Attg. 37, 1885.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



87 



NATIONAL SPORTSMEN'S CONVENTION 



THE Ibllowiog circvilar address has been issued: "To 

 Sportsmen of America: The commiltee in charge of 

 arrangements for the coming National Sportsmen's Conven- 

 tion, to convene in this citj^ beginning the 39th of Septem- 

 ber, 1885, are receiving assurances daily from all parts of 

 the United States, from hunting and fishing clubs, individual 

 sportsmen and fish commissioners, promising to attend. Our 

 objects are tor devising means by which we can have more 

 uniform game and fish laws in tlie several States, and more 

 efficient means by which they can be enforced, and all true 

 lovers of the gnn and rod, whether in tlie East, West. North 

 or South, should feel an interest. All the clubs in this city 

 (about 20), are now arranging one of the grandest pro- 

 grammes for the entertainment of all visitors perhaps ever 

 gotten up on any similar occasion, and as the committee de- 

 sires to mail every^ club and all others a programme about 

 Sept. 1, we urgentij'- request that every true sportsman whose 

 eye may meet this send the undersigned imraediateiy the 

 address of all clubs known to him, as well as those of' indi- 

 vidual sportsmen. In cities, towns and villages where there 

 are no clubs, we suggest that sportsmen organize one at once, 

 elect delegate to the convention and furnisli their address to 

 the undersigned. It costs but little to organize a club, and 

 besides giving you a representation in the convention, you 

 will be better able to assist in enforcing the game and fish 

 laws of your State. Our brother sportsmen in the South are 

 much behind those of the Middle, Eastern and Northern 

 Stales in the organization of clubs. The work laid out for 

 the convention should interest ev^ery true sportsman in every 

 section of our broad land, and can be accomplished only by 

 united action. Each organized club, with proper credentials, 

 will be entitled to two delegates in this convention, but this 

 need not prevent a greater number from every club and in- 

 dividuals attending and participating in the entertainments. 

 All are invited. If you feel an interest in the cause we are 

 advocating, we ask your attendance and prompt reply to our 

 above request. We would also request that you have your 

 newspaper notice this, that every sportsman may .see it. Re- 

 duced fare on railroads, steamboats and hotels are promised. 

 Address, H. C West, Chairman Committee, 114 Pine street, 

 St. Louis, Mo." 



DEER IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Of late years I have been a guide in the North Woods, 

 and have seen a good deal of the way of keeping dogs in 

 the winter time, I know a party that keeps four hounds 

 that never have a chain on them the year around. They 

 were allowed to come and go where they pleased. In the 

 dead of winter they would start off and be gone six weeks 

 at a time, and would come back as fat as hogs, and the re- 

 mark would be made that they "were almost wintered;" 

 and as soon as ttiej were rested, off they would go, and 

 sportsmen coming into the woods the following summer 

 would wonder what made deer so scarce, since they would 

 have to go miles away to get a shot at a deer. It was a great 

 pleasure to me last winter at Lowville to sign your petition 

 to prohibit hounding. Most of the guides signed it. Some 

 would laugh and say that "hounding would 'last as long as 

 there was a deer in the woods, which would not be long." 



Now, as hounding is stopped, is there no way of stopping 

 "night hunting" in June? Eight deer out of every ten that 

 ai'e killed jacking in June are does which leave their suckl- 

 ing fawns in the woods while they come down to the water 

 to feed. Met by some night hunter, they are mowed down 

 with a load of buckshot, and their fawns are left to die in 

 the woods, as they are too young to provide for themselves. 

 One-third of the deer are wounded with buckshot and go off 

 in the woods and die. I think that jack-hunting in June 

 desh'oys more deer than the hounds do in winter when the 

 deer are in their yards. If there are no hounds allowed to 

 run in the woods, there will be no necessity for night hunt- 

 ing, as any ordinary sportsman with a rifle can get plenty of 

 daylight shots at 100 yards, when they can see what they 

 are shooting. This I call honest sport and not murder. 

 Abolish the idea of loading a blunderbuss with buckshot, 

 and paddling up within ten feet of a bewildered deer and 

 blowing him to atoms. Leave gatling guns at home. 



Glide. 



TO PRESERVE DEAD GAME. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In answer to the inquiry of ' ' W. L. P. " in your last num- 

 ber, I wish to communicate my share of knowledge concern- 

 ing the preservation of game, especially birds, during the 

 warm season. The following is the method employed in the 

 southern part of France, where during August and Septem- 

 ber the thermometer reaches often the same altitude as here 

 in our glorious sunny South : It consists simply in drawing 

 the birds, washing them perfectly clean and filling the cavity 

 with sticks of wood or charcoal, so easily obtained by 

 campers-out. The bill, ears and eyes should also be tilled 

 with charcoal dust to render the access of flies impossible, 

 for the rapid putrefaction of meat of any kind is more 

 attributable to the pest of the flies and their eggs deposited 

 thereon than to the external heat itself. Birds stuffed in 

 this way can be kept perfectly for six to eight days during 

 the hot season. The process is as cheap as simple. 



F. R. A, 



New Orleans, La. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Submerging fresh meat in cold water will give best results. 

 I have known of venison keeping sweet two weeks in cold 

 boiling springs. It keeps best to remain in the skin, jjeeling 

 off the same to get meat, from time to time, and keeping it 

 folded closely. Cahikou. 



Hahvet CEDAKS.~New York, Aug. 21.— I have just re- 

 turned from a week's outing at Harvey Cedars, Barnegat, N. 

 J. The smaller varieties of snipe, including bay birds, beech 

 snipe, ringnecks, etc., are quite plenty, but stool poorly. 

 Willet, curlew, yellowlegs and the larger varieties of the 

 snipe family, are scarce. A change in the weather is looked 

 for before many days, when doubtless the larger birds will 

 come in in more respectable numbers. An explanation may 

 be found of the birds stooling so poorly in the fact that from 

 Beach Haven to Barnegat Light the birds have to run the 

 gauntlet of countless gunners. I counted at sunrise one 

 morning five gunners on a stretch of beach near the Cedars 

 not over one mile in length. Is it to be expected that any 

 guipe in his right mind will come to the stools to be shot at 

 a the face of such a fusiladeV-— Woodchdok. 



Denver, Colo., Aug. 17.— The annual meeting of the 

 Standart Shooting Club was held to night. There was a 

 large and enthusiastic meeting, and composed as it is of 

 sportsmen, it was, of course, linrmonious. The membership 

 was increased from twenty-five to fifty, and the applications 

 presented at the meeting were largely in excess of the 

 vacancies, showing that our little club, with its exclusive 

 shooting privileges (for duck shooting) is fully appreciated. 

 The old oflicers were unanimously re-elected. S. H. Stand- 

 art, President; J. S. Sedam, Vice-President; W. D. Todd, 

 Secretary and Treasurer. Tlie directors were authorized to 

 enlarge our buildings and lease other lakes, ,so that it may be 

 fairly said the club is now fully established. A truer lot of 

 sportsmen and better class of genial gentlemen could not 

 well be gotten together, who may not slaughter many ducks 

 but will have a jolly good time.— D. [Among the club's 

 prominent members are Captain Standart, its president, sec- 

 retary of the Colorado Cattle Growers' Association ; General 

 John" Pierce, State Fish Commissioner; Rev. Myron W. Reed, 

 Colonel C. W. Fisher, ex-Governor Grant, Hon. AJf. Butters, 

 and Messrs. Kinsey, Higgins, Bostwick and others.] 



The Deacois's Sunday Shot. — The grandfather of the 

 Rev. Joseph W. Sessions, of Chaphn, was an exemplary 

 Christian man of high standing in chui'ch and State, and a 

 Congregational deacon. At a time of great scarcity of pro- 

 visions, bordering on famine, the good old man spied a deer 

 coming out of the woods near his house one Sunday after- 

 noon, whereupon he seized his gun and shot ii. For this act 

 the church arraigned him for discipline. He pleaded work 

 of necessity and mercy and justified the act; notwithstand- 

 ing all this the churcli directed the pastor to read his sentence 

 of excommunication from the pulpit, the deacon being 

 ordered to stand meanwhile. As the pastor was about to 

 read, the deacon reached behind him, took up his gun which 

 he had secretly brought with him, leveled it at the pastor's 

 head and said in tones of determination. "T forbid that 

 paper being read from the pulpit," The pastor quietly 

 remarked amid his astonishment, "All things are lawful unto 

 me, but all things are not expedient. I do cot think it ex- 

 pedient to read this paper. " — Mansfield {Conn.) Correspond- 

 ence. 



A Wauning from Italy. — Never buy a bigger gun than 

 you can cany. This is a good rule for sportsmen. Here 

 is a curious illustration on a big scale that ought to impress 

 the lesson on prospective gun pui'chasers. The World says: 

 "Italy has been anxious to surpass all other European nations 

 in getting and owning the greatest sruns. Hundred-ton Arm- 

 strongs were not sulRcieutly satisfactory, so Italy ordered in 

 one batch four Krupp guns of 131 tons each. A gun of this 

 kind, using 300 pounds of powder, is warranted to propel a 

 8,000-pound projectile nine miles, and once in a while to hit 

 something with considerable force. But Italy now complains 

 that it is in danger of getting altogether too much Krupp. 

 In ordering the guns no preparations were made for their 

 transportation, and the railway companies refuse to under- 

 take a job which threatens to break down their rails and 

 bridges. Even to carry a 121-ton gun a 39-ton car must be 

 expressly constructed for it. It looks as if Italy had moved 

 more hastily in the matter than the big guns are likely 

 to do." 



Wild Cattle on Holly Beach, N. J. — It is not gener- 

 ally known that there exists on Holly Beach, N. J., a herd 

 of perfectly wild cattle, the descendants of some blooded 

 stock that escaped from a wrecked English brig that came 

 ashore on "Five-mile Beach" many years ago. These cattle 

 have become as timid as deer aiid frequent the woody 

 marshes of this district, which afford perfect protection, 

 unless driven by dogs to the gun, in which manner they are 

 regularly hunted. During the past week the herd was seen, 

 headed by an old bull, on the surf line of the beach, endeav- 

 oring to rid themselves of the greenlieads and mosquitoes 

 which had made the marshes intolerable. The beef of these 

 cattle is said to be quite good, but from the nature of the 

 gi'ound in which they feed, often sedgy. Regular hunts are 

 frequently organized, and twenty or thirty dosrs are kept for 

 the purpose of forcing them out of the woods to the hunter, 

 who takes his stand repeater in hand, as in deer driving. 

 — Homo. 



New^ Hampshire Game Laws.— A new la,w in New 

 Hampshire is intended to still further protect game birds by 

 forbidding the transportation beyond the State limits of 

 woodcock, grouse, or partridge in the FaU or December, or 

 plover from Aug 1 to Feb, 1, under penalty of a fine and 

 imprisonment for each bird so shipped, A weak game law 

 has existed before in our sister State, but this one extends 

 the close period and is designed to ]3ut an end to the snaring 

 of partridges by the thousand in order to ship them to the 

 Boston market. It is hard to convict for snaring, but trans- 

 portation is more conspicuous and easy of detection. The 

 new law is designed to keep New Hampshire game birds 

 for Lome shooting and consumptipn. — Boston Advertiser, 

 Aug. 33. 



New Animal Trap.— Hornellsville, N. Y., Aug. 16.— 

 Editor Fared and Stream: In your issue of May 39, 1884, 

 your correspondent "Tillicum," of Olympia, W. T , com- 

 plained about the traps now in use, and the catch that often 

 throws the animal's foot out of the trap. I would say that 

 an old subscriber of yours, Mr. S. Dennis, has invented and 

 patented an animal trap which has done away entirely with 

 the defect of a catch over the jaw of the trap. They will 

 soon be ready for the market, when Mr. Dennis will send 

 you a sample trap and his "ad.," as he thinks that will be 

 the best way to reach the parties most iu need of a reliable 

 trap. — J. Otis Fellows. 



FiTCHBTjRa, Mass., Aug. 24.— Woodcock and quail are 

 very scarce; partridge are very plenty. My companion and 

 I. while out last week, started over forty by actual count 

 one day, and you can judge how we wished it was the flrat 

 of September. You would be surprised to see how few of 

 those who call themselves bird hunters, know what the 

 game laws of Massachusetts are; as I have to carry the 

 Forest and Stream of Aug. 20 in my pocket to convince 

 them in many cases that they are wrong. — Old Pard. 



BuTLBB. Pa., Aug. 20.— Game is very scarce here. We 

 have a few woodcock, grouse, squirrels and no Bob Whites. 

 Now insist on having our bird called by his proper name, 

 BobWhite.-Z. ^ V i > 



m md ^iter fishing. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co. 



GAME QUALITIES OF THE BASSES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have been very much interested in the articles in the 

 Forest and Stream on the fighting quahties of the large- 

 mouthed bass. I never have taken large and small mouth in 

 the same waters, Give them their choice and they will not 

 li ve in the same temperature of water ; for instance, iu Round 

 Lake, near Saratoga, you seldom find a small-mouth bass. 

 The lake is .shallow, muddy, and the water warm, and 

 swarming with large-mouth bass. Follow up a small inlet 

 for a few rods and you come to a small pond of cold spring 

 water, there you find the small-mouth, but seldom a large- 

 mouth. In some six or seven trips to these waters I have 

 never taken a small-mouth in the lake, nor a large-mouth in 

 the pond. As to their gameness under these conditions, 

 there is no chance for argument. A one-pound small-mouth 

 will show more fight, and take longer to land than a four- 

 pound large-mouth will. 



I spent the afternoon of the 15th of this month on Onon- 

 daga Lake near Syracuse. I wished most heartily for the 

 member from Bigosh and the rest of the friends of the "cod- 

 mouth." I took three small-mouth bass of about two pounds 

 weight each. The water is clear, cold and deep. Not one 

 of those fish were landed in less than five minutes, and my 

 wrist is lame yet from the effects. Not one of them failed to 

 hunt for the bottom in sixty feet of water, and foiled iu that 

 tried for the bank of weeds near shore. If you ever eaw a 

 busy boy I was one every second after striking one of those 

 fish until they were landed. 



Has any one of the large-mouth advocates tried these fish 

 in both cold and warm water? In the Kinderhook Lake, a 

 few miles from this city, the large-mouth predominates; in 

 fact I never saw a small-mouth come from there. The lake 

 is like Round Lake, shallow, muddy and warm, and the fish 

 are all head, tail and skin; and after being stripped of these, 

 if you find any meat left, it is muddy in taste; anything 

 but a gamy fish to catch, or a game fish to eat. Let the 

 friends of the large-mouth try them under these conditions 

 and see if their argument has a leg to stand on. Mark you;' 

 I claim that the small-mouth will seek, and if he cau find 

 clear cold water with rocky bottom, will stay there and fight 

 for his life to the last; while the large-mouth will take the 

 warm shallow water, with plenty of weeds and muddy bot- 

 tom, and as a fighter is no better than a sucker, and for the 

 talile worse. 



Query — Given a teu-foot-six-iuch fly-rod, roe! below hand, 

 and a good lively fish heavy enough to test the strength of 

 the rod, what weight is the fish pulling at his end of rod, 

 and what weight is the wrist sustaining at the other? 



Ira Wood. 



Albany, New York. 



DOWELS VERSUS SIMPLE-FERRULES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The discussion of the dowel question in the Forest and 

 Stream has been quite interesting and is beginning to tell 

 in the manufacture of rods, as there is constantly an increas- 

 ing demand for rods without dowels; that is, rods of the 

 finer grades. In connection with my business I have a re- 

 pair shop, and have to repair many dozens of rods every 

 year. My experience with jointed rods has been quite ex- 

 tensive in making and using as well as repairing. Rods 

 without dowel are not entirely new. Some five or six years 

 ago 1 had to repair a very fine lancewood rod that was made 

 without dowels. The feiTules were waterproof. The male 

 ferrule was capped or closed at the end by a neatly fitted 

 piece soldered. The female ferrule had a metal diaphram 

 soldered in at the point where the end of the male reached, 

 making both waterproof. It was an excellent rod and had 

 seen much service, yet the ferrules were in perfect order and 

 had never given any trouble. My advocacy of feiTules with- 

 out dowels dates from the time that I repaired this rod. 



I can easily understand why ferrules were first used in the 

 manufacture of jointed rods. In early times rod ferrules 

 were hand-made from sheet metal rolled and soldered and 

 were necessarily very imperfect in thch fitting; hence the 

 tapering dowel was introduced as a matter of economy. It 

 cost less than it would to fit perfectly the ferrules without. 

 The tapering dowel entering into a tapering recess could be 

 shoved in until there would be no shake or looseness at the 

 joint. Aside from compensating for loose-fitting ferrules, 

 the dowel was an actual damage, as any man who has had 

 much experience in repairing rods well knows. Often in 

 boring the recess for the dowel the hole is bored deeper than 

 the dowel. In many rods I have found the dowel hole as 

 deep as the end of the ferrule and even deeper. Rods of this 

 kind were easily broken. In others the dowel was so large 

 that nearly all the wood was cut away to receive it. In this 

 case, if the joints bectime loose by casting, they were sure to 

 break by smashing in the center of the ferrule. Especially 

 was this the case in ferrules that were made soft by heating 

 to solder. 



With the perfect machinery we now have for making solid 

 drawn tubing, the fitting of one inside the other can be made 



so neat and exact that dowels are not necessary. 



I will give what my experience has led me to believe the 

 most perfect ferrules for jointed rods, and how they should 

 be fitted on the wood. The female fermle should be exactly 

 straight and as short as practical, not longer than from 3^ 

 inches to 3 inches, according to size. The female should be 

 straight, that is, there should be no swell at the end to be 

 fitted permanently on the rod ; the end of ferrule that fastens 

 to the rod should be beveled on the inside to almost a sharp 

 edge, a short bevel. The wood of the rod should be the 

 exact size of the outside of the ferrule, except a very Uttle at 

 the end, which should just enter the ferrule. Start the fer- 

 rule on by a few taps with a wooden mallet, then warm the 

 ferrule and wood iu the base of lamp or gas jet just warm 

 enough not to soften the metal or scorch the wood; then 

 drive on carefully with mallet. By repeating the operation 

 of warming and driving slowly the ferrule can be driven to 

 place, making the wood and ferrule almost flush without cut- 

 ting a shoulder. As soon as the ferrule and wood have 

 cooled the ferrule can be slipped off easily with the fingers. 

 After slipping the ferrule off, heat a piece of rubber bicycle 

 cement in a lamp or gas jet and rub a slight coat on the 

 wood where the ferrule belongs; warm the ferrule again and 

 drive in place. ]f this is properly done the ferrule will hold 

 without pinning, also will he waterproof. One end of the 

 male ferrule should be raised or swelled to about the outside 



