72 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 27, 1894. 



the loss of 5ft. in 75 per cent, humidity is additional to the 

 loss of 38ft. in 85 per cent, humidity. 



Now, I hope Mr. Tenner will not be offended at my call- 

 ing his attention to the above, for there is no offense or 

 censor intended, and the above is called forth by the fact 

 that I desire to obtain as much information as possible 

 from his articles and want to be put right when wrong. 



J. M. C. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



"J. M. C.'s" assumption is correct. The actual total loss 

 in the case cited by him is 38ft. only. The values quoted 

 in Table O should be taken figuratively; they were merely 

 given to show the basis by which the various powders 

 have been judged in regard to their hygroscopic nature. 



Armin Tenner. 



Red Bank, N. J., Jan. 20. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Mr. von Lengerke says: "So little of Walsrode is safe to 

 use, that if a loader should put in a shell a double load, 

 which is easily possible and without detection, a broken 

 gun would be the result." He further states that the 

 agents dare not sell the powder in bulk, that it can be 

 used in specials only. 



As to his statement that we do not dare to sell it in 

 bulk, the hundreds of American sportsmen who have 

 applied for it and are loading it with best results know 

 better. The American sportsman is not so dumb as Mr. 

 von Lengerke would like to make him, he desires straight- 

 forward and fullest information regarding a new explo- 

 sive, not misleading ones. We have, it is true, refused to 

 put a new invention out at random until we could make 

 sportsmen familiar with it. Our instructions devised 

 by experts cover every point, and no sportsman desiring 

 to load his own cartridges is left in the dark about Wals- 

 rode powder, he cannot possibly go wrong unless he wil- 

 fully disobeys our instructions and overloads; and even 

 here Walsrode gives him fair warning to desist, and thus 

 we are able to-day to show a cleaner record than any 

 other explosive on the market. 



A double load cannot be detected, says Mr. von Len- 

 gerke. I will throw out a double load of Walsrode put 

 in by Mr. von Lergerke himself and mixed in one hun- 

 dred standard loads, in five seconds by the watch, and so 

 can any other sportsman. A double load of Walsrode, 

 either in specials or ordinary American shells, and loaded 

 as per instructions, can simply not be shotted. 



O. Hesse. 



DEER IN ONTARIO. 



Toronto, Can., Jan. 15. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Following the example of the neighboring States, the 

 provincial governments of Canada have passed stringent 

 laws for the protection of our game, notably deer. It is 

 not so many years ago since I saw in the Muskoka 

 country a couple of double sleigh loads of venison going 

 to the Bracebridge station for shipment to Toronto, where 

 the commission merchants made a good thing out of it. 

 Since then the law has been altered and now no one is 

 allowed to take more than two deer during the season,, 

 which this year was from Oct. 20 to Nov. 15. The season 

 of '93 was remarkably mild and as a consequence many 

 deer were left in the woods simply because they spoiled. 

 I know of one party near the head of Lake Joseph, Mus- 

 koka, that lost some ten or twelve through the heat. The 

 weather was more like late spring than fall. Everybody 

 I have spoken to, with the exception of two, favor a 

 season from Nov. 1 to 30, which would insure tolerably 

 cold weather. At Gravenhurst wharf on my way down 

 I made a photograph of some forty deer on their way to 

 the front, and the stench was such that the men in the 

 express car had to leave the doors open all the way to 

 Toronto. 



Before the present law came into force, American pot- 

 hunters, as well as our own, went into the north country 

 and slaughtered indiscriminately; but to-day all that sort of 

 thing has been pretty well stopped. 



The killing of moose, too, has been prohibited for some 

 years, yet a party of hunters within eight miles of where 

 I was this fall killed one. They were "smart Alecks." and 

 it was decided that the man who did the shooting should 

 inform on himself. He went to Rosseau, told his story to 

 a justice of the peace, and was fined the smallest amount — 

 $20 and costs. Of course he brought the moose with him 

 and it was confiscated. For safekeeping it was placed in 

 the barn of Monteith's Hotel, but, strange to say, hide, 

 hoofs and horns had disappeared by morning. This rather 

 annoyed Game Inspector Wilinott, and he lay low for the 

 party on their return. He found them at Beau Mauris, in 

 company with the foot of a moose, and the man in whose 

 trunk it was captured has contributed $50 and costs toward 

 the carrying out of the game laws. 



The charge of $25 to Americans for hunting in Muskoka, 

 Haliburton and Parry Sound districts would be consid- 

 ered very fair and just by many if they were allowed to 

 take their deer home with them; but the law prohibits 

 exportation. I know of one gentleman — in fact, he was 

 a member of our party — who comes from Lockport, N. Y. , 

 and who has hunted on Lake Joseph for twelve years. 

 Within that time he has not killed twelve deer, and yet 

 he has to my knowledge spent on Lake Joseph alone over 

 $8,000. The majority of the hunters here favor a small 

 registration fee to ail going into the country to hunt. 

 Americans should be charged a similar amount, but the 

 exportation of any deer they may kill should be prohib- 

 ited, or else a charge made equal to the value of the ani- 

 mal, so as to prevent pot-hunting. 



I am well aware that opinions differ regarding hound- 

 ing and still-hunting. Yet without expressing an opinion 

 pro or con I may say that the shortening of the hunting 

 season has had a noticeable effect on the number of the 

 deer. However, with all due deference to those who dis- 

 agree from my opinions I will say that I think the period 

 for hounding should be reduced to a couple of weeks for 

 a few years at least, and then let the remaining two weeks 

 be devoted to- still- hunting. I have had some experience 

 in hunting, for I have followed the caribou in Labrador 

 and the Hudson's Bay country, antelope on the prairie of 

 the Canadian Northwest and others of the Cervidoz in 

 the Rockies and British Columbia. 



Now to show how much some people know of deer 

 hunting and how easy it is to get petitions signed I send 

 you one that originated in London, Ontario, and which 

 was sent down here a week ago to the Maple Leaf Club, 

 with a request to secure signatures. It was accompanied 

 by a letter which stated that the petition had been signed 



by prominent business men, bankers and others, but it 

 never said that any hunter had signed it. 



PETITION. 



To the Honorable the Speaker and the Members of the House of 

 Assembly for the Province of Ontario: 

 We, the undersigned, beg to submit to your honorable body, and 

 humbly but earnes'ly beg to call your attention to the fact that dur- 

 ing the open season great numbers of hounds are taken into the 

 forests of the Muskoka, Nipissing and Parry Sound districts, where 

 they are let loose to hunt the deer, which, finding themselves beset 

 on all sides, immediately take refuge in the numerous lakes and bays, 

 where men are stationed in boats and slaughter them in great num- 

 bers. It is painfully evident that if this practice is allowed to con- 

 tinue a few more seasons it must end in the extermination of the deer 

 in those districts. 



Wherefore we, the undersigned, humbly pray that the heartless, 

 cruel and unsportsmanlike system of killing deer in the water, at 

 present in vogue in this province, may be stopped, and that amend- 

 ments to the effect following be made to Sec. 2 of the "Ontario Game 

 Protection Act of 1893." 



1. The open season for deer shall be from Nov. 1 to Nov. 19, both 

 inclusive, in each and every year. 2. It shall be unlawful to shoot or 

 take any deer or fawn while it is in open water. And your petitioners 

 will ever pray, etc. 



Of course the club would have nothing to do with it. 

 As a matter of fact, shooting deer in the water is a com- 

 paratively easy matter provided the deer takes to the 

 water and some one is there to get him. But the season 

 in Canada is later than in the Adirondacks and the deer 

 don't go to the water the very first thing when the lakes 

 have a temperature of about 32° F. Anybody at all con- 

 versant with deer hunting knows how an old buck will 

 play with a dog, particularly if the dog should be a slow 

 one. The buck has no intention of wetting anything but 

 his mouth, any more than his hunters, unless circum- 

 stances render it necessary. Again, there are very few 

 places in Muskoka where water hunting is carried on — 

 notwithstanding the protests of bankers, brokers and 

 other business men who sign a petition to the contrary. 



Wagush. 



ALVAH DUNNING. 



Alvah Dcjnning, one of the best known of the Adiron- 

 dack guides and hunters, and perhaps the oldest, for 

 Alvah says that as a boy he carried water for the soldiers 

 of the war of 1812, has fallen on the ice, fractured his 

 skull, and a doctor who was called to attend him says 

 that he cannot recover. Mr. Wm. H. Durant, owner of 

 Camp Pine Knot, on Raquet Lake, had the old man 

 carried to one of his cottages and has hired two men to 

 care for him. A correspondent of the Glens Falls Star, 

 writing to the editor from Raquet Lake, says that Alvah 

 had $270 in currency in his pocket, and although he was 

 known to have had $500 in gold besides, he has not been 

 able since the accident to tell where he hid it. Those who 

 have a copy of the report of the New York Forest Com- 

 mission for 1892 will find the sole illustration of the 

 volume to be a reproduction of a photograph by Stoddard 

 of old Alvah standing in the doorway of his cabin on an 

 island in the Eighth Lake of the Fulton Chain. Those 

 who have ever seen him will recognize the figure at once, 

 although the face is hidden in the shadow of his hat, 

 His hound sits by the side of the door and a deer' is 

 suspended on a pole near by. He had another camp on 

 Osprey Island , in Raquet Lake, which long ago made way 

 to civilization in the form of a modern cottage. It was 

 this island, by the way, which was named for Mr. Murray, 

 who made the Adirondacks so famous, but when it was 

 changed to Osprey there was nothing left in the whole 

 Adirondack region with which Adirondack Murray's name 

 was connected. 



In Stoddard's illustrated lecture upon the Adirondacks 

 he shows on the screen two pictures of old Alvah Dun- 

 ning, and in this way his face has become familiar to 

 thousands who never saw him. In one he stands holding 

 a ruffed grouse in his hand, and a good picture it is, but 

 to me there is something pathetic in it when I think of all 

 the big game Alvah has killed, and then to be caught by 

 the sun with a little bird in his hand as a trophy of his 

 skill, It is reasonably sure that old Alvah Dunning killed 

 the last moose killed in the State of New York, although 

 this act is sometimes credited to ex- Governor Horatio Sey- 

 mour. 



Four years ago it was reported that a moose had been 

 killed near Long Lake and I asked Mr. C. E, Durkee, then 

 superintendent of the Adirondack Railway, to investigate 

 the matter for me, and he saw T Alvah Dunning and Jack 

 Shepherd, found the statement was untrue, and then re- 

 peated to me that Alvah killed the last moose, so far as 

 known, over twenty years before that time. 



When "Ned Buntline" lived at "Eagle's Nest" on Eagle 

 Lake, Alvah was in his prime, but Ned and Alvah held 

 different views about the manner of killing game, and it 

 came to the point of armed neutrality, and many stories 

 are told to this day about the two men and their scraps. 

 One will be sufficient to relate here, and it is told for the 

 cold truth to the present time. Ned did not believe in 

 hounding deer, and Alvah did, so Ned warned Alvah not 

 to let his hound run over his property at Eagle's Nest and 

 said if he did he would shoot the dog. One day during a 

 blow on the lake Alvah landed with his hound but stood 

 with his legs astride of the dog's neck. Ned asked if 

 Alvah landed for refuge, and Alvah said no; for conven- 

 ience, whereupon Ned shot the dog from between Alvah's 

 knees. That is the story; but Ned Buntline told me there 

 was not a word of truth in it. He said he warned Alvah, 

 who knew enough to heed the warning. That Alvah was 

 lawless about killing game, and he taught hiui one or two 

 lessons for his own good. Old Alvah is about the last of 

 the old-time hunters who have lived alone in the woods 

 in northern New York and found sufficient companionship 

 in nature for his needs during the long winters, and 

 "guided" for a living in the summer. That such a. man 

 should, after long years of peril by field and flood, come 

 to his death by a fall on the ice such as one might get on 

 Broadway, is one of the ironical phases of fate. 



A. N. Cheney. 



Ohio Game Birds and Seasons. 



The Ohio Fish and Game Commission reports that they 

 were not remarkably successful in the experiment of intro- 

 ducing the English and Mongolian pheasant into the 

 State, the eggs and old birds coming too late. They 

 recommend that the open season on quail, ruffed grouse or 

 pheasant, wild turkey and rabbit, be made uniform, and 

 that the law be so amended as to make the open season on 

 squirrel, snipe, duck, rail, marsh-hen, plover, woodcock, 

 geese and brant, meadow lark and dove, from the first day 

 of September to the fifteenth day of December. 



Willie Wick. 



CARIBOU IN AROOSTOOK. 



In many parts of Aroostook county, Maine, caribou are 

 found in fair numbers. During the past three years I 

 have spent two weeks or more in Township No. 7, usually 

 starting on my trip the latter part of November. The old 

 Aroostook road runs through this section and the houses 

 (with exception of an occasional settlement) are about 

 four miles apart. 



When hunting for caribou in this region it has been 

 difficult to know where to look for them, they would be 

 here to-day and to-morrow quite a distance away. They 

 seemed to be continually going somewhere and never to 

 get there. Many a time have I taken an early start and 

 going east from the house I was staying in and cruised all 

 day over miles of ground, hard-wood ridges and spruce 

 swamps, seeing plenty of signs whf re my game had 

 been during the past few days, but failing to find a fresh 

 track and returning at night to find that the game I had 

 been looking for had been during the day all through the 

 •woods west of the house, and at times almost within 

 shooting distance of it. 



The caribou as I have found them in this region were 

 much easier to still-hunt than deer. Many of the local 

 hunters siid that they never had any luck trying to still, 

 hunt deer, but could generally do well with caribou. A 

 man living in that region who is a successful hunter said 

 to me, "A caribou is the numbest thing we have in our 

 woods." They do not seem to pay any attention to teams 

 on the road, often crossing quite close to them, They 

 would come out in the open fields quite close to the 

 houses. Three came out one day within 150yds. of the. 

 house I stayed in, and were shot at four times by a boy 

 before they left; another crossed a field within sight of 

 the house and was followed and killed. 



Following a single caribou, however, I have found to be 

 often rather discouraging. A caribou when traveling 

 alone is likely to keep it up for hours, and as they are fast 

 walkers the chances of coming up with one (unless it 

 stops to browse or lie down) are not very good. I have 

 followed and killed two in this way. One I followed 

 about half a day, and was getting discouraged when I 

 came up with him. The second I saw crossing a lake on 

 the ice, and five minutes after it entered the woods I 

 was on its tracks and followed it nearly a mile, walking 

 as fast as I conld before getting a shot; of course, when 

 still-hunting caribou, whether singly or in droves, any one 

 lias to work carefully. They may not be as wary and 

 constantly on the alert as deer, but they are by no means 

 fools. 



Some remarks have been made recently through the 

 columns of Forest and Stream regarding the horns of 

 the cow caribou. I have talked with men who I know 

 have seen and killed a great many caribou, and they claim 

 that not over one out of every three of the cows they had 

 seen or killed had horns. My own experience is some- 

 what different, but I have not seen one caribou where 

 they have ten, although I have seen and shot fully as 

 many as two-thirds of the sportsmen who go to the Maine 

 woods. Of seven caribou I have seen which I know 

 were cows, all had horns. One of them I shot thinking- 

 it was a bull. This cow had but one horn and that was 

 quite large (for a cow) with a number of points. Another 

 cow I shot whose head I have, has a very even set of 

 horns, each horn measuring 12in. in length, and eight 

 points on both, A cow I saw soon after it was shot had 

 a very pretty set of horns measuring 14in. in length (each 

 horn), and having twelve very regular points. 



Regarding the horns of the bulls, the men stalked with 

 all said that I would not find a bull with a heavy set of 

 horns after Dec. 1, they claiming that they dropped 

 their horns fully three or four we^ks earlier than moose 

 or deer. A large bull I saw when on my last trip which 

 was killed about Dec. 5, had dropped both horns and 

 from appearances they had been off for some time. 



Winchester, Mass. C. M, STARK. 



MORE TALK ABOUT THE .22. 



Claremont, S. Dak. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 have been greatly interested in the recent articles on the 

 .22 rifle. 1 am not an expert, but I have had some expe- 

 rience and made some shots with these little guns that go 

 a long way in my own mind to prove the "prairie dog 

 shotf'of "Diamond Walt" perfectly possible. I once shot 

 what is called here a prairie eagle at a distance of a few 

 feet over 40 measured rods. The bird was standing on the 

 ground, his back toward me. The bullet struck him at 

 the base of the neck. He fluttered around a little after 

 he was shot, but did not have life enough to get on his 

 feet again. He measured about seven feet tip to tip. I 

 shot him with a Stevens rifle and .22 short cartridge; this 

 was ten years ago, and my experience is that the .22 am- 

 munition is of much better quality now than at that time. 



Since this discussion has been going on we have been 

 making some experiments with a new model Marlin rifle, 

 (the only good .22 here), the rear sight being a Lyman 

 leaf, we cannot do any target shooting with it over 150yds. , 

 hut if " Tode" will take his station at that distance and 

 let me shoot at him, I will guarantee he will find the 

 "spot" he tells about so emphatic that one will last him 

 a life time ; and that in future he will have a greater re- 

 spect for a .22 short. We find this Marlin .22 good for 

 jack rabbits, prairie chickens, &c, up to 150yds. 



The small rabbits are frequently seen in the streets of 

 our little village, and one day this fall I shot at one over 

 a block (800 ft.) away, breaking his hind leg. This was 

 done with a cheap rifle and .22 short cartridge. 



I hope " Diamond Walt" will go East and see Mr- Fel- 

 lows, for though he may not succeed in putting eight out 

 of ten shots in an 8m. bullseye at 303, one thing he will 

 do will be to convince Mr. Fellows and some others that 

 they are " not on" to the possibilities of a good .22 rifle 

 with the .22 short. Pocket Gopher. 



Appleton, Wis., Jan. 13, 1894. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream : Gentlemen, 1 have been an interested reader of 

 the ,22cal. controversy and am surprised at the widely 

 different results reported in this week's issue. "Plains- 

 man" speaks of the poor penetration of the .22 short. 

 There must have been something wrong with gun or am- 

 munition. I have been doing a little shooting with a 

 .22cal. target pistol, "Stevens diamond model," 6in. bar- 

 rel, with XL M. C. short cartridges. I can hitthe bul lseye 

 sometimes, and could of tener it I could hold as well as the 

 pistol shoots, but as for penetration, every bullet shot goes 

 right through two inches of white pine, and half at least 

 of them will be buried in a plank behind the target at a 

 range of 60ft. Penetration enough. C, V. Y, 



