400 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



rfoin their horses, cut a deep breech across the stream from 

 one of its banks to the other. They then lower their nets 

 into the water and arrange them so as to block up the entire 

 channel, when, getting on their horses, they will ride for 

 seven or eight miles along the banks. They then form a line 

 of horsemen, reaching from shore to shore, and gallop down 

 in the direction of the nets. The fish hearing the clatter 1 of a 

 thousand hoofs, swim away from the sound, and dart like 

 lightning in the opposite direction. Here their course is at 

 once averted, and they become entangled in the trammels. 

 The quantity of sturgeon is at times so large that the sheer 

 weight of the fish is sufficient to force a passage through the 

 nets, a blank day being the result to the fishermen.' "' 



— The waters of the South Side Club of Long Island are 

 hereafter to be stocked wite fish hatched on the grounds. 

 Hatching-houses have been erected, and fish are being strip- 

 ped and the eggs prepared for artificial hatching. 



0#mf $xg mid %mu 



GAME NOW IN SEASON. 



Moose, A Ices tnalchis. Pinnated grouse or prairie chicken 



Caribou, Tarandw rangifer. Cupidonia cupido. 



Elk or wapiti. Cervus caiuideiufia. Ruffed grouse or pheasant, Bonasa 



Bed or Virginia deer, Cariacus vir- umbellus. 



gimanun. Quail or partridge, Ortyx virgini- 



Squirrels, red, black and gray. aims. 



Hares, hi own and gray. Woodcock, Phitohela Minor. 

 Wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo. 



"Bay hirds" generally, including various species of plover, sand 

 piper, snipe, curlew, oyster- catcher, surf birds, ptialaropes, avocets 

 e;c, coming under the group Limacolce, or Shore Birds. 



^P" In New York State December is a close season for deer. Deer 

 shouting is permitted only during the months of September, October 

 and November. Sale of venison is permitted until January 1st, and 

 not after. 



Vermont — FerruburgJi, Dec. 21.— Grouse are plenty, and 

 on these and the little foxes we have to rely for sport. 



Veed Mont. 



A Shooting Club at Blue Point. — Within an easy jour- 

 ney of the metropolis there are few places which offer greater 

 attractions than Blue Point, Long Island. Imprimis, there 

 are those famous Blue Point oysters which have no rivals in 

 the bivalve world. Blue Point in summer has good fishing, 

 there being found in the waters bluefish and sheepshead ; but 

 just now it is a good place for ducks, as a great many 

 varieties, with geese, frequent the locality. In addition to 

 other attractions is the nearness of the location to the city, 

 being within two hours' ride by the Long Island Railroad. 

 Under the management of Mr. Horace Howard, who owns a 

 large extent of valuable property in the vicinity of Blue Point, 

 a select club of gentlemen is now forming for the purpose of 

 shooting there. Among others "are — John Avery, Dr. Geo. H. 

 Glenney, John C. Dowling and Chas. McDonald. Gentlemen 

 wishing to join the club should address, for particulars, Mr. 

 H. Howard, Blue Point, Long Island. 



Pennsylvania— Petroleum Centre, Dec. 20.— Mr. A. G. 

 Lewis, a member of the sportsmen's club of this place, shot 

 last week'a white squirrel, weight 22 ozs., length 22£ inches. 

 It was milk-white with black eyes, so it was not an albino. 

 Good bags of ruffed grouse are made daily around here, and I 

 have noticed that by far the greater number are cock birds. 

 The close season for rabbits commenced Dec. 15, but I fear 

 that the boys around here will not pay much attention to it, 

 as we all know that rabbits are at their best in December and 

 January, and they are far too numerous for the farmer's com- 

 fort. In deep snows they do considerable damage to young 

 trees ,■ the time for shooting them ought to be extended to 

 January 15. Such is the opinion of our club, and we have 

 over fifty members. Blue Rock. 



Philadelphia,, Dec. 15.— The continued mild and genial 

 weather bas added greatly to the comfort and pleasure of our 

 sportsmen, and many are still "afield" in quest of game. 

 The bags of quails made in our own State have been remark- 

 ably light. Those made in New Jersey and Maryland have 

 rendered a better showing, yet compare very poorly with the 

 yield of the past several seasons. This marked scarcity of 

 birds is properly attributed to the severity of last winter. 

 The largest bag of quails reported for one day is sixty -five to 

 two guns — Messrs. Gwyn and Hudson. Woodcock have been 

 unusually plentiful in Maryland this fall, as the following bags 

 prove : W. Greenwood and C. Lipman, two days, 74 wood- 

 cock j E. Griffith, one day, 37 woodcock ; C. Alberton, one 

 day, 36 woodcock ; J. Todd, three days, 114 woodcock ; R. 

 Woods, three days, 90 woodcock. Other bags equally good 

 were reported. Very few ducks have been killed on the 

 Chesapeake waters during the past two weeks— the birds for 

 some unaccountable reason have disappeared, probably mi- 

 grated further south. It was observed that the flight of can- 

 vas-backs and red-heads this year was unexceptionably large. 

 The desertion is therefore more apparent. D. 



Tennessee— Savannah, Nov. 28.— Quails are more numer- 

 ous this fall than they have been for several years. Squirrels 

 have made their appearance in large numbers, attracted by the 

 extraordinary quantities of mast. Ducks and geese have not 

 arrived yet, being delayed, I suppose, by the unusual warmth 

 of the season. Turkeys are reported plentiful. There are no 

 snipe to be seen in this vicinity, and only a very few wood- 

 oock. I have not seen a single specimen of either this fall. 



Will. 



Louisiana— Bayou Teclie, Dec. 1.— Jack snipe are along 

 the marshes back of the Teche. They are shipped by the 

 thousands each week to New Orleans. One steamer, Mary 

 Lewis, took on board several of these birds between St. 

 Martinsville and Franklin. Woodcock have not yet arrived, 

 though it is expected that this cold snap will drive them 

 here° I was told that last year a boy killed 84 woodcock in 

 one Mfnoon. Deer and bears are on the smaller bayous. 

 Green^Wng teal are numerous. Arrow. 



Mississippi— Corinth, Dec. 19.— Weather very cold for this 

 season ; no ducks in yet ; have bagged a good many quails ; 

 several tuikeys have been shot by sportsmen from here. 



Guxon. 



Christmas, Turkeys, Cheap ! — There is no excuse for the 

 Texan going without a good Christmas dinner. We don't 

 know just how many mouths one of those gobblers could fill, 

 but at the most moderate estimation, even he who does not 

 follow in the footsteps of the abstirneous Train, might feel 

 thankfully full on a five cent cut from a twenty-two and a 

 half cent turkey. That's just what they sell for in San 

 Antonio, according to our correspondent, Arrow, who writes 

 under date of Dec. 10: 



To-day mine host, Monger, bought a large buck for $2.35 

 and a lot of fine deer — four bucks aud a doe — for $s6. He also 

 purchased thirty wild turkeys for 22i cents apiece. The 

 hunter who sold them had two wagon loads of wild turkeys; 

 in all one hundred and eleven. Last week he sold sixty-five 

 of the same kind. These are killed in Freo County, about 70 

 miles from here. Deer are abundant there. 



Iowa — Mount Pleasant, Dec. 21.— Our shooting has been 

 poor here on account of the constant wet and muddy weather. 

 Quail plenty, and more chickens than usual. 



Montana— Fort SJiaw, Dec. 15. — We have been deprived of 

 much of our customary sport during the past season, on ac- 

 count of the scarcity of our favorites— the grouse families — 

 which have not been nearly so plentiful as usual, although 

 there seemed to be a fair stock in the spring. I think that 

 the late snows we had interfered with their nesting, and either 

 drove the pinnated fellows to the foot hills or destroyed their 

 nests entirely, as they were not to be found on their usual 

 haunts— the grainfields. However, we got partial satisfaction 

 out of geese and mallard duck, which have been fairly plen- 

 tiful, and I and my hunting " pard " have made several very 

 nice bags, as have also a number of other parties. K. 



California— Lake County.— Lake County is well-known to 

 sportsmen for its abundance of game and fish. In fact, in 

 this particular it stands almost without a rival on the coast. 

 Deer abound in the hills and mountains in all portions of the 

 county, and rabbits and hares are plentiful. Grizzlies are 

 very scarce, but other varieties of bear are quite numerous in 

 certain sections of the county. Canvas-back, mallard, teal, 

 and other ducks are very plentiful on the lake in the tall and 

 winter, and wild geese resort here every season. Quail are 

 abundant, and snipe are often found. Grouse and mountain 

 quail are also found in many parts of the county, especially 

 among the fir-forests of the northern section. Very many 

 kinds of fish may bo found in Clear Lake, such as perch, pike, 

 silver-side, blackfish and lake trout, and the streams flowing 

 from the mountains have plenty of brook trout. The fish 

 from Clear Lake run up all the tributary streams in the spring 

 in vast numbers, and during some seasons the immense quan- 

 tities that may be seen and killed in some of these streams is 

 incredible to those who have never seen them. There are no 

 salmon in Clear Lake, but in the northern part of the county, 

 about the head waters of Eel River, they are plentiful. The 

 latter perch is only found in the lak es, and only bites during the 

 part of April, and in May and June ; but the sport during 

 that period is as fine as fishermen can wish. — Lake County 

 Bee. 



Canvas-back Sporting Club.— San Francisco has a new 

 sportsmen's club, which has taken unto itself the above name. 

 For its shooting expeditions the club has provided a floating- 

 club-house, built upon a scow sixty feet long and thirty feet 

 wide ; has fitted it up with sails, aud provided a small tug to 

 navigate the bay, river and sloughs when the wind fails. 

 They have fitted it up with sleeping-rooms, a parlor, kitchen 

 and dining-room, and all the convenience of a home afloat. 

 The scow is also equipped with boats, decoys and other ap- 

 paratus. It is the intention of the club to secure some exten- 

 sive shooting grounds fcr their exclusive use. The member- 

 ship of the club is limited to twenty. Among those already 

 enrolled are Ben Holladay, Jr., J. B. Wattles, E. F. Hall and 

 Jennings S. Cox, brokers; R. L. Ogden, capitalist ; H. K. 

 Moore, lawyer; Virgil Williams, artist. ; C. H. Maddox, S!d- 

 nev Smith, A. L. Tubbs, Charles Kaxling, Alexander Weed, 

 A. W. Forbes and Chas. Josselyn. Ben. Holladay has been 

 elected president, and Charles Josselyn secretary of the club. 



A Fine Sporting Farm.— It will be remembered that Mr. 

 E. S. Wanmaker went to Virginia some two months ago to 

 break dogs on game. He has recently returned, and here is 

 the account he renders of himself: 



Hoboken, N. J., Dec. 15, 1S77. 



The farm of our friends at Fort Defiance is well calculated for a 

 sporting box, and affords every possible advantage by way of propo- 

 gaticg and keeping game till wanted. Two thousand awes may be 

 leased (the shooting privileges) for a bottle or two of whisky; and birds 

 can be found sufficient in numbers at opening of the season (without 

 stocking) to keep busy teu guns for thirty days. 



There are p'enty of deer and turkey in the mountain, and' the climate 

 is perfectly delightful and cool in autumn, 



By a little attention paid to sowing coarse strong grass and allowing 

 it to remain uncut, will render cover sufficient to keep the birds in the 

 open entirely; aud the wood is so thin that shooting therein is very easy. 

 We made fair bags of quail daily, shot three ruffed grouse in wood 

 near house, and they, the latter, are quite plentiful about one mile from 

 the house. 



Ducks were just putting in an appearance when I left. 



In parts of three day.-,' shooting we bagged two deer and five turkeys 

 in the Shenandoah mouutaias. 



A party of Englishmen, camped about seven miles from us, twenty 

 in number, with forty dogs, killed twenty-one deer in five days. 



We Saw about 100 turkeys, bat were too late for good shooting, as we 

 had no dogs to run and scatter them. 



Our shooting was from blinds along fences bordering buckwheat 

 stubble, and.thc birds were very wary, having been in tich shot at. 

 Very truly yours, E, S. Wanmaker. 



The Tight Shell.— Mr. M. Hastings, of St. Louis, has 

 executed an exceedingly clever picture, which he entitles 

 "The Tight Shell." It tells its own story. There fly the 

 ducks ; there stands the dog ready to retrieve the buds, and 

 what does the sportsmen do ? Why he fumbles and bothers, 

 trying to make a cussed shell, whose circumference must be 

 fully that of a quart measure, chamber into an ordinarily sized 

 gun barrel. Under such circumstances a pious sportsman in- 

 variably repeats "Now I lay me down to sleep," religious 

 recitations being peculiarly fitting for the occasion. All we 

 can say of the original of the picture is that Mr. Budd's coun- 

 tenance is that of a hero under the most trying of 'all ordeals. 

 We think we have seen a similar picture, or rather one on 

 the same topic, the property of Mr. Zimmerman, of St. Paul's, 



Captain Bogardus.— Captain Bogardus has just completed 

 a week's engagement at the Olympic theatre, which was a 

 most successful debut of this leading shot, there having been 

 a full house in attendance every night. During the week 

 Captain Bogardus shot at 232 glass balls, missing four. The 

 great feat of the double shot was executed, the Captain 

 springing his own traps. Captain Bogardus shoots this week 

 on the east side, and is actively preparing for the great match, 

 which is to take place at Silmore's Garden on January 4th. 

 After the match, Captain Bogardus will again appear at the 

 Olympic. 



Shooting Challenges.— Dr. W. F. Carver, whose shooting 

 has excited considerable attention in San Francisco, contem- 

 plates an Eastern tour, and has sent us several important chaL 

 lenges, which we shall publish next week. Captain Bogardus 

 has already signified his intention of accepting the challenge 

 in question. 



—On Friday last, Mr. Ira A. Paine made a public record 

 • before an audience of breaking twenty-three glass balls in 

 forty-seven seconds, the balls being thrown from one hand by 

 Mr. Paine, and shot at with a Colt's army revolver hold in 

 the other hand. The balls were thrown at different elevations 

 and velocities, no two balls being thrown alike. Mr. Paine 

 remains at the London this week. 



Abe. Exeiman's Gun.— In reply to a correspondent, Dee. 

 13, we incorrectly stated that Mr. Abe. Kleiman used an 

 Abbey gun. In justice to Messrs. Schoverling & Daly, the 

 well-known gun makers of this city, whose gun Mr. Kleiman 

 shoots, we hasten to correct the error and cheerfully publish 

 the following letter : 



Musses. Schoveblixg & Daly, New York: Over one year 

 ago 1 gave the F. G. Abbey gun I was shooting to F, P. 

 Taylor, Chicago, for one of your Daly guns. I do not want 

 any better gun. It won fourteen prizes at the Nashville 

 Tournament this fall. Always expect to shoot a Daly run 

 Mine is not for sale. • Yours truly, Auk. Kletman. 



Bursting op a Shell in Priming.— Mr. E. J. Grane, of 

 Kennebunk, Maine, had the fingers of his left hand badly 

 lacerated by the explosion of a loaded shell which he was 

 priming. He had the shell up to his face. levelling the 

 primer preparatory to pressing it home, when it burst on the 

 side opposite his face. Z. P>. O. 



How to Shoot Loons.— A Minnesota correspondent, Mr, 

 J. N. San ford, writes us ft-om Elbow Lake, Grant, Count y, and 

 gives the followlug digest of his experience in shooting loons. 

 He says t 



" The loon (great northern diver) seems to some of your cor- 

 respondents to bear a charmed life. I have hardly ever failed 

 killing them in the water with shot ; have killed at least six 

 or eight with a common No. I0-bore shot-gun, and one or two 

 with a Parker (same bore). In the spring and early summer 

 they can be called near enough by imitating their lowest notes. 

 If the imitation is poor they will come, provided the hunter 

 gets behind grass or screen. " 



Sohuyleb, Hartley & Graham.— Accustomed as we should 

 be to catch the salient features of almost all things, and to 

 represent them intelligibly to the popular view, in describing 

 Messrs. Schuyler, Hartley & Graham's exhibition for the holi- 

 days, we find much greater difficulties than usual. Can any- 

 one fancy an establishment where a government could go to 

 and say, "Furnish me with a hundred thousand or so 

 rides, canons, Gatlin guns, and ammunition, with sidearms, 

 uniforms, everything in fact an army would want ?" Such 

 demands Messrs. Schuyler, Hartley & Graham could promptly 

 meet. Now, on the other hand, suppose a dainty lady wanted 

 to furnish her drawing-room with the most elegant of bronzes, 

 including clocks, vases, china, Sevres, orFayence, or majolica, 

 or her boudoir with mirrors, or her toilette tabic with combs 

 and brushes, the most delicate soaps, the most exquisite per- 

 fumery—at Messrs. Schuyler, Hartley & Graham's the most 

 fastidious of her sex could not fail to find all she required. 

 To catalogue simply all one can see at this wonderful .ustab- 

 lishment in Maiden Lane, would be absolutely bewildering. 

 Almost every thiug imaginable in the line of fancy goods is of- 

 fered for sale. Here are beautiful leather goods, with jewelry 

 of exquisite design, watches of the most celebrated makers, 

 with ivory toilette brushes and combs fit to ravel out the 

 tresses of Venus. You go from floor to floor, and are amazed 

 at the multitude of goods and their variety. Do you want a 

 gun from $5 up to as many hundreds ? —here may he found 

 every kind of fowling-piece made by either leading English 

 makers or our native manufacturers. As to rifles, Messrs. 

 Schuyler, Hartley & Graham exhibit on their racks every de 

 structive arm, from the one' which made the Russian quail at 

 Plevna to a squirrel rifle. Here are all the paraphernalia 

 used by Masons, Knight Templars and Odd Fellows. As to 

 uniforms, Messrs. S. H. & G, being manufacturers, can furnish 

 a Major General's chapeau or a private's chevrons. When we 

 visited this establishment, it was thronged with ladies making 

 their purchases. Perhaps a similar grand display of goods 

 cannot be found in the world outside of Maiden Lane, 

 York. 



All the Clever Gun-makers Aee Not of To-dat— Ax- 

 Old Breech-loading Fowling-piece. — Some months ago 

 a correspondent informed us of a breech-loader a century oMj 

 belonging to those leading gun and rifle manufactt 

 Messrs. Williams & Powell, of Liverpool, England, i 

 dressing Messrs. Williams & Powell in regard to this arm, 

 they have sent us an interesting description of the same. 

 Beading this communication, and remembering the many hot 



