JljNE 11, 1891.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



411 



besides. Then they wrote to Edgar, thanking him for 

 all his kindness and asking him to visit them in Boston. 



They then made the best use of their return tickets and 

 on their arrival at home they had their trophies put in 

 order. Georgie's mat looked" very well at first but the 

 hair proved very brittle and the skin wore bare in spots 

 and had to be thrown away, but Porgie's head was well 

 mounted and still lasts as a handsome memento of their 

 mountain hunt. H. G. DuLOG. 



CHAT BY THE WAY. 



Being ISTotes from the Bclitor's Corrcspnnrience. 

 lyrOW, liowever, when the "aninial flsh" is in sight. rm feeling 

 -'-^ in a trifle better shape; tte old leavea is working again, and 

 for the past ttiree or four weeks I have at odd times, when olT 

 duty, heen overhauliDi? my camp outfit and laclde, that nothing 

 may be lacking when the day comes around to start, north. As I 

 grow older I believe the love of the woods and the waters grows 

 stronger, and not even grief, or worry, or misfortune can crowd it 

 out of my lieart; and a pleasant, camn— if only in anticipation— 

 with old ard tried comrade:-, eases the nches and smoothes the 

 rugged places that else would make life hardly worth the living. 



I do not imagine I will have very good luck with salmon; usually 

 it is too late when I get down there. It will make a nice outing, 

 and really most of the fun is in planning it ahead aid enjoying 

 the absence fromhusiness. 



Your contributor "Dexter" writes very pleasantly of tlie Kush- 

 more camp on Long Po'nt, a locality very familiar to me, being 

 only about two miles from my home. It used lo be a delightful 

 place, but is rather crowded now to suit those who like seclusion 

 in their outings. Way back in the early sixties I camped there 

 with two others, in primitive fashion, in the rudest of shanties, 

 and with almost as simple a cooking outfit as is recommended by 

 Col. Moonlight, iu Mr. Hough's last letter. Except our party of 

 invited friends, we had not a visitor nor a neighbor during those 

 fourt:een delightful October days, whose like in all ways I shall 

 never see again. Now from June till November one cannot he 

 alone on Long Point for two hours. The old conditions were far 

 pleasanterto me than the new, but I would like to run across 

 "Dexter" there. 



HOW WAS IT DONE? 



IN a late number of Forest and Stream one of its 

 correspondents undertakes to explain the reason why 

 a beaver is able to make wood stay under v/ater, by 

 stating that "it sucks the air out of the wood." 



The modus operandi he, however, fails to explain, and 

 if asked the question at the head of this article, might 

 reply in the same manner that an old friend of my youth 

 used to puzzle the boys. 



Old Uncle Gash was beloved by all the boys in the 

 neighborhood, because he used to delight in boys' com- 

 pany on his fishing and huntmg expeditions, which oc- 

 cupied all his hours in favorable weather. He was 70 

 years of age as long ago as my memory carries me, and 

 was still living, and over 90, when I last heard from him: 

 and although lie had then given up his favorite sport, fox- 

 hunting, he had lost none of his old-time love of fishing, 

 nor any of the store of stories with which he used to 

 interest his youthf lU companions. 



One that I have often heard him relate, and with which 

 he delighted to puzzle a fresh youngster, was as follows. 

 I will try and follow his language and idiom as nearly as 

 time will allow my memory to recall them: 



"Waal, boys, so'ye want a story? I'll tell ye 'baout a 

 man I knowed daovvn in old C'nue't'c't, afore I moved 

 up here. I ^vus a boy m'self then, an' seed the man a 

 thousan' times; 'tho' I didn't to see him jest esackly do 

 what I'm a goin' to tell ye 'baout, 'tho' I've heard a-many 

 a time thet he did du it, an' have no kind of daoubt but 

 what he did du it. 



''Ye see, this man, he went an' made a bet, he did, 

 that he cud jump fm the top of the steeple to the new 

 meetin' house daown to the graoun', 'ithout hurtin' his- 

 self . The day was fixed, an' everybody cum to see him 

 du it, f 'm miles aroun', till there was an all-fired great 

 crowd thar. 



"Waal! he got up in the steeple, an' he made a speech 

 to the crowd, an' he spit on his ban's, an' he swung his 

 arms back an' forth, so's to make a big jump, an' daown 

 he cum! 



"He'd only got 'baout half way daown, when, by 

 gorrily gosh, he seed he'd made a miscalc'lation, an' 

 wus goin' to be killed, if he kept on, so he turned right 

 raoun' an' jumped back ag'in, an' come daown by the 

 stairs." 



Then the boy, who had never heard the story before, 

 wovdd ask: "But, Uncle Gash, how could he jump back?" 

 And Uncle Gash, with a twinkle in his eye, would reply, 

 "Sonny, that's your question; answer it yourself." 



Arefak., 



P, S. — Dear Forest and Stream, count me in on that 

 "Nessmuk" memorial. If ever there was a nature's 

 nobleman, 'twas he, and I hope that every oae who has 

 ever profited by his words will promptly respond to this 

 appeal to keep his name i-emembered.— A. 



Varied Plitmage.— A correspondent of the Forest and 

 Stream, in issue of June 4, speaks of a white-winged 

 sparrow. This calls to my remembrance the fact that a 

 robin, one-half pure white, remained about my brother's 

 house in Highland, N. Y., during the summer and was an 

 object of much curiosity. I am hereby led to the in- 

 quiry, why domestic fowls, such as turkeys, pigeons and 

 dunghill fowls, have such variety of colors, while the 

 wild birds of the same species are uniform in color? Is it 

 because Avhen some freak in nature's coloring had been 

 observed that such fowls that were domesticated had 

 Ijeen selected to breed from?— N. D. E. 



Ducks Eat Quail Without the Toast.— One of the 

 strangest things I ever heard of was a feast of recently- 

 hatched quail by, what do you think? domestic ducks. 

 A gentleman by the name of Fitch had a few of the tiny 

 quail, and as they were nmning about, his ducks came 

 along and shoveled them up in the twinkling of an eye. 

 I do not doubt the story, as it was told me by a man 

 whose veracity I cannot question. The ducks doubtless 

 mistook them for good-sized insects.— N, D, E. 



RUFFED GROUSE IN CONFINEMENT. 



VI N ELAND, N. J. , June 8.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 There is to me an interesting experiment going on 

 in this city at present, which may be of interest to your 

 readers. A couple of weeks since a farmer near town 

 found a ruifed grouse's nest with the hen sitting. Hav- 

 ing a bantam hen at home engaged in the same business 

 he took the eggs home and yat them under the hen, 

 which in eleven days hatched out nine little beauties, 

 which the gentleman gave to an acquaintance in town, 

 and I saw them a day or two since. They were confined 

 in a wire run perhaps 3ft. by 3ft. , connected with a close 

 coop, and are as regardless of the presence of man as 

 though they were ordinary chicks, most of the time, 

 when I saw them, running around the edge'.of the run 

 endeavoring to get out. They have nothing in common 

 with the hen, not noticing her call when she has a tidbit 

 or wishes to hover them, or note of alarm. They eat 

 millet, crackrd wheat, chopped grass, bread crumbs and 

 hard-boiled egg, being as fond of the last as anything. 

 They have scarcely any inclination to go under the hen 

 at night, the gentleman telling me that he has to drive 

 them into the coop at dark. They are as quick as a flash 

 in their movements and as cunning as you please. The 

 same gentleman hatched a quail in an incubator last 

 year, and now has fourteen quail eggs in process of in- 

 cubation, the success or failure of which I will notify 

 you. O. O. S. 



The F0JtcvPi:sE.— Editor Foi^est and Stream.: I do not 

 doubt that "Lotor" will be able to satisfactorily answer 

 "Backwoodsman," who doubts that the porcupine will 

 "curl itself into a ball when molested," hut as he asks 

 who ever saw one do so, I feel called upon to say that I 

 have, many times. "Backwoodsman" probably knows 

 that the porcupine's nose is his weak a7id vulnerable 



?oint; a slight blow there will kill him almost instantly, 

 he next time "B." meets one. if he will take a liglit 

 svpitch and apply it to the animal's nose, I venture to say 

 he will see it suddenly become very like a ball. The 

 head will be thrust under the stomach to protect that 

 tender nose, and a round and bristling back will alone be 

 visible. Not a perfect ball, but a very good imitation, — 

 F, L. Ballard (Springfield, Mass., June 1). 



FallowDeerinNew Jersey.— There recently arrived 

 on the National Line steamer Europe three fallow deer 

 (one buck and two does), which were a present from the 

 Duke of Sutherland to Geo, Shepard Page, of Stanley, 

 N. J., who has placed them in his park at Stanley. Three 

 varieties of deer are found in Great Britain, namely, the 

 red deer, the fallow deer and the roe deer, the latter 

 being the smallest member of the deer family and not 

 much larger than a goat. The red deer are found princi- 

 pally in Scotland, where they are hunted by sportsman. 

 The fallow deer are about half the size of the red deer, 

 and are frequently seen in droves of 50 to 150 in the great 

 public parks^of England. They become gentle pets and 

 are often seen feeding from the hands of ladies and 

 children. 



POEPLE Gallinule AT Sea. — The Ward Line steam- 

 ship Niagara brought to this port on its last arrival here 

 a j)assenger that was not on the manifest. This was a 

 purple gallinule. When nearly tixty miles ofl' the coast 

 of Florida, this handsome bird, thoroughly exhausted, 

 alighted on the awning of the vessel and made no attempt 

 to escape when approached by one of the sailors. The 

 bird was presented to the Central Park Menagerie. The 

 gallinule is an inhabitant of Florida, and is a bird of 

 short flight. The one in question must have been blown 

 off the shore in a storm, but it is remarkable that the bird 

 was foimd so far from land. For this reason it is an 

 ornithological curiosity. The bird this morning seemed 

 none the worse for its hard experience. — Neiv York Even- 

 ing Post. 



dtn^ §dg md 0utf. 



The full texts of the game laws of all the States, Terri- 

 tories and British Province.? are given in the BooTi of the 

 Game Laws. 



WEIGHTS AND BORES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In a former letter about large and small-bore shotguns, 

 I remarked that the guns generally used in the States 

 seemed to sportsmen in this country unnecessarily heavy. 

 I was, therefore, pleased to read in'your paper of Jan. 29 

 the letter of "20 -Bore" showing what excellent work can 

 be done with a weapon of onlyolbs. weight and 20-gauge; 

 but I believe, from the experiments described in my last 

 communication, that a lagauge of the same weight 

 would be found still more serviceable. 



Various articles which have appeared in the American 

 sporting press within the past few months show that 

 some sportsmen in the States, of great experience, are in 

 dread of serious accidents from burst barrels if very light 

 12-bores come into fashion. I therefore took advantage 

 of a recent visit to London to call at the shop of Mr. 

 Turner, in Brook street (who was the first English gun- 

 maker to put in the market a 12-bore of less than 61bs. 

 weight), and examined two kinds of light guns, one 

 called the "Featherweight," which averages about 51bs. 

 14oz., and another w^hich weighs only from 5 to oiibs. 

 A careful inspection showed that in all the parts where 

 there is any important strain the metal is fully as thick 

 as in ordinai-y guns of the same gauge. The breech 

 actions and breech ends of the barrels are as stout as in 

 guns of 7 to 7ilbs. weight. In the "Featherweight" the 

 lightness results from shortening the barrels to 28in., put- 

 ting on a very small fore-end, and cutting away the 

 stock in the following manner: 



The other giin is still further reduced by the barrels 

 being only 37in. long, by such parts as the trigger guard, 

 locks, etc., being no larger than in 20-bores, and by the 



central rib being very narrow. This is deeply sunk be- 

 tween the barrels and curves up to the usual level at the 

 muzzle and breech. The charge recommended for this 

 gun is that of a 16 -bore, viz., about 2fdrs. of powder and 

 loz. of shot. The manager informed me that all the 

 guns are bored for and targeted with Schultze or E.G. 

 powder. 



The balance of these guns is exquisite, and the extra- 

 ordinary quickness and accuracy with which they come 

 to the shoulder shows that they would be delightful 

 weapons for woodcock or rulied grouse shooting. For 

 all round Avorkthe "Featherweight" would be preferable 

 because it takes the ordinary 12-bore charges, and many 

 sportsmen who have used it state positively that they do 

 not notice more recoil than in 71bs. guns. 



Men difl:er so much in the degree to which they feel 

 recoil that no one can well judge for another what will 

 be pleasant or otherwise. One of my shotguns is a6|lbs. 

 13-bore which does not kick disagreeably at a target 

 when loaded with 3 to S^drs. of No. 4 black powder and 

 1 to l^oz. of shot. When firing at game, or even at 

 small birds plundering my fruit trees, I am perfectly un- 

 conscious of the slightest recoil, so can quite believe that 

 a 61b9. gim would not be unpleasant with the same quan- 

 tities of powder and shot, especially if E.G. or Schultze 

 were used instead of black powder. I have, however, 

 never tried a "Featherweight" and am not Hkely to do so, 

 having already three shotguns and very little work for 

 them. 



It is usually said that the recoil of a gun depends upon 

 the proportion between its weight and the load. This 

 statement should be qualified with the additional words, 

 "other things being equal," for the kick, or at least that 

 amount which is felt at the shoulder, depends very much 

 upon the fit and length of the stock, the boring of the 

 barrel and the manner in which the metal is distributed. 

 A thick mass of the latter in the breech and breech action 

 absorbs much of the recoil, and a long stock causes it to 

 be felt less than a short one. I believe also that guns 

 whose bore is slightly cone-shaped from breech to muz- 

 zle, kick more than those which are bored cylindrically 

 nearly all the length and then contracted to a choke 

 within an inch or so of the muzzle. Some sportsmen think 

 that the size of the gauge makes a difference. Sir Payne 

 Gallwey, who is one of the best authorities upon guns in 

 England, remarks in his "Letters to Young Shooters," 

 that "small bores recoil more in proportion than 13-bores, 

 for various reasons." In another place he states that "a 

 12-bore of the same weight as a 20-bore, and using the 

 same charges, recoils less." it appears that both in this 

 country and America 12-bores are being reduced in weight 

 by making the barrels light. Of course they should then 

 be used only with the loads of 16 or 20-bores, and those 

 sportsmen who wish to use the full 12-bore loads should 

 carefully examine the breech actions and weigh the 

 barrels before purchasing. 



The barrels of a 30in. 13-bore of 7 to T^lbs. usually 

 weigh from 3Ibs. loz. to 31bs. 6oz., and if of good Damas- 

 cus twist are perfectly safe for any charges that can be 

 crammed into the shells. They are sometimes made 

 lighter, even down to Bibs., but should then be only of 

 the very highest quality and consequently of the most ex- 

 pensive material. For each inch taken from the muzzle 

 about one ounce should be allowed. 



If, therefore, barrels of 38in. weigh 31bs. 3oz,, and the 

 breech action be as massive as that of an ordinary gun, 

 there need be no apprehensions as to safety, provided the 

 material be good. With very narrow ribs the weight of 

 the barrels may be a few ounces less. I obtained the fol- 

 lowing details of the weights of the various parts of guns 

 on the "Featherweight" principle, which maybe of as- 

 sistance iu guiding those who are buying light guns. 

 Average weights in 



12-bores. 16-bore>?. SO-hores. 



Stock SLbs. 7oz. 3lbs. oi4oz. 3lbs. 3oz. 



Barrels 31bs. 3Moz. Slbs. 14oz. 21bs. lOoz. 



Fore-end ajjoz. 2^oz. 2oz. 



Total 51bs. 14oz. 51hs. 6oz. 41bs. looz. 



These are the weights of hammer guns, hammerless 

 with the Anson & Deeley action being about loz. heavier 

 in the stocks. 



In 10-bore guns the weights are: Stock 31bs. 4oz,, 

 barrels 41 bs., fore-end 4oz.: total 71bs. 8oz. These are 

 said to give no unpleasant recoil with 1-^oz, of shot and 

 60grs. of Schultze powder, which would equal about 

 4idrs. of black. 



Mr. Lincoln Jeffries, of Birmingham, is another gun 

 maker who builds 12-bores of less than 61bs. weight, while 

 retaining the full strength of breech and action. I have 

 not seen one, but, from printed descriptions by sportsmen, 

 the weight appears to be reduced much in the same 

 manner as in Mr. Turner's guns. Of course, no one with 

 practical knowledge would maintain tliat such light 

 weapons have the same killing range as those of greater 

 weight with heavier charges, but it is claimed that they 

 can be fii-ed pleasantly with the usual charges which are 

 found to kill game satisfactorily up to ordinary ranges- 

 say 35yds. for cylinders and '45 or 50 for chokebores. 

 Leaving out duck shooting, there is no doubt but that a 

 man will, on the average, kill more game with a gun 

 which he can carry comfortably and handle quickly at 

 the end of a long day's tramp, than with one of more 

 power, which fatigues him by its weight. Rapidity of 

 aim, particularly in thick brush, more than compensates 

 for extra range. J. J. Meyrick. 



Vermont Deer. — ^A Vermont exchange reports: "The 

 frequent appearance of deer within the past two years 

 near the Green Mountain range naturally arouses the an- 

 ticipation of sportsmen. Hardly a week passes now 

 without the report of some one's having seen one or more 

 of these animals either in some clearing adjacent to the 

 highway or fmlher back in the thicket, while about 

 remote ponds and water courses evidences of their 

 presence multiply, their yards and rimways being readily 

 found by woodsmen and fishermen. A favorite haunt of 

 the deer is about old Haystack Mountain, in Wilmington. 

 A few days ago two handsome deer were seen coming 

 out into a meadow near tlie old Robinson place in Sears- 

 burg, and followed by their young they proceeded to re- 

 connoitre the field for a time and finally disappeared. 

 Everybody appears to understand that the law does not 

 permit them to have in their possession one of these 

 animals before Nov. 1, 1900, hence there is no immediate 

 fear of their early extermination and ten years is quite 9 

 period for their increase." 



