JtiLY 9, 1891.-| 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



497 



^HtnB ^Hg md 0uti. 



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

 tories and British ProYinces are given in the Booh of tlie 

 Game Laws. 



THE NEW YORK ASSOCIATION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Sportsuien throughout the State cannot fail to have 

 been impressed with the truth and importance of the 

 suggestions offered by Gen. Bmce in his cogent discus- 

 sion of the protection of fish and game, published in the 

 last number of the Forest and Stream. His opinions 

 are founded on a wide experience aad on lon^ study. 

 He has brought forcibly to the minds of all thinking men 

 the urgent need of immediate and vigorous measures to 

 protect our forests, fish and game. Innumerable argu- 

 ments can be brought forth to illustrate the danger that 

 confronts New York State in this direction, but they are 

 unnecessary; everyone who has given this question the 

 slightest thought realizes the condition of affairs. The 

 problem before us is how to render the greatest service, 

 by what means can we accomplish the most toward the 

 prott'ction of our wild lands and streams, 



Ic is undoubtedly true that the New York State Asso- 

 ciation for the Protection of Fish and Game has to some 

 extent departed from its original pm-pose. Of late years 

 trap-shooting has largely occupied its time and attention, 

 and yet the records of its annual meetings will reveal the 

 fact that each year the old idea has cropped out, at each 

 convention some effort has been made to revive the pur- 

 pose for which the Association was established. At the 

 recent convention at Rome the resolution there presented 

 denouncing the destruction of the Adirondacks were 

 most enthusiastically received and unanimously adopted. 

 This shows that the State Association has not entirely 

 forgotten its original pui-pose, and that the proper spirit 

 still exists in the minds of its members. All it needs is 

 to have its designs and efforts sy.stematicaLly organized 

 and promoted under competent and intei-ested men. 



During the last live years the individual clubs compos- 

 ing the State Association have done good work protecting 

 game and fish. At the hearing before the Assembly 

 Committee in Albany last winter the prominent clubs 

 had representatives to plead for the codification of the 

 game laws, and central New York sent a delegation of 

 about fifty men to urge certain provisions which they 

 deemed for the best interest of the whole State. Several 

 new clubs have recently joined the State Association 

 whose sole object is "protection and preservation," who 

 have no other purpose and indulge in no other business 

 or sport. These facts further show the good material 

 still existing in the old association and strengthen the 

 contention advanced by Gen. Bruce that the State Asso- 

 ciation can bring about the desired results. 



The next annual convention will be held under the 

 auspices of the Onondaga County Sportsmen's Club, at 

 Syracuse. It is the club's intention to make every effort 

 to bring together not only trap shooters, but also a large 

 representative gathering of sportsmen, whose main object 

 shall be the protection of fic<h and game. It has been 

 suggested that on Monday evening, the first night of the 

 convention, all routine business be completed, and that 

 the second meeting night be devoted exclusively to the 

 adoption of such measures as will best carry out the Asso- 

 ciation's original purpose. Each club will be early 

 requested to choose its delegation with this meeting in 

 view, and a general invitation will be extended to all 

 clubs and individuals throughout the State, not now 

 members of the State organization, to seek such member- 

 ship at the first meeting, and so be in a position to take 

 an active part in the deliberations concerning forests, fish 

 and game. 



At this latter meeting let each club designate the man 

 among its members best qualified (having the time, en- 

 thusiasm and experience) to occupy the position of com- 

 mitteeman. Let this body compose a State committee, 

 which shall Avith the officers of the State Association and 

 as a part of the latter organization have sole and entu-e 

 charge of the protection and preservation of fish, game, 

 and forests. I^et this committee select its own officers 

 and hold a meeting at Albany each winter during the 

 session of the Legislature to decide upon its course and to 

 urge its recommendation upon om- law-makers. In this 

 way the best men will be brought together for concerted 

 action, and a good attendance at the Albany meeting will 

 be assured. By this course the State Association, with its 

 large number of members, will be directly interested , offer- 

 ing political advantage and iufiuence which comes from 

 numerous and diversified interests. The State shoot will 

 be an attraction whicb, coupled with the fish and game 

 protection plan, will give a larger field to draw from than 

 could probably be obtained in any other way. 



The various committeemen ought to be able to bring 

 the influence and efforts of their respective clubs to bear 

 on whatever work or plan the central committee deemed 

 advisable, and the responsibility being thus centralized, 

 if proper and effective results were not accomplished, it 

 would be easy to locate the fault and to remedy it. 



The Oaondaga County Sportsmen's Club is deeply in- 

 terested in this subject, and for many years has spent 

 much time and money ui its efforts to protect fish and 

 game. One of its objects in wishing to hold the next 

 convention was to revive the Association's original pur- 

 pose and to do all in its power to make this revival last- 

 ing. However indifferent the trap-shooters may have 

 been to this purpose in the past, they are after all the 

 men as a whole most interested in the protection of fish 

 and game (they are nearly all fishermen and hunters), 

 and with tbe infusion of a new element into their ranks 

 devoted exclusively to this original purpose, a larger, 

 more x")owerf ul body can be brought into active service 

 than could be obtained in any other way. 



If men of Gen. Bruce's type and all interested in this 

 subject will join with us next spring in an effort to effect 

 within our ranks an organization such as has been here 

 scantily suggested, what would then be wanting as a 

 nucleus, about which can be gathered power and influ- 

 ence enough to accomplish wise effective legislation and 

 the efficient enforcement of the same. 



But this is a question of vital importance, far-reaching 

 in its effects, it concerns not pleasure alone but the health 

 and prosperity as weU of the whole people of this great 

 Commonwealth, it is neglected in a way that forebodes 

 disaster, it is indeed terrible to think of the ruthless des- 



truction of fish and game that has gone on for years and 

 is still going on. Worst of all is the devastation of the 

 Adirondack wilderness, that great haven of rest and 

 source of health, and whatever is for the greatest ulti- 

 mate advancement of a plan or organization whicli will 

 effectually and permanently protect and preserve our 

 forests, game and fish, whether it meets our individual 

 opinion of not, will receive the hearty support of the 

 great majority of members of the New York State Asso- 

 ciation. Horace White, 



GUN GOSSIP. 



THE pages of Forest and Stream bear expressive 

 witness that there are few subjects on which more 

 diverse views are held than in matters pertaining to guns 

 and shooting. It can do no harm, therefore, for any of 

 us who have any opinions, solidly based on experience, to 

 give them. Then, the novice by reading can find any 

 style of argument that suits his own particular predilec- 

 tions and prejudices, and will be able to buy just what he 

 likes. 



I aui not of much account as a shot, stUl less do I know 

 it all; but I have had some experience, and can see an 

 aperture in a stej^-ladder when it is held squarely between 

 me and the blue ether. I have owned and shot guns of 

 bores from 30 to 10, of lengths of barrel between 26 and 

 50in. ; of all patterns and actions, from the flint-lock to 

 the "latest agony," the hammerless. 



Some years ago I gave at length my conclusions as to 

 the killing power of large and small-bored and long and 

 short-barreled shotguns. They were, in brief, that long 

 barrels were better killers than short, and that the small 

 bores could not stay in with the large. 



I have a great partiality for small-bore guns; and have 

 owned three times as many smalUer than 14 as I have 

 larger. Though there is not so much difference in the 

 penetration given by a good 80 and a good 10, as many 

 would suppose, the latter is much the superior of the 

 former on game. Both of the shotguns I own now are 

 12-bores. I wouldn't shoot either of them any more if I 

 could find a 16 that would do theu* work. 



Every little while the man who does not like choke- 

 bores has his say, and we are told that the rage for close- 

 choked guns is subsiding. Perhaps in this, as in some 

 other things, I am slightly eccentric; but I think as highly 

 of the full-choke as of any modern improvement. You 

 can't make a cylinder shoot a very close pattern, but by 

 a proper manipulation of the wadding and lessening the 

 weight of shot a full-choke can be made to give a sparse 

 enough pattern for brush shooting; and it is one's own 

 fault if he shoots his game to eternal smash. 



For wildfowl a full- choke is, in my opinion, the only 

 gun. To stop a strong-flying duck, so effectually that 

 you can be assured of finding him within three feet of 

 where you marked liim down, requires a gun that will 

 send plenty of shot right where you aim. Better it is to 

 make a clean miss than a half kill. In three seasons, 

 from '84 to '86 inclusive, I spent four nights out of each 

 week in a famous fly-way for ducks. I shot an 81b. 12- 

 bore, full-choke American-made gun. There were thi-ee 

 other regular habitues of the jilace, who all used cylinder 

 guns - In cogitating on the situation one evening, the 

 thought struck me that if the so-called express systems 

 were good ia rifles, why not apply something analagous 

 to it to chokebore shotguns? Straightway I set about ex- 

 perimenting. I finally adopted the following load, at 

 which the brethren can laugh as much as they like— it 

 was no laughing matter with the ducks: 4dr. powder, 

 loz. shot, 6s in the right and 4^ in the left. Ater that I 

 lost just one cripple — the others lost two or three a week. 

 I wasn't particularly noted for the number of birds I 

 killed, but when I hit one it was twilight with him right 

 then; and I killed at longer ranges than any one in the 

 crowd. The gun I shot then was a peculiarly bored 

 weapon. After I got the hang of loading it, it made a 

 very even pattern, remarkably free from patches; yet one 

 barrel would throw from six to ten pairs of shot in such 

 a way that one cut about half on the hole made by the 

 other. Wherever a pair of these twins struck the pene- 

 tration was nearly double that of the rest of the charge. 

 Where only a few pellets were taken, a gun like this 

 would roll up a mighty record in a penetration test. It 

 would shoot all sizes of shot well up to A; above that it 

 was worthless. 



The appearance of the modern hammerless comes in 

 for much adverse criticism. An old proverb says, 

 "Handsome is that handsome does," I readily admit 

 that at first sight it doesn't impress the old-timer favor- 

 ably; but now that I am used to it, to me it looks a clean, 

 trim, businesslike weapon — the peer of any made in any 

 age, and I have seen them all. For practical worth, it 

 beats the collection. It is handy and safe; and you never 

 fail to ring in that second barrel when you want it 

 because it is not cocked. My jiosition in connection with 

 the hammer and hammerle?s actions, is something like 

 that of the "Canny King of Kent," who, while he raised 

 a large altar for worship, erected a small one in a corner 

 for Satan; just to show "that he meant him no dishonor." 

 My favorite is an American-made hammerless. The 

 other, which I seldom use, is an English hammer, that, 

 though in the matter of ears it might not run a jack rab- 

 bit a very close race, would certainly scorn to ask any 

 odds of a Virginia mule. Average tile two, and they 

 make a pair of nice hammer guns. 



Occasionally we hear some talk about English vs. 

 American guns. The person of moderate means, for 

 whom either is not good enough, is, it seems to me, very 

 much like Uncle Lisha's customer, who objected because 

 the old shoemaker made him a pair of "right and left" 

 boots on a "right" last— he's "too dum p'ticklar." Ten 

 years ago the EngHsh were far ahead, for few American 

 makers then used even the extension rib. But between 

 the years '81 and '87 American gunmaking advanced with 

 a length of stride of which its friends may justly feel 

 proud, till now, for variety and ingenuity, the American 

 actions lead the world, in shotguns as in rifles and re- 

 volvers. 



It widens a person's views a little to get out from home 

 and see what is actually on the market. In '87 Greener 

 was supposed to have a monopoly of the automatic ejec- 

 tor principle. Yet in the spring of that year I found a 

 hammerless gun manufactured by D. Kirkwood, of Bos- 

 ton, well balanced, weU flnished and a good shooter, 

 which would eject automatically in as good shape as any 

 gun made, Mr. Kirkwood told me that he had been 

 making the same guu for four or five years. 



Bloosipield, N. B, L. Ii FtQWER. 



MOOSE HUNTING IN NOVA SCOTIA. 



LEAVING Lewis's Wharf , Boston, Sept. 16, on steamer 

 Yarmouth, I arrived at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, the 

 next morning. Going out on the wharf I found Nat, 

 who was to meet me here. Dumping my duffle into the 

 wagon after it had been "gone through" by the custom 

 house officer and a deposit left on the guns we proceeded 

 at a smart pace up the hill to Jones Hotel, where, while 

 breakfast was being prepared I put on my camp 

 toggery. 



The pleasure of getting into rough clothing on such 

 an occasion as this is known only to those who "have 

 been there." 



Our provisions having been securely boxed and placed 

 on the wagon we started. We stopped at Gilman's at 

 Tushet, for dinner. Here we had the pleasure of meet- 

 ing four sportsmen from Boston, and were in time to 

 help them dispatch some trout they had just brought in. 

 Mr. Gilman had taken them up to the Forks for a few 

 days, where they had had good lack with the trout and 

 partridge. 



A railroad rnns from Yarmouth up the west coast of 

 Nova Scotia, this side being thickly settled, and most 

 sportsmen go up to some of the towns there and "go in" 

 after moose from them. I prefer going in from Yar- 

 mouth first because it is the cheapest and fewer go in 

 from there. The Tusket River runs for many miles 

 tlirough this part of the country, its headwaters being in 

 a splendid moose coimtry. There is excellent trout fish- 

 ing in the river, but the canoeing facilities are poor, 

 omng to the many rapids, which is a lucky thing for the 

 moose. 



It was long after dark when we arrived at Rocking- 

 ham, Nat's home. We were welcomed by good Mrs, 

 Forbes, who proceeded to spread before us poor rain- 

 soaked travelers moose steak, apple jam, hot biscuits and 

 coffee; and to me it was a glorious repast. 



Sept. 18.— Arising early I found it still raining, as it 

 had been, according to Nat, for ten days past. After 

 breakfast, Nat's brother John, who is to be my moose 

 caller, came round. He is a fine specimen oE the Scotch 

 American, just in his prime, stm'dily built, and with the 

 reputation of knowing more concerning the habits of 

 moose than any man in the country. Last spring John 

 burned over a large tract of woods seventeen miles further 

 in, and he was going to take me there, feeling confident 

 we Avould find moose there, attracted by the tender shoots 

 which had sprung up since. But to get there we would 

 have to cross the Tusket River twice, and owing to the 

 present freshet he was afraid the oxen could not make 

 the trip. We had to take our duffle in on an ox team. 

 He proposed that we spend a few days with a party of 

 log drivers, and we started at once for their camp, five 

 miles away, reaching there in time to helj) them dispatch 

 their dinner of spuds, salt mackerel and tea. That after- 

 noon John went with the loggers, and taking my shotgun 

 I sauntered out back of camp looking for partridges. 



The country here is 8imi>ly barrens and swamps, huge 

 tracts of land having been desolated by previous fires. 

 These barrens in some places are almost covered by 

 quartz boulders, and sometimes stretch for miles, bounded 

 on either side by swamps covered with hackmatack. The 

 swamps are usually narrow, and crossing one we step out 

 on another barren which looks like the one we just left, 

 so that it is very easy for a tenderfoot to become lost. 



Tramping along the edge of the barren I came to a hard 

 timbered ridge, and succeeded in knocking down a couple 

 of partridges. They were so tame I could have killed 

 them with stones. I then turned back, not caring to 

 stray too far. On my tramp I saw at least a dozen rab- 

 bits." The last one presented such a pretty shot that I 

 bowled him over. 



It is interesting to watch these woodsmen erect a camp. 

 They look on trees as their natural enemies and show 

 them no mercy. Most of the timber here is spruce, pine, 

 "fire" and tamarack. 



We moved the camp on Friday morning to the two 

 forks of the Tusket at the head of a rapids, where the 

 logs had become jammed. The men went to work on the 

 logs, leaving Orin and me to build camp. I held down 

 the log while Orin did the erecting. Cutting two 

 crotched poles 8ft. long he jammed them into the ground 

 about 20ft. apart, then placed a cross pole in the crotches 

 and then placed a number of birch poles sloping from the 

 cross poles to the ground, binding the whole firmly to- 

 gether with writhwood. Over all was stretched a huge 

 piece of No. 8 duck and bound firmly to the framework. 

 Then breaking off armfuls of spruce branches he pro- 

 ceeded to shingle them into the ground, beginning at 

 the foot, and soon had a soft mattress made, being the 

 nicest bed I ever slept on. Then he fixed the fire for the 

 night. Felling some large birches he drove some back 

 stakes 3ft. from the shanty and piled up against them 

 four logs 10ft. long and a foot thictc for backlogs, placing 

 near a number of logs to "nigger" in two, together with 

 bark, dead wood and chips enough to last a week. It was 

 a healthy, dry, warm camp, and was built almost as 

 quickly as I can tell it. 



At noon it stopped raining, the sun came out, the wind 

 shifted to the west and John came to camp after me to 

 go with him over to Dennis's Lake to try for a moose. 

 Quickly tying some grub in a pair of blankets John 

 slung the bundle over his shoulder and picked up his old 

 Sharps .oOcal., with his caller stuck on the end of it, and 

 we were off. 



Crossin g the river in the loggers' scow, we tramped three 

 miles over barrens and tlu:ough rough swamps and arrived 

 at the lake. A little searching brought us to Dennis's 

 shanty, containing two bunks, a stove, table, stools, etc. 

 On tlie way we saw plenty of fresh moose sign. We 

 smoked and John spun yarns until dusk, and then had 

 supper. Starting a fire in the stove, John put on a kettle 

 of water to boil and then discovered he had forgotten to 

 bring any tea. So, Indian style, he made a decoction of 

 spruce, and we satisfied our appetites with spruce tea, 

 bread and apples. At dark we went back of the shanty 

 to listen, hoping we would hear a moose calling, but 

 heard none. John felt quite sure there were moose here, 

 however, having seen plenty of fresh sign. The nights 

 were getting quite chilly now, so going back to the shanty 

 we kept a rousing fire going and talked and smoked long 

 into the night. 



Sept. 19. — There was too much wind this morning to 

 expect good calling, but we went over some distance, and 

 John climbed on to a boulder and began calling for a bull. 

 A caller consists simply of a strip of birch bark about 



