Dkc. 17. 1885. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



409 



vast quantity of venison sliipped to Detroit this year was 

 for home consumption. The fact is that the deer, as soon 

 as they are received in Detroit, are frozen solid and packed 

 away in refrigerators, to be shipped at pleasure to such 

 markets as pay hest. 



Such are my ohservations of the working of the non- 

 export law, and as soon as it is generally known to market 

 huuters that withia the State of Michigan a ready market 

 can be found for game at a fair price, the day of the deer of 

 the State are numbered. Like the buffalo of the West, they 

 will be of the past. With a good market in Detroit, the 

 hired hunters of the lumber camps, the indiscriminate 

 slaughter in season and out of season by the settlers, will 

 soon tell the tale with the deer, so far as Michigan is con- 

 cerned. 



I leave it to wiser men than myself to suggest a remedy. 

 To be of any value the remedy must come soon. To be 

 effective the treatment must be heroic. CAiiiFORNiA. 

 Columbus, O., Dec. i. 



GEORGEf m FERRIS. 



GEOKGE H. FERRIS, one of the pioneer gunsmiths of 

 Central New York, died at his home in Utica yester- 

 day, aged 66 years. Born in Willowvale, Oneida county, 

 N. T., he became a resident of Utica in 1850, where he made 

 his home. Mr. Ferris's reputation as a gunsmith and skilled 

 mechanic was second to none in this country, and his lire- 

 arms are known not only throughout the United States, but 

 in many European counti'ies. It was the quality of the 

 guns he produced rather than the quantity which established 

 his reputation. When taut a more boy he evinced great 

 aptitude as a mechanic, and made a study of every piece of 

 machinery he saw. When he first came to Utica he en- 

 gaged in the gun business with Morgan James, the vener- 

 able gunsmith, who died some years ago. Gunmaking came 

 naturally to Mr. Ferris, and lie made the first rifle he ever 

 fired. Understanding the machanism of guns thoroughly, 

 he also became a very expert workman. Mr. Ferris was 

 the first man in the United States who made long-range 

 rifles, and who succeeded in making large-bored guns that 

 would shoot accurately. By increasing the size of the bore 

 of a rifle near the breech it was made to hold more powder, 

 and consequently to carry further. A large and heavier ball 

 was cairied, and this had the advantage of not being devi- 

 ated by the wind. His improvements in this direction may 

 be said to have revolutionized the manufacture of firearms. 

 Mr. Ferris made few if any breechloading rifles, even in 

 later days, as he ever maintained that muzzleloaders were 

 more accurate and would shoot stronger. 



In lSo7 Mr. Fen-is started in business by himself. Many 

 years ago he manufactured long-range rifles for shooting 

 turkeys at 150 rods. His long-range gims were known be- 

 fore those of Sharp, Remington and Berdan. He made 

 some of the finest mu?;zleIoading rifles in this country, for 

 which he received $300 each. One of these in the hands of 

 Dr. Pardee, of Oakland, CaUfornia, made the shortest string 

 on record at forty rods. Ten shots were fired at the target 

 off-hand, and the aggregate distance from the center of the 

 target to the center of bullet holes was four and one-eighth 

 inches (considerably less than half an inch on an average). 

 Mr. Ferris's son still retains the target. Mr. Ferris was the 

 inventor oi a breechloading shotgun which he patented, and 

 of which he sold many. Some of these guns sold at |4U0. 



During the war he invented a breechloading rifled cannon. 

 He made a 1,500 pound gun which was tested in Wa.shiug- 

 ton in the presence of President Lincoln, Secretary Stanton, 

 Admiral Dahlgi-en, and others. It carried a ball nine miles 

 and drove a steel bolt through three inches of iron. It was 

 afterward taken to France, where it was captured by the 

 Germans during the Franco-Prussian war. 



He was very ingenious and a hard worker. He was 

 recognized as an authority on firearms and mechanics, and 

 many inventors and experts came to him for advice. He 

 was often called as an expert to testify in cases of death 

 from gunshot wounds. 



He leaves a widow and one son, G. Fred Ferris, who was 

 for three years a member of the Ilion rifle team. Pontsa. 

 Utica, N. T.', Dec. 14. 



Excitement op Antelope HuifTrNG. — Cleveland, Dec 

 9.— It has often been a surprise to me that among the stories 

 written by hunters in your paper there are so few that say 

 anything of antelope hunting. The article of Mr. Woodrow 

 takes mc back to my old home and cowboy life in Kansas 

 I was located for several years in Southwestern Kansas, and 

 many a day have I spent crawling through those draw's and 

 ove/the divides, with the perspiration streaming down my 

 face and my heart going like a triphammer at the prospect of 

 a fat antelope as a reward. It is, I think, the most excitino- 

 of sports, for, as frequently occurs, the work must all be 

 done in plain sight of the game, and if there be more than 

 one antelope there is hardly a second that one of them is not 

 on the lookout. I have usually found it comparatively an 

 easy matter to get within range of a single buck, especially 

 an old one; and I have often crawled within fifty yards of 

 one and then lain and watched him several minutes before 

 shooting, it is very hard to drop an aatelope in its tracks 

 Three points, if struck, will prove fatal— the head, heart and 

 spine. I once saw an old buck get on to his feet and stand 

 long enough for a dog to run a hundred yards and pull him 

 down, after he had been shot squarely through the heart 

 and that organ had been literally torn to pieces. Usually 

 when hunting antelope 1 took with me a pair of greyhounds 

 to catch any wounded game, for I never liked to' have a 

 crippled animal to suffer_ and die a lingering death. At 

 some future time I will give some of my adventures with 

 rifle and greyhound, and Hope they may prove as interesting 

 to some of the readers of the Fokest and Stream as the 

 stories of other writer.s have been interesting to me.-— Ex- 

 Cowboy. 



Is A Thbee-Yeaes Quail Law Desirable '/—^tZ^Yor For- 

 est and Stream: As a rule the .sportsmen returning from 

 quail shooting trips this fall are disappointed in the season 

 and report the coveys very scarce, even in sections where 

 they confidently expected to find some sport. The truth is 

 our game supply is disappearing more rapidly than we real- 

 ize and quicker than we care to confess, and the time has 

 come when something more than preaching game protection 

 must be done — action should be taken. 1 for one am i^j favor 

 of prohibiting all shooting of quail for a period of three years, 

 as was done in the State of Ohio some time since and resulted 

 in so much good. There are many more Pennsylvanians, I 

 am sure, who would be glad to give up quail shooting in this 

 State for a time if it would do any good, — Homo. 



The English Lake Club.— Chicago, 111., Dec. 7.— Editor 

 Forest mid Stream: I notice in your paper of Nov. 5 an 

 article from Dan Johnston, headed "Slaughtering of Ducks 

 at English Lake." I do not want any newspaper contro- 

 versy, but desire simply to refute his statements, which are 

 false in every particular. They simply go to show the ani- 

 mus of the man, because the organization he refers to has 

 purchased all the shooting gi-ounds and made a preserve, to 

 the exclusion of Mr. Johnston and others, who have been in 

 the habit of bagging from six to one dozen ducks per day for 

 a number of years past; and now that others have been a 

 little more fortunate as to the amount of game bagged, cither 

 by their superior skill or otherwise, Mr, .Johnston seems to 

 be jealous. He attributes the success of the club members 

 to the fact that they are in the habit of driving the ducks 

 from their feeding grounds as early as 4 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing and preventing them from returning until 8 or 9 at 

 night. This statement must seem absurd to those who are 

 conversant with duck shooting, for during the shooting sea- 

 son no one can see to shoot at 4 in the morning, neither can 

 they at 8 or 9 in the evening. But this organization has a 

 veiy stringent rule which prevents its members from shoot- 

 ing game before sunrise or after sunset. As bad as Mr. 

 Johnston would liave the public believe these gentlemen to 

 be, they were never so anxious to make a big bag of ducks 

 as to stay on the marsh so late at night that the lake's freez- 

 ing over compelled them to stay out over night almost in 

 sight of their hotel, as was once the case with Dan Johnston 

 and a friend of his. Mr. Johnston further says that this 

 organization has po.sted the land they claim to own and all 

 they expect to own, warning others from shooting thereon. 

 Why should they not have as much right to post a shooting 

 ground that they have bought and paid for as the farmer has 

 his farm lands from poachers? I venture to say that if this 

 man, in connection with his pusher, Prank Simpson, of 

 English Lake, were guilty of mutilating the trespass signs on 

 farm lands in the State of Indiana as they were the day they 

 delighted in shooting down our signs with a rifle, they would 

 be made to feel that the strqng arm of the law knew how to 

 deal with such vandals. Ahy man who would be guilty of 

 such an offense has no claim to the title of sportsman. — 

 John J. Gillespie, Secretary. 



Wildfowl Notes.— Philadelphia, Dec. 13.— Many wild 

 geese passed down the New Jersey coast last week, and fresh 

 arrivals of the same fowl were reported at Sinnepuxent 

 Sound. Many were killed at the latter named place, and 

 will use these grounds until shut out by the ice. Yesterday 

 William Grant found the capsized sneakbox of WiUiam 

 Ridgeway in Oyster Creek channel. The mailbag was se- 

 cured in Its customary place, but no trace or tidings of the 

 missing man could be found. The bay was foggy on Thurs- 

 day afternoon, and occasionally the wind blew hard, and the 

 conclusion is now reluctantly reached that Ridgeway was 

 drowned when his boat capsized. Duck shooters who visited 

 Barnegat Bay will know the value of Ridgeways services, 

 ancP^ill miss him greatly. Our river Delaware still contin- 

 ues to be the tarrying place for many mallards, and not- 

 withstanding the continued wintry weather, we are having 

 these fowl remain^with us — indeed, their numbers seem to 

 increase. Last season, long before this they had left for the 

 south, and the weather was even milder. Can any one ex- 

 plain why this late stay? Canvasback ducks are scarce at 

 Havre de Grace. The ice, which has been making on the 

 flats at this point, has greatly interfered with battery shoot- 

 ing. Blackheads are plentiful and wary. — Homo. 



Little Rock, Ark., Nov. 14. — The prospect for duck 

 shooting around here is not good. There is very little water 

 and no mast, so that the m'bst of them have left for better 

 pastures. I was over on St. Francis River last week to see 

 the squirrel migration. The papers have been full of stories 

 about killing them by the wagon load with clubs. My 

 advice to the hunter is to take the best gun he can get as 

 they have been shot at until they know perfectly well vrhat 

 it means. There are plenty of them. I watched one corn- 

 field, and in the day got four turkeys and thirty-nine squir- 

 rels. I could have killed more squiiTels, but am opposed to 

 killing more game than I can carry out to my friends. I 

 got off at Wideners, but any station on the Memphis & Little 

 Rock Railroad east of Mad'ison will do. The Swamp Angel 

 was sentenced to thirty days in the Gross county jairior 

 selling whisky and was also awaiting trial there for murder, 

 but some of his friends cut him out. He is said to hold the 

 Memphis Gun and Trolling Club responsible for his arrest 

 and to be laying for them in the cane. I hope he will not 

 get "Coahoma" the first round. A camping party fr oro 

 here spent last week on White River and killed a large wolf 

 and report game plentiful and bass fishing superb. — Casual. 



Mink and Woodchuck.— Melrose, Mass., Dec. 11.— 

 While hunting for grouse a few weeks ago in Maine, on 

 coming out of some small pines I found my dog on a point 

 that puzzled me. He was standing on the edge of a ledge 

 and pointing into some small poplar trees which stood on a 

 sidehill below. Of course I expected a bird, but the trees 

 were bare and there was evidently no bird. On calling the 

 attention of my brother, who was not far away, he discovered 

 some animal in one of the trees, which he shot and found to 

 be a mink. No doubt he was driven there by the presence of 

 the dog. Several years ago I saw some object swimming in 

 toward the shore of a lake, which proved to be a woodchuck. 

 The lake was about two miles in width. Whether he had 

 started from the shore at some distance and made a circuit, 

 or had come fi-om the opposite shore, is not certain ; but I 

 had watched his progress for an eighth of a mile or more, 

 and think he must have crossed. What could have induced 

 him to take to the water? Was it choice? Do woodchucks 

 abandon their holes in the open fields and occupy holes in 

 the forests during winter? — W. 



South Oyster Bay, Long Island, Dec. 8.— This has 

 been a poor fall for ducks, but now there are plenty of 

 geese, brant and ducks in the bay, and if we get any south or 

 east winds we will make up for lost time. When the wind 

 was favorable the sportsmen have made some very good bags 

 this and last week. — George Killan. 



" SPORT WITH GUN AND ROD.''— Tbis is a magnifleent volume, 

 nearly nitie hundred pages, superbly illustrated, carefully printed, 

 and bound in embossed morocco, being one of the finest specimens 

 of the book-making art ever coming imder our notice. The range of 

 the book covers the game animals and fishes of the Continent. 

 "Sport -with Qun and Rod" is as handsome, appropriate, and 

 sensible a present as one would wish to give or be given for Christ- 

 mas. We have put it first; among our suggestions of suitable Christ- 

 mas presents for those who are interested in the recreations of which 

 FoBBST AND Steeam treats. 



"That reminds me." 

 177, 



EETURNING from a duck hunt at Rcelfoot Lake 

 ) recently I had occasion to see a curiosity. While 

 waiting at the railroad station at Obion, Tenn., our party 

 was addressed by the station agent, a Mr. Raines, who 

 offered to bet that he had a young man in his ofllce at 

 present who w.as entirely without arms, and yet could beat 

 any one in the party shooting with either shotgtm or rifle, 

 his champion to .shoot from a rest and we oii-hand. You 

 can imagine that we ridiculed the idea, and doubted the 

 ability of any one handling a gun who had no arms at all. 

 E.specially was this done by one of our party, a one-armed 

 man, and a very good shot. The upshot of the conversation 

 was that we requested Mr. Raines to bring out his seventh 

 wonder, which was accordingly done. A young man ap- 

 peared of apparently eighteen years of age, long and slim, 

 balancing a double-barreled breechloading shotgun on his 

 shotdder, and carrying a ^ame bag to a web strap, buckled 

 quite high up, so he could have access to it with his mouth. 

 His coat sleeves were perfectly empty, not a vestige of an 

 ai-m, both being lost from the socket or shoulder joint. He 

 was quite bashful and seemed to be annoyed by the crowd 

 which gathered around him, but upon being urged to go 

 through his actions when using the gun and shooting also, 

 he finally consented. The gun was carried on his shoulders 

 balancing, when he saw something he wished to shoot he 

 selected some convenient place to rest his gun, best suited 

 for the game, either fence, log or tree, take aim and fire. 

 But how load, extract, break gun, pull trigger, etc., was the 

 question with us. To break gun he used his chin, also to 

 cock hammers, put in shells with his mouth and extracted 

 the same way. To the triggers a cord was attached, the 

 end of which he would take in his mouth, and gradually 

 tighten on it until he had his aim, when he would pull off., 

 It seems almost incredible to believe that any one so deformed 

 could handle a gun at all, much less successfully, but I saw 

 the whole performance as described and stand convinced. 

 I inquired into the young man's history and learned that he 

 lost his arms at the age of ten years while feeding a cotton 

 gin. He supports himself and widowed mother with the 

 game he kills and never wastes a load of powder. This is 

 explained by the fact that time is no object to him and 

 always makes perfectly sure before chewing his triggers. 

 His ability to kill game was verified by several of lookers on, 

 who had accompanied this imfortunate hunter on his trips. 

 I also learned that until a recent date the party used a 

 muzzleloading gun, which complicated matters still more. 



Otto Stechhan. 



Indianapolis, Ind., Dec. 9. 



m md ^iv^t fishing. 



Address all communications io the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ng Co. ' 



THE NEW YORK FISH COMMISSION. 



Edittyr Forest and StMain: 



The following article from the Albany Ar^fis, which has 

 already been quoted at length in your paper, wiU bear a 

 second reproduction: 



"On investigation it has been discovered that the terms of office of 

 the Commissioners of Fisheries, with the exception of that of William 

 H. Bowman, of Rochester, have expired. The term is five years, in- 

 stead of for Ufe, as heretofore beUeved. The statutes are mandatory 

 on the Governor in the matter of filling these vacancies. The Anglers' 

 Association of the St. I.awrencd River has filed with tbe Governor a 

 vigorous protest against the reappointment or further continu mce in 

 the office of Fish Coramisioner of Eugene G. Blackford, of Brooklyn, 

 because he is a fish dealer in New York city, and his private business 

 interests are at variance with his public duties and inimical to all 

 true sportsmen." 



As to the first portion of this paragraph, relating to the 

 term of ofl[ice of the Commissioners and the duties of the 

 Governor, it is erroneous in everj^ particular. By Chapter 285, 

 Laws of 1868, four commissioners were appointed to hold 

 oflice for two years. By Chapter 567 of the Laws of 1870 

 their term was extended to three years and the Governor 

 authorized to fill vacancies only (not to appoint theu* suc- 

 cessors). By Chapter 74 of the' Laws of 1873, the Fishery 

 Commission was continued in office with all the powers con- 

 ferred by the act of 1868 (that is continued for life). By 

 Chapter'309 of the Laws of 1879, the Governor was author- 

 ized to appoint another Commissioner from Kings, Queens, 

 or Suffolk county and supply his placo if a vacancy should 

 occur therein. To this position under this act Mr. Black- 

 ford was appointed on May 23, 1879. 



The acts now in force create no limit to the terms of any 

 of the commissioners, make no provision for the appoint- 

 ment of their successors and provide only for vacancies, and 

 these can only occur through death, resignation or removal 

 for cause, and in the event of any such vacancy the Gover- 

 nor has the power to fill or not to fill it at his option. 



The acts above referred to are so clear and exphcit that 

 the Governor will not readily assume that he has the power 

 to appoint any new commissioner in the place of Mr. Black- 

 ford on the ground that his term of office has expired. He 

 must first remove him. 



If, as already asserted in Forest and Stream, Mr. 

 Blackford has incurred the enmity of certain members of 

 the St. Lawrence Association, and as a body it has for that 

 reason been induced by these members to enter its protest 

 against his continuance in oflice for the reason alleged 

 above, "that he is a fish, dealer," then the article does not 

 correctly represent the true reason for entering this protest 

 nor the animus that inspired it. If, however, 'the reason is 

 truthfully and honestly given, then it is clear that the gen- 

 tlemen of this association have quite misapprehended tbe very 

 object for which the Pish Commission was created and the 

 commissioners appointed. They have in fact stated the very 

 strongest reason why Mr. Blackford should be kept in office. 



Do these gentlemen suppose that the Legislatui-e appointed 

 these commissioners and have yearly appropriated and put 

 into their hands thousands of dollars of the public moneys 

 of the State, solely or even principally in the interest of 

 anglers? The professional angler is, of course, benefited by 

 this legislation the same as any other citizen, but that is only 

 an incident and not the main object had in view. The 

 original and continued puipose of all this legislation has 

 been to increase and make more abundant the supply of fish 

 food of all kinds, and to aid, foster and protect every public 

 and private effort in that direction. It is at least as much 

 tbe duty of the commissioners to protect and increase and 



