446 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 8, 1884. 



every working day last winter from the 1st of November, 

 and 'the driver said he seldom got to where he cut his load 

 of wood without having seen the tracks of from one to five 

 large deer, moose or elk crossi ag the road, and frequently 

 saw them moving leisurely along. I have the Indian trade 

 at this point, and last, winter the hunters in one camp, four 

 Indians, sold me at one time the hindquarters of eight moose. 

 I bought none from them after Jan. 1, but they told me in 

 the spring that they had killed twenty-nine during the win- 

 ter, moose and elk. 



I can promise "W. D. W."that there is plenty of his 

 favorite same here, but about the chances of success I can't 

 say certainly. They will be small unless he is a skillful 

 hunter, for a green hand has no business with moose. 1 am 

 very fond of sport, and have spent the last five years of my 

 Wandering existence between the Ked River and the Rocky 

 range, but have never killed a moose yet, and can amuse 

 myself quite well with jumping deer, geese, ducks and 

 chickens, of which there is no end. Nothing would please 

 me better than to welcome "W. D. W." up here, but our 

 laws will not permit him killing any of the deer family be- 

 fore October. Carberry is 105 miles west of Winnipeg. 

 There are good hotels and livery stables, and a horse and 

 buckboard can be driven to the haunts of the game, making 

 the trip an easy one to take. Northwest. 



Carberry, Manitoba. 



PROPOSED MICHIGAN PRESERVE. 



WE have received from Mr. Frank N. Beebe, of Colum- 

 bus, 0., the following extract from a letter addressed 

 to him by a resident of Michigan: "Could a company be 

 gotten up to buy from ten to thirty thousand acres of foiest 

 land lying on the shore of Lake Huron for a hunting and 

 fishing park? The laud could be now bought cheap, and 

 th« location I have in mind is as good hunting ground as 

 there is in Michigan, and I think I would be safe in saying 

 that the deer on 10,000 acres of this tract would not count 

 less than 600 at present, and I am sure that as many as 200 

 have been killed there during last season, for they were 

 hunted all summer, and even up to the present time. The 

 deer have been steadily increasing here for the past ten years 

 to my own knowledge, but now that Cheboygan is growing 

 ami hunters from other places are flocking in here in greater 

 numbers, there is danger of the deer being exterminated. 

 Now, I have an idea that a company could be gotten up to 

 buy anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 acres of this land, and 

 fence it in with a high wire fence on three sides, with Lake 

 Huron on the fourth. A great portion of this land is good 

 soil and contains a large amount of timber (young pine), and 

 would, I think, prove a paying investment if it could be 

 bought up at $3.00 per acre or less. There are two or three 

 trout streams and several small lakes or marshes, where 

 great numbers of ducks could be killed in the spring and 

 fall. This tract would begin at a line joining my place, and 

 running east on the lake shore." Mr. Beebe says: "I know 

 Mr. Elliott to be a practical and enterprising man. He has 

 positively demonstrated this in his successfully pushing 

 through to completion an enterprise in the nature of a stock 

 stream aud hatchery for brook trout, which he is now giving 

 his attention to. Mr. Elliott is thoroughly reliable, and any 

 undertaking he may assume will be carried through to com- 

 pletion to the best of his ability." 



THE PERFORMANCE OF SHOTGUNS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I suggest the loading of shells with nothing else but wads 

 and let some of those who have so much faith in wadding 

 try how their guns will shoot with that style of loading. 

 Every one that owns a gun is not supposed to own a wad 

 factory also. I do not think a gun is much force that will 

 not shoot deceutly with two good wads on powder and one 

 on shot, if the man behind the gun is up to the mark. "We 

 are having fine rains and the prairie is in fine condition, and 

 the prospects are good for a fine crop of birds in the fall. 



George Armstrong. 



A Card from Major Verity.— Adironda, June 28. — 

 Editor Forest and Stream: I notice that one of your corres- 

 pondents, in writing of the performance of shotguns, says, 

 "but few persons know what they are writing about" 

 (further on giving the proof that he is not one of the few), 

 and that "General Verity is as quotable for facts as any of 

 them." And why should' not General Verity (I presume he 

 means me) be "as quotable for facts" as any cne who makes 

 a plain statement of actual experience I would like to know. 

 If he intends to imply that any and all of my statements 

 will not bear the most rigid scrutiny, he is as little acquain- 

 ted with my character as" he is with my proper title. In the 

 corps to which I have the honor to belong, and which, I 

 trust, has never been dishonored by word or deed of mine, 

 there is no such rauk as general. If there is any rank above 

 that of major, it is hardly probable that after so many years' 

 service I should now be obliged to sign myself, very truly 

 yours, Major Joseph Verity, United States Horse Marines. 



Iowa Game. — Morning Sun, Iowa, June 24.— Farmers 

 living to the west and south of us report plenty of young 

 prairie chickens, and thave no doubt their report is correct. 

 The weather has been all that an old prairie hen could wish, 

 and by this time there are many bevies that are large enough 

 to stand quite a heavy rain. Our rains have been so far 

 slight showers, just enough to make glad the heart of the 

 farmer, consequently crops never looked better in this sec- 

 tion than now. Small grain is in abundance and, of course, 

 ihere will be plenty of stubble. Then the corn is just im- 

 mense; so look out for snap-shooting. Quail can be heard 

 whistling at all times and in all directions during the day; 

 in fact, I never saw the game outlook better. The fishing 

 has not been as good as heretofore so they say ; but ' 'they 

 say" is such a liar that I wou't believe until I try it myself, 

 so look out for some fishing notes before long.— Mark." 



ha md Mivtt 



New Jersey Woodcock. — If the dry weather which we 

 have lately had should have continued until the opening of 

 the woodcock season, many birds would have been killed 

 ou the first day of the shooting, as they could have been 

 located in the few wet places that would* have remained for 

 feeding grounds ; but the deluge which visited us on the 26th 

 thoroughly saturated the ground, and will have the tendency 

 of dispersing the birds, a fact your correspondent is glad of, 

 for they will be more difficult to find and more will be left 

 for autumn shooting, when they should only be bagged. — 

 Homo. 



Grouse in Sullivan Codnty.— Monticello, N. Y,, June 

 27. — Editor Forest and Stream: I meant to have written in 

 my former note that we have woodcock shooting here in 

 August and ruffed grouse in September. Our law is strictly 

 enforced here.— C. F. Kent. 



Florida Qtjail. — Denning'sPost Office, Hamilton County, 

 Florida, June 14. — The quail supply promises to be very 

 good next season in this vicinity. — D. M. S. 



Cartridge Loading. — The Chamberlin Cartridge Com- 

 pany was recently organized in Cleveland, 0. t with a capi- 

 tal "stock of $250,000. The device was invented by F. L. 

 Chamberlain, of the Variety Iron Works. The preliminary 

 work has already been done by having patents issued in the 

 United States, Canada, England, France and Germany, in 

 which thirty-five different patent claims have been allowed. 

 The patent is a machine for loading shells to be used in 

 breechloading shotguns. The machine has a capacity of 

 1,500 shells per hour, and will, as soon as the works are 

 started, be put to work turning out if necessary 225,000 

 shells per day. By this invention the shells will be filled in 

 a much more uniform way than any heretofore used. 

 Through a very ingenious device in the patent the pressure 

 on the wads is "adjustable up to 100 pounds. The company 

 that has been organized for the manufacture of the shells 

 under this patent intend to start a factory, making use of 

 the latest apparatus and appliance necessary to the success- 

 ful a ad rapid manufacture of this important article. The 

 company expects to start with fifteen machines, and intends to 

 be able to turn out twenty millions of shells this coming year. 

 The men who have hold of this scheme and who constitute 

 the company and directors are all prominent manufacturers. 

 — Cleveland Herald. 



Wildfowl in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.— The 

 passage of the act relating to wehfooted fowl by our Penn- 

 sylvania State Legislature, which forbids the killing of ducks 

 excepting on every other day of the week, and the sailing on 

 them with any sort of craft, gives great satisfaction to Har- 

 risburg sportsmen, as duck shooting on the Susquehannah 

 River in the section of the State near our capital had become 

 a thing of the past owing to the continued harrassing of the 

 birds. Now, 1 am told they will come up the river from the 

 lower ducking grounds when it becomes "too hot" for them 

 and will frequent the old resorts. If the law could be ex- 

 tended so as to effect the Delaware River it would be a ben- 

 efit, but we cannot expect this to be done until the State of 

 New Jersey passes a similar act and both State shores be pro- 

 tected. A law limiting duck shooting to every other day in 

 the week in the Delaware on the Pennsylvania side of the 

 stream while New Jersey allowed every-day shooting on her 

 shore would not work, and would result in endless dispute 

 and allow many loopholes for escape to the violator. — Homo, 



Take P articular Notice of this extract from a market 

 report in the New York Evening Post of late date: "The 

 efforts of our chief dealers are to be used shortly to gain per- 

 mission to refrigerate game in its season and sell it at all 

 seasons. As it is, all refrigerated game goes direct to Europe, 

 where it is to be had the year round." 



• 



"That reminds me." 

 123. 



PERHAPS you never heard of old man Lewis. If you 

 ever go to Lewis Center, in the southern part of the 

 great State of Ohio, quail shooting, as I did a few years ago, 

 you may run on to him. I wish I could photograph him, 

 with his old, black, two-inch stemmed pipe, which he would 

 puff energetically aud parenthetically to enhance, the interest 

 of his narratives; his hair, which had never been combed 

 since the day he was born; and his shirt, which apparently 

 bad never been washed since a long time before that. 



"Talking about turkeys, " said he one day, "we used to 

 have lots of them. Jonas Leach lives about a mile from 

 here. We used to hunt them together. Jonas was a pretty 

 fair rifle shot — used a small-bore —about 180 to the pound. 

 In October, just eight years ago, there was a light fall of 

 snow. Jonas and I started out about 10 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, I was on horsebock; we struck a track over east. Jonas 

 cut across about two miles to the runway, for you must 

 know turkeys have their runways just as deer have. I fol- 

 lowed slowly upon the track. When I got pretty near where 

 Jonas was stationed, 1 heard the sharp, whip-like crack of 

 his rifle, and hurrying up found him composedly driving 

 down another bullet, while about fourteen rods fiom him 

 the turkey was executing a very complicated series of ground 

 and lofty tumblings. 1 went* over to the bird, and after 

 careful examination, much to my surprise could not find 

 where he was hit, Jonas came up. Says he, 'Open his 

 eyelids.' I did open them, and found the bullet bad gone 

 in oue eye and out of the. other, not touching the lids at all. 

 Jonas said he came along broadside and running like a 

 quarter horse." Aliquis. 



124. 



Some fourteen miles from this place are two notable 

 mounds about a half mile apart. In an early day, some 



forty or fifty years ago, Uncle settled upon the summit 



of one. Uncle is a staid and venerable patriarch, bi>r ly 



respected, but not given to telling stories, aud particularly 

 averse to sensational yarns. Not long since quite a crowd 

 was gathered ra a certain store, and the young bloods were 

 telling of their great exploits and how they could "lametuem" 

 at one hundred yards with the modern B. L. and No. 10 



shot, when Uncle cleared his throat— which caused all 



eyes to be turned upon him, for it was well known that any 

 incident in his loug and varied experience must certainly 

 interest the present generation — and began; "About forty 

 years ago, when I lived on the top of the knob, I got up one 

 frosty morning and went out on the porch to wash, when 1 

 happened to look over to the opposite knob, and there stood 

 a very large buck on the very top of the knob, his broadside 

 to the sun, and at least a half a mile from where I stood. I 

 concluded to try him anyway, so I went into the house and 

 got down my old Kentucky flintlock, which had seen a good 

 deal of service, but which' had always proved reliable, and 

 taking a dead rest from the railing of the porch, I drew a 



bead on the top of his shoulder and fired." Uncle , 



resting his chin upon the top of his cane, stopped short, and 

 seemed to be in a deep study, and from the gravity of his 

 countenance it was not unreasonable to suppose that some 

 sad reminiscence of the long ago was flitting before him, 

 when the reverie was disturbed by the modern B. L. cham- 

 pion calling out, "Well, Uncle , did you kill him?" 



The reply was short and sharp: "No, sir." Occident, 



Skdalia^ Mo. 



CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS. 



Black Lake, Michigan .-VII I. 



THE other boys came to camp a half hour or so after us, 

 with a string of fish tied to each boat that made Dick 

 and I feel like the tail end of a streak of bad luck, but we 

 consoled ourselves with anticipations of better sport next 

 day, nor did we fail to hold up our end at the table when 

 Frank served up three or four of the choicest of the day's 

 catch, crisp and brown and piping hot for supper. 



Jim and Knots had a fish story to tell us, about something 

 that happened as they came down the lake that evening alter 

 they had quit fishing, illustrating the boldness of the maska- 

 longe when pressed by hunger, and that went far to confirm 

 neigbor Merrill's assertion that "there's some big ones in this 

 lake," a story which we would have given a wide margin to, 

 had we known them other than as old and tried friends of 

 unquestioned veracity. "Sid," a lad of seventeen, the oldest 

 of Merrill's boys, was rowing for them, and as they passed 

 the mouth of Rocky Creek he cried out excitedly, "Lord 

 what a fish!" and turning as quickly as they could, they saw 

 the broad tail of a great maskalonge as he disappeared from 

 sight near the stern of the boat with a swirl that made the 

 water foam. He had actually made a dash at their fish which 

 were towing alongside the' boat near the stern, but had 

 missed them and his supper at the same time. Jim said, in 

 relating the story, that "it was the sublimest exhibition of 

 colossal cheek that had ever come under his editorial eye," 

 and it certainly was a bad showing for the fish when the fact 

 is borne in mind that Jim Tuns a weekly newspaper largely 

 given to politics. 



. Sid was the only one in the boat that got a good view of 

 the fish, as Jim and the Scribe were facing the bow, and 

 only turned in time to see his caudal as he save it a mighty 

 flirt and dashed out of sight. I asked Sid how long the fish 

 was, and he replied with simple candor, "He was about as 

 long as I am; I tell you he was an awful big fish;" and we 

 could well believe it, for Sid was near five and a half feet in 

 height. 



Old Ben sat off to himself smoking and addressing a quaint 

 remark now and then to the mosquitoes, apparently absorbed 

 in his own reflections, but after a while he hitched his stool 

 nearer the fire and said in his deliberate way, "Tell ye, boys, 

 if there's many o' them kind o' fish in the lake, 1 'low Ben 

 better do his fishin' from the shore, where a feller kin hev a 

 chance to dodge"— two or three puffs at his pipe, which had 

 gone out — "but I hev ray doubts about that bein' a fish. I 

 seen a musrat this mornin' swimmin' 'long nigh the mouth 

 o' that crick; wonder now"— reflecting— "if it wasn't that 

 musrat that was after them fish?" Here he swapped legs 

 and winked violently at Dick. 



"Guess I know a musrat from a muskalunge," said Sid 

 quickly, and the Jaugh that went round effectually squelched 

 Ben and his doubts about the maskalunge, and left Sid mas- 

 ter of the field. 



Ben made a pretense of being floored by scraping a match 

 on his breeches, lighting the brier-root and taking refuge be- 

 hind a cloud of smoke, through which we occasionally 

 caught a word of a desultory conversation be was holding 

 with the skeeters, but a suppressed chuckle now and then 

 indicated that the shot he had fired at. Jim and the Scribe 

 was giving him vastly more satisfaction than his contro- 

 versy with the insects. But the fire was getting low, and i 

 the experience of the day having all been gone over, the con- 

 versation flagged, pipes went out, the circle broke up and i 

 the Kingfishers went to roost, a tired but happy famiiy. I I 

 will not attempt to tell about the delicious sleep I enjoyed 

 that eight on the fragrant bed of balsam boughs that Frank 

 had made in our little tent during the day, but will just 

 leave it to be guessed at by any unfortunate brother who has i 

 missed the luxury of stretching his tired frame on a bed of 

 "balsam feathers'" after fishing all day without a nibble. 



Next morning, after an early breakfast, we decided to fish 

 the lower end of the lake around the mouth of Little Black 

 and Sturgeon bay; Dick and the Deacon preferring, how- 

 ever, to try at the rocks again for bass, and also to fish the 

 water carefully where the big maskalonge had been seen the 

 evening before. 



Dan and I left camp some time after the others had gone, 

 and had barely cleared the streak of grass in front of camp 

 when the old Pelican looked up. and said quietly, as a dozen 

 yards of line ran slowly from the reel, "Hold on. Hickory! 

 There he goes. Pickerel or masky, from the symptoms." 



A long, sweepintr "wipe" fastened the fish, aud two strokes 

 of the bars sent Ihe boat out into the lake, away from the 

 grass, where neither could get an unfair advantage over the 

 other in the coming fight. The fish made a dash for the 

 weeds, but old Dan being up to about all the tricks of the 

 pike family from a careful study of their habits, soon had 

 him headed out into the lake, and then the fun began, for it 

 is fun to handle a powerful pickerel, boiling full of fight, 

 which this iellow proved to be. Shortening the line as he 

 came on, Dan was prepared for the usual plunge under the 

 boat; but a sudden and unlooked-for dive for the bottom by 

 the fish took three feet of the top of the arched rod under 

 water and nearly tilted the old Pelican into the lake, a calam- 

 ity I averted by jerking the stern of the boat sharply to 

 starboard, which 'restored his perpendicular and gave him 

 time to whip the rod around clear of the boat and save his 

 line from parting. 



"Did you ever see such an obstinate devil as that? said 

 the veteran, as he braced himself and tested the full temper 

 of his rod in a desperate struggle to turn the fish, which had' 

 again started with a headstrong rush for the grass. For a 

 half minute the issue was doubtful, but grit, grunts, and a 

 thoroughly trusty rod, prevailed, and he once more swung 

 out into the lake still full of fight, while I kept the boat in 

 just the right position to make the rod do most of the work, 

 for it must be remembered that old Dan has only Lis left 

 hand and arm with which to fight his battles. Another dash 

 under the boat as he came around, and another last effort 

 to reach the grass played the fish out, and he was brought, 

 alongside, when I jerked a gaff into him and yanked him 

 into "the middle o'' next week," without giving him time to 

 move a fin in remonstrance. He was a handsomely marked 

 pickerel of seven or eight pounds, and one of the gamest 

 fighters Dan had ever forced to yield to his skill, and he wa* 

 highly pleased over his victory.' First blood tor old Dan. 

 But my turn came soon after, 'and I had begun to think it 

 high time. 



From here nearly down to the point a couple of miles be- 

 low, we took half a dozen more pickerel, but the bass wen 

 not pleased with our bait, and we took none. We had lost 



