Sept. 2, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



107 



.4X1-70: 

 ..md 



The 

 11 iota 



Adirondack Deer. — The season for Inmtmg Adiron- 

 dack deer opened Aug. 15. Hounding season opened 

 yesterday and will last Tintil Oct, 5. Among the deer 

 killed in Hamilton county this year was a doe whose 

 udder was full of milk; her two'nnweaned fawns were 

 heard bleating after the luolhoi-s death, but were not 

 captured. We have learne*] of a number of observations 

 of wet does with their fawns in the Adirondacks in the 

 last part of August this year. 



Halstead, Pa., Aiig. 38. — Indications are good for fine 

 pljeasant shooting this faU, owing to the birds being so 

 wild that but few were shot last fall by the pot-hunters 

 or by yom' humble servant. — ^F. E. S. 



MUZZLE VS. BREECH. 



Editor Furrst. and StTcaw: 



111 yoni !ssi!(^ ol 1.1 notice an article by Mr. Nap. Merrill 

 nufk'i- ilu- lu.ioNH' caiH ioii. in answer to ray ari iclc of Api'il ;J;i„iincl, 

 judging from its liMioi-, I assume that Mr. Merrill is a littl&'preju- 

 diced against the popular breechloader. Now, 1 ask him to ]a:v aside 

 all prejiidiee and accept vlie .st:i tcmcnts, s-.r.fceptible of proof, 

 offered by tlie breeehloading fraternity, as we are willing to accept 

 sueli statements iroiu him and olUers "who advocate the muzzle- 

 loader. 



Mr. Merrill refers to the Forest and STHKAi\t tra.ieetory test, 

 and states, "the question wjis, w liich of these two f ypes of rides 

 make the flattest curve or lowest traicc-toj-vV" r^raniiiic bis ques- 

 tion caref nil y. Will any experienced rifleman accept it without 

 qualiiicaticm'r What! compare the Mcrri]] mnzzleloader ,42-1110-318 

 with such guns as the Mayuard .4n-'iij-:'4-;' Such a comparison is 

 not of rides but of ummunitinn. Wc all adinic, the grea ter x eloeity 

 and flatter curve with the greater pow der cliarge and lighter 

 bullet. Exchange ammunition and the breechloader makes the 

 flatter curve, and witli a riding adapted to the heavier charge 

 there is no reason -NS'hy accuracy is or should be sacrificed. "Then 

 why, I ask, was not tlie great traiectorv test more a test of arninu- 

 nitlon than of rillesy I will refer Mr. Merrill to clauses publislied 

 in your paper at the time the test was being made. In your issue 

 of Nov. 5, 1885, page 2<J3, yon state: "Of course a, test of this sort is 

 not alone of ri lies, it is rather of amumnitioii." .Also the M.assa- 

 chusetts .i\j-ms Oo, is made to say: "Our experience is that t 

 flattest trajectory rifles are not the closest shooters, but that a 

 good deal of accuracy is sacrificed for flat rraiectorv," 



In yonr issue of Dec. 10, 1885, it is stated in regard to the Merrill 

 rifle: "Of course it was able to malce a very close group of .shots 

 on the target, but it Avill be understood that an accuracy test and 

 a trajectory test are two utterly distinct matters, and ihat tlicy 

 ought to 136 carried on under different conditions. Sand liags anil 

 a good marksman come into play \\ lien accuracy is ueededT Any 

 attempt to unite the t^ro in the same round must, of eotu'se, be 

 futile. In sucli a case as the present (lie inch broad black patch 

 might easily have been Iiit witii each shot. Almost any lufle in 

 the trial wouldhas'e done that, but here, as in other eases, the arm 

 was purposely held off in order that cleai- and separa.te punctures 

 in the screens might be made and readilv noted and easily 

 measured," Further on it is stated in rega rd to the Bollard ' ' "'• 

 "This arm is of the fine, close-shoo tine patched bull c . ;v ■ > 

 so -far as compact bunching of the shots in the tavL : 

 fuVy equal to the high charged muzzleloadcrs iii lii 

 italics are mine. I will not impute to the trajeclory test a 

 of uniairiu;ss or a. particle oj prejudice. 



Since Ml'. i\l. and I agree that accuracy is "excellent doctrine." 

 and propose to show it by therifies we carry, it is not unreasonable 

 for us to quote freely from the trajectory test, and obtain there- 

 from what vre can in suppoi-f of our arguments. It is seen that it 

 was not considered an accuracy test "and is so stated, yet it was 

 just as fair for one make of rifles as another. 



A writer from Jamestown, who. has kindly sent me Ins figures, 

 calls Mr. M.'s attention to some interesting facts, viz.: "That 

 there were no mmrzleloading hunting rifles in the trajectory test, 

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

 and that one was beaten in regularity of bullet flight, i. c, in accu- 

 racy, by twenty-seven of the thIrtA -ihree breechloaders in compe- 

 tition. At 200yds. the muiizleloading target rifle, with aU the 

 appliances of a target rifle, beat all of the breeehloading hunting 

 rifles in the regidarity of shooting, the nearest one to it being the 

 Maynard .4fl-eal., which was just .004 of an inch behind the Romer 

 mnzzleloader." 



This is a sad commentary on the boasted accuracy of the muzzle- 

 loading rifles, and further defense and comment seems unneces- 

 sary; yet, I am anxious to state a few more facts in favor of the 

 breechloader and give Mr. M. a more correct idea of what the v are 

 able to do. 



He ridicules the idea of shooting chickens at 80 rods with the 

 hreechloading guns, and suggests shooting at the egg as being more 

 humane. Now, as a matter of fact, I reiterate my former state- 

 ment, that m a country town not far from here, where breech- 

 loaders are shot and admired for long-range accuracy, they do 

 shoot chickens at 80 and even 100 rods, and kill them oftener than 

 four out of twenty shots. My proof that Ihoso rifles do not give 

 their bullets a gyratory motion is the above fact and the targets 

 they are capable of making. 



A gentleman from Syracuse wdth a homemade breechloader re- 

 cently made a target of 10 consecutive shots, 40 rods, of 8 l-16Ln., 

 string measure. A fev\' days later he reduced the measure to Tin, 

 and a fraction. 



A .32-cal. Jiaynard recently made 10 consecutive shots, 10 rods, 

 which mea^sured only 13-16in. acrriss the cluster, measuring from 

 center to center of bullet holes. It is no great feat of the breech- 

 loader rifles of to-day to shoot 10 consecutive shots in lin. ring, 10 

 or 20 rods; 8 out of 10 shots in IJ^in. ring, 31 rods; or in an Sin. ring, 

 80 rods, buch shooting has been done in this country \vith Sharps 

 and Maynard rifles the past summer, while at 40 rods a Syracuse 

 breechloader has made the fine string above noticed. 



We of the breechloader fraternitv can duplicate such targets 

 under favorable conditions, and if Mr. M. can do better with his 

 'Old Betsy," he is invited to do so and send well authenticated 

 targets to Forest and Stbeam and we will do the same. 



We, the tyros of rifle shooting, are advised to remain silent and 

 learn one lesson well, and then write "The trajectory test has for- 

 ever settled all" (except accuracy). I again refer Mr. M. to the 

 trajectory test for proof that we know what we are writing about 

 and just how accurate are the guns we carry. We will also "bow 

 to great merit" M'hen that merit is shown, but at present we are 

 obliged to bow to the merit of simplicity, convenience, symmetry 

 and accuracy, of the best hunting and sporting rifles of the breech- 

 loader patterns. 



Now may I ask Mr. M. why on all the ranges of the country do 

 we nei'-er see a muzzleloader rifle used for off-hand shootingV 

 Why at Vernon, Vt., did no one make a string of 9in. or less with 

 the most celebrated muazleloader heavT? rifles, and allow a home- 

 made breechloader at Syracuse to make a string of less than Bin., 

 same distance and same number of shots? This is a question of 

 great interest to Mr, M. The tables may turn upon him, and in 

 the hour of his greatest need for "a few bold and disinterested 

 leaders" to again adopt the muzzleloader rifles and the masses to 

 follow them in high glee, may find him alone glorjdng in trajec- 

 tory and gaining nothing in accuracy. 



I assure Mr. M. that I have owned a good muzzleloader rifle a,nd 

 shot many fine ones, but never have shot one that would compare 

 with a good Sharps or Maynard in long-range accn racy. I have 

 never shot one that would equal the Mavnard .33 ra- .35-cal. in 

 short-range accuracy. Is Mr. M. acquainted ^\dth ihese close- 

 shooting breeeldoader rifles? I presume he is not. Let him read 

 the reports from the ranges throughout the country and trv to 

 equal the shooting of these and other Hr,st.-class rifles, and when 

 he exc^els the world wiU desire full information. 



Mr. M. suggests, that if tlie trajectory test had been made for 

 accuracy, the muzzleloaders might have beaten tlie average of all 

 the thirty-one breecldoaders, 500 per cent, at 200yds. and 250 per 

 cent, at 100yds. Yonr readers are nrobabh' familiar -with the 

 article of Mr. Burns in the Forest Aym Stream of Jttlv 8 quoted 

 above, and can then learn from his figures that the breechloaders 

 came within .004 of an inch of equaling the- accuracy of the closest- 

 shooting mnzzleloader rifle of the traiectorv test. In the face of 

 those figures, in the face of such well authenticated targets as 

 can he shown and proven by thousands of witne.sses, does not Mr. 

 M. show an unusual amount of ignorance of the o ualities of the 

 breechloaders? If the tyros of to-dav remain silent and allow 

 such foolish and absurd statements to go forth rmohallenged, it is 

 hecanse they consider them beneath their notice. I openly invite 

 Mr, M. to beat the targets mentioned above 25 per cent., and trust 

 he will lose no tune in making the attempt and publishing the 

 same. -iNo, T. Clapp. 



liver ^mhinq. 



Address all cwnminimtwiw to the Forest a/iul SU'eam Pub. Co. 



Sportsjibn in need of a tliorouglily Avaterproof paper .shot shell 

 in target cartridges, A\-ill note ^vhat is thought of the ammttnition 

 made by the U. S. Cartridge Co.. of Lowell, M.ass., hv William P 

 Cody, "Buffalo Bill," who writes: "Your paper shells have given 

 entire satisfaction. Wet Aveather makes no dift'erence, as they are 

 certainly, as you claim, 'A-aterproof . We use your paper ami me- 

 tallic cartridges in all our exhibitions."— ^du." 



THE SALMO SUNAPEE. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



hi his oommunication to your issue of August 5, Col, 

 Hodge ma,kes the statement that the new Sunapee Lake 

 trout brought by him to tlie notice of ichthyologists last 

 fall, are claimed by Col. Webber, Livingston Stone and 

 myself, to be "the result of a small plant of Rangeley 

 blue-back trout fry made in 1881." Col. Webber and I 

 make no such claim. We urge a strong and reasonable 

 probabihty that they are the descendants of blue-backs 

 introduced by Col. Webber himself and A. H, Powers in 

 1879 (not 188i), and on these gfounds: Tbe new trout are 

 pronotmced by ichibyologists to be of the oquassa type; 

 no such ttoittVcrc ever known to be taken in the lake 

 before this plant, or a plant anteceding it a few years, 

 of winch we shall presently speak; no such trout are 

 natives of any other waters in this State or region : whereas 

 certain specunens have been proved to weigh five or 

 six times as much a,s the hea-yiest weiglits among their 

 congeners of Maine, the limit of groAvth of the Salnio 

 oquassa in Sunapee may be very different from what it 

 is in the Rangeleys, limit ot growi;h being governed, 

 entirely by locaJity, especially m cases where fish have 

 been tr;msf erred from native to foreign wa.ters. 



After calling attention to a number of mis-statements 

 carelessly made Ity the Commissioner in his letter, and 

 exposing the so))]iistry lurking in his argument, I shall 

 endtntvor to prove, as far as human testimony can establish 

 tbe truth, tltat until recently no such fish were catrght or 

 known iit Simapee Lake. 



Col. I-Iodge asserts that "previous to 1870 no one thought 

 of fishing for trout in deep water," entnely ignoring tJie 

 fact tha,t fishing in deep water through the ice has been 

 practiced on this lake for fifty years or more, and has only 

 recently been checked by law, and tliat tons of fontinales 

 have been taken in this way, but not an oquassa. Now 

 he will, of com'se, claim that the so-called "pie-eaters" did 

 not perceive any difference between thefontinal.es and the 

 oquassa; and tins would be the best of argimients if tbe 

 same observing sportsman who directed tbe Colonel's 

 attention to the new trout last fall had not been one of 

 the most persistent and successful of these fishermen. 

 The schooled eyes that instantly detected a difference of 

 species in 1885 could never have been deceived in 1875, 

 when they were yomiger and sharper. The statement 

 that oquassa trout can be taken only in water 50 to 70ft. 

 deep I Luust agtiin contradict, being myself the captor of 

 a o-illis. specimen iti water 4ft. deep. 



Col. Hodge states that blue-backs are not caught with 

 fly or bait in the Rangeleys; they are taken ]->y tlie barrel- 

 frd when spawning near the shores in October, and num- 

 bers of 6 to lOin. iish of this species have been cattght in 

 Sunapee this season in 50 to 70ft, of water. They are 

 fished for with minute hooks baited with worm, their 

 mouths being very small. In this letter the Colonel says 

 the blue-backs of Maine "always seek the brooks and 

 rivers for spawning;" in a communication last winter lie 

 pi'oclainied them to be lake spavraers. Does he really 

 know which they are? The Rangeley fish are essentially 

 lake sj)awners; and so are all the trout and salmon in 

 Sunapee, for the simple reason that there are no inflow- 

 ing streams appropriate to extensive spawming opera- 

 tions. 



I am the "party that raised the question in regard to 

 weight," and I still stand obstinately on the same ground. 

 The largest fish caught and weighed registered Gibs. 

 Reader, yon may accept as evidence the guesses of three 

 or foiu- excited 'gentlemen floating in a flat-bottom over 

 an acre of :spa^\^ling trout, a,nd believe the water was 

 alive with 10-pounders — I decline to, Ten-poiuid trout 

 have always been noted for their propensity to "swim 

 about the boat," "break the leader," etc.; they very .sel- 

 dom come in out of the wet. Tlie coolness with which 

 my friend, the Commissioner, snbtracrs two years from 

 the growing time and adds four pounds to his fish, is sub- 

 lime from one point of view; from another, laughable. 

 Once more, in the interest of science, I declare the great- 

 est recorded weight of an oquassa trout taken in Sunapee 

 Lake to be only 61bs. 



Col. Hodge " has endeavored to prove that the Salmo 

 oquassa is native to Sunapee by testimony; he cannot do 

 it by analogy or induction; the testimony he cites is ques- 

 tionable in the extreme. Does om- worthy Commissioner 

 for a moment imagine that when, as he states in the same 

 letter, the most accomplished ichthyologists in the coun- 

 tvy, with fresh specimens before them, hesitate to classify 

 the new trout, persons endowed with average intellect will 

 accept the fourteen-year-old recollections of Moses Gould, 

 or any other Moses, as evidence in the settlement of so 

 important a scientific controversy? But, fortunately, 

 Moses Gould was not the only person who .'^aw the two 

 trout "had" by him in 1872, "^vejghing about 31bs. each." 

 A common acquaintance who inspected tlie trout, and 

 who entertained the witness and recollects distinctly his • 

 remarks on that occasion, declares that Mr. Gould was 

 entirely unaware in 1872 that the fish he "had" were of 

 an unusual species: they were simply "trout," that was 

 all; but, after the lapse of fourteen j-ears, Mr, Gotdd sud- 

 denly remembers that they were oquassa;! He did not 

 know it at the time; he knows it now. The reader may 

 draw his own mf erence — the trout were fontinales! And 

 IMoses Gorxld remarked to my friend that "he had been 

 fishing tliirty years for those two trout," and in deep 

 water, too (for Col, Hodge says oquassce can be caught 

 only in deep water). Assuredly, if they were oquassce, 

 fislung for oquassa trout must have been remunerative in 

 those days. Thirty years for two trout, according to Mr. 

 Gould, who, if he had recognized a new species after his 

 most commendable exercise of patience and skill, would 

 have made himself as immortal as Moses of olcl by pro- 

 claiming it to the scientific world. For once ]Mi-. Gould is 

 right when he says he ne-\-er knew of oqaassoi being- 

 caught in j)laces ^vhere it was customary to fish for brook 

 trout — ^nor anywhere else, he might" iTuthfully have 

 added. Strange to relate, the two species now feed side 

 by side, and are dailv' taken on the, same grounds. 



Mark the elfrontery of the folloAving: 



"Question: Previous to my showing you the spawning bed last 

 November, had you any knowledge of one in that part of the lake? 

 Answer: No. Question: Would persons crossing the lake be likely 

 to pass over the place or avoid it? Answer: They would generally 

 avoid it." 



The spawning bed referred to lies on the regular Avater 

 highway between New London and Newj^ort, the shire 

 town. Thousands cross it every year in boats and sleighs, 

 and if Moses Gould had no knowled.ge of it, as he de- 

 clares, his professed ignorance simply demonstrates the 

 utter worthlessness of Ins testimony. To cap the climax 

 of his absurd position, a neighborhood farmer told the 

 Fish Commissioner the trout were on that shoal, and he 

 went there and found tlH3m. Almost the very day these 

 stranger oquas.sfc l)eg.:m spawning there the fact was 

 known to the watciiftil poachers whose meat was the 

 alternative of fresh trout or salted sucker. Moreover, I 

 ca,n give the names of anglers who have fished that same 

 shoal m years past, whiter and smnmer, and whose testi- 

 mony is unimpeachable. In his letter of last winter, be 

 it remembered, Col. Hodge adduced the testimony of 

 James M. Pike, an old resident upward of seventy, to 

 prove that this shoal "^vas known as a spawning bed to 

 the farmers about the lake "thnty years ago," and quoted 

 Ml-. Piivc as using tlie expression, "trout by the cartload," 

 in reference to it. No^v he endeavors to establish from 

 iVIi-. Gould's testimony that nobody knew anything about 

 it tuitll la,st November. In other words, he" is ti'ying to 

 prove that the people both did and did not recognize a 

 difference between oquassa and fontinalis in the old 

 days when any farmer could spear of a morning his half 

 dozen 51bs, fish in the estuaries of oui- brooks. Verily, 

 Qvos Dens vuU perdere, prim dementat. 



I here^\dth present the answers made to a series of lead- 

 ing questions by a number of sportsmen and anglers whom 

 I have carefully interviewed on the subject. Those who 

 are residents in, or acquainted with this locality, will 

 cheerfully testify that the men whose names follow, know 

 infinitely more of Sunapee Lake and its fishes, its myste- 

 rious depths and secluded shoals than Mr, Gould — surely, 

 than the Fish Comnrissioner of another State, who downs 

 with his "believes," his "thinks," and his "am not cer- 

 tains," the cause he has been induced to espouse. 



Question: How long have you been acquainted with Sunapee 

 La-ke? Answers: Mr. Jacob O. S(ickn(:'y, of George's Mills, 85 

 years; Knowlton I fastina-s. of >;cw i^ondon, 60 years; Amos Hast- 

 tings and Beldin jUorgan, of New London, .50 years; Ransom Sar- 

 gent, of New London; Alcnzo Cheney, of Wilmot; Claude and 

 Austin Goin.gs', of New London, abont 30 years. 



Question: Before 1872 did yoti ever see or hear of a trout like this 

 (exhibiting a newly caught oqv.assa)? Answer of all the above 

 parties: Never, The Hastings, who are fishing constantly in 

 leep water and shallow, took .their first oquassa trout three years 

 .ago. 



Question: How many species of trout have been known or re- 

 ported to be native to this lake? Answer, by all of the above 

 parties, and many otliers: One only, the common spotted trout. 



State the wci.glit of the largest spotted trout known to you: 

 I21bs., <'lcovs:e Farmer of r:i ewbury, in a net, 30 years ago; lOlbs,, 

 J. C. SiJcl.-iicy. iit Mortli_ Point; tUbs., Frank -lewett, at Pike's 

 Shore; Tibs, Itoz., Aivin Hastings, in Pike' Brook. The heaviest 

 couplet I have on I'ccordj by Amos Hastings, 131 bs.; the best sweep 

 by the same fisherman in 1837, in N&wbiu-y, 40hrook trout, from 

 1 to .libs, each, in 1.5 minutes. 



Mr. Jacob C, Stickney, 92 years of age, a veteran of the 

 war of 1812, moved to a farm on the borders of Sunapee 

 in 1801. He has always been an enthusiastic fisherman, 

 and his experience is worthy of the highest place in this 

 category of evidence. Mr. Stickney carefidly examined 

 the oquassa, and unhesitatingly declared he ' had never 

 seen such a fish before ; and yet he had described large 

 schools of spotted trout, aiid in his day took many 

 thousand. The reader is further referred to" Geo. Farmer, 

 of Newbury, and to Jacob Hutchison and IMi-. Woodbury, 

 of Newport. 



From the views of the gentlemen just named, as well as 

 of others equally qualified to testify — ^views based on a re- 

 cord of at least one himdred tons of trout, and on an 

 experience at the lake extending thi-ough eighty years — 

 I can find no dissenting voice except that of ]\Ir." Moses - 

 Gould, who made occasional visits to Sunapee during 

 those thirty years before alluded to. The ready detection 

 by all the witnesses of a difference between the trout ex- _ 

 Hbited and the native spotted trout, confirms me in my ' 

 ojiinion that such difference could never have been over- 

 looked in years gone by; while it is palpably imjiossible 

 that these great schools of giant oquassce could have 

 escaped the notice of white trappers and himters, and 

 subsequently of setters, for a century and a half. They 

 are either the blue-backs phenomenally developed, or the 

 descendants of lower St. Lawrence oquassa fry brought 

 here within a dozen years by the late Dr. Fletcher, who 

 imported the fish from the Dominion under the impression 

 that they were landlocked salmon , but subsecpiently ad- 

 mitted, "as the fry which he retained afc the hatchery 

 developed, that he could not distinguish the yearlings 

 from yearling fontinales. It has long been settled that 

 they were not the Salmo sebago; what were they? 



We positively knovy that plants of foreign "fish were 

 made m this lake long before Col. Hodge became con- 

 nected with the Commission, From some of these are 

 sprung the so-called "hawkbills," or "St. Johns' River 

 trout," the little blue-backs, and the monster Salmo 

 sunapee, pronounced by the authorities of the country to 

 be a ti-ue Salmo oquassa, which, if it were but furnished 

 with the mouth and teeth, would be a worthy rival of the 

 ferox of Scotland, John D. Quackehbos. • 



Brandreth Lake.— Mr. W. Holberton, of this city, has 

 just retiu-ned from a visit to Brandreth Lake m the Adir- 

 ondacks. Leaving New York at 6:30 P, M,, the tourist is 

 pat down at Blue Mountain Lake (Holland's) at 1:30 P, M, 

 the following day. The trip by boat from HoDand's to 

 North Bay of Raquette Lake, a distance of seventeen 

 miles, including a half mile carry, was made in just 4h, 

 5m, and Will Leprairie was the man at the oars who did 

 it. At Brandreth Lake, which is in the 2,500 acre pre- 

 serve of Messrs. F. and R. Brandreth and E. A, McAlpine, 

 Mr, Holberton reports good fishing earlier in the season. 

 Among the incidents of his stay were the capture of two 

 brook trout ^21bs. 6oz, and 21bs, 4oz.)at once on a gang 

 nsetl in trolling for lake trout, and the taking of a 7^1bs. 

 lake trout with a light fly -rod, the trout playing' the 

 angler 35m,, and the unusual captme in mid-day ofnine 

 lake front, the Im-e being minnows, this being done in the 

 middle of August, There are dear in good supply on the 

 Brandetli preserve, and once in a while a bear is seen; 

 Mr. Holberton had the good luck to secure a 3501bs, old 

 he bear, whose steaks jjroved most outrageously tough. 



Halstead, Pa., Aug. 37. — ^Bass are very plentiful in 

 the Susquehanna here, but few are caught. In a short 

 row on the river you can see "old big ones,'' but they re- 

 fuse all bait. Sjiearing at night is practiced by numerous 

 parties here, I saw a large pickerel caught the other day 

 that had the marks of the' sijear on liim. — F. E. S, 



