74 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tJuLT S5, 1896. 
Communications for this department are requeBted. Anything on 
the bicycle in its relation to the sportsman is particularly desirable. 
SQUIRREL SHOOTING WITH A BICYCLE. 
I HAVE never seen, much in the sporting press relative 
to New York city as a game center, yet at times there is 
pretty good woodcock and shore bird shooting within the 
limits of the Greater New York, and very occasionally 
quail and partridges are found within range of the nightly 
electrical illumination. 
Rabbits and squirrels, however, are the game that man* 
ages to hold their own best against the encroachments of 
Civilization within a radius of twenty-five miles of City 
Hall, and within this distance on Long Island, Staten 
Island and Jersey, as well as Westchester county, N. Y., 
there are enough to make a pretty fair census report, pro- 
vided the census taker is a man of experience and not 
over-exacting in his expectations. For instance, within 
this distance from City Hall, the enumerator with a shot- 
gun should be satisfied if he records from one to three or 
four of either variety for a day's work, and he will not go 
to Mulberry street either to make this record. 
Now, the point at which I am aiming is this — twenty- 
five miles from City Hall is easily within the powers of a 
bicycle rider living in New York city, and if that man 
likes shooting, whether he goes by the name of "sporta- 
man" or not, he can get it by the aid of his wheel on off 
days or half holidays, reserving his longer vacations for 
more distant shooting trips. 
Gray squirrels are my favorite game about New York, 
and they can be found almost anywhere where there is 
large timber. On Long Island or in Westchester county, 
however, they are not found as near the city as on Staten 
Island or along the Palisades. There are grays on the 
Palisades where the first large timber begins, but they are 
vdry few and far between till one gets above Fort Lee. 
Above that point, however, they are found in every piece 
of woodland where there are hollow trees to protect them. 
Grays so close to the city rarely nest, for they have 
learned by experience that hollow trees are better protec- 
tion against the shots of dagos and hoodlums who swarm 
through the woods on holidays. And here let me give a 
bit of advice, which is not to go shooting within 100 miles 
of New York on a public holiday, unless you go very early 
and return by breakfast time. 
Even hollow trees do not always protect the grays, for 
after a light fall of snow I once saw a party of hoodlums 
capture a number of squirrels just above Fort Lee by the 
aid of telegraph linemen's climbers. When they had 
located a den tree, one of the party was sent up with an 
axe to chop the squirrel out, while the rest, including some 
dogs, waited on the ground to give the unlucky squirrel a 
warm reception. , 
One can take an early morning boat across the ferry at 
West One Hundred and Thirty-first street, and within an 
hour, by the aid of his wheel, be on fair squirrel ground, 
where if he knows his business he can bag two or three 
grays before breakfast. 
Over on Staten Island there are also some pretty fair 
squirrel woods. Last Election Day I killed four before 
8 o'clock in the morning on Tode Hill, which is in the 
center of the island, possibly fifteen miles from City Hall 
in an air line. 
To reach this point the bicyclist can leave South Ferry 
at 3:40 A. M. He will arrive at St. George half an hour 
'later, where he transfers to the Rapid Transit R, R., taking 
the train which stands at the right as he leaves the ferry 
house. His bicycle is carried free of charge on both boat 
and train, and the entire cost of the trip is but 10 cents. 
At the fourth or fifth station he can leave the train and 
strike south for the center of the island. The fourth station 
is West New Brighton, and if one gets oil at this point he 
can follow the street car tracks almost to his destination. 
After leaving the station he should first go a couple of 
hundred yards parallel with the railroad, and in the same 
direction taken by the train, till he comes to the first street 
leading off to the left. After this, where there is a branch 
in the street car line he should always take the right 
hand turn. 
The wheeUng is all up hill, but the roads are macadam 
and kept in very good condition. Between two and three 
miles from the station, at say a little after 5 in the morn- 
ing and pitch dark still in November, our early riser will 
pass a large isolated building on the right, which is Eck- 
stein's Brewery. Half a mile beyond he will come to a 
road to the left climbing the last hill on the island, from 
the top of which, on a clear day, a magnificent view of 
ocean, bay and kills may be had. 
He should follow this road to a point where at the last 
rise a path strikes off to the right up a steep bank. He 
will have to dismount here and push his wheel along the 
path, as it is not ridable before daylight, 
A quarter of <i mile from the road he strikes the first big 
timber. Here the squirrel hunter may leave his wheel, 
taking good care to liide it thoroughly, or he can take it 
along with him through the woods if he feels safer to 
have it by him. 
And now, having directed my friend to the hunting 
grounds, I will give a short description of my Election 
Day hunt in these same woods. A little to your left as 
you enter the woods, and 100yds. or so from the boundary 
fence, is a very large hickory that leans toward the east 
at an angle of 20 or 30° out of the perpendicular. 
This tree springs from the foot of a bluff, so that its top 
branches are not a great distance from the sportsman as 
he approaches on the higher ground; and as the tree is a 
prolific bearer of very sweet nuts, it is a great resort for 
the giays. 
This was my objective point as I entered the woods in 
the first faint dawn that November morning, and I soon 
found a good point of vantage commanding the tree 
where I could wait for the early squirrel. 
Aside from my wheel my sole companion was my .33 
repeater, fitted with Lyman sights front and rear. 
The morning was very still and a trifle misty — just the 
kind of a day to hunt — and my heart was filled with pleas- 
urable exDeotation. Before long, however, these were 
rudely dashed, for, looking over my shoulder to ascertain 
the catwe of some distant noise, I discovered two other 
hvmters approaching. 
Without seeing me these men came within twenty 
paces of the sjMJt where I sat, and there one took up his 
position to wait till sunrise, while the other moved on and 
was soon lost to sight. 
My neighbor was not a good squirrel hunter, for he 
lacked patience and fidgeted a great deal. Several times 
he changed his position a little, but at length he spied me, 
and aftpr that he kept more quiet. 
Though the usual accompaniments of sunrise were not 
in evidence that morning — owing to the mist — ^it gradually 
grew lighter, and presently, far off through the trees, I 
saw a leafy bough suddenly bend downward under the 
weight of a squirrel. 
I kept my eyes riveted on the tree, which was a small 
hickory gorgeous with its golden autumn coloring, and a 
second later I saw a splash of gray moving rapidly down 
the trunk of a nearer basswood. 
I made up my mind that the nimble rodent was coming 
my way, and I looked out of the corner of my eye to see 
if the other fellow had caught on. But he was busily 
engaged with a late mosquito, and I did not wonder that 
his companion had preferred to hunt alone. 
The squirrel came rapidly along its aerial pathway and 
soon reached a tall, spindly maple, which had no 
branches worth mentioning short of the top. Here it 
stopped, having no doubt seen some motion of my neigh- 
bor, and as there was no good cover for the squirrel in the 
immediate neighborhood, I resolved to open the campaign 
on the offensive. Accordingly I arose and walked over to 
the tree where I had marked him down, keeping my eyes 
peeled for a sudden break and the little rifld in position 
for a snap shot. 
But Mr. Gray diagnosed the case wrongly and imagined 
he hadn't been seen, for instead of attempting to get 
away, be fiattened his body against the opposite side of 
the tree and tried to hide. I walked very softly directly 
up to the butt of the tree, and once there caught hold 
with my left hand and swung my body arovmd till I could 
look up on the side where the squirrel was hiding. Mean- 
while I had raised the rifle to my shoulder and held it 
with my right hand aimed in a general way toward the 
top of the tree. 
Scarcely 30ft. above me hung the squirrel, head down, 
and looking for all the world like other knots and protu- 
berances on the tree, and whether from surprise or be- 
cause he did not think he had been seen, he did not move. 
Slowly I steadied the rifle, for it was a diflScult shot, and 
when it spat out its leaden missile the squirrel did not 
immediately fall. Instead it jumped into a neighboring 
tree and hung for a minute from a branch, evidently 
badly wounded. It was but the work of a second to step 
aside and take a second shot, and the squirrel was stone 
dead when its body struck the ground. 
I picked up the bushy-tailed fellow, and noting that the 
first shot had struck too far back, dropped him in my 
pocket. 
Then having secured my bicycle, I moved further 
south along a line fence till I came to a nest tree where 
the claw marks on the trunk were very recent. Here I 
was out of sight and hearing of my late neighbor, and as 
it was hardly yet light I was content to rest a while. 
j. b. buhnham. 
[to be continued.] 
HOW BICYCLES ARE SOLD. 
The following statement of the part that advertising 
plays in the sale of bicycles, taken from the columns of 
Profitable Advertising, is worthy of consideration as 
being the opinion of a man who handles the advertising 
of one of the best advertised and most widely sold bicycles 
of the day: 
'•More money has been spent in this country during the 
past twelve months in advertising bicycles than any other 
article of manufacture, and yet out of the several hun- 
dred bicycle makers there are less than a score who could 
properly be classed as 'general advertisers.' Further, not- 
witnstanding the overwhelming demand for bicycles, 
both this season and last, the 'general advertisers' have 
done and are doing the bulk of the business, and with 
one or two exceptions they have not found it necessary to 
resort to the cutDing of prices. This is only natural, for 
people will not pay $100 for the indifferent product of 
some unknown manufacturer. 
"The hundreds who rush into the bicycle business this 
season without any experience, and tne non-advertisers 
among the older manufacturers, are the ones who are now 
disposing of their bicycles at any price they can get regard- 
less of list, and the writer will stake his reputation as a 
prophet that these same manufacturers will have 'bicycles 
\o burn' before the season is over. 
"The above statements are not mere words, but in the 
main are sofid facts. The natural deduction for the un- 
fortunate manufacturer, if he wishes to avoid a repetition 
of this deplorable state of affairs, is to advertise. By this 
is not meant the desultory spending of a few hundred 
dollars during the season, but the laying aside of an ap- 
propriation tor advertising that is consistent with his 
standing and condition. Most important of all is the selec- 
tion of vne man who will buy the space and attend to his 
advertising. An experienced and capable advertising 
manager will produce better results than will an inferior 
one with double the appropriation at his disposal. In this 
instance, as in many others, the best and highest priced 
talent is the cheapest in the end. 
"The competition next year among the bicycle man- 
ufacturers will be most keen, as the demand is even now 
practically supplied, and before the present season is over 
there will be a surfeit of bicycles stored away for next 
season's trade. Under these circumstances there must of 
necessity be more advertising that ever, which will also 
have to be better and more carefully looked after. Next 
year a demand will have to be created and many a bicy- 
cle manufacturer will fiud it not so easy sailing as here- 
tofore. Bicycle advertising is only m its infancy, and 
the coming season will see more of it, and as necessity is 
the mother of invention, it will naturally be much better." 
The World's "Hundred." 
One hundred miles being a sort of standard distance, 
cyclists are usually interested in how the records stand. 
The following are the best authenticated safety, path, 
paced records, as prepared by Chairman Gideon: 
Eaglish amateur, 3.54:.s59|, A. E. Walters, at Catford, 
Sept. 7, 1895. 
American amateur, 4.37,56|, A. G. Harding, St. L:)uii=, 
Oct. 24, 1894. 
American, Class B, 4.33.15, R. P. Searle, Nov, 13, 1895. 
TIRE EXPEDIENTS AND COMMON 
SENSE. 
The most vulnerable part of a good bicycle is the tire. 
In a well set up bicycle there is very little danger that the 
frame will break or come apart, or that the wheels or 
bearings or cranks or pedals will suddenly play out, and 
the rider is very rarely put to the inconvenience of walk- 
ing home except for the single cause of an injured tire. 
A pneumatic tire at best is a delicate thing, and we Amer- 
icans have gone to the extreme of making them very 
light, though it must be acknowledged that weight for 
weight ours are the toughest in the world. 
Owing to the adventurous tendencies of bicycle riders 
as a class it frequently happens that tires give way in the 
most out-of-the-way places, and consequently a knowledge 
of the art of tire repairing is of the utmost importance. 
Directions are t<iven with all repair outfits, and by study- 
ing these the average cyclist can make a pretty good job 
of the commoner class of punctures; but frequently for 
one reason or another, either for lack of time or because 
the cut is not to be treated in the ordinary way, he is at a 
loss for a remedy, and his wheel instead of being a help 
is only a hindrance to his movements. It is under such 
circumstances that quick wits and common sense come 
into play. There is a way to stand an egg on its end, and 
a way to accomplish a good many other apparent impos- 
sibilities, and the particular exigency of the case will fre- 
quently suggest a remedy. Tire tape is perhaps one of the 
most useful articles in the repair kit of the cyclist, and its 
use will stop most leaks more expeditiously and certainly 
in untrained hands than plugs and cement. Lacking this, 
the old expedient of a bit of chewing guoa over the seat 
of the injury, held in place by a tightly wound cincture 
made from a pocket handkerchief or necktie, frequently 
works equally well. 
Sometimes one runs over thorns that the hedge trim- 
mer has thrown into the middle of the road by way of 
tidying up the strip alongside, and in this case it fre- 
quently does to break off the thorns in the wound even 
though they penetrate the inner wall of the tire, as they 
fit so tightly as not to permit an escape of the imprisoned 
air. Possibly the man who first thought ot''thi8 expedi- 
ent was acquainted with the story of the swordfish which 
first pierced the ship and then left its blade to caulk the 
leak. 
At other times the tire is so badly damaged that it is a 
waste of time to try to make it hold air; but even this 
difficulty has been overcome by fertile minds. We all 
remember the joke where the cyclist gets himself out of 
a predicament by replacing his burst tire with a string of 
sausage, but the principle that governed him was not so 
ridiculous as the means he adopted. 
A piece of rope of large size has been used effectively in 
place of a tire, care being taken to bring the ends closely 
together and bind them securely to the rim, and similarly 
the outer sheath of a double tube tire has been filled with 
bran, and the rider, as a reward for his ingenuity, gone 
home on his wheel instead of his feet. 
In cycling, as at other times, it is best to think before 
acting. Most people have the capacity for doing the right 
thing provided they take the time to reason it out. A 
certain course is likely to give the man who adopts it 
plenty to worry about afterward when some simple ex- 
pedient might have saved him all. 
Many riders, for instance, have ruined the easy running 
qualities of their bicycles by riding home with a broken 
ball in the bearings to grind the cones and create havoc 
generally, whereas, having ascertained the cause of the 
trouble, the simplest of reasoning would have dictated 
the removal of the broken parts, for even if the rider was 
not aware of the fact that the full number of balls is not 
essential to the fine running of the wheel, common sense 
would tell liim that the wheel could not possibly run 
worse, and that the broken parts were certainly of no 
advantage. 
COULDN'T MOUNT. 
The other day an absent-minded man walked down the 
middle of a street in a large city pushing a bicycle ahead 
of him and gazing abstractedly at the cobblestones. A 
friend spied him from the sidewalk, and after some diffi- 
culty succeeded in attracting his attention. 
"Hello, Jones," he said, "why aren't you riding your 
wheel?" 
"Can't get on the blame thing," replied the absent- 
minded man. "I took it to the repair shop, and the man 
there put on the step on the right side, which is the 
wrong side, and though I've tried it half a dozen times I 
can't mount from the side where it is, and I can't make a 
pedal mount or a mount from the curbstone." 
The man on the sidewalk looked at his friend quizzi- 
cally and then said: 
"Give me your wrench." 
The other obeyed in a hang dog way, for the point was 
beginning to dawn upon him. . 
The man with his wits about him stooped over and in a 
jiffy he had removed the nut and step and put them on 
again in their proper places. 
"Now," he said, "you can get on your wheel and ride 
home; but I would advise you in future either to learn 
some new mounts or else get a new set of brains," and 
the absent-minded man took his medicine meekly. 
"When a wabbler meets a scorcher," says the Wheel, 
"the safest course for him to pursue is to head for the ap- 
proaching fiyer with a grim determination to collide with 
him. Such is the perversity of all bicycles, when mounted 
by novices, that only those things the rider attempts to 
avoid are ridden into, and those he seeks to reach are 
always avoided. By remembering this in the moment of 
danger the wabbler will emerge triumphant from the 
ordeal." . 
« — — 1 
Forest and Stream's 
Fishing Postals. 
"DROP US A LINE" ON A POSTAL CARD. 
Fishins News, Place to Catch Fish, Fish Cauglit, 
Fishing Incidents. 
