. 
Game Bag and Guy. 
OPEN SEASONS FOR GAME AND FISH. 
REVISED TO JULY 31, 1884, 
California. 
Grouse and quail, Oct. 1-March 1, Doves, June I-Jan. 1 
Wildfowl, at all times. Deer, July 1-Noy, 1, Unlawful to 
shoot female deer at any time. EIK and mountain sheep pro- 
tected at all times. 
_ Trout, April Noy. 1 (unlawful to take any of less than six 
inches in length). Salmon, Sept, 1-August 1 (except weekly 
close time from 12 o’clock Saturday nights to 12 o’clock Sun- 
day night). 
WITH THE DUCKS AT RICE LAKE, 
N the 20th of October, 1883, after fonr months of an- 
ticipalion, four of us, Frank, Will, Clare and Willard, 
all from the village of Rochester, near the city of Chili, N. 
Y., found ourselves aboard the train with bagrage checked 
for Charlotte, There we took the boat, and pitching, tum- 
bling and tossing in the roughest kind of a sea, Tearful lest 
We should find a ducking before we gota duck, we ploughed 
our way across Lake Ontario, and 12 o’clock midnight found 
us on the wharf at Port Hope, Ontario, Routing out the 
Custom House officer (who, by the way, proved to bea per- 
fect gentleman eyen at that trying hour, 1:30 A. M.), wehad 
our luggage duly passed, and then, forming ourselves into a 
committee of four, we marched to the hotel of the town, St. 
Lawrence Hall. After knocking on the door until we ex- 
pected to see all the windows fall out, we desisted, and began 
to skirmish around, when all of a sudden one of the party 
shonted cut Eureka, and we rushed to where he had disap- 
peared into the hotel through a side door which was found 
opened. Then commenced more fun; the porter’s gong was 
Tung, and nobody appearing, we marched upstairs with a 
lamp. Skirmishing around the halls we at last found the 
kitchen, and were just getting under good headway looking 
fora feast and working up an appetite, when somebod y 
shouts ‘Look out, you will be taken for burglars and get, 
shot,” and immediately the kitchen was deserted, Proceed- 
ing to the second floor and finding two choice rooms to suit 
our tastes, we furned in about 3 P. M. The next mornings 
we found the landlord, Mr. Mackie, in the office. Telling 
him of our exploit of the night before, bis remark was, “‘I 
thought I heard a noise.” Upon settling up we were allowed 
twenty-five cents off on each bill for acting as our own clerk 
and porter, 
Procuring a carriage, with a wagon for baggage, about 11 
A. M. we started for a fourteen-mile drive to Gore’s Land- 
ing, Rice Lake, where, after a very cold drive, we were wel- 
comed by Mr, and Mrs. Isaacs in true homelike style, and at 
last we are at our destination, After dinner, Tom Wallace 
is sent for and the prospects for the morning’s shooting 
talked oyer, Finally, everything being settled satisfactorily, 
we turn in early, so as to be on the ground by 4 A, M., 
Rice Lake is covered with rice beds, and wild celery grows 
very plentifully, so that it makes one of the best feeding 
grounds known for ducks on their way South, It is also 
covered with islands, so that a person can find plenty of good 
points for blinds. Monday morning opened bright and cold. 
The shooting was fair, and Frank and Will wilh Tom Wal- 
lace came in with twenty-six ducks. The party being sepa- 
rated, Clarence and Willard going with Isaacs, no count was 
kept of their shooting. They also left for home Friday, hay- 
ing only four days’ sport, Tuesday, fair weather and 
warmer; score for the two enns, twenty-two, Wednesday, 
cloudy with little rain; score, thirty-six. Thursday, warm 
and bright; score, eleven, Friday, cloudy and rain; score, 
thirty-three. Saturday, warm and pleasant; score, ten, 
The hours between 11 and 3 we devoted to taking views, 
Frank haying his camera, and succeeded in securing several 
good ones. Sunday was devoted to rest and inspection of 
the famous canoe works of Herald & Hutchinson, Mr, 
Hutchinson himself showing us around and exhibiting the 
models, etc. Monday, cold and rain; shot until 10 A. M., 
haying scventeen. Total score, seven days’ shooting, 155, 
mostly redheads and bluebills. Wesaw several flocks of 
mailards and canvas-backs, but did not secure any; we also 
had a number of whistlers. The redheads were large, hand- 
some birds, and so were the bluebills. Several fine speci- 
mens of redheads were brought home, of which I have in 
my dining-room one mounted on a panel by our skillful taxi- 
dermist, Thomas Fraine. 
BXPENSES OF THE TRIP. 
Rochester to Charlotte and return............ pad Aut by ata ast tase 
Charlotte to Cobourg and return 
Sb we wee et dn ee Cee ae 
Cobourg te Rice Lake and return 2.0.0.0... -2.002..4---000 esse 1 00 
Board, $1 pet day, 0 days) ce lee Se cee Ses potters 9 00 
Guide, $2.50 per day, or $1.25 apiece for two, 7 days,,......,.... 6 75 
Meals and lodging at Cobourg...,..........-,.-. noacp are he Bie 75 
otal. Gud ce POR a PAS RIAL EI ID. oils oy ATR GY $23 38 
This is for a ten-days’ trip, with a guide to do your work. 
As a general thing, I do not believe in guides; but no one 
should altempt to shoot at Rice Lake without first securing 
the veteran Tom Wallace. They tell at the lake that 
wherever Tom goes, there go the ducks, 
Starting for home Monday, we are delayed at. Cobourg by 
a furious storm on the Jake, so all we have to do is to sit on 
the pier and say “so near and yet so far,” being able to 
almost see home, and yet unable to reach it, We begin to 
wish we were back at Mrs. isaacs’s, eating delicious duck 
polpies, also first-class roasts, with fresh eggs and plenty of 
nice butter and milk, That’s the place for me. No hotel or 
tavern, when I can find a good home like the pleasant little 
brick house at the top of the hill, and such an excellent 
housekeeper as Mrs. Isaacs. We also sigh when we think of 
the charming paddles we had each morning, noon and night, 
for we took the canoe, and Tom the boat and decoys, he 
soing on ahead to secure a good hunting ground, while. we 
would follow, paddling along in the dark, singing, “One 
more river to cyoss.” 
Marching up town we find a scale, and discover that one 
has gained seven pounds and the other two. After satisfy- 
ing ourselves on this point, and afraid to wait longer for the 
tub, fearing we shall pine away what we haye gained, we 
decide to immediately start by train, so that we may reach 
home in time to exhibit our corporosity; and so we go around 
by the way of Suspension Bridge, which is a very pleasant 
ride along the shore of Lake Ontario, 
At Toronto we had fourhours; so hunting up friend Larry, 
with his aid we enjoy ourselves, and are only waiting for an 
oppertunity to reciprocate. , 
One little incident happened while riding from Toronto to 
the bridge. An old lady, one of the mother(in-law)ly kind, 
sitting opposite, observed my friend (who sometimes does 
__— 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
things absent-mindedly) take from his pocket and put into 
hismouth acigar, Immediately springing from her seat 
the old lady shouted, “I beg your pardon, sir, but smoking 
isnot allowed in this car,” My friend, somewhat startled 
for a second or so, finally recovered himself and replied that 
he ‘was not smoking; but said she, ‘I know better; I can sea 
you,” “‘l beg your pardon, madam, IT am not smoking.” 
“But I say you are; I can smell the smoke. O my poor 
nerves!” At which the laughter of the passengers actually 
drowned the hubbub of the train itself, When we reached 
Suspension Bridge the Custom House officer found nothing 
but duck decoysund baggage. Wearrived homeat11 P, M, 
tired and sleepy, Koxoxono, 
Burrawo, N, Y. 
EXPERIENCE WITH A PANTHER, 
SPENT the entire winter of 1877-78 in Brown’s Tract, 
with the well-known guides, Ed. Arnold and Jack Shep- 
pard. ‘We hunted panthers six weeks, and I killed three, 
The first one we treed I had to pick the ice off the lock of 
the rifle before 1 could shoot it. ‘Lhe bullet entered the right 
eye of the animal, killing it instantly. I told Arnold and 
Jack that [thought it pretty tame fun. ‘Wait till we find 
another one,” they said, ‘‘and you can wound it and haye all 
the fun you want with it,” 
Well, we started one a couple of weeks after, and the dogs 
treed it in a spruce tree, on the very edge of a rocky ledge 
about fifty yards high, In the meantime, the boys had 
talked so much about it being dangerous to wound a panther 
that I determined to give it a dead shot, but just as 1 pulled 
the trigger the animal raised its head and [ shot it in the 
neck. It fell out of the tree and rolled off the ledge, fol- 
lowed by the dogs, and ran into a fissure in the rocks at the 
bottom of the ledge, Soon we heard the dogs howling and 
we scrambled down the ledge several hundred yards further 
on, where it was not so precipitous, 
Then I advanced boldly toward the fissure. The dogs had 
by this time received several bad bites and scratches, and 
had drawn off. The ground sloped quite sharply “up to 
Where the panther was. I cocked the rifle and crouched 
along up within twenty feet of the fissure and then rose up; 
at the same time I saw the panther rise from a reclining: posi- 
tion. It opened its great wide mouth, and gave the most 
hideous howl Lever heard, Jt sounded like the roar of a 
lion Ina menagerie. For an instant I was paralyzed, then I 
shouted, “Gentlemen, I have seen enough,” and started to 
rim back to Arnold and Sheppard, but my snow shoes locked 
together and I tumbled into the snow, gun flying in one 
direction and hat in another, and expecting every instant 
that the panther would light on my back. Then Arnold and 
Sheppard came up, and looking cautiously into the fissure, 
saw the animal was dead. 
In regard to panthers howling or crying, Arnold, Sheppard 
and other old panther hunters say that they never heard them 
make any noise except when wounded. 
I wish I could have had an instantaneous camera with me 
that winter, Hvery time we trecd a panther, we would sit 
down and smoke, and take a good look at it. The animals 
intently watched every moyement of the dogs and kept their 
tails tremulously swaying to and fro, but didn’t seem to pay 
much attention to us. Je Was) 
STALKING THE MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 
NE day last fall the boys thought that a mountain sheep 
would be a change from ell and deer, on which we 
had been living for the past few weeks, I was detailed to 
fill the bill. 
About half way between the head and mouth of ihe Blue 
River there are what are called slaty points running to the 
river, and above them are tablelands, well covered with aspen 
and pine, and in the little parks among and on the edges of 
the cliffs the sheep graze, coming down to the river to the 
various licks; so it only requires 1 man to know their ways 
to cireumvent them, On the right bank there is one place 
which forms a horseshoe, about half a mile across, with the 
ends resting on the river, I camped in a cabin on the 
left bank, about a mile from the above place, and the next 
morning as soon as I could see 1 was scanning the ground 
with my field glasses and saw some fresh tracks on the south 
of a smali point, It had snowed about half an inch over 
night, and although snow may be a couple of feet deep 
around on the flats, yet it does not lie on the south on slaty 
ground; and the evening before the points were bare on that 
side, so there could be no mistake about the sign being fresh. 
I went up the river and crossed, and went around uatil I got 
on the hill above the horseshoe, on the top of which is some 
twenty feet of perpendicular rocks, up which no man could 
climb; but the sheep manage fo get upand down, Above 
the rocks it is an easy grade up to another bunch of rocks, 
some 500 or 600 yards further up, and so on to timber line, 
I took up the right side and on my way I saw lots of 
crouse, but they were too small potatoes, and when I stood 
above the cliffs I saw fresh beds made over night, so J took 
out my glasses and scanned the horseshoe below me, feeling 
sure I was above them and barring any accident of wind 
which chops and veers around in such places, the meat was 
mine. 
Finally | saw them down almost to the river feeding 
quietly in asmall gully. Tworams and one ewe came to 
my eye through the glasses in a small patch of grass.a few 
yards in area, I had to look long and carefully before I 
could make up my mind which way the wind sucked in 
that particular spot. Looking at the tall weeds and wild 
rye I finally decided, I went down the right of the 
horseshoe, having almost to go to the river to get below 
the perpendicular rocks, and then had to climb so as to get 
above the sheep. I crossed seyeral smal! cullies and points 
and came to where the sheep were feeding when last I saw 
them, Istalked them very carefully, buf no sheep were 
there. I slipped out of sight over the ridge and worked the 
small gully to the head of it and saw no fresh tracks 
leading out that way. My confidence was stronger than ever 
and all I was afraid of was the wiad. WhenI saw they 
were not above, I went back to where [ last saw them 
through my glasses and worked the gully down. I had not 
gone over twenty steps before I saw them lying down im a 
small patch of grass not over forty yards off and somewhat 
below me. Thad a small juniper bush before me, so I 
stepped a few inches to the right, when up stood a big ram. 
My Maynard found my shoulder, and at the crack the three 
broke for the point a little below them and across the gully. 
Tran down the point on which I was, and saw a ram and 
ewe looking down in the gully; they were about seventy-five 
yards off when I sent my ball to the ram, and her ladyship 
hung around and acted as foolish as any tame sheep ever 
did, giving me every show to kill her several times had I 
[JULY 81, 1884, 
wished, but two rams were enough. I ran down to the sully 
and found I had made center shots, both through the heart. 
They were in prime condition, had pretty horns, but not ex- 
tra large. I reached camp one evening and back home the 
next with two large mountain rams. This is what I call a 
successful hunt. - > Ripon, 
Camp, Mouth or tax Brug, i884. 
THE PERFORMANCE OF SHOTGUNS. 
Hiditor Forest and Stream: 
Nine years ago I ordered a breechloader of one of our 
home makers. I ordered what Iwanted and got what I 
wanted; it cost more than it would to have bought of second 
hands, but it is the way to get a good pun. TI have tested it 
with both breech and muzzleloaders, so far it has not been 
equalled and it gives me perfect satisfaction, The test has 
been principally at short range, 24 and 40 yards. At 24 
yards the target was 5§x9 inches. Average of my gun for 
14 shots, 1113 pellets No. 6. The average of eight muzzle- 
loaders was from 15 to 35 pellets. Some of them I know to 
be good guns, having hunted with them for years, the charge 
was 2 drams of powder, 14 ounces shot. At 40 yards,30-inch 
circle, my gun, 200 pellets No. 6. -Three muzzleloaders - 
ranged from 60 to 132. A few shots were fired at a target 
the same as is used in gallery practice, it is the Creedmoor 
reduced to 76 feet; the outer circle is 7 inches; distance 24 
yards with No. 6 soft shot—90 to 121 pellets in 7-inch circle. 
With No. 8,108 to 212, I have four or five fargets 5x9, 
At 65 yards with No. 6, 18 to 14 pellets, with BB, 5 pellets, 
T have tested penetration in this way, I used a pamphlet, 
say one inch in thickness for a target, shooting breechloader 
at one side and the muzzleloader at the other, both guns 
being 12-gauge, 28-inch, 8-2; pounds weight, and loaded alike 
from same powder and shot. There were three leaves pene- 
tration in fayor of the breechloader. 
Luse this gun exclusively for wing-shooting, I do not shoot 
rabbits, nor squirrels; my reason for this is my rule never to 
shoot anything when out with a bird dog except what I 
want him to hunt. My charge for hunting is 8 drams powder 
and 1 ounce shot, changing size of shot according to game, 
distance, and season. I think many sportsmen load foo 
heavy; 6 drams powder is too large for a 12-gange, 8pound 
gun, besides it will not shoot near as well, and is not. as pleas- 
ant to manage, [can give some scores at birds in the brush, 
but never fired a shot at a trap and never attended a trap 
shoot. WING. 
Canton CrentRE, Conn, 
TRUE STORY OF A DEER HUNT. 
{ARLY last November a party of would-be deer slayers 
found themselves in the mountains of Hardy county, 
West Virginia. One of my companions and myself had already 
been guilty of killing deer, though, speaking for myself 
many more had been scared than hurt. Of course uene of 
us would miss such a big mark as a deer, and as to getting 
buck feyer—(I did not suggest such a thing as I was the 
lightest man in the party, and weight will tell), We were 
armed with shotguns and the proper loads were long debated 
and then each one loaded to suit himself. I shall not weary 
any indulgent reader with preliminary details but dive into 
my story. 
After a couple of days with unpropitious weather and bad 
luck, I got a shot at u pair of fawns which tried to fit their 
noses into the muzzles of my gun, Of course 1 missed them. 
T always get the first shot at a deer. I always miss him, 
Then if you will believe my kind companions I had buck 
ague. Of couse they would have killed them. I was con- 
demned as a duffer tit for nothing but to drive deer ont of a 
thicket and to such work L was set. In the course of my 
duties while I was separated from my companions, the latter 
had a chance to vindicate their skill. They walked upon a 
spike-buck and fairly cornered the poor fellow before either 
he or they knew il. The best shot of the party immediately 
missed his buckship, another set to work to change his 
buckshot for something more effective, and the third grace- 
fully put one buckshot into the animal’s brain. Now, don’t 
think that any one had buck fever, for all this happened 
under peculiar circumstances. The deer was in some laurel 
bushes. 
Of course before leaving I missed another deer, this time 
at longer range. He was about thirty feet off. I have great 
talent for placing buckshot in a safe place. Our friend who 
tried to change cartridges also distinguished himself again, 
but™did not miss. He only let a deer run away without 
shooting, “did not want to take him at a disadvantage, you! 
know.” And this is all. Perhaps the tale is not worth 
telling or rather I am about as qualified to tell it as to kill 
eer, 
Allow me in closing to recommend our stoppmg place to: 
any one desiring deer and turkey hunting in that part of the 
country. Our host, Mr. Thomas Wilson, of Capon Tron 
Works, Hardy county, West Virginia, was yery kind andi 
considerate, a good hunter, and being a Virginian of course: 
most hospitable. I forgive him forsaying, ‘‘Well, he did the: 
best he could, but if you put a boy or a duffer on a stand the: 
deer are sure to run out to him.” Just as though I could not 
have killed those deer if I had wanted to, 
Tt may interest some of your readers to hear that one of the 
us had ever heard of. 
WHERE THE GAME GOES. 
Niditor Horest and Stream: ; : 
Is it any wonder that wild pigeons are growing scarce?’ 
Some years ago I sent an item to Formsr AND STREAM rela- 
tive to a nesting in Hastern Indiana, The next week I re 
ceived a letter from a man in Central Ohio wanting to know 
all about the roost, and how to get atit. I gaye him as full! 
a report as I could, thinking that he probably was netting to- 
supply the demand for live birds, but I was reliably informed 
that not a live bird was shipped from the station, From 
fifty to a hundred men were engaged in netting pigeons, and: 
every pigeon had its neck broken, as it was taken from the: 
nest. They were then barreled up and shipped to the best 
market forsuch game. Sportsmen haye to bear the blame 
for the decrease in numbers of this pretty bird, when if the 
truth was known, the insatiable appetite of the people in 
our large towns and cities are at the bottom of it. 
Again, sportsmen lament the small numbers of our water 
fowl! in their regular spring and fall migrations, A party of 
sportsmen will spend probably one week among them twice 
each year, aud a party of four will bag in one week say one 
hundred, or if they are unusually plenty, two hundred, have 
a rattling good time, and go home feeling younger by some 
years, divide the game with friends, and immediately begin 
a= 
party shot a quail weighing nine ounces, the Targest ee ot. 
