270 



FOREST AND STREAM: 



[April 30, 1886- 



amazement for some time, but recovered sufficiently, at 

 last, to look about for some trace of my bombardment. See- 

 ing no signs of it iu the shiubberry about. I made wider and 

 wider ranges, until about sixty feet from tbe birds, and at 

 my right as I fired. 1 fouud the corpses of two men yet 

 warm, but riddled with shot. The truth flashed over me; 

 in my agitation I had moved the afnectors to the wrong side 

 of the muzzles, and instead of sending the shot to the left, 

 among the birds, I had fired to the right and brought down 

 the men, who had evidently just snared the partridges. I 

 was immensely disgusted of course, and as soon as I could 

 get to Syracuse I went to Mr. Egerton and demanded my 

 money back, at the same time tendering him the gun and 

 telling him my reasons for so doing. 



But he refused to recognize any reason in my statements 

 on the ground that the gun had acted up to its guaranty, 

 and had "fetched something" the only time that I had used 

 it. However, I shall get even, fori have brought an action 

 against him in tort, in the names of the representatives of 

 the two dead men. Beaver. 



Albany, N. Y- April 18. 



Sprlno at Montreal. — Owing to eccentricities of this 

 very peculiar climate the weather prophets thrive and 

 flourish, for the reason I suppose that any horrible weather 

 prognosticated by them is sure to come, but since Vennors 

 death we cannot place so much reliance on their predictions, 

 as the following will show. On March 16 last I sent you 

 spring notes; that was a mistake, as I should have said 

 winter notes, for during the first week of April we had the 

 heaviest fall of snow of the year (about two feet), which 

 blocked all our railways for days, and generally demoralized 

 affairs throughout the country. The fun of it was, none of 

 our prophets had foreseen this, but afterward all claimed it 

 as their own particular storm. We have had a few bright 

 warm days lately, and the snow is going rapidly, but the St. 

 Lawrence is still bridged with ice almost strong enough to 

 carry a locomotive and train of cars. Perhaps some of our 

 Southern friends can form an idea of the pleasures of living 

 hero when 1 tell them that on April 17, 1880, a locomotive 

 and train of loaded freight cars crossed the St. Lawrence 

 where it is two miles wide, on rails laid on the ice, and 

 which had been in use for months before. A large flock of 

 geeso was seen near the Lachine rapids this morning, and 

 quite a number of ducks have arrived, and all seem surprised 

 to see that we have not yet thawed out. The ducks all know 

 a man and a gun, and shy off whenever they see a few cakes 

 of ice piled together in the shape of a blind. Some one 

 further south has been instructing them. Our close season 

 for wildfowl commences April 1, and if the ice holds a little 

 longer our market hunters will have a poor spring harvest. 

 — C. (Montreal, Can., April 2D. 



Sallda Gun Club.— At the first meeting of the SalidaRod 

 and Gun Club, held last evening, the following officers were 

 elected: E. H. Wheeler, President; A. C. Ridgeway, Vice- 

 President; E. S. Bach, Secretary and Treasurer; W. B. 

 Bates, captain of rifle team; A. C. Ridgeway, captain of 

 shotgun team; E. S. Bach, captain of rodsters; H. Knight, 

 chairman of committee on constitution and by-laws; W. B. 

 Bates, chairman of committee on range. The club is lim- 

 ited to fifteen members, fourteen of whom were present at 

 the meeting.— (Salida, Col., April 15). 



Girard Manor Gun Club. — We have just organized a 

 gun club here to be known as the Girard Manor Gun Club. 

 The following are now members; S. B. Torbert, A. Lorah, 

 M. M. MacMillan, James Lorah, Chance Clark, M. Lorah, 

 Geo. Lorah. Our first shoot takes place May 8, and will be 

 clay -pigeons.— M. M. M. (Girard Manor. Pa., April 18). 



Young Men's Sporting Club. — There has recently been 

 organized in this city a Young Men's Sporting Club/whose 

 officers for the ensuing year are as follows : C. H. Johnson, 

 President; 0. Steffens' Vice-President ; W. C. Reinig, Sec j 

 retary; T. W. Lauehlin, Treasurer and Corresponding Sec- 

 retary.— T. W. L. (Fond du Lac, Wis., April 17). 



Hunting Club Rules.— Will some of your readers kindly 

 furnish us with a copy of constitution and by-laws for a club 

 of successful deer hunters, as well as rules and instructions 

 for the hunt and camp. — Michigan. 



Plenty oe Game.— Editor Forest and Stremti "Where 

 is Burrton 2" It is situated in what is known as. the Great 

 Arkansas Valley, on the main line of the A , T. & S. F. R. 

 R., 218 miles west of Kansas City. Heie we never hear the 

 cry of "nothing to shoot." The nimrods in this vicinity 

 have been having fine shooting this spring. It opened in 

 March with the advent of the gray eoose; then came the 

 white geese, together with the mallard ducks, and now our 

 sportsmen have their choice of teal and spoonbill ducks or 

 tlie plovers and snipe. The latter are here in great numbers. 

 It is no uncommon thing for three good shots to bag from 

 eight to twelve, duzen per day. Our manner of hunting here 

 is as follows: A trusty team is procured, one man drives, 

 the others man the guns and do the shooting from the wagon. 

 The birds are easily approached with a team, and with the 

 pot and wing-shots the slaughter is fearful. The plovers are 

 in flocks numbering from ten into the hundreds. Wehave 

 a lively market on the east, Kansas City and to the west, 

 Colorado. The quails and prairie chickens wintered well, 

 and we feel sure of splendid shooting in the fall. Our game 

 laws, although we five "way out West," are pretty gener- 

 ally observed.— M. T. (Burrton, Kansas, April 21). * 



inter 



Alexander Wads.— Editor Forest and Stream: In your 

 issue of the 9th inst. "Backwoods" condemns the use of 

 mucilage-edge wads upon the ground that they are apt to 

 gum the barrels. So far as this applies to the Alexander 

 wad, I will say that in order to avoid this very objection the 

 inventor adopted a frilled disk which is reversed in firing, 

 and renders it impossible for the gum to touch the barrels. 

 These wads do not come within the term "mucilage-edge" 

 wads, as there is no mucilage on the wad. I first called the 

 attention of your readers to this invention and claimed for 

 if, a good deal of merit, and you may be sure I did so only 

 after a personal test. My experiments fully bore out the 

 theory of the reversible disk, and I never discovered any 

 signs'of gumming in the barrels after using his wad. The 

 only fault with the first wads made was that the disk was 

 not' securely fastened, but this defect has been entirely 

 n medied, I believe. — Sycamore. 



"That reminds me." 

 150. 



ON the 5th of November last, Captain Moore and myself 

 went on our last fishing excursion to Timber Lake, 

 about fifteen miles above Burlington, which is celebrated for 

 fine bass. We arrived at the camping ground at 4 o'clock, 

 put up our tent and fixed our beds for the night's rest, to be 

 prepared for the fun in the morning. 



At daylight we were up and got our breakfast. Captain 

 Moore took one of the buckets of minnows and went up 

 the lake to a well-known hole. I took the boat, pushed out 

 to the middle of the lake and made fast to a snag. The lake 

 at this point was about twenty yards wide. On the north 

 side there was a steep bank and quite a drift pile. I fished 

 out quite a large minnow, hooked it on, and made a cast as 

 near the drift pile as possible. I cast my hook a little too 

 far and it lit on the edge of the drift. In trying to recover, 

 I found my sinker had caught and I could not get loose. 

 The minnow kept flapping around at a great rate. I found 

 I could not get loose without going with my boat. Just at 

 that moment a large wolf came trotting down the shore. I 

 sat as still as I could ; he had his head down and did not see 

 me. He came to the drift pile and went out on it, and spied 

 my minnow and made a lunge for it. The drift pile gave 

 way under him and he went into the lake over head and ears. 

 At that instant I pulled my line taut, and found to my 

 astonishment I had him hooked. The hook had caught in 

 his throat at the root of the tongue. When he found he was 

 fast he made frantic struggles to get loose. He would 

 plunge his head under water and come up half strangled, 

 and made a horrid noise. I held a taut line on him and 

 found I could keep him off from the drift pile. 



When the wolf found that he could not get back to the 

 shore, be made a drive for the boat. At first I thought it 

 would be my turn to take the water and leave him master of 

 the situation, but by a dexterous move of the rod, I found I 

 could keep him off from the boat. I reeled up my line so as 

 to give less play. His tremendous struggles and the frequent 

 immersions of his head had now nearly drowned him. I saw 

 he was getting weak swimming around in a circle, and tried 

 to drown him by sinking the point of the rod and pulling his 

 head under water. At first I only partially succeeded. He 

 would get his head above water, making a great noise. By 

 persevering I finally kept his head under water until his 

 struggles ceased and the blubbers came up. I kept him down 

 for some time and then ventured to pull him up and take 

 him into the boat. 



It was quite a large wolf, weighed 384 pounds. 1 cut the 

 line off, leaving about a foot of line with the hook and 

 sinker in his mouth. Knowing Captain Moore would not be- 

 lieve the story of his capture without the evidence, 1' took 

 him to the camp, hung him up, and waited patiently for the 

 Captain. He came to the camp at noon having a fine string 

 of bass, six of them averaging three pounds each, and five 

 that averaged two and a half pounds, and one mink. He 

 would not tell how he caught the latter. He was astonished 

 when he saw the wolf, and could hardly believe me, but 

 there w : as the evidence— with the hook in his throat. 



S. D. C. 



Burlington, la., Dec. 30. 



BON1TO. 



TN all the warmer waters of the world, 

 -*- The skip jacks' swarming shoala are seen, 

 Where the Sardinian Islands rest 

 In Mediterranean tides serene, 

 And where the tumbling billows pour, 

 Along America's southern shore; 

 While dense by rocky northern coast, 

 Wanders the countless host. 



Their form symmetric, their sharp fins, 



Proclaim their wondrous, matchless speed; 

 While their white row of vicious teeth, 

 Are terrors wheresoe'er they feed. 

 Like birds of passage, they pursue 



O'er thousand leagues of sea their way, 

 Revisiting each well-known shore 



Where their great schools were wont to play. 

 AVhat power directs them thro' the seas, 



Impels their myriad hosts to roam, 

 Prompts to forsake for years a shore, 



Then leads them to their ancient home* 

 We ask the question all in vain, 

 For skiil'd philosophy may not explain. 



In August season, when the seas 



Are brightened by the finny host, 

 When the menhaden shoals abound 



And weakfish haunt the coast, 

 Then come the leaping bluefish schools, 



The Spanish mackerel, keen for food. 

 The porpoise, the bonito swift, 



Relentless robbers of the flood. 



The ocean-angler in his yacht, 



Hovers about like bird of prey, 

 Guides the true helm and trims the sail. 



And thro' them ploughs a foamy way; 

 Then casts his glittering trolling bait. 

 And lures bonito to his fate. 



Up thy vast stretch, Long Lsland Sound, 



Bonitos flash in sportive play; 

 They cluster in the sunken reef, 



They gather in the salty bay, 

 They seize menhaden as they fly, 

 They persecute all lesser fry, 

 And in their turn fall helpless prize, 

 To the black shark a sacrifice. 



—Isaac McLeluan, 



Bounties in Wisconsin. — I send you herewith a state- 

 ment taken from the books of our county clerk, showing the 

 number of foxes, wildcats, and wolves killed in this (Dunn) 

 county during this and last winter. As the animals, on ac- 

 count* of their fondness for prairie chickens and other game, 

 are great enemies of sportsmen, the following figures will 

 be interesting to many : During the winter of 1883 and 1884, 

 there were killed in this county 53 foxes, 63 wildcats and 30 

 wolves, the bounties paid for the same amounting to $731. 

 This year, 1885, the county clerk has paid bounties on 4 

 foxes, 3 wildcats and 1 wolf. — B. A. E. (Menomonie, Wis.). 



Philadelphia Notes. — Brant still linger in Barnegat and 

 Tuckerton Bays in great numhers, but to get a shot at them 

 is next to an impossibility. Thousands and thousands keep 

 on the flats and appear perfectly contented and safe. Friends 

 who returned from these waters last week had the best of 

 shooting, but only at shelldrakes. The Delaware River 

 meadows and marshes are still the abode of numerous flocks 

 of sprigtails, but they have become very cunning and few 

 now are being killed. Snipe are on in goodly numbers, and 

 the warm weather has made them fat and lazy.— Homo. 



151. 



Some months ago, a party of riflemen were being driven 

 from the excellent range at Walnut Hill, Mass., to the rail- 

 road station. One of them (a comparative stranger) espying 

 a dark object on a little hill in tbe distance, remarked: "See 

 that woodchuck?" All looked, and the creature beinga little 

 indistinct, one ventured to say: "Is it a woodchuck?" "Of 

 course it is, " replied the first speaker, ' T know it is ; it is 

 remarkable how far I can see a woodchuck." Nothing more 

 was said, and all gazed upon the object until, as we ap- 

 proached quite near to it, it gave a flop, rising a few feet 

 from the ground and showing itself to be a crow with a 

 broken wing. Silence fell on the party until one more ven- 

 turesome than the rest looked quietly up to the stranger and 

 said: "Doctor, it is remarkable how far you can see a wood- 

 chuck." Curtis. 



Haftford, Conn. 



LIST OF PATENTS 



A Royal Slaughterer. — An industrious statistician has 

 gathered into a statement, the hunting record of Emperor 

 Francis Joseph, of Austria. The score runs back over 

 thirty-six years, and foots up to 43,138 head, including 14,175 



pheasants, 8,270 partridges, 6,456 hares, 1,570 chamois, 1,279 gteiSS!' Fhe-ArmsTght Plumb".— s. w. Taylor," Newport, R. I. 

 wild boars, 197 foxes, 1 bear and 1,287 rapacious birds, etc I 316,419, Hammock Support.— V. P. Travers, New York, N. Y. 



Bearing Date April 25, 1885. Reported expressly for this paper by 



Louis Bagger & Co., Mechanical Experts and Solicitors 



of Patents, Washington, D. C. 



314,5G5. Rotary Fish Plate.— B. W. Clark, Herndon, Va. 



314,659. Rowlock.— O. B. Fenner, Oakland, Cal. 



•314,745 Flying Target.— C. F. Stock, deceased, N. G. Moore, Peoria,Ill. 



315.297.'Duck Shooting Blind.— B. F. Kenly, Baltimore!, Md. 



315,354. Hammock Support.— J. H. TenEyck, Auburn, N. Y. 



315 967. Combination Fish Hook.— C. L. Spencer, Geneva, N. l . 



CAMPING ON THE JAMES. 



IT is very seldom we hear of fishing or hunting down 

 here in Southwestern Missouri. Although we are not 

 blessed with speckled trout, we still have a great deal of 

 sport in our creeks. The nearest to our city is the James 

 Fork of the White River, which can be reached about seven 

 miles south, and about the same distance further south we 

 come to the Finley, which joins the James about twenty-two 

 miles southwest *of here. In these streams we have black 

 bass, striped bass, and what they call jack salmon — they re- 

 semble the sand pike of Lake Erie— also channel cat, goggle 

 eye or rock bass, and eels. 



Ten years ago fishing was good anywhere along the James, 

 but now the introduction of giant powder compels us to go 

 quite a distance for fair fishing. Four or five of us gener- 

 ally take a trip or two each year. We put our boats in the 

 water about twelve miles from here, at the lower dam, and 

 float down as far as the junction of Finley and James. We 

 usually spend three days on the water, although by laud it 

 is only eight miles. We get black bass weighing two and 

 three pounds, big-mouths^ up to seven, and cat up to ten. 

 One of our late trips was made with one good round bottom 

 boat and a canvas boat. The large boat carried provisions 

 for five days. 



The river was pretty flush and abounds in rapids. We got 

 started, and on striking the first rapids the canvas boat took 

 the left chute and the large boat the right. We were going 

 at a 2:40 gait, and all our attention was required to manage 

 the ship; but as soon as we struck smooth water we of course 

 looked to see how the others had fared. All we could see 

 was an occasional article of clothing floating around, and 

 Joe and Doc, who had been the crew of the canvas boat, 

 holding on to a bush, with their bodies stretched out at full 

 length with the current. After picking up what was float- 

 ing around, we went ashore and to their assistance. They 

 had run on a log, where there was a heavy undertow, and 

 down went the canvas ship. It was no joke getting her from 

 beneath the log, but we finally succeeded, and made camp 

 for the night right there, the next morning we went on, 

 trolling ami casting ahead as we floated. 



Everything went well until noon of the second day, when 

 we reached a place at the lower end of a long hole, where there 

 is a sharp bend and a very heavy fall for quite a distance. It 

 is usually fun to shoot the rapid, and with care there is no 

 danger. Our boat got well ahead, but on turniug the bend 

 what was our consternation to see right across the channel 

 a large sycamore tree. It was too late to stop ; the current, 

 was too much for us. Bo we struck her, bow on, and soon 

 brought up broadside to the current. Spite of all we could do 

 the water would break over the weather rail; but after halt 

 an hour's careful use of an axe, we shot through that tret- 

 top as if from a gun, arriving safely in smooth water none 

 the worse for our scare. Doc espied us in time to land and 

 make a carry, or they would have gone under sure. 



We got alongnicely, getting enough fish for meals, of course. 

 On our last day's floating is an island; before reaching it we 

 differed in regard to which channel to take, and ended by 

 Doc taking the left and our boat the right. Either side is 

 rough and rapid and about 100 yards long. We got to the 

 lower end and turned around to look for the others. They 

 were still half wav up, Doc paddling for dear life and Joe 

 down on his knees, and their boat filling rapidly. We 

 reached them just as they struck shore, when down they 

 went. They had struck a snag, and torn a large hole in the 

 canvas. With the aid of some shoemaker's wax and a piece 

 of shirt and fire, we succeeded in repairing her so that she 

 did not leak any. 



At length we reached the mouth of Finley, our destination, 



where we had splendid luck. The James was quite muddy 



and the Finley clear as crystal, and where the waters meet is 



where we yanked them out with plenty of good live minnows. 



I have narrated accidents enough for so short a trip, but I 



