and they are charged with satisfying 

 them with the spawn of their persecutors It may be a ques- 

 tion of " the survival of the fittest," aud so far the alewives 

 seem to be having the best of it. It is certainly a tact that 

 trolling for salmon-trout and glass-eye pike on Seneca Lake 

 has become practically abandoned. Seines aud gill jiel 

 largely accountable for this, but still ihe conviction remains 

 tha' alewives have damaged the fishing. 



Up to within a few years past every grass patch in the lake 

 was full of yellow perch. They have all disappeared except- 

 ing a few stragglers. Happily the black bass hold their own, 

 and better still, are on the increase. I'hey protect their 

 spawning beds and have it all their own way with the mul- 

 titudinous alewife. They, too, devour the little stratigers 

 without stint, but nevertheless are always ready for a tussle 

 with the angler properly equipped with fine tackle at d ex- 

 perience. Kanadi saga. 



COLOR OF GUT. 



"The Foeest Cut," Ontario, Jan 9, 1882. 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



I observe in your issue of 5th inst. an article upon " ilor 

 in Fishing Gut." This is a question upon which men oil! 

 never agree as long as there is a piece <f gut to be had. 

 There is, however, one color which I do not think has ever 

 been tried and which has just suggested itself to mu. viz., 

 " green." In all paintings of water scenery the water is 

 represented as being of one or more of the various shades of 

 green, excepting, of course, in sepia and neutral tint 

 pictures. As the past and present artists of Europe aud 

 America were and are, without doubt, deep Studen s of 

 nature in that respect, their adoption of green in its . 

 shades in representing water (with the afore-named excep- 

 tions) would tend to prove that such is its normal or natural 

 color, and that those who indulge in the n-hle art of fly- 

 fishintr would do well to color their "leaders" with a green 

 tint. 



I have fished in many waters in Ontario (in its western 

 section), from the clearest pond to a turlu'd stream, aud 

 used both blue-tinted and white gut for '• lead-rs," and never 

 found that I caught more or less with one than i he 

 It is theses that the fish see, not your casting line or leader. 

 and it is the fly only that he goes for, which is easily 

 by casting your "leader" over the water without, any flies 

 on it; the entire absence of "rises" will solve the pn 

 Our salmo fontinalis are of such a variable temper thai while 

 on some days rising to the flies asfast as you can throw your 

 line, on other days the most delicate tackle and skill wi 

 allure them from their cosy beds at the bottom of the stream. 



