Pi*. io, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
469 
Black River Association. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The eleventh annual meeting of the Black River Fish 
uid Game Protective Association, an influential organiza- 
tion made up of sportsmen from different parts of the 
State who are particularly watchful of the angling and 
hunting interests in Oneida and Herkimer counties, was 
,ield Friday, Dec. 2. There was a large attendance. 
The annual report of Treasurer H. A. Pride showed 
he financial condition of the Association to be highly 
satisfactory. 
Secretary W. E. Wolcott presented his annual report, 
ivhich was as follows: 
The friends of fish game and forest protection have many reasons 
tor leeling gratified at the present condition of things in New 
York State. The cause of protection is gaining ground steadilv, 
new recruits are enlisting, and public sentiment is on the right 
side. The man who angles or hunts with the sole idea of trying 
to break a record as to the quantity of fish or game killed in a 
given time has few admirers now, and pot-hunters and slayers of 
gllgerling trout have to be very cautious if they venture to operate 
at all. The president, treasurer and secretary of this Association 
attended the annual convention of the New York Stale sportsmen 
held in Syracuse last winter. The most important action taken 
at that convention was the adoption of a new constitution, which 
changed the name of the organization to the New York State 
Fish, Game and Forest League, and separated it entirely from the 
trap-shooting interests with which it was formerly allied. Your sec- 
retary addressed the convention on the subject of the Adirondack 
Park, and offered a resolution approving of the purchase of lands 
made by the Forest Preserve Board, and thanking the State 
officials and members of the Legislature who had manifested an 
interest in the work of forest preservation. It was unanimously 
adopted. The recommendations of the Black River Association 
that the grouse and woodcock season be shortened, and other 
suggestions regarding the game laws, received courteous con- 
sideration. The League decided to endeavor to have Section 
249, which permitted a cold-storage man to sell game the year 
around, repealed, and also agreed upon a number of other im- 
portant amendments. Your secretary was chosen a member of the 
legislative and law committee. During the last session of the 
Legislature representatives from the New York State Fish, Game 
and Forest League spent considerable time in Albany, and with 
good results. Section 249 was repealed, the grouse and woodcock 
!-c?ason was shortened one month, additional protection was pro- 
vided for shore birds, the black bass limit was increased to 10in., 
and a bill to permit hounding and floating for deer was killed. 
The State League has been incorporated, and is now in a posi- 
tion to do better work than ever before in its history. 
The Black River Association has continued its work of stocking 
(lie streams of Oneida county with trout, and this year, through the 
courtesy of Superintendent Annin and the Commissioners in 
granting its applications, it was enabled to accomplish even more 
Than usual in this line. Six different shipments of trout were 
received and distributed by our Association within five mouths. 
The first, consisting of 2,000 brown trout yearlinga from the 
Pleasant Valley hatchery in Bath, Steuben county, reached us on 
J;m. S la^t and were placed in the new Forestport reservoir on 
Black River. On May 2 we received a consignment of 50.000 in- 
fant brook trout from the Fulton Chain hatchery, which were ap- 
uortioned to different places, for stocking streams, as follows: 
Forestport 9,000, Alder Creek 4,000, Remseu 12,000, Trenton 5,000, 
Marcy 30,000, Honnedaga 10,000. On June 6 nine cans of yearling 
rainbow trout from the Pleasant Valley hatchery and fourteen cans 
of yearling brown trout from the Caledonia hatchery were re- 
ceived, and two days- later a similar consignment arrived. These 
were deposited in the new reservoir at Forestport. The young 
fish were healthy and active, and will no doubt furnish lively 
sport in the future. It is believed that the rainbow and brown 
trout will find a congenial home in the Forestport reservoir, and 
will thrive better there than any other varieties that could be 
introduced. They grow very rapidly, attain a larger size than the 
i, speckled trout, and are exceedingly toothsome. Near Hammonds- 
port, Steuben county, last spring a rainbow trout, which weighed 
151hs.. was captured in a stream tributary to Keuka Lake. 
It is encouraging to note that numerous persons have voluntarily 
: applied for membership in the Black River Association during 
the past year. These accessions are exceedingly gratifying, as 
they afford the best possible evidence that our work is appre- 
ciated by true sportsmen. It is hoped that our ranks will re- 
ceive many additional volunteer recruits during the coming year. 
Reports received from different parts of the Adirondacks show 
that deer are on the increase, and were much more plentiful this 
■ fall than they were a year ago. The good effects of the anti- 
Jiounding and anti-floating laws, which the Black River Association 
labored so hard to secure, are already apparent, although this is 
on;v the second season they have been m force. If jacking and 
dt>£g<ng can be prevented three years longer there is every reason 
;to "believe there will be more deer in the Adirondacks at the 
expiration of that time than there have been before in a quarter 
".of a century. It would not be surprising, however, if some know- 
ing person, who has not been able -to kill a deer by still-hunting, 
but who professes to understand all about the animals, should come 
forward and say that they were becoming too tame and should 
he hounded occasionally to keep them wild. This would be as 
' sensible as the statements made a few years ago to the effect that 
the deer were dying off in the Adirondacks because the food 
t^tipply was exhausted. 
FUlffed grouse and woodcock haYe been decreasing in numbers 
I at an alarming rate during the past few years, and more stringent 
measures than those now in force will be required to prevent their 
utter extermination. It is feared that woodcock shooting in 
Oneida county is already a thing of the past, but there are still 
a very few grouse remaining, and sportsmen should unite in an 
earnest effort to afford them needed protection until they have 
had an opportunity to increase in numbers. Strong opposition 
will be met with from various quarters if an attempt is made to 
further shorten the shooting season throughout the State. There 
ate some hunters who would like to shoot earlier than Sept. 1, 
and others who object to closing the season as early as Dec. 15; 
so the present open period is a sort of compromise. Beyond a 
doubt the season ought to end as early as Nov. 15, for more 
birds are killed by market-hunters in the four weeks immediately 
following that date than during the ten weeks preceding it. . The 
grouse are taken at a decided disadvantage during early winter, 
for when the leaves have fallen from the deciduous trees and the 
ground is covered with snow the birds seek shelter in the small 
evergreens, and it is an easv matter to locate and kill them. The 
time allowed for shooting is far too long for the proper protection 
of birds in Oneida county, and as we cannot count on having 
the general law changed any further at present, perhaps it might 
be wise to try and have a special act passed, similar to the one 
Richmond county had incorporated in the game laws (Section 56), 
only we should want it to cover grouse as well as woodcock, and to 
have the open season begin Sept. 15 and end Nov. 15. At a meet- 
ing of the officers and trustees of the New York State Fish, 
Game and Forest League, held in Syracuse Oct. 28, resolutions 
were adopted expressing unqualified disapproval of the Fish, 
Game and Forest Commissioners in granting licenses for the 
netting of fish in Oneida Lake or any other inland waters, and 
requesting the immediate cancelation and withdrawal of all such 
licenses. 
The reports of the treasurer and secretary were adopted. 
President John W. Hicks spoke of the harm done by 
foxes in the killing of game. While in the woods last 
winter he saw places where foxes had killed rabbits and 
partridges. 
Vice-Pre?id'ent S. R. Fuller, who has been familiar with 
the rifle and shotgun for more than half a century, and 
' has killed more foxes than most hunters in this part of 
the State have ever seen, said that he had seldom found 
where partridges had been killed by foxes. He had known 
of foxes doing a great deal of good by catching mice. 
Mr. Pride said he remembered one year in particular 
when foxes destroyed a great many large white grubs, 
which they rooted out of the ground. 
Renorts were received regarding trout which have been 
placed in streams in the towns of Trenton, Steuben. Rem- 
sen, Forestport and Marcv in past years. They were for 
the most part highly gratifying. The fishing m Cincinnati 
Creek and a number of other streams has been greatly 
improved by stocking, but in some of the brooks near 
Oriskany the trout were caught out as soon as they 
grew to be large enough to take a hook. It is proposed 
to try and protect the lattet streams more effectually here- 
after. 
John H. Williams said that, deer shooting began too 
early. He told about a little deer which was frequently 
seen near Renisen village during the summer, but was 
killed as soon as the season opened, although the animal 
was small and thin, 
E. S. Robertson, who has had a great deal of experience- 
in hunting deer in the Adirondacks, said that about nine 
deer out of ten are poor when the shooting season opens 
in August, and when the meat is placed in water slime 
gathers on it. He said he had rather have one deer killed 
in November than all he ever saw killed in the middle of 
August. 
Bion H. Kent, manager of the Adirondack League 
Club house at Honnedaga Lake, in the Adirondacks, said 
that a party who visited Jones, Deer, Otter and Moose 
lakes last summer saw twenty-eight deer in one day. 
S. W. Pride said that eight deer crossed the road at 
Big Moose Station on the Mohawk & Malone Railroad 
early one morning this fall. 
Mr. Williams offered the following resolution, which 
was adopted: 
Resolved, that it is the sense of this Association that 
the season for deer shooting in this State should not open 
until Sept. 15 or later, and should end as at present on 
Nov. IS. , 
It was decided to endeavor to have a special act passed 
closing the season for shooting ruffed grouse and wood- 
cock in Oneida county on Nov. 15. 
The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: 
President, John W. Hicks ; vice-president, Simeon R. Ful- 
ler; secretary, W. E. Wolcott; treasurer, Herbert A. 
Pride ; directors, John J. Lewis, George G. Chassell, John 
H. Williams, William P. Dodge, H, A. Pride, S. R. Ful- 
ler, W. E. Wolcott; delegates to the New York State 
Fish, Game and Forest League convention, J. W. Hicks, 
W. E. Wolcott. Adjourned. W. E. Wolcott. 
UtIca, N, Y., Dec. 8. 
Gun Flints. 
Forest and Stream of Nov. 5 bore to the sportsmen 
of America a request for a few gun flints for the old 
Hudson Bav fuzee I had lately found. • 
The magician who presides at No. 346 Broadway, N. 
Y., waved his wand, and straightway the winds from 
Philadelphia, Pa., brought me word, from Mr. A. H. 
Gillingham, where flints could be procured; a friendly 
breeze from the home of Mr. J. W. Schultz, among 
the Blackfeet Indians of Montana, wafted the kindly 
message that Mr. Schultz had already sent to Edmonton, 
Alberta, for flints for the old relic; a zephyr from Man- 
chester, N, H., brings to me four beautiful flints, to- 
gether : with the kindly expressed wish of the donor, 
Mr, Fred E. James, that they will enable me to make 
it warm for Mr. Fulford and all the rest of my nephews; 
a friendly gale, whose puffing cheeks helped inflate, one 
of Uncle Sam's mail sacks, brings to me four more 
from Mr. Robert Gilfort, of Orange, .N. J.; and now, 
from far away Pensacola, Florida, comes a word of cheer 
from a brother sportsman, Mr. Bleeker Forbes, who, to 
assist me in my perplexity, sends to me the last two 
flints he has. Thanking each and every one of the 
donors for the courtesy which has prompted them to 
come to my relief, I ask the editor to call a halt— I ve 
got enough. „ 
In the old days of the black art the wizard appears to 
have been a personage to be dreaded; but in the work- 
ing of the kindly modern magic he is not so terrible a 
fellow, after all! 
The only ones who now have real cause to fear are 
the cracker] acks of America, as they listen with appre- 
hension for the advancing footfalls of the old U'icle. 
And the magician who does not use a page of Forest 
and Stream wherewith to fashion his wand is just 1,000 
years behind this present date. Orin Belknap. 
Valley, Washington. 
There has recently been considerable discussion in the 
columns of Forest and Stream concerning gun flints, 
and it has all been caused by Mr. Belknap's mention of 
the old gun he unearthed and the missing flint. 
In the Nov. 19 issue Antler tells us that in his boyhood 
days, when only flintlock guns were known and used, 
every store kept" flints in plenty, and that they sold cheap, 
at 1, 2 or 3 cents each. Considerable time has no doubt 
elapsed since Antler's boyhood days, and has wrought 
many changes; flints can no longer be found in every 
store, but they are. not as antiquated as most people would 
believe. It might interest Mr. Belknap, Antler and others 
to know that in a store right here on Broadway there are 
for sale no fewer than 25.000 gun flints at 5 cents each; 
and Mr. Francis Bannerman, the proprietor, tells us that 
he can get 50,000 more in this country if he wants them. 
The flints which he has are not dead stock either, and 
while they do not sell as fast as the newest thing in neck- 
wear, or the latest mode of bonnet, frequent calls are 
made for them. Just at the time when Antler asks if some 
enterprising member of the Forest and Stream family 
cannot find some gun flints among the relics of the past 
age, a man here in New York has utilized the old gun 
flint in a new invention for striking a light. This in- 
genious contrivance consists of a wheel covered with 
emery paper, which is wound up by means of a thumb 
screw, and when released unwinds, pressing against the 
flint and striking a light. This should prove a good thing 
for vachtsmen and campers, and the inventor expects to 
dispose of a large number among the officers and men of 
the United States Navy. 
I bought several gun flints at Mr. Bannerman s ; two 
inusket flints and one for the pistol. The pistol flint is 
ijiin. long and about ^in. thick at its deepest part. One of 
the musket flints is %in. long and the other measures 
rMin. I picked these out of a large collection as being 
of "about the average size. If Mr. Belknap's barn is not 
yet filled with gun flints, he may have these. 
Of course, the gun flint industry is dead now m this 
country, but flints are still made in considerable numbers 
in England and Germany, where there is an African 
trade. In 1896 the export of flint from the United King- 
dom amounted to $85,150, but how much of this was gun 
flints the report does not say. 
I have been tempted to investigate the subject of gun 
flints, but can find nothing very satisfactory pertaining 
to it. 
The Encyclopaedia Britannica says: "Except to a 
trifling extent in the. preparation of strike-a-Iight flints, 
the only form in which the flint industry now continues is 
in the fabrication of gun flints, an occupation carried on at 
Brandon, and to a smaller extent at Icklingham, two vil- 
lages in Suffolk. In 1876 there were twenty-one flint 
knappers in Brandon, and about 80,000 flints were sent 
away weekly, the greater portion of which went to west 
Africa. 
"The mining for flints is conducted by sinking a narrow 
pit into the chalk till the bed of suitable flints (the best 
are 'floor-stones') is reached, and alongside the miner 
drives a series of small galleries or burrows, carrying all 
the excavated material by hand to the surface, 
"The knapper's tools consist of three simple forms of 
hammer and a chisel ; and prohably the only essential 
modification these tools have ever undergone consists of 
the substitution of metal for stone. 
"The flint is first broken into convenient sized angulai 
pieces, cubes of about 6in., called 'quarters.' The nert 
operation, 'flaking,' consists in striking off, by means oj 
carefully measured and well directed blows, flakes extend- 
ing from end to end of the quarter, this process being con- 
tinued till the quarter becomes too small to yield 
good flakes. The subsequent operation, termed 'knap- 
ping,' consists in cutting or breaking the flakes trans- 
versely into the sizes required for gun flints, each flake 
yielding two or three flints of different sizes. The expert 
flaker will make 7,000 to 10,000 flakes in a day of twelve 
hours, and in the same time an average knapper will finish 
from flakes about 3,000 gun flints." G. F. D. 
Duck Hunting in the Blizzard. 
Babylon, L. I„ Nov. 28.— When the big snowstorm 
swept down upon Long Island Saturday night, the Great 
South Bay and Peconic Bay were full of duck hunters, 
and while some of the parties took advantage of the 
warning of the weather bureau and sailed under close 
reef for the mainland, there were others who preferred 
to risk the chance of getting a good bag of ducks and 
geese by remaining out all night. During a heavy snow- 
storm hunters frequently get exceptional opportunities 
for gratifying Their sporting proclivities. A blizzard-like 
snowstorm confuses the ducks and geese almost as much 
as it does lost cattle and sheep, and under the spell of 
the storm they appear to lose much of their natural fear 
of man. It was a knowledge of this fact that induced 
many hunters to stay out through one of the worst snow- 
storms that has visited the eastern end of Long Island 
since the famous blizzard of 1888. 
Had the proportions and severity of the storm been 
gauged beforehand, it is doubtful if the attractions of a 
fine bag of ducks and geese would have kept any on 
their boats. But it was impossible for those who left the 
mainland Thanksgiving morning to know this, and so 
some remarkable experiences were recorded which will 
add greatly to the long list of entertaining hunting 
stories of the day. One party of five hunters left Baby- 
lon Thanksgiving morning in a 30ft. sloop to try their 
luck on Fire Island beach, and after experiencing fair 
and rough weather, they ran straight into the teeth of 
the big snowstorm. When the snow began to come 
down in white feathery clouds on Saturday, the ducks 
and geese were flying in large numbers. The extraor- 
dinary flights of the birds banished all thoughts of re- 
turning to the mainland, and during the first part of -the 
storm the gunning was superb. 
As if anticipating trouble, the birds flew about in a 
desultory and uncertain way, uttering the most peculiar 
cries of alarm. Large flocks of them circled about the 
beach at Fire Island and flew across the bay toward the 
mainland. But the majority decided to stay on the beach 
to weather the storm. The high winds drove many of 
the common sea birds in from the ocean, and the beach 
front presented a lively scene of bird life that will not 
be soon forgotten by those who witnessed it. Gulls, 
ducks, geese, petrels and other sea birds flocked to the 
sheltering line of sand dunes and hills that skirt the 
ocean a hundred feet back from the high water mark. 
In the midst of this multitude of fowls the fortunate 
gunners plunged, and without resorting to the ordinary 
methods required to get a good shot at the ducks and 
geese, they had all the sport they wanted. As the fury 
of the storm increased the confusion of the birds became 
more pronounced. Above the blast and roar of the wind 
and surf the crack of the guns could scarcely be heard, 
and the birds flew about in reckless haste. They were 
afraid to leave the line of beach hills, for they served as 
a landmark which would keep them from getting com- 
pletely lost. .,,,„. , 
The air was soon so clouded with the falling snow that 
there was some danger of the hunters getting lost, and 
all familiar signs were gradually buried from sight. In 
order to keep within a reasonable distance of the boat, 
which was anchored on the bay side, the hunters 
stretched out. in a line straight across the beach, keeping 
within sight of each other all the time. Then all that 
was necessary was to wait a few minutes for a shot. The 
loud honk of the geese and dull squawk of the ducks 
sounded on all sides, but not a bird could be seen. But 
suddenly, out of the blanket of white a dozen dark specks 
would appear. There would be a simultaneous raising 
of several guns, followed by sharp reports. The birds 
were flying low — too low sometimes to make things com- 
fortable. More than once a flock of them would skim 
along the surface of the snow and appear out of the 
storm so suddenly that the men had to duck their heads 
to prevent collision. It was impossible to see more than 
a dozen feet away, and the birds thus actually swooped 
down upon the gunners. In their confusion it was im- 
possible to locate the direction of the .gun reports; and 
they were just as apt to fly straight at -'them as in the 
opposite direction. More than once good shots were 
missed simply because the birds were too near the guns. 
