il4 
[AtJQ, 20, 1954. 
days there was a feast of fresh meat with pur party, 
accompanied by extravagant praise for the pony. 
In one of my trips I secured a pair ..of 'haartebeestes 
which had been reared by an ol<i Boer frau, who secured 
for , me a number of living specimens of, South African 
fauna.. They were very tame and, would allow themselves 
to be handled without showing the slightest fear. I .kept 
them in Durban for several, months before shibping .them, 
and it was my habit to go into their, pen daily and. fondle 
them. I took particular pains in Having their , Shipping 
cages properly made, and large enough tb give thehi 
^mple room. They were safely shifted into their cages 
the afternoon previous to shipment, and at night I turned 
in congratulating myself on the Safe accomplishment of 
a task which had caused me some uneasiness. During 
the night 1 was suddenly awakened by a , crash, and, 
hastily getting out of doors, I discovered that the . male 
had completely smashed the. front, of his cage and was 
missing. Calling , the keepers and kaffirs; we began a 
search for the escaped animal. Hearing the barking of 
some dogs at a neighbor's, I started the help in that direc- 
tion, while I turned my attention to a thorough search 
of my premises. While thus engaged I detected a slight 
noise in a coffee, patch just across the road in front . of 
my house. Stealthily passing through the hedge which 
enclosed the patch I discovered the animal standing in 
about its centre. Advancing gently and speaking kindly, 
as had been my habit, I was soon in front of him and 
scratching his nose. Suddenly I was so silly as to seize 
him by both horns, when he snorted, backed, and began 
to whirl with such rapidity that my feet, flew off the 
ground, and it was with the greatest difficulty that I 
maintained m^ hold of the horns. Impulsively I yelled 
for the keepers, which naturally rendered the animal, more 
frantic, and. it was with the greatest difficulty that I kept 
my grip, in spite of the powerful, centrifugal force. Just 
as I was about to yield help arrived and the animal was 
secured, while I fell down completely exhausted, and it 
required a deal of rubbing by my men to bring my arms 
again into service. My hands were so badly cut by the 
corrugations of the horns that some time elapsed before 
I could use them without pain. The next morning, from 
tracks which were discovered, it was found that the es- 
capade had been caused by a dog loafing about my 
premises. Frank J. Thompson. 
Snuffing the Candle. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Manhattan, in the current number, August 13, asks it 
anyone has ever seen the candle snuffed without putting 
out the light. I am afrain he will not find anyone who 
has done it or seen it done. I think it cannot be done, 
but am willing to stand corrected if it can. I can't do it, 
and I have often tried it, and have seen others try it; the 
light always went out. 
It stands to reason, I think, that if a ball goes close 
enough to cut off the wick, the air of the ball is going 
to put the candle out every time. I have tried the trick 
with the old muzzleloader and with breechloaders of both 
large and small caliber. I could cut the wick, but the 
light always went out. 
A favorite trick with us out on the frontier (I learned 
my share of it from cowboys), was to set a beer bottle 
up on a fence post, then at thirty paces shoot the neck 
off it; and then slinging the pistol around in a circle, 
shoot again, mashing the bottle this time, if it still re- 
mained on the post. 
These same cowboys could, and did, snuff the candle 
with their Colt's pistol, but they put the candle out. 
There are tricks in shooting, but some things cannot be 
done by practicing a trick on the audience, and this is 
one of them. _ , , . 
A few years ago it used to be a trick of fancy shooters 
(I have seen a woman do it) to mash any number of 
glass balls with a Winchester rifle as they were thrown 
from the trap. After witnessing one of these _ perform- 
ances a man who was with me at the time said : You 
can go to the rear now and find the doctor [an order 
that is given a man who is wounded in action]; that is 
shooting you can't do." . 
"Yes," I told him, you can if we use the trick balls 
that were used in that rifle— paper capsules filled with 
bird shot. But the man or woman does not live that can 
break ball after ball with the regular ammunition. . 
What some of those old cowboys could not do with a 
single-action Colt's pistol I or no one else need try to 
do When the double-action first came out, no cowboy 
would use one. They said that the pull necessary to raise 
the hammer destroyed their aim, and I found that it did. 
None of us who were handling the Colt's pistol every 
day needed a double-action; we could bring that ham- 
mer up quick enough with the thumb. 
1 Cabia Blanco. 
Fountain City, Ind., Aug. 8.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Some twenty years ago a party of boys of 
whom the writer was one, got into a discussion about 
snuffing a candle with a rifle ball and to test the matter 
set up and lighted one of the old-fashioned molded tal- 
low candles that were to be found in every farmhouse 
at that time. The wick was made of a doubled and 
twisted candle wicking, which, if not snuffed would 
stand several inches high before breaking off after the 
tallow had burned away from it, provided there was no 
wind The burned part of the wick was brittle, and we 
used to snuff it by thumping the burned wick off, and a 
puff of air would sometimes blow it off, but it took a 
puff strong enough to blow the light o out. An old- 
fashioned squirrel rifle, "running about 8p round balls 
to the pound" was used at a distance of about thirty 
vards. A board was set up three or four feet back of the 
candle to catch the balls, and from it could be seen how 
close to the candle the ball had passed in its flight. At 
almost every shot the light was blown out, and it was 
seen that a ball passing within four inches of the flame 
and at about the same height as the flame would blow it 
out If the ball went directly over the flame it had to 
come perhaps an inch nearer to blow it out The candle 
was snuffed by several of the shots, but the flame was 
blown out every time, except one or two times when 
there was a long "snuff," and the bullet went near 
enough to blow the brittle snuff off, but not near enough 
to blow the flame out. I doubt whether a candle has ever 
been actually snuffed by a bullet without blowing the 
^The Writer has also barked a few squirrels: sent them 
spinning away from the side of the tree, but they always 
hit the ground running, and made for the nearest tree. 
One squirrel I remember was killed by the bullet graz- 
ing the top of its head, shaving a clean furrow in the 
hair, but not cutting the skin. I also remember one that 
was killed by a small bullet shattering its foreleg, be- 
tween the foot and "elbow." Others were shot through 
the body and had to have another shot to bring them 
down. No doubt every sportsman who has hunted four- 
footed game has noticed that sometimes an apparently 
trifling wound kills, and others will run away with a shot 
that ought to have finished them at once. 
O. H. Hampton. 
Syracuse, N. Y. — Editor Forest and Stream: I think 
'tis my turn to say something about barking and snuffing, 
but I am not an expert in doing either. I merely want 
to ask the knowing ones how it is that if a rifle projectile 
can kill a squirrel by barking, it can be expected to snuff 
a candle without extinguishing the light? But if the 
light need not be affected, what would kill the squirrel? 
Or would the conditions giving death to the squirrel vary 
when applied to the candle? I am not a scientist; the 
problem leads me beyond my depth. 
Another query : Those old Boone riflemen used flint- 
locks, of course, which went with a click, phiz, bang; that 
is, flint, pan, and explosion. How many marksmen were 
there who could hold one of those rifles steady enough 
after he pulled the trigger for the flint and pan and con- 
tents of the rifle to operate and just graze the stomach 
of the squirrel and the limb he stood on? 
But there were giants in those days. In these days we 
have philosophers who do not philosophize. 
Skeptic. 
Skeptical after Forty-five Years. 
Bridgeport, Conn., Aug. 9.— Editor Forest, and 
Stream: After carefully reading your admirable publica- 
tion for many years, I am induced by the discussion as to 
squirrel "barking" and squirrel shooting "through the 
head every time" to send this communication. For not 
less than forty-five years I have heard these two ques- 
tions discussed, and during this period have killed some 
squirrels and incidentally handled smooth-bores and 
rifles ranging from "percussion altered from flint-lock" 
to "hammerless ejector." From my experience, observa- 
tion and reading, you may put me down as one of the 
elderly men who do not believe that squirrels can be 
"barked" with any regularity or certainty, and also as 
believing that the young man of the present day, with his 
modern shooting tools, is much superior to the "crack 
shot" of my time. I have nothing to say regarding those 
accidental, and almost miraculous, occurrences, which 
all of us occasionally see in the field. The original 
"barking" story is that which appears in your "Ken- 
tucky's Sports" article of 6th inst. Suppose we assume 
that occasionally a rifle ball, striking scaly dry bark at a 
certain position under a squirrel, will produce the result 
stated in the article. This being so, will any practical 
hunter deny that the slightest change in projectile, tree 
bark, or position of either hunter or game, would pre- 
vent the accomplishment of such result ? Out of the 
hundreds of shots missed by me, where the ball has 
"touched the edges" of the squirrel, I have never seen 
the slightest evidence of injury to the little animal from 
the "shock." On the other hand, we have all repeatedly 
seen squirrels, more or less injured, grab the twigs below 
them, or fall distances of from twenty to fifty feet, and 
then escape. How many of us would trust an uncon- 
scious, "unmarked," but full-toothed squirrel in our game 
pouches? Our old-fashioned, muzzle-loading guns were 
usually in fearful condition, as they could be cleaned 
(outside of the gunsmith shop) only through muzzle or 
cap-tube; they were usually worn at the muzzle point 
of rifling; our powder was often poor; our patches and 
wads very irregular; the weapons miserably balanced and 
shaped, and the loads were seldom twice alike. Every- 
thing considered, I will join the minority, and "stand up 
and be counted" with Mr. Allen Kelly. L. K. Gould. 
The Old Flintlock. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The last issue of Forest and Stream (August 13) is a 
particularly interesting one, and you are- to be congratu- 
lated upon the high class of literary ability and the 
selection of artistic and fascinating narratives which you 
are able to produce. Mr. Babson's concluding chapter on 
Newfoundland is particularly interesting, and it is to be 
hoped that he will continue to give us his experiences 
through your columns. Might I suggest that something 
descriptive of the country to be traversed by the proposed 
new Canadian railways would be in order for future en- 
tertainment by some of your contributors? 
Referring to Cabia Blanco's remarks under "Some Old 
Guns," I presume that he knows that there was a breech- 
loading flintlock used by the British Major Fergusson 
and his scouts in the Revolutionary War. The 
mechanism consisted of a lever (the trigger guard) 
which turned aside and operated a large bolt with 12 
threads. A quarter-turn dropped this bolt below the bore 
of the rifle, exposing the opening from the top. A ball 
was dropped in and rolled forward into the chamber. 
Then a charge of powder was poured in and the lever- 
brought back into position. As soon as the piece was; 
primed, it was ready to fire. There is said to be one of 
them in the Tower of London collection. Could not a 
photograph of it be secured? 
I have seen some breechloading flintlocks in which the 
last four inches or so of the barrel were pivoted in such 
a way that the forward part of the chamber was raised 
up to receive the charge. It was then pressed down in 
line with the barrel, and was ready to shoot as soon as 
. primed. Wm. M. Ellicott. 
Syracuse, N. Y. — Who will rise up now and tell us all 
about the old flintlock? One of them, an old musket, 
once nearly sent me to kingdom come — but I killed the 
skunk. D. H. B. 
Quail Thinning Out Theory. 
Rome, N. Y. — Editor Forest and Stream: I have had 
an intention to write you, some time past, concerning a 
communication, under the above caption, by R. L. E., in 
Forest and Stream of July 30. The subject was the 
breaking up and thinning out of a brood of quail before 
the breeding season, on the presumption that they will 
breed better by so doing. 
Perhaps I may be pardoned if I offer as evidence my 
own personal experience in quail shooting, and such in- 
formation also as I have gathered from the experiences 
of others. 
There is no occasion for any breeding reasons to at- 
tempt the breaking up of a bevy of quail in the spring- 
time, for they will do that naturally and certainly from 
natural impulse, whether they are disturbed or not. 
During the breeding season, the quail does not live in 
bevies. In all my experience, I never saw a bevy of quail 
in the nesting season. They are mated and separated, 
then. 
But I firmly believe that "shooting up" a bevy of quail' 
in the fall or winter is directly beneficial as an assistant: 
to a more prolific quail crop the season following. Such 
is the general belief of nearly all practical shooters. The. 
reasons for it are that after being "shot up" a few times, 
a bevy becomes more alert, much wilder, and exercises to 
the utmost degree all the instincts of self-preservation; 
hence the weaklings, thereafter, are the ones most likely 
to be destroyed by predatory animals, such as foxes, cats, 
etc. The most vigorous live. 
But when shot at, after being pointed by a dog, or when 
flushed by the wing shot, the old cocks are the first to 
rise to lead the flight of the flock, and, as a consequence, 
they are the first to be shot and the first to be killed. 
Many of the old cocks, while retaining their fierce pug- 
nacity and destructiveness in respect to their younger 
rivals, are infertile, hence their destruction makes way 
for the younger cocks which are sexually perfect. The 
elimination of the old cocks, therefore, has a direct and 
material bearing on the question at issue. A redundancy 
of male birds also encroaches harmfully on the food 
supply, which in turn has its harmful effects on the pro- 
