Nov. 28, 1889.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



368 



536 



3J/><3rs. black. 



10? 



514 



3 l 4drs. hlaek. 



91 



569 



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81 





4iqdrs. black. 

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125 



517 



1(19 



612 



:V...-iis. black. 



98 



354 



3i/oclrs. black. 



98 



512 

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4J^dra. black. 

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119 



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71 



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89 





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91 



501 



aax*. wood ... 



10 



490 



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101 



418 



3}|drs. black 



97 



617 



4' : ,:lrs. I)lack. 



132 



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570 



3J/Sdis. black. 



98 



546 



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(lit 



595 



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132 



377 



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109 



460 



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122 



274 



4drs. Schullze. 60 





4>/.i1im. black. 



132 



107 



5rt!rs. black... 



127 



376 



3!adr#. black. 



91 



If surprised in a coiner, it will then bit out savagely 

 until it bas cleared a way to escape. Regarding a griz- 

 zly's trailing a man by scent, charging at him at sight 

 and climbing a tree after the hunter, etc., all such narra- 

 tives are mere talk without foundation. If a grizzly 

 bear ever mounts a tree it must be a prostrate one. An 

 examination of the claws on a grizzly's front paws will 

 convince the most sceptical that it is no tree climber. 



Stansteau. 



SOME FIGURE ANOMALIES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have been somewha t interested as the various reports 

 of vour gun trials have come to hand in noting the va ria- 

 tions of the shot and powder charges, and it would seem 

 that either your counting and weighing are recklessly 

 done, or there is little reliance to be placed on the uni- 

 formity of the measures used in gauging shot and pow- 

 der charges or in the fashion of using them. 



I have ventured to make a list of the various cartridges 

 you have used from time to time, correcting several 

 manifest errors such as the slip of the type in putting 

 No. 6 shot in the Colt guu paper cartridge instead of No. 

 8. I have arranged the tables according to the size of 

 shot used. 



Gun. Shot. Wt. Count. Powder. Wt. 



Remington 16 lost. Soft No. « 192 



Remington 16 loz LeRoy No. « .423 



Greener (Am. cart.).H4oz. LeRoy No. S.ulO 



Folsom 12 lMoz. LeRoy No. 8.487 



Smith 1? IMOfc. Tath. No. 8..S4S 



Folsom 10 1%qz. LeRoy No. 8 553 



Colt 12 (paper sheOUUfiZ. LeRoy No. 8.482 

 Hollis 10 IMoz. LeRoy No. 8 609 



Greener (Eng. shct).lJ4oz. Newcastle 0.604 



Now I find by catalogue that Tatham shot weigh for 

 the chilled grade: No. 8, 495 pellets to the ounce; No. 1, 

 a99 to the ounce; No. 6, 223 to the ounce, which would 

 make an ounce and a quarter of No. 8, 619, of No. 7, 374, 

 of No. 6, 279, and in not one case does your figures of 

 analysis carry out their totals by average. 



Looking at the LeRoy catalogue I find that No. 8 gives 

 400 pellets to the ounce, or 500 for an ounce and a quar- 

 ter, while you make it 560 in one case and 617 in another. 



The Cincinnati works make their No. 8 shot to run 445 

 to the ounce, and an ounce and a quarter would there- 

 fore be 555 pellets, from which your figures vary somewhat. 



The figures I adjoin on the weights and measures of 

 powder also show variation, but this is probably because 

 of the various sorts of powder used. E. T. M. 



Cleveland, O. 



[Our correspondent must not have read our report 

 aright, or must have little experience in gun matters, to 

 be surprised over such a matter as this. We say expli- 

 citly that the charges are stated as given by the holder of 

 the gun. We then take them apart, and upon the analy- 

 sis we stand. We know the weight and count to be cor- 

 rect. We only know in the other case what has been 

 stated to us. The charges are loaded by those who bring 

 the gun, or in some instances we order cartridges or buy 

 them from stock, and put down just what the loader says 

 he has put in the cartridges. It would have been very 

 simple indeed to have taken the holder's statement on one 

 side and the shot catalogue figures on the other, and 

 given them in our tests, and then our tests would have been 

 just as valuable and just as useless as many previous gun 

 tests have been. Such is not the method of Forest and 

 Stream. We mean to make our tests exhaustive and 

 standard, and to that end spare no pains, labor nor ex- 

 pense. We cannot help shot catalogue vagaries nor the 

 carelessly false and misleading assertions of those 

 presenting guns for trial. We think now that every one 

 who has had a gun on test thought they were giving the 

 exact figures when they told of the gun. How far out 

 they can be is shown say in the charges presented by ex- 

 pert Gaines of the Parker Co., who had two sets of car- 

 tridges in his first test, each of which he said had ljoz. of 

 No. 8 Cincinnati shot in, but which varied 50 pellets in 

 count, and he at once saw that one set had l^oz. of shot, 

 and that he was in error. So of other tests. All our test 

 loading has either come direct from the gun factories, 

 or has been made up by the most expert gun shop here. 

 At another date we will have some tables to present on 

 shot irregularities, but so far as the gun test goes we 

 guarantee our analysis and give the charges as stated, and 

 it is for our readers to judge of then accuracy.] 



RESTRICT THE GAME KILLED. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Partridges and quail have been fairly plenty around 

 here this season, but a couple of men who hunt "for 

 pleasure" and "sell their birds to cover expenses" have 

 found it paying enough to give up well-paid work for 

 four to six weeks to hunt. They are the best shots and 

 have excellent dogs — guess the rest. C. G-. 



Webster, Mass. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Here market butchery is exterminating the game. We 

 have thousands of acres of sedge and cornfields ; we have 

 only a short open season, yet we have almost no quaU. 

 A few days ago I spent a whole day in hunting with an 

 excellent dog and just at dusk I found the first bevy. I 

 I killed two and left fully a dozen birds. Two days later 

 I returned and found but two quail of that large bevy 

 left. In the meantime the others had been snared and 

 sold alive hi the Anniston market. A law against snar- 

 ing would be most beneficial, but why not strike at the 

 root of the evil rather than at its branches, and make it 

 a crime to sell a game bird? Because such a law could 

 not be passed? Not in New York, certainly, but here in 

 the South, where every good citizen is a sportsman, there 

 should be no such difficulty. Everywhere the market 

 butchers are at work exterminating the game, and at 



W 



this rate we shall soon have no game left. Something 

 must be done; but what? In New York, for instance, a 

 law against snaring would be of no use, for the favorite 

 method of butchers there is to use curs, who drive the 

 birds into trees and bark at them tuT the "hunters" come 

 up and shoot the birds. Possibly a law limiting the num- 

 ber of birds that one person might kill would do some 

 good, for a man would be afraid to sell more than his 

 share of birds to one person, or to have it known that be 

 had killed more than bis share. Here, however, such a 

 law would be a dead letter, and the only way to secure a 

 permanent game supply is to prohibit altogether the 

 marketing of game. Setter 

 Anniston, Ala., Nov. 18. 



THE WORCESTER FOX HUNT. 



WORCESTER, Mass., Nov. 21. — That the fourth an- 

 ' liual hunt of the Worcester Fur Company was not 

 a complete failure was no fault of the weather. Tuesday 

 the rain fell in torrents, continuing nearly all night, and 

 only the "veterans" had sufficient sand to start for Wor- 

 cester in the face of such an unpromising outlook for the 

 morrow's hunt. But there were those for whom the ele- 

 ments had no terrors, and this party included President 

 Ceo. W. Roraback, of the Western Massachusetts Fox 

 Club, Secretary Shepardson and Orin Beach from Chester, 

 the latter with his hound Billy. Chas. Pierce, of Rutland, 

 A. D, Norcross, of Munson, and Ceo. W. Russell, of Fall 

 River, were also on hand. John White, of Millbury, with 

 his pack, was on hand at daylight. 



An informal gathering was held at the Bay State House 

 during the evening, and the programme for the hunt, in 

 case the weather permitted it, was laid out. Observa- 

 tions wfie taken from many windows during the night, 

 but little encour agement could be found in the clouds 

 which hung over the city continually, emitting a miser- 

 able cold drizzle, which would have discouraged any one 

 but a fox hunter. 



Five A. M. found every one astir, and after a hasty 

 breakfast a 'bus load was made up and started from the 

 Bay State House for the Hey wood farm, the place of 

 meeting. A dozen or more private teams followed, and 

 when the Heywood place was reacbed about thirty 

 hunters could be discerned through the fog. 



They were dispatched to their various localities by 

 President Kinney and the hunt was opened. Webster 

 Thayer and party put their dogs out on Milestone Hill, 

 but were unable to start a fox and worked across on to 

 Burncoat Plains, where Mr. Kinney's pack had one 

 started which was run in before any one could get an 

 opportunity to kill him. Secretary Knowles with Dr. 

 Shepardson, of Chester, went to the north end of Bond 

 Hill, where they remained till the middle of the after- 

 noon without hearing much driving, and came home just 

 in season to miss the only sport of the day in that locality. 

 Alva Houghton and Joe Smith went over toward Lovell's, 

 and just as they concluded they bad got enough of it and 

 were packing away their guns a fox ran right up within 

 three rods of thtm. 



Uncle Nathan Harrington and Billy Dean went to 

 Sewall's Hill. They had with them Uncle Nathan's new 

 bitch Slippery Sal, "which came here with a great reputa- 

 tion as a flyer, but was something of an unknown quantity, 

 as she has only been out a few times and it was not known 

 just what she would or could do. She struck a scent and 

 soon had one started. The rest of the dogs in that section 

 of the country joined in, and the woods and pastures 

 rang with clear voices of the pack as they took a turn 

 along the ridge toward the shoemakers, with the appar- 

 ent intention of crossing to the north end of Gushing 

 Swamp. Right on the crossing was drawn up in line of 

 battle, about ten rods apart, the party who had put their 

 dogs in at Cushing Swamp, consisting of E. T. Whittaker, 

 M. A. Linfield, C. H. Morse, G. W. Roraback, John White, 

 Will Perry and Geo. Russell. 



The hounds came up through tho sprouts within a few 

 rods of the line, and it seemed every moment as if the 

 fox must burst out somewhere. Every man stood with 

 eyes strained and finger on trigger. Mr. Roraback, who 

 bad the stand on top of the ledge in sight of the rest of 

 us, kept us informed by a wave of his hand of the exact 

 location and direction of the pack, from second to second, 

 and when he signalled that they were coming directly 

 toward him, and planting himself more firmly on the 

 rock awaiting the outbreak, the suspense was terrible. 

 They swept around toward Harlow's, however, without 

 coming into view, and finally shut down, evidently hav- 

 ing run them in. Sal led the pack during the entire 

 drive, and Uncle Nathan was happy. 



About this time the rain began to fall in earnest, and 

 we made a break for the barn, and remained under cover 

 until the shower had passed, and then sauntered out 

 toward the crossing, gathering about Mr. Roraback to 

 talk over our hunt at Chester, and curse the fates that 

 duplicated their day for us, atmospherically. Not a dog 

 had been heard for "a half hour, when suddenly one burst 

 out and a second later was driving; at a lively pace, with 

 the entire pack close behind. Uncle Nathan's Sal was 

 again leading them, and Uncle Nathan was radiant. 



We scudded for our different stands and the dogs made 

 two or three turns around the ledges, and they were 

 "just combing him," too. For about fifteen minutes the 

 hunt was about as hot as you could get it in our immedi- 

 ate vicinity, and then they ran this one in. Before he 

 holed, however, it was discovered that they had had a 

 rabbit going instead of a fox both times, and Uncle 

 Nathan was doleful. Sal made up for her break in the 

 afternoon, though, when she took a fox right away from 

 them all just as handily as she had the rabbits. 



As it had cleared off by noon it was thought best to 

 strike into a new country and try to jump a fox on some 

 of the ledges, where they were probably curled up out of 

 the wet; so we drove over to East Ridge and put out part 

 of the hounds back of the brick schoolhouse and the rest 

 down by Rocky Pond, while the hunters strung them- 

 selves out along the road between the two packs. The 

 party had been joined by this time by E. T. Smith and 

 E. F. Swan, Silas Balcom'and Mr. Jackson, G. J. Rugg, 

 Allie Perry, J. H. Locke, D. M. Earle, Horace Adams 

 and a number of others; in fact the hunt had been pretty 

 much moved up there, Locke and Whittaker took the 

 dogs around by the pond and soon Whittaker's hound 

 Tilden winded a fox on the ledges, which he started at 

 once and drove beautifully, while the others joined in 

 with him, and soon eight dogs were running. Linfield 

 rode along with John White, and coming to a likely- 

 looking spot, hopped out, taking by mistake John's gun. 



Linfield shoots a Parker hammerless, John a Parker 

 hammer, and to this exchange one fox owes his life. 



As John and Mr. Roraback drove along they suddenly 

 heard the hounds driving directly toward them. Mr. 

 Roraback jumped out, grabbed his gun and dashed for a 

 position, while John hitched the mares beside the road 

 as lively as possible, and had just time to get to the rear 

 of the wagon, snatch up Li n field's gun and slip in a 

 couple of shells, when the fox crossed the road about four 

 rods off. John felt for the hammers to cock the gun, but 

 they were not there, so he pulled it up and pulled first 

 one trigger and then the other, but they were blocked 

 and it was no use. You, who know John, probably know 

 just what happened, and can see him in your mind's eye 

 as he did a war dance in that road, and ejaculated, "How 

 in the name of all that's cursed do you work one of those 

 ha.mmerless guns, anyway?" 



The fox trotted along toward Roraback, but saw him 

 when about 16 rods off and turned. Distance estimated 

 by Mr. R. himself, and undoubtedly correct. He was 

 down here to shoot and so he "unhitched," and as the 

 fox rounded a knoll and went out of a bar-way he cut 

 loose again, but without effect. 



The dogs came down the trail like the wind and went 

 over the wall in a heap, where John White would pick 

 them up, fire them over the next wall right side up, and 

 away they would go again. While they were driving, 

 Mr. Locke selected a stand and soon a fox crossed about 

 twelve rods from him. He gave him both barrels and hit 

 him hard, as he could scarcely drag himself up into the 

 pines, and Locke expected of course the hounds would be 

 along in a minute and catch him. None came on his 

 track, however, and it was concluded that this fox must 

 have been thrown out by the dogs driving the other; so 

 Whittaker was dispatched to try and catch oiF one of the 

 hounds and bring him up to catch the wounded fox, The 

 main pack had, however, by this time swung around 

 Rocky Pond, and the only dog he could get was old Rail- 

 splitter, who has not been hunted any this fall and is so 

 tat lie cannot rim faster than a man could walk. He was 

 taken up and put on the trail and started the fox where 

 he had lain down, and in less than 100 rods he went into 

 a burrow. A fast-running dog would have caught him 

 before he made half the distance. 



This was the nearest we came to getting a fox, although 

 Mr. Beach, of Chester, shot at one within easy distance 

 and should have killed him. The old gentleman could 

 not get over his misfortune, and all the evening he looked 

 the picture of disgust. 



The afternoon hunt had been all that could be asked 

 for. Nearly every one had been in hearing of the hounds 

 until they led off out of hearing toward Northboro. 

 One gentleman was very near them,so near that it sounded 

 to us (about 50 rods away) as though he shot at the game, 

 as the hounds turned back directly after the shot, but he 

 claimed that he was hitching his horse and the fox came 

 right up to the road, and seeing him turned back. His 

 horse was hitched there when we drove by before the fox 

 was started. He was probably hitching him tighter. 



About 4 P. M. we started for home and met at the Bay 

 State at 7 for a fox hrmters' dinner, many being present 

 who had not participated in the hunt. The dinner was 

 an excellent one, and after cigars had been lighted and 

 the experiences of the day, ludicrous and otherwise, gone 

 over, stories of other hunts were told and a jolly good 

 time was had. We had not secured a single brush, it is 

 true, but the weather had made that almost an impossi- 

 bility. Still, every one had a good hunt, and Mr. Rora- 

 back was so favorably impressed — I don't know whether 

 it was with the hounds, the lay of the land, the weather, 

 John White or Worcester generally, but at any rate he is 

 coming down in January to spend a week with John and 

 hunt foxes. 



It was talked over and partially decided to hold another 

 meet and try to get a better day, and if it is arranged, 

 many who stayed away this time will undoubtedly be 

 here, now that it has been proved that we can start foxes 

 enough, even under unfavorable circumstances, right 

 here in the heart of the Commonwealth. Hal. 



GIVE THE BOYS A CHANCE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I think that it is about time for the small country boys 

 to come to the front and defend their own rights in re- 

 gard to pleasure in the fields and woods. 



I am a constant reader of the Forest and Stream 

 (which my father subscribes for), and, as a rule, I know 

 what is going on among the sportsmen in general. 



Just to think of "Cohannet" calling himself a sports- 

 man, and then trying to impose a tax upon the small boy 

 who uses a rifle. No doubt all he says about the unknown 

 skeletons being found is true, and those deaths may have 

 been due to careless shooting; but do not let him lay the 

 blame on the country small boy, when it is the green city 

 amateur hunter at whose door it can be laid, for the city 

 greenhorn would shoot at a sparrow not knowing where 

 his bullet would land. When a country boy goes a-shoot- 

 ing, he knows where to go, at what to shoot, and, as a 

 rule, where his bullet lands; for the country boy knows 

 the lands upon which he lives and for miles around. 



Let all the small country boys join now together in 

 sending their hearty thanks to "Wacautah" for giving 

 "Cohannet" a rub in regard to the tax on the small boy 

 who uses a rifle; for he can say to him what the boys 

 would not think of. 



Now I think I have done my share (as a boy should) to 

 "defend our rights." J. J. S. 



Clove Valley, Dutchess County, N. Y., Nov. 13. 



N. B.— Mr. Editor, please insert this, and bear in mind 

 that "Boys will be boys." 



MY FIRST WILD TURKEY. 



I left home one beautiful morning in the month of 

 November, with gun and dogs, in search of game. One 

 dog, Bang, was a reliable setter, and I felt confident of 

 finding either grouse or wild turkeys. I trudged along for 

 some time without success, and tired and disappointed 

 determined to move homeward. Presently Bang stood; 

 to my delight and surprise up flew a wild turkey. I fired 

 away and brought her down with a dull thud. My heart 

 leaped within me. I felt half afraid to go to her, think- 

 ing it might be a tame turkey after all. But no, its long 

 legs and long neck proclaimed it the genuine wild bird. 

 I hurried home with buoyant step and joyous heart, full 

 of pride and exultation, and laid my trophy at my 

 mother's feet, believing myself her man indeed, though 

 only 14 years old. D. H. Leake. 



