488 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. la, 1888. 



the best obeyed, cannot long exist under the hunting and 

 slaughter the lumbermen and trappers are willing to 

 meet the increase with every time the lumbering interest 

 centers in a section where the timber has reached a 

 growth sufficient to be cut. The number of moose killed 

 in Maine the past 5 r ear by sportsmen from outside the 

 State is very small; on the fingers of one hand they could 

 doubtless be counted, and that, too, generally in the open 

 season. Just here the State should take a hint. It is 

 just as wrong for one person to kill a game animal out 

 of season as it is for another, but the profit is greater to 

 the people of the State if the animal be killed by the out- 

 side sportsman than it is if the same animal is killed by 

 a trapper for bear bait. I am not desirous of instructing 

 the friends of game protection in Maine in ethics, it is 

 only a cmestion of policy that I hope they may adopt, 

 and hence try to lead the lumberman poacher and the 

 trapper poacher to justice as well as the sportsman who 

 happens to come from Boston or New York or Phila- 

 delphia. Both should be brought to justice, but as a 

 matter of policy, the one who pays the best should be 

 allowed to get away, if either is to go unpunished. 



The feeling is certainly getting a strong hold upon the 

 minds of the sportsmen in this part of the country that 

 it is the hunter or fisherman who comes from outside of 

 the State who is brought to justice, if he kills game or 

 takes fish out of season. I do not wish to thus make a note 

 of a fact for the sake of giving anybody trouble, much 

 less the worthy Fish and Game Commissioners of Maine: 

 for they know and I know that I have both respect and 

 admiration for what they have done in the past. I only 

 state the fact of the existence and the growth of this 

 feeling because it does exist and is growing, and because 

 the only way to cure it is to make more of a recor d of 

 punishments centering around the lumber camps, and by 

 bringing more of the local hunters and trappers to justice. 

 If the Boston sportsman is obliged to wait till Oct. 1 in 

 order to kill game legally in Maine, it is rather disgusting* 

 to him, after reaching the hunting grounds, to find them 

 tainted with putrid moose flesh, to find lumber camps 

 littered with deer bones — moose and deer have been killed 

 in defiance of law by the trappers and lumbermen of the 

 State. I am well aware that the last session of the Legis- 

 lature in that State left the Commissioners without the 

 means to enforce the game laws as they should be en- 

 forced, but there was something appropriated, and it is 

 devoutly to be desired that one or two lumbermen or 

 trapper moose and deer killers be brought to justice. 

 Here is this man Douglas, mentioned above; one moose 

 of his killing has certainly been shipped out of the State 

 illegally, and the newspapers are accusing him of killing 

 another, and that its being shipped to Boston. If he is 

 guilty and I read the law aright, then he should pay into 

 the State $240. Is he guilty and will he be made to pay? 

 If the moose comes to Boston we shall see. I have just 

 heard that a moose and the horns have been stopped in 

 Portland en route for Boston; that the express companies 

 refuse to handle or transfer it. Perhaps this is the other 

 Douglas moose. Special. 



PARMORE'S BEACH. 



IF a man of property, a dozen years ago, had made a 

 specialty of investing his money in the natural duck- 

 ing grounds along the seacoast of Maryland, Virginia, 

 North and South Carolina, what a fortune lie could have 

 made by this time by disposing of his shores to shooting 

 organizations. I know of an island off the coast ol 

 Vh'ginia that could have been imrchased in those days 

 for $7,000. It is seven miles long and several miles wide. 

 In a direct line it is about six miles from the mainland. 

 When I first visited it there was but one house on the 

 island, approachable only at high tide by a muddy creek. 

 This was "t-whenty years ago." The house consisted of 

 two spliced-together cabins off wrecks, and the door was 

 as hard to find as the bower in the Rosamond puzzle. 

 The occupant was a long, lanky, savage, senescent sea- 

 captain. He had gotten into trouble and was on the dry- 

 dock, so to speak, in unquestionable seclusion. Being'a 

 widower, there was no grown female to make one feel 

 uncomfortable on the island, but the old salt's little 

 daughter, who looked as if she never had her hair 

 brushed in her life, lived in one of the lockers, only 

 coming out periodically to roast black ducks and geese, 

 and play dominoes with her "dad" with a broken set, 

 kept in an old shot bag. Having been the sole proprietor 

 of the shipwreck which cast me on the bleak shores 

 alone, the cold made me muster up courage to approach 

 the stronghold of the man with a dead bad record. My 

 reception was simply diabolical. The old cuss grunted 

 worse than the biggest wild hog on the island, and that 

 weighed over four hundred. He declined to let me in. 

 The efficacy of prayer on this occasion was a dead failure, 

 so I played Jameson's Irish whisky, in an imperial quart 

 bottle, instead, and made a winning from the start. 



I lived on the island ten days, and during that time en- 

 joyed the best black duck shooting I ever heard of. The 

 center of the island was covered in those days with a 

 heavy growth of red cedar. This was traversed by a 

 narrow glade — a series of shallow fresh- water ponds, 

 about as wide as Broadway— in which grew an abundance 

 of duck-grass. When the northeast wind would blow, 

 and rain and sleet pelted down, the ducks on the vast 

 Broadwaters would seek the glade for shelter. Standing 

 shivering under a red cedar snag, I, with an old muzzle- 

 loader, killed 117 ducks one day and 64 the next morning. 

 On Nov. 18 and 19, 1870, I nearly duplicated these bags 

 by shooting 89 and 42. I am not bragging about these 

 bags, any one cordd have done the same. The ducks 

 simply hovered thirty to forty feet in front of me, and 

 were very gentle. The trick of the whole thing was in 

 knowing how to handle the birds, and by refraining frOm 

 shooting into the flocks. I got the tip about these ducks 

 from an old shooting friend, a blockade runner in war 

 times, who used to hide his boat up the muddy creek. 

 He has told me that it nearly made him crazy to see the 

 ducks go boiling into the glade, and from fear of dis- 

 covery be afraid to fire a gun. 



I shot on the island four winters. What was rather 

 strange a half a dozen very Avell known New Yorkers 

 were at the same time shooting quail and fowl not eight 

 miles away: often they gunned for geese under the lee 

 of the south end of the island, yet not one of them or 

 their men ever located the ducks settling in the island 

 ponds. I systematized my secret down to a fine point 

 and only shooting in the wildest kind of weather for fear 

 of being heard. I baited the ponds with corn and cab- 

 bage, the latter for the geese, and only shot two or three 



times a week. There were some big salt ponds at the 

 north end ©f the island which afforded fair goose shoot- 

 ing, and when not after fowl I used to go hog hunting 

 with the Captain. 



The island was overrun with hogs, which for forty 

 years had been the masters of the situation. As cold 

 weather approached they became aggressive, and the 

 Captain never ventured far from home without carrying 

 his long muzzleloader charged with ball and buckshot. I 

 was duck shooting one morning in the glade not far 

 from the house, when I heard the report of my host's 

 gun, and then saw him coming toward me at the top of 

 his speed. Close behind him was a huge boar covered 

 with froth and blood in full pursuit. I had never seen 

 any one run so fast before in my life, except the long- 

 legged captain the night he saw the ghost of an old 

 sailor walk out of the surf, climb upon a sandhill, make 

 a fire and sit down to dry himself. That night he came 

 home on a dead run and this time he was even lowering 

 Ms previous record. The two loads of duck shot I sent 

 into the brute only tended to madden him the more: he 

 had just overhauled his victim, when the Captain seized 

 a low overhanging limb and swung himself up clear of 

 the ground, but as the boar passed under, with one of his 

 long curved tusks he ripped the Captain's leg open from 

 knee to ankle. He had just managed to save his bacon, 

 but he was lamed for life. The boar halted for a second 

 and then went dashing into the woods. The shooting on 

 the island is now a thing of the past. A fish factory 

 grinds away where the geese used to honk. The woods 

 are cut down and the ponds in the glade have long since 

 been rilled up with drifted sand from the beach. Yet 

 what a place it would have been to organize a club. 



The Wise Acre. 



was his stern or head, it was so dark, although only about 

 5yds. from him, but trusting to luck he let drive, and the 

 hear vanished in the dark. The next morning the old man 

 got his snowshoes on arid after the trail, a very bloody one. 

 When he had gone about five miles or so he saw his enemy 

 lying on the side of a hill, but not dead, so he crept up 

 within 50yds. and let fly a ball into his side. The bear rose 

 and tried to walk, but could not get on at all, upon which 

 the old man, being rather saving of his ammunition, went 

 up with his axe and chopped off his legs, then coolly split 

 his head open. On examination he found that when he fired 

 his first shot behind the wood pile the bear must have been 

 standing almost stern on to him, for the charge of buckshot 

 had raked him from the middle of the belly to the fore 

 shoulders, smashing several ribs but not penetrating into 

 the vital parts. I have the skin here, and saw the rip in it, 

 a very ugly one, and the gash from just below the eye to the 

 middle of the nose, the result of the. first blow in the tent. 

 This bear was awfully poor and not eatable, a very old one 

 seemingly, for he has hair like pig's bristles. 



Wishing you all a happy time next winter, I am, my dear 

 judge, yours very truly, P. MoKekzie. 



FROM THE FAR NORTH LAND. 



HPHE following letter was recently received by His 

 -L Honor Judge Jellett, of Picton, Ont., from Mr. 

 Peter McKenzie, a gentleman well known to many in 

 the county. Mr. McKenzie is a factor for the Hudson's 

 Bay Company at Fort Chimo, Ungava Bay, on the north- 

 ern coast of Labrador: 



Four Chimo, Ungava, Sept. 3, 1887. 

 Mv DEAR .) EfP£fcK- -Your welcome letters of Juue 1 from 

 Picton and July 18 from Quebec, both came to hand the 

 28th ult. 



T am glad to say that 1 have been first class in health ever 

 since I last had the pleasure of writing you, but did not 

 have any sport at all. there were no deer within a00 miles of 

 my place. The like was never known before and numbers 

 of natives starved to death, although well supplied with 

 ammunition. There were not only no deer, but to make 

 matters worse ptarmigan were also so scarce that in a day 's 

 walk a man could only get a dozen or so, where in former 

 years he might have killed over 100 it he could carry them 

 homo. Where I used to kill 100 in a forenoon two years ago 

 1 could only hag hal f a dozen in a whole day this muter. I 

 always take a team of ten dogs with me when I go hunting 

 partridge (as we call them here) to haul the game home and 

 myself On top of the load, hast winter the dogs had an 

 easy time of it, they had only me and the driver to ha ul 

 backward and forward. 1 trust that things will mend next 

 winter and that I will be able to make tip for all this bad 

 luck. I f nut 1 am afraid it will kill me, as it is mostly the 

 shooting that keeps me here. My setter dog Flavins is a 

 grand one for the partridges and retrieves as Well. I have 

 just received from the Duke of Sutherland's kennels a 

 splendid staghound, £25. If there are any deer 1 expect to 

 have some fun, at any rate it will be great fun to get him 

 after Arctic hares: they are sometimes quite plentiful near 

 the houses, in fact I have shot them from the door on moon- 

 light nights. This hound will soon catch one or drive him 

 to me to shoot, as they run in a circle when closely pursued; 

 he can have a go at a fox also occasionally so I have no doubt 

 he will afford me plenty of sport and amusement. The 

 beggar is rather wicked and has taken a dislike to Indians; 

 he nearly worried one to death the other day. He doesn't 

 seem to know the difference between an Indian dressed in 

 deer skins and a real live deer; he goes for the fur every 

 time. 



The mate was mistaken when he told you there was only 

 one vessel coming here. The Diana was on her way here 

 when the Labrador was in Quebec, but she has not, as yet, 

 put in an appearance, and as she is now over a month past 

 her time I am very much afraid that she has gone on the 

 rocks, or been crushed in the ice. She had a full cargo of 

 lumber and provisions for this district, making things very 

 bad for us by not arriving. Most of my letters were sent by 

 her, including all the official's from London and Montreal, 

 and as no copies have come for Labrador I am quite in the 

 dark regarding business matters: pleasant, isn't it? The 

 skipper tells ine that he saw you after your interview with 

 the mate. 



I am glad to hear that the Ontario Government have at 

 last passed one act to prevent spring shooting altogether. 

 I am sure that in a few years there will be a great difference 

 in the number of birds during the open season, and that by 

 the time I go west again there may be a great improvement 

 in the shooting. I shall take a run Up to Picton in October 

 and have a go at the ducks and woodcock. Is my little bush 

 on the old Irishman's farm much shot over now? or have 

 the birds failed to rest there? West Lake and "Welter's Bay 

 will be crammed with ducks in a few years, if left alone in 

 spring, I generally get as many as twenty geese. I do not 

 hunt them in the fall, being too busy getting in my stock of 

 venison for the wmter. Last fall I did not kill' a single 

 deer; about the middle of December I fell in with a herd of 

 thirty or forty, but it being very calm at the time and no 

 good ground for stalking I could not get nearer than 300yds.; 

 as it was getting near sundown and no meat in the snow- 

 house, I thought I would crack at them anyway, as I might 

 not find them again the next morning. 1 fired about twenty 

 rounds right into the middle of them, hitting twelve, but 

 only killing six dead; the others walked off, but it was too 

 late to follow that evening, but the next day the Esquimau 

 hoys who were with me got the whole of them. I went to 

 look tor the scattered herd, but saw only eight of them, too 

 far away to shoot. I never saw a deer for the remainder of 

 the winter. This spring I shot two in May, that is the ex- 

 tent of my deer shooting for the past year. Of course I got 

 plenty of ptarmigan, but as I said before, nothing compared 

 with former years, but good enough sport, formerly it was 

 slaughtering. 



One of my men killed a fine polar bear about six miles 

 from the house, not the largest size, but above the average. 

 He put four Snider bullets into him before he gave up the 

 ghost at short range, not more than 40yds. Several other 

 tracks were seen, but I never could get sight of one, though 

 often out for the whole day. One of these bears quietly 

 walked into an Indian's tent one night; there was an old 

 man and his wife in it; the bear made a grab at the old 

 woman, but the old man hit him over the nose with a sharp 

 axe, which made Mr. Brain retire. The gun was outside, 

 stuck in the snow; the night was dark as Erebus, but the 

 old fellow got out and found his gun, loaded it, but could 

 see nothing of the bear for a time; at last on looking behind 

 the wood pile he made him out. standing quietly, I have no 

 doubt feeling a little dizzy. The Indian could not see which 



The Sale of Game.— New York, Jan. 7.— Editor For- 

 est and Stream: I desire to call attention to the quanti- 

 ties of game still displayed in the various markets, 

 groceries and restaurants of this city. This is particularly 

 noticeable in large bunches of quail, and in some instances 

 of ruffed grouse and quail, so displayed and offered for 

 sale at this date (Jan. 7) or one week after beginning of 

 close season. Is this not due to a laxity on the part of 

 the game warden to enfore laws which be is paid to see 

 properly carried out? — Subscriber. [Quail may be sold 

 until Feb. 1, The grouse are unlawfully put on sale.] 



That Breeding Theory Again. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I beg to inquire, in view of Mr. Roosevelt's ex- 

 planation in respect to deer hounding, whether he was 

 "joking" when he wrote a long letter last winter advo- 

 cating woodcock killing in July breeding time, whether 

 such practice helps breeding, etc.? A further explanation 

 seems to be in order in view of our present scarcity. — 

 Mother Woodcock. 



The Lyman Rifle Sights have been reduced 40 per" 

 cent., the manufacturer having put in new machinery 

 and considerably enlarged his plant. 



The Massachusetts Association will hold its annual 

 dinner at Young's Hotel, Boston, Jan. 26. 



TESTING A RIFLE'S STRENGTH. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The following is a report of un experiment to tost the strength 

 of the Hepburn action as used in the Remington-Hepburn or 

 Remington No. 3 rifle. This rifle is made by the Remington Arms 

 Co., centerflre only, in all calibers from .23 to .45; the particular 

 rifle which was used in the experiment was a .38cal., of 81bs. 6oz. 

 as weighed without the sights, 28in. round barrel and chambered 

 for the Remington solid bead 50grs. shell. The. rifle was an ac- 

 curate shooter and had been fired at the target some 400 times 

 with the usual charge of Hfgrs. powder and :.'55grs. lead. 



In this trial it was fired from a fixed rest, the but t resting on a 

 solid rear block, without the intervention of a pad, so that it re- 

 ceived the full strength of the recoil. 



The powder used was orange IPG, the bullets 225grs., patched, 

 seme of Remington and some of Winchester make. As the bul- 

 lets fitted too tight to enter the barrel at the muni'le with the 

 patch on, I was obliged to remove the patch and enter the bullets 

 naked. Before entering them, however, 1 greased them with 

 lard and filled the hollow at the base also with the lubricant. The 

 shells used were new .38-50 Remington solid head with the No. 

 Remington primer. A fresh shell was used for each shot. In 

 loading I entered a shell at the breech, dosed it arid poured in the 

 powder at the muzzle, followed by a Remington felt lubricating 

 wad and the bullets. The loads of powder were weighed in drug- 

 gists' scales and made up in packages to carry to the firmgground, 

 I poured them down with the help of a tin funnel. The number 

 of shots and loads were as follows: 



Shots. Grains powder. Bullets, Grains lead. 



First series 5 150 2 510 



Second series 5 200 3 785 



Third series 5 250 4 1020 



Fourth series 5 300 5 1275 



Fifth series 5 350 7 17H5 



Sixth series 5 400 2295 



Seventh series 2 400 10 2550 



This latter charge filled the barrel to within oj^tu. of the muzzle. 

 The rifle gave no trouble in the rest, and the tiring continued 

 without effect till the eleventh shot, when the firing-pin spring 

 broke. For several shots after this 1 had some trouble drawing 

 the firing-pin back, and had to strike the rear of the breech block 

 with a hammer, to "jump" it back and let the block traverse. 



As the loads increased the primers (three No. 3^ Remington) 

 began to burst, allowing a groat deal of gas to escape into the 

 lock and action, and when half through the trial I was obliged to 

 remove the breech block and clean and oil it and the traversing 

 grooves. The firing-pin and firing-pin screw were also removed 

 and cleaned, and at this stage of the trial both of the latter were 

 in perfect condition. 



The rifle received no further apparent injury till the second 

 shot of the seventh series, when the firing-pin was broken and (he 

 rear end of it thrown out upon the hammer. The point of it 

 dropped out of the hole while I was examining the rifle, 



On dismounting the rifle I found the lock, action and frame 

 thickly coated with dirt, but after cleaning and oiling I found 

 that the lock and action worked with ease and precision; but 

 there was a something wanting in the action. It did not "speak" 

 with the sharpness and decision it had at first, but a close 

 examination showed no injury except to the firing-pin, firing-pin 

 screw and firing-pin hole. The two former appeared to have 

 suffered the brunt of the trial. The pin had broken fa the middle, 

 and at this point showed the marks of severe collisions with the 

 screw, being considerably battered and worn, and its front was 

 thickly coated with a bright red deposit. The screw was reduced 

 to half its original diameter, and had the appearance of having 

 been badly rusted and eaten by some powerful acid. This was 

 doubtless caused by its contact with t he tiring-pin and the escape 

 of gas through the firing-pin hole. The hole itself was damaged; 

 in the face of the breech block it had been enlarged to twice its 

 original diameter, and inlaid in its outer circumference was the 

 rim of a primer. How the rim of a primer could get t here and be 

 placed so neatly, too, is a puzzle to me. 



Inside the frame, at that point where the head of the firing-pin 

 screw lies when the breech is closed, was a round ring cut by the 

 head of the screw. Strange to say, the mark was not sunk in the 

 center, it was simply a circle marking the outer circumference of 

 the head of the screw where it had touched the frame. 



On the opposite side of the frame, where the point of the screw 

 touched, was a roughly-made square mark of about the same 

 width as the mark made by the head. Now, both head and point 

 of the screw are circular, and the point not more than two-thirds 

 of the size of the head. How could each make a different shaped 

 mark and each as large as the other? and how could they be 

 jumped against the frames so as to leave such marks? Have any 

 of your readers ever met with such a case? 



During the latter part of the trial the primers with few excep- 

 tions all burst, the crowns being blown right off, allowing a great 

 part of the gas to escape rearward. None of the shells stuck or 

 burst, but two had their muzzles blown off and were twisted in a 

 most curious way. The stock, although butted against the solid 

 wood without a pad or even a metal butt plate (it had a rubber 

 bulL plate), suffered no injury save a c rack 5in. long at the heel. 



The barrel was wiped out after each shot, that is I breathed 

 through it a few times and then drove a tight-fitting rag through. 

 This did not remove all the dirt, but it made it fairly clean. The 

 fouling was, of course, excessive and worst in that part of the 

 barrel which had been occupied by the powder. Ou cleaning the 

 barrel after the trial I found it, slightly leaded, but so slightly 

 that it was easily removed by a tight- fitting Tag. To prove if all 



