47 2 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



LJtJNB 1, 1898. 



|A Maine Wardeii's Notions. 



Lowell, Me— Editor Forest and Stream: I will give 

 some of my ideas of the prospect of oiir game the coming 

 season. We have had such a winter that it would be 

 natural to suppose that partridges would have suffered and 

 died, but I have seen more partridges this spring than for 

 many yeare. The first of May I traveled through different 

 sections of the country and I could hear them drumming 

 in every direction. And I never have known of a winter 

 that was so favorable for large game as the past winter, 

 and I have not seen any signs of game being killed. 

 Such reports have been fewer than ever before. Reports 

 are often false; our newspa-per reporters catch on to all 

 conversation they hear and it is published for facts. 



The fish and game association that has been established 

 this year is without doubt going to do good work in pro- 

 tecting our fish and game, and our forests. Om- forest 

 fires destroy a great many partridges' eggs and young, and 

 the young fawn deer wilLhide in the brush and be burned 

 up. 



The worst class of poachers we have set forest fires for 

 the purpose of toling deer,- bears, etc., and it makes it also 

 more open groimd to see the game. There is quite a num- 

 ber of tliis class living between the Penobscot River and 

 Greenfield, and their prmcipal hunting grounds are burned 

 all that they can be, and as fast as weeds and bushes shed 

 leaves enough to carry the fire, it is set on fire again. 



One of the members of the newly organized fish and 

 game association told me that each member was made a 

 State warden, and that some of that class of hunters I 

 referred to had told him that if Darling ever leased any 

 lands it would be burned, etc. Now, so far as leasing is 

 concerned it makes no difference, for they always have 

 and will burn just as long as they axe allowed to go at 

 large, and they' should be arrested every time they are 

 known to ti-espass on wild lands, and from what I learn of 

 this association they are organized for the purpose of en- 

 forcing the laws on this class of poachei-s, and I believe 

 this is just what has got to be done to preserve our fish 

 and garne, and more especially our forests. J. Darling. 



Strange Vitality in Birds and Animals. 



I HAVE very often noticed in Foeest and Stkeam in- 

 stances of remarkable vitality on the part of large game. 

 Nobody seems to be able to explain it, and yet in this 

 enlightened age I am loth to believe that such is the case. 

 In my own experience many strange instances of vitality 

 have been remarked, especially in grouse. On one 

 occasion I shot a grouse, sitting in the snow about 70yds. 

 off, with a .44 Winchester. The bullet hit it in the back 

 and came out of the breast, and yet that bu-d flew about 

 30yds. before falling. At another time I shot a grouse, 

 running on a log, with my .45-90. I had no chance to 

 shoot its head off, so fired low down in the back. The 

 bird's entrails were completely carried away; nearly the 

 whole abdomen being shot off, and yet it crawled under 

 the log. Again I saw a grouse fly off with a No. 4 shot 

 through its neck. It went over 100yds. before dropping. 

 On another occasion I shot a hare through the heart with 

 a .22 rifle. He did not move. I threw down the lever, 

 inserted another cartridge and was just shooting again, 

 when he sprang a.bout 6ft. and died. I consider this 

 vitality very strange, because so many birds and animals 

 die at once from wounds which certainly seem far less 

 mortal, 



I believe tha,t it is a mistake to shoot at the heart when 

 sudden death to the game is imperative. Cats are sup- 

 posed to possess great vitality. Well, I have killed at 

 least half a dozen by shooting them between the eyes 

 with a .22cal. rifle, and only one kicked. The others 

 simply stiffened their legs and gave a few convulsive 

 shakes of the tail. I hope to hear some other instances of 

 this curious vitality I have mentioned, and will thank any 

 one heartily for any explanations. 



L. D. VON Ifelakd. 



That Dogless Gunner. 



Wants to Know What He Is.— I am a comparatively 

 poor man financially and have to work hard to earn my 

 hving. During the fall of the year when it is possible for 

 me to get away from work for a day, I take a gun and go 

 out for a shot at a parti-idge or woodcock. I have no dog; 

 can't afford one. Now, what I want to know is this: Am 

 I a sportsman, sport or pot-hunter? Probably on account 

 of my not being overstocked with this world's goods and 

 having to flush my own birds, the cry will again be— pot- 

 hMnteT.— Strawberry Bank, in Forest and Stream May 18. 



Pottsvelle, Pa.— In answer to "Strawberry Bank" I 

 would say that if he flushes his birds and kills them on 

 the wing he is not a pot-hunter, provided, of course, that 

 his bag is not too heavily laden. The absence of the dog 

 makes no difference. The fact of his not owning a good 

 pointer or setter is only his misfortime. I frequently himt 

 ruffed grouse by what we call "walking them up." It is 

 hard work and much more difiicult shooting than break- 

 ing clay pigeons at unknown ti-aps and unknown angles. 

 You have no indication of the whereabouts of the bird 

 imtil it flushes, it may be to [the right or left, to the rear 

 or in front of you, and more often out of range. 



Reml.\p, 



"Strawberry Bank" in last Forest and Stream wants 

 to know what he is. He's a natm-al cm-iosity : that's what 

 he is, and ought to be on exhibition at the World's Fair. 

 A man too poor to own a dog! Why the poorest man I 

 know o± owns seven, and woxdd take another if it was 

 offered him. jyjg 



Powder and Shot Measures. 



San Luis Potqsi,— Speaking of these I have felt not 

 only the maccuracy noted by J. H. G., but especially the 

 lack ot a measiu-e graduated for less than 2Mrs. and loz 

 My wife has a very light 20ga. gun, and I have had no 

 end ot bother trying to load it so that the recoU would 

 not.be unpleasant. I have appHed to all the implement 

 makers, but nobody has or can get a measm-e smaller than 

 that above noted. The Ideal loading fla.sk is compar- 

 atively expensive, but very satifactory for powder. But 

 what is one to do about shot? Why can't some factory 

 put on the market a handy measm-e graduated say from 

 "P- Ammo. 



Forest and Stream in the World's Fair. 



As Seen by Our Staff Correspondents, 



IV. 



May 24.— Mr. Chas. H. Townsend, of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission, late detailed for work at the World's Fair, 

 has gone to the Northwest coast to carry on work of 

 scientific inquiry. He joins the U. S. police ship Albatross, 

 which will- drop Mm off at some of the Alaska islands. 

 Mr. Townsend is of old experience in similar work in that 

 far-off corner of the world, and is possessed of a great 

 fund of information of interest to sportsmen. 



There is now in the new Esquimaux village on Stony 

 Island avenue a man by the name of Capt. Ford, who 

 was born of English parents in Labrador, fifty-four years 

 ago, and who claims that he has never until now left his 

 cold native coimtry. The Esquimaux seem liappy in their 

 new village, which has much of interest, in common with 

 the many other similar displays of the Ufe and customs of 

 wild peoples. 



The Smith & Wesson Exhibit. 



May 25. — Mr. M. H. Mclntire is on as the representa- 

 tive in charge of the exhibit of Smith & Wesson. Mr. 

 Joseph Wesson is expected to be present for a time 

 later, but is unfortunately ill at this writing and cannot 

 come. The display of this firm includes 192 revolvers of 

 11 different patterns, and in all calibers from the .22 up. 

 Many of the arms are elegant in the extreme, and most 

 of them are handsomely engraved. The engTaving on one 

 revolver alone cost $2,000. It is rather embossing or 

 chasing, for the gold and blue steel pattern stands up in 

 relief. Tiffany, of New York, did the engraving on the 

 silver "Arab model" butts of some of the revolvers. Much 

 of this work is artistic as any work in any field. 



Mr. Mclntire showed me a full set of the standard 

 gauges, to which aU the interchangeable parts must re- 

 spectively conform in the making of these arms. The fit- 

 ting seems wonderfully nice. Another odd thing, and 

 one not generally known as yet, was a self -lubricating 

 bullet, on which the fii-m has spent two yeai-s in experi- 

 ments, and which has been well mentioned inU. S. Gov- 

 erment reports. This bullet is hollow, being built around 

 a tiny copper tube, which traverses it and emerges at the 

 point. This tube is filled with the lubricant, and at the 

 base of the tube a little soft lead pellet is placed. At the 

 instant of discharge the gas drives this lead pellet forward 

 and up into the copper tube of the ball, expanding it so 

 that it carries the lubricant ahead of it, the latter being 

 thus forced out over the head of the ball as it goes out of 

 the barrel. It is claimed for this bullet that 7,000 shots 

 fired with it lead a barrel no more than twenty-five shots 

 with the solid ball. The firm will soon give away 100,000 

 of these bullets to introduce them. 



The cases when seen also contained a single-shot pistol 

 and a revolving chamber target rifie among other objects 

 of interest. Time would fail to speak fully of all the beau- 

 tiful but deadly weapons shown here; but the display is 

 worth study as showing one phase of the modern develop- 

 ment of the armorer's art. 



The Colts Exhibit. 



The Colts Patent Fire Arms Mfg, Co,, of Hartford, Conn., 

 have a simple but very effective display, shown in two 

 cases, a small and a large one. The latter is the one which 

 contained the products of the firrm in the expositions of 

 Melbourne, Philadelphia and Paris, and I understand the 

 arrangement of the contents is the same. In the center 

 of this case is a large portrait of the founder. Col. Samuel 

 Colt, and a very fine-looking man he was, too. About the 

 portrait are arranged the medals, and the decorative 

 motive shows all the makes of the Colts revolver, from 

 the tiny ,22 to the full-blown cowboy's friend with en- 

 graved pearl handle. The Colts revolver of 1833 is shown, 

 and a bayonet pistol of 1836, neither quite so handsome as 

 the present weapon, and there are a pair of old-fashioned 

 cap and ball revolvers, gold moimted, and hi their time 

 no doubt once thought magnificent. The world moves, 

 in revolvers as well as elsewhere. Two baby pistols, Colt 

 Derringers, set off the mammoth .44s and .45s. There are 

 110 pistols shown in aU, and of course one finds some mag- 

 nificent work in ornamentation, in ivory, pearl and other 

 fancy finishes, though for the most part the arms shown 

 are simple and plain. All the parts of the arms are shown 

 as they come from the drop-forging, and the curious will 

 look with interest on these members of the Colts gim 

 body corporate. There are also shown 24 Colts rifles, 

 from regular stock, and 12 fine specimens of the Colts 

 shotgun, ranging in price uj) to $350. In the case with 

 these are sectional parts of barrels, showing the curious 

 process of manufacture of the six -blades Damascus barrel 

 and the three-blades Turkish Damascus. Add to all these 

 things the full line of sectional arms, and one may get a 

 very good idea of what sort of goods he is using Avhen he 

 shoots a Colts six-shooter, rifle or gun. The display is 

 rounded out by a big brass Gafcling gun, which shoots 

 about a basketful of lead at a clatter. The progress of 

 American invention can nowhere be better seen than at 

 this case showing in silent comment the development of 

 an American weapon wJiich has made a revolution, and 

 perhaps helped put down revolutions of one sort or an- 

 other under many different skies. The exhibit is credit- 

 able to so great a firm. Mr. C. E. Willard, their Western 

 representative, is in charge. 



The Partcer Gun Exhibit. 



Capt. A. W. Dubray, representing Parker Bros., is in 

 charge of two long cases containing a double row, 50 in 

 each row, of the sterling Parker shotguns, over which he 

 presides with so fraternal a pride that you can not avoid 

 the thought that he made every one of them himself. 

 There are 100 of these guns, and they are arranged so 

 simply that the whole makes a very solid and impressive 

 display. There are two great glass front cases, which 

 cost $1,000 themselves (which, by the way. the authorities 

 disfigured by cutting down at the ends to 'get them with- 

 in the space, sawing ruthlessly through the handsome 

 heavy moulding). There is no ornamentation about the 

 case, and no special effort at ornamentation about the 

 guns, they being all taken,direct if rem stock. There are 



among the 100 guns three 20-gauges, of value up to $100, 

 twelve 16-gauges, up to a value of |200, about eighty 13- 

 gauges, of value up to $300, a few 10-gauges and still 

 fewer S-gauges. There is one fine eight-bore, which 

 Capt. Dubray calls his walrus gun. "Of course, you can 

 kill a walrus with a Parker 20-gauge," said he, "but I 

 recommend an eight-bore." 



When I say that no special attempt is made at ornamen- 

 tation in these goods, it is not meant that the guns are 

 not ornamented in then- finish, for many are as elegantly 

 engraved as one will see. The guns themselves are house- 

 hold words, and tliey make a good part of a valuable por- 

 tion of the Fair. 



The IVIarlin Exhibit. 



"I claim for our exhibit," said Mr. Marlin, secretary of 

 the company, ' 'that it is probably the largest collection 

 of repeating rifles ever gotten together. We have in one 

 case 160 repeating rifles, and not one is a duplicate of any 

 other. They run from the 15in. carbine up to the military 

 arm, single shot or repeater, and we think the aggrega- 

 tion is as handsome a one as any ever s'.^en." 



Mr. Martin's pride is certainly a justifiable one, and his 

 company can not have too much credit for the trouble 

 and expense it must have undergone to put this display 

 in place. It is a display remarkable for its variety and 

 brilliancy of ornamentation. There are rifles with AA^alnut 

 stocks, and rifles with white birdseye maple stocks, and 

 rifles with stocks as handsomely checkered by the finisher 

 as any costly English arm. There are rifles whose en- 

 graving must have cost a little fortune, and the 'engraving 

 shows the character of many different artists. There are 

 blue and gold rifles, and silver and blue, and gold and 

 silver, and all silver, antique silver, all gold, all blue, or 

 aU nickel and white, and all the combinations of these, 

 both with the walnut and the odd-looking light birds- 

 eye stocks. The whole is hardly less than bewildering, 

 and it shows how careful is the trade to please the fancy 

 of every individual shooter of this and of other countries. 



' 'It is hai-dly correct to say that these are special guns," 

 said Mr. Marhn, "for we make many such fancy patterns 

 for actual trade. Most of the gold and silver mounted, 

 highly engraved guns, and also most of those with the 

 wiiite stocks, go to the Mexican and Spanish trade. We 

 sell a great many in South America." 



About as handsome as any of these arms ai-e a pair of 

 .22s, all white nickel plate, barrel and all, with gold 

 trimmings. StiU another handsome thing is the lock- 

 plate of one rifle, which holds an etching of the old fence 

 on the Yale campus. Yet another similar piece shows 

 Osborne Hall, of Yale, on the place where the fence 

 once was. 



The Marlins show a single-shot which they think will 

 be better than the old Ballard. It is not yet quite ready 

 for the market. They also have a model '93, in .32-40 and 

 .38.55, the only repeater using these shells. They also 

 have a full fine of Marlin revolvers and pistols in their 

 cases. We might stop here for a showing of American 

 energy and thoroughness, but there is one thing more. 

 We hear much of catalogues, of course, but who has 

 heard of an American gun catalogue in the Chinese 

 language? The Marlin exhibit here contains one, aU in 

 Chinese, as used by their agents m selling the Marlin 

 goods in China. It strikes me America can take care of 

 herself pretty well. 



IVIore America. 



More America in two more cases near by, before and 

 after loading, as shown by the Ideal IMt'g. Co. and the 

 B. G. I. Co. The Ideal reloadmg tools are known every- 

 where, but I will warrant no one who has not seen this 

 display will be able to guess how many difl'erent sorts of 

 Ideal tools there are. There are shown 36 tools, each in 

 an average of 25 different sizes or cahbers. The aggregate 

 is startling. 



The B. G. I. Co. are much concerned to load and also 

 to clean a gTin. They show in their cases a confusion of 

 gun clothes and furriitTire such as I never before knew 

 existed. There are all sorts of loading tools and cleaning 

 tools, emery pastes, oils, everything the heart of the most 

 exacting gun could ask. It is hard to see how anybody 

 ever thought out all these things, but here they are, and 

 if there were no use for them here they would not be. 

 Most of these articles we have all met, one time or 

 another, biit how many have seen an auger that would 

 bore a square hole? That auger is here, in several sizes, 

 and the B. G. I case is artistically ornamented with pat- 

 terns of its tracing. 



It is too Big. 



The gun trade alone is too big to handle in one week's 

 notice. Several more American firms remain to be 

 noticed, the Winchester, the U. M. C. Co., the Lef ever 

 Arms Co., the Remingtons and others. The English 

 exhibits require separate mention also. It is hard to say 

 even a word for each, but every firm which has gone to 

 the trouble of sending an exhibit here is deserving of 

 credit, and if any of the friends of Forest and Strea31 

 have such exhibits at the Fair a word to the oflice of the 

 paper wiU secure a Adsit which wiU be a pleasure to the 

 visitor. It is part of the duty to tell its readers what is 

 going on in the sporting world and that can be learned in 

 good part among these representative showings at the 

 Fan-. E. HoUGH, 



909 Skccrity BtinjjiKG, Chicago. 



A NEW-SUBSCRIBER OFFER. 



A bona fide new subscriber sending us $5 ^vtU receive for that sum 

 the Forest and Stbkam one year (price $4) and a set of Zinamerman'a 

 famous "Ducking Scenes" Cad^ertised on another page, price $5)— a 

 $9 value for §5. 



This offer is to nem subscribers only. It does not apply to renewals. 



For $3 a bona fide nevr subscriber for six months will receive the 

 Forest ajjd Stream during that time and a copy of Dr. Van Fleet's 

 handsome work, rdtB„Portraits for the Yovuig" (the price of which 

 is,P). 



