Dec. 8, 1892.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



491 



A PANTHER ON A LEDGE. 



Did I ever hear a panther scream? 



Well, I can'l say that I ever have, even after an ex- 

 perience of many months where they were plentiful, 

 and signs could be fonnd at any time, and after losing a 

 horse or two by reason of the varmints, but the evidence, 

 to my mind, that they do scream is certainly more con- 

 vincing than that the woodcock when startled whistles 

 "Johnny Get Vour Gun" or some other ditty with his 

 bill. 



But if I cannot bear positive evidence in regard to the 

 panther's scream, I can give some facta in regard to 

 hair standing on end, even if I cannot describe the sensa- 

 tions, for it was not my hair. 



In the fall of 188-, in charge of a surveying party', I 

 was in the Sierra Madre, on the line between Chihuahua 

 and Sonora, and one morning ;sent a negro man several 

 miles to the rear to bring in a station flag which was no 

 longer required. 



As the flag was on an elevated ridge and not approach- 

 able very near by riding I had no expectation of Char- 

 ley's return before 3 or 3 o'clock in the evening, and had 

 loaned him my riSe, instead of the shotgun he usually 

 carried, for there was a possibility of deer, bear, or even 

 Indians on the lonesome ride. 



About noon, glancing up the rough trail leading into 

 the valley in which we were camped, I saw Charley re- 

 turning, forcing old Sorrel to rather a dangerous gait, 

 and on his near approach perceived at once that some- 

 thing exciting had happened, for an "ash of roses" tint 

 on a real black face is unmistakable evidence of troubled 

 feelings within. 



Charley threw down the flag and dismounted, rifle in 

 hand; then after glancing around him worked the lever, 

 removing a cartridge from the chambpr and replaced it 

 in the magazine, looking anxiously at me as he did so, 

 for it was an imperative rule that no gun was to be 

 brought into camp loaded. 



To my natural question — "What's up?" — came Char- 

 ley's answer, "Say, boes, wha' kind o' beasteses hus got 

 in dis countryF' ('Twas only after considerable inquiry 

 that I found he had seen some animal.) "About "^nine 

 feet long, yaller, gray or brown, big paw like a cat and 

 dat stared at him wid big eyes wide open." I concluded 

 he had met up with a Mexican lion. 



The badly demoralized darkey was, however, at last, 

 drawn out to tell the main facts, and it appeared that he 

 had climbed up to the ledge or shelf on which the flag 

 was fixed, which ledge was some 7ft, in height and nearly 

 perpendicular. A fallen rock below and some crevices 

 above ofrered means of scaling. So Charley carefully 

 pushed the rifle up, and mounting the rock, with a 

 spring succeeded in gaining equilibrium on the edge of 

 the ledge. 



There, not 6 ft. from him at the foot of the mound stay- 

 ing the maguay pole and flag, the lion was stretched out 

 just aroused from his nap in the morning sunshine. 



Charley said he screamed — that is, Charley did — and 

 "that de ha*r on his head stood straight up an' push his 

 hat off and den he let' go all holts and came down flam." 



The situation for the scared negro was then hardly bet- 

 tered, for he dared neither to retreat down the mountain 

 nor attempt to regain the rifle, which was still on the 

 ledge; but recovering his wits to some extent, with heavy 

 hunting knife in hand he decided to get the rifle, as the 

 attempt could be made out of sight. 



The rifle recovered, the next move was to hold it above 

 his head with both hands and shoot in the supposed direc- 

 tion of the lion and instantly to jump under protection 

 of the rocks. 



No startling results following Charley cautiously crept 

 under the protection of the ledge to the end of it, and 

 with exceeding doubt as to the propriety of the move, 

 gained the line of the flagstaff, and after a careful survey 

 no lion being in sight, advanced and removed the flag. 



No time was lost in retreat and return to camp, and 

 Charley when joked about his knotty wool rising up only 

 answered; " 'Fore God, Massa, dis nigga's wool rizz'd 

 right up straighl'r dan dat reached greaser's," referring 

 to the Mexican cook, who wore his hair d la pompadour, 

 ■ There was probably no imagination in the aft'air, but 

 Charley's wool had subsided to its usual tightly knotted 

 state. J. V. B. 



Texas. 



*THE BREECHLOADER AND HOW TO USE IT. 



. It is perhaps not generally known that the first use small 

 shot in firearms was by German peasants and sheptierds about 

 the middle of the sixteenth centnrr. They used tlae single barrel 

 wheel lock musket, but about a hundred years la*er double barrel 

 guns had been made, and again a century after that, these double 

 barrel guns were bonnd togethnr hj ribs. In the early part of the 

 present century the flint lock fowling piece was thought by the 

 sportsmen of the day to be an admirable weapon, and among our 

 readers there may be some who can remember the discussion 

 which followed the introductiou of the percussion cap. It seems 

 but a few years ago since the sporting papers seriously discussed 

 the question as to whether the breechloader was as good 8 gun as 

 the muzzleloader. What will be the nest improvement in shot- 

 guns? 



The latest work on this subject Is from the pen of Mr. W. W, 

 Greener. It would, perhaps, be diiHcult to name any one more 

 competent than this gentleman to write on guns. For many 

 years he has been a manufacturer of shotguns and is thoroughly 

 familiar with ail the technical details of these weapons: he has 

 made a study of all the earlier history of the fowling piece, and 

 he is also a sportsman of large experience. His earlier works, 

 which are familiar to many of our readers, while they contain 

 much valuable information, are yet sometimes technical, but in 

 the present volume he has given us a work which is thoroughly 

 popular and must be read with interest by every man who uses a 

 gun. It will be of especial value to those who have only recently 

 taken up shooting, and yet every sporteman, no matter how wide 

 his experience may be. will gain from its peiusal some new ideas, 

 or will iind here confiimed facts that he has learned from his own 

 shooting. 1 



In his brief introduction to this volume of nearly 300 paees, Mr. 

 Greener says: "This treatise is written for that numereus class 

 of sportsmen who delight in a day's shooting, but have neither the 

 time nor the means to make the sport a life's study. Published at 

 a popular price, it will, it is hoped, reach many who have hitherto 

 been deterred from shootitig, believing it to be an espenaive recre- 

 ation. The author's aim is TO induce all he can to participate in 

 a manly sport and to advance the interest of those who can look 

 to the gxm for pleasure, health and occupatiou. 



"The book is not written for experts, nor for those who have 

 special opportunities for the acquisition of the art of shooting: 

 and in order to make it as attractive as possible to the general 

 reader, many matters that would interest the enthusiastic shot 

 only have been omitted." 



I iMr. Greener wastes little time in introducing his subject and 

 almost immediately enters upon a consideration of gun barrels, 



* The Breechloader, | and How To Use It, I by | W. W. Greener. 

 I author of '"The Gun and its Development, "Modern Shotenns," 

 "Choke-Bore Guns,"' '''Modem Breechloaders," etc. | Illustrated. I 

 Cut. I Forest and Stream Publishing Co., | New York 1 1893. 1 

 Price $1. 



describing how they are made and what metals should he used for 

 them. In this connection he gives an intpresting figure of bulged 

 and burst barrels, of which he writes as follows: "All bulges 

 shown in the illustration were caused by placing a small charge 

 of shot between two felt wads (as a thick felt, then the shot, then 

 a thin felt) at the spot where the bulges are and firing an ordi- 

 nary charge I'rom the gun. The burst was effected by increasing 

 the charge of shot between the wads, the bulges appearing about 

 1.5in. from the breech end after firing. As many as five thick 

 wads may he placed in any part of the barrel of the gun fired 

 without causing a bulge, but as proved by experiment often the 

 small quantity of %oz. of shot placed between wads at any place 

 in the barrel will cause a bulge, even as near as 9in, from the 

 breech. Difforent aiees of tlie bulges iu the illustrations were 

 Ci» used by di ff erent charges of shot. The shape of the burst indi- 

 cates the extent of bulging before bursting." 



There is much iu Mr. Greener's chapter on the shape and dimen- 

 sions of gun slocks which is interesting, and many of our readers 

 will he surprised at statements made here and at flgtires given 

 showing the way in which gun locks can be changed and twisted 

 to fit special conditions. The cuts on page 99 are very curious and 

 the figure of the rational gun stock given on page 87 is also quite 

 novel. Pueaders of Forest and Steeam who so frequently write 

 in to know how they may free their guns from rust should read 

 the statement that "water boiling hot kills rtist." This probably 

 means that if the barrels are greatly heated by boiling water and 

 then wiped off, they dry so speedily that all dampness is removed, 

 while the subsequent oiling prevents the rust from taking hold. 

 On this same page see also the statement that a wire knitting 

 needle or a bodkin is the best implement to use in putting lubri- 

 cants on a gun, a fact which is by no means so well known as it 

 ought in be. 



The discussion of patteru and penetration is interesting read- 

 ing, and these are subjects with which every one who uses a gun 

 should familiarize hituself. It is. of course, a well-known fact, 

 that pellets of shot reach the target at difEerent times; that is to 

 say, that some pellets travel faster than others. These different 

 rates of velocity Mr. Greener calls stringing, and they meau that 

 at the tims when the first pellets of a charge would strike the bird 

 at 40yds., the slower pellets have not then reached a distance of 

 SO.vds. from the muazle of the gun. About 5 per cent, of the 

 pellets of a charge arrive simultaneously at the target. These 

 are closely foUawed by about 3.'> or 30 per cent, and it is this 30 to 

 40 per cent, of the pellets which practically represents the killing 

 value of the cha,rge, for the remaining pellets either do not reach 

 the mark in time to do any good or else drop from the charge, or 

 turn off to one side or the other from the line of flight. If, there- 

 lore, some effective means could be devised of making all the 

 pellets go together, the range and so the killing power of the gun 

 would be greatly increased. This was the purpose of the old wire 

 cartridge of muzzleloading days which sometimes did execution 

 at astonishing distances. 



The question of choke bores us. cylinders is one upon which 

 Mr. Greener has written a great deal and about which he feels 

 strongly. He is an ardent advocate of choke boring and would 

 carry it in many cases to the extreme of its limit. The import- 

 ance of the system has been abundantly demonstrated in many 

 ways, but, of course, its value depends largely on the character 

 of the ground to be shot over. For shooting partridges in the 

 open or grouse on the moors, or ducks or prairie chickens, the 

 value of this system of boring can hardly be over estimated, but 

 for some of our shooting here, such as quail, woodcock or ruffed 

 grouse in the thick covers of the Southern and Eastern States of 

 America, we are inclined to believe that the cylinder bored gun 

 is often more useful than a choke bore. 



Perhaps no chapter in Mr. t+reener's book is more interesting 

 than the one which treats of gunpowders, shot, cartridge cases, 

 loaded cartridges and so on. In speaking of the nitro powders he 

 states that the best wood powder gives about 30 per cent, solid 

 residue and 70 per cent, available gasses, and that therefore one- 

 half the charge of powder by weight is equivalent to a full, charge 

 of black powder, in which there is 65 per cent, of solid residue and 

 only 35 per cent available gas. He states that the smokeless 

 powders are rapidly superseding black gun powder for most 

 sporting purposes. 



Very useful and valuable is the chapter on How to Use a Gun, 

 and it is fully illustrated by figures of position while performing 

 mo3t of the acta incidental to shooting. The danger of a gun is in- 

 sisted on everywhere, and yet it is shown that a gun properly used 

 is as safe as any other implement. 



The concluding chapter of the volume is devoted to pigeon 

 shooting from the trap?, a sport which continues to grow in favor 

 in England. In this chapter are given the rules for shooting at 

 Eurlingham and many hints for succpss in shooting at the trap. 

 The remarks on pigeon shooting scores are devoted very largely 

 to those made by Americans, Messrs. Brewer, Pulford, Bogardus, 

 Carver and, Elliott being the names most frequently m'^ntioned. 

 Something is said of inanimate targets, the old-fashioned glass 

 ball and tne various so-called clay-pigeons manufactured in this 

 country. Rules for inanimate target shooting are given and some 

 record^, as w'=ll as some description of how experts shoot, the ex- 

 perts b^ing all Americans. The volume closes with a letter ex- 

 tracted from the London Field on grouse driving by Sir Frederick 

 A. Millbauk. 



The subjects discussed in this valuable book are fully illus- 

 trated by cuts and engravings, manv of them full page and of 

 great excellence and beauty, and the work is one which ought to 

 be in the bauds of all sportsmen. We do not recall any volume 

 which at so small a cost contains so much useful and pleasantly 

 told information. 



Im mid ^mr 



The. Fish Laws of the United States and aand4(t, M Sh-e 

 "(Jamc Lmvs in Brief, ^' 35 centJi. In the "JBoofc of the 

 Game Laws" {full text), 50 cents. 



"That reminds me." 



A Habtfobd insurance man gave his son Toots a toy 

 gun a few days ago, which Toots proceeded to break on 

 the first day, and so badly did he smash it that his papa 

 could not fix it, much to Toots's sorrow. 



When prayer time came Toots said as usual, "Clod bless 

 papa and mother and make Toots a good boy ;" then he 

 passionately but irreligiously added, ''but I'd a blame 

 sight rather you'd fix my gun." A. C. Collins. 



Habiford, Conn. 



ROD AND GUN AND CAMERA. 



As a recognition of the important place of amateur photography 

 in its relation to sports of the field and prairie and mountain and 

 forest and stream, the Fobest and Stream offers a series of 

 prizes for meritorious work with the camera. The conditions 

 under which these prises will be given are in brief as here set 

 forth? 



There will be ten prizes, as follows: B'irst S33. Second 820 

 Third ?15. Fourth 810. Sis of $5 each. 



The competition will be open to amateurs only. 



The subjects must relate to Forest Ami Stream's field— game 

 and fish (alive or dead), shooting and fishing, the camp, campers 

 and camp life, sportsman travel by land or water. 



There is no restriction as to the time when the pictures may 

 have been or may be made— whether in 1893 or in previous years. 



Pictures will be received up to Dec. 31, of this year. 



All work must be original; that is to say, it must not have been 

 submitted in any other competition, nor have been published. 



There are no restrictionB as to make or style of camera, nor as 

 to size of plate. 



A competitor need not be a subscriber of Forest and Strham. 



All photographs will be submitteed to a committee, shortly to 

 be announced. In making their awards the judges will be in- 

 structed to take into consideration the technical merits of the 

 work as a photograph, its artistic qualities; and other things 

 being equal, the unique and difficult nature of the subject. 

 Photographs must be marked only with initials or a pseudonym 

 for identification. With each photograph should be given name 

 of sender, title of view, locality, date, and name of camera. 



The photographs shall be the property of the Forest ANn 

 Strbaat. This applies only to the particular prints sent t^s. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



The Lion and the Lamib. 



To a man up a tree it would appear that some of the 

 people in the Adirondack wilderness are unduly exer- 

 cised concerning the appearance of the pike, or so-called 

 pickerel, in some of the trout lakes in that region. I say 

 some of the people, for it is only a few of tne people in 

 the Adirondacks who propose, through fear of what the 

 pike may do to destroy other fish, to introduce black bass 

 to destroy the pike in the waters where they are unwel- 

 come. Others of the people propose to fight the pike iu 

 a common sense sort of fight and keep them down to a 

 point where they will do little or no damage to the trout 

 in the same waters. It appears to the man up a tree that 

 the people are unduly excited, because in other waters 

 (streams where the trout and pike meet on more common 

 ground, or in more common water, than in a big, deep 

 lake) where the lion-like pike and the lamb-like trout 

 consort together, the anglers who are most interested in 

 the.se fish express no alarm that one will destroy the 

 other. In these other waters a Chinese wall fifty feet 

 high has been erected to keep out the black bass, but no* 

 one, so fax as I can find out, has ever entered a protest 

 against the presence of the pike in trout streams, 



I have a letter before me written by Mr. William Sen- 

 ior ("Redepinner"), angling editor of the London -F^^'eZd., 

 to Mr, R. 15. Marston, editor of the London Fishing Ga- 

 zette. Mr. Senior had been fishing some trout and grayling 

 water in Hampshirej and this is an extract from the let- 

 ter: "The grayling did not rise at all. All the fish I saw 

 rise I killed — trout Silbs., trout l^-lbs. (about), pike SlbSr 

 (about) and three grayling, one about lilbs,. the others 

 small. No wind, water glassy, everything deadly still." 



In justice I must say that in auottier part of the letter 

 there is an explanation that "killed," so far as the trout 

 are concerned "means, in this instance, caught, after 

 which they were returned to the water alive. But think 

 of it — pike, trout and grayling in the same water, and no 

 proposition made to introduce black bass to kill the pike! 

 No, these British anglers bear the ills they have, and do 

 not trouble themselves to fly to others that they know 

 not of. 



Ditto = 



Mr. Edward Marstou in the little book "Days in Clover," 

 which I mentioned a week or two ago, writes of his catch 

 in the Wye on one occasion as follows: "A few roach , 

 some fair sized perch, a small trout now and then, and an 

 endless number of the pestering little samletS; which we, 

 of course, threw back to their own element,, were all w& 

 could boast about." This is still worse, Eoaeh, young 

 salmon and small trotit, all at the mercy of the deadly 

 and to be dreaded yellow perch that has cleaned out some 

 of the trout waters in the Lnited States according to 

 official report. But that which follows is perhaps the cap 

 sheaf, and is found in the same volume: "Piscator 

 waded, he threw his flies over every inch of the water, 

 he spun his minnows in the finest style across every pool 

 and up and down every stream, but neither pike, nor 

 salmon, nor trout, nor grayling rewarded his energy." 

 This was also in the Wye, so the deadly perch must have 

 been lurking about too, although they are not men- 

 tioned with the pike, the salmon, the trout and the gray- 

 ling, that were so unsuccessfully sought after. The 

 author mentions these different species of fish in the same 

 water rather as if they constituted one happy family in- 

 stead of a devouring brood that lived chiefly to prey one 

 upon another. I wonder after all if there is not a heap 

 of rot that is being preached about the destructivenese of 

 some of our fishes? Most fish are built that way, and it 

 is to be expected that they will keep their stomach lined, 

 and well lined, and even modern fishcixlture cannot 

 change the inherent nature of a fish. To be sure, there 

 is a certain amoimt of ill-advised stocking of waters with 

 unsuitable fish that is going on mo.st of the time, but the 

 impulsive, rushing Yankee is learning wisdom slowly 

 concerning the kind of fish to place in certain waters, and 

 he is not working in the dark to the extent that he has 

 been, only to repent of his haste later. 



Contradictions. 



There can be no fixed rule to follow in the practice of 

 stocking dilferent waters even with the same species of 

 fish, to say nothing of the uncertainty of results in many 

 cases of stocking different waters with difl;erent species 

 of fish. I know beyond the peradventure of a doubt that 

 in a pond that fairly swarmed with pike the introduction 

 of black bass was the means of wholly and entirely ex- 

 terminating the pike, so that to-day not one is to be 

 found. Yellow perch were in the pond with the pike, 

 and they are there now with the bass apparently undi- 

 minished in numbers. Yet Herr von dem Borne tells me 

 that in Germany the pike are destroying the introduced 

 black bass in many waters where they have been planted. 

 In one of the Adirondack lakes in which the pike 

 have made their appearance unheralded and un desired, 

 and where it is proposed to plant black bass to destroy 

 them because they prey upon the trout, a large trout was 

 caught during the past summer and in its stomach was 

 found a number of young pike, which it had eaten. In 

 still another lake in another State it is claimed that the 

 introduction of black bass destroyed the yellow perch 

 and made the trout, upon which it is said the perch had 

 been feeding, as plentiful as in the days remembered so 

 sweetly by the oldest inhabitant. Some of the apparent 

 contradictions regarding the habits of fish can be recon- 

 ciled wlieu the varying conditions that existed in eaoli 

 instance are explained, but the best rule to follow in 

 stocking new waters with a new fish is to go slow. This 

 "blowing yom- horn if you don't sell a clam'* has worked 

 injury that the horn-blowers have found out when it was 

 too late to fill the cart with other merchandise. 



Snipe on a Fly. 

 Not long ago I gave in Forest and Stbeam under the 

 sub-heading " Caught on a fly," a short list of beasts, 

 birds and things that had been caught at one time or 

 another by anglers when fly-fishing for fish alone, T 



