Dec. 18, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



433 



is now made easy by a system of maple rollers, 3£in. by 

 3ft,, which are motmted at each axis end on the head of 

 stakes driven down flush with the ground. The rollers 

 are about 3|ft. apart, and a loaded boat slips along over 

 them the easiest way in the world, whereas formerly the 

 crossing was one of great labor and delay. 



Hennepin Club built a $30 dam this fall which has done 

 them a world of good, and put out 200 bushels of corn as 

 feed, with results which are thought satisfactory in the 

 extreme. 



At their recent business meeting Mak-saw-ba Club 

 showed a wish to take up this matter of putting out feed, 

 and instructed the new board of managers to take meas- 

 ures looking toward feed and protection in the fullest 

 sense of those words. At the meeting the following offi- 

 cers were elected by Mak-saw-ba Club for the ensuing 

 year: President, T. Benton Leiter; Vice-President, L. R. 

 Brown; Secretary , C. S. Petrie; Treasurer, W. R. Smith; 

 Board of Managers. T. Benton Leiter, L. R. Brown, R. B. 

 Organ, W. H. Haskell, J. A. Sharp. 



Dec. 1%. — Mr. P. F. Stone is just back from a shfsrt trip 

 through Kentucky and Tennessee. He had one day of 

 quail shooting near Paducah, Ky., about fifteen miles 

 down the newly completed line of the Paducah, Tennes- 

 see & Alabama Railway. They struck new country, 

 plenty of briers and plenty of birds. Percy got thirty- 

 six birds and says they flushed eighteen bevies. His 

 companion was Mr. Rheiner, of Paducah, a very good 

 field shot, whose two dogs had a large interest in the 

 results. 



Mr. Geo. I. Maillet, of Crown Point, Ind., is in town 

 to-day, for the purpose of attending the business meeting 

 of the Grand Calumet Heights Club to-night. The lessors 

 of the club property have served notice to vacate, and all 

 club members are asked to be present at this important 

 meeting of the club, which may result in the temporary 

 disbandment of the club while another property is being 

 looked up. 



£ Dick Turtle and a local gun or two killed forty-six 

 rabbits on the islands above Shelby by firing the marsh 

 for a drive one day last week. The rabbit battue seems 

 to be having a vogue. E. Hough. 



SHOT COUNT AND WEIGHT. 



IT will be recalled by readers of Forest and Stream 

 that some time ago we made a careful exhibit of the 

 vagaries of chilled shot as to uniformity of count and 

 weight of a certain charge between the various makers. 

 The variations, it will be remembered, were very large, 

 and at the close of the publication of the tables the sev- 

 eral makers were invited to express their opinions as to 

 the feasibility of a standard. The circular letter sent 

 out by Forest and Stream read: 



Gentlemen— In several recent numbers of Forest and 

 Stream, copies of which have been sent you, the ques- 

 tion of variation in count and weight of shot nominally 

 of the same size was taken up and illustrated by a com- 

 plete set of tables covering the more popular sizes. The 

 wide divergence shown would seem to indicate that there 

 is need of a standard set of grades. Should this be at- 

 tempted? Can it be accomplished? are questions which 

 you as interested makers can discuss with particular 

 profit and weight to the shooting world. Will you kindly 

 give us your opinions on the matter, which, in view of 

 the popular attention drawn to the subject by the tables, 

 would be particularly appropriate at this time. 



Yours, Forest and Stream. 



Responses came from many of the companies and indi- 

 cate that the makers are much at variance in their ex- 

 planations of the differences shown. 



The Collier Shot Tower Co., of St. Louis, replies: "Re- 

 plying to your favor of July 23 we have noticed in sev- 

 eral recent copies of Forest and Stream the variation 

 in count and weight of snot nominally of the same size 

 from the different towers of the Hnited States and 

 England. There is a standard set of shot gauges, which, 

 if used by all the towers, would enable them to make 

 the same size shot, and in consequence would save the 

 wide divergence which is shown by your table. The 

 only cause we can attribute this wide variation in sizes 

 to is the wearing of the holes in the separating screens. 

 We have recently added to our tower new steel shot 

 screens made from the standard gauge, and we are now 

 prepared to turn out better shot than we have ever before 

 made. Trusting the above will prove satisfactory I re- 

 main very truly yours, Edw. M. Flesh, Sec'y. 



Bailey, Farrell & Co., the large Pittsburgh makers, 

 say: "Answering your favor of the 23d ultimo, there is 

 now a standard grade or size for shot known as 'Ameri- 

 can standard' to which we think all the shot manufac- 

 turers conform. Using ordinary care in the manufacture 

 of the shot, there should not be a variation of over 10 per 

 cent, from the standard. With 'chilled shot,' however, 

 the case is different. While all the manufacturers may 

 make and number the shot the same size, the shot made 

 by the different manufacturers may not be all of the 

 same weight, owing to the difference in the quantity of 

 antimony used for hardening, antimony being but little 

 over one-half the specific gravity of lead; hence, the 

 larger the quantity of antimony used in the shot the 

 lighter the shot. The name 'chilled shot' is a misnomer. 

 Lead is not chilled, i. e., hardened, to an appreciable de- 

 gree by rapid cooling. Yours truly, Bailey, Farrell & 

 Co." 



The LeRoy Company, of this city, who have heretofore 

 struggled with this question of a standard, reply as 

 follows: "We are in receipt of yours of 23d inst., relative 

 to the 'variation in count and weight of shot, nominally 

 of the same size.' Also as to the necessity of *a standard 

 set of grades,' and 'should this be attempted can it be 

 accomplished?' In June, 1873, the same question came 

 up before the New York State Sportsmen's Association at 

 their meeting held at Batavia on the eleventh of that 

 month. After full discussion, the matter was referred to 

 a committee, consisting of Messrs. R. Newell, N. M. 

 Smith and F. G. Skinner, who reported that 'Upon the 

 most critical examination, your committee have decided 

 to adopt as the Atnerican standard the scale presented to 

 -us by Messrs. LeRoy & Co.' The scale referred to was 

 based upon the English standard of sizes, the only 

 foreign make that in those days in any way approached 

 regularity in grading, the Spanish, French, etc., being 

 hopelessly mixed. The scale as then adopted was in 

 hundredths of an inch, from dust at .04, to T at .23, the 

 dropping-pans and test-gauges being graduated accord- 

 ingly. The sizes, so arranged, were made by T. O. LeRoy 

 & Co., and from 1876, by their successors, the LeRoy Shot 



& Lead M'f'g Co., down to the present day, and regularity 

 and uniformity are now, as then, claimed for them. 

 Eivalry among the various manufacturers then, as now, 

 interfered with uniformity and no important result fol- 

 lowed. Whether any better result could be accomplished 

 now it is difficult to say, Iranian nature running in about 

 the same groove. There is, however, this advantage at 

 the present time, that sportsmen know, when they use 

 any special brand, the number of pellets of each size, etc., 

 so that, by all parties to a trial using the same brand, a 

 fair comparison of results can now be made. Yours 

 truly, E. A. LeRoy, Vice-Pres." 



The Chicago Shot Tower Company takes rather a pes- 

 simistic view of the situation, saying: "Your favor of 

 the 23d came duly to hand, and has received our consid- 

 eration. Without doubt, there would be many advan- 

 tages in having the various sizes of shot made by different 

 manufacturers correspond, but at the present time we 

 think it would be practically impossible to get the man- 

 ufacturers to alter over their separators to make them all 

 correspond. Yours respectfully, Chicago Shot Tower 

 Co." 



From Baltimore comes the response of the Merchants' 

 Shot Co., as follows: "Yours of 23cl to hand. I think it 

 would be more satisfactory to shooters in general if sizes 

 of shot were uniform among all makers, but at this time 

 I hardly think anything can be done. There should be 

 no difference in size of shot from the following towers, 

 as they use the same machinery for separating: Collier 

 Shot Tower Co., St. Louis Shot Tower Co., Chicago Shot 

 Tower Co., Raymond Lead Co.,W. G. Price & Co., 

 Bailey, Farrell & Co., Gulf Shot Co., Col well Lead Co., 

 T. W. Sparks, Merchants' Shot Tower Co. As to the 

 weight of shot it depends a great deal on the mixture of 

 the metal and the height from which it is dropped. 

 Yours truly, Walter T. Harvey, President." 



The Cincinnati Shot Works Company express a willing- 

 ness to work toward a uniform standard in their reply : 

 "Your favor 23d received. We have examined your 

 tables with much interest and certainly could not have 

 believed there were such wide difference's between manu- 

 facturers' sizes. Of course in the manufacturing of drop 

 shot it is unnatural to expect and absolutely impossible to 

 secure absolute uniformity from very natural causes, but 

 there need not exist any great variation. We would be 

 willing to join with other manufacturers in getting to a 

 uniform standard in sizes and numbers throughout the 

 list, and hope you can bring this about. Yours truly. 

 Cincinnati Shot Works." 



The president of the St. Louis Shot Tower Co. al- 

 luded to the recently formed shot-makers' pool in his 

 reply, but as yet we have not heard of a standard output 

 from the combination. He says: "Yours of 23d insfc. to 

 hand and contents carefully noted. We have been aware 

 for a long time of the great difference in weight and 

 count of the shot made by the manufacturers of the 

 country, but while the trade made no complaint there 

 was no need of any change; but now that the attention 

 of the trade has been called to the fact the trouble should 

 be remedied; and that it can be done there is no doubt, if 

 the manufacturers would take hold of it with the right 

 spirit. At present there is very little harmony among 

 the shot manufacturers, and while that state of affairs 

 exists little could be done, as each one claims to make 

 what is called standard sizes, an effort is now being made 

 to get all the manufacturers together, and if that is ac- 

 complished the rernedv is easy, we think. — Respectfully, 

 G. W. Chadbourne, Pres." 



Tatham & Bros., of this city, give a thoughtful critical 

 reply, going back to the well-known New York State 

 Sportsmen's endeavor at a standard in 1873. As chilled 

 shot is now so generally used, we thought it proper to 

 make our comparative table of this variety, and did not 

 take any note of the decreasing soft shot production. 

 Tatham & Bros, say: "We have your favor of the 23d 

 ult. calling our attention to your examination of chilled 

 shot and suggesting that there is need of a standard set 

 of grades, and asking whether this should be attempted, 

 and if so, whether it could be accomplished. At a con- 

 vention held at Batavia, N. Y., June, 1873, by the New 

 York State Sportsmen's Association a standard of sizes 

 (diameters) for shot was adopted, to be known as the 

 'American standard,' commencing with No. 12, to meas- 

 ure five one-hundredths of an inch, and each size increas- 

 ing one one-hundredths of an inch to the largest. The 

 object of their action was to induce all manufacturers to 

 conform to that standard, so that a certain number should 

 mean the same size throughout the country. It would 

 appear from the results of your experiments that that 

 standard is not absolutely adhered to by the different 

 manufacturers. We think, however, that you would 

 have found the result more uniform had you made the 

 examination of soft shot, as chiled shot undoubtedly 

 varies in weight for the same size more than soft shot, by 

 reason of the greater or less quantity of hardening mate- 

 rial used in its manufacture. The use of a measure is 

 also largely a source of error, as no two persons will fill 

 the measure exactly the same: and not more than three 

 charges agree either in weight or count out of the ten 

 furnished you of each size by each manufacturer, although 

 undoubtedly the whole ten charges were measured out 

 by the same person. Again, an ounce avoirdupois con- 

 tains 437-Jgrs. Troy, making for ljoz. 546| Troy grains; 

 but we believe that in all but one instance that weight 

 was exceeded by the measured lioz., which according to 

 your tables varied from 637 to 541 Troy grains. We 

 would suggest that the proper mode of comparison would 

 be to measure the length of a given number of pellets 

 placed in a line, of each size from each manufacturer, 

 which would show the variation from the standard. It 

 is quite possible for the manufacturers to produce sizes 

 which would very closely conform to the American stand- 

 ard, but it is probable that this would entail considerable 

 expense upon some of them. Yours very truly, Tatham 

 & Brothers." 



Educated Duces.— Longmont, Colo., Dec. 2.— Ducks 

 are very plentiful here, but it is about impossible to kill 

 any, on account of the higher education of the wildfowl. 

 The weather here is more like Fummer than December, 

 and consequently when the ducks do move they go so 

 high no shotgun can reach them.— C. J, W. 



A Book About Indians— The Fohest and Stream will mail 

 free on application a descriptive circular of Mr. Grinnell's book, 

 "Pawnee Hero StorieB and Folk-Tales," giving a table of contents 

 and specimen Illustrations from the volume.— J.dv. 



BRITISH SPORTSMEN IN AMERICA. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Your issue for Nov. 13 contains some strictures by 

 a correspondent, "C. B. W.," on statements of mine in 

 "The Big Game of North America," relative to acts of 

 cruelty by an English sportsman in the mountains. The 

 writer puts another man's name for mine, but the refer- 

 ence to the book designates me as the man he criticises. 



On the facts referred to he expresses disbelief, so that 

 there is no occasion for remark on that point. His main 

 censure is on my mention of him as a "foreigner" and an 

 "Englishman." That was the fact in the case, and I so 

 stated it; but I did not state that the man was a butcher 

 because he was an Englishman, as I did not state that the 

 wretched skin-hunters were butchers because they were 

 Americans. In either case they were a disgrace to the 

 common nature they bore. 



Englishmen have been more prominent than others in 

 the shooting of game because they have more money than 

 others, have crossed the ocean to shoot, and have no com- 

 mercial interest in the game they kill, the plea that our 

 own skin hunters and meat hunters make for their waste 

 and havoc. And so they have been more noticeable than 

 others, carrying out that love of outdoor adventure and 

 the love of arms which we have derived from them, and 

 which makes both nations so manly a race. Your cor- 

 respondent feels, naturally, sensitive to my mention of 

 his nation, and I regret to have wounded the feeling. I 

 am proud of the race from which I have my blood and 

 name, and "C. B. W." has no greater pride than I have 

 that the man at the head of the whole human race to-day 

 is an Englishman. I share in the honor and I share in 

 the pride, and I should feel that intentional defamation of 

 Englishmen, as such, on my part would be to '"file my 

 own nest." 



As to the "after all," I simply meant that, noth with- 

 standing this act of a single Englishman, he would be 

 denounced by the press and by his own people at home. 

 All England and the civilized world are horrified to-day 

 by the atrocities of Englishmen in Stanley's rear guard. 

 Major Bartelotte ordered a hundred and forty lashes on a 

 native for a minor offense, and caused his death, and 

 while himself furiously kicking a chief 's wife was shot 

 dead by the chief. Jameson — of the same name with the 

 man in the mountains, and, it is to be hoped for the honor 

 of human nature, the same man, that there may not have 

 been two — was charged with furnishing a young girl for 

 a cannibal feast; the proofs of the charge are in the bal- 

 ance, but it is in actual proof that he sat by, saw the knife 

 passed into her body, saw the slices cut from her limbs, 

 made drawings of the whole scene on the spot, sent them 

 home to his wife and they are in her possession now. 

 And the London Times and the English press call a halt 

 on African exploration, if, instead of being carried on 

 for science and commerce and philanthropy, it is to be 

 conducted in a spirit of butchery and atrocity; and that 

 by Englishmen. 



Of course, the bare truth in the matter is that they 

 might have been Frenchmen, Germans or Italians; they 

 happened to be Englishmen, and England is thrilled with 

 shame. 



Your correspondent and myself are not really at vari- 

 ance in this matter. I should speak of an American with 

 all the more feeling, for such deeds, that he was an 

 American. I meant no invidiousness when I specified the 

 actual nationality. I share with him in the pride for 

 England and a Gladstone; I share with him and the whole 

 English people in humbling for the fierce severity of 

 Bartelotte and the morbid atrocity of Jameson. And I do 

 not doubt that your correspondent would join me in that 

 higher feeling, either for pride or for shame, than of 

 Englishman or American; the feeling of the nature we 

 bear, and say, Homo sum, et nil humanum a me alienum 

 puto — I am a man, and I hold nothing foreign to me that 

 pertains to man. Joshua Cooke. 



P. S. — "Boone" has no need to take up the defense of 

 "Silalicum" in any matter; that gifted writer can answer 

 for himself. But if "C. B. W." will notice, Mr. Perry 

 distributed the meat of the elk killed to the Indian tribe 

 on whose ground they were hunting by permission of the 

 chief. Such a gift is an event to a tribe, a boom, a wind- 

 fall. The one great necessity of an Indian is food, and 

 his whole life is a struggle to get it, and when they do 

 get it not a pound is lost, the tendons themselves are 

 made into soup and the bones are pounded for marrow. 



B. 



An Indiana Report.— Michigan City, Ind., Dec. 9.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: The game in northern In- 

 diana, as far as I can learn, is most plentiful. We have 

 had two days of good tracking snow, and bags of ten 

 rabbits to a man and dog were very common. Quail 

 were most numerous, but have been killed to a very 

 great extent. It is good for them that the law expires 

 soon, although I am sorry to say that the game laws are 

 neither enforced nor obeyed in this section, and I am 

 afraid there will yet be a great deal of illegal killing. 

 Partridges .are rather a scarcity ; very small bags have 

 been made. It is hard to give a reason for the small 

 number of birds. This is not a very good place for 

 ducks, although they can be killed on stormy days 

 from the pier extending into Lake Michigan. A short 

 while ago I bought an American -made gun, $50 grade. 

 It is a very neat gun, of strong shooting qualities, but I 

 wish the manufacturers had put locks on that would click 

 alike. The right spring clicks clear and nice, but the 

 left lock makes very little click when I draw the ham- 

 mer back. I enjoy the articles of E. Hough in your 

 journal. Michigan City, thirty miles from Chicago, does 

 not compare with other shooting places much nearer 

 Chicago.— F. L. 



A Deer Killed by Concussion. — City of Bayonne, 

 N, J. , Dec. 8. — I append an extract from a letter received 

 from my brothers, of Marquette. The hunting spoken of 

 was in the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, near that 

 place. He writes: "Richard and I got each a fine buck 

 by still-hunting this fall. I had the head of mine 

 mounted and the hide tanned and gave them tp Minnie; 

 the skin makes a very nice rug. Dick made a remark- 

 able shot on his buck, which, by the way, was a very 

 large one, the bullet from his rifle struck it on the horn 

 close to the head and it dropped dead. It was found that 

 it was killed by concussion of the' brain, the covering 

 membrane of the brain being ruptured. Is not this a 

 unique occurrence? Has such a case come under the 

 observation of any of your readers before?— Richmond. 



