t)EC. 5, 1889.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



387 



TEST AT 40 YARDS. 



Five Shots per Barrel f rom rest at fixed 80-inch Circle. 



EIGHT BARREL. 

 Pattern. Penetration, S . . 



1. 293 pellets. 12 sheets. 



2. 290 pellets. 16 sheets. 



3. 329 pellets. 14 sheets. 



4. 127 pellets. 12 sheets. 



5. 180 pellets. 14 sheets. 



LEFT BARREL. 

 Pattern. Penetration, s pellets 



1. 162 pellets. IS sheets. 



2. 366 pellets. 13 sheets. 



3. 422 pellets. 13 sheets. 



4. 342 pellets. 15 sheets. 



5. 356 pellets. 14 sheets, 



Ay. 244 pellets. 14 sheets. Av. 329 pellets. 13 sheets. 



TtEM. 12-G., 40yds., schultze powder, right BARREL, 373 PELLETS. 



Three shots at 4-foot square; 30-inch Circle selected from 

 hest pattern. 



RIGHT BARREL. LEFT BARREL. 



1 373 pellets. 1 393 pellets. 



2 337 pellets. 2 426 pellets. 



3 373 pellets. 3 364 pellets. 



Average 361 pellets. 



Average 394 pellets. 



TEST AT 60 YARDS. 



Five Shots per Barrel from rest at fixed SO-inch Circle. 



RIGHT BARREL. 

 Pattern. Penetration, s pellets. 



1. 104 pellets. 



2. 149 pellets. 



3. 86 pellets. 



4. 156 pellets. 



5. 131 pellets. 



7 sheets. 



7 sheets. 

 6 sheets. 



8 sheets. 

 4 sheets. 



LEFT BARREL. 

 Pattern. Penetration, ;>' pellets. 



1. 173 pellets. 



2. 202 pellets. 



3. 170 pellets. 



4. 143 pellets. 



5. 145 pellets. 



sheets. 

 8 sheets. 

 8 sheets. 



6 sheels. 



7 sheets. 



Av. 125 pellets. 6 sheets. Av. 166 pellets. 7 sheets. 



REM. 12-G., 4UYDS., SCHULTZE POWDER, LEFT BARREL, 420 PELLETS. 



re; so-lnt 

 pattern. 



Three shots at 4-foot square; 80-inch Circle selected from 

 best 



RIGHT BARREL. 



1 186 pellets. 



2 146 pellets. 



3 189 pellets. 



Average 174 pellets. 



LEFT BARREL. 



1 200 pellets. 



2 206 pellets. 



3 190 pellets. 



Average 199 pellets. 



MAINE LARGE GAME. 



npHE situation of Maine's large game is, on the whole, 

 X rather hopeful. But little has been heard about the 

 moose this year, and yet it is the hope of the best friends 

 of the game that they are not exterminated, or that they 

 have suffered any great depletion of numbers. Perhaps 

 it is too much to hope that there has been an increase, as 

 in past seasons since the law for their protection began 

 to be enforced ; but it is gratifying to learn from good 

 authority that there are still many moose in Maine. 

 They have been seen this fall in various parts of the 

 State — in some cases where they could hardly have been 

 expected. One came down among a farmer's cattle at 

 Eddington and remained with the cattle till the farmer 

 had time to get his gun and shoot him. Quite a number 

 have been seen in the eastern part of the State. They 

 have not been seen in their usual haunts in the northern 

 parts of Oxford and Somerset counties, and there is one 

 very good reason why. A great railroad has been build- 

 ing through the forests in the northern part of these 

 counties, and even forward to the railroads already in 

 operation in the eastern part of the State. Gangs of 

 Italians and other laborers have inhabited these Voods 

 all summer long, and with their legitimate blasting and 

 other noises on week days and poaching on Sundays, it is 

 no wonder that the moose have been frightened away. 

 It is the hope of the Commissioners of Fisheries and Game 

 that so soon as the construction of this road is done 



the moose may return to their old haunts. It is true that 

 the road opens up a new territory to the hunters and 

 poachers both, and hence the chances for the moose are 

 lessened; but the existing game laws should be the better 

 enforced, and new and better laws should be enacted at 

 the next session of the Legislature of that State in 1890- 

 91. A better statute was never proposed than that of 

 Commissioner Stilwell at the last session of the Legisla- 

 ture there, that of making it a crime to kill a cow moose 

 at any time. The enactment of some such a law will 

 again be tried for when that Legislature again convenes, 

 and it is hoped that the composition of the two houses 

 may not include such a volume of the lumber interest as 

 to kill everything in the form of wholesome fish and 

 game protective legislation. 



But turning from the chances of the moose to the deer 

 in Maine, the theme is much more pleasing to the true 

 lovers of the forests and the still- hunt. The increase of 

 deer has been wonderful, even the past year. Hunters 

 who go to Maiue after deer are still returning much 

 pleased. Deer are plenty, and they are able to get them. 

 A gentleman from Lowell, with his boy, has killed six — 

 the full quota that the law allows, even with the boy 

 counted in. But let us say right here that he ought to be 

 ashamed of his success, rather than proud of it. One 

 deer in a season is enough for anybody but a selfish 

 hunter. Jonathan Darling has at last been brought to 

 grief, and it looks as though dog-hunting deer had re- 

 ceived its death blow. Darling has been tried before the 

 municipal court and fined for killing several deer, his 

 fines amounting in all to some $250 or $300. He has ap- 

 pealed , but the cases are so plain that the chances are that 

 they will never be pressed before the superior courts. 

 I have this from good authority, and I also understand 

 from the same authority that his threats about testing 

 the constitutionality of the law before the full bench are 

 only brag and bluster. There are already too many more 

 cases against him. His poaching, cruel dog-hunting and 

 open defiance of the law are too well understood, and the 

 attempt of some of his friends to create a feeling of sym- 

 pathy for what they are pleased to term " a sturdy back- 

 woodsman of the old school, who believes in his inherent 

 right to kill game when and where he pleased," will fall 

 before the fact of his stepping up and paying his fines in 

 due season. Letters intended to intimidate wardens, 

 whom he supposed might be on the watch for him, are in 

 the possession of the proper authorities, and unless Dar- 

 ling does fight and beat the game laws, he can pose in no 

 other light than that of a dishonest dog-hunting poacher. 



Personally I have no ill will toward Darling, but he has 

 already been convicted before the lower court of a crime, 

 which as a writer in a leading publication, devoted to the 

 protection of fish and game, I cannot do otherwise than 

 condemn in the strongest terms. His crimes are known 

 to me, he himself is not. He is also condemned by many 

 others, lovers of fish and game, who never saw him per- 

 sonally. They know him as a student of the notorious 

 Brown, who first established the camps at Mcatous. But 

 there has been terrihle scattering at these camps — the 

 camps where the letters of warning say "there are 

 partyes" — the exact spelling of two instances — "who 

 would make it hot for any game warden." Then the 

 threat that "all game wardens must keep away," who did. 

 not want to go the way of the poor fellows that fell be- 

 fore the assassins while trying to do their duty at Fletcher 

 Brook, in the fall of 1886, is not yet forgotten. _ Jock 

 Darling may pose as a poet, but he may consider himself 

 fortunate if his attempts at letters have not led him into 

 a crime. It will hardly be the thing not to pay those 

 sportsmen a compliment who have, in response to Darl- 

 ing's invitations, gone down to Nicatous, and had deer 

 dogged into the water for them to shoot. That they are 

 cruel is hardly a fitting term in which to clothe them, 

 for already I know of one or two of them that are 

 ashamed of their cruelty. They are more. They are as 

 bad as Darling himself, and they may rest assured that 

 if ever Darling or any of his guides should turn against 

 them, and lay their crime before the Commissioners, it 

 will only require their presence within the State of Maine 

 to lead to their arrest. An officer, with authority to ar- 

 rest these "gentlemen sportsmen," was in Boston the 

 other day, desirous of working up a chain of evidence, 

 already in his hands, that may lead to the detention of 

 certain gentlemen for killing deer at Nicatous, if they 

 ever set foot on Maine soil again. The chances are that 

 some "honest, sturdy guide" of former shooting scrapes 

 at Nicatous has "leaked," in order to save his own body 

 from fines and imprisonment. It is a cowardly act to 

 dog a deer into the water and there take its life, and if 

 Darling and some of his "noble guides" should add 

 treachery to their cowardice, by turning State's evidence, 

 those who have employed them will meet no more than 

 they deserve. Special. 



CALIFORNIA DEER. 



SACRAMENTO, Cal.— Editor Forest and Stream: Game 

 exterminators have been operating quite success- 

 fully in some of our adjoining counties this fall; and a 

 young gentleman, who has just returned from a trip in 

 El Dorado and Placer counties, reports a wholesale 

 slaughter of deer in that locality. 



Deputy Fish Commissioner Smith, of Placerville, El 

 Dorado county, made a raid upon a camp of the game 

 destroyers last w r eek, and captured two of the offenders. 

 Forty-one deer skins were found in their possession, 

 thirty-three of which were doe skins, and they are sup- 

 posed to have slaughtered over one hundred deer. The 

 men were taken to Placerville, where Justice Carpenter 

 fined them $30 each, which they promptly paid and de- 

 parted. This was in direct violation of the game law, as 

 $50 is the minimum fine prescribed for the killing of 

 does and spotted fawns. But as it was their first offense 

 the parties were let off rather too easy. Many of the 

 carcasses of these deer were left upon the ground to be 

 devoured by wild beasts. 



Nearly two thousand deer skins are lying at the freight 

 office in this city awaiting a claimant. They were con- 

 signed to prominent firms doing business here, but said 

 firms do not seem at all anxious to receive them. One 

 party has already been arrested and found to have several 

 hundred hides in his possession; and he is now waiting 

 the action of the court in the matter. 



The Game Commissioners have at last awakened to a 

 realizing sense of the deplorable state of affairs, and it is 

 to be hoped that the nefarious business may be stopped 

 ere deer in our State have become extinct, M, 



ALL-AROUND GAUGE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Probably the gun is yet to be invented that will be 

 found to answer all purposes equally well, but I believe 

 that the brass-case gun is the nearest approach to a per- 

 fect all-around weapon. For the uninstructed let me ex- 

 plain that this is a gun specially bored and chambered 

 for a very thin brass cartridge case called the "Perfect," 

 made by Messrs. Kynoch, Limited. The internal diame- 

 ter of these cases is greater than that of paper cases of 

 the same nominal gauge, thus permitting the use of 

 larger charges; and in a gun specially bored for them the 

 internal diameter of the barrel is made to correspond 

 with the internal diameter of the case, the effect of 

 which is to practically abolish the chamber cone and to 

 increase the caliber of the barrel about two sizes beyond 

 its nominal bore. The result is a wonderful increase of 

 power in the weapon when used with the cases for 

 which it is specially adapted. 



Mr. Greener has published some very interesting re- 

 sults of experiments made with these guns, and he says: 

 "A comparison of the tables shows that guns using 'Per- 

 fect' give patterns of unsurpassed regularity; the force is 

 greater and the average higher than in the paper-case 

 guns of two sizes larger in the gauge." He also says that 

 "a 12-bore brass-case gun weighing only 741bs. is superior 

 to a 10-bore paper-case gun weighing fl^lbs." — "Tfie Chin 

 and its Development" pp. 524 et seq. 



Those accomplished wildfowlers, Lord Walsingham 

 and Sir Ralph Payne Gallway, writing in the Badminton 

 Library, say: "A shore gunner will do far better with 

 a powerful 12-bore, bored for Kynoch's brass cases, than 

 with any other kind of weapon." — Badminton Library, 

 ' l 31oor and Marsh," pp. 232. "A double 12 bore gun of 

 7-pbs. , carrying a charge of 34drs. of powder and 1 Joz. No. 

 4 shot, is as useful a gun as any shore shooter can want, 

 and powerful enough for anything from a sandpiper to a 

 swan. With such a gun we have often killed a dozen 

 and. more ducks and widgeons at a shot, and at other 

 times fired at a single plover when with a larger gun we 

 should have grudged the charge." — Id,, pp. 234. 



The gun is likewise admirably adapted to the field be- 

 cause of its light weight, and should the shooter object 

 anru^sqns oi inq SBq oq 'jkioai yevfl. .101 osjoqo rmj B o% 

 paper for brass cases. To again quote Mr. Greener, "A 

 brass case gun of fullest possible choke, will fire well 

 paper cases, and the shooting (providing a waterproof 

 pink-faced, a thick felt, and a card wad are placed be- 

 tween powder and shot) will perform fully equal to a 

 modified chokebore gun of the same size cartridge cham- 

 ber." 



If something more than a modified choke is desirable 

 with paper cases, it can be obtained at a slight diminu- 

 tion of pattern with the brass, for, according to this 

 authority, a middle course is possible and a 12-bore can be 

 made to average 260 with brass and 240 with paper cases, 

 the charge being 14oz. No. 6 shot, English standard of 

 270 pellets to the ounce. 



I cannot conceive of a weapon better adapted to the 

 requirements of one who wishes to shoot all kinds of 

 game with one gun. In conclusion I advise "W, S. K." 

 to procure such a work as I have quoted from. The in- 

 formation there obtained will be far more reliable than 

 anything likely to be contributed to a sporting newspaper; 

 and should he then be in doubt, he wall do well to go to 

 some reputable gun-maker, state his requirements and 

 depend on the experience of the maker to furnish the 

 weapon best adapted to his needs. Even then he may 

 not be suited, but the chances are not against him. A. 

 November 22. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I had some notion to tell "W. S. K." my ideal of an 

 all-around, gun; but time is fleeting and if the question 

 brings out as many ideas as I think it will, "W. S. K." 

 will have enough to do in making a choice from the be- 

 wildering mass to occupy his time for one hunting season 

 at least. For if there is any one thing that a sportsman 

 wants others to know he knows, it's what he knows about 

 a gun. J. H. B. 



Mansfield Valley, Pa. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In reply to "W. S. K." in your issue of Nov. 21, I 

 would say that I have used 10, 12 and 16-bore guns, weigh- 

 ing from 6 to 9£lbs., and find that for an "all-around" 

 gun a 12-bore weighing 81bs., is the best for such uses as 

 he mentions. Drift, 



Philadelphia, Nov. 22. 



WILD CELERY. 



WOODVILLE, N. Y„ Nov, 25.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I see in your paper of Nov. 21, an article 

 on wild celery. I do not understand what your corres- 

 pondent means by bulbs, as I saw nothing but pods in the 

 barrel or half barrel we received. The pods are from 2 

 to 6in. in length and about the size of a clay pipe stem 

 and each pod contains hundreds of seeds, and when ripe 

 or nearly so have a small white blossom on the end of the 

 pod. The vine that the pod is attached to is about the 

 size of a knitting needle and grows until the pod reaches 

 the surface and there it stays until the pod and seeds get 

 ripe, generally in September, and then it sinks to seed 

 for another year. My belief is, although I may be wrong, 

 that wild celery roots live but one year and the pods that 

 sink seed for the next year. 



Gathering the seeds or pods must be done in the last 

 of August or the first days of September, while the pods 

 are still on the surface. 



We took the pods and broke them up into pieces ^in. 

 long, and sowed them broadcast. We found that they 

 would not sink while whole, but after being broken up 

 they sank readily. 



This seed was sown in Big Sandy Pond, which is one 

 mile long, and a half-mile wide ; and the water is from 4 

 to 10ft. deep. The bottom is soft mud in the center of 

 the pond, the shores are sandy and gravelly. It caught 

 splendid , and we have had a big crop of wild celery ever 

 since it was sowed in 1885. 



To make a sure thing, as we supposed, we took some 

 of the seed to a wild rice marsh on the edge of the pond , 

 where the water was from 1 to 2ft. deep, cleared two 

 or three places of rice, and planted some celery; but 

 to our surprise the wild rice completely killed it out. 



G. M. W, 



