288 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 12, 1902. 
"By thunder! You're right. What' a stupid old piece 
of dog flesh that hound is." 
"Yes, rather a fowling piece," drawled Tom. 
The discovery was most disappointing, but there was a 
humorous side also, and when we reached the box and 
the cooking odors greeted us, we were friends with our 
luck again. A swash in the tub with cold water was 
refreshing, and dinner was so good we were content to 
rest a couple of hours before the last round of 
the day. 
Seven and a half pounds of gun and two pounds of am- 
munition are somewhat of a handicap, but by shifting the 
piece to different positions and carrying the shells in 
a cartridge belt, the shoulders are relieved. Woolen 
socks on the feet add greatly to the comfort, and a double 
thickness of court plaster over a skin abrasion caused by 
the shoe is a very handy trick to know. 
Wi' pulled ourselves out of the easy chairs somewhat 
wearily and called the dog from dreamland. He had 
fceen scratching a good deal, which Tom explained by 
quoting, "The hireling fiea-eth, because he is an hireling." 
We doubted if the old fellow would be able to continue, 
be seemed so rheumatic, but he picked himself up and 
we all settled down to our steady gait. As we came to a 
large field, half-covered with rye stubble, a flock of 
about twenty quail rose quietly in the further part of it 
and flew into the woods. It was aggravating not to get 
a shot in the open, but we decided to follow them up. 
Rex lagged behind, forcing his way with difficulty 
through the thick underbrush, and the flock rose to- 
gether before he gave us warning. We fired four bar- 
rels, and dropped one, which we had considerable diffi- 
culty in finding. The shooting reinvigorated the dog, and 
lie gave us a number of fine points on the now scattered 
birds. It was thick shooting in the scrub oaks and 
pines, and many a bird escaped, but often only to be 
flushed again later on. In quailing there can be no 
rule as to whose turn it is. "Shoot whenever you can" 
was our motto, and often we fired simultaneously at a 
single bird In such cases the cross fire was usually suc- 
cessful, and one time neither of us knew the other had 
shot, so concurrently had the explosion come. When 
W t J. f,. 1 and the bird came down, we each said the 
other had hit him, and each thought we had a hand in it 
too When the trees hid us we kept hallooing to warn 
each other against shooting in our direction. One bird 
that the dog pointed proved to be a partridge, and I 
was lucky enough to get him with m v second barrel. 
»T?TJ ? p, I S» th i! n ^? f -H r - Ernest Seton Thompson Seton's 
Ked Kuff —but it is dangerous to think too much of his 
stones when one wants to shoot. His friends, Molly Cot- 
tontail and Raggy ug, bounded from the bushes at our 
I^a'J'I WC uu-l nly disre ? ar ded their flags of truce and 
added two rabbits to our bag. 
As we were sitting on an old lopped tree restine a 
few minutes before trudging home/ the dog who was 
lying ,„ front of us on the other side of a fence with 
his tongue lolling out of his mouth, suddenly closed his 
235 r °W t? hlS i eCt ' and a£ter two ^eps y stood on 1" 
Km ^ J T P n d }° ° tir feet ' hardl y Relieving a quail 
would have skulked so near us. and remembfrin- the 
guineas; but quail it was, and as it rose, indistinct in he 
gloaming, we fired two barrels-and I hope mav live to do 
so again next year, after the bird has raised a good flock of 
twenty and taught them likewise to rely on rhei, color 
for safety except where the dog is concerned 
«stes 
good a meal as we had ourselves *n n 
m£ Sarab ' tat 1 iMt *<* wo„M 
"Oh, yes. indeed. I Inn git ten or twelve cents " * 
l h li B TSZ^ _ h _ ad driv - <» «P came in to see what 
Hunting Rifles. 
luck wp W t3 j unve " us up came m to see what 
mcK we Had had, and was much olea«?M "Won « 
yer done perty good ter git eighteen ^1 ' Wa 5' 
cock m one dav I h«,rn ^ , and a wood- 
powder don't aliers mean MrdT $r*P c ° nS J dibIe - but 
rabbits ! I want ter know '" dS - NmetCen blrds and tw0 
coun^le^hief S&g o^v 'V^ W° re the ^ - 
would be a "thump ° thumn* ^ °^on a ]\y there 
Kex's way of indSing^with hi s t Sfffift Whkh ^ 
when he came into the story he reco § niz ed 
the ladies of ^e fS ^ CVen now - and 
shot, and ask why I mit twn nnt ^Jack powder i s the 
what the round Lllet arT a P ^ e \ ChiP % 0n . top of * and 
on being told thaT he pellets "1^^ 82 h < and 
that it murt be the t,n«I 3™ the bu,let ^ they remark 
which T^Wih^S^^ r j ° f W to 
killing. allopathy and homeopathy are equally 
fSft^S H?^ Everything fits 
shells so often thartheTbXeM .^ ^^S 6 P °° r ^ rade 
in the breech. The Sure "A- t" and stuck 
painful to me We r Srf u Tlg K She1 ' is aIwa vs 
would come out SSf £ll *21 She,,S ' btlt the shot 
they are not to be comna3 vw t, arOUnd much - an d 
expensive readyYoadS Tshells CXoeIIent and ^ 
had^oved^To e healTnrrdef ad * fPh M ? loads 
on my arm before ££* 
Princes Bay, N. Y. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 
have read a great many discussions in Forest and Stream 
about the large and small bore rifles, and their good 
points, but I have said nothing— have just "sawed wood." 
Now I will come out and tell the large-bore faction that 
I have the gun that they want. I know it would be an 
ideal moose gun, and if any of the large-bore men want 
to use it next fall, they can do so by making a substantial 
deposit for its safe return. ( I am a crank about lending 
guns, but I will let this one out under the above con- 
dition. 
The dimensions of this rifle I will give so that the 
experts can see that the general contour of the article is 
all right. Length of barrel, 32^ inches; diameter of 
barrel, 2 3-16 inches (hexagonal). The drop of stock 
can be regulated from 2j4 to tf/i inches. From the end 
of stock to trigger, 14 inches. The bore is .7656, ascer- 
tained by careful _ measurement. The weight of this rifle 
is 47^/2 lbs. ; and if the shooter desires he can use a rest, 
as there is a bar inserted at right angles, with the barrel 
near the muzzle for that purpose. I don't know whether 
it is an increase twist or not, as I have not been down to 
the bottom of the hole yet and looked out; but I will get 
a well-digger some day and send him down to make 
observation. I bought this gun from a local .antiquarian 
who deals in old bottles, second-hand rubber boots, etc. 
His advertisement is a string of cow bells on top of his 
wagon. This gun is rigged for a telescope, and is a 
hammer gun and muzzleloader, but the muzzle is lost; 
that sounds queer, but old-timers know what it is to lose 
the muzzle from a rifle. *** 
that were frequented by woodcock for a number of years, 
but when the cover had attained a certain height the 
root growth changed, which in turn changes the condi- 
tion of the soil, and the birds abandon it. This accounts 
for the many reports where covers yielded numbers of 
birds for years and then abandon it entirely, Hoping I 
have not overweighted this letter, I am, 
Yours truly, 
Wm, C. Held. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Adam Moore, in his letter of March 25, asks for a table 
of the striking power of different rifles. About a year 
ago I computed such a table, and it may be of interest 
to your readers: 
Winchester. 
T Foot-pounds. 
.30-30 1,269 
.45-90-300 1,466 
.45-70-500 1,551 
.50-110-300 1,580 
.45-125-300 1,786 
.30-40 ..; ..1,887 
U. S. Navy 6mm 1,563 
W. J. Jeffery & Co. 
.400-60, smokeless, 300 3,343 
Holland & Holland. 
.450-125, black, 475 2,812 
.500-140, black, 440 3,134 
.577-160, black, 590 3,625 
.450, special smokeless, 480 (charge not pub.)... 5,004 
It is interesting to see how closely this table of me- 
chanical energies corresponds with the experience of both 
Adam Moore and Henry Braithwaite, for the former 
does not criticise the English large bores, nor does the 
latter recommend the American .45s. 
David E. Wheeler. 
Michigan Woodcock and Wooddtick 
Saginaw, Mich., March 27. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I inclose a letter that came several days ago from a Sagi- 
naw friend, that explains itself. The gentleman in ques- 
tion is a student of nature, and well posted on the sub- 
ject, I am certain. I have had no means of knowing, per- 
sonally, much about woodcock for several years, for I 
have not had an opportunity to get out into the covers 
at the proper time, but comparatively, it seemed to me 
that wood ducks were very scarce, for they used to be 
the principal duck found here in our marshes and wood- 
land streams during the month of September, and I have 
not seen any of these handsome birds in a long while. 
W. B. Mershon. 
Queen Alexandra's Lucky'Shot. 
pos=e'sion, and Ms nr,™^ * ,S ",° W ° nc of her most Measured 
Saginaw, March 8. — Mr. W. B. Mershon, City. My 
Dear Sir : In the last issue of Forest and Stream 
appears an article on the editorial page, headed "Wood 
Duck and Woodcock." It contains a quotation from you, 
saying : "W ood ducks, I think, are practically extinct 
here." I am pleased to say that there were more wood 
ducks here last fall than there have been in a number 
of years previous. On the first two days of the season two 
guns bagged eighty ducks, and most of them were wood 
ducks. Mr. Ed. Gardner, an old duck hunter from the 
Flint River country, says he had not seen so many wood 
ducks in fifteen years. Fred Meidlein, of Cheboyganing, 
also says, wood ducks were more plentiful last fall than 
for ten years. 
As to woodcock, I never had seen such a heavy flight as 
I did late last fall. The main flight only lasted about 
three days. On the 7th day of November I went out, 
thinking the rain the night before might have brought in 
a few stragglers. The air was cold and raw, the ground 
in the fields and open places was frozen hard, and it 
seemed foolish for one to be looking for woodcock. 1 
had tramped about an hour before I found the first bird, 
and I was so chilled through that I missed him with 
both barrels, and he went sailing through the maples un- 
harmed. Of course, I have missed these same birds when 
I was not chilled through. I flushed him again, and 
missed once more, and then I could not find him again. 
I left that place and went to another patch, and there 
I picked up seven birds without much effort on my part. 
I then went out in the open prairie and crossed a strip 
of burnt grass about half a mile long. Never before have 
I seen so much woodcock sign in one place as was on this 
piece of burnt ground. To one not accustomed to wood- 
cock it would appear as though there were a thousand 
birds there the night before. I worked the dog over the 
whole piece, very carefully, and at one end he came- to 
a point, and. as I walked up one lonely woodcock flushed. 
He went out like a rocket, but it being in the open he 
afforded an easy mark, and it only required one shot to 
bring him down. Every fall I find instances of this 
kind where birds have stopped during the night and 
passed on, especially when the grounds in the cover are 
exhausted. There is no other game bird that affords so 
much study and interest as the woodcock. The whole 
secret lies in its feed, I have never found a woodcock 
where there was no feed. Each rain changes the feeding 
spots a.pd makes a. shift in, the birds. I know of covers 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Dock Flight Tapering Off. 
Chicago, 111., April 5.— The man who fondly and firmly 
believes that ducks ought to be sold at any season, that 
they ought to be shot the entire year round, and that 
"there are just as many ducks as there ever were,"_ is 
still abroad in this vicinity. The unprecedented spring 
flight gives him the only possible foundation for his 
flimsy argument, or rather the flimsy assertion, which of 
course is not an argument at all, and rests upon no 
logical foundation. This gentleman is precisely in the 
class with the farmer who raises poultry for the market 
and who considers it expedient to kill all his hens in the 
spring, and not to undertake to raise either eggs or 
chickens for the coming market. He is likewise in the 
same class with the man who looks at a full granary of 
wheat, or a full barrel of meal, and reasons that they 
represent all granaries and all barrels, simply because 
they are within the range of his vision. We have had a 
good many ducks here this spring, a dangerous amount 
of ducks, and although — thanks to the wisdom of at least 
the Indiana law- — they have not been slaughtered as they 
might have been, there is every reason to believe that 
5,000 ducks at least have fallen to the guns of the better 
class of sportsmen of this city. Hence the man who 
thinks there are "just as many ducks as there ever were" 
is very jubilant. Let us see what we shall see this time 
next year and the year thereafter. Really one becomes 
too impatient in speaking of these things to write with 
moderation, and, in fact, it were just as well to write not 
at all on these heads, for nothing will serve but an ab- 
solute passing away of the wildfowl to make our en- 
thusiastic friends realize that you cannot both have your - 
cake and eat it. 
By reason of warm weather and of opening waters 
north of here, our duck flight is now tapering off. The 
bluebills came in about ten days ago, and the first part of 
this week offered fair shooting at Fox Lake, which is 
tc-day one of the most available open waters left in 
Illinois. Mr. J. V. Clarke and his companion killed 
eighteen ducks on Fox Lake early in the week. Mr. 
Eddie Pope, also of Chicago, had very fair shooting, al- 
though I did not learn the exact number of his birds. 
Mr, W. L. Wells and his friend, Mr. Robert Stites, of 
this city, had perhaps the best sport of any of the Chicago 1 
shooters who went up there early in the week. They 
killed forty-eight ducks, mostly bluebills. They report 
the latter in good condition and good to eat. Other 
shooters in varying amounts of success did similar stunts 
in the duck line around Fox Lake a few days ago. 
I am rather disposed to believe that Fox Lake proper 
would not be the best place to go for shooting to-day, 
and would rather favor the little lakes, such as Eagle 
Lake, Round Lake, etc., which lie within -five to fifteen 
miles of the main waters. When the birds are ham- 
mered hard on Fox Lake, Grass Lake, etc., they go bac4t 
into the country and take refuge on smaller and less 
disturbed waters, where they sometimes find a little feed 
and where they establish a place of refuge which they 
visit at least once a day. A telegram was received to- 
day from Round Lake, 111., stating that the lake was full 
of ducks, and that no one was there to shoot them. I 
recall very heavy bags having been made at Eagle Lake, 
Wis., in earlier days,, when the Wisconsin law permitted 
spring shooting, this water being, if I remember cor- 
rectly, about twenty miles from Fox Lake. 
Mr. W. L. Wells and one or two other friends will 
go up to Fox Lake either to-day or to-morrow, and shoot 
Monday and perhaps Tuesday on these waters. It is 
believed that the flight has not yet all passed the upper 
range of counties in Illinois. 
An unfortunate accident marred the sport of shooting at 
Muehrcke's place on Fox Lake last Tuesday. Mr. Achilles 
A. Naissance, of Chicago, went out alone in his boat for 
a little duck shooting, the water being somewhat rough 
at that time. During the afternoon his half-sunken boat 
was discovered, with its owner clinging to its stern by 
his elbows, his arms doubled up, and his hands nearly in 
his face. Naissance was unconscious when thus rescued 
from his fatal position, and although evidently not 
drowned and not dead, was so far gone from his ex- 
posure teethe cold water that all efforts to resuscitate him 
were fruitless. He was taken to Muehrcke's place and 
there everything was done to revive him that could be 
thought of. Mr. Clarke says that Naissance was evi- 
dently alive, his limbs being still flexible and his skin 
showing a glow under friction. He died apparently not 
from drowning, but from exposure. No doctor could be 
obtained, and the best of the amateur attention available 
did not serve to restore the victim to consciousness. Nais- 
sance was a musician, and was well known in certain 
circles of this city. 
Caaght an Alderman. 
On las£ Friday Deputy Warden Brannen, the husky 
young Irishman who serves as head protector for Tolles- 
ton Club, of Indiana, arrested Deputy Game Warden 
Sheer and Alderman William Clihage, of Hammond, 
Ind. It is alleged that the latter were hunting ducks 
on the Tolleston Club grounds. This brings up, of 
course, all the old unpleasantness regarding the club, 
which has excited more bitter animosity among the resi- 
dents of upper Indiana than any other game preserve 
ever known in this country. The local shooters who want 
to get in on these well-stocked preserves bring up the old 
charges of law-breaking against the members of the 
club, which latter are, of course, groundless. Meantime 
Mr. Brannen will no doubt go along calmly and in the 
even tenor of his way, and will arrest aldermen or any- 
body else found trespassing on the club preserves. This 
club i| w^ll located for ducks, and apparently eqaaUy 
