138 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



IFeb. 17, 1894. 



lanterns were carried, and the deer gathered together ill 

 a group with their eyes turned toward the lights. The 

 guide stood in a corner and as the other ineh moved 

 about suddenly the deer rushed for the guide's corner in 

 a body, and all he could do was to make himself as small 

 as possible and hold his arms over his face, for the deer 

 fairly climbed up the man in a mass until they reached 

 the ceiling. After this exhibition the guide did not 

 have left on him clothes enough to wad a gun. 



The yearlings and fawns were much wilder after cap- 

 ture than the old does, and all the buck fawns but one 

 were released as soon as their sex was discovered. The 

 ■old does could use their feet for other purposes than tear- 

 ing the clothes off the guides, for when one was taken 

 into the boat, and before it could be tied, it expressed its 

 disapproval of the proceedings by stamping its feet so 

 vigox-ously that It stamped a hole through the side of the 

 boat. 



All told, 19 deev wore taken alive, 18 of them being old 

 does, two years and upward, and one buck fawn. To 

 capture this number Mr. Powers estimates that from 100 

 to 150 deer were started and run by the dogs. The quick- 

 est work was when three does were taken in three hours. 

 Besides the deer that were captured alive about 40, mostly 

 bucks, were killed. This came about from the fact that 

 other parties were hunting at Indian Lake (all the deer 

 were captured at Indian Lake except one, and that was 

 taken in Lewey Lake, which is near by), at the time that 

 Tom Powers's men were conducting their hunt, and it 

 was arranged that whether the deer were run by dogs 

 employed by the State or by dogs owned by the sports- 

 men, the bucks were at the mercy of the sportsmen, while 

 all the does were to be unmolested by the sportsmen that 

 Powers's men might capture them. 



Tom tells me that there is a growing sentiment in the 

 Adirondacks against killing female deer, and that the 

 deer are increasing very fast. I wish that there was a gro w- 

 ing sentiment against running deer with dogs, and then 

 shooting them wile swimming in the water. In saying 

 this I am fully aware that few will echo the wish, for 

 ■deer hounding is very popular, and he who opposes this 

 method of hunting will find himself unpopular, in the 

 woods. Men can kill deer in this way who could kill 

 them in no other way, and it would require a rock-ribbed , 

 iron-bound statute to prevent deer hounding, even if such 

 ■a statute could be passed, which I doubt. Aside from the 

 question of the sportsmanship of shooting a swimming 

 deer, venison that has been "run" by the hounds is not to 

 be compared for the table with "still-hunted" venison. 

 From all parts of the North Woods come reports that the 

 deer are increasing, and I hope that it is so, but it must be 

 remembered that a score of dogs are now used where for- 

 merly there was but one, and the scores are greater in 

 consequence. A. N. Cheney. 



A Suggestion for Game Preserves. 



.Rochester, N. Y., Feb. 1.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 So much interest is manifested of late in game preserva- 

 tion, without, I regret to say, correspondingly good 

 results following, that I offer a suggestion for considera- 

 tion by some one who may be in a position to make the 

 experiment. It is to take measures that will result in 

 returning some of the domestic fowl to a wild state, so 

 that when the native game is extermined in a district 

 sport may again be had there if those interested take the 

 pains to restock the ground with domestic birds that 

 would resume a wild life. Of course, our tamest fowl 

 came from stock that was as wild as any grouse, when 

 our own ancestors were wild men of the woods. As 

 some people claim that the passion for shooting is a sur- 

 vival of the instinct for the chase by which primordial 

 man obtained food, may it not be that there is a remnant 

 of their ancestral wildness in chanticleer and his flock 

 that uuder suitable cultivation would develop them into 

 fair substitutes for our disappearing ruffed and pinnated 

 grouse? It naight take a long course of training to break 

 them of their tameness and give them by practice strength 

 of wing to fly fast enough to insure sport. 



It would be interesting to watch the result if fame 

 bantam eggs were introduced in the nest of a ruffed 

 grouse as substitutes for some of her own and the young 

 hatched together. Would the old bird discover the cheat 

 and resent the attempt to mix the children up by com- 

 mitting infanticide? If the substitutes came to light 

 would they learn the art of self preservation from the 

 practice of their twin brothers and sisters. Here is a 

 clue for some future Darwin to follow and find some 

 amusement at the end. On a preserve that was large 

 enough it ought to be possible in the course of a few years 

 to reawaken enough of their old love for liberty in the 

 turkey so as to transform the tame bird into the alert and 

 wary gobbler of early days. But it would be useless, 

 except as an experiment, to try the suggestion anywhere 

 outside of a preserve. When so many are now found dis- 

 osed to follow the last grouse in a woods until he is 

 rought down, what would they not do to get a turkey. 

 Why would it not be worthy of consideration for some 

 of the clubs or the State Sportsmen's Association to have 

 wild turkeys introduced in the forest reservations now 

 maintained by the State where deer are protected. They 

 could, to be sure, fly out, but some of them might fly the 

 other way and escape from civilization, its gins and guns. 



E. Redmond. 



THAT PLANK. 



The Sale of Game Should be Forbidden at all Seasons. 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



If the mail is rapid enough, allow me the honor of 

 being among the first to climb on the plank. Make such 

 a law, and every other game law may be wiped out, and 

 the game will stay with us and with our children. 



Everett @"Donnell. 



Lowvillb, N. Y., Feb. 1. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



You "hit the nail on the head" in your editorial last 

 week, and you want to put a spike in that "plank." A 

 law against the sale of game can be enforced. A few 

 years ago we had a county law against sending game out 

 of the county. I happened in one of the express offices 

 one evening and saw a bunch of quail and woodcock 

 which was marked to go to Buffalo. I told the express 

 agent that if he carried them I would make complaint 

 against him, and he refused to take them. I found them 

 there the next morning after two trains had gone. 



J. L. Davison. 



OREGON NOTES. 



I wish that every sportsman in the United States could 

 see the mounted specimen of Cervus canadensis that 

 stands in the show window of the Ockerman & Dietrich 

 Company, corner of Washington and Sixth streets, Port- 

 land The elk was killed in the Olympic Range and was 

 mounted by Fred Edwards, taxidermist of Tacoma. There 

 are probably a hundred men in Tacoma that have seen elk 

 at their homes in the wilds, and it is the universally ex- 

 pressed opinion of all that the specimen above referred to 

 "takes the cake." One never sees a pair of elk antlers 

 that are perfectly regular and even, bdt this pair is the 

 most regular and about the most handsome I have ever 

 seen. Six points without a wart or a scratch. Beautiful 

 mahogairy brown except the tips, which look like polished 

 ivory. Here are some of the dimensions of his majesty: 

 Height at shoulders 5ft. lin., height at top of head 6ffc. 

 5in. , length f rom nose to tail 7ft. , length of antlers 4ft. 5in. , 

 spread of antlers 4ft. 8in., circumference of body Oft. 9in. 



The elk is mounted on his own skeleton, and having 

 been in perfect color and form when killed, and having 

 (luckily) fallen into the hands of an expert taxidermist, it 

 is but natural that Portland sportsmen should claim the 

 proud honor of possessing the finest mounted specimen of 

 elk in the United States. 



As has been before remarked, we have had no duck 

 shooting: this winter. Since the first day of November the 

 waters have been extraordinarily high. Now and then 

 the sun woidd smile down on us, of course, and our hopes 

 would rise correspondingly, but only to be again damp- 

 ened at once by an "Oregon mist" of a week or more 

 duration and out of Oregon's old, original stock. It really 

 has been an unusual winter. The "old settler" says that 

 he has never before seen its like. Well, the natural result 

 was that the ducks, not being able to find the deep down 

 food, went on to California, where the boys have had the 

 best duck shooting for years. Our loss, their gain. 



But spring has come. The tree frogs are heard in the 

 land and the robins nest again. And with spring comes 

 the festive canvasback on his way to the land of the mid- 

 night sun. I do not believe in spring shooting, but our 

 legislative bodies do, or always have heretofore. I guess 

 that, under the circumstances, I will have to believe in it 

 for the nonce. I don't like to keep shells over the summer, 

 you know. J. Roberts Mead, my "pard" in the Oreen 

 Lake, was down there yesterday. He says the canvas- 

 backs are coming in in great numbers. He thinks there 

 must have been a thousand or more in the lake, and more 

 a-comin. If the water continues falling for the next 

 week as it has during the past, It is a safe txvo to one bet that 

 there will be ten thousand cahvasbacks in the Oreen Lake 

 a week from to-day. 



Will you kindly inform me what has become of ' 'Pod- 

 gers" and "O. O. S."? Truly, I feel as if some of our 

 family were either away from home or dead unless they 

 "come up Bmiling" for another round in Forest and 

 Stream now and then. You remember "O. O. S.'s" story 

 about killing the cougar with a hand-spike, on the Pii- 

 chuk, out in this country, some time ago. Well, do you 

 know that Smith has me mortal enemy here inconse- 

 quence of that story? A certain very amiable, very estim- 

 able sporting friend of mine settled here about that time 

 from Hartford, Conn. He is a sportsman from the ground 

 up, but he came here imbued with weird ideas of the wild 

 and woolly West, and he implicity believed all that Smith 

 said in his famous cougar story, of course. He had day- 

 mares and nightmares about savage cougars and such, 

 until one day I happened to remark tha.t Smith was a good 

 man, but could tell the most infernal yarns of any man I 

 ever read after. My friend eyed me closely for a moment 

 and then pointedly asked, "Why?" "Do you suppose for 

 a moment," I replied, "that cougars go paddling around 

 in deep water like muskrats? And, too, did you ever 

 stop to think how providential it was that Smith should, 

 in turning to avoid the angry, swimming mother cougar, 

 find ready at hand a nicely-fashioned hand-spike with 

 which to beat out her brains, particularly in a country 

 where the shadow of a white man was seldom seen. 

 And then, too, how kind and considerate and affection- 

 ate the male cougar was to swim in and get the baby 

 cougar," etc. But before I concluded my friend's thoughts 

 were far away playing tag with two monsters, one on the 

 Pilchuk, the other at a place called Newton, Pa. From 

 that day to the present my friend has never mentioned 

 Smith's name* although I am extolling his mprits and vh*- 

 tues nearly every day. Do you know that he really feels 

 that Smith premeditatedly, maliciously wrote than yarn 

 just simply for the purpose of imposing on him individu- 

 ally, and he never, never will forget or forgive. 



P. S.— Forest and Stream of Jan. 27 just at hand, 

 wherein I see that "O. O. S." and "Awahsoose" are airing 

 themselves and their ideas of the best way of disposing of 

 the nuisance that argues politics in camp. Tie a stone to 

 his neck and drop him in the Pilchuk for the cougars to 

 feast upon. 



My friend, Charles F. Johnson, of Chicago, who has 

 been spending a month or more down the Columbia, back 

 of Woodland, in Cowlitz county, Wash., just dropped in 

 to tell me that he had had and intended to have a 

 great time with the fauna of that great country. He 

 reports elk, deer, bear and cougar very plentiful, and one 

 would think, to hear him tell it, that big game are about 

 as plentiful down there as Cherokee steers are on the 

 Texas plains. I think that Charley is entitled to all this, 

 for he is one of those appreciative hunters that gets the 

 full benefit of such surroundings and knows how to mani- 

 fest his appreciation of such environments. 



Last summer my friend, J. R. Mead, designed and tied 

 a new fly for trout. Judge Cheney described the fly in 

 detail last summer, and expressed the belief that it would 

 become a great favorite for both trout and bass. The 

 wings are a waxy hackle, long, and lie low and droop- 

 ingly, as if in an undeveloped state, while the legs and 

 tentacles are of furnace brown hackle. The body is of 

 yellow floss silk, wound with silver tinsel, full and plump, 

 with red tip. It is the "trout bug" of the Oregon boy, and 

 a very good imitation of this interesting Cadis fly. We 

 expect great results from this fly the coming season. Mi'. 

 Mead caught 22 trout one afternoon last fall, the smallest 

 lib., the largest 21bs; 18 out of the catch were caught on 

 the Mead fly. His whip carried three flies. Most of the 

 larger fish we took last summer were taken on this fly. 



Mn Mead has been distributing them among sportsmen, 

 and we hone to hear good reports from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific next fall. I believe it is the greatest fly yet tried 

 for western trout. Appropriately enough, the wings are 

 secured from the lovely Mongolian pheasant. 



S. H. Greene. 



Portland, Ore., Jan. 30. 



THE POWDER TEST. 



Editor FOresi and Stream: 



The variations in velocity and the bursting strains given 

 by black powder in Mr. Tenner's valuable tests show well 

 against the nitros, but at the same time are greater than 

 those ordinarily produced by this explosive. As chemist 

 for a powder company, the writer has access to records 

 taken daily for the last fifteen year?, and in no case can 

 he find a consecutive string of twenty shots with the 

 differences recorded at Carney Point.. Remarks about the 

 Hahn gauge are made with diffidence, as the machine is 

 unfamiliar; still it seems possible that the sudden 

 pressures exerted by nitro brands act too quickly to over- 

 come the inertia of its several parts, and that it is respon- 

 sible for at least some of the above unreliability. When 

 makers depended on the pendulum years ago, a clever 

 superintendent could, on this principle of, inertia resist- 

 ance, "throw" further with a slow blasting charge than 

 with a first-class grade of sporting. 



, Mr. Tenner's summary by points of merit is interesting, 

 [ but the trouble with all of us posessing the instruments 

 for making accurate tests is that we are biased in favor 

 I of particular explosives. This consciously or uncon- 

 sciously affects results when we theorize. Mr. Tenner 

 evidently considered his trials as a competition between 

 the various nitros, rather than a broad one between nitro 

 and black powder, and bis arbitrary scale does not 

 emphasize the very superior showing made by the latter 

 in stability and high velocity. 



Had a black powder manufacturer been present at the 

 tests, he would have suggested a few changes in them. 

 In the first place, all the black brands used were cheap 

 ones, and FFF (FFF.G) is too small grain to give good 

 pattern results. It is to be regretted that something 

 approximating nearer the nitros in cost was not em- 

 ployed. Then it is well known that two or more of the 

 nitros shot lose Velocity rapidly if chilled, one of them 

 becoming Unreliable when long exposed to a temperature 

 from twenty to twenty-five degrees, In a table claiming 

 to fully classify explosives, the omission of such a series 

 Was a grave oversight. 



Our manufacturer might have aBked, ag well fof a 

 record with shells containing maximum loads, bdt thesie 

 "dipped" by an outside person instead of being carefully 

 weighed. Much stress was laid by Mr. Tenner on the dis- 

 advantage of overcharging. It is impossible with a wood 

 fibre grain as now made, to dip or pour equal weights 

 from a bulk measure. In tests for sportsmen, the trial 

 would have been quite legitimate, as they are interested 

 in service and not laboratory loads. 



In the writer's humble opinion, "evenness of velocity" 

 should have received many times the prominence allowed 

 it in the merit percentages. This is the one thing that 

 wing or rifle shots must have. Black powder is inferior 

 to its newer rivals in residuum and recoil, and has been 

 superceded in certain kinds of shooting where velocity is 

 of less imporiance than smoke. But for the varying con- 

 ditions found in the hunting field, we that believe in salt- 

 petre think that nitro-cellulose can never be manufactured 

 satisfactorily. Its responsiveness to any change in con- 

 ditions is inherent, and sportsmen are becoming educated 

 in ballistics. D. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Unless your readers are blessed with an exceptionally 

 high degree of endurance, I should judge that the powder 

 test controversy must be growing tiresome to them. It 

 certainly has lost its charms for me, and I have concluded 

 to have with this and with your permission, my final say 

 in the premises, no matter how strong the provocation 

 and temptation may hereafter be for the contrary. 



"T. H. Or.' 1 considers my basis of rating the properties of 

 a gunpowder an arbitrary one. I readily admit that it is 

 open to objection; but I am equally confident that any 

 basis "T. H, G," may suggest would meet with the same 

 fate. 



He thinks I oUght to have given all the details and 

 figures as employed for rating some of the properties not 

 accompanied with the dates in question. Well, I have 

 been quite liberal in furnishing figures and hate been 

 more explicit in the premises than , others are undo* 

 similar conditions. If "T. H, Or. can produce a similar re- 

 port more detailed than mine, he would oblige me by 

 stating where it ever has been published. 



Testing institutions, as a rule, do not make public tests; 

 they rarely publish all the details, for the simple reason 

 that the latter create just what I experienced. They are 

 misunderstood and misconstrued by persons believing that 

 powders ought to behave like a clock, and that men criti- 

 cise a worJs: they are less acquainted with than they sup- 

 pose, Mr. G. says that a cold test is more important than 

 a dry-heat test. I claim that they are about of equal 

 value. Has he ever considered to what a degree of heat a 

 powder is subjected when used in summer in the sun and 

 in the field? The temperature chosen by me for the teat 

 has not originated with me; it is the temperature employed 

 by all military authorities in Europe for a similar purpose, 

 and I venture to say that these authorities know what 

 they are doing. How could I have made a cold test in 

 summer? To reduce the temperature of the powder and 

 gun metal to a degree of -(-10° does not suffice, and I could 

 not afford to have a refrigerator built for the purpose at 

 my expense offering ample facilities for such a test, and 

 my experience is that many persons find it cheaper to 

 criticise a powder test than to contribute toward carrying 

 it out. "T. H. G." thinks that the black powder did. 

 better in point of pattern than I acknowledged. Those 

 who conducted and witnessed the tests believe different. 



He takes issue with me again on the question of the dif- 

 ference in the arrival of pellets at a given point driven by 

 a fine-grained powder and those propelled by a coarser 

 grained black powder. 



We will never agree on this point, I fear, for the simple 

 reason that I cannot admit that birds fly at the enormous 

 speed of 60 miles an hour, and because Mr. G. forgets or 

 is not aware of one important fact. The velocities regis- 

 tered by the chronograph are lower, and must be lower, 

 as they are in reality. Now, when a person knowing 

 these facts makes a statement as made by me, and which. 



