68S 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April 1, 1901. 
before falling. A Sarus crane, shot throuf;!! the 
points of both v/ing?, ran seventy or eighty yards 
and then fell dead. I have heard it asserted that 
the soft-nosed sporting '303 bnlletisbadly balanced, 
and that it does not shoot accurately. My own 
experience has been that it is most satisfactory in 
everyway. I have also no fault to find with the 
192-grain hollow-point ; this last bullet from its 
lighter weiglst iias no doubt a higher muzzle velo- 
city than tlie 215 gr<ain bullets, and this extra speed 
makes it break up all the more tiioroughly. The 
GefFery split jacketed bullets I have not tried 
myself. Tliereis no doubt, however, that tliey are 
noisy in flight, less accurate than the other types, 
and that when the nose is cut off as well as the 
jacket slit, they occasionally break up in the 
barrel. They are, however, very effective on game. 
The hollow-fronted 192-grain bullet is somewhat 
safer than the Dum-Dum, as it is more likely to 
break up on striking the Erronnd. The Dnra-Durn 
is a most alarming missile in a thickly-populated 
country, as after passing through a buck and 
striking the ground beyond, it goes humming 
away with energy enough to kill a man hundreds 
of yards further on. Altogether I think the "303 
is a most unsafe weapon for black buck shooting, 
as these antelope are so often found right 
among the cultivation with natives on all sides 
of them. 
A further objection to the '303 is the amount of 
trouble that is necessary in order to keep it pro- 
perly clean. Of course pull-throughs alone at* 
not sufficient; a clearing rod is necessary and tlie 
bolt should be removed, and the rifle thoroughly 
cleaned out from the breech, an old brush with 
Avorn-down bristles is an excellent thing to put 
a rag round, and much less trouble than the ord- 
inary jag. I found this out with a '250 rifle ; 
for the rod and brush of a Morris tube proved 
firs^; rate for wiping it out, when the diameter of 
the brush had been slightly increased by placing 
a bit of thin rag around it. Curiously enough I 
see that Mr. Tippins in his book, " modern rifle 
shooting in peace, war, and sport"' mections that 
lie too has found an old brush, with tlie bristles 
shortened, the best form of jag for rifle cleaning, 
as the bristles hold the rag (irmly, and the clean- 
ing flannel thus used never gets stuck fast in the 
barrel, as it does sometimes with a pull through. 
A'.303 wants very conscientions cleaning to keep 
it in good condition. One may wipe out a rifle 
most tiioroughly and oil it carefully, and the very 
next day a rag passed through will come out black. 
My own method is to wipe the rifle as clean as 
possible, directly after shooting, and oil it well 
with the usual "303 oil, which contains mustic 
soda. The following day I wipe thoroughly clean 
again, and oil afresh ; then about the third or 
fourth day, I wipe out all the oil and coat the 
bore vi'ith vaseline. The rifle can then be left to 
take care of itself till it is next wanted. Itsome 
such precautions are not taken, a "303 will 
soon go off its shooting. I think there is a ten- 
dency now-a-days to make rifles too light. It is 
much easier to shoot with a weapon of moderate 
-weight, say about 8 lb., than with these feather- 
■weights of under seven. Any ordinary man can 
carry an eight-pound rifle without fatigue, and 
Avould probably find that he shot better with it, on 
the whole, than with a lighter weapon. As an ex- 
ample, tlie extra light weight, 18S(i Model Winches- 
ter, wiiich weigiis from 0^ lb, to 7:]: lb., according to 
whether it is a " Take down " or not, requires to 
diilereaVly sighted, if it is to be used with smvke- 
less powder. The ordinary sporting Model 1886 
rifle of'8^ lb. shoots alike with the same sigliting 
wliether black or smokeless cartridges are used. 
The cartridge used in tlie extra light-weight 1886 
Model is the -45—70, wliieli as well as the -45— 90 
one can now obtain loaded with smokeless powder. 
The sole reason which makes the modern small 
bore rifle so dangerous for use in thickly populated 
districts, is the lengtli and weight of the bullets 
employed. A short light bullet, wliich would ex- 
pand readily, would get rid of most of the danger, 
and be quite sufficiently deadly for chinkara and 
black-buck. 1 believe a soft-nosed bullet of 150 
grains would be just about right. A considerable 
amount of muzzle velocity would moreover be 
gained with a light projectile, and the trajectory 
flattened over sporting ranges.— " Fleur-de-LY'^." 
THE INTRODUCTION OF TROUT INTO 
KASHMIR, 
PROCESS OF THE EXPERIMENT IN PISCICULTURE. 
( To the Editor of the Pioneer, j 
Sir, — I have read the article in your paper dated 
8th February 1901 regarding the experiment now 
being made to introduce trout ( salemo fario ) into 
the streams and lakes of Kashmir and as 1 have 
been entrusted with the care of the ova 1 atn 
in a position to give yon an account of the progress 
made so far and of the facts which have been 
established. Under the care of iny friend Mr. 
J S MacDonell who went from Kashmir to Bombay 
for the purpose, the box containing the ova 
reached Srinagar on 19th December 1900, and on 
opening it, we discovered to our joy that the con- 
tents were in as good condition as could be ex- 
pected alter the long journey. A few improve- 
ments in the method of packing the ova sug- 
gest themselves, but without going into consider- 
able detail it is not possible to describe them here, 
nor would they be of general interest to your 
readers. The main fact is that out of 10,000 
ova shipped 7,000 were, on arrival at Sri- 
nagar, considered flt to be transferred into the 
hatching boxes, but of these a certain number were 
as was to be expected, doubtful. Had the ova which 
was shipped in 1899 arrived safely, I would have 
been in a better position to make the experiment, as 
His Highness the Maharajah had then permitted the 
use of the Dilwar Khan Bagh for the purpose. In 
it the hatching boxes and rearing tanks would 
have been close together and there would have 
been no risk in transferring the fry from the one 
to the other. Ovvieg to a mistaken idea chat the 
experiment had proved a failure and had been 
abandoned finally, the Dilwar Khan Bagh had 
been assigned for other purposes and was not 
available when a cable advising despatch of the 
ova arrived. I had therefore to 
CONDUCT THE EXPERIMENT IN MY OWN VERANDAH 
and as it turned out it was just as well that I 
did so. [ am however indebted to His Highness 
the Maharajah for the use of the. town-pipe 
water for the first part of the experiment, viz. 
the hatching and care of the "alevins" — also for 
the use of a suitable stream for the second part 
of the experiment, viz. the rearing of the fry 
after they have emerged from the "alevin" stage 
until they are flt to take care of themselves in the 
^reat struggle for existence which lies before them, 
I may here explain that au "alevia" is 
