Sept. 10, 1S85.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



12B 



lacking in the American guns, "wliich, as a rule, liave 



crookeder stocks. 



Aud 1 am Inclined to think that American sportsmen use 

 stocks too short for them, as a rule. The crook of the stock 

 is often blamed for what is really due to its length. My ob- 

 servation is that a stock 14| inches lou/? (Greener's sLaadnrd 

 length) will suit the majority of sportsmen. TJie Amencau 

 standard— so far as any standard exists— seems to be 14 

 inches in length, which is a Uttle too short for the great 

 majority of shooters. My judgment is that a man can best 

 use the' longest and slraightest stock which he can handle 

 comfortably. 



I ought to have said before that a "straight-edge laid 

 along the rib and extending to the butt is more accurate than 

 laying the gnn on a table to ascertain measurements ; but I 

 suggested the latter because usually most convenient. I f the 

 gun used to ascertain the measurements has a rib which is 

 sunk between the barrels, a "straight-edge" is indispensable. 



The weight of the gun should be well between the hands 

 and within the last foot of the breech. The gun must not 

 he "mnzzle-heavy," causing you to undershoot, nor too 

 heavy at the butt, causing the gun to hang heavy in the 

 hands. Tliis "balance" is a matter of great importance; bat 

 no exact rules eau be laid down, for men's tastes and needs 

 diBEer in this matter to a slight extent at least. The gun 

 must "feel right" in your hands, and mast not hang so awk- 

 wardly that it requires an effort on your part to handle it. 



Ah-Pe. 



RIFLE TEST ON SQUIRRELS. 



SEPTEMBER is here once more, and the crack and 

 crash of the rifle and shotgun resound through the 

 land. Monday, the last day of August, found my old friend 

 .Tack and your humble servant aboard of an outward bound 

 train, armed aud equipped with our rides aud "duffle," 

 ready for an interview with the gray squirrels. Our desti- 

 nation was our old hunting ground in (Jeutral New Hamp- 

 shire, which we arrived at, after jumping tlie track once 

 and getting a m-altj thorough shaking up. Jack aud I 

 have been at practice wtih our .23 ca I. rifles at short range 

 all summer, aud just to make it a Uttle interesting, we agreed 

 to let the one that made the poorest score pay for all the 

 cartridges that were used. I trust that you will not charge 

 me with egotism when I state that I have paid for one case 

 of .32 short, and I begin to reaUze that we dojnot get seventy- 

 flve and ten off the list as we used to. Jack carried a re- 

 peating rifle of .32-caliber, with which, he told me, he could 

 cut a squirrel's head in the taUest tree every fair shot. I 

 also have a rifle of the same kind, and if I should happen 

 to hit a squirrel with it I should consider it an accident and 

 not worth mentioning. 



On the way to our hunting ground Jack remarked that 

 Smith, our grocer, had just received a fresh lot of cigars, and 

 that seven dollars would buy a box of one hundred. "JSTow," 

 said he, "I propose that every squirrel that is not hit in the 

 head shall call for one cigar' as a fine. Every one that is 

 missed calls for two, while every one that is barked off clean 

 shall be credited two." "Very weU," I replied, "just as you 

 say, you have made me pay for the cartridges and now I 

 suppose I shaU have to pay this bill too." We had engaged 

 quarters with an old acquaintance, so we were not long in 

 getting settled after our arrival. Thinking we would like to 

 take a stroll, toward night we went to a grove of oaks (of 

 wliich I have spoken in a former communication) and found 

 that although rather early the squirrels were working the 

 trees in fine style; and after sitting down and keeping quiet 

 a few minutes we heard a slight noise overhead, and the 

 next instant a fine large fellow with a tremendous great brush 

 whisked around the trunk of the tree and looked down at 

 us with his big bright eyes as if to ask us if his murder was 

 being premeditated. Several red ones as well as chipmunks 

 also put in an appearance, and as we took our way home- 

 ward Jack remarked that "the indications were, in his esti- 

 mation, very promising for a good morning's work, weather 

 permitting." 



Before retiring for the night Jack suggested that as "we 

 were to start early, it might be a good idea to have things in 

 readiness," and after filhng his brier root and remarking 

 that he would not mind "having one of those cigars now," 

 he pulled his repeater from its case and commenced to stuff 

 it with cartridges. Judge of his consternation when from 

 my canvas cover, instead of a repeater, there was a 91b. 

 30in. -barrel muzzleloader, carrying 100 round balls to the 

 pound, or about .35-bore. JSText a hickory swab stick and a 

 string of cotton flannel wipers. Wiping out the barrel care- 

 fully with the hammer at half-cock, 1 noticed a peculiar 

 loois about Jack (who was smoking like a locomotive just 

 after the fireman has stuffed the fire box vrith ' 'Cumberland"), 

 and after I had tm-ned in the charge of powder from the 

 flask, placed the small circular patch of Scotch Holland 

 linen and flat pointed slug in the muzzle ready for the guide 

 and plunger, Jack found his speech once more and said he: 

 "Look here, are you going to use that thing on this trip?" 

 "Certainly," I replied, "I have nothing else with me." 

 "Well, are you not a half century or so behind the times'?" 

 "Perhaps so," I replied, "but as you know I have modern 

 arms at home." "Yes," he responded, "and if you had 

 been level-headed you would have brought one of your 

 breechloaders. Why, it will take you a week to load that 

 thing. What is it anyway, one that iSfoah had in the ark?" 

 "Oh no," I replied, "it is one of my own make, and as you 

 see bears the date of 1885." After examining it he praised 

 the workmanship altogether too much, but the one great 

 fault with it was he said, ' 'an old-fashioned way of loading 

 that had been discarded years ago." 



We turned in early to dream of the gi'ay squirrels, etc., 

 but before long Jack said, "Look hear, let's make that cigar 

 trade include red squirrels as well as gray ones." "All 

 right," I replied, and the next thing I heard wa.s, "Come, 

 boys, it's past four o'clock, and those graybacks are waiting 

 for you." We were soon out of bed, and after a dip in water 

 out of tlie cold corner of a fortjr-foot well, we felt as though 

 we had been well repaid already for our journey from the 

 hot dusty city. After a good substantial breakfast we started 

 for the woods and arrived at the squirrel ground just at the 

 right time, for it was still pretty dark in the woods. We 

 each took our position as per agreement, with the under- 

 standing that we were not to shoot toward each other and 

 were not to speak, but at a signal from the whistle the one 

 blowing would go to the other. 



Sitting down on a stone I waited a few minutes, and soon 

 I hear one up in an oak over toward Jack, Then he turns 

 and runs along a limb toward me. Now he goes down the 

 trunk of the tree and whislcs out of sight. 1 am afraid I 

 have the "louck fever" a little, but soon cool ofi:. Ah, my 

 fine fellow, there you are, as pretty a shot as one could ask 



for. The leaves are very thick yet, and I do not know as I 

 can sea well enough, but I raise the rifle and through the 

 large aperture of the Lyman sight I catch the bronzed bead 

 of "the Beach fore sight. Canl bark him ofl; and earn my 

 two cigars? No, he is too high up. A sharp crack follows 

 and he^ comes to the ground with the top of his head miss- 

 ing. I have hardly time to wipe out the rifle and load be- 

 fore another one shows up in nearly the same place. I can 

 see him distinctly, and he little dreams what is in store for 

 him. He runs up on the trunk of an oak about twenty-flve 

 feet from the ground, there turns squaiely around, and stops 

 with his head toward the ground. A bullet strikes the tree 

 just beneath the bark directly under his fore feet, and he 

 goes whirling through the air and strikes the ground with a 

 thud, and not a bullet mark on him. 



I wait a few minutes and then scalp another, when a 

 whistle from Jack announces his coming. '"Are you doing 

 much in here?" he queries. I pointed with my wiping rod 

 to the three squirrels on the ground. "Why," said he, "I 

 cannot see the first thing through my sights*. I have seen 

 several grays out there, but I could not sight them because 

 the leaves are so thick and the sun is not up yet." "Well, 

 Jack," I asked, "are you not a half century behind the times 

 with your old-fashioned notch sights? If you will use 

 sights like mine you can see to shoot your rifle in the woods 

 as well as a shotgun." I suggested that he talce his stand 

 near the edge of the woods, where he could get more hght, 

 and we sat down once more to watch. In a few minutes I 

 hear Jack's repeater begin to repeat, and four or five shots 

 in quick succession tell me plainly that it does not "take a 

 week to load ihat thing." "I've got him," Jack yelled. "I 

 can see better out here." 



The sun is up now and all nature seems to he alive. There 

 has been very little or no frost, and with the exception of a 

 few discolored leaves and ferns the woods have the appear- 

 ance of midsummer. The sun creeps slowly up ; the fight 

 improves aud the sport begins in good earnest. The chat- 

 tering of red squirrels, the barking of grays and the squeak 

 of the little chipmunk, all help to swell the chorus to the 

 sharp crack of the rifles. I am enjoying the sport hugely 

 and am in the best condition. Pure country air, good whole- 

 some farmer's food, and I am not cursed with had whisky. 

 The warm blood is hounding through my veins and I feel 

 like a boy again, or like a prisoner set at liberty. 



We remained in the grove until past 3 o'clock and then 

 we began to think of something to satisfy the inner man and 

 started for the house. We counted the spoils aud Jack had 

 two grays and four red ones to show for fourteen empty 

 shells, and three only were hit fairly in the head. Your 

 humble servant had ([ dislike to tell it, but it would spoil the 

 story if I did not) seven grays and three red ones, six were 

 hit in the head, one in the neck and three were barked off 

 clean, the concussion killing them as dead as a stone, 



"Well," said Jack, "you" have stolen a march on me this 

 time; and now, my dear sir, will you please explain if you 

 can tell why this is thus?" 



"Yes, Jack," I replied, "I think I can. In the first place 

 you arc younger tlian I am, your eyesight is better than 

 mine, and you are a' better shot than I am, and, all things 

 being equal, you can beat me at rifle shooting, whether at 

 game or at the target. But this rifle I have been at work on 

 at odd jobs all summer, and it has been made especially for 

 this occasion. While you have been extolling the merits of 

 the breechloader for accuracy, you knew nothing of the per- 

 fection of a good muzzleloader at short range. While a 

 good breechloader with a patched bullet and shells carefully 

 loaded is a splendid weapon, it cannot eciual a good muzzle- 

 loader. While a poorly-made or badly-handled muzzle- 

 loader is bad enough, it can be no worse than the miserable 

 rifles that are turned out by some of the factories, and are 

 offered to us at retail for from $15 to $25 each, and what is 

 lacking in the rifles is made up in the quality of the cart- 

 ridges.' I have found cartridges with no bullets in them, with 

 only half a charge of powder, and in almost all conditions. 

 I have made breecliloaders that would shoot well enough 

 to satisfy most sportsmen at any game , but for fibsolute pre- 

 cision I will use a muzzleloader every time. Secondly, you 

 could not see your game distinctly in the woods at this 

 season through your notch and bead sights. Get a good rifle 

 and put a Lyman rear sight and almost any open head sight 

 on the muzzle, and you will astonish yourself in the differ- 

 ence it will make in your shooting." 



"Well, yes," Jack responded, "perhaps so, but if I can do 

 no better I will go hack to the shotgun, hut no old fagy 

 muzzle-loading rifle for me, no I thank you." 



Jack was convicted but not converted, and as we made our 

 way to the house he said that he would get even with me 

 yet. The next morning we shouldered our lO bore breech- 

 loaders and gave the grouse a trial, of which I will tell you 

 ill my next. I omitted to state that I fired ten shots only at 

 the squirrels. Iron RiVMROD. 



SoMERviLLB, Mass. 



NEW ENGLAND GAME. 



THE interest in bird shooting in this section is greater 

 than ever before. With the gun and ammunition 

 dealers, trade has seldom been better. The sale of loaded 

 cartridges has been very large for a week. This means bird 

 shooting, but thus far the bags have been very small. Two 

 noted gunners were questioned yesterday. They agreed in 

 the idea that grouse in the towns not far from Boston are 

 quite plenty, but remarkably shy. One of these gentlemen 

 came across a couple of noted shots yesterday, brothers, one 

 of whom hits a penny tossed in the air with a .32-cal. rifle 

 three times out of five. They are crack wing-shots. They 

 kUled last year over one hundred partridges apiece. But so 

 far this season their score has been almost nothing. They 

 have seen the birds, but they take to wing long before the near 

 approach of the hunter. "The testimony of the sportsmen is 

 that the grouse grow more and more wild each year. Their 

 lying to the dog grows worse and worse. The markets have 

 seen hut very few partridge as yet, and woodcock have been 

 scarce in the stalls where they have been quite plenty on 

 former seasons. Some of the best gunners claim that the 

 remarkably wet weather has scattered them to the uplands. 



One or two letters from good grouse sections in Maine 

 mention only very small bags, and the birds scarce. That 

 State is being overrun with gunners this year, as well as last. 

 Where shall the sportsman find room and game? There is 

 a good deal of indignation felt among the pot aud market 

 hunters here concerning New Hampshire's non-exportation 

 game law. They have been in the habit of boarding morn- 

 ing trains and going over into New Hampshire, returning 

 the second evening with well-filled bags. It is understood 

 that the new law will prohibit their bringing the bkds out 

 of the State, the same as in Maine. 

 One more terrible accident with a shot gun must be chron- 



icled. The son of Mr, Morton, a Boston merchant, well- 

 known in the fruit and oil trade, 17 years old, was on his 

 vacation in the western part of this State. In getting over 

 a fence one day last week his gun was discharged aud the 

 consents entered the young man's chest and passed upward 

 and backward througli the right lung, lodging near and 

 breaking the backbone. He must have put the breech of his 

 gun down, holding on to the upper end of the barrels, and 

 the cocked weapon was discharged by some twig against the 

 triggers. Truly our education Is at fault. A gun is a dan- 

 gerous thing; so is a precipice; yet who thinks of walking off 

 it? Neither is there the least possible chance of harm 

 from the gun, if i one never, udner any circumstances, 

 allows the muzzle to be turned toward his own body. A 

 man or boy in his senses will not walk off a precipice in 

 broad daylight. It is a matter of natural education. Why not 

 train every boy to keep the muzzle of his gun away from him- 

 self and everybody else. There is just as much sense in seizing 

 a razor by the blade with the thumb over the edge, as to seize 

 a gun by the muzzle. It should be beaten into every boy's 

 understanding, word by word: Never, under any condi- 

 ticms, allow the muzzle of a gun to be pointed toward your 

 own body or that of any other person. Special. 

 Boston, Mass., Sept. 7. 



Ipswich seems almost deserted this year. Small birds are 

 very scarce and have been all the season, Whipple, of 

 Hamilton, got some black breasters and some uplands lately. 

 Lewistone, of Ipswich, got eleven summers and a winter in 

 two shots. Jim Lord, of Ipswich, got four uplands on 

 Great Neck. One flock of coots recently seen in Squaw 

 Bay. Next mouth they should be plenty. Harry Procter 

 recently got some birds at Palmer's Pond, Swampscott. 

 He saw a fine bunch of black breasters but they were shy, 

 Partridge season opened very tame. Woodcock are scarce, 

 though i hear two Boston gentlemen got twenty-nine at 

 Sharon, Mass., lately. If this be true they had rare good 

 luck. I think there was some shooting at Chatham last 

 week as I saw doughbirds and jack curlew that were shot 

 there. Perhaps October may afford better luck. Rail shoot- 

 ing should be in order by the 10th. as the tides then run 

 high. X. Y. Z, 



Balem, Mass., Sept. 7, 



BOW VALLEY GAME. 



''jPHE close season for grouse, partridge, pheasants, prairie 

 X chickens, swans, ducks, geese and widgeons ended on 

 the loth inst, and as prairie chickens are unusually plentiful 

 they are being bagged in great numbers. Last summer, in 

 this district, was an exceptionally wet one, more rain fell 

 from June to September than was precipitated during several 

 seasons together. The present summer has been dry but not 

 to an extreme. Occasional rain showers have furnished 

 suflicient moisture for grass and crops. The heavy rains of 

 last year destroyed an immense number of wildfowl eggs 

 and the effects were visible in the scarcity of the smaller 

 variety of birds. 



So far, of the kinds of wildfowl named, I have seen no 

 pheasants, though the ordinance for protection of game 

 mentions these with the more common varieties, I may in 

 this exception include the widgeon, as I understand he is not 

 an inhabitant of these parts. 



The laws for the local government of the District of 

 Alberta, and in fact for the whole of the Canadian northwest 

 territory are made by the Northwest Council, which is a partly 

 elective and partly crown nominated. Its locus in quo is 

 Regina, the capital of the entire territory. These laws are 

 known by the more familiar and American term of ordinances, 

 and they relate to all matters not essentially Federal or 

 Dominion in character. 



The Council meets once a year as a legislature and per- 

 forms its functions without the ostentation which generally 

 accompanies the proceedings of the Provincial Local Legis- 

 lature of the Canadian Dominion. In 1883 this Council 

 passed an ordinance for the protection of game in the North- 

 west Territory, Of course by the word game is meant every- 

 thing wild in the shape of life except fishes, and our own 

 species. The protection of fish from piscatorial vandals is 

 left to the Dominion authorities, the same as in other por- 

 tions of the Dominion. The ordinance contains about twenty 

 clauses, and it is, I think, a good measure, but like all legis- 

 lation of a similar character, it is rattier in its operation 

 than in its existence by which it should be judged. 



The ordinance provides that elk, [moose, caribou, antelope, 

 deer, or their fawn, or hare must not be hunted or killed be- 

 tween the first of February and the first of September in 

 any year. The close season for plover and snipe is between 

 the 15th of May and the 1st of August. None of the kind I 

 have mentioned, except the wavy must bs killed or taken at 

 any time by means of any rope, snare, spring cage, net, or 

 trap of any kind, and no engine for such purpose shall be 

 set or constructed in whole or in part. 



The forbidden period for otter, beaver or fishes is between 

 the first day of May and the first of October, and the period 

 for muskrat is between the 15th of May and the 1st of Nov- 

 vember. 



The enforcement of these laws is left to guardians, who 

 are appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council. These 

 guardians have the power of constables, and thej'' may ap- 

 point deputies. They are authorized to seize all animals or 

 birds mentioned, or parts of them, in the possession or in 

 the custody of any person during the forbidden period. The 

 offender may be brought before a justice of the peace and 

 the property confiscated in whole or in part. The animals 

 or birds confiscated become the property of the guardian; 

 but of course if the person charged shows that the animals 

 or birds have been killed in the open season or have been 

 sent from any place outside the Territories, there is no con- 

 fiscation. Possession of any animal or bird by any person 

 in the close season, except in certain cases, is deemed to be 

 pnma facie evidence that the same has been illegally taken. 

 Guardians are empowered to open any case or receptacle in 

 which he has reason to beUeve that game taken or killed is 

 concealed. Every offense against any of the provisions of 

 the ordinance is punishable, in addition to confiscation of 

 the animal or bird, by a fine not exceeding $50 and not less 

 than $5, and it is recoverable summarily before a justice of 

 the peace or stipendary magistrate. Half of this penalty 

 goes to the informer and the balance forms part of the gen- 

 eral fund of the Territory. In default of immediate pay- 

 ment the_ offender must be imprisoned in the common jail of 

 the district where the offense was committed for a period 

 not exceeding two months. An appeal from the decision of 

 a justice of the peace is allowed, to a stipendary magistrate, 

 and prosecution Ls barred after six mouths from the time at 

 which the offense alleged was committed. 



The requirements for scientific purposes are met by a 



