818 
owder rifle was recently expatiating upon the merits of 
is gun, and among the many good qualities possessed 
he said that a bullet fired from the gun had a velocity of 
S^OOOft. per second, and then, in the next breath, in- 
formed me of the astonishing fact (?) that it shot point 
blank up to 200yds. What is the real truth in this case? 
The bullet has a trajectory of over 6in. at that distance 
and an actual drop of over 8 in. I While at 300yds. its 
trajectory is 14in. with an actual drop of nearly 20in. ! 
tn regard to the accuracy of these "crochet needle" guns 
the least said the better for the rifles, as it is an established 
fact that the one commendable feature of these arms — a 
, low trajectory — is obtained by sacrificing accuracy. 
Any one who doubts this statement would do well to 
consult those disinterested expert rifle shots who were 
furnished with samples of smokeless powder high velocity 
rifles about a year ago for the purpose of testing their 
accuracy, and after fair and impartial trials made their 
report, wbich was so uncomplimentary to the guns that 
the manufacturers withdrew them and begged the marks- 
men to allow them a few years more in which to produce 
a more perfect arm. If not convenient to find one of tbe 
above marksmen try one of that company of military ex- 
perts who again gave this class of guns a fair test a few 
months ago, and were so keenly disappointed at the re- 
sult that they would say nothing, but were finally induced 
to show the score, which was so astonishingly poor that I 
dare not record it here for fear of taxing the credulity of 
the readers of the Forest and Stream, H. B. S. 
Norwich, Conn., Mareb 30. 
Spring Shooting'. 
Wabasha, Minn., April 4. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The annual spring slaughter of ducks has commenced 
here, and ten times as many ducks are being killed now 
as last fall, owing principally to the fact that the lakes 
and ponds throughout the Northwest are very dry, and 
there u more water in the Mississippi Valley than else- 
where, and the birtis in their northern flight follow the 
river. I don't care who he is, high or low, rich or poor, 
any man who will go out in the spring and slaughter a 
lot of ducks or any other kind of fowl bears the charac- 
teristic ear-marks of the "great American game hog," 
notwithstanding any excuses he may make to the con- 
trary. But men of this stamp are as a rule not susceptible 
to or have no ability to feel or conceive any of the divine 
attributes of true sportsmanship. Wapahasa, 
Fox Lake, Wis., April 6. — Ducks, mostly bluebill, are 
quite plenty on the lake, and several flocks of redheads, 
pintails and mallards have been seen. Wild geese are 
also flying Borne, and one or two have been shot. Two 
sports from Milwaukee shot sixty-nine ducks yesterday, 
nearly all bluebills, and 80 per cent, of them were males. 
A large flock of big white swans were on the lake to-day. 
They were pure white and a fine-looking bird, as near as 
could be seen. Four of them settled just outside of a 
flock of decoys in use by a couple of hunters and were 
fired at with four charges of No. 4 shot, but their heavy 
plumage and the distance shot at, about 80yds. , prevented 
their being brought to bag. D. J. H. 
Oshkosh, Wis. — I saw in the Chicago Inter- Ocean 
to-day that Messrs. R, B. Organ, Will Muesey and Ed. 
Bingham, of Chicago, bad just returned from Lake Kosh- 
kenny, Wis., where they had killed 200 ducks. I Bhould 
like to ask the gentlemen if it is true and what they did 
with the ducks. Of course they took none home with 
them, as that is against the law. In fact, isn't it against 
the moral laws of sportsmanship to shoot ducks in the 
spring anyway? Agamok. 
Gibson Wells, Tenn., April 5.— Snipe are here and in 
great numbers. I have had some of the most enjoyable 
days I ever had, and made some very creditable bags. 
My son Dan and I on March 26 bagged forty-three. Oa 
the 27th, 28fch and 30 ;h thirty-five and a number of smaller 
bags. The snipe here give a dog a chance to work some 
on them, as they lie in low sedge fields and slashings 
where the water is not over ankle deep. I predict a great 
quail crop the coming season, as there are a great many 
birds left over. R. B Morgan. 
Vermont Deer. 
The Rutland Journal of April 8 reports: Deputy 
Sheriff Stearns and Slate's Attorney J. C. Jones went to 
Mendon yesterday to investigate the shooting of two deer 
which were found wounded on Monday in that town. 
The deer, a buck and a doe, were found on the mountain 
road beyond Mendon City. The buck, which was an ex- 
ceptionally large one, weighing nearly 3001bs., had been 
shot through the head and the doe was torn and cut up, 
apparently by a dog. Both deer were alive when found 
and were taken to a barn in Mendon, but they were 
too badly injured to be saved. Can. W. Y. W. Ripley, 
one of the officers of the fish and game club of this 
city, was notified of the killing of the deer and a search 
for the guilty party was at once commenced. The author- 
ities have a clew as to whom the guilty person is, but no 
arrests have yet been made. It is thought that the deer 
was shot by some one who was rabbit hunting and who 
shot on the impulse of the moment and not with the 
direct intention of killing the animal. The doe was prob- 
ably pursued and overtaken in the deep snow by the 
hound belonging to the hunter. 
Under date of April 9 the Herald reports: C. P. Goss, 
who lives on a farm near South Wallingford, discovered 
hree deer, two bucks and a doe, in one of his meadows 
Tuesday afternoon. The animals were very tame and, 
though the Bennington & Rutland track runs through 
the meadows, the deer did not appear to be frightened at 
the passing of trains and remained until evening. 
There was another development in the Mendon deer- 
shooting case yesterday that may help the officers in run- 
ning down the party or parties guilty of mutilating the 
deer found Monday. 
Joe Neddo, a lumberman living in Sherburne, brought 
a dog to the city yesterday which he claims he found 
chasing deer in the Mendon woods. According to Neddo's 
story he was in the woods late Tuesday afternoon and 
heard dogs barking near the place where he found the 
wounded deer on Monday. Thinking that there might 
be trouble, Neddo followed the sounds and soon came upon 
a fine deer wallowing in the snow a short distance in 
front of two dogs. The animal was bleeding from some 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
kind of a wound in the flank and was thoroughly ex- 
hausted, Neddo captured one of the dogs, frightened 
away the other and let the deer escape. The dog which 
Neddo brought to this city he thinks is one owned by a 
man named Gsno, who lives on the Mendon stage road 
not far from the Sherburne line. 
Sportsmen in this vicinity are much wrought up over 
the wanton slaughter of deer that has been recently 
brought to light and they will spare no pains in appre- 
hending the guilty parties. 
A Pennsylvania Scalp Competition. 
Wilkes Barre, Pa., April 9. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Luzerne County Sportsmen's Club has in- 
stituted a hunters' and trappers' prize competition, the 
rewards being cash prizss of $40, $30, $20 and $10 to the 
four persons having the highest number of points to their 
credit for killing the birds and animals named, and to be 
counted as follows: Catamount 11, fox 10, weasels 7, 
mink 6, great horned owl 5, hawk 4, skunk or polecat 2, 
owls other than horned 1. The contest commenced April 
1, 1896, and will close March 31, 1897. No two or more 
persons will be allowed to forma combination or partner- 
ship by placing skins, scalps or heads together to help 
another secure a prize. Contestants must produce the 
heads of all birds and the skins, or scalps with both ears 
attached, of the animals. The birds or animals to be 
counted must be killed in Luzerne county. Each con- 
testant shall make affidavit that all rules governing this 
contest have been complied with. Scalps, skins and heads 
may be returned at any time to any member of the un- 
dersigned committee, by whom a record will be kept. 
The result will be announced a few days after the contest 
closes. 
E, A. Rhoads, H. S. Reets, T. B. Harris, J. F. O'Neill, 
Committee. 
Chicago as a Shooting Resort. 
In "Chicago and the West" in Forest and Stream of 
April 11, Mr. Hough gave a brief though alluring pen 
portrait of New York as a peaceful, restful hamlet, in 
which the overworked brain toiler might obtain a bene- 
ficent outing, free from the business pressure, selfish com- 
petition and mental strain incident to life in a really 
great city. We know now what constitutes Mr. Hough's 
idea of a pastoral hamlet, that is to say New York city, 
but the following from the Times-Herald, of Chicago, 
somewhat confuses us on his ideas of a really great city, 
meaning Chicago: "Hunting is especially good in Michi- 
gan avenue. People lined the lake front and filled the 
big hotel windows to watch more than 200 sportsmen 
shooting ducks yesterday. There was a continuous rattle 
of shots all day, the birds falling one by one in passing 
over the lines of small boats from the Illinois Central sta- 
tion to Randolph street. Two prairie chickens flew across 
the park in the afternoon. One, befuddled by the sights, 
and probably weary from long flying, turned in front of 
the Auditorium and started toward the building. It Bpied 
an Easter exhibit of flowers, and, imagining it a good 
place to rest, dashed against the window. A big crowd 
gathered about the stunned beauty, the boy who captured 
it finally starting to find a bird store." Bowery. 
What the Gun Did. 
C. E. McDonald, engineer of the switch engine in this 
city, is a badly battered up but much wiser man to-day. 
While the locomotive was standing on a side lracfi: near 
Colchester yesterday, he discovered some wild g*>ese in a 
pasture near by. Some boys were near with a shotgun, 
which they loaned him to kill a goose. He rammed in 
two loads of powder and shot, either one of which would 
have blown up a howitzer, and creeping up on the geese, 
blazed away with both barrels at once. For a while it 
was difficult to tell which was the worst injured, the 
geese or the shooter. Mr. McDonald was rendered un- 
conscious by the ' 'kick" from the gun. His face, head 
and hands were badly bruised and cut. Fortunately he 
recovered consciousness in a short time and is now all 
right except the bruises. He only succeeded in wounding 
one goose, which was run down and captured. As a 
"kicker," that gun could give some of Macomb's citizens 
a beating. — Macomb {III.) Journal. 
The Unearned Increment. 
One night we decided to lay for black duck at a pond 
which lay about five miles from the house. We arrived 
there before the sun had set and so did not go to our blind 
at once, but started to walk around the pond to see if we 
could start up a duck from the reeds which grew about 
the edge. I went around one side and my companion 
the other. I found that I was getting wet and so struck 
up on to a small level place which led away from the 
pond, when suddenly I came on a puddle full of lilypadB, 
and in it sat two black ducks. I determined to kill them 
at all cost, so I took good aim and fired, and then up from 
the pond came three more; at these I fired and got one. 
On going down to the pond I found three ducks dead in 
the water. After picking these up I returned to the blind, 
where we lay till it was so dark we could not see, when 
we returned with only four ducks, my companion not 
having got a shot, and now I am the envy of all the 
sportsmen in the neighborhood. O. C. W. 
New Jersey Game Seasons. 
The new law, in effect April 14, makes the open sea- 
sons: Rabbits and quail, Nov. 10 to Jan. 1; woodcock, 
month of July and Oct. 1 to Dec. 10; snipe, months of 
March, April and Saptember; ruffed grouse, Oct. 1 to 
Dec. 10; reed and rail birds, month of September; squir- 
rels, month of September and Nov. 10 to Dec. 10; plover 
and doves, months of August and September. 
New York Game Law. 
New laws permit the killing of deer on Long Island on 
each Wednesday in November; extend to 1900 the close 
term on Mongolian pheasants; make the open season for 
black and gray Bquirrels, hares and rabbits, Oct. 15 to Feb. 
15, ferrets forbidden; the Long Island season remains Nov. 
1 to Dec. 31; and Wayne, Onondaga and Oswego counties 
are excepted as to use of ferrets, 
[April 18, 1896 
ANGLING NOTES. 
' The Smelt of Lake Champlain. 
In Forest and Stream of March 28 I wrote of the 
smelts, or as they are called locally "ice fish" of Lake 
Champlain, and said that I believed that they were not 
permanent residents of the lake, "as they are caught 
only through the ice in February and March, and a 
search for them by the anglers in the summer and fall 
months has proven fruitless." My friend Mr. Rowland 
E. Robinson has written me a letter upon this subject, 
from which I quote: 
"Hon. M. F. Allen, of that place (Ferrisburg, Ver- 
mont), told me a few years ago of catching pike-perch 
off Split Rock, in Lake Champlain, that were gorged with 
smelt. I do not recall the date, but it could not have 
been earlier than the middle of June, and may have 
been in July or August. Mr. Allen is an old angler, well 
acquainted with the varieties of fish common in our 
waters, and could not have been mistaken in the identity 
of the smelt. 
"I well remember seeing an occasional specimen among 
the great hauls of other fish taken in the old days of un- 
restricted seining on the then famous fishing ground 
at the mouth of Lewis Creek, the Sungahneetook, or Fish- 
ing Weir River of the Waubanakees. These facts go to 
show that the smelt remain in the lake during at least 
part of the summer," 
The author of "Uncle 'Lisha" is the first person to my 
knowledge residing on or near Lake Champlain to call 
the smelt of the lake by its proper name, or, in fact, to 
admit that it is a smelt. That Mr. Robinson has himself 
observed the smelt among the fish caught in the lake, 
and that Senator Allen bears like testimony, should settle 
the question of their presence in the lake in summer. 
There is a whitefish found in Lake Champlain the young 
of which might be mistaken for the smelt when found 
inside other fish, unless the observer was familiar with 
both species, but this would not apply to either of the 
gentlemen quoted. A strange thing about the smelt is- 
that they have not been caught by those who have 
searched for them in the summer months. My information 
on this subject comes from fishermen at Port Henry only. 
A year ago, when smelt fishing through the ice was at its 
height, I visited the fishermen on the ice, and questioned 
them as to their knowledge of the smelt in the summer 
months. All agreed that although search had been made 
for them they had not been taken. Another Btrange thing 
is that no one seems to know anything about where they 
spawn. 
The Tuna of California is the Horse Mackerel. 
In a note about the tuna of Santa Catalina Island I 
Btated that I had asked President Jordan to identify the 
fish, as it is not mentioned in his "Synopsis of the Fishes 
of North America," and he writes me under date of 
March 31 from L9land Stanford Junior University, Cali- 
fornia: 
"The tuna, which is now caught in considerable abun- 
dance off the coast from Monterey southward, is the tunny 
of Europe, of which the proper scientific name is Thun- 
nus thynnus. When I was on the Pacific coast before I 
did not see this fish. I, however, got one for the World's 
Fair at Chicago, which was exhibited there and weighed 
some 6001bs. 
"Occasionally I have seen as many as a dozen of these 
fishes in the markets of San Francisco at one time. The 
fish is exactly the same as the European and Atlantic 
species."* This is, I believe, the first time that the identity 
of the tuna has been established in any journal, although 
it has been written of Ly scientists and laymen, but 
always as tuna, and the tuna of the books is a different 
fish. This too is probably the first time that the Atlantic 
tunny has been credited to the Pacific slope. 
The gentleman in Philadelphia who first asked about 
the California tuna writes: "Allow me to comment on 
what you have written. With due deference to so excel- 
lent an authority as Dr. Jordan, I think he is mistaken 
with regard to our fish, since you say that he says that the 
bonita is the fish called at Santa Barbara Island, and from 
California south to Chili, the tuna. At any rate the 
bonita of Catalina, and more especially the mainland, is a 
very different fish. It seldom weighs over a dozen 
pounds and has well-marked bands down the sides, If I 
can find it I will send you one of my photographs of this 
fish. 
"The tuna on the other hand is a gigantic fellow — the 
fishermen say he goes l,5001bs. sometimes — and although 
they belong to the same family I believe he is vastly dif- 
ferent. For speed and strength he is ahead of any fish I 
have either observed or read of, and to catch one of his 
tribe would indeed make a man high hook of the coast. 
"From the pictures I have seen I have an idea that the 
tuna is closely related to if not identical with the Atlantic 
horse mackerel, but I learn that the latter i" not very 
much thought of as a food fish, whereas the Pacific fish 
readily sells as a great delicacy in the San Francisco or 
Los Angeles markets for $12 or $15 per fish. So say the 
fishermen, who catch them only at rare intervals in their 
nets. My reason for writing to you was to try to find out 
something about the Atlantic fish. I am very anxious to 
try conclusions with one of these big fellows this summer, 
and I wanted to know just where they were to be found 
along the Atlantic coast, and as to their habits and the 
possibility of locating and hooking one. I have a reel 
that will carry not less than 1,000ft. of 21-thread line, a 
good rod, upon which I took well over 5,0001bs. of fish at 
Catalina last summer, and a proportionate ambition to 
tackle anything in the line of a game fish that can make 
things lively. The horse mackerel can, if I can only get 
a hook into him so as to givo me a fair chance. You say 
you will make a note on this matter. Do so and you will 
oblige me greatly, as I think there will be answers giving 
the information I desire." 
What I said was that Jordan had stated that the bonita 
(S. chilensis) is called skipjack or tuna on the Pacific coast, 
but as its average weight was I21bs. it could not be the 
tuna we were after. The photograph of the bonita sent 
by my correspondent answers to Jordan's description of 
the fish, with ' 'about five blackish stripes running obliquely 
upward from the pectoral region to the upper edge of the 
tail, these variable in number and direction." 
However, Dr. Jordan's letter, quoted above, will make 
