86 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 26, 1885. 



gun exactly that it -will, by the pressure of the charge when 

 fired, bulge up in the center, thereby scattering the load ; but 

 by using a proper size wad, as above mentioned, I obtain an 

 even distribution of the charge, and the 16-gauge wads pre- 

 vent any escape of gas. As regards penetration nothing bet- 

 ter could be desired, and when No. 4 shot is used with the 

 reduced charge of powder, namely 2i drams, I have yet to 

 see the 10-gauge that will beat it,' even when loaded with 

 5 drams of powder. When I desire a scattering charge for 

 rabbits or cover shooting of any kind, by reducing the 

 amount of wadding and using hne-grain powder with a 

 smaller load of say No. 8 sho£ any desired spread can be 

 obtained. 



I feel convinced that if sportsmen will but give the small- 

 bore a fair trial, they will be more than satisfied with the 

 results; and surely it is more creditable to make a good 

 score with a small bore than with a large one, when we take 

 into consideration the fact that a good 10-gauge gun will, 

 if properly loaded, give a killing circle of 40 inches at 40 

 yards, whereas the 20-gauge, when loaded for penetration 

 and long range, will barely give a killing civcle of 28 inches 

 at the same distance. 



I can predict disappointment and discomfiture to the 

 large-bore shooter upon his first trial with a 20-bore. The first 

 time I tried it on ducks after shooting for many seasons 

 with nothing smaller than a 12-gauge, I missed nearly every 

 fair shot, occasionally cutting down birds at a greater 

 distance stone dead; my fault was not holding close enough. 

 I have fired many shots at targets to get the correct charge 

 for the 20-bore, aud at some future time, should the small- 

 bore fraternity (which at the present time I am afraid are 

 few in number) increase, I shall be pleased to give an 

 account in detail, of trials with small and large shot, showing 

 the pattern and average, at distances from 40 to 60 yards. 



Syntax. 



Emerson, Manitoba, Feb. 4, 1885. 



MAJOR J. VERITY'S REMARKABLE SHOT 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In reading the accounts of remarkable shots which have 

 of late appeared in your columns, I have occasionally been 

 reminded of the skill exhibited on different, occasions by my 

 old friend Major Joseph Verity, "C.S.H.M., not for the pur- 

 pose of inspiring in the beholders feelings of wonder and 

 admiration, but quite as a matter of course. 



One of the most peculiar sights 1 ever witnessed occurred 

 during a reconnoissance made by the Major and myself, 

 attended only by our orderlies, the' day after we passed the 

 Walla Walla, and were trying to look up some signs of the 

 whereabouts of old Kamaiakan. The shot was good, of 

 course — that was to be expected; but it was the peculiar re- 

 sult of it which rendered the affair at all noticeable. 



As I was saying, we were riding quietly along, with our 

 eyes bent on the ground, and had just entered a small canon, 

 about as wide at the bottom as a wagon-track. The favorite 

 weapon of the Major in those days was the 10-inch flintlock 

 pistol, of which he carried in his holsters a pair by old 

 Kuchenreiiter. On a sudden a clatter of hoofs behind 

 caused us to turn in our saddles, and I set in the spurs as I 

 recognized the war paint of the chief we were seeking, his 

 tall form bending over his saddle-bow and his lance-point 

 quivering above his pony's ears. Close behind, and striving 

 to pass him on either side, came his two brothers-in-law, 

 Humgudgeon and Gumfudgeon, evidentby bent on mischief; 

 and behind was a miscellaneous assortment of bucks, squaws, 

 dogs, tepees and lodge-poles. They were moving camp, had 

 seen us, and thought to bag us without more ado. But the 

 Major's pistol was in his hand as the lance was poising for 

 the' fatal thrust, the priming flashed, and the deadly missile 

 sped forth on its mission of destruction. 



The Major always sighted for the bridge of the nose, and 

 the accuracy of his aim was in this instance the salvation of 

 his intended victim, for the point of Katnaiakan's lance 

 chanced at the instant of the explosion to be precisely in 

 front of his nasal organ, and the ball, striking fairly upon 

 the keen edge of the steel, was split, and the two parts, fly- 

 ing onward toward either side, struck the two right and left 

 hand supporters, Humgudgeon and Gumfudgeon, the one in 

 the right eye and the other in the left, aud they were "meat" 

 at once. "Dumbfounded, Kamaiakan called a halt. The 

 Major's other pistol was in his hand, but he was never blood- 

 thirsty, and did not tire. The object of our reconnoissance 

 was accomplished, and we returned to camp . 



Such things were at that time hardly matter of remark, 

 and I should not have called to mind the occurrence, had it 

 not been for some of the shots made by your correspondents 

 which they seem to think remarkable. 



I could tell much stranger things than this. So could 

 "Verity." J. P. Sqthbob, 



Elk Rapids, Mich., Feb. 10, 18«5. 



MAINE GAME. 



THE Committee on Pish and Game in the Maine Legisla- 

 ture has about finished its work for this term, since it 

 was understood that it would adjourn finally this week. A 

 number of petitions have been presented asking for special 

 privileges under the present stringent fish and game laws of 

 that State, but in almost every case, as on the question of 

 opening September for deer, caribou and moose hunting, the 

 petitioners have been given "leave to withdraw." The priv- 

 ilege of fishing through the ice for trout with one or two set 

 lines during February and March was asked for, but the 

 committee respectfully declined. Some provision for get- 

 ting more than three deer, two caribou and one moose out of 

 the State, when killed in open season, was demanded, but 

 the committee declined to recommend legislation. The 

 Legislature was also asked to legalize transportation of game 

 over the railroads when accompanied by the owner, but no 

 satisfaction to the market-hunters or the marketmen was 

 obtained. The Legislature was importuned to legalize the 

 sending home of "a few trout, " while the owner stayed to 

 catch some more, but the friends of fish and game protection 

 in the Pine Tree State were awake. They answered : "Once 

 legalize the forwarding of a moose or a deer accompanied by 

 the owner, and every returning Boston runner will be the 

 owner of some venison, and it will go straight to Boston 

 markets. Allow a few fish to be sent home, and every mar- 

 ketman in Boston will have a few sent home to his stall. 

 No, no changes here." 



But singularly enough this same Legislature, has been ex- 

 ceedingly prolific of special laws for the greater protection 

 of fish and game in specified localities. Nearly a dozen 

 special laws of this class have been passed, either closing 

 absolutely for a specified number of years or better protect- 

 ing by a longer close time certain ponds and streams. The 



visitor to Maine the coming summer Jjiay find his favorite 

 pond or stream closed. Even the taking of pickerel it is 

 proposed to regulate in some ponds. A special law has been 

 passed for the protection of trout and landlocked salmon in 

 Rangeley, Southbog, Berais, Cupsuptic and Kennebago 

 streams. The Commissioners believe that these streams are 

 the great nurseries of trout in the Androscoggin waters, and 

 that to protect the little fellows there will keep up the future 

 supply of giant trout for which these waters are noted. I 

 will give the readers of Forest and Stream all these special 

 laws as soon as copies of the bills can be obtained. 



Special. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



From your issue of Feb. 19, and under the heading 'New 

 England Game Interests," I quote the following : "They 

 attempted to prove to the committee the value of the deer in 

 the Maine woods to the guides and hotel keepers, represent- 

 ing that with September an open month each deer would be 

 worth from $75 to $100, whereas now they are of no value. 

 The people of Maine cannot hunt deer in October, Novem- 

 ber and December, the weather being too cold. One of the 

 gentlemen argued, however, that September might be opened 

 without harm to the deer, since the loliage. is then so thick 

 that nobody could ever catch them." Now, to make a long 

 story short and to come right to the point, your correspond- 

 ent, "Boston," has either been very incorrectly informed as 

 to our argument before that committee, or else he is an inten- 

 tional and unscrupulous falsifier. There were two of the 

 petitioners present instead of 402, as he gives it, and instead 

 of two that opposed the petition there were three, Mr. Tay- 

 lor, of Machias, besides the two he named. 



Capt. F. C. Barker. 



Rangeley Lakes, Maine. 



SOUTHERN SHOOTING GROUNDS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have recently returned from my annual trip to North 

 Carolina. I found birds only fairly plentiful, by no means 

 as numerous as in former years. The nesting season was 

 not propitious— too much rain in June aud Jui\ r . There are 

 other and more destructive agencies at work, however, than 

 a wet summer. Countless numbers of sportsmen and others 

 from the North are spending the entire winter in the South, 

 and are making quail shooting a duty rather than a pastime. 

 Many of these gentlemen can boast of records of from none 

 to twenty birds daily for the season; and will proudly pro- 

 duce their diaries showing their score. 



I am sorry to state that the popular idea heretofore exist- 

 ing among sportsmen, that the negro would never become a 

 successful wing-shot is exploded. I learned of three negroes 

 in the county recently visited by me, who regularly shoot 

 quail on the wing with breechloader and setter dog accom- 

 paniments, one of them an unerring shot and a keen 

 sportsman, who would regard an offer to buy his game a 

 deadly affront. "While out one day with a friend we were 

 joined by a strapping young fellow, who volunteered to take 

 us to every "gang of pattiges" on the plantation. He in- 

 formed us' that he and another negro had only a short while 

 before bagged twenty-three quail out of twenty-five shots. 

 Doubting his ability to repeat the performance, I offered to 

 lend him niy gun, as I should be delighted to see the best 

 record wiped out with my Harrington & Richardson. He 

 declined on the ground that he didn't understand "dem new- 

 fangled guns widout no hammers." Ches-a-Peake. 



Baltimore", Md. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The early part of the past hunting season in Virginia was 

 so dry and hot that dogs could only" work at great disadvant- 

 age. " Quail were hard to find, being in the branches and 

 thick cover. Our first hunts were therefore anything but 

 successful. In November, one cool bright day after two 

 days' rain, the first for two months, Tom and myself taking 

 advantage of the more promising prospect for a successful 

 hunt, found ourselves at the depot with guns, dogs, and 

 baggage, waiting for the '6 P. M. train to take us to where 

 we had heard was a veritable sportsman's paradise. After 

 twelve miles by rail, we drove ten miles back into the 

 country near the headwaters of the Buffalo River. Most of 

 our drive being after dark, though the moon was shining, we 

 could judge but little of the country. After crossing one 

 row of mountains we found ourselves surrounded by them 

 on all sides, the valleys being mostly in stubble. With hearts 

 as light as school boys' on a long-looked for holiday and ex- 

 pectations great as boys ever felt the day before 4th of July, 

 when they had the house full of powder and fireworks, we 

 arrived at our stopping place, cold and hungry. The people 

 we were to stop with were strangers to us, but had sent fre- 

 quent invitations to us through mutual friends. "Come and 

 hupt, game plenty, only needs some one with good guns and 

 dogs, who knows how to use them, to get dead loads of 

 partridges." We found our host a most hospitable gentle- 

 man, t/ie man of that country, farmer, miller, and general 

 authority. A real Col. Sellers, only more so. Millions 

 almost ripe enough to pick, but he wasn't quite ready to 

 shake the tree. He showed us the tree and its fruit. 1 was 

 only prevented (being a Yankee) from getting ahead of him 

 by my sense of honor to one who entertained me so kindly. 

 It was a sore temptation to give one or two shakes, and bring 

 home enough to enable me to give the poor people of Brook- 

 lyn an elevated road or two. We also found our host to be 

 the possessor of a new breechloading gun and a pointer, "the 

 best dog ever known." After supper my pointer, a grandson 

 of Sensation, came in for a little notice and was thought to 

 look "something like" our host's dog, who was to show us 

 next day what he could do. When we inquired about game 

 we got rather unfavorable reports, our host studiously avoid- 

 ing exciting us by anything like exaggeration. Still, we heard 

 of "the covey that usually stays in the garden," and of some- 

 body going out "Wednesday for a little brush and bagging 

 forty- two quail," not much of a day either. 



Next morning everything was covered with a heavy frost, 

 the weeds and grass were very wet, so we did not take a 

 very early start; but got into the field about 9 o'clock, our 

 host with his famous pointer, a friend of his with a little 

 native, rough and ready setter bitch, worth all the other dogs 

 in the party, owing to her experience and knowledge of the 

 country ; Tom and myself with a dog each. We were not 

 long finding the first covey, which immediately took to a 

 dense pine thicket. Tom had all the shooting at this covey, 

 as we were separated some distance by a stream which was 

 difficult to cross. Our shooting during the day was confined 

 to a narrow strip of bottom land about 800 yards wide, lying 

 on both sides of the river. Two of us with two dogs were 

 on each side. Occasionally one party would get lively shoot- 

 ing in sight of the others who could not cross the river in 



time to participate. Once each party had separate coveys up 

 at the same time on opposite sides of the stream, and we 

 made it lively for them for a little while. This bottom land 

 was walled in on each side by steep cliffs of rock covered 

 with a thick growth of ivy. After the rise we had to do our 

 shooting in these thickets, and strange as it seems, we bagged 

 most of our birds in the cliffs. During the first part of the 

 day we made many beautiful misses in the open, killing 

 finely in the thick. Until we "caught on" to the fact that 

 from the time the birds were flushed until they lit they were 

 rising to reach the top of the cliff, and we had been under- 

 shooting. After realizing this we shot very much better. 

 Our country friends not being as hard workers as ourselves, 

 killed very few birds. With varying luck during the day 

 Tom and I bagged 30 quail and lost 12 dead birds. 



"We were kept in the house next day by a severe storm. 

 The day following was very windy and cold. Tom and I 

 hunted by ourselves, with only one dog, That night we had 

 sixty -four quail strung and hung up ready to take home the 

 next morning. We were obliged to hunt but one dog owing 

 to a very peculiar accident which occurred to out best dog, 

 a red setter, the first day. Our pointer stood a single bird 

 in the open within twenty-five yards of some scattering pines 

 with branches growing close to the ground. The bird, when 

 flushed, took a very uncertain and erratic, flight, made a 

 dart, attempting to fly under ons of the pine trees, about a 

 foot above the ground, where he was killed very neatly by 

 Tom, when to our horror, at that instant, we saw the setter 

 make his appearance out of a red gully, where he doubtlessly 

 was pointing when the shot was fired, in direct line of shot, 

 not more than thirty yards from the gun. He did not make 

 the least complaint, and on examination we could not see 

 that he was shot. He hunted most faithfully for three 

 hours afterward, when, to our surprise, he seemed to be tired 

 out. He followed along and hunted, however, to the best 

 of his ability, for an hour more, when we discovered that he 

 was very weak and bleeding terribly. His hind leg was 

 swollen twice its natural size, and had turned black. We 

 found it full of shot from the knee up, on the inside. Sev- 

 eral pellets had cut his belly, but fortunately did not pene- 

 trate the intestines. We naturally considered him as good 

 as a dead dog, but carried him home and nursed him ten- 

 derly and carefully, and reaped our reward by again having 

 him in the field as good as new two weeks from the day he 

 was shot. During all his pain and suffering not even a 

 whine escaped him, and when his wounds were dressed he 

 would quietly lick our hands, the only thanks he could offer, 

 as he was too weak to wag his tail. 



On our way home we stopped at the station for dinner, 

 where we were met with the usual interrogation concerning 

 our luck, etc. The local sportsmen wondering at our show 

 of game, notwithstanding the individual who was said to 

 have bagged forty-two alone a few days before, happened to 

 be one of our questioners. They estimated our bag to be 

 from 100 to 150 birds when it was only 64. We thought, 

 therefore, if we were to be seen carrying so many birds, and 

 every one exaggerated the number, we would be the means 

 of sending a crowd of shooters to kill off all that were left; 

 so I immediately expressed home to my wife half of them. 

 When we got back and met our friends, we only told them 

 that we had enjoyed ourselves a little, made some new 

 friends, and spotted some ground for next year's hunting. 

 Since shooters have taken to telling fish stories. I always 

 answer when asked how many birds I killed, "1 have not 

 time yet to dress up my lie in good shape, come around to- 

 morrow before sun-up. " Bedford. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Editor Forest and Stream,: 



On the morning of the 5th instant, accompanied by my 

 sporting companions, Teceel, Mud and Dit, I left my home 

 with a view to visit some friends who live about twenty 

 miles west of Danville, Va., and immediately upon the bor- 

 der of that State and North Carolina. Knowing, from the 

 representations of some gentlemen who reside in that locality, 

 and the testimony of Dit, who was born and raised there, 

 that the country was a beautiful one and generally well 

 stocked with Bob White, we took our guns' and enough 

 loaded shells to kill all the game which we expected to find. 

 We reached Danville at 11 o'clock at night, while the 

 heavens were emptying their liquid contents upon the earth, 

 and sought as early as possible the accommodations of the 

 National Hotel, where we found comfortable quarters and 

 the most intelligent clerk whom it has been my fortune to . 

 meet. I recorded the names of each member of our party, . 

 and this clerk was able to read them off without that stupid i 

 hesitation exhibited by most people who are brought in con- 

 tact with my chirography. After that performance, if any 

 one impeaches his higher education, 1 have only to say — 

 Q. E. D. 



The train of the Danville &■ New River Railroad leaves; 

 Danville at 8 A. M. In consequence of the early hour we' 

 could uot enjoy the beds so long as we wished, and were- 

 roused from bur slumbers a few minutes after six. Having- 

 left our baggage at the station, we were obliged to depend 

 upon the comb and brush of the hotel in order to complete 

 our toilet, and Mud was exceedingly out of humor because- 

 he could not get access to his trunk for his robe de chambre,, 

 — or in plain English, his night shirt— which he regards as. 

 absolutely necessary to lulling him to sweet repose. However, 

 he managed to get" a few "cat naps" during the night, and 

 was unusually prompt in making his appearance in the 

 office, preparatory to that artistic brushing of his "ambro- 

 sial curls, " which always precedes his meals. In the absence 

 of bear's oil, balm of a thousand flowers, or other hair grease, 

 he was forced to use a little water and then betake himself 

 to the common brush and comb, which adorn a corner near 

 the wash basins. He took a broken goblet which was placed 

 near the cooler, and in vain tried to get his supply of the 

 liquid from that source. It was dry. Teceel suggested the 

 cask near one of the bowls. Thinking it was a trick to put 

 him on the wrong track, he refused to resort to it until a 

 stranger informed him it was the right place. This is not an 

 uncommon weakness— for too many persons accept the state- 

 ments of those who are unknown and reject those of their 

 friends. Being thus assured, he unhesitatingly placed his 

 goblet under the faucet, gave a quick turn of the lever, and 

 was supplied with far more than he wished, for the force of 

 the stream was so great that the water was thrown all over 

 him. This mishap^'we regretted, of course. He managed to 

 get passably dry before breakfast was announced, and as 

 usual, rlid full justice to all the eatables in the menu. 



While sitting tin the coach waiting for the whistle of de- 

 parture, we- noticed several heavy-looking trunks on the 

 carts of porters approaching the baggage car, and on the 

 opposite side of .the street two individuals with a couple of 

 setters each. In a short time they waded through the mud 



