470 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 8, 1886. 



THE PRAIRIE CHICKENS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



While raking Lay this week I ran over the nest of a prairie 

 chicken. She was just hatching; had eleven that were ahle 

 to get out of the nest and skulk, and one that was wet. She 

 fluttered around on the ground with her feathers ruffled and 

 tried to get rne to follow. On ray next round she appeared 

 as a male, with head and tail up, and walked into the grass 

 as if she did not have any claim on the peepers. After din- 

 ner I went back and re had removed all the young hut the 

 helpless one. That she had killed, I suppose; anyway, it 

 had its skull crushed. A queer freak of a mother. I agree 

 with "M. H.," of Champaign, that the law ought to be 

 changed from Aug. 15 to Sept. 15. They would be grown 

 by that date and would all fly up at once, and the dude could 

 not bag the whole covey. Walters. 



Sheffield, 111. 



Editor Forest and St/ream: 



I have never seen so many young chickens, and many of 

 them are half grown and more. W. 

 Bismarck, Dak. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Sept. 1 is still the legal time to commence killing prairie 

 chickens in Iowa, and it is to be hoped that the law 

 will be better observed than it was last season. The 

 weather has been everything that could be desired for 

 hatching. Unfortunately a good deal of the prairie grass 

 was not burned until May, which destroyed a great 

 many eggs; but there are still enough left to afford good 

 shooting if let alone until they are ripe. A covey of fifteen 

 is the largest number I have seeu together yet. I heard the 

 shrill call of Bob White to day, it being the second quail 

 I have ever seen in this little prairie village. I see a solitary 

 woodcock every summer, never varying forty rods from the 

 spot where first seen three years ago. It must be the same 

 bird, and I think I shall eat him this year if he puts in an 

 appearance. Rand. 

 Latimer, Franklin County, June 80. 



HOW LONG CAN FOXHOUNDS RUN? 



IN reply to "Hounding," of "Virginia., I would like to say 

 that one of those sweeping dogs he mentions that don't 

 follow the track, but grab on when they get a hot scent and 

 then dry up, are generally here in Massachusetts swept off 

 the earth as good for nothing. We want one or a pair of 

 dogs to take their trail in the morning, start their fox and 

 follow him till shot or holed, and only a first-class dog will 

 do it; no sweeper nor grabber can do it alone; perhaps twenty 

 or thirty of these sweepers might, but it looks to me a little 

 more sportsmanlike to swindle one out of his life with a 

 charge of shot with only one or a pair of dogs to follow him. 

 If "Hounding," of Pine View, will visit me next November 

 I should be heartily glad to see him and a pair of his best 

 hounds, and when he has proved them able to catch an old 

 dog fox, I will be glad to acknowledge it through the columns 

 of Forest and Stream, and he can if he so pleases sell his 

 dogs for a good price here. 



As for Col. Tucker's dogs, I mentioned them as representa- 

 tive Southern hounds. I noticed them spoken of and recom- 

 mended in Forest and Stream, and I think from the pair 

 1 had of him that they areawell bred hound, though I think 

 thc3 r have been bred-in too much . But if 1 were out of hounds 

 and was going to start a good pack I would send to him and 

 get one. or two of his biiches and breed them to a good 

 Northern dog. 



| Jin my opinion the difference is not so much in the hounds 

 as in the kind of ground they have to run over. Take fol- 

 lowing like Monadnock Mountain, and a fox can run for 

 miles there on bare granite ledges; and until I see a fox 

 caught I shall not believe it can be done. The Myopia Club 

 have a big pack of the best hounds that money will buy, 

 English hounds I think tbey are, and I often read of their 

 meets ; but I have never happened to see an account of thei r 

 catching a wild fox, though they will mutton a little young 

 one that some farmers boys have had tied up all summer to 

 get a couple of dollars for it in the fall. 



I hope some of our abler hunters will write yeu on this 

 subject. H. C. Newell. 



AsHBURNHAM, MaSS. 



HUNTING RIFLE SIGHTS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



1 have intended for some time to say a few words on the 

 subject of hunting sights, but have waited, hoping that some 

 one of more experience would do it for me. Perhaps if I 

 start the subject some one will take it up and finish it more 

 ably than I can. 



Your trajectory test has given all your readers the 

 advantage of knowing what different rifles will do, and if 

 we could have a good argument on the sight question through 

 your columns I think it would help many a young hunter to 

 decide what is best. My own experience is that most hunt- 

 ing rifles, as they come from the factory, are not sighted to 

 perfection by any means, and that open sights of any pattern 

 are only reliable when used by the coolest of old hands. In 

 quick shooting, shooting in dim light or at a dim object, it is 

 extremely hard to draw just the right amount of front sight 

 every time. More than half the misses that I have made at 

 game were made by not having a plain view of the front 

 sight because the notch blurred, or from drawing too coarse 

 when in haste. With a peep sight all this is avoided. You 

 cannot draw too coarse, and if you will use a large aperture, 

 say one-tenth of an inch, you will never have any trouble in 

 finding game through it. Many people think that a peep 

 eight must be made with a very small aperture to be 

 accurate, but this is a fallacy. The light is stronger in the 

 center of the aperture than near the rim, and for that reason 

 the eye finds the center. It is very hard to convince some 

 people of this, because in aiming the aperture looks so large 

 and they can see so much ground around the target and so 

 much of the barrel. 



The only reason that peep sights have not been used for 

 general hunting is because they have been made with too 

 small apertures, the effect being to darken the mark too 

 much. The common peep sight put on target rifles is of 

 little use in hunting, as one can never find the game through 

 it; but if the peep hole is reamed out to one-tenth of an inch 

 it will be found to be the quickest sight that can be used. I 

 prefer the Lyman sight to any other because it is so small, 

 compact; but as far as the sight itself goes, I should think 

 that any tang peep would do as well. The plan advised by 

 Mr Van Dyke w 7 ould be excellent if the stopping place was 

 put at point blank. 



I think that a bead front sight is much better than the 

 cone-shaped ones now put on all hunting rifles. An open 

 bead, such as is made by Mr. Wm. Lyman, is the best I 

 have seen. The end of the bead being tipped with ivory, 

 shows well on any object except pure white. Ivory, more- 

 over, does not shine or glitter in bright sunlight. A sight 

 of white (?) metal is so nearly the color of a deer that it does 

 not show on one's body at all on a cloudy day. A black 

 sight shows well on game in a good light, but if used with 

 an open rear sight it does not give contrast enough, and 

 therefore gets lost in the notch. With a peep rear sight it 

 does very well, but is not near so good as ivory. 



The globe sight is a bead sight almost as old as rifles, but 

 it is not of much use in hunting, as it is too hard to And 

 game through it. 



I have very freely used the ideas and even the exact lan- 

 guage of Mr. Lyman, Mr. Van Dyke and others, and I 

 ought to add several lines of quotation marks to be distrib- 

 uted through the letter. C. L. S. 



Fort Clark, Texas. 



Editw Forest and Stream: 



Now thai the trajectory test as given by Forest and 

 Stream has passed and time elapsed for all to have given its 

 record sufficient study to enable one to make a choice out of 

 all the different makes and styles of arm most suitable for 

 each hunter in bagging his game, whether it be on the 

 Western plain or secreted in dense thickets of the Eastern 

 States, I may suggest for the benefit of the latter class, that 

 one essential point must ever be kept in mind, i. e., that their 

 guns are usually sighted for only fifty yards instead of two 

 hundred. One may look upon the record and feel proud 

 that he is the owner of a gun that makes a tra jectory of only 

 eight or ten inches at two hundred yards, and flatter himself 

 that any deer showing up to him within that distance is 

 bound to get hit. If a deer could be made to sit deliberately 

 erect upon its haunches like a woodchuck while the hunter 

 took his own time to hunt a dead rest for his gun, the 

 probability is that the deer would receive a wound some 

 two or three feet below the point aimed at. But few such 

 chances, however, are likely to occur to most of men in a 

 lifetime. One-half of the game will be shot within the fifty 

 yards, and a large percentage of the rest seen will come 

 within seventy-five or one hundred yards, so that the sights 

 set at fifty are about the best that can be had for all-around 

 shooting. One may chance to .see a deer at two hundred 

 yards or more across some hollow or in very open woods. 

 If so, the distance and a correct elevation over its back of 

 some two or three feet — according to the intervening space- 

 will constitute the only chance of a successful hit. 



A board one by three feet, set up horizontally two feet 

 above the ground, at one, two and three hundred yards to 

 fire at off-hand occasionally through the open season, will be 

 found to afford good practice. A few shots at each with 

 stationary sights, no matter whether the rifle carries forty, 

 seventy -five or one hundred grains of powder, will fully 

 satisfy most of hunters that good engineering, even with an 

 inferior weapon, will secure more game than the best of guns 

 in the hands of a novice. Cap Lock. 



Frewsburo, n. Y. 



Bears in Colorado. — Berthaud, Col , June 21.— Two 

 weeks ago Mr. O, E. Rhodes, a young man who is herding 

 my cattle some thirty miles up in the mountain, killed a 

 large female cinnamon bear. While out on his horse looking 

 after the cattle he discovered her down the mountain root- 

 ing over stones after ants. He left his horse and boots, so as 

 to make as little noise as possible, and with his .40 90 Ballard 

 crept softly down through the rocks and trees to within 

 about 100 yards of her. At this time she had got up on her 

 hind feet and was scratching the bark off of a small pine 

 tree, as you have seen a cat do. He gave her a shot plump 

 through the heart. And yet she got down and started off, 

 and it was only after giving her three more shots and having 

 his dog knocked some" thirty feet down the mountain that he 

 secured the old lady. She was large, but poor. He loaded 

 her on his pony from a boulder and then the pony got the 

 wind of her and ran away, got fast in an aspen thicket, and 

 finally arived safe at the cabin. Mr. Rhodes says that bear 

 sign is plenty. Blacktail deer are also plenty; he says he 

 could kill one or more any day if he wanted to.— Elk. 



Muzzle vs. Breech. — Jamestown, N. Y., July 3.— Editor 

 Forest and Stream: I wish to call the attention of Mr. Napo- 

 leon Merrill to the fact that in your test of hunting rifles 

 there was not a muzzleloading hunting rifle in the contest, 

 the nearest to it being the one fired at the 100 yard range, 

 and that one was beaten in regularity of bullet flight, i. e., 

 in accuracy, by twenty-seven of the thirty-three breech- 

 loaders in competition. At 200 yards the muzzleloader tar- 

 get rifle, with all the appliances of a target rifle, beat all of 

 the breechloading hunting rifles in the regularity of shooting, 

 the nearest one to it being the Maynard .40-cal., which was 

 just four-thousandths Of an inch behind the Rorner muzzle- 

 loader, the difference in elevation at 100 yards of the five 

 shots being: Romer, .292; Maynard, .296; difference, .004 

 of an inch. The work of the breechloader is selling it.— R. 

 H. Burns. 



Prince Leopoldo Atjgusto, of Brazil, who is a midship- 

 man on the Brazilian sloop Almirante Barroso, now in New 

 York harbor, went woodcock shooting in New Jersey last 

 Thursday. The party went to Fanwood, where they 

 secured the services of Robert Walpole as guide. The day's 

 bag for three guns consisted of eighteen woodcock, one hawk 

 and a mud turtle, which the Prince took back to the ship 

 with him. 



What Game Was Benjamin After in June? — A late 

 issue of the Utica, N. Y., Observer reports: "While Benja- 

 min Hartman, of Oriskany, was out shooting birds with sev- 

 eral companions yesterday morning, about two miles above 

 Oriskany, he chanced to be near a tramp when the gun acci- 

 dentally* went off. The charge of shot passed through the 

 foot of the tramp, injuring it very badly." 



So easy to row with Allen's bow-facers". Catalogue free. Oars 

 complete, $8 per pair. Fred A. Allen, Monmouth, HI. — Adv. 



Among the Northern Lakes of Wisconsiu, Minnesota and Iowa, 

 are hundreds of delightful places where one can spend the summer 

 months in quiet rest and enjoyment, and return home at the end of 

 the heated term completely rejuvenated. Each recurring season 

 brings to Oconomowoc, Waukesna, Beaver Dam, Frontenac, Okoboji, 

 Minnetouka, White Bear and innumerable other charming localities 

 with romantic names, thousands of our best people whose winter 

 homes are on either side of Mason and Dixon's line. Elegance and 

 comfort at a moderate cost can be readily obtaioed. A list of sum- 

 mer homes with all necessary in formation pertaining thereto is being 

 distributed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and 

 will be sent free upon application by letter to A. V. H. Carpenter, 

 General Passenger Agent, Milwaukee, Wis.— Adv. 



tu mi §iver fishing. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publisli- 

 ng Co. 



A HUNT FOR A TROUT STREAM IN 

 ALASKA. 



A LITTLE more than a year ago, April 9, 1885, there 

 JrV. appeared a communication in the Forest and Stream 

 over the signature of "Reel Plate," of a wonderful catch of 

 trout in a stream near Wrangell, Alaska. In our work of 

 surveying this year we have used this place as our head- 

 quarters. Shortly after our arrival from the south I began 

 to make inquiries as to the location of this trout stream, 

 that I too might have a taste of the sport. Not that 

 trout streams are scarce in Alaska, but 1 love to verify for 

 myself what I read from others. I have taken seventy-five 

 trout of an afternoon from a stream on Prince of Wales 

 Island, and I have taken thirty from one pool on Revillagegido 

 Island without moving except to take the fish from the hook. 

 All of these were caught with the fly, too, but the sport was 

 tame compared with that which I am about to describe. One 

 party, who came here with the army of occupation and has 

 been here ever since, told me that 1 'it was down there, this 

 side of that mountain, where the Wachusett's officers went 

 to fish." He pointed to a mountain, south of Wrangell, 

 which slopes down to a point projecting into Zimovia Strait, 

 and distant about five miles in a straight line. One day last 

 month a companion and I went there but did not find the 

 stream. The walk around by way of the rocky beach was 

 more than five miles, and we were tired enough to take the 

 boat that had been left for us before we got half way back. 



Next, a stream was reported on the mainland opposite 

 Wrangell Island, which looked promising and might be the 

 one we were looking for. One Sunday we pulled over there 

 about ten miles. There could not be a better stream for 

 trout than the one we found there, broad, rapid, full of deep 

 pools and dark holes, but somehow we could not lure them 

 either by bait or by fly. Again we had our pains (muscular) 

 for our sport. There is an unusual amount of snow on the 

 mountains this season, and here the high mountains are close 

 to the coast. The melting snow has kept the streams swollen, 

 and this may be the reason for the trout not biting on the 

 mainland. 



We next interviewed a missionary who has been here a 

 number of years, and who can enjoy a day's sport with the 

 rod and gun as well as looking after the welfare of the 

 natives. He did not know where the Wachusett's officers 

 fished, but he could tell us where there was a good trout 

 stream; "just beyond that point of land to the south," Why, 

 that is the direction we took the first time, only we searched 

 this side of it. Another stream had been reported on Etolin 

 Island, on the opposite side of the strait from Wrangell 

 Island, but I concluded to try the missionary's stream first. 



This time I got a lift in one of the steam launches that 

 had work down that way. The third was the lucky time. 

 Whether it be the one that "Reel Plate" fished in or not, I 

 do not know; but, like the missionary, I know it contains 

 good fishing. It is a roaring, tumbling, leaping stream, less 

 than a mile long, with a beautiful little lake at its head as a 

 feeder. I was landed at its mouth about mid-day, and 

 scrambled along its banks, over rocks and through the thick 

 underbrush and fallen trees until I came to the lake, which 

 I reached about 1 o'clock. There is one plant in the under- 

 growth of this country which I heartily detest, and it is 

 called the "devil's club." It branches from the roots and 

 grows up in a straight stem five to six feet high, bearing a 

 tuft of leaves at the top. Its whole length is as thickly 

 beset with spines as it can be, and these are so brittle that 

 they break off in the flesh whenever they touch one ; and 

 touch one they will, however careful he may be to avoid 

 them. The stem is as elastic as a stick of rubber, and springs 

 up and bounds back when one least expects it. I have made 

 up my mind if I should fall not to grasp this plant to save 

 myself. The disagreeable occupation of picking these thorns 

 out of my flesh has followed every outing I have taken in 

 l his country. Now that I have vented my spite on it I will 

 go on with my fishing. 



I made a few casts in the outlet of the lake, but got no 

 rise. The day was bright and warm and the lake unruffled. 

 I then fished down stream, and captured twenty-one fish 

 before I reached its mouth. Once I took a double, weighing 

 ten and fourteen ounces. The three largest weighed two 

 pounds and four ounces, and the whole catch five pounds. 

 I had only time to hurry over the stream once, for the boat 

 was to be along to pick me up about 5 o'clock, and the time 

 for the best fishing was lost. When 1 got on board the ves- 

 sel the sight of my string of beauties excited others, and we 

 made arrangement to visit the stream on the morrow. 



The party this time was composed of three. We went in 

 a smallboat", and the distance to be pulled was eleven miles 

 in a straight line. The day was cloudy, with occasional 

 rainy spells. We had covered about five miles of the dis- 

 tance when it began to blow in stroDg puffs directly ahead, 

 the sea became choppy, and we had a strong tide against us. 

 We were obliged to haul up on shore, secure our boat, and 

 trudge the remaining distance on foot. We arrived at the 

 stream about the same time as on the preceding day, and 

 hurriedly^whipped the stream to the lake outlet, but got 

 nothing on the way. All the conditions were favorable for 

 good fishing— a clouded sky and a slight breeze just ruffling 

 the surface of the lake. This was the finest afternoon's 

 sport I have had in Alaska, and I have had many, this being 

 my second season up here. The fish ran good sized, and 

 were gamy enough to satisfy any angler. They rose greedily 

 to the flies, and three times I landed doubles. I captured 

 tweaty-five in about an hour and a half's fishing, and one of 

 my companions caught eleven. The third was a novice in 

 the art of fly-fishing and did not get a rise. He whose score 

 was eleven hooked probably more than I did, but he was 

 unfortunate in landing them, and finally broke his rod by 

 getting his line entangled in some bushes at his back. Our 

 combined catch averaged about a half a pound to the fish; 

 the largest did not exceed a pound. As on the preceding day, 

 we lost the best hours for fishing in the evening. 



I have noticed that all the trout caught in the lakes of 

 this region have the black spots brighter and larger and 

 more evenly distributed over the body on a golden back- 

 ground. The "golden iridescence" is only occasionally seen 

 on those taken in the streams ; the ground color is silvery, 

 and the spots are smaller on the belly and more scattering. 

 All of our catch were destitute of the purple streak along 

 the sides of the body. I think the name of "cut-throat" 

 trout given to this fish by Mr. Charles Hallock preferable to 

 the old one of "rainbow" trout. The dash of scarlet ou 



